A Pilgrimage called Life---part 6

Some of my blogs are long, read them in parts and as I have recommended on my profile do read the post at least three times to understand them better

More about the Vedas

People assigned a date to the Vedas that they were composed in so and so year etc. The Vedas are eternal; the scriptures tell us that the Vedas have existed even before creation. In fact, they say, Brahma performed his function of creation with the aid of Vedic mantras, first came the universe of sound and then the visible universe.  So it is not possible to tell the age of the Vedas. If we say that an object is "anadi" it means that nothing existed before it

The Bahma alone knows the Vedas in their entirety; the Vedas themselves proclaim that the “Vedas are endless”. We cannot claim that all the Vedas have been revealed to the seers. Only about a thousand sakhas or recensions belonging to the four Vedas have been revealed to them. The Vedas themselves are called "Brahma" and his wife is also called Ved Mata (mother of the Vedas) that is why one who learns them (the student) is called a "brahmachari"—Brahma also meaning Vedas and charya meaning to follow, going after

The Vedas are Apauruṣeya, (purush meaning man hence apauruseya means "not of a man" not the work of any human author), Since the Mantras are associated with the names of sages, we make the wrong inference that they may have been composed by them, it is not so, the sages because of their spiritual power were able to perceive them and gift them to the World, because all Vedas have one common goal that is the well-being of the entire world and all creatures living in it, and the uplift of the Self of each one of us and its everlasting union with the Ultimate Reality

There are mantras that are especially valuable for their sound but are otherwise meaningless. Similarly there are works pregnant with meaning but with no mantrik power. The glory of the Vedas is that they are a collection of mantras that are at once notable as much for the energising character of their sound as for the lofty truths they proclaim.

Similarly, the Vedas serve a twofold purpose: while they have the mantrik power to do immense good to each one of us and too the world, they also contain teachings embodying great metaphysical truths.

The sounds of the Vedas are the language of the birds and hence they can never be written down; Click on the link to read

http://bhoj11.blogspot.com/2014/02/vedas-language-of-birds.html

There are only a few true Brahmi’s left?

In India the caste (varna) system is deep rooted; the so called “Brahmins” or pundits as they are still called keep repeating endlessly that “I am a Brahmin” they do this whenever they get a chance

The caste system went on for thousands of years and it had it advantages; there was a system in society whereby all people worked as per their roles with sincerity and they were careful as to not do anything by which they would be thrown out of their society, apart from pride, there was a sense of fulfilment among members of each jati (caste) in pursuing the vocation

The Brahmins occupied the top position; they were the custodians of the Vedas, they conducted the Vedic ceremonies and were a link between the Earth and higher realms, they offered sacrifices (Vedic fire ceremonies) whereby they nourished the celestial beings and in turn humanity was blessed, they guided all others in the true way of living as prescribed in the Vedas, they were the true teachers and guides of society

They lead a simple and pure life, never hoarding anything, but as time went by their standards completely deteriorated. Their greed had no end; they made rules to appropriate wealth and those who were once the custodians of the Vedas and truth became the custodians of the ill-gotten wealth. They hid the truth and made their own dogmas and hence they reserved the study of the Vedas only for Brahmins, so that the wrong they preached for their own benefit would not be known to others

They who were giants in knowledge also became giants in evil

Read this article, where the degradation of the Brahmins is explained (click on it)

a-pilgrimage-called-life-part-3.html

A hymn from the Rig Veda seems to indicate that one's caste is not necessarily determined by that of one's family:

Rig Veda 9.112.3

—I am a bard, my father is a physician, my mother's job is to grind the corn.

In the Chandogya Upanishad there is the story of Satyakama Jabala as a boy, eager for knowledge; Satyakama goes to the sage Haridrumata Gautama, requesting him to live in his school for Brahmacharya. The teacher asks, "My dear child, what family do you come from?" Satyakama replies that he is of uncertain parentage because his mother does not know who the father is, she told him just be known as my son, the son of Jabala. The sage declares that the boy's honesty is the mark of a "Brahmaṇa, true seeker of the knowledge of the Brahman and accepts him as a student in his school, later the boy becomes a Vedic Sage. This story also clearly indicates that caste is not defined by birth

The British rule brought about modernization in India but completely destroyed the moral fabric of the Indian society. Whatever little culture was remaining in the Brahmin families was totally destroyed when they opted for other jobs which were offered to them (because they were intelligent) and they got attracted to luxuries and changed their occupation completely

So the next time you hear someone proclaiming loudly that I am a Brahmin, tell him that he cannot say so because he is not doing anything to fulfil the role of a true Brahmin, it is like that a person saying that I am a carpenter because his fore fathers were carpenter’s but he does not know anything about carpentry and hence not taken it as a full time occupation 

Even the dogs are true to their breed, they are following their God given role of guarding since generations, and the so called Brahmins have to learn something from the dogs

Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati Swami who was the Shankaracharya of the Kanchi mutt travelled India wide for a long time preaching that the Vedic culture must be brought again and he said that the Brahmins have been responsible for the degradation of Religion, I quote him from the various chapters of his book---if the Gayatri has not been chanted for three generations in the family of a Brahmin, its members lose caste (they cease to be Brahmins). The quarter where such Brahmins live cannot be called an "agrahara" or the Brahmin has not performed the sacrifices for three generations  its members will be called "Durbrahmanas", degenerated Brahmins, even though degenerate the label "Brahmin" sticks to them. There are prayascittas (expiatory rites) by means of which the corrupted Brahmins can be remade true Brahmins. But there is no such hope for a Brahmin in whose family Gayatri has not been chanted for three generations. A member of such a family ceases altogether to be a Brahmin and cannot be made one again. The same rule applies to Ksatriyas and Vaisyas with regard to the Gayatri mantra

It is so very important to chant the Gayatri mantra

Now with hardly any Brahmins left; how will we get the knowledge of the Vedas?

Sometimes there is so much of contradiction in the various literatures that are available. Example some say that except in Kali yuga, in the other three yugas it is permitted to sacrifice an animal in certain types of Vedic ceremonies, while others say that in all yugas it is strictly a taboo to conduct animal sacrifices and that the mention of the animals are allegories and indicates, the development of great spiritual power.

Since the Vedas are the highest inspiration possible to the earthly man, so with no one to guide us, we can receive the knowledge of the Vedas the way the sages received them---through our Hearts

A Purana says: " Tene Bramha hrdaya Adikavaye" the Pramatman imparted the Vedas to Bramha through his heart

The Bhagavata too, like the Gita, does not state that the Lord created the Vedas. It declares that they occurred in a flash in his heart that they came to him in a blaze of light. The word used on this context is "Sphuranam", occurring as a flash

When the sages were meditating the mantras of the Vedas appeared to them in a flash in their hearts

The Vedas never proclaim that "This alone is the path"

Nor do they affirm, "This is the only God" with reference to their own view of the Supreme Being. Instead, they declare that, if one adheres to any path with faith or worships any deity with devotion, one will be led towards the Truth.

The scripture of no other religion speaks thus of the many paths to liberation. On the contrary, each of them insists that the way shown by it alone will lead to liberation. The Vedas alone give expression to the high-minded view that different people may take different paths to discover the one and only Truth.

There are so many elaborated ceremonies prescribed by the Vedas, but there is not a single mention of the ceremony for conversion into the Vedic way of life, unlike Christianity, Islam and Buddhism who are always eager to convert people to their respective religions

This is because the Vedas are the original, initial teachings and whatever has come into being is because of their knowledge so they are the source of everything

Nothing is created by us; we just invite it from the Vedas

Hence the religion of the Vedas had no name; one has to give a name to differentiate between many others, later on it came to be known as Sanatan Dharam and in recent times as Hinduism   

The sounds of the Vedas remain for ever in ether, as per our spiritual level the law of balance works and we can invite them, but also remember all our sounds, what we speak (The sounds we produce are never destroyed) and also all our thoughts also forever remain in ether which affects the Destiny of this World, so we must be very careful with the way we think and what we say

The sounds of the Vedas purify the intellect, our thoughts and our environment

The Vedas are for everyone, not limited to a political boundary; in India the sages were able to perceive them, in some other country some saint must have given their teachings, and when a scientist makes a discovery he gets the information from the Vedas which are ever present in the ether and gives this theory to the World, and there is absolutely nothing wrong if you give a different name to the intelligence which is present in the ether instead of calling it the Vedas

Vedanta and Advaita

The Vedas talk about worship to various elements, and the Vedic fire ceremonies are sacrifices to the deities, when there is a worshiper and an object which is worshiped there exist duality, Advaita which is also a Vedanta doctrine means nondual or not two and teaches that the soul (true Self) is the same as the highest metaphysical reality, some people see a contradiction in this; no there is no contradiction

Our scriptures tell us that a person’s life is split into four stages called the four asramas, they are: Brahmacharya (student), Grihastha (householder), Vanaprastha (means going to the forest after completing all responsibilities) and Sannyasa (renunciation). 

He studies the Vedas as a student, he conducts the Vedic ceremonies as a householder, understand this very well that the Vedic ceremonies are for the householder and not for the renunciate (unlike other religions where the male priest conducts the ceremony the Vedic fire ceremony is conducted by the husband and wife together and the fire is lit by rubbing two pieces of wood), then comes the stage where the person retires to the forest, and starts learning the higher teachings of the Vedanta whereby he learns that he is no different from the one that created him

Aitareya Upanisad of the Rig Veda declares that--- Prajnanam Brahma “The Brahman means realising the jnana that is the highest”

Brhadaranyaka Upanisad of the Yajurveda declares that --- Aham Brahmasmi “I am the Brahman”

Chandogya Upanisad of the samaveda declares that --- Tat tvam asi  “That thou art” or “the Paramatman and you are the one and the same”

Mandukya Upanisad of the Atharvaveda declares that --- Ayam Atma Brahma  “This Self is the Brahman”

And finally the last stage of renunciation, where he performs no Vedic ceremonies, he has realized his true self and his very existence is a blessing to the World

This is the stage what Lord Krishna explains in the Gita: The Vedas are associated with the three qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas. You must transcend these three qualities. Full of desire, they (the practitioners of Vedic rituals) long for paradise and keep thinking of pleasures and material prosperity. They are born again and again and their minds are never fixed in samadhi, these men clinging to Vedic rituals. “In another passage Krsna declares: "Not by the Vedas am I to be not realised, nor by sacrifices nor by much study . . . .” 

This does not mean that Lord Krishna is against the Vedas like Buddha and Mahavira, he wants the beings to get self-realization and reach the highest goal of the merger with that Almighty; the very reason of the existence of everything; and to come to this stage one has to pass through various stages as prescribed in the Vedas, now a days people directly jump to the Advaita  Vedanta and declare “I am He”

The Vedas also say this : Brhadaranyaka Upanisad---"He who becomes aware of the nature of the Atman - for him the Vedas will no longer be Vedas, the gods will cease to be gods, Brahmins will no longer be, Brahmins. . . . . . . ".

Vedokhilo dharmaulam; Dharmo rakshati rakshitah - the Vedas are the

root of all Dharma; Dharma protected, protects.

Like the story in the final chapter of the Mahabharata where the God Dharma takes the form of a dog and walks behind Yudhisthira (who never abandoned Dharma) in his last moments on Earth

This Upanisad describes a person who performs Vedic rites for ephemeral enjoyments, mundane benefits, as a mere beast (pasu).

Since the word pasu has come up let me tell you something—pasu means an animal, Rudra (Shiva as all call him) is also called pashu-pati (the Lord of the pashu), that does not literally mean he is the lord of animals, it means the one who has conquered his animal nature (there is the famous Pasupatinath temple in Nepal) 

The word "pasu" is very meaningful here. In a allegorical sense it means one who does not possess the sixth sense of a human and lives on an animal level, now a days we say that only animals have sixth sense; how degraded humans have become

So long as a JIva revolves in the quagmire of the senses and their natural attractions, the JIva is nothing but an animal (pashu). That is when the bond of ‘karma’ anchors him to the concept of ‘janma’ (birth and death). It is that bond that is called ‘pAshaM’. It makes him revolve again and again in the samsAra cycle. It is the sword of jnAna that cuts it asunder. And then he is no more a pashu. He becomes Shiva, the pashu-pati (the Lord of the pashu).

Now, I would like to tell something to my readers, please know this; that Gratitude has the most colourful vibrations 

Photo of a boy who receives new shoes during WW ii; look at the Gratitude on his face

Apart from India most of my readers are from USA and Russia, every day I see the statistics of the people who visit the blog.

It takes a lot of time to write articles, but no one has the gratitude to leave a comment, or interact, share, they just come, read and leave; I feel good that I am spreading the truth via this blog, even if a change is brought in one person after reading my blog it is a matter of great joy for me; I am telling you this because you are on the spiritual path and it would be good for you all if you can come out of this selfish attitude

I learn something new every day and would have liked to have a group on Facebook where knowledge would be shared, but with 16 followers of this blog there would not be any interaction, only if people would have shown some interest we could have gained more  

My best wishes to you all

A doha of Sant Kabir:

मीठा सब कोई खात है, विष है लागे धायनीम ना कोई पीवसी, सब रोग मिट जाय

Mitha Sab Koi Khaat Hai Vish Hai Laage Dhaay Neem Na Koi Peevasi Sabe Rog Mit Jaay

Everyone likes eating sugar. This results in spreading of poison in the body. None likes to drink juice of Neem leaves (which is bitter) this can cure the body from all diseases.

I have made changes to this article (click on link)

authentic-design-of-sri-yantra.html


let-there-be-peace-on-earth.html