Yajur Upakarma 2012

   

 Yajur Upakarma 2012

யஜுர் உபாகர்மா 2012

 As Yajur veda upakarmaa is coming up on First, Aug, 2012, i thought it is a good time to write about upakarma in general. A document on yajur veda upakarmaa sankalpam etc is here.
I have now changed the doc settings so that anyone with the link can view it. last night I had some interface problems and could not set it that way. sorry!

 The meaning of the sankalpam is given in tamil so that we at least get to know what we are promising to do! As to the list of sins I have been writing of late in my blog. Please go through them if you care for it! There are a few posts starting from http://anmikam4dumbme.blogspot.in/2012/07/blog-post_25.html

If you want to know more about upakarmaa read on....

Upakarma also popularly known as aavani avittam as it usually occurs in the 'aavani' month and 'avittaa' star occurs this year in 'aadi' itself. More over it is not even paurnami as usually is but on the 14th day of the paksham.

Such variations are usual but well thougth out. These occur with the interference with any of these: the begining of a month, occurence of eclipse, any of the planets guru, sukra or mars not being present in the sky during this time. The guidelines are fixed by sastras and discussed in a 'sadas' of well versed scholers before they are announced. Pancangas usually keep up with this tradition but not always -you might find some variations.

Usually yajur veda upakarmaa is on the pournami day of sravana month.

For rig veda it is the sravana star date of sravana month.

For sama veda it is pathrapatha month hastha star date.

The reason why it occurs on the 14 th day this time is that, pournami has to exist not only in the morning but also last at least 12 'nazigais' that is a bit less than quarter of a day, for upakarmaa to beheld on that day. If such a situation does not exist then the previous day is to be chosen. That is what has happened.

Upakarmaa is not for changing the holy thread. Changing the holy thread can be and is done at various times. It does not need a special occasion just for that. Whenever it becomes dirty, (people who take oilbath regularly can hardly keep it clean any length of time), is damaged, beccome s unclean having visited a cremation ground... there is quite a long list.

So the real importance of the karmaa lies in the start of veda adyayanam. We do tharpanam for the risis who 'saw' the vedic mantras and gave them to us. The guru does pooja to the risis and then starts veda adyayanam on that day afresh. The guru recites the first lines of the four vedas - if not the first paragraphs- and also the first lines from the sastras. We repeat them after him and thus start veda adyayana afresh.

The next day we do gayatri japam. What is really indicated here is gayatri homan but has been replaced by japam in due course. Those with sradhdha should try to do homam, there is no contra indication.

There is also no contra indication if there has been any death in the family – if it is not within the 13 days of death. This is not a festival that gets missed for an year or six months as the case may be – that is in sishtaacaram not a sastric indiction- after a daayathi's death.

I stop here for the fear of the length of the mail. Attaching the sankalpam for this year upakarmaa, as usual in three scripts!

Wishing you all a happy upakarmaa and gayatri japam.