questions on upakarma

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

Having read about the significance of upakarma/avani avittam

in the srivaishnava homepage (www.ramanuja.org/sv/rituals/upakarma/),

there are a couple of questions for which I request

clarification.

 

1. Given that the upakarma marks the beginning of the learning of

the veda every year, why does someone do it even when he is

not learning the veda? For example, why would a man who has

completed the learning of the veda do it?

 

2. The purpose of the Kamokarshit japa is to atone for not having

stopped the learning of the veda in the month of jan/feb.

But "kamo'karshit manyurakarshit" itself means (roughly)

"desire did it, anger did it". How does the meaning of the

mantra fit in with the purpose behind its use in avani avittam?

 

thanks

Kasturi

[Guest guest]

Kasturi Varadarajan writes:

> 1. Given that the upakarma marks the beginning of the learning of

> the veda every year, why does someone do it even when he is

> not learning the veda? For example, why would a man who has

> completed the learning of the veda do it?

 

Dear Kasturi,

 

A man who has completed learning his Veda still needs to pay homage

to the rishis who bequeathed the Veda to him. So he must still do

the tarpaNam to the kANDa-rishis. However, he does not need to

do the 'vEdArambham', i.e., ceremonially learning the first four

Rks of the Yajur Veda, for example. He is only required to do extra

gAyatrI japam on that day.

>From what I have heard, in the 'good old days', gRhasthas would have

already finished learning their Veda in its entireity before getting

married. So they would stop doing the vEdArambham once they finished

their studies and only do gAyatrI japam in its place on the upAkarma

day.

 

Also, presumably if one is a 'vEda-vit', one is doing pravacana and

instructing disciples in the Veda. So one can participate in the

homa as an acharya.

> 2. The purpose of the Kamokarshit japa is to atone for not having

> stopped the learning of the veda in the month of jan/feb.

> But "kamo'karshit manyurakarshit" itself means (roughly)

> "desire did it, anger did it". How does the meaning of the

> mantra fit in with the purpose behind its use in avani avittam?

 

The meaning of the mantra should be understood as, "I failed to do

my duty (the utsarjana) because of my shortcomings; i.e., it is purely

my succumbing to emotions such as lust and anger that caused me

to do it. It's not that my failure was the 'correct' thing to do.

It was a result of my frailty."

 

Hope this explains,

Mani