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Adiyen Narasimha Dasan

From the Bhakti List Archives

Nedchari • August 30, 1998 


Dear Friends from the community:  This is my first sojourn into Bhakta Samaj.
I am now a regular reader of the letters from Bhaktas on different aspects of
Srivaishnavism.  I offer here some comments on Sankalpa.  Sankalpa means
intent.
Before we begin any religious rite, such as Sandhya, Tharpana, Aradhana, we
declare our intent thru sankalpa. We declare the geographical location, time
etc, by staing the year  (nama SamvatsarE,) ayanE, rutau, masE, pakshE, shubha
thithow, 
vasara yuktayam..  This is followed by the statement Bhagavad Ajnaya, Sriman
NArAyana Prithyartham.  Then we say what we are going to do, eg. Pratah
Sandhyam upasishye .  All our religious rites are presribed in the scriptures
which are given by the Lord.  So we use the term Bhagavad ajnaya.  Our
intention is to please him and receive his blessings and so we say, Bhagavad
prityartham or SrimanNArAyaNa prityartham.
Vaishnavas also also do Sathvika Tyagam where we declare " svasmei,
svaprithyei,
swayameva karayati" meaning I do this myself, for my own pleasure.  Thus you
see that there are four elements in the sankalpa, the command of the Lord, His
pleasure,
individual's effort and individual's (doer's or kartha's) pleasure. 
Yours
Narasimha Dasan.