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Sunday, September 14, 2014

Woman's Mahaprayan in Rajasthan: MPD #16

Baba

This email contains three sections:
1. Posting: Woman's Mahaprayan in Rajasthan: MPD #16
2. End Quote: Who Is Intelligent
3. Links


WOMAN’S MAHAPRAYAN IN RAJASTHAN: MPD #16

Namaskar,
Here is the scene from my Rajasthan where they are performing the mahaprayan (death ceremony) of one woman. In the Jain tradition, they parade the person through town to the cremation ground whereby the deceased is in an upright, seated position. That way the townspeople can see who died.

As you can see, they carefully wrap white cloth around the body of the deceased - including the forehead - in order to ensure she remains seated upright. No one should think this person is merely injured, and still breathing. She is dead; this is the occasion of her mahaprayan, and the white cloth is used to keep her propped up in one grand chair so all can see her.

This is in stark contrast to most traditions were the deceased is carried in a lying position with their face to the sky. One other point of note is that people are said to acquire virtue for touching / carrying the dead body and that is one reason why many rally around and are eager to participate.

Finally, family, friends, and well-wishers are paying their last respects prior to bringing the deceased to the cremation ground. Final preparations are being done.

And the newspaper announces this as a mahaprayan - as that is the second to last word in the heading of the article. So the mahaprayan program is common for ordinary citizens in my Rajasthan. But in my Rajasthan nobody does the mahaprayan of Lord Shiva or Lord Krsna.

So no one should naively think that the mahaprayan program is something glorious only to be used in a very special manner - for Taraka Brahma. The mahaprayan program is for the death of any common or unknown person who has made his departure from this world. That is why this mahaprayan is not used for Taraka Brahma because He did not depart - He is the eternal Parama Purusa. This is never done for Lord Shiva and Lord Krsna. So the mahaprayan program is just for ordinary humans, i.e. mortals. About this there should not be any confusion.

And as we know, in our Ananda Marga, there is no such thing as a yearly death ceremony or annual mahaprayan program.

"The period of mourning should not extend beyond twelve days." (Caryacarya-1, Shraddha Ceremony)

Sadguru never dies - even those getting initiated today in Ananda Marga will accept Lord Shrii Shrii Anandamurtiji as Guru. So we must think deeply - must contemplate this matter. Baba is Sadguru and eternally present. We must think how far it is just to observe the mahaprayan (death) of that entity?



Namaskar,
in Him,
Champalal Sethi


Note: Search it on Google

Regarding the scene at this mahaprayan ceremony - to learn more about this tradition you can search in Google: “आज निकलेगी महाप्रयाण यात्रा”


== Section 2 ==

The section below demarcated by asterisks is an entirely different topic,
completely unrelated to the above material. It stands on its own as a point of interest.

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Who Is Intelligent

"Undeveloped human beings consider themselves to be very intelligent and thus at every step they invite innumerable obstacles in the material world. Later on, after climbing some rungs up the ladder of evolution, they realize form the core of their hearts the hollowness of their psychic capabilities. It is the natural rule of the universe that those who possess immense knowledge are quite conscious of their intellectual limitations, whereas people with superficial knowledge think just the opposite. The genuine way of learning for seekers of knowledge is to consider always that they know nothing." (AMIWL-10, The Cardinal Spirit of Action and the Supreme Stance of Devotion)
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