Hare krishna
dandawat pranam
all glories to Shrila Prabhupada.
Can we become pure to worship without taking bath?? During winter time, the water become too cold to take shower and it is not feasible for me to heat water everyday for bath.
But I want to worship everyday, how can it be possible. Please provide me solutions.
Replies
In our country, in winter the temperatures comes down till to minus 30 degrees. And when one makes wet his her hand outside that part of hand becomes cherry red and than if we do not protect it within seconds it gets hard and when we touch it it is painful. And that time persons like me even cries out because of pain. ...
It happened to me when i was plucking flowers under the snow...was very painful.
But even though we used to stay at the Temple ashram. So bathroom was nicely hot.
But in winter better to take bath in cold water. In the beginning it might austere but afterwards it warms body. And there is proper method of taking bath in cold water:
---first one should wet both palms and feet.
---then one should start to pour water from lower parts of the body to upper.
For example, after feet and palms one should wash legs, then arms, then stomach, then back, than to sides of the back and stomach than comes face, than head. Otherwise we get cold shock and plus catch cold. But when we bath in this way we won't get thick but on the contrary become healthy both physically and mentally.
Your servant,
Hare Krishna pr, humble obeisances AGTSP!
Bath is a must before deity worship. Without taking bath one remains impure and cannot perform deity worship. Everything you touch before bathing becomes as impure as your body is. Morning bath is compulsory for all, except those who are ill. In Vedic culture bathing is considered a sacred act to be accompanied by meditation on the Lord and recitation of prayers. It is said householders and vanaprasthas should bathe two times a day (pratar-madhyahnayoh snanam vanaprastha-grhasthayoh). A sannyasi should bathe three times daily, and a brahmacari may take only one bath a day.
In H.H Radhanath Swami's book The Journey Home, He describes an incident, that after Maharaj became a devotee, he was living in a place in US along with other devotees and there everyday morning they broke ice, collected water beneath it and took bath with that cold chilling water. Senior devotees always says in lectures that to progress on the path of bhakti, we must accept some unfavourable things (or conditions) on our part. Haribol
Hope this helps.
Your servant
how true, how true.
To progress on the path of bhakti we must accept some discomforts for this body.
-------------------