Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.6.21

gopyaḥ saḿspṛṣṭa-salilā

ańgeṣu karayoḥ pṛthak

nyasyātmany atha bālasya

bīja-nyāsam akurvata

SYNONYMS

gopyaḥ — the gopīs; saḿspṛṣṭa-salilāḥ — touching a cup of water and drinking; ańgeṣu — on their bodies; karayoḥ — on their two hands; pṛthak — separately; nyasya — after placing the letters of the mantra; ātmani — on their own; atha — then; bālasya — of the child; bīja-nyāsam — the process of mantra-nyāsa; akurvata — executed.

TRANSLATION

The gopīs first executed the process of ācamana, drinking a sip of water from the right hand. They purified their bodies and hands with the nyāsa-mantra and then applied the same mantra upon the body of the child.

PURPORT

Nyāsa-mantra includes ācamana, or first drinking a sip of water kept in the right hand. There are different viṣṇu-mantras to purify the body. The gopīs, and in fact any householders, knew the process for being purified by chanting Vedic hymns. The gopīs executed this process first to purify themselves and then to purify the child Kṛṣṇa. One executes the process of ańga-nyāsa and kara-nyāsa simply by drinking a little sip of water and chanting the mantra. The mantra is preceded with the first letter of the name, followed by anusvāra and the word namaḥ: oḿ namo 'jas tavāńghrī avyāt, maḿ mano maṇimāḿs tava jānunī avyāt, and so on. By losing Indian culture, Indian householders have forgotten how to execute the ańga-nyāsa and are simply busy in sense gratification, without any advanced knowledge of human civilization.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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