Doing archana to gods name?

[Dr.Dinesh]

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hi guys
I have a doubt...i have seen people doing archana to the Gods name instead of their's...
which is the right way?...In one point our name is also a part of Gods name...what the difference in them?

Plz forgive my english if i'm wrong...and this s my first time posting...

 

[sangom]

hi guys
I have a doubt...i have seen people doing archana to the Gods name instead of their's...
which is the right way?...In one point our name is also a part of Gods name...what the difference in them?

Plz forgive my english if i'm wrong...and this s my first time posting...

Dr. Dinesh Sir,

"archana" to god is one of the ways in which the so-called Astika people try to show their religiosity or devotion to god. Almost always there will be some underlying demand too (or desire to be fulfilled by god, which looks impossible for the bhakta to achieve by his own efforts). Before temples became open to all castes and classes of hindus, the archana was done only in the name of the bhakta offering this vazhipADu, and the name, gotra and nakshatra of the bhakta used to be recited along with a string of appeals to bestow the said bhakta as also his extended family, with kṣemastairya vīryavijaya āyurārogya aiśvarya and also plenty of cattle wealth, landed wealth, gold, precious gems and so on and so forth.

After hindu temples became open to all hindus and after the temples were brought under government's direct control and supervision, things got changed. Many of the devotees did not know their gotra or nakshatra, etc., and some of them have had the custom of offering archana in their previous worship places by making the archana in the name of the god itself. The temple priests acceded to this practice.

Today, some people consider it a "nishkAma karma" if the archana is offered in the name of the god itself; I do not know whether the people doing such archanas have any demands to the god, etc.

 

[Dr.Dinesh]

Dr. Dinesh Sir,

"archana" to god is one of the ways in which the so-called Astika people try to show their religiosity or devotion to god. Almost always there will be some underlying demand too (or desire to be fulfilled by god, which looks impossible for the bhakta to achieve by his own efforts). Before temples became open to all castes and classes of hindus, the archana was done only in the name of the bhakta offering this vazhipADu, and the name, gotra and nakshatra of the bhakta used to be recited along with a string of appeals to bestow the said bhakta as also his extended family, with kṣemastairya vīryavijaya āyurārogya aiśvarya and also plenty of cattle wealth, landed wealth, gold, precious gems and so on and so forth.

After hindu temples became open to all hindus and after the temples were brought under government's direct control and supervision, things got changed. Many of the devotees did not know their gotra or nakshatra, etc., and some of them have had the custom of offering archana in their previous worship places by making the archana in the name of the god itself. The temple priests acceded to this practice.

Today, some people consider it a "nishkAma karma" if the archana is offered in the name of the god itself; I do not know whether the people doing such archanas have any demands to the god, etc.

Mr.Sangom
Thank u so much for replying...but the sentence u told that "nishkama karma" right...i understand...but it can only be applicable to those who understand "what is real from illusion" in this reality...only at that stage this archana in the name of GOD is useful right...(if what i said was wrong na..i am sry..plz do correct..i am hear to learn) cant they be taught in a way so they know whats their lineage is...if so na how can we tell them...

 

[prasad1]

I am not a traditional idol worshiper. I accept the idol to be a representation of the all pervading Brahman.
I go to Temple not for praying or begging for favors. I go to temple as an observer and participate socially and financially in the activities.
So when I have to do archana I always sidestep doing it in my name by telling the priest to do it in god's name.

 

[Dr.Dinesh]

Hi Mr.Sangom
Thank u so much for replying to my post...the last sentence u said "nishkama karma"....some people don't realize their lineage...and do this...how can we create awareness for those people...and only if they know what is nishkama karma then only the benefits will come na(plz do correct me if i am wrong sir)

 

[yesmohan]

By going to temples, praying to God and offering " archana" is a belief and people get a solace

to their mind and a psychological relief.

 

[vgane]

When we do not have any issue or request to God we do the Archana in God's name..

 

[CHANDRU1849]

During Pradosham, I have come across lot of NBs mention Nakshatram and even Gothram.

Some Bs even say only the Gothram with Sakha Gudumbana, without mentioning individual Nakshtram.

I believe people visit to places of worship has an agenda, irrespective of religion.

 

[Vaagmi]

Hi Dr. Dinesh,

<edited and removed unwanted comments. Kindly stick to the topic and refrain from anything else. If needed they can be spun off to a new thread. - Praveen>

Coming to the people who make it a point to offer an archana when they visit the temple, those who want favours from God do it in their name giving full info about their gothra etc.,

Those among this who request the archana to be done in the name of God are not doing it out of ignorance. That is a accepted practice. In fact there is precedence and approval in our religious literature for that. Periyazhwar (aka Vishnu Chitta) was a poet in the darbar of a Pandya King. He taught the king the philosophy and removed his doubts about the nature of God entity. The King offered him a bundle of gold coins in return for the help. The God in the form of the deity called Koodalazhagar in the Madurai temple came on his vehicle Garuda in the sky and blessed the Azhwar. As the Azhwar had the darshan of the God, he went into raptures and sung the poem in Tamil which is called Thiruppallaandu. In that work Azhwar wishes the Lord many years of existence (in an Earthling's understanding "existence" is all important). It is also the wish of the Azhwar that there should be no harm to the entity (which is beyond the Time) as it has chosen to come within the domain of Time to give him darshan (like a mother does a ritualistic "drishti removal" or "kaappu" to her child). Azhwar did a poem whereas the middle class bhakta does an archana wishing the God existence for ever!! So to conclude, I find nothing wrong in doing an archana in the name of God as it is just a MangalAsAsanam.

Hope this helps you think and perceive.

 

[yesmohan]

In some temples when a lot of crowd is there, only one general archana is being done for the entire gathering as a strategy of crowd management and the plate with coconut is returned at a different counter.

 

[zebra16]

When we do not have any issue or request to God we do the Archana in God's name..

To me this appears to be faulty.

We do archanai in pursuance to the sankalpam or "determination" to do a karma or an "act or action". For this purpose alone, the archakar or the poojari asks for the name, nakshatram, gotrA of the performer. We specifically mention our name etc. so that God
knows us to be the "kartA" or the "doer" and doesnt mistake the poojari as the yajaman.

Now, if you have heard the archanai mantrams, which are in basic sanskrit or tamil, you will notice the repetition of the word namaH (if in sanskrit) and Potri (if in tamil). NamaH simply means "I bow to... (xyz)" and pOtri means "hail" (or jai ho) to ....xyz. If one does the sankalpam in the name of God it would be ridiculuous as it would mean God prostrating to himself or calling himself by various names.

By taking sankalpam in God's name and chanting the ashtottaram simply means (suppose it is addressed to Sri Krishna) Krishna bows to Devaki putra and Krishna bows to satya-BhAma's consort or Krishna hails himself for doing kamsa vadham.

Now as regards doing poojai or archanai as a mere thanks giving endeavour and not praying for begging as someone else put it here, there can never be a more pseudo explanation. Lord Krishna in BG says that every karmA will attract its fruit and the best that the kartA can do is to do arpaNam of the fruits to be derived like krishNa arpaNam astu or BrahmA arpaBam astu etc. Doing pojja etc. is a fresh karmA and each fresh act begets fresh result.

Now one has to be Causeless cause himself to stop the flow of fruit of action, in which case he (the performer) is himself a God. So why do poojai or archanai?

 

[zebra16]

Better to gain knowledge even from a certified atheist or an agnostic person than falling into the label of innocent (or does it mean ignorant?) rural folk or a devious middle class city dweller who insists upon giving his gotram etc.

 

[sangom]

Dr. Dinesh,

I am sure you may be regretting your impulse to make a post here about your doubt (regarding archana and that too in temples). If you have the time and background knowledge, and study our hindu religion, you will find that "archana" forms one of the 16 'upacaaras' to be performed to one's god (i.e., one's ishTa dEvata, which means, again, an idol of the ishTa devata as per current hindu thinking). Therefore, the practice of getting any kind of archana being done by an appointed priest to an idol in a temple, which is a place for common worship of the community, will stand contrary to basic hindu religion.

The fact is that there was no such archana when the people were adhering to the teachings of the vedas only. We then had only one god entity, namely the sacrificial fire in which all other devas (devatas, deities, gods) were invited imaginarily and oblations were offered in the same fire for several devatas. As time passed, we hindus (which, in those days meant only the people belonging to the three higher castes —Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaisya —, started building temples more and more elaborate, larger and ostentatious, to different forms of god, appointed priests and other servants for proper maintenance and running of these temples, and so on. The temple priests started performing archanas on behalf of any devotee, and in return the priest used to get dakshina directly from the devotee.
After introduction of government control, etc., this practice has undergone several procedural changes, and today, archana as per individual devotee, is not performed in most temples; what happens is that the devotee purchases an archana ticket from the temple office, buys the archanai thaTTu from one of the shops in the vicinity of the temple and these are collected by one assistant to the Chief Priest. Later another assistant priest or some other temple employee puts the prasadam in the thaTTu after taking away the flowers, coconut, garland, etc., and this is returned to the devotee. No archanai takes place but the ignorant, gullible, bhakta gets the vicarious satisfaction of his/her having performed a great and good deed! That is all.

I personally feel that if we place even a few flowers before the image of god in our house with sincerity, that will be a better deed than going through this charade of Temple archanas.

 

[Vaagmi]

To me this appears to be faulty.We do archanai in pursuance to the sankalpam or "determination" to do a karma or an "act or action". For this purpose alone, the archakar or the poojari asks for the name, nakshatram, gotrA of the performer. We specifically mention our name etc. so that God
knows us to be the "kartA" or the "doer" and doesnt mistake the poojari as the yajaman.

In Vishnu temples the so called sankalpam done by the archakar before offering an archana in the name of God is quite different from the sankalpam before doing a common archana for the welfare and benefits to a karta. I do not know what happens in Siva Temples and so I have nothing to say about that sankalpam. In vaishnavite sampradhaya every action or karma is considered to be done by God himself and the human being doing it is just upakaranam used in the performance of the karma.

This is the reason why the sAtvIka thyAgam for every karma in SV sampradhaya is done by chanting "Bhagavan.........karma, swasmai, swapreethayE, swayameva kArayati/kArithavAn" and not by the usual kAyEnavachA.......karOmi yat yat............samarpayAmi" as this involves karOmi and samarpayAmi which are first person active verbs. It is an involved discussion and this is not the context for that.

The God, even without specifically mentioning it knows who is the karta or socalled yajamaan.

Now, if you have heard the archanai mantrams, which are in basic sanskrit or tamil, you will notice the repetition of the word namaH (if in sanskrit) and Potri (if in tamil). NamaH simply means "I bow to... (xyz)" and pOtri means "hail" (or jai ho) to ....xyz. If one does the sankalpam in the name of God it would be ridiculuous as it would mean God prostrating to himself or calling himself by various names.

As I have said in the first paragraph, the sankalpam itself is different. So there is nothing ridiculous about doing archana in the name of God. It is a mangalAsAsanam. It is like saying "SrivEnkatanivAsAya srInivAsAya mangalam". The sankalpam is only a statement of intentions and determination. When the intention itself is to wish well to the entity called God for whatever reason one may have, there is no conflict between intention and action.

By taking sankalpam in God's name and chanting the ashtottaram simply means (suppose it is addressed to Sri Krishna) Krishna bows to Devaki putra and Krishna bows to satya-BhAma's consort or Krishna hails himself for doing kamsa vadham.

Not so for the reasons already stated.

Now as regards doing poojai or archanai as a mere thanks giving endeavour and not praying for begging as someone else put it here, there can never be a more pseudo explanation. Lord Krishna in BG says that every karmA will attract its fruit and the best that the kartA can do is to do arpaNam of the fruits to be derived like krishNa arpaNam astu or BrahmA arpaBam astu etc. Doing pojja etc. is a fresh karmA and each fresh act begets fresh result.

Each one understands the reality according to his equipments.

Now one has to be Causeless cause himself to stop the flow of fruit of action, in which case he (the performer) is himself a God. So why do poojai or archanai?

Not very clear. So I do not venture to interpret it.

 

[Vaagmi]

Better to gain knowledge even from a certified atheist or an agnostic person than falling into the label of innocent (or does it mean ignorant?) rural folk or a devious middle class city dweller who insists upon giving his gotram etc.

Yes very true!! One can gain a lot of knowledge about the non-existent God (?) or the may- be- existent- or- non-existent- God from the atheist and a agnostic respectively. The rural folk who, in all their innocence, offer their best to their God out of respect and fear for the God and the middle class harassed individual bhakta who goes to God and offers a archana in the hope that He (the God) will somehow change his daughter's mind and prevent the IR/IC marriage from happening are labels which do not even deserve empathy. They are to be ridiculed quoting the little known or understood Sanskrit sankalpam which is the exclusive domain of the scholarly crowd who will do a dukrinjkarane at the drop of a hat.

For the non-scholarly ordinary man it is just this:

I do an archana to please God so that I get blessed by him.

Or I may do an archana praying for God's welfare itself because I believe prayer is effective.

 

[Vaagmi]

Dr. Dinesh,

I am sure you may be regretting your impulse to make a post here about your doubt (regarding archana and that too in temples). If you have the time and background knowledge, and study our hindu religion, you will find that "archana" forms one of the 16 'upacaaras' to be performed to one's god (i.e., one's ishTa dEvata, which means, again, an idol of the ishTa devata as per current hindu thinking). Therefore, the practice of getting any kind of archana being done by an appointed priest to an idol in a temple, which is a place for common worship of the community, will stand contrary to basic hindu religion.

The fact is that there was no such archana when the people were adhering to the teachings of the vedas only. We then had only one god entity, namely the sacrificial fire in which all other devas (devatas, deities, gods) were invited imaginarily and oblations were offered in the same fire for several devatas. As time passed, we hindus (which, in those days meant only the people belonging to the three higher castes —Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaisya —, started building temples more and more elaborate, larger and ostentatious, to different forms of god, appointed priests and other servants for proper maintenance and running of these temples, and so on. The temple priests started performing archanas on behalf of any devotee, and in return the priest used to get dakshina directly from the devotee.
After introduction of government control, etc., this practice has undergone several procedural changes, and today, archana as per individual devotee, is not performed in most temples; what happens is that the devotee purchases an archana ticket from the temple office, buys the archanai thaTTu from one of the shops in the vicinity of the temple and these are collected by one assistant to the Chief Priest. Later another assistant priest or some other temple employee puts the prasadam in the thaTTu after taking away the flowers, coconut, garland, etc., and this is returned to the devotee. No archanai takes place but the ignorant, gullible, bhakta gets the vicarious satisfaction of his/her having performed a great and good deed! That is all.

I personally feel that if we place even a few flowers before the image of god in our house with sincerity, that will be a better deed than going through this charade of Temple archanas.

Dr. Dinesh,

That is what an agnostic has to say. LOL.

 

[prasad1]

Every word can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the context. I can define myself as XYZ but it may mean some thing altogether different to another reader.
You may ascribe labels like "agnostic", "atheist", or "believer" may be ascribed to others purely out of malice or ignorance.
In Hinduism these words take on different connotation. They all can coexist in Hindu religion. The same person may go through all these labels at different time of their life depending on their spiritual journey.
None of of us mere mortals really know God.
We live in society, and society expects certain norms and tradition. Some are bold and break out of the mold, but majority of people just follow blindly the "tradition". The op has a genuine question, I gave my answer in post#4. I assume the poster is intelligent and can choose his own answer.

 

[Dr.Dinesh]

Hi Mr.Vaagami
thank u so much for the reply...I understood sir...