BPHS Ch.95 — Tritiya Janma Shanti: Definition, Four-Deity Procedure & Bronze Viewing Rule

BPHS Chapter 95 — Tritiya Janma Shanti (Complete)

Definition

Tritiya Janma (the chapter title is on "tri-itara janma") = birth of a child of the other kind after three of the same kind.

• Three boys, then a girl is born; or three girls, then a boy is born.

Effect

Text: tad ariṣṭa-bhayaṁ jñeyaṁ pitṛ-mātṛ-kula-dvaye

• Ariṣṭa is not only poverty. It means inauspicious events in general. Bhayam = fear, danger of them.
• Pitṛ-mātṛ-kula-dvaye = on both sides, the father's family and the mother's family.
• So it is not limited to the parents. Grandparents, uncles, aunts — it can fall on anybody on either side.
• The remedy must be done without vitta-śāṭhya — without greed, without trying to save money. Spend liberally.

A student asked why such a birth is inauspicious. PVNR: "I am not sure. I don't know."

How Rare It Is

• First child: either sex. Second of the same sex: 1/2. Third of the same sex: 1/2. Fourth of the other sex: 1/2. So 1/8 — if there are four children at all.
• That 1/8 held in olden days. Today most couples stop at two; the chance of a third child is perhaps 1 in 10 and of a fourth 1 in 50 or 100. PVNR's rough figure for today: 1 in 8,000 or 1 in 80,000.
• "You basically never, almost never encounter this dosha." If you ever do, show this procedure to the priest.
• Triplets of one sex followed by a child of the other sex: PVNR calls it "a special case" and does not rule on it.

Timing of the Remedy

• At the end of the sūtaka — the inauspicious period after a birth, 11 days or 21 days by different conventions.
• Or at any clean, auspicious time on an auspicious day.

Procedure

1. Select an Acharya

• A scholar of the Vedas, with ritviks.
• Begin with a Graha Yajna (homam for the planets).

2. Establish four idols

• Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesha (Shiva) and Indra — four idols made of gold, good-looking and auspicious.
• A pile of grains, a kalasha on it, the four idols on the kalasha.
• Do the puja with devotion. PVNR notes that Brahma receives puja in this remedy.

3. Mantras

• The four Rudra Suktas and the Shanti Suktas, read by one Brahmin during the homa. He must be clean (śuci) and disciplined (saṁyata) — a man of niyama.
• PVNR does not know which four Rudra Suktas are meant: "Unfortunately I am not knowledgeable in that." His guess, if research does not find them: use Shri Rudram.
• For Shanti Suktas he suggests the shanti mantras chanted at the end of Vedic recitation.

4. Homa

• The Acharya offers samidhs (twigs), ajya (ghee), tila (sesame) and charu (cooked rice).
• "To Brahma and all devatas", with the mantras of one's own Grihya tradition. At a minimum the four devatas on the kalasha. Beyond them, whichever devatas one's own Vedic procedure normally covers (Agni, Indra, Vayu, Prajapati, the Rudras, Vishnu); the list differs by Veda and shakha.
• Counts as in the earlier chapters: 1008, 108 or 28 offerings.
• Then the Svishtakrit offering. Su + iṣṭa: Agni as the one who purifies whatever was offered and makes it well offered.
• Then bali and Purnahuti.

5. Abhisheka

• Abhisheka of the newborn "with the family".
• Father and mother only, or all relatives? PVNR: "It's not clear." Since the dosha falls on both families, probably everybody who is accessible.

6. Seeing the child in bronze

• Kāṁsya = bronze. The child is to be seen in a bronze vessel or plate — held so the reflection can be seen.
• This implies the child is not to be seen until then. For everybody that is unrealistic, "so at least father and mother, let's say."
• After seeing the reflection, they can look at the child directly.

7. Dakshina and feeding

• Dakshina to the ritviks. Feed Brahmins.
• Satisfy the dīna (people in trouble) and the anātha (orphans) with food and gifts.

Result: "If you do shanti like this, O Maitreya, all the arishta will disappear."

PVNR's Note on the Text

With this chapter the class has gone through BPHS once (it started from the end). Next it revises and goes back to the beginning.

"It is not entirely obvious if all these things that we have covered were really Parashara's teachings. ... It is a possibility. I am not saying it is a probability, but it is a possibility. Especially all these chapters on remedies, feeding the brahmins, giving dakshinas, all these things, there is a chance that somebody else made it up later. But still it doesn't hurt to follow it. ... this is the teaching of tradition."

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