{"id":11616,"date":"2013-06-08T10:07:59","date_gmt":"2013-06-08T09:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=11616"},"modified":"2013-06-08T10:10:40","modified_gmt":"2013-06-08T09:10:40","slug":"primary-and-secondary-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=11616","title":{"rendered":"Primary and Secondary Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy Madhavananda das<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vai\u1e63\u1e47avas follow various vidhis or rules. However, it’s not that all of these vidhis have equal importance. For example it is a rule that one should take bath daily, it is also a rule that one should chant the holy names daily, but of the two vidhis the latter is much more important.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

One set of rules are mukhya-vidhis or primary rules, for us these are the pa\u00f1c\u0101\u1e45ga-bhakti, the five limbs of bhakti described by Mahaprabhu in Cc madhya 22.128: s\u0101dhu-sa\u1e45ga, n\u0101ma-k\u012brtana, bh\u0101gavata-\u015brava\u1e47a, mathur\u0101-v\u0101sa, and \u015br\u012b-m\u016brtira seva.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

Another set is gau\u1e47\u0101\u1e45ga, or secondary rules. These include taking morning bath, being honest, and yes, even being vegetarian. Due to absorption in bh\u0101va, or some serious health problem some vai\u1e63\u1e47avas may not be able to take bath daily; Yudhisthir Maharaja is famous for his so-called “dishonesty” (which was actually pleasing to the Lord); and Srila Prabhupada sometimes refers to Garuda, the Lord’s personal carrier as a “non-vegetarian vai\u1e63\u1e47ava” (he sometimes eats fish, snakes, and turtles etc).<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

These gau\u1e47\u0101\u1e45ga-vidhis are secondary in the sense that they have potency only when they are practiced in connection with the mukhy\u0101\u1e45gas. For example, there are people all over the world who take bath daily, however, we don’t see them developing bhakti because of their bathing. <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

One the other hand, if someone simply chants the holy name they will develop bhakti even if they don’t take bath daily (they probably won’t be very popular socially, but Lord Rishabhdev is an example of someone who was not taking bath everyday). <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

N\u0101ma-k\u012brtana is a mukhy\u0101\u1e45ga or primary limb of bhakti, therefore it acts by itself (in this age, all a\u1e45gas of bhakti, even the mukhy\u0101\u1e45gas are dependent on n\u0101ma). Taking a daily bath to purify one’s consciousness so he or she can chant in a more concentrated way is helpful to the mukh\u0101\u1e45ga of n\u0101ma-k\u012brtana, so it has some potency *while* in connection with any of the mukhy\u0101\u1e45gas of bhakti. Therefore it becomes a gau\u1e47\u0101\u1e45ga, secondary limb of bhakti.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

This, of course does not mean that it is not important to take bath everyday or that one can give up being vegetarian. However, we should understand why we follow these principles if they are not universal. Those who have received initiation into our line are vegetarian and take daily bath because it is the order of their guru. To neglect the order of guru is the offence known as guru avaj\u00f1a. By disobeying the order of guru one will get a far worse reaction than an ordinary person gets by performing sin. Sad Guru gives orders to follow secondary a\u1e45gas of bhakti because they will help us to follow the primary ones.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

Padma Pur\u0101\u1e47a describes the most important of all vidhis:<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

smartavya\u1e25 satata\u1e41 vi\u1e63\u1e47ur vismartavyo na j\u0101tucitsarve vidhi-ni\u1e63edh\u0101\u1e25 syur etayor eva ki\u1e45kar\u0101\u1e25<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

“Krishna or Vishnu, should always be remembered and never forgotten. All the vidhis, rules, and ni\u1e63edhas, prohibitions of \u015b\u0101stra should be the servants of these two principles.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Madhavananda das<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vai\u1e63\u1e47avas follow various vidhis or rules. However, it’s not that all of these vidhis have equal importance. For example it is a rule that one should take bath daily, it is also a rule that one should chant the holy names daily, but of the two vidhis the latter is much more important<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}