Treating the Upavita with reference

--- On Mon, 8/31/09, rvaidyawrote:


Subject: Date: Monday, August 31, 2009, 7:24 PM
Some people suggest 3 sets of poonal for married persons with children and some others say it is three for those who lost their father--
One poonal is suggested for Brahamachari.
Can some one explain one/two/three principle

RVaidya


Dear Members,


The question raised by Mr.RVaidya about the no. of poonals and his ridicule in the next post that "Like may customs this also is not having THE answer " without one taking the pain of analysing the facts and scriptures available already in this forum and not trying to understand the age old living tradition of our great ancestors.If he had took pain in searching in the old posts of this forum instead of expecting some ready made answers to comment on ,he would have landed in my old post,  which details the proof from vedas and smritis on the details of the no. of poonol and the reasoning behind them.

To answer in brief two upavitas are a must for snataka(i.e. one who had performed the snana after the veda vratha normally called as samavarthana) before the marriage. This smavarthana ceremony earlier used to be on a seperate day as the proess of ashtavratha takes 6-8 hrs and generally used top be on the previous day of marriage.(as was in my case as well). After marriage for a grihastha it is must to have either an uthareeya always or an upavitha in lieu of the uthareeya as ordained in smriti. (Ref: Apasthamba Dharma Sutra :2.2.4.21-nityam uttaram vasah karyam and 2.2.4.22api va sutram eva upavitarthe) . According to apasthamba a grihastha(i. e married person) need to have an angavastra always or an upavitha shall suffice in its absence. This is further clarified by the quote from hemadri in nirnayasindhu( "Yajnopaveethe dve daarye sraouthe smaarthe cha karmani.tritheeyamu thareeyaarthe vasthraabhave thadishyathe" . ) The third one is in lieu of an uthareeya and has to be mandatorily followed by a married person irrespective of whether he has performed seemantha or not. In kerala, unfortunately like recent wrong practice of restricitng the gauna pitru tarpana of brhmayajna for persons having their parents living ,in case of apasthambins ,which should as per the sastras a mandate for all apasthambins, many families still follow the two upavitha rule assuming that an uthareeya is also worn always.

Some member has reasoned that the third one is for emergency replacement of torn one of a brahmachari is not an acceptable practice as per the shashtras and is totally unhygenic and unacceptable to the sastric rules.(ref:manusmri ti-4.66-upānahau ca vāsaś ca dhrtam anyair na dhārayet. upavītam alankāram srajam karakam eva ca ).According to manu an upavita worn by one should never be worn by someone else.The upavitha has so much of importance that it needs to be handled with reverence always and the top portion should never fall below the shoulder line.


In this juncture,i would like to point to the post made by Sri:Ramachander with subject "Samkshepa Dharma Sastras- An english translation" pointing to the translation effort he has painstakenly undergone for the benefit of the fellow members and brahmin community as a whole ,which already answers many of such queries. If the member who posted the question had just took sincere efforts to browse through the transaltion of sri.ramchander sir,he would have been rightly pointed to the quotes of bhrugu on page no:17 "The third Yagnopaveetha (sacred thread) is worn , in case the person does not wear an upper cloth (uthareeya)"(ref link http://stotraratna.awardspace.com/sruthi.html). It is really disheartening to see Mr.RVaidyas comment without analysing and exploiting the available resources properly to comment that our age old culture doesnt have a common answer and indeed poses the serious question that how many in the forum seriously utilises the sincere effort of Sri.P Ramachander Sirs translations and this forums message archives which is a ready reckoner reference.

There are some elderly members who have answered without any quotes from scriptures and without any logic and reasoning to consider which doesnt deem to be replied back.

Hope that the forum makes use of the message archives and other available resources rather than wasting time in discussing subject matters that are discussed earlier.It takes pretty less time to search in the forum before posting such basic queries .

Thanks and regards,

Ganesh K.