This week I happened to read “AruL Urai – 4” (Divine Discourse), the 4th book in a series of 100 releases under the head “AruL Urai”, lessons from Sri Jagadguru Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Sri Chandrasekaraendra Saraswathi (68th Jagadguru in Kanchi Peetam). The original series was published by the vikatan publications approximately 18 yrs back. (Mid 1993s) I would like to thank my parents for having saved this treasure so long.
I struggled to read through the book as it was a tamil edition and the topic was spritiual. I am happy I could read atleast half the book. The topic I was browsing through was about Vedas and why should Bhramins practise that. The Jagadguru explains that the Vedas were created out of the mother nature/supreme soul rather than by rishis as believed by many. There He explains that Rishi means “Mantra Dhrashta” (the one who discovered the mantras) and not “Mantra Kartha” (the one who invented the mantras). He exhaustively discusses the duty of a Brahmin and why he must practise Vedas for universal good. He is willing to condone Brahmins practising other professions as long as they atleast practise Vedas part-time. He insists one must practise Vedas at least for the sake of carrying out the rituals (grahapravesam, yagnyopavitham etc…) as in the future there will be a paucity of Veda pundits.
He explains that more than the literal meaning of the Vedas it’s the swaras and the intonations that accompanies the Veda mantras that carries the divine energy. And why exactly is the swaras important? Any movement causes vibrations. And humans can perceive vibrations as sound. Some vibrations are not perceivable for many reasons (like the decibels, frequency etc..). So there are vibrations that accompanies all kinds of movements be it the movement of celestial objects (planets, meteors, stars etc…) or the movement of electron/protons/RBCs/neural signals etc… All the vibrations cause sound some of which are perceivable by the humans.
What are veda mantras?
“Andathil Ullathu Pindathil” – The meaning of this popular saying is that whatever is found in the cosmos can also be realized within. Those capable of attaining this equilibria are capable of acting as a divine receiver of these vibrations and converting them back as vedic sounds/mantras perceivable by human ears. Thanks to the rishis we are now endowed with the veda mantras. The Jagadguru further explains how the vedic hymns are the personification of the Divine and hence the Devathas. He relates vedic chanting and homams to the Devatas. The Jagadguru further clarifies that all vibrations hitherto produced gets into the space be it the effect of positive (homams, yaagams, poojas etc) or negative (witchcraft, voodoo, pili, suniyam) actions. He makes clear the importance of practising Vedas for the good.
Why does some mantra fail?
“Varuna Japam” – a pooja practised to please the rain gods praying for rain. He talks about how in certain places there is heavy rainfall following the varuna japam and in certain places the rain eludes men. A) The Jagadguru brings out an analogy to a medicine administered to patients. The same medicine is able to help certain patients to life whereas it is unable to save other terminally ill patients. Would that mean the medicine is ineffective? Similarly the rains would ensue the Varuna Japam only on the basis of Karmic Sediments accumulated in the place. B) He also brings out the importance of “Mantra Siddhi” (my understanding - becoming qualified enough to pass on the mantra or benefits of the mantra), niyamangal (rules) pertaining to practise and administering of the japam etc… If an electrician wishes to work on a live wire, he needs to wear rubber gloves, stand on wooden platform etc… Similarly the rule for administering varun japam is that the person must never take salt along with his food. Now, has the mantra failed or we humans have failed?
Aum
4 comments:
Interesting insight...really well condensed...
From purely a scientist's point of view, none of these 'vibrations' or 'karmic sediments' etc etc explanations really hold water, or do they? I myself have thought about the workings of karma (which apparently only Gurus can know) and how any situation can be conveniently explained off using past karma as an excuse. Given that such explanations come from people of such high spiritual stature (what do you think is exactly the parameter to judge this 'spiritual stature'?), there should be some truth in the efficacy of the mantras and yagnas. But I simply don't buy the explanations. As much as I can think about them, they seem to be only extended forms of belief.
For a long time we have trusted such Gurus and carried out activities without question. But now that science is just steamrolling the entire religious base, 'faith' seems to have less and less value and it seems like even Gurus have to resort to "logical" (albeit flawed) explanations of this kind to suit the lazy (both in terms of faith and logic) mindset of the current populace.
More and more thoughts about such explanations have left a void in me, so I completely resort to inner feeling, ramblings on Advaita and in very few moments, pure faith (devoid of reason or logic). In those moments, I loudly proclaim to the scientists - "Bhakthi/Shraddha is infinitely better than endless logic and proselytizing! " !
@Prasad: The first half of the book talks a lot on belief and absolute faith. I had given only one side of the coin, this will help ppl who are used to accept things in the so called - rational and logical thinking process. Infact in the same book, Paramacharya says he is not here to make believe the so-called rationals on his Urai, he says everything has to be taken only by pure faith. In todays world i really pity ppl like us who tho' are willing to side to these vedic findings, want some sound reason/logic that clears our stance. Considering my audience, I cannot project that side of the coin at this point of time. Atleast, I am not ready for it
Faith doesn't come from outside, that seems to be the problem. Either it has to be inherent, or it has to be honed by service-cum-renunciation, which should ideally be the teaching for today because its easy to convince a modern fellow about this rather than about the rituals of the ancients.
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