Krishna Seva

[jogeshasar]

Jai Shri Krishna

I have just joined as a new member. I have gone through the discussion of Aarti Gujarati and was very excited and learnt a lot out of it.

I have a question:

1. Why do we have to kneel down on our knees and not just bend our body to do charan sparsh?
Which quite a lot of people are doing (bending over). Is the pose of doing charan sparsh very important?
2. Why the charan sparsh is to be done in a particular way, that is keep left hand on the right and then do the charansparsh of the left foot toe first then right then left again?
3. Why can't one do charansparsh with one hand only?
4. Why the sequence of left-right-left and not vice-versa or only left foot or right foot only?
_________________
Der sahi ayo tohare charne, sharan me lo Shrinath hamare,

[gopal]

jai jai shrigokulesh

first of all, jogeshasar, welcome to krishnaseva site. And very thanks for raising such beautiful question, which relates to all the sevak-vaishnavas of Pushtimarg, and it is the culture of our Sanatana Religion.

ShriMahaprabhuji is the founder of this Path of Grace-Pushtimarg. He has written many scriptures explaining the truths of the path of grace, and the sanatana religion. One of His workings is Tattvarth Deep Nibandh. Which is in 3 parts. Shastrarth Prakaarana Nibandha, Sarvanirnay Nibandha, and Bhagwarth Prakaran Nibandha.

now in Shastrarth, when the new topic starts, ShriMahaprabhuji does the Mangalacharan. Why mangalacharan? so that the work which is to be started gets finished Nirvighna-without any obstacles. The very first Stanza Shrimahaprabhuji quotes here is
Namo Bhagwate Krishnai Adhbhoot karmane....


Here ShriMahaprabhuji has first used the word Namo...Why Namo--Naman--bow down. Why? Because we are the servent of God right from the birth and even before of birth...Garbha-Dasatva..So we do naman. In short we bow to our elders, Similarly God is the Ultimate reality in this world and He is the Eldest of All the other material elders. So we do naman. Why we do naman? because we are not in position to give any other things apart from the Naman-a part of Humility.

So ShriMahaprabhuji says that God is filled all the best treasures, so what can a servant give to me? I m having the best seat-Aasana of Garuda, which is the best of all the aasans-seats, had ShriLakshmiji serving Him, Had Kaustubh Mani-the most precious stone, And God is Vaak-Pati-husband of Speech..

So we do Naman, which is the only element a sevak-Vaishnava can do...


So with this reference,. we do naman with different ways, Naman by just bowing the head, naman by bowing both head and mind, naman done by sitting on the foot, and doing Nat-Mastak -- touching the earth by bowing down, etc.

Moreover In our material world, we had found that the person, who bends, to give respect to others, is blessed by others. Similarly, this is a part of Respect been given to our God, ShriGurucharan. This shows the that how we respect Him, and it shows the Deenta.....

Even ShriMahaprabhuji had done naman in many of the Sacred Books, which He has written. Like ShriYamunastakam--Namami Yamunamaham....

Balbodha--Natva Harim Pravakshyami....
etc, many granths...


Friends, please correct me, if i had mistaken.
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

jai jai shrigokulesh

"NAMAMI YAMUNAMAHAM ....1..."

I bow to ShriYamunaji. ShriYamunaji is the donar of all Siddhi's.......

NAMOSTU YAMUNE SADAA...6....

ShriYamunaji, i pleasantly bow down to you for all eternity.....
commentry:---Here the pada "Namostu" used by ShriMahaprabhuji. The reason is that the jeev can only do " Naman" and without naman jeev is not liable to do anything. And even Naman done is not so easy. Because jeev is not having samarthya even to do naman., So in the pad "Nama-astu" where astu indicates the Prarthna-praying. So i bOw with prarthna-prayer do accept.

The importance of ShriPrabhu iw very wel versed in the Shastras, So doing "Naman" to shriprabhu is bit obvious. And ShriYamunaji's importance-mahamatya we get understand after getting entry in the Leela Shrushti. So after then we do naman. We don't do first Naman. And it is very not easy to get the leela shrushti entry. So we only do prayer for that we get the eligibiity in the leela shrushti, ShriMahaprabhuji used the pad "Namostu". We do prarthna, Hey ShriYamunaji! always i bow to you.........
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,,

Even when we study the commentry of BhaktiVardhini done by ShriChaturthkumar ShriGokulesh prabhu....we fine the very first word as

"Natva Swacharryapadambhjam Krupamadhusupuritak |

Tatparagaktbudhya Vyakhyasye Bhaktivardhinim || 1 ||"
--means I (ShriGokulnathji) bow to Swa-Aacharya-Padam-Bhujan....ShriMahaprabhuji....

So we find the Naman word..so Deenta..

And almost all Commentrators first does Naman...showing the respect to their Guru, Aacharya, God..
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh

Sorry, taken long description for Naman..But when we are keen to do Charansparsh, then we should know what it means. I may be wrong to write here. Please do correct me.
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[jogeshasar]

Jai Shri Krishna,
Jai Jai ShriGokuleshji

Thank you very much for the basic explanation and reasons for NAMAN.
With the right understanding, the bhav is important when kneeling down. Kindly please continue so that I can fully understand why we do Naman.
I am a slow learner so please forgive if you find me asking too many questions.
_________________
Der sahi ayo tohare charne, sharan me lo Shrinath hamare,

[Vasant Punjabi]

Jai Shri Krishna,

Very interesting enjoying it. I may be out of line but want to add some beautiful examples of being toched by God's charan.

1) The story of Bali Raja He had to bent down so God could touch his head with his feet total surrendership.

2) Story of Ahiliya Moksh Ramayan

3) Story of Kaliya Naag Shrimad Bhagwad

4) Story of boat man in Ramayan

5) Story of Udhavji who was so pleased to touch the charan ruj of Shri Thakurji ( so even the Ruj is so important) that is why we take the charnarmrut.

6) Story of Akrurji he was also blessed with charan ruj.

7) There are very good examples of Shri Mahaprabhuji curing uncurable diseases by his charan sparsh.

Vaishnavs can even add more as there are so many good examples.
_________________
Vasant Punjabi.

"Shri Vallabh Shri Vithal Sukh-kari naa-me nishpap thai nur-nari,
------Nitya Lila nitya nautam shruti na pame par."----

[jogeshasar]

Jai Shri Krishna,

I now am able to understand the reason we do Naman.
Now the question coming up is on the few examples given on who did naman.

1. Bali did it after Vaman Bhagwan didn't have place to put his third step. This was to fulfill his promise given. Now do we accept this as Naman or a gesture of fulfilling the promise given?

2. Kaliyanaag was defeated in the Yamuna river by Shri Krishna and accepted defeat. Shri Krishna as a gesture of victory over Kaliyanaag danced on his head. Do we consider this as Naman?

3. Boatman in Ramayan, yes as far as I understand the situation it's Naman.

4. Another example of Naman is Shri Hanumanji in Ramayan

Naman can be done in different situation as per my understanding
1. With respect (knowing the actual meaning Naman)
2. After conceding defeat
3. Without understanding but following the instructions of elders

Yes, end of the day these are Naman. Which Naman would be the best (Shresht)?
_________________
Der sahi ayo tohare charne, sharan me lo Shrinath hamare,

[Vasant Punjabi]

Jai Shri Krishna,

In Navda Bhakti we can understand the following

Pada Sevan (serving the feet)
Vandana Bhakti (Self Surrender by prostration before Shri Thakurji)
Atma Nivedan (Complete or total surrendership) and in case of Bali Raja it was total surrendership. Please correct me if I am wrong.
_________________
Vasant Punjabi.

"Shri Vallabh Shri Vithal Sukh-kari naa-me nishpap thai nur-nari,
------Nitya Lila nitya nautam shruti na pame par."----

[jogeshasar]

Jai Shri Krishna,

Thank you Vasantji for the short and sweet explanation on the Namans.
Yes it all adds upto Namans in whatever form as explained .
With or after realisation, when one prostrates it's with full bhav and deenta.

Now going to my rest of the questions as below:

[2. Why the charan sparsh is to be done in a particular way, that is keep left hand on the right and then do the charansparsh of the left foot toe first then right then left again?
3. Why can't one do charansparsh with one hand only?
4. Why the sequence of left-right-left and not vice-versa or only left foot or right foot only?]

[/quote]
_________________
Der sahi ayo tohare charne, sharan me lo Shrinath hamare,

[jogeshasar]

Jai Shri Krishna,

Dear Gopalbhai / Vasantji

Could you kindly please carry on on the nice flow of charan sparsh.
I also request other vaishnavs to please contribute to this topic if they have any answers.
_________________
Der sahi ayo tohare charne, sharan me lo Shrinath hamare,

[jogeshasar]

Jai Shri Krishna,

I have a feeling that my last three questions have no direction. I would like to relate the questions below to Guruji and Vallabhkul Balaks.

2.Why the charan sparsh is to be done in a particular way, that is keep left hand on the right and then do the charansparsh of the left foot toe first then right then left again?
3. Why can't one do charansparsh with one hand only?
4. Why the sequence of left-right-left and not vice-versa or only left foot or right foot only?]
_________________
Der sahi ayo tohare charne, sharan me lo Shrinath hamare,

[Vasant Punjabi]

Jai Shri Krishna,

Thakurjis right leg is symbolic for bhakti and his left leg is represents mukti so we should touch the right leg first then the left leg and then again the right leg so that we attain bhakti of thakurji more than mukti .... this is the bhavna behind charansparsch.

Charansparsh is for dasatva, gyan, dradhata and swakiyata.
The bhavna of Shri charnarvind is given by Shri Gokulnathji and Shri Hariraiji.

There are 16 chinha in Shri charanarvind-in dakshin charan 9 and in vaam 7.they are-dhwaj, ankush, kamal, vajra, swastik, astakon, yav, urdhwarekha, kalash and gopad, jambufal, matsya, dhanushya, trikon, ardhchandra, aakash. Charnarvind of Shri Prabhu gives sharan and bhakti. Because of charansparsh, our deh becomes yogya to do seva.

Will request other vaishnavs to put more light to it.
_________________
Vasant Punjabi.

"Shri Vallabh Shri Vithal Sukh-kari naa-me nishpap thai nur-nari,
------Nitya Lila nitya nautam shruti na pame par."----

[jogeshasar]

Jai Shri Krishna,

Thank you for the explanation and now it makes the charan-sparsh more reasoning more clearer.
The charan-chins (synbols) have their meaning and will come back to you after studying the charan-chins.
In Pushtimarg, the main aim is to attain Bhakti. If I am not wrong Mukti is from worldly (Laukik) worries, dangers etc
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Der sahi ayo tohare charne, sharan me lo Shrinath hamare,

[gopal]

jai jai shrigokulesh

vasantbhai very rightly replied. And when in job from entering the premise of the job, a person has to follow the rules and regulations of the profesion, similarly in each religion, one has to follow the smallest of the rule of that religion.

So when we talk of our pushtimarg, we also need to follow the rules of the pushtimarg. ShriCharansparsh is much necessary for one's own liberation...
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda