Karma - Astrology - Prayaschitta

Yesterday in my house we were talking about doing Prayaschtta or pariharams (in Tamil) as advised by Astrlogers.

Now the question is what is the role of Prayaschitta in Hinduism?

Hinduism believes in the Karma theory. Your present life is determined by the Karma of the previous births. The horoscope represents a picture of your life at the time of your birth.

The Karma theory varies with the Philosophical systems. In Purva Mimansa the oldest Philosophy, our life is pre-determined by the Karmas of the previous births. There is no way you could change that. But you can to some extent alleviate that by doing good Karmas in the present birth. This is the basis of the Prayaschitta system. But this does contradict the theory that there is no escape from the effects of the past Karmas. Again Purva Mimansa does not believe in a supreme God.

In Vedanta and especially Bhakti Marga, it is believed that God decides our life. MAA can burn away your past Karmas. Even if the Karma does take effect it can be mitigated. And also she decides when and how the effect should take place.

An example:

Due to your past karma you have to lose Rs.10, 000 in this life. Repayment of past debts as it is called. By praying to MAA you can overcome the effect of this.

1. MAA could make you rich, so that a loss of Rs.10,000 is peanuts to you.

2. More important (even if you are not rich) she could give you an mental attitude where you do not feel the loss at all. This is very important. You would have seen people who brush aside such losses with absolute indifference and also people (even those who are rich) who feel dejected and crest fallen with even a small financial loss.

Trust in MAA and leave everything to her. Pray to her.

More about Kali temple

Kalighat Kali temple is one of the most popular Saktha temple visited by thousands of devotees every day. MAA is Karuna Moyi, Daya Moyi and Ananda Moyi. MAA is well known for granting boons to devotees. No wonder people come from allover the world to visit the temple.

But about the temple itself. How is it?

1. One of the (if not the) dirtiest temple in India.

2. The only temple in India where Beggars and Vendors have a free rein. The Nat Mandir is used by Beggars as their home. You find them sleeping there at any time of the day. The Beggar Children use it as their play ground. The beggar children sit on the floor among the crowd and tug at your feet. They kick the devotees who are sitting there meditating.

The vendors of the so called Raksha thread forces one mala on your head and demand money. Then you have the vendors of Kumkum and other Puja material. Then you have permanent sweet shops inside the temple.

Is this a way a holy place should be run? Temple for MAA is called MAA Badi or Mother's house. Do we keep our Mother's house like this?

Why this Blog - I

I have been receiving feedback from the guest book of my web site about the Kalighat Temple http://kalighat.jagaddhatri.com

The guest book is not the place to post about bad experiences. So I have been editing out such posts.

But we do need a forum for posting such incidents. And where I can post my experiences in the Kalighat temple.

So here it comes.