Why do we do pradakshina only in a clockwise manner?

JAY SHREE POOJYASHREE SHREE AMMA

JAY MAHAN BRAHMASHREE GOPALAVALLIDASAR

JAY SHREE RADHEKRISHNA SATHSANG

Radhekrishna to all!

In our previous post, we began a new question “Why is pradakshina done only in a clockwise manner?” Let us know more about the same in this post.

We don’t do pradakshina only in a temple around God’s idol. There are other situations also when we do it.

Indian scriptures enjoin - matrudevo bhava, pitrudevo bhava, acharyadevo bhava. It means that ‘May you consider your parents and teachers as you would the Lord’. With this in mind we also do pradakshina around our parents and divine personages.

This is a highlight of our Hinduism which is not seen in the western cultures. In western culture, the parents look after their children only till the age of sixteen. So also, the children prefer to stay with their parents only till they start earning money. After that the children invariably start living independently.

However, the scenario is very different in India. The children are deeply rooted in the family. Even though they get married, start earning, they seldom stop living with their parents. Parents are like the roots of the tree. The tree may grow upwards but is always dependent on its roots to stay alive. So also, a child may grow, beget children but still does not leave one’s parents. We see God in our parents. The same applies to our teacher and Guru. So also, we are always a child in the eyes of our parents and they always provide us the nectar of their experiences in life and guide us throughout our life.

The last type of pradakshina is after the completion of traditional worship (pooja), when we customarily do pradakshina around ourselves. In this way we recognize and remember the supreme divinity within us also, which is idolized in the form of the Lord that we worship outside.

These are the different situations and reasons for doing pradakshina.

We will look at a new question in our next post.

Section II: Information about Indian herbs

In this post, let us know about the herb named Bathwa, called as Goose Foot in English and Chenopodium Album in Latin.

1. It’s a well known vegetable which grows in wheat fields.

2. It is easily digested in the body

3. It cures fevers and disorders of the liver.

4. Juice of its leaves applied to patches of leucoderma tends to cure them

That’s all for this fortnight. Till the next post on 22^nd August, Radhekrishna!

Sarvam Guruvaarpanam