Study of Vedas

[Vaidya Sundaram]

Namaskaram.

From: "kuntimaddi sadananda" <kuntimaddisada at YAHOO.COM>


> My opinion ahout the study of the Veda-s.
>
> Study and practice of the ritualistic
> part is not the only way to acquire those required
> qualifications for a sadhak.

My understanding tells me that what you state is definitely not the view of
the sastras and the fundamental tenets of Shankara's teaching. Please refer
to the second verse of the vivekachUdAmani. tasmad vaidikadharmamArgaparatA
vidvatvam asmAt param| In His commentary, HH Chandrasekhara Bharati notes
specifically  that this above verse means "being inclined to the path of
dharma prescibed in the Vedas. THis means that mere vipratA by itself will
not help to attain what is to be attained. It means, having been born a
brahmana, one should engage in the observance of the prescribed dharmas"

 The logical introspection that causes the removal of ignorance is done
using the antahkarana. This antahkarana can have the strength and resources
needed for such high level of reasoning only when it is totally pure; such
purity comes only though the performance of karma. karma is bad. karma is
dirty. but it the is the only means of removing the dross that covers the
pure ... you don't use gold to clean a dirty gold vessel do you? you use
dirt to remove it. karma is the THE only way.

> I would spend my time in developing true Brahmanic
> qualities that is moving towards more saatvic nature -
> manasaa, vaachaa karmanaa.

sorry for being blunt - there is no such true Brahmanic quality when it
disregards the actual practice; no amount of mental weigth lifitng will
actually make the muscles strong. one has to actually lift the weights for
the muscles to be developed. if not, the faculty will just atrophy.

> I feel that we should stop all economic and social
> discrimanations on the basis of birth.

neglecting ones duty and stopping ones own practice (of studying and
reciting the vedas) is not the way to go about doing it.

bhava shankara desikame sharaNam
Vaidya.

>From  Wed Apr 10 16:21:08 2002
Message-Id: <WED.10.APR.2002.162108.0600.>
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 16:21:08 -0600
Reply-To: besprasad at lycos.com
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
From: Prasad Balasubramanian <besprasad at LYCOS.COM>
Organization: Lycos Mail  (http://mail.lycos.com:80)
Subject: Re: pitru tharpanam
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As well, in one of the other chapters, HH quotes Thirukkural by
Tiruvalluvar and refers to pitrus as "thenpulathAr" meaning those who
reside in the south, the direction of Lord Yama. Can someone explain
- when directions are only for earth, what is the meaning
of "pitrus live in the South?".

Secondly, Any reference anywhere to the next stage to Visvedeva for a pitru ? Kindly explain.
Prasad


=================
Prasad Balasubramanian Wrote:
-----------------------------
> But a few questions arise - What happens when the heir whos doing
tarpanam dies ? Will the heir's heir's providing pinda during tarpanam
also would reach his Father's(whos no more) Father (whos also no more) ? If so, will this process ever stop ? Will the pitru whos the
most ancientever be released from taking the pinda provided during
tarpanam ?
>
>Prasad
Vidya shankar Wrote:
--------------------
I'll give a brief response. In doing tarpaNa for departed ancestors,
oneconsiders the three immediately past generations, on each of the
maternal and paternal lines, as equivalent to the vasu - rudra -
Aditya classes of devatAs. So, a tarpaNa is not offered only to the
 father or mother - it includes the relevant grandparents and great-
grandparents. The generations prior to the three are not completely
 forgotten, as the one doing the ritual also has to invoke the devatA
class of the viSvedeva (the all- gods), equivalent to the previous
generations put together. When a death occurs, there are specific
rituals to mark the passing on of the members of the fourth
 generation into the viSvedeva class.

Also, the pitR-tarpaNa ritual is primarily meant as the duty of the
person doing it. There is no contradiction between a belief in
rebirth and the performance of rituals for the departed. Whether the
departed ancestor has been reborn or not is immaterial. We can never
know who is reborn as what and where, and we can never know whether a
departed person is reborn immediately in "earth-time" or if there is
a variably large number of earth years between births. I am
deliberately using the word earth here, because time as we ordinarily
measure it in hours, days and years is a purely relative construct,
specifically meant for planet earth. It bears no intrinsic meaning
elsewhere in this vast universe.



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