MUSINGS FROM
PRASHANTHI NILAYAM
CONCERNING
THE VEDAS – 01
MY
INTRODUCTION TO THE VEDAS
By Prof. G.
Venkataraman
This is the text of
“Musings From Prashanthi Nilayam” aired on Radio Sai a few
days ago.
Loving Sai Ram and greetings from
Prashanti Nilayam.
In this and some of the talks
that would follow in subsequent weeks, I intend to say
something about the Vedas. On the face of it, this is an
atrocious proposition, considering that I cannot chant even
a few hymns from the Vedas. Yet, despite this ignorance, the
Vedas hold such a fascination for me that I cannot restrain
myself from speaking about them. You might ask, “How can you
talk about the Vedas when you know so little?” Good question
but my reply is that though I know little about the
technical aspects, I have been privileged to have a ringside
view of some aspects, and it is on that I am largely going
to base these talks.
My earliest recollection of
something to do with the Vedas goes back to about 1940 or
so; maybe even a couple of years earlier. At that time, I
occasionally paid a visit to Manamadurai, a small town about
40 km to the south east of the famous temple city of
Madurai. Manamadurai is in Ramnad District of Tamil Nadu,
and is on the route from Madurai to Rameswaram on the South
East coast of India, from where legend has it, that Rama
launched His invasion of Lanka. Rameshwaram is thus a
popular pilgrim centre.
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The State of
Tamil Nadu in India
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Madurai &
Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu
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The British laid a rail track
from Madras to Dhanushkodi just beyond Rameshwaram.
Everyday, a train named the Boat Mail would go from Madras
to Dhanushkodi and also back from Dhanushodki to Madras.
This train would pass through Manamadurai, and the passage
of the Boat Mail used to the big event there every day. The
train would cross the River Vaigai across a bridge and lots
of people would gather on the river sands just to catch a
glimpse of the train as it went by. I have done it too.
By the way, this train was
called Boat Mail because it would carry mail from England
meant for Madras (now Chennai) that came via Colombo. In
those days, the big ships from England would sail direct to
Colombo instead of to Madras. The mail would be unloaded
there and sent by train to a place in Northern Ceylon, as
Sri Lanka used to be called in those days. From there a
small boat would carry the mail to Dhanuskodi where the mail
would be transferred to the Boat Mail bound for Madras. Mail
from Madras to England would follow the reverse route.
Vedic
School
Now why am I mentioning all
this in a talk that is supposed to be on the Vedas? Just to
say something about Manamadurai, and a Vedic school there.
This school was two doors away from the ancestral home of my
father’s family, and in this house stayed two of my father’s
elder brothers.
I have gone there a few times,
and invariably, I used to be fascinated by the non-stop
chants coming from two doors away. This Vedic school or Veda
Paatasala as it is technically known was apparently
in existence for many, many decades, having been founded by
a wealthy Chettiar family.
For
the record, I should mention that the Chettiars belong to
the trading community, and in those days, trade and commerce
took them to Burma, Malaya, Singapore and even places like
Laos and Cambodia. The Chettiars were generally prosperous,
and, in keeping with the traditions of those times, spent a
good part of their wealth in charitable activities. For
example, many of them endowed a lot of money for temples.
Others built choultries or rest houses for pilgrims visiting
holy shrines, like Rameswaram, or Tirupathi or Benares. Yet
others established Veda Paatasalas like the one I
mentioned a short while ago.
The Veda Paatasala
was essentially a Vedic school, which, Brahmin boys, often
from somewhat poor families, entered when they were very
young, around five to seven years of age, after going
through the Upanayanam ceremony. Many of you might
have seen the mass Upanayanam ceremony performed by
Swami from time to time.
Upanayanam Ceremony
Well, what exactly is this ceremony and
what is its significance? I shall make a few remarks on this
here and maybe come back to this theme later for an in-depth
exploration. To understand what this ceremony is all about,
we must go back to the Vedic age, which means a
few
thousand years back in time. In those times, a boy born in a
Brahmin family was allowed to roam around like a child
without any restrictions till the age of five. On reaching
that age, there was a change of gear, and the Upanayanam
ceremony signalled this gear change. The ceremony was
essentially an initiation into a disciplined life with
strong emphasis on sense and Mind control and focus on God.
One might wonder why all this?
Was it not a severe infliction on a five-year old? Well,
that is the way we would think, based on today’s
environment. Five thousand and odd years ago, life was
different and Brahmins had the duty of sustaining and
spreading Spiritual Knowledge. In practical terms, it was
the Brahmins who advised one and all, including kings, on
matters relating to Dharma, and the observance of
various rituals prescribed in the scriptures. The
responsibility assigned to Brahmins was onerous, and the
training for the job had to begin early. By the way, in
later talks, I shall have much to say about many of these
rituals and the Vedic Mantras chanted on those occasions.
Let me get back to the
Upanayanam. The high point of the ceremony is what is
called the Brahmopadesam, and it consists in the
father whispering the sacred Gayathri Mantra into the ear of
the young boy. I am sure you all know about the Gayathri
Mantra, especially since Swami has spoken about it so many
times. I shall come back to it later.
I am mentioning the Gayathri
Mantra just by way of saying that once the boy hears it, he
is supposed to be born again, spiritually this time.
Childhood period is over, and as a result of this spiritual
birth, his life now takes a different turn. I might in
passing mention that the Jews have an initiation ceremony
called Bar Mitzvah and the Parsi community too has an
initiation ceremony. The details and even the objectives of
these initiation ceremonies might not quite be the same as
the Upanayanam ceremony but we might keep in mind
the fact that many ancient societies did have a ceremony to
mark the transition from childhood to boyhood.
The True Brahmachari
A boy who has undergone the Upanayanam
ceremony is called Brahmachari. There is a mistaken
notion that a Brahmachari means a bachelor. At the
practical level, a Brahmachari is unmarried no
doubt but, as Swami has pointed out, the word
Brahmachari means much more and has nothing really to
do with marital status. According to Swami, a true
Brahmachari is one whose Mind is totally focussed on
Brahman or God.
This brings me back to the Veda Paatasala. In
ancient times, the Brahmachari went to a Guru and
spent many years in residence in his Ashram learning the
Vedas and leading a disciplined life as enjoined in the
scriptures. After completing the studies, which took many
years, the Brahmachari would take respectful leave
of the Guru and enter life. He would then get married, and
serve society in every way possible, especially by guiding
people of various communities who were not versed in the
scriptures, on their duties in life. I have already made a
brief reference to this a short while ago.
Life changed with the passage
of time, and by the nineteenth century, most Brahmins were
engaged in tasks other than the propagation of scriptural
knowledge. Many became prosperous landlords, wholly
preoccupied in supervising agricultural activities on their
farms. And when Western style schools and colleges were
established by the British, many Brahmins happily embraced
Western education, especially as it gave them an opportunity
to enter professional life as an administrator in the
Government, as a lawyer, as a teacher, as a doctor and so
on. As a result of all such sociological forces, it became
increasingly necessary to establish Vedic schools where
priests could be trained. Please do not think that Vedic
schools came into existence only because of the developments
I have just mentioned. They existed even earlier, mainly to
give Brahmin boys a serious exposure to the Vedas. But
sociological changes made it more imperative than ever to
have schools that would train people to become priests.
Swami Establishes a Vedic School in the 1950’s
To
get back to Manamadurai and the Veda Paatasala
there, I did not pay much attention to it; but its presence
did register somewhere in my memory, and it was only years
later that I appreciated the role this and other such
Paatasalas played. For the record I must also mention
that sometime in the fifties, Swami established a Veda
Paatasala here in Prasanthinilayam. It was managed by
late Sri Kamavadhani, a Vedic scholar par excellence. He
lived to the ripe old age of one hundred, and I have heard
Swami speak many times, most affectionately of
Kamavadhanigaru. I have also had the privilege of seeing him
a few times in his later years.
Swami established the Veda
Paatasala not for training priests, but to expose
Swami’s students to the importance of the Vedas and
understanding the need to preserve them. Incidentally, there
were no restrictions, and anyone who had a serious interest
in the Vedas and a keenness to learn it was admitted to
Swami’s Veda Paatasala. To put it differently, it
was not a case of Brahmins only. It is thanks to the
pioneering effort of late Kamavadhani, that we see so many
students effortlessly chanting various portions of the Vedas
almost every day during Darshan, both in the morning and in
the evening.
The Effect of the Upanayanam Ceremony
Let me now cut to the year 1947. That was
when, on the insistence of my grandmother, my father
performed the Upanayanam ceremony for me. It was a
four-day affair, celebrated in the best of traditions, in a
small village in South India very much given to tradition.
There were
many
things associated with the ceremony that I positively
detested but then I had no choice; I just had to obey. Many
restrictions were placed on me that made me very angry at
that time, but there was precious little I could do except
to comply.
One thing I realised then was
that having undergone the Upanayanam ceremony, I
was now required to perform a ritual called
Sandhyavandham three times a day, once in the morning,
once in the afternoon and once more in the evening. Among
other things, as a part of this ritual I had to chant the
Gayathri 32 times. My mother was very strict and would not
give me food unless I had completed Sandhyavandanam.
This would drive me mad but I had no choice. Strangely, I
did not think of cheating. I don’t know why; I suppose it
was all Divine Grace. Though with great reluctance, I
somehow pushed myself everyday to chant all the Mantras,
which I had sort of got by heart.
I mention all this for a variety of
reasons. The first is that I did not know then that the
Mantras I was reluctantly chanting were all from the Vedas.
Secondly, no one took the trouble to explain to me what
these Mantras were all about. Perhaps if I had understood
the inner significance, I might have accepted it all in a
better spirit. I shall come back to the Sandhyavandanam
later, but right now let me just quote one sentence from
that ritual. This sentence is:
Aakashath paththam thoyam,
Yadaa gachhathi sagaram,
Sarva Deva namaskaaraha,
Kesavam pradhigachhathi.
And roughly it means: ‘Just as all the
water that comes down from the sky eventually finds its way
to the ocean, all the prayers that I now offer to the
various deities would eventually be received by Kesava,
the Supreme Lord.’
What a profound thought! That
is the beauty of the Vedas. Superficially they might be all
about rituals, some of which might, in this day and age,
appear not only irrelevant but also objectionable. But when
one goes deeper, it is an entirely different matter. One
cannot then but admire those ancients for the profundity of
their wisdom. All this I shall discuss in detail later.
By the way, I think it is
appropriate to mention that Swami often quotes the last part
of the Mantra I just referred to. Swami says, Sarva
jeeva namaskaaram, Kesavam Pradhigatchathi. Sarva Jeeva
tiraskaaram, Kesavam pradhigatchathi. The meaning is:
all the salutations we offer to fellow humans ultimately
reach the Lord. If instead of salutations we hurl abuse,
they also eventually reach only the Lord. So, says Swami, we
had better be careful about abusing others. We may think we
are abusing so and so, but in reality it is God who is being
abused. We wouldn’t want to do that, would we?
- Heart2Heart Team.