Nishkramana (Taking the Newborn Child Outside For the First Time):
The mother and child should leave the room of confinement (sutika griha), at the end of period of impurity after bearing a child (asauca), which is ten days for the wife of a brahmana, twelve for the wife of a kshatriya, fifteen for wife of a vaishya and thirty for the wife of a shudra.
The mother and child should remain indoors however until the third lunar day of the third waxing moon after the child’s birth.
On the third lunar day of the third waxing moon the child should be bathed in the morning, and at sundown the husband and wife should go with the child to the temple of the Lord. They should stand facing the Deity, the wife on the husband’s left side. The child should be wrapped in a clean cloth.
The wife should give the child into her husband’s hands, and then procede behind the husband and stand on his right side facing the Deity.
The husband should say:
OM prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushöup chandah
shri vishnuh sarvatomukho devata
kumarasya shri vishnu darshane viniyogah
OM ekah purastat ya idam babhuva
yato babhuva bhuvanasya gopta
yam apyeti bhuvanam samparaye
namami tam aham sarvato mukham
tat prabho sarvato mukham
naham pautram agham nigam
“I pay respects to the all-pervading Lord who existed before the material creation, from whom emerged the protector of the worlds, and into whom the words merge at the time of destruction. O all-pervading Lord, may misfortune not come to my son.”
OM prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushöup chandah
shri vishnuh mrityumrityuh devata
kumarasya shri vishnu darshane viniyogah
OM ya atmada balada yasay vishve
upasate prashisham yasya devah
yasya chaya amritam yasya mrityuh
kasmai devaya havisha vidhema
tasmat prabho mrityu mrityo
naham pautram agham risham
“The Lord, who is the giver of consciousness, giver of strength, whose order all beings in the universe obey, whose very shadow is immmortality, who is death to death personified, who we should worship with fine offerings. Therefore O Lord, death of death personified, may misfortune not come to my son.”
OM prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushöup chandah
shri nara-narayanau devate
kumarasya shri vishnu darshane viniyogah
OM nara-narayanau sharma yacchatam
prajayai me prajapati
yathayam na pramiyate
putro janitrya adhi
“May Nara Narayana, the Lords of procreation, bestow to the child and to me, the good fortune that mother and son not be destroyed.”
Saying this he should point out the Deities to his son and offer arghya saying:
OM krishna madhavo govinda pundarikaksha vamana
grihitarghyam hrishikesha ramaya sahito mama
He should then give the child to the mother and sing Vamadevya Ganam
They should then return home with the child.
After three more waxing moons, on the third lunar day, at the evening sandhya, the father should go to the Deity and offer flowers three times saying:
OM prajapatih vishnu rishih
anushöup chandah
shri maha-vishnuh devatah
kumarasya bhagavan-murti darshane viniyogah
yasmat na jatah paro anyo asti
ya avivesha bhuvanani vishva
prajapatih prajaya samvidanah
trini jyotimshi sacate sa shodasim
etat vidvan mahavishno
naham pautram agaham rudam
“The Lord, to whom no living being is superior, who has entered the worlds as the living entities, is the Lord of the living entities, but is intimately united with them. The three luminaries with the sixteen phases of light, accompany the Lord. All knowing Vishnu, pervading all, may harm not come to our son.”
He should return home singing Vamadevya Ganam. He may perform this rite without the son and wife being present.
