Hari Om
THE SCRIPTURES SAY
What Hindus should do or not do…
Here are a list of things that Hindus should adhere to as per our scriptures… We may wonder if the strictures given here are true and why Hinduism has actually laid down these rules.
A closer examination will reveal that each of these listed below do have a scientific basis…
• Placing our seat on the floor with the left hand can reduce our life span
If we apply oil with the left hand, it can destroy or harm our progeny
If we serve ourselves food with the left hand, we can lose all wealth
If we lay our bed with our left hand, our house will come to harm
• We must definitely help the guru, astrologer, our teacher, the diseased, pregnant women, doctors and ascetics if they are in distress. This will earn us great merit
• We must prostrate before our older sister-in-law and mother every day
• If we encounter a cow, chariot, pot of clarified butter, peepal tree, margosa with a peepal tree, we must go around it from our left to right
• A married man should not have his meal wearing just a single cloth
When eating, we must not lean on one hand
When bathing, we must not be completely naked
We must not pass urine facing the sun, ie. facing east, or facing west
• If a girl loses her virginity unexpectedly or without realising it, she can immerse herself 18 times in a holy river and become purified
• A man living with a girl he is not married to should not be given prime position during auspicious functions
• We should eat sweet, salty, sour and bitter dishes in that order and then drink water in the end
• Except when eating, we must not drink water with our left hand
• Do not eat in the dark. If the lights go off when eating, pray to the Sun for a moment, light the lamp again and then continue eating
• Do not eat in the dark or where a shadow falls. You must eat only where there is light
• When eating, begin with a sweet and end with something bitter
• Do not eat with wet clothes on or with your hair lose
• Do not have gooseberry, ginger, curd or roasted flour at night
• A householder must have betel leaves immediately after a meal. He must pluck the two ends and the spine as they cause sinful behaviour, disease and stupidity
• Do not eat betel leaf or areca nut without lime. The lime must be applied only on the backside of the betel leaf
• A wife may fold and give betel leaf to her husband, but not husband to wife, son to mother or daughter to father
• When visiting your guru, astrologer, doctor or sister, king or child, do not go empty-handed
• Be it the head or the body, scratch it with your right hand only. Do not use both hands
• Do not apply oil on the hair with two hands. Pour the oil in the centre of your palm and apply
• We must not cross our threshold without wearing a loincloth
• Do not sleep right in front of the threshold of the front door of the house
• Do not point the rainbow out to others
• Do not step on hair, ashes, bones, skull, cotton, dust, cobweb, the dried husk of a coconut
• Do not pluck straw when talking
• Do not go to bed with wet legs
• Do not lie down in bed with your head to the north or at angles to the four directions
• Do not dry your hair walking
• Do not wash your legs by rubbing one against the other
• Do not try to put out an object on the fire by throwing it on the ground and rubbing it with your leg. You will incur Mother Earth’s wrath. You will be denied property/land
• Do not have a relationship with your enemy, his friends, thief, undesirable elements, or others’ wives
• The curse of a mother, being ungrateful and relationship with a married woman – these three sins have no redemption and one has to face the consequences
• Do not hurt the physically challenged, people with six digits, the illiterate, the elderly and the poor
• Do not unnecessarily analyse or publicise the shortfalls of sages, gurus, astrologers, priests, family doctor, great people and fallen women
• Do not use others’ clothes, slippers, garland or bed
• Smoke from the funeral pyre, morning sun and the shadow of the light from the lamp should not fall on us
• It is a sin to kick a cow, hit it or starve it
• Considering the cow as a Mother Goddess and to please the gods, it is good to offer it grass, bran, water, oilcake and agathi green
• Do not step across the rope tied to a calf
• Do not wake up a sleeping person suddenly. Do not stare at them
• Do not sleep or have intercourse during the day
• Do not unnecessarily grow hair on the head or the face
• Do not interfere in matters between siblings, teacher-student, couple, mother and child, cow and calf
• When entering a house, enter from the main threshold
• Unless asked, do not advice
• Do not bite your nails
Do not run in the rain
Do not lean on your hand when eating on the floor
Do not bathe naked.
Do not blow on fire with your mouth
• Do not cut hair on Tuesdays, Fridays, fourth day in the moon phase, 14th day, sixth day, full moon day or the ninth day. However, if these phases fall on a Sunday or a Thursday, there is no harm in getting a haircut. Cut your nails or hair preferably only on Mondays or Wednesdays.
• Do not put impure things in fire. Putting insects and worms in fire to kill them is equal to the sin of Brahmahatti
• Do not bathe at night in a temple. You can bathe anytime in the Ganges
• Do not squeeze wet cloth in water
• We should not look at our reflection in water or oil
• Do not have oil bath immediately after seeing relatives off
• The house where a woman is made to cry will never be prosperous. Women leaving hair loose and scratching their scalp with both hands will cause poverty
• Bachelors should not carry the dead bodies of anyone other than their parents
• When his wife is pregnant, a man must not carry someone’s body. But he can do so for his parents, childless brother or uncle
• Those who are ‘polluted/impurity’ (theettu) should not sleep on the bed. They must sleep on the floor
• Evening sun, smoke from burnt offering, drinking clean water and having milk rice in the night will improve longevity
Eight types of fasts appropriate for Lord Siva
By observing these eight types of fasts, we can be blessed by Lord Siva’s Grace
1. Monday fasting – Fasting on Mondays
2. Umamaheshwara fasting – Fasting on Karthik Purnima
3. Thiruvathirai fasting – Fasting during Margazhi Thiruvathirai (Aarudra)
4. Sivarathri fasting – Fasting on new moon day in the month of Maasi
5. Kalyana fasting – Observing this on Panguni Uthram day
6. Pasupatha fasting – Observed on Thai Poosam day
7. Ashtami fasting – Fasting on the 8th day of the waxing phase of the moon in Vaikasi month
8. Kedaragowri fasting – Fasting on new moon day in Aippasi month (on Diwali day)
Appeasing the planets
Observing the following will help weaken the maleficent effect of planets
1) Regularly feeding the crow
2) Keeping bowls of water out for birds to quench their thirst
3) Giving the cow agathi green, raw rice and jiggery
4) Creating kolams with rice flour to feed the ants
5) Giving roti to black dogs on Saturdays
6) Giving puffed rice to fish
7) Giving bananas to monkeys near temples atop hills
8) Pouring oil in the temple lamp
9) Gifting food and clothes to the physically challenged
10) Watering the peepal tree
GF’ Blessings.
