religious rites.pdf - Shree Swaminarayan Temple Bhuj

10
RELIGIOUS RITES
should one perform these dry rituals’; ’are they
really needed to progress in this world’; ‘can we
not remain religious or virtuous even without performing
these so called religious rites’ etc.,- naturally
tend to arise in the minds of the people, in
particular those among the young generation of
today’s society. In fact, it is the aim and objective
of this publication to address such questions and
provide accurate answers in a most convincing
and forceful manner and thus laying down the
procedures as sanctioned in scriptures, for the
benefit of one and all.
In the shikshapatri Lord Swaminarayan
states that “All my male followers shall adorn the
‘Urdhva Pundratilak’ a chandlo on the forehead
with ( a round mark) at the centre Married women
shall wear only a red round mark on the forehead
applied with kumkum. Widows shall however abstain
from marking their foreheads with either
Urdhvapundra mark or redmark with kumkum.
Thenafter both my male and female followers
should mentally worship Lord Shree Krishna.
Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan proceeds to
describe the procedure of performing the ‘Puja
Vidhi’, in the following Shikshapatri verses :