Sandhyavandanam -4

Now we are seeing the praashana mantras. This varies according to the time of Sandhyavandanam. In the morning we worship Surya, in the form of Ishwara, Manyu, the anger deity and Manyupathaya, the causes of anger like Raga. Dvesha, kama etc.  May all the devatas bless me in such a way that I should not commit these sins in the future. The first part of the mantra is bhavishya paapa nirarthatvam., future sins. The sins done through all the instruments like hands, legs, stomach by way of manasa, vaacha and kayika. Next we pray for removing all the sins done in the recent past, last night. May the deity presiding over the night, raatri devata, destroy all those paapams. Then the remote past pappam is indicated by yat-kincha-duritam mayi, we can take it as sanchita paapam, …duritam means paapam. Whatever paapam I have done including maha paapam let Ishwara remove all of them also. Now all the paapams are removed I am a shudda jivata. Before offering anything to the Lord including naivedyam it is cleansed through proshanam. Similarly in this praasham we offer ourselves to the Lord. Therefore I say Soorye jyotishi juhomi svaaha. I offer myself to surya agnihi or Ishwara agnihi. This can be looked in the vyvaharthika angle as “I dedicate myself to the Lord by following him” or it can be taken in the Vedantic angle as “Abedha Prappthihi” which is Brahman Jnanam. By offering myself what benefit do I get? Amruta yonau….Sun devata is the source of immortality, source of ananda, source of moksha. The word “svaaha” is used to indicate it is yagna. 

            Now we will go to the praashana mantra of the Madhyanam.

Aapah punantu pruthiveem pruthivee poota punaatu maam, punantu brahmanspathihi brhama poota punaatu maam, yad-uchishtam-abhojyam yadvaa dushcharitam mama, sarvam punantu maam – appo (a) sataam cha pratigraha-gg-svaaha.

Like in the morning before chanting this we have to do maarjanam mantra starting from aapovaa idgam sarvam….as I invoke Lord in the water form. Again this is purifying mantra in which I offer myself to the Lord. Which means what? You have not offered yourself in the morning! If you had offered before there should not be a second offering. It is like going to the temple several times. The word for temple is “Aalayaha” – you should not come home but become merged there! It means we keep failing repeatedly by visiting them repeatedly. The purification mantras in the afternoon “Aapah pruthivee punantu” is may the waters in the form of Ishwara purify the earth. In this context pruthivee means sthula shariram. May the Lord purify my physical body and once that is done then it should purify the subtle body. .. pootaa punatu maam. In essence may the Lord purify both my gross and subtle body. Punantu brahmanaspathihi means may the Vedic teacher bless me. So we ask for Ishwara anugraha and now guru anugraha. Poota punaatu maam, may the Vedas also purify me. May the purified Vedas purify me. The scriptures are purified by the teacher. This is done by giving the right meaning and removing all the wrong interpretations. Both Indra and Virochana went to the same guru Vahaspathi, one became a confirmed asura while the other got the right meaning. Therefore purification of the scriptures mean removing the confusion. Now in addition to Ishwara krupa, guru krupa, I also ask for Sastra krupa. From here on I enumerate all the “akramams” I have been doing. I have eaten food “uchchishtam” the food that has been eaten by someone and leftover food. Uchchista anna is supposed to create tamo guna. This will cause dullness of budhi. Often I have taken fresh food but those have been prohibited by the scriptures, fresh garlic! Those will come in “Abhojyam” (Sastra Nishadam). This creates rajo gunam that makes the mind passionate. Either it will produce kama-kroda or it will produce moha. This is tamo-rajo annam despite what medical science says. They may have some benefit to the body like reducing pressure or improving blood but these are prohibited by the shastra (they come with dullness or passion). Even a food that is not offered to the Lord is called “abhojyam”. So one must at least think of the Lord before sitting down to eat. Now the seeker thinks of a list so he includes a general “yadvaa dushcharitam mama”…any paapa karma I have done. There is one more item in the end “asatat prartigraha”, taking anything from an evil person. Meaning taking anything like money, or provision or anything. According to shastra if we take any material from a person then that person character is also transferred to the material. One is a visible transaction and another is an invisible transaction. Imagine you are dining and earning from a materialistic person, then you will also end up becoming materialistic. Religion and spirituality will gradually come away in the company of such a person. This dosa is called “asat pratigraha”. There is problem here: when somebody offer us something we cannot ask them: whether you are good or bad? So if I go to somebody’s house and ask for drinking water, how will I know whether he is good or not. I just pray to the Lord “asat pratrigraha-gg-svaaha”. Therefore may the Lord remove or purify all these pappas. Svaaha means offering oneself to the paramatma.

            Now we will take up the Sayam Praashanam. It is almost similar to the morning mantras but for a few differences.  Agnischa maa manyushcha manyupatayashcha manyukrutebhayaha, paapebhyo raskhantaam yad-ahnaa paapam-akaarsham, In the morning we had had suryaha and now we have “agni”. Suryaha is Ishwara who activates everyone, same is Agni except in the morning God is invoked in surya and in the evening in “agni”. Because surya is the light of the day and agni is the light of the night. Both represent light that is jnana swarupa ishwarah. The rest of the prayers is the same. May the anger and the causes of the anger from future paapams, from the recent past, and the remote and distant past. There is a slight difference. In the morning the recent past meant “previous night” while recent past for the evening prayer is “the present day”. So yad-ahanna (instead of yad-raatri) paapam-akarshanam. So which devata must remove all the sins, not “raatri” devata but “ahur” devata for sins committed during the day. In the morning we offered ourselves to “surya jyotihi” but in the evening we offer ourselves to “satye jyotishi” juhomi svaaha. Satyam stands for Ishwarah.  With this the praashanam part is over.

            Then the seventh item is Punnar Marjaanam. It means sprinkling waters once again. Here the mantras are: dadhikraavinno akaarisham, jishnor-ashvasya vaajinaha, surabhino mukhaa karatu, prana aayoo-g-mshi taarisha. And then Aapo his shthaa mayo-bhuvah….to om bhoor-bhuvah-suvaha as before. These mantras are the glorification of the Lord by invoking the Lord in the waters, dadhikraavinno means the lord who creates and sustains the whole creation. He is the material cause, upadana karana, of creation. The clay creates all the pots and it sustains all the pots. Gold creates all ornaments and sustains. The material cause pervades and sustains the effect. Similarly Ishwara creates and sustains the universe. Another glory of the lord is “jishnor” which means “ever victorious” (this word occurs frequently in Vishnu Sahashranama) Ishwara is never defeated. In every avatara HE fights with the evil forces and HE always wins. This is not a fluke victory like India defeating Pakistan, the LORD wins all the time. That is why the suffix “nor” is added as the victory is consistent and always. HE is the habit of winning. The next glory of the Lord is “ashvasya”. He is the all pervading one (here you should not take the word as horse). And the fourth glory of the Lord is “vaajinaha”. It means is “one who travels very fast.” HE is faster than the mind, HE is faster than the sense-organs. We can take the Puranic angle as when bhaktas are suffering the Lord will at once come to their rescue as shown in Gajendra etc. So I meditate on such a great Lord who glories I have just mentioned. Now that you have sung the praise of the lord, what do you want? He asks for a beautiful boon, Surabhino mukhaa karatu, may my mouth become fragrant. It is not like the scent that is available in the market that you spray in your mouth after eating but it is the fragrance in the form of sweet words. Let me words be sweet, let my words be consoling words and not hurting words, let my words be soft and never harsh, let me have blessing words and not cursing words, let my words be truthful and not untruthful ones, let my words be honest words not hypocritical words, etc. The word “prataarisha” means lengthen, may the Lord give me a long healthy life. All our lives are determined by our prarabdha then what we pray for:  May I have not a “apa mrutyu”. I want a natural death and not an unnatural one. Then aapo hi shthaa we have already seen in the marjaanam earlier. With this the punar maarjaanam is also over.

            Now comes the eighth item called “Arghya Pradaanam”. As I had said earlier upto the seventh item it is preparatory. Only the following three items are mukyam. These are so important that even if a person skips the first seventh he is asked to do the 8^th, 9^th and 10^th. In “arghya pradaanam” handfuls of water is taken, mantras are chanted and it is then thrown in the direction of the sun. This is so important the even if water is not available you can use mud also as transpired during the Mahabharata war. The mantra chanted is the pranava, vyakrithi and gayatri. Pranava is Om, Vyakrithi is Bhoor-bhuvah-suvaha and then Gayatri tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dheemahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayaat. This is done thrice in the morning and evening and twice in the afternoon. After this one is supposed to offer one more arghyam called “praayaschitta arghyam” which is meant for kala adhyayah. This is done if Sandhyavandanam is done at a later or before time, so more like a penitent prayer. There is a Vedic story that tells us the purpose of this arghyam. There were some rakshasa called “mandhaha” who were thirty crores in number. They did penance and asked Brahma the boon to attack surya bhagawan. Brahma had no option but to say “tattatsu”. The mandhahe rakshasas attacked the sun god during sandhya times and trying to swallow him. But we know sun is very important for the survival of earth, of human beings and survival of the devas. So the noble men in the form of devas, rishis and human beings wanted the surya to survive they wanted to resist these attacks. Since they do not have any weapons they converted water into vajra ayutham. By chanting pranava, vyakrithi and gayatri the water is equal to vajra ayutham. Once the mantra is chanted and water is thrown in the direction of the sun, it will not kill the mandhahe rakshasas but it will throw them into an island called mandheahruna dweepah. So this arghya pradaanam is equal to saving the sun. So when any Dwija throws the water after chanting Gayatri then these will throw the rakshasas into that island. After the argyam the prakosha is done “bhoor-bhuvah-suvaha” and all the paapams will go. Therefore arghyam protects surya and by extension protects dharma. More we will see in the next class. Hari Om.