by Shrila Gopala Bhatta Gosvami
Vivaha Karma (marriage)
When the wife is about to bear the child, the husband should perform this rite for the safe delivery of the child and the wife’s good health.
The husband should bathe, perform worship of Vishnu and Vaishnavas, and Sattvika Vriddhi Shraddha and then recite the sankalpa:
om vishnur
om tat sat
adya
_______mase (lunar month )
_______pakshe ( lunar fortnight)
_______tithau (lunar day )
acyuta gotrah
_______ (name)
_______(name of wife) abhidhanaya madiyapatnyah
sukha prasavartham
shri vishnu smarana purvakam
shoshyanti homam aham kurviya
“On ……….(date), for the safe delivery of child of my wife named …….., I perform this Shoshyanti Homa.”
He should perform Kushandika and call the fire named “Mangala”, performing rites to the end of Virupaksha Japa.
He should throw ghee-soaked wood into the fire silently.
He should perform Vyasta Samasta Mahavyahriti Homa:
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
gayatri chandah
shri vishnuh devata
vyasta samasta mahavyahrti home viniyogah
om bhur svaha – idam vishnave idam na mama
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
ushnik chandah
shri acyuto devata
vyasta samasta mahavyahrti home viniyogah
om bhuvah svaha – idam acyutaya idam na mama
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushtup chandah
shri narayano devata
vyasta samasta mahavyahrti home viniyogah
om svah svaha – idam narayanaya idam na mama
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
brihati chandah
shri ananto devata
vyasta samasta mahavyahrti home viniyogah
om bhur bhuvah svah svaha – idam anantaya idam na mama
He should offer ghee, Vishnu caranamrita and prasadam into the fire saying:
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
panktih chandah
shri vishnuh devata
shoshyanti home viniyogah
om vishno
ya tirashci nipadyate
aham vidharani iti
tam ghritasya dharaya
yaje samradhanim aham
samradhanyai devyai deshtryai
idam tvat prasadamritam svaha
“O Vishnu, I worship with streams of ghee the Lord’s consort, who is pleased by our worship and who brings forth the child. I offer this nectarean prasadam to the merciful consort of the Lord.”
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushtup chandah
shri vipashcin-maha-vishnuh devata
shoshyanti home viniyogah
om vipashcit mahavishnuh puccham abharat
tat dhata punah aharat
pare ehi tvam vipashcit mahavishnuh
puman ayam janishyate (name of future child).dasa sharma
nama svaha
“Lord, perform this sacred rite in the future. My son, named………., will be born.”
@footnote: It is mentioned in smriti that the name given at this time is a secret name only known to the parents, as a matter of protection for the child. The official name is given at the time of the Nama Karana samskara.
He should them perform Vyasta Samasta Mahavyahriti Homa and should throw wood into the fire without mantra.
He should perform Shatyayana Homa, Vamadevya Ganam and the other rites of Udicya Karma. He should give dakshina to the initiated Vaishnavas and brahmanas.
This is the Shoshyanti Homa according to the followers of the Sama Veda.
Jata Karma (Ceremony at Birth):
@footnote:
Jata karma is performed immediately upon the birth of the child, within the sutika griha. This ceremony is also called medha janana, a ceremony to produce intelligence in the child.
When the child emerges from the womb the covering should be removed and the child should be cleaned. The father should say:
ma nabhim krintata stanyan ca ma data
“Do not cut the umbilical cord. Do not give the breast milk.”
The father should bathe, and then recite prayers to guru parampara and vishnu smaranam(see the mangalacarana at the beginning of the book).
A brahmacari, young girl, pregnant mother,Vaishnava scholar or initiated Vaishnava should, on a washed stone slab, grind rice and barely into a powder using an unused stone. The father should take the powder using the thumb and ring finger of his right hand, saying:
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushtup chandah
shri ananto devata
brihiyavacurnena jihva-marjjane viniyogah
om iyam ajna idam annam idam ayuh idam ghritam
“Here is the order. Here is rice (sustenance). Here is long life. Here is ghee.”
He should place the powder and some ghee on the tongue of the newborn child, using a golden spoon, saying:
@footnote:
Ghee is used because, according to Ayurveda it produces beauty, memory, intellect, talent, lustre, strong semen and long life.
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushtup chandah
shri madhava-hari-vamanacyutananta devatah
kumarasya sarpih prashane viniyogah
om medham te madhava vamanau
medham harih dadhatu
medham te acyutanantau
adhattam pushkara srajau svaha
“May Madhava, Vamana, and Hari give you intelligence. May Acyuta and Ananta, wearing lotus garlands, bestow intelligence to you.”
He should give ghee again saying:
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
gayatri chandah
shri vishnuh devata
kumarasya sarpih prashane viniyogah
om sadasi ati priyam krishnasya kamyam sanim medham ayasisham svaha
“At this place I have attained the most precious boon, intelligence for understanding Krishna.”
He should give permission to cut the cord by saying:
nabhim krintata stanyan ca data
“Cut the cord, give milk.”
The cord should be tied and cut at the proper place and the child should be washed and fed breast-milk.
The father should again take bath.
This is the Jata Karma rite according to the followers of the Sama Veda,
2FOOTNOTE
Nishkramanam (Taking the Child Outside For the First Time):
@FOOTNOTE:
The mother and child should leave the room of confinement (sutika griha), at the end of period of impurity after bearing a child (asauca), which is ten days for the wife of a brahmana, twelve for the wife of a kshatriya, fifteen for wife of a vaishya and thirty for the wife of a shudra.
END FOOTNOTE
The mother and child should remain indoors however until the third lunar day of the third waxing moon after the child’s birth.
The child should be bathed in the morning, and at sundown the husband and wife should go with the child to the temple of the Lord. They should stand facing the Deity, the wife on the husband’s left side. The child should be wrapped in a clean cloth.
The wife should give the child into her husband’s hands, and then procede behind the husband and stand on his right side facing the Deity.
The husband should say:
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushtup chandah
shri vishnuh sarvatomukho devata
kumarasya shri vishnu darshane viniyogah
om ekah purastat ya idam babhuva
yato babhuva bhuvanasya gopta
yam apyeti bhuvanam samparaye
namami tam aham sarvato mukham
tat prabho sarvato mukham
naham pautram agham nigam
“I pay respects to the all-pervading Lord who existed before the material creation, from whom emerged the protector of the worlds, and into whom the words merge at the time of destruction. O all-pervading Lord, may misfortune not come to my son.”
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushtup chandah
shri vishnuh mrityumrityuh devata
kumarasya shri vishnu darshane viniyogah
om ya atmada balada yasay vishve
upasate prashisham yasya devah
yasya chaya amritam yasya mrityuh
kasmai devaya havisha vidhema
tasmat prabho mrityu mrityo
naham pautram agham risham
“The Lord, who is the giver of consciousness, giver of strength, whose order all beings in the universe obey, whose very shadow is immmortality, who is death to death personified, who we should worship with fine offerings. Therefore O Lord, death of death personified, may misfortune not come to my son.”
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushtup chandah
shri nara-narayanau devate
kumarasya shri vishnu darshane viniyogah
om nara-narayanau sharma yacchatam
prajayai me prajapati
yathayam na pramiyate
putro janitrya adhi
“May Nara Narayana, the Lords of procreation, bestow to the child and to me, the good fortune that mother and son not be destroyed.”
Saying this he should point out the Deities to his son and offer arghya saying:
om krishna madhavo govinda pundarikaksha vamana
grihitarghyam hrishikesha ramaya sahito mama
He should then give the child to the mother and sing Vamadevya Ganam (see the udicya karma section).
They should then return home with the child.
After three more waxing moons, on the third lunar day, at the evening sandhya, the father should go to the Deity and offer flowers three times saying:
om prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushtup chandah
shri maha-vishnuh devatah
kumarasya bhagavan-murti darshane viniyogah
yasmat na jatah paro anyo asti
ya avivesha bhuvanani vishva
prajapatih prajaya samvidanah
trini jyotimshi sacate sa shodasim
etat vidvan mahavishno
naham pautram agaham rudam
“The Lord, to whom no living being is superior, who has entered the worlds as the living entities, is the Lord of the living entities, but is intimately united with them. The three luminaries with the sixteen phases of light, accompany the Lord. All knowing Vishnu, pervading all, may harm not come to our son.”
He should return home singing Vamadevya Ganam (“ om kaya nah citra etc). He may perform this rite without the son and wife being present.
This ends the Nishkramanam ceremony.
Sat Kriya Sara Dipika, Part Thirty-four
BY: SUN STAFF
Nov 25, 2016 — CANADA (SUN) — By Shrila Gopala Bhatta Gosvami. Printed by The Bhaktivedanta Academy, Mayapur (1995).
