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Parent Category: Vedic Questions

Category: Rituals Questions

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Why is water sprinkled as an act of purification?

 Water is actually the symbol of Mind because water has the property to flow and it does not have its own shape but occupies the shape of the container it is present in. Similarly the Mind which is the flow of thoughts doesn’t have its own access but it tries to behave the way of the container i.e. the body or the attitude of the person. The reason to sprinkle water before doing any ritual is to bring the mind to focus on the act. So, water is sprinkled on the all the objects involved, meaning we are focusing our mind on the ritual and on all objects we are using. That is called purification. Purity means only "One". Here it means only one "Awareness" or thought of only "Consciounsess".

 But generally people take the word purification literally. When we analyze the word purify, it means having only one object or one nature. For example when we say, pure Gold it means no adulteration of copper or iron or other metals in Gold. When we say pure Gold ring then it is 100% Gold ring without any percentage of adulteration. When we say pure coconut oil, it means it is only coconut oil i.e. only one nature and there is no other oil mixed with it. Similarly, pure mind means the mind which has only one thought that is called purity of mind. Then the mind has only one thought, the thought that it is only One Consciousness. That is the reality. That is the ultimate level of purity a mind can achieve and that is the only purity that we can even think of. So that pure purity is that aspect of bringing one mindedness or one nature is what is symbolically represented by sprinkling of water on all the objects.

 When a priest does any kind of ritual he sprinkles water on all the objects involved in the ritual. For example consider Mundan function, where the child’s hair is cut for the first time. The priest first sprinkles water on himself, then on the child, the scissor and then on all the other pooja items involved in the ritual. So the sprinkling of water is done to denote that in my thought in my mind I understand that there is only one thing Consciousness. All these are different manifestations from one Consciousness. The act of cutting, one who does the cutting, the object used for cutting, the object that is cut. Everything is only One Consciousness and that is why they chant the mantra

"Brahmaarpanam Brahma Havir Brahmaagnau Brahmana Hutam,

Brahmaiva Tena Gantavyam Brahmakarmasamaadhina"

Meaning all the things involved in the above ritual, the one who does the cutting, the object used for cutting, the act of cutting, the object that is being cut everything is Consciousness. When this oneness thought arises then the Mind is being purified. This is what is called purity. That is why water is used to bring that thought of oneness in Mind like only Gold and that becomes purity. So, water is sprinkled before performing any Vedic rituals, whether in the temples or at home or in any social gatherings. We even notice especially in south Indian temples, that after performing the ritual inside the temple, the Consciousness, too the water is sprinkled on the devotees. The devotees feel it to be very holy and pure. Here again purity means that water symbolizes oneness with God or Consciousness. When we are sprinkled with that water we feel it to be divine. This has to be properly understood and this holy or sanctified water is used to drive evil spirits. Here, evil spirits means any thought that actually limits or separates us from consciousness. So sprinkling of water brings that emotional bondage of the one ness within us. That is why when the water is sprinkled we say that it removes the evil or it purifies.

Here we have to properly understand that the purification means bringing oneness. So physically we may feel that water is being sprinkled but emotionally we understand that there is only one, intellectually we have to understand that there is only one, at awareness level we have to understand that the One which is in us is also the same outside us. That Oneness, that self-awareness leads to Self-consciousness and we become one and the same. That is at conscious level. That is the importance of water and its use in rituals.

 We can also talk more about water because water has the ability to easily take physical form from our thoughts. That is why there has been the evidence of how water crystals are formed based on our thoughts. So the easiest way to manifest our thoughts in crystalline or solid form is actually water. It is from water that everything manifests. That is from thought emanates everything all forms. We ourselves are formed because of a thought, our parents had a thought to have a child and that is how we have been born. So every solid form has a thought behind it. A car, or an aero plane or any invention did not happen just spontaneously. It is a thought that brought the manifestation. So that is why Mind or water is considered as the primordial for the manifestation. So the Mind should be pure. A pure thought is considered to be Divine when it represents or symbolizes or manifests the consciousness. Any thought that is going to manifest the same pattern of the consciousness is considered divine. And with those thoughts whatever we do is also divine. So the divine word itself has the meaning, Div. means to divide. That which negates the division is Divine. When there is no division then that is divine and pure. Hence sprinkling of water is an act of Purification.