[Advaita-l] aruNa prashna & upanishad chanting in evening

[Venkata sriram P]

//

The Mantras referred may contain 
Stutis, vidhi or Nishedha. 
What is preventing stuti of 
Paramatma at any time? 
What prevents one from following 
Injunctions at any time?

//

The purpose of imposing vidhi & 
nishedha is to cross it only. 
A thorn is removed with the help
of another thorn only. 

So, a simple 2-lettered word 
for vidhi & nishedha
is dharma which is the core 
of veda (vide: vEdO akhilaM dharma mUlaM).  
And the entire veda stands on the 
single pillar called *AchAra*
(vide AchAraH paramO dharmaH shrutyutaH smArta Eva).

And this Achara should be 
learnt and practiced from the 
shiSTa brAhmaNAs that are being 
handed down in the sampradAya 
through guru-sishya parampara.
Even Shiksha Valli stresses as:

yE tatra brAhmaNA sammarSinaH – 
yuktA ayuktAH …………….ESa AdESaH 
ESa upadESaH ESa vEdOpaniSad
Etat anuSasanaM EvaM upAsitavyaM

So, shruti, which is swataHpramANA 
and apaurSEya, prescribes the 
vidhi & nishedha paddhati to be followed.  

Now, why Achara ? 

Because, again the pramANa :

AchAra hInaM na punanti vEdA…

So, it boils down to the solution 
that sadAchAra, bAhya shaucha niyama, 
sampradAya paripAlana are the core 
principles to study the veda. 







Now, the question is : Is the study of veda enough? 

The answer is No. 

Because, study of veda is called swAdhyAya. 
This swAdhyAya should be coupled with tapas (yOga).

swAdhyAyAt yOga AsIta
yOgAtswAdhyAya avasEt
swAdhyAya yOgasaMpattyA
paramAtma prakAshatE

Then only, veda adhyayana matures into
Veda abhyAsa.  

Once, this fire of veda abhyAsa gets ignited,
there is no dEsha, kAla, niyama associated with
it.  

So, the entire gamut of desha, kAla, niyama etc.
falls in the purview of vEda adhyayana but not
in veda abhyAsa. 

Since, veda adhyayana and performance of
karma kANDa with laukika driSTi falls
into the domain of desha, kAla, niyamAs,
they are said to be triguNAtmaka.  

Which is why, Lord Krishna urges to
cross this triguNAtmaka viSaya rUpa vEda as:

traiguNyaviSayA vEdA nistraiguNyO bhavArjuna
nirdvandvO nityasatvasthO niryOgakSEma AtmavAn.

Our Vision Statement should be *nistraiguNyO bhava*
and for that shAstra (veda) with vidhi & nishEdha
is the only way.  

Regs,
sriram