YATRA AND ITS PARAMARTHA

WHAT TO OBSERVE DURING YATRA

On reaching the destination mundana - tonsorial operation offering of hair is recommended to every yatri. After the shave, he should observe fast. With regard to ladies, whose husbands are alive, mundana is to be interpreted as cutting of braid of hair by two fingerbreadths. This special concession is granted to all classes and castes of people too. This mundana besides removing sins makes one feel shedding of ego. and recognizing the omnipotence of God. After that comes holy bath - when the yatri bathes in a sacred thirtha the merit goes not only to the bathed but to the mother, father, wife, brother, sister, friend and preceptor also. It is also mentioned that whomsoever,  the bather remembers at the time of bath, one eighth of the merit goes to him too. For total effect it is prescribed that the bather should prepare a small image of the beneficiary with darbha grass and dip it into the thirtha. This would give the beneficiary the intended merit in full. While taking bath, one should face the sun, if it is kshetra, and the direction of the downward flow of river, if it is thirtha, Tarpana follows the bath.

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