Discussion on Spiritual Practices and Rituals

Are those two talking? Rukmini Devi and Satyabhama Devi.

Beside Rukmini Devi is Draupadi.

What these two discuss is a beautiful chapter in the Bhagavata Purana.

In it, she asks, “As homemakers, what do the two of us do?”

She asks her. She asks her.

What she said was, “Our clothes,

I don't leave them lying around here and there. I fold them before putting them away.

I scrub the ten vessels that very night.

I don't leave them there. Without bathing, by some chance, I

never cook any food.”

They discuss all this with each other.

Think about who would leave ten vessels outside at night.

Think about it. You'd have to take them and put them away.

The next morning, somehow or other, without bathing, cooking, not bathing...

“You mustn't cook without bathing. I won't, Swami.”

Without bathing, lighting the stove and...

I'll take it down after I bathe.

This is a new invention. It hasn't existed anywhere until now.

Because she says it saves all that time.

We have to save time. So, without bathing, wash the rice and

cook it. Washing and cooking rice is no big deal.

If that's the case, just pour everything into whatever vessel is there.

The rice and

all that rinsing aren't needed at all. Do you know why?

You only need to rinse the rice twice. There's a very deep meaning to it.

This body falls down. It's called the gross body.

As soon as this body falls, they'll bathe it here once.

Only after bathing this body will they carry it away.

After this, if we have to go from here to Sivigundam, something called a subtle body

will

be obtained. It will be very tiny and delicate.

Only if it exists can this soul go there and arrive.

As soon as this subtle body reaches the Viraja River, it enters it once

and bathes, then a second time, that subtle body itself

will be washed and taken out. After that, when we enter Sevikkundam,

we will receive a different,

beautiful divine form.

After that, we must always remain in that very form.

That body has no birth, death, old age, or filth whatsoever.

If we look at being washed twice, the first time, we must leave this gross body.

If we look at being washed twice, the first time, we must leave this gross body.

They will bathe us. The second time, we must leave the subtle body.

They will bathe us.

They will bathe us in the Viraja River. Every day, we should remember the desire

that what is going to happen to me

should happen, during the morning offering.

That is why, when cleaning this rice,

the first time, all the large husks will fall away.

Then, the second time, the small husks will go away.

The large husk is the gross body. The small husk is the subtle body.

If one makes an effort to remember every day that these two must be shed,

all this is like husking rice.

It is only on the day it is husked, isn’t it? A Swami keeps saying something for one nāzhigai.

Swami’s Day.

I mentioned it from the recollection of something I read long ago. Please let it go if it is wrong.

That is all I can say. What design we make for the Mother on which day,

what we anoint, what hymns we recite,

what we anoint, what hymns we recite,

how we prepare the food offering,

It is our elders who have woven spirituality into all of this.