Brahmin and sacred thread, sacred thread-forward By Chauhan Babu Nath, 19h
Dear friends, I read the above item in Quora digest to me today. I feltvery interesting and thought of sharing with you. Gopalakrishnan 22-2-2024 Recently I had gone to Hanuman ji's temple where I saw aBrahmin who had brought a sacred thread for Hanuman ji. Coincidentally, I wasstanding right behind him in the queue. I heard him telling the priest that hewanted to wear the sacred thread he had spun (made by himself) to Hanuman ji. The priest took the sacredthread but did not wear it. When the Brahmin requested again, the priest saidthat this is the adornment of Hanuman ji, for this permissionwill have to be taken from the big priest (Mahant), you wait for some time, hewill come soon. I was listening carefully to what those people weresaying, out of curiosity I also started waiting for Mahant ji's arrival. After some time, when Mahant ji came, the priest toldabout the request of that Brahmin, then Mahant ji looked at the Brahmin andsaid that see, Hanuman ji is already wearing the sacred thread and is it aflower garland or not? May be worn many times. If you wish, offer this sacred thread to Hanumanji and take it as Prasad. On this, the Brahmin said very politely that I seethat God has already worn the sacred thread, but last nightthere was a lunar eclipse and as per the Vedic rules, every person wearing asacred thread has to change the old sacred thread to a new sacred thread afterthe eclipse. Just thinking that this should be done, I had brought thisin the morning in the service of Hanuman ji, this is very dear to the Lord. It is also written in Hanuman Chalisa that - "HathBajra and Dhwaja Viraje, Kandhe Mooj Janeu Saje". Now Mahant ji said in a thoughtful tone that we donot buy sacred thread from the market, we make pure sacred thread for Hanuman ji, what is the purityof your sacred thread. On this, the Brahmin said that first of all, it is made of raw cotton, itslength is 96 chauva (fingers), after putting the first three threads on thespindle, nine threads are twisted with the help of the spindle, thus 27 threads.There is a Trisut which is a single thread and is not broken anywhere, it has aPravara and Gotra-wisePravara bond and at the end it has been made completely pure by tying aBrahmaganth and colored with turmeric and all this hasbeen done by me with my own hands, Gayatri. Done while chanting mantra. I was shocked by this explanation of the constructionof sacred thread by Brahmin Dev, I bowed to him in my mind, I saw that nowMahant ji started asking him something in Sanskrit language, I could notunderstand the questions and answers of those people but Mahant ji Looking atthe Brahmin, it seemedthat he was completely satisfied with the Brahmin's answer. Now he tookhim with him and reached Hanuman ji, where after chanting mantras, with the help of the Mahant and 3other priests, the Brahmin made Hanuman ji wear the sacred thread and then took off the old sacredthread. After doing so, he kept it with himself for immersion in running water. I often come to the temple but today's incident lefta deep impression on mymind. I thought that I am also a Brahmin and as per the rules I shouldalso change the sacred thread. I also came out of the temple following thatBrahmin, stopped him and saluted him. After introducing himself and said that I also need apair of pure sacred thread, he expressed his inability and said that hehad brought it only for Hanuman ji. Yes, if you want, you can come to my house anytime. I make asacred thread at home and keep it. People who know me come and take it. I took the address of his housefrom him, greeted him and left from there. When I reached his house in the evening, I saw that he was talking to a person sittingon a throne at his door. After getting down from the car, I approached him. Assoon as he saw me, he stood up and asked me to sit. After greeting, I sat down.During the conversation, it came to light that the other person was also a Brahmin living nearby and hadcome to collect the sacred thread from them. Brahmin went inside his house, meanwhile his twodaughters, who would have been 12 years old and 8 years old respectively, onehad a pot of water in her hand and the other had a bowl of jaggery and twoglasses, in front of us were jaggery and water. It was kept, the person sittingnear me poured water in both the glasses, then picked up a piece of jaggery, ate it and drank thewater and moved the bowl of jaggery towards me, but I did not drink the water. In this time, the Brahmin came out of his house andgave a pair of sacred thread to the person who was already sitting, he took thesacred thread and went away after giving 21 rupees to the Brahmin. I was still stayingthere, I was curious to know more about this Brahmin, while talking to him Icame to know that he is agraduate in Sanskrit, did not get a job and could not do any businessdue to lack of capital. I havean old mother, wife, two daughters and a young son and also a cow. Theytake care of their elderly mother and cows, get a little income from milk andthey have learned makingsacred thread from their father and grandfather, this also helps in theirsurvival. Meanwhile, his elder daughter came to take back the tumbler of water but my glasswas still filled with water. She looked at me as if her eyes were askingme why I did not drink the water, I looked away from there. She left the glassof water there and went away, perhaps she was hoping that I would drinkthe water later. By now I had known a lot about this family and I wasalso feeling pity in my mind. Well, the Brahmin gave me a pair of sacred thread and wrotea mantra on paper and said that I must chant this mantra while wearing the sacred thread. After thinking carefully, I extended the 500 rupee currencytowards the Brahmin and started searching for a coin in my pocket and purse. Iknew that 500 rupees was too much for a pair of sacred thread, but I thoughtthat with this excuse I wouldbe able to help him a little. The Brahmin folded his hands and said tome, Sir, I do not have the change of Rs. 500-00. I said, there is no need ofchange, you can keep the entire amount, so I told him no, just giveme 21 rupees for my hard work, this is what he said to me. I liked that despite beingpoor, he is not greedy, but Ihad also decided to give only five hundred rupees, so I said that I don't evenhave the change, don't hesitate, keep the whole, it will be useful for you. He said, no, I am not hesitating, you keep it backfor Rs. 21 when we meet you again. Please give it. This Brahminbrought tears to my eyes. He said that a pair of pure sacred thread costs Rs. 13-14 and afteradding Rs. 7-8 for his hard work, it comes to Rs. 21. Some people give onlytwenty rupees saying that there is no coin available. I also had the sameproblem, I had Rs 21.There was no retail, I keptback the 500 rupee note and handed over a 100 rupee note to him and verypolitely asked him to keep it. This time he could notavoid my request and kept 100 rupees and asked me to wait fora minute. He went insidethe house, came out and gave me four pairs of sacred thread and said, Iaccepted your request and gave Rs. 100. Now obey me and keep these fourmore pairs of sacred thread so that there is no burden on my mind. I mentally saluted his self-respect and also askedhim what he would do with so much sacred thread, he said that on occasions like MakarSankranti, Pitru immersion, lunar and solar eclipse, some havan puja at home,on the occasion of birth of a child in the family, etc. There is a ritual of changing the sacred thread,apart from this you can alsogive gifts to your relatives and your Brahmin friends so that our Brahminculture and tradition gets strengthened and also when you go to the temple,especially Ganesh ji, Shankar ji and Hanuman ji. Must offer sacred thread to... Hearing his words, he kept those five pairs of sacredthread with him and stood up and bid farewell to return, then he said that you are our guest, you have comehome for the first time, how can we let you go empty handed, saying this he left hisdaughter. When she came out, the Brahmin Dev gestured to her, thenunderstanding his gesture she quickly went inside and came out carrying a big stick.Seeing the stick, I could not understand what kind of farewell was going tohappen to me. Now Brahmin Dev took the stick from her hand and lookedat me and smiled.In response, I also tried to smile. When he moved forward with the stick, Istepped back a little. His daughter was following him. I saw that there were two papaya trees on the otherside of the door. With the help of the stick, he plucked a ripe papaya. His daughterpicked up that papaya and took it inside. She went and washed it with water,wrapped it in a paper and brought it to me and extended her tiny hands towardsme. My eyes filled withtears seeing her innocent affection. I hid my wet eyes from her and started looking in theother direction, then my eyes fell on the pot and glass of waterwhich were still kept there. Seeing the closeness of this little girl, Istarted feeling guilty for not drinking my water, I immediately picked up a piece of jaggery and placed itin my mouth and drank the entire glass of water in one breath. I askedher daughter if she wanted one more glass of water. The little fairy took thetumbler and filled it with water, then poured that water into my glass. Shestarted pouring it and a smile appeared on her lips as if she was thanking me.I was hiding my eyes from her. I picked up the glass of water and starteddrinking the nectar with my neck held high, but I was being suppressed by the guilt. Now without saying anything to anyone, I kept the papaya on the second seatof the car and started for home. On reachinghome, seeing the papaya in my hand, my wife asked where I got it from, so Icould only tell her that a Brahmin gave it. When I went to his house, he did not let me come emptyhanded. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1662156408.3350057.1708594914445%40mail.yahoo.com.
