Veda gyan

Welcome to the 11^th Issue of Vedagyan.

MANTRA

In this issue let us understand more about the Mantras and stotras.

What is a Mantra?

Literally it means to approach through the mind.

 Mantras are specifically composed verses that are made of selected words with specific phonetic qualities. This means that these Mantras are closely linked to the time intervals that are called “Matras”. The words cannot either be pronounced long or short. They have to follow the set pattern. Each Mantra has a Devata .

They are made in specific Chandas or syllables and are recited in the proper swara and sruti and laya. The recitation of a Mantra requires certain amount of discipline on the part of the person and requires him to concentrate on the mantra and its Devata. They cannot sing these aloud but have to recite at a low tone. There is a preparation procedure to start recitation. This is called Anga Nyasa and Kara Nyasa (Invoking the right attitude and aptitude in our organs of perception

Like head, shoulders, hands, heart, legs etc). Then one must do “Dikbhandana”(Warding off negative influences from the four directions) that ensures trouble free, distraction free recitation. Then they define the eye or seed or the central point, where the focus of attention has to be. The next part of the process is called Keelakam. In the olden days when the locks for the doors were not in vogue, the practice is to place wooden bars across the doors and secure them. During wars elephants were employed to break open these doors by hammering heavy logs against doors! These logs that hammer is the Keelakam, they help in opening the closed door. Similarly every Mantra has a Keelakam (A particular word), the repetition of which will act like a log that breaks opens the door and allow the benefit from the Devata, to flow towards the person who is praying.

When the Mantra is recited in the above manner, in the mathematical precision, the benefits flow to the individual. As the “sankalpa” usually done before the start of recitation, defined the purpose, so the person accomplishes his objective.

You may liken the Mantra recital to a well-written computer programme that is executed through the proper medium. Any mistake any where would render the Mantra useless at the same time yield negative results too!

Once upon a time a King wanted to propitiate Lord Brahma and through that obtain a son to kill Indra! He was so meticulous in his plan and took at most care to execute his plan. But at the end it so happened that he himself had to pronounce the words, “Give me a son to Kill Indra” instead he ended up making a mistake in his pronunciation by changed intonation that meant, “Give me a son to be killed by Indra”! He promptly got what he prayed for too. 

Stotra on the other hand is not so complicated in its execution but will help the person reciting it to get his mind tuned to the objective easily. It develops the Bakthi (An attitude of mind to align effortlessly on the GOD). Normally the Stotras are coupled with prayers for granting generic benefits on the whole society!

Story Time

Atmarupa was a Brahmin who lived in a village near a forest on the banks of a holy river. He was a pious person and his wife was a greedy and short-tempered women. She always wanted more and more wealth and had no inclination to help even the poorest of the poor. These two had no issues and this worried Atmarupa. One day he went into the forest quite dejected.

He came across a sage who was a yogi. Atmarupa knew that he was the person who could satisfy his wish.

He approached him with reverence and pleaded to bless him with a child. The sage took pity on him and explained to him that in this birth he is not destined to have a child and only in the next birth he would have a child. But he was so obsessed he almost pestered the sage to accede to his request. The sage finally relented and gave him a mango and asked him to give it to his wife who would bear a devote child for him!

 He made pranams and happily left the forest and reached his home. He narrated the events to his wife and gave her the fruit and wanted her to eat it. She was a selfish woman and lazy too. She did not want to have a child and go through all the physical strain! Instead, she made a plan to deceive her husband and also be free of trouble. She spoke to her sister who was pregnant and told her that she would take her child at the time of its birth and tell the husband that she had given birth to the child and till then pretend to be carrying! Since her sister was poor she readily agreed to this proposal and the mango fruit was to be given to some one. Both of them pondered over the issue and decided that the fruit shall be given to the cow in the house of Atmarupa!

 They started to implement their plan. Months passed and one day the child was born to the sister of Atmarupa’s wife and promptly the child was brought to his house and she announced that she had delivered the baby boy! Atmarupa’s joy knew no bounds. He immediately announced the good news to the entire village and arranged for a grand feast and gave away lot of gifts to the poor and needy! Though these acts of his annoyed her but she could not resist him.

In the due course Atmarupa performed the Upanayana to the child and also sent him to school. Days passed and another miracle happened in his house, the cow also delivered a baby boy! But his ears were like that of a cow! The entire village turned to look at this unique child and counselled Atmarupa to retain this child as God’s gift and bring him up too! Atmarupa accepted their advice and brought up that child also.

The child was named Gokarna and was initiated through upanayana and made to learn the Sastras and Vedas. Soon he became a very brilliant child with profound knowledge where as the other child had fallen into bad ways and did not continue his studies and took to robbery and acquired all the vices. Atmarupa felt bad and tried in all possible ways to prevent his son from going astray, but he could not succeed.

Atmarupa sent Gokarna to a nearby town to learn higher knowledge. Due to advancing age he could not earn as he used to and his son did not care to do anything responsible. Atmarupa’s wife became restive and started pestering her husband for more money and finally both her son and herself joined together and drove Atmarupa away to the forest since he was no more useful to them.

Though humiliated much Atmarupa, felt relieved and retired into the forest and led a life of a mendicant and died. But unfortunately her son did also not spare Atmarupa’s wife!  His need for money grew as his bad ways and he started selling off all the wealth that his father had left behind and soon became poor. But his girl friends kept on asking him for more money. In order to satisfy them he intensified his robberies and extortion and committed a lot of crimes! How long this could go on? He soon got tired and was unable to bring the money they demanded. In the meanwhile he had driven out his mother stripping her of her frugal belongings. She begged in the village, grew old and sick and finally died!

One day the son returned to his friend’s house without any money, which angered her and her friends, and they decided to get rid of him once and for all. When he felt thirsty and asked for some water to drink they tied him up and poured molten metal into his mouth. Writhing in pain he died a miserable death. He soon turned into a Brahmarakshas (Goblin).

What he did do as a goblin? And what happened to Gokarna? To know, wait till the next issue reaches you! 

              

Veda gyan

Welcome to the 10^th Issue of Veda Gyan.

In this issue let us start learning about certain methods of reciting Veda that helped the students remember the renderings as well as the words without the help of written communication.

There are eight ways of reciting Vedas especially Rig, Yajur, Vedas. They are 1.Jatha 2.Mala 3. Sikha 4. Rekha   5.Dwaja 6.Danda 7.Ratha and 8.Ghana.

Let us have an idea of how the Ghana recital would sound like for example:

Verses containing two halves or four quarters will be as follows, if for instance the first half contains six words,we shall take them to be A, B, C, D, E, F.

Now the repetition would be as below in Ghana.

1. AB, BA,  AB, C; CBA! ABC!!
2. BC, CB,  BC,  D; DCB! BCD!!
3. CD, DC,  CD, E;  EDC! CDE!!
4. DE, ED,   DE, F;  FED! DEF!!

EF, FE,    EF! F iti  F!! (This last line gives the meaning for the word used) By reciting in this manner they were able to make the students remember the verse, its octaves, tone, the set music as well as meaning!

In the last few issues we learnt about the lives of many saints and we will continue the story of Sri Ramanuja in this issue also.

Ramanuja wrote many books like Vedanta Deepam, Saranagati Gadyam, Vaikunda Gadyam, Sriranga Gadyam, and Nityam detailing the Tiru Aradhana Kramam a method of performing Pooja to Lord at temples or homes.

Most famous work of Sri Ramanuja is the Bashya or Commentary for Brahma Sutra of Vyasa. He went to Kashmir and presented this work before Goddess Saraswati. She appeared in person and accorded her approval and also called his work as SRI BASHYAM. And also called him Bashyakarar!

Story Time!

During those days the Muslim kings used to invade and attack the Hindu temples!

On one such occasion the sultan of Delhi entered the temple at Melkot Karnataka. Along with the king, his daughter also came to the shrine. When she saw the Utsava idol of Tirunarayana she simply fell in love with him. She was so infatuated she refused to go back to Delhi! Finally the King took the idol along with him. She kept the idol at her private quarters and treated Him as her lover!

For a long time the temple went without the idol and when Sri Ramanuja was told about this he decided to go to Delhi risking his life!

He went to the Sultan and enquired about the idol, initially he was reluctant later he agreed and allowed Sri Ramanuja to go to his private quarters of his daughter. The King also explained to him the predicament he is placed in because of his daughter’s love towards the Lord! Ramanuja realised that her bhakti must be unparalled and went to her quarters to check. She was totally lost in the adoration of the Lord! He waited for a while and as she noticed his presence explained that the idol should be returned to the temple and the King had agreed to do so, on her giving the required consent. She said to every one’s surprise that she would marry on the Lord and none else! Hearing this Sri Ramanuja addressed the Lord as Chellappillai and requested him to come along with him to Tirunarayanapuram.

Immediately the idol came and sat on the lap of Sri Ramanuja! Every one present heard the divine command that he would full fill the desire of the princess and would marry her at the temple! King was also dumb struck and finally agreed to this. He sent his daughter along with Sri Ramanuja as he would send a daughter for the marriage! with a retinue of his trusted officers to escort.

On reaching the temple along with the idol and the princess, she walked into the sanctum sanctorum in her bridal attire and disappeared!

This version of the story is told at the temple and you could see a shrine dedicated to the Muslim princess, even today the deity of Lord is offered Roti and Butter as his dinner!

Sri Ramanuja breathed his last, amidst his disciples in the year 1137 AD, at a ripe age 120 years, listening to the Nalaira Divya Prabhanda recitation!       

The life history of the famous music trinity!

Tiruvarur in Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu is the place that gave the music world of South India the three gems known as the Trinity.

They are Syama Sastrigal, Saint Thyagaraja, and Muthuswamy Dikshitar. Their krtis set the tone and tenor of Bakthi movement in South India after the Alwars and Nayanmars.

 First among them is Syama Sastrigal.

Syama Sastrigal was born in 1762 AD. He was adept in Telugu and Sanskrit. At the young age of 18 he moved to Tanjore from Tiruvarur and started learning music from his uncle,Sangeetha Swami and Pachimiriam Adaiappar.All of them taught all intricacies of music. He was a great devotee of Bangaru Kamakshi Amman. By the grace of the Goddess he became an expert composer. He sang nine kritis on Meenakshi of Madurai, which were so good, and the temple authorities received him with great honours. These were known Navaratnamalika. He attained eternal bliss in 1827 at the age of 65.

Next is the Saint Thyagaraja.

 He was born to Ramabrahmam and Sitamma in the year 1767. He was trained in traditional music by Sonti Venkataramanayya.His won grand father Giriraja Kavi was a great poet of Sanskrit. He was married and soon after he lost his wife and he remarried Kamalamba in 1790.

His music was not a pass time but an Upasana. His ishta devatha was Rama whom he adored. Once Thyagaraja sang before a group of musicians and on hearing his

Kriti in Kamboji, King Serfoji of Tanjore wanted him to come to his court and sing and also expressed his desire to honour the saint.

Sri Thyagaraja declined his invitation and said that the honours and the wealth that the king could offer are not important to him and singing in praise of his Lord was his only honour! The King realised his mistake and came down to meet the saint personally. The King who was suffering from an acute pain in the abdomen was cured of his ailment.

In 1805 Saint Thyagaraja had a great misfortune of his ishta devata Sri Rama’s idol being thrown into the river Kaveri by his own brother due to a family quarrel!

After about three months he got back the idol having been directed by the Lord to search in particular spot in Kaveri. During this period the saint sang a number of songs expressing sorrow at the loss of the idol.

It was the practice of the saint to go for alms every day around the streets of Tanjore. During one such trip a sage called Haridas appeared and directed the saint to recite the name of Sri Rama 96 crore times! Thyagaraja carried out the sage’s instructions. On the last day he heard the knock at his door while he was doing his pooja and when he opened, to his surprise he found Lord Sri Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, and Hanuman standing at the door. They all went straight to his pooja room. There they gave the darshan of Pattabishekam to the saint. The saint sang the krti “Balakanakamaya” in Atana.

When Saint Tyagaraja visited Tirupati the temple was closed and the saint felt sad that he could not have darshan immediately and started singing in praise of the Lord and all the temple priests assembled around him listening to his songs! To every one’s surprise the temple door opened and the screen fell down and the saint had the darshan instantly. He sang “Venkatesa ninu sevimpa” and all the temple honours were bestowed on him!

His 690 krtis in 160 ragas are available today. He took sanyasa in 1847 and the very next day he passed away in the presence of all his disciples at the age of 80!

The third in the line is Sri Muthuswami Dheeshita

He was born in 1766 to Ramaswamy  Dheekshita and Subbulakshmi ammal. He acquired expertise both in music and Sanskrit at his very early age! At the request of Manali Muthukrishna Mudahar the family migrated to Manali along with the three sons and the daughter Balambal. At Manali Chidambaranatha Yogi of Varanasi met the family of Sri Muthuswamy Dheeshitar and took him to Kasi along with him as a student! During the 5 years of stay there he also learnt Hindustani music, and after the passing away of his Guru he returned back. According to the wish of the Yogi, Sri Muthuswamy went to worship Lord Muruga at Tiruttani and the Lord appeared before him and asked him to open his mouth and offered a sweet! From that moment the music that he composed was of celestial nature!

Sri Dheeshitar had undertaken a journey to Ettayapuram from Tiruvarur and on his way he found the entire country dry without rain, he sang a song in the raga Amrtavarshini and prayed to the Lord for rain. Immediately it rained so well the draught vanished in no time!

His famous compositions were 1.Pancha Bhootah stala keerthanas (The five shrines of Lord Shiva representing the five forces of nature namely Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether) 2.Navagraha krtis 3. Sri Abayamba Navavarana krtis (The goddess of Mailaduthurai temple) 4. Shodasa Ganapati Krtis (16 krtis)

5. Vibakti Krtis ( 8 krtis one in each vibakti of Sanskrit grammar)

His last composition was on Goddess Meenakshi and he reached the abode of Lord in 1835.

Titbits

Do you know who are the 18 Siddhas?

1.Agastiar

2.Tirumoolar

3.Sivavakkiar

4.Pattinathar

5.Badragiriyar

6.Pambatti Siddhar

7.Idaikattu Siddhar

8.Agappai Siddhar

9.Khudambai Siddhar

10.Azugunni Siddhar

11.Kongana Siddhar

12.Kaduveli Siddhar

13.Karuvoorar

14.Chattaimuni

15.Romanathar

16.Nandeesar

17.Ramadevar and

18. Khakapusundar.

The Siddhas are saints with great powers of tapas and they were known to perform many miracles and cure ailments and also sing a number of songs, which give hidden meaning to those who concentrate on them. They were endowed with powers like becoming as light as cotton, as heavy as a rock, appearing in two different places at the same time, going to places that are thousands of miles away instantly, becoming invisible, materialising objects from thin air and getting into the dead body of another person etc! some of them are supposed to live even today in the dense forests and mountain ranges! 

Bye now and meet you in the next issue!      

Vedagyan

9^th issue

 

 

Recap

We have so far learnt about the four principal Vedas, the Smrtis, the Yagnas, Puranas, also about the life of saints and Bhaktas like Sadasiva, Kabir, Sri Adi Sankara and the rishis like Apasthamba, and Yagyavalkya.

 

In this issue we shall learn about life of a great saint of Vaishnavism that is Sri Ramanuja.

 

Ramanuja’s period was 1017 –1137 AD. He was born to the couple Sri  Kesavapperumal Somayaji and Kanthimathi Ammal at Sriperumpudur near Kancheepuram. Peria Tirumalai Nambi the scholar named the child “Ilaya Perumal” after seeing the lustre on the boy’s face.

 

At an early age Illaya Perumal lost his father and his family migrated to Kancheepuram and was under care of Sri Tirukkachi Nambi who was engaged in service to Lord Varadaraja and was believed to be in talking terms with him!

 

In the due course the boy was sent to Sri Yadava Prakasa an Advaitin at Tiruputkuzi to learn the Advaita philosophy and other tenets of our religion. At 16 years he mastered all Vedas and other Sastras.

 

He was also married to Rakshakambal at 17 years of age and became a householder. Very often the teacher and the taught clashed, as definitions given by the teacher to the vedantic verses were not acceptable to the boy! Their differences reached a point of no return and the teacher decided to kill the boy! And plot was hatched to drown Ilaya Perumal in Ganges during the pilgrimage to the north.

 

While on the way, Ilaya Perumal learnt about the plot, through Govinda a fellow pupil and also a relative and immediately on the very night, slipped into the forest, to escape the bid on his life! In the forest he lost his way and was wandering, suddenly an old couple appeared and showed the way, and a little later he was in a trance. Upon opening his eyes he found himself on the outskirts of Kancheepuram! The old couple were none other than Lord Varadaraja and his Consort Perundevi Thayar.

 

Ilaya Perumal resumed his routine life with Tirkkachi Nambi and was serving Lord Varadaraja. At that time there was an invitation from Alavandar a renowned saint to Ilaya Perumal. Both Tirukkachi Nambi and Ilaya Perumal went to meet him. But when they arrived they could witness only his funeral procession! They were at a loss and very dejected. During the last rites they noticed three fingers closed tightly in the mortal remains of the saint. Immediately Ilaya Perumal declared that he would make 1. A Bashya for Brahma Sutra  2. Perpetuate the memory of  Vyasa and Parasara 3. Establish a new Philosophy called Visishta Advaita. Soon after these declarations were made the three fingers unfolded signifying that these were the last wishes of the saint!

 

Tirukkachi Nambi and Ilaya Perumal on returning to Kancheepuram resumed their routine. Tirukkachi Nambi during his conversation with the Lord Varadaraja obtained six commands to be followed they were 1. Narayana is the Paramatma

2.Paramatma and the jeevatmas are different  3. Prapadthi or total surrender to God is necessary for salvation 4. Videha mukthi (Casting off the body at the time of death) is the only possibility to attain mukthi. 5. Last remembrance of the Lord by a departing soul was not necessary. 6. Ilaya Perumal should take refuge under Peria Nambi at Maduranthakam.

 

Ilaya Perumal’s married life was not a happy one as the catholic ways of his were not acceptable to his wife. Once Ilaya Perumal invited an elderly scholar who was not a Brahmin to his house for lunch and his wife fed the guest and sent him off and cleaned the entire house and cooked afresh before Ilayaperumal could return from his bath! This infuriated him and he decided to renounce the family life and took up sanyasa at the age of 30. He assumed the new name Ramanuja in his Sanyasa Asrama, and was accorded the title Yati Raja by none other than the Lord Devadirajan.

 

As ordained Ramanuja reached Maduranthakam and met Peria Nambi who initiated him into an order based on Dwaya

Mantra, the basic tenet of Vaishnavism.He also carried out the Pancha Samskara (The rites to formalise Sanyasa). He later returned to Srirangam. The highest seat of religion at Srirangam was vacant and all wanted Sri Ramanuja to adorn it but he preferred to wait a little longer because he wanted to learn the nuances of sastras from Sri Tirukkoshtiyur Nambi. Though Sri Tirukkoshtiyur Nambi was willing to teach Sri Ramanuja, he tested his resolve and made him come to him more than thirty times before accepting him as a student

Sri Nambi taught him the secret tenets and after acquiring the knowledge Sri Ramanuja climbed the top of the temple tower and proclaimed to a large gathering the purport of the teaching much to the annoyance of his guru! When questioned about his behaviour Sri Ramanuja replied that he would alone go to hell by disobeying his guru whereas thousands would ascend to heaven by his teachings! Confronted by his broad mindedness Guru’s heart melted and he instantly declared that Sri Ramanuja was Emperumanar (Meaning the Lord!) also asserted that hereafter his preaching would be known as Ramanuja Darsanam.

We shall continue the life history of Sri Ramanuja in our next issue also.

Titbits

Do you want to know what is “Brahmastra” that Sri Rama and other Godheads used to destroy their enemies?

It is here: Tyadachopra na: yoyodhi: himadhii syavadergobhamyanervartuvisatatt ||

Do you see Greek and Latin? Yes you would, because it is the Gayatri Mantra in the reverse! One has to recite this ten  million times standing neck deep in running water with absolute concentration. Lord Rama did this according to the instructions of sage Visvamitra in the forest and achieved the potency of his utterance!

Is the story that Brahma and Vishnu went about searching the head and feet of Lord Shiva as a bird and a boar true?

The answer is no!

The Rig Veda talks about the Brahman taking a form of huge pillar of light or fire and a hamsa and a boar trying to fathom the top and bottom of that light and not succeeding. Here hamsa bird is mentioned because the bird is supposed to have the innate ability to differentiate between milk and water, similarly a seer will differentiate between what is divine and undivine recall the title given to great seers as Paramahamsa and the boar signifying a creature deeply involved in the earthly life and oblivious of any intellectual capacity. Later these were somehow come to be associated with Lord Brahma and Vishnu!

Navaratri Celebrations are to begin.....

Navaratri is a festival mainly dedicated to the trio goddesses Durga, Lakshmi, and Sarasvati.

It is goddess Lalithambika the Universal Mother appears in her three different aspects of Durga, Lakshmi, and Sarasvati.

Even as Durga our scriptures worship her in nine different forms! This festival is celebrated throughout India with all fervour and devotion. In the South especially we call it Kolu and arrange many dolls depicting various scenes form stories of these deities. The young girls dress up nicely and invite the neighbours and friends to their houses and exhibit their talent in music and recite slokas. The very interesting feature of this fest is that the households make delicious Sundal in a variety and enjoy with all. Many try out their Kolams and Rangoli during this festival. All these have come to us from the early generations and rituals associated have been woven deep into our fabric of life by our great grandmas!       

Let us now learn more about the festival and its interesting features.

Every day our temples in South India decorate the deity in all grandiose and take her in procession in the town or village.

The significance of this is during these festivals only the young and energetic will be able to visit the temples.

What about those who are old, sick or otherwise unable to visit the temple? In order to involve all of them, the deity used to go on a procession into the town! Look, at their foresight!

This festival gives more importance to the girl children because they are considered to be personification of Goddess Durga! The elderly mothers in fact give away a lot of gifts and new clothes to these children to get the blessings of the goddess.

 Boys excuse please!

Story time

The Story of Nemi Nandi Adigal.

Nemi Nandi Adigal was a great Shiva Bhakta, who lived in a village near Tiruvarur. He visited the temple every day and had darshan of Lord and then only retires to bed! One day, as usual he visited the temple late in the evening and came out. There was another shiva temple, which he occasionally visits just outside the main temple. On that day he felt like visiting that temple also. But much to his disappointment there were no lamps lit, hence he could not have a glimpse of the Lord. Immediately he thought he would get back home and bring the lamps but decided otherwise because it would be too late. So he decided to approach the nearest house and ask for some oil so that he could light the lamps and have the darshan too.

He knocked at the door and asked for some oil to light the lamps! The person who opened the door greeted him with abuse and curses. The man shouted that he will not give any oil for the God who has fire in his hand, also went on to suggest that he light the lamps with the water from the temple tank! He was a Buddhist!

Nemi Nandi felt pained and went back to the house without having darshan and had a disturbed sleep that night. During his sleep in his dream Lord appeared and told him that he could do exactly the same thing as suggested by the Buddhist and have his darshan to his heart’s content. Nemi Nandi got up early in the morning went straight to the temple tank, had his bath and took water in a vessel and poured them in the lamps and lit them. All the lamps started glowing so brightly that exceeded even oil lit lamps! He was so happy and shed tears of joy and sang songs in praise of the Lord for the mercy he had shown! The lamps kept burning the whole day and through the night. The devotees saw Adigal pouring water in the lamps the water had gone down. The news spread over the entire village and people thronged to see the miracle! The news also reached the Buddhist who felt ashamed and came running to Adigal apologised for his conduct. Adigal had no ill feeling towards him and sent him away with courtesy.

Lord then spoke to every one, that the miracle would prove Nemi Nandi’s greatness!

Bye now see you all in the next issue!     

Welcome to the 8th issue of Vedagyan
Now we shall learn about AtharvaVeda.

Atharva Veda contains about six thousand verses. Though appears to be later in age this contains information on civilisation much older than Rig Veda. The name of this Veda is derived from Atharva Angiras a great seer.

Its 731 poems are in majority deal with herbs and their curative powers, the demons (both male and female), diseases that afflict society, sins and their atonement, pitfalls of performing rituals wrongly.

This Veda contains a number of hymns to compel

devatas who are reluctant to grant the favours to humans! This Veda recognises imps and goblins and gives very detailed descriptions of Spells! (Watch out Harry Potters!)

This Veda gave rise to Ayur Veda that is very popular today! Most of this Veda is not metred. Wonderful hymns of Varuna and Prtivi are noteworthy.

There were a number of Rishis named Angiras of them the foremost is Agni the Lord of Fire and he is known as Prathama Angiras.

A brief life history of Adi Sankara Bagavatpada.

Sri Sankara was born in a small hamlet called Kaladi in present day Kerala. This is situated on the banks of the river Poorna, and is near the famous Shiva Shrine of Vadakkunathan in Trichur. His parents were Sri Sivaguru and Aryamba of Nambudri families.

The childless couple Sri Sivaguru and Aryamba prayed to Sri Vadakkunathan for a progeny to which He assented with a condition! Lord gave them the option of having one child who would be extrodinarily brilliant and scholarly and pious but would die young, or else more children of mediocre in nature!
The couple would only have the son who is brilliant and pious.
Thus was the beginning of Shri Sankara’s life. He was none other than the avathara of Lord Shiva.
Sankara’s life is full of miracles and at the very young age he lost his father and his mother Aryamba performed his upanayana and he started learning the scriptures and other literatures. He mastered them all with astonishing alacrity.
When he was under gurukula he used to go into the village to some households and beg for alms as prescribed to be the duty of a Brahmachari. One day he went to a house of a very poor Brahmin and the lady of the house did not have anything to offer but for an amla fruit! Undaunted by the utter helplessness and abject poverty the lady brought that fruit and offered it to Sankara. Being a Gyani he understood her predicament, and then and there prayed to Goddess Mahalakshmi to give her the wealth. To every one’s surprise it rained gold! Thus he relieved her of her poverty!

In another instance he changed the course of Poorna River because his mother could not go that far to take bath. He was a renunciate even when he was young. But he wanted to take up Sanyasa Asrama in a proper manner. Suddenly one day when he was taking bath in the river a crocodile caught his leg and Sankara had no hope of survival and at the very instant he decided to take up sanyasa as it would mean taking a new birth!

He explained to his mother who was in a state of shock on seeing him caught by the creature, she readily agreed. Immediately the crocodile released Sankara. He promised his mother that at time of her death he would be by her side where ever he might be. He undertook a journey in search of a Guru.
Then he reached the Narmada valley and on the banks of the river Narmada he reached the Ashram of Govinda Bagavatpada a disciple of Gaudapada, and requested him to accept him as a student. Govinda Bagavatpada agreed and took Sankara as his disciple. On observing his progress he conferred the Paramahamsa order on Sankara.
Sankara wrote many books and commentaries. Most famous of them were Brahma Sutra Bhashya, Bhashyas of famous Upanisahads, Bhashya for Patanjali Yoga Sutra, Gita Bhashya. He also wrote many vartikas, tippanis, vrttis.
He composed many songs on the Lord and the famous ones are Baja Govindam, Nrsimha Karavalambam, and Soundarya Lahari etc. He wrote the bhashya of Vishnu Sahasranama.

He wrote famous books on contemplation and self-realisation, such as Atmabodham, Upadesa saram, and Drk Drsya vivekam, Aparoksha Anubhuti etc.

He held debates with many scholars of other faiths and won them. In Kashmir he debated with Kumarila Bhatta who deputed his disciple Mandana Misra to debate. Sankara won the debate.

Mandana Misra became his disciple called Suresvaracharya and became the head of Srngagiri mutt in Karnataka other mutts were at Puri, Dwaraka, Joshimutt, and Badrinath.

He established four principal mutts in four corners of the country and established his disciples as their heads and ordained them to uphold sanathana dharma and propagate our scriptures. He also divided the ritualistic worship of gods into major branches and established Vaishnavam, Saivam, Saktham, Kaumaram, Ganapathyam and Souram.

As promised to his mother he reached his mother at her deathbed and when she passed away, performed her final rites amid lot of protests from the locals against a Sanyasi doing these rites.

Later he went on a pilgrimage to mount Kailash and disappeared in a cave near Kedarnath. There are also other versions about his last days that say that he came down south to Kanchipuram and attained mukthi.

Within a span of thirty odd years Sankara created a revolution in our spiritual domain and left his indelible mark!

Bye now, see you all in the next issue.

Welcome to the 7th issue of Veda Gyan.

In the last few issues we learnt about Samaveda, and Yajur Veda. In this issue we shall learn about Rig Veda. This is one of the oldest repositories of information available to mankind. We are unable to exactly state the period to which this Veda belongs because a lot of conflicting conclusions are arrived at.


This Veda contains ten thousand verses forming 1017 poems in 8 chapters grouped in ten mandalas. These poems adore the Gods as Indra, Agni, Rudra, Asvins, Mitra, Varuna, Maruths, and Ribhus. About two thirds of this Veda is dedicated to Agni and Indra alone.

This Veda contains many veils, which are very difficult to overcome or understand. This Veda gives three more descriptions of Brahman namely Iswara, Hiranya Garbha, Viraj.

Rig Veda also mentions the Rishis to whom these hymns were revealed they are Visvamitra, Vasishta, Bharadwaja. This Veda has an interesting story as its base!

The story of Vrtrasura!

Vrtrasua was a dreaded asura with a lot of powers granted by way of boons by Brahma for his penance. He kidnapped the Sun God and kept him as a hostage and made the entire Devas subservient to him. The universal creation suffered in the absence of Sun God, as he is the sustainer!

All Devas deliberated this predicament and tried to find a solution. They consulted the three principal Gods namely Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma.

They called the lord of the Devas, the Indra and told him that he had to lead an army to fight this dreaded asura and obtain release of the Sun God! But the problem was how to locate his hideout? Who should drive Lord Indra to his destination? Who should advise the Lord on war logistics?

It was decided that Brhaspati the guru of all devas would advise Indra on logistics and accompany him in his chariot. A hound called Sarama was employed to hunt down the asura in his mountainous hide out! Aswini devatas who were famous for their swift footedness were sent to smoothen the passage to Lord Indra of any resistance!

All devas were deployed to fight along with Indra and obtain the release of the Sun God. What ensued was a terrible and prolonged fight between the asura who was located at a deep cave of a mountain. After a long battle Indra manages to emerge victorious in his battle and set the Sun God free!

He achieves this victory only after he uses his new weapon called thunderbolt that is made of the backbone of a Rishi called Dadhichi. This bone for the weapon is obtained by Indra on the advise of Brhaspati as the gift from the maharishi himself after he gives up his body for the sake of welfare of Devas!

Titbits
Now let us take up the “Why” of the vessel full of water kept on the banana leaf topped with mango leaves and coconut. Here the vessel represents the human head and the water represents the knowledge of divine that is profound, and the mango leaves represent vigour and vitality and life. The rice represents all embodied creation. The recitation of Varuna japa is done first and all the powers of cosmos like Lord Varuna, Mitra, the three principal deities and other gods are established therein.

Rig Veda states that the human head is also known as Dronakalasa, which is given an outward expression by this arrangement of Poorna Khumba!

Sprinkling of Turmeric powder smeared rice when some one does pranam is again a symbol. The turmeric powder is a good insecticide and does not allow the rice to attract any insects. By using the rice after removing the chaff from the paddy is to prevent it from growing into a rice plant! Now this smeared rice is sprinkled upon the person doing the pranam to signify that he or she should live longer and be healthy and also attain the purpose of this birth by detaching themselves from knots of this vicious birth and death cycle. To live with the consciousness that everything belongs to the divine and is given to the human race to conduct their life with contentment.

Once a person lives with the consciousness that everything belongs to the divine his thoughts and deeds do not perpetuate and will not necessitate another birth in this world! This is pure philosophy and may be difficult for you children, to comprehend.

So do not worry about the significance now!

Ø Paatraviseshenyastam gunantharam vrjati silpamaadhatu |

Jalamiva samudrasuktau muktaphalatam payodasya ||

This verse states that a drop of rainwater that falls into the shell becomes a pearl; similarly the knowledge embedded into a good sishya is firm and attains glory!

There may be a heavy rain over the surface of the ocean but only a drop enters the shell and transforms into a pearl!


Six Gunas of the Lord!

The six gunas are: Ever expanding knowledge, bhalam (strength),

iswaryam( wealth), veeryam( valour), sakthi ( power), and Tejas (lustre).

Narayana’s sleeping posture upon the Aadishesha on the waters of vast ocean

Is to represent that he resides in pure knowledge or consciousness and can be

Apprehended after making the organs of perception submissive to the divine will!

News from the past !

This is the news item that appeared in the Madras Musings Oct. 04 issue.

The book named Vaimanika Sastra authored by Bharatdwja Maharishi explains in detail about various aircrafts. NASA has a copy of this book!

The book describes minute details of many ideas about designs of aircrafts, kind of alloys they used to build aircrafts, the kind of food and clothing the pilots need!

It also describes something very interesting that is 5,19,800 airways between the seven lokas!!!

Technical drawings based on this book of aircrafts were done in 1870 in Mysore.

In Melkot(Karnataka) efforts were made as an on going project to synthesise the alloys mentioned in the book

Zeppelin’ blimp has a similar shape aerodynamically to Tripura Vimana described in the book.

The 1950-soyuz crafts resembled Rukma Vimanam of the book.

A flight has been recorded in 1895 AD in India earlier than the Wright brothers!

The life sketch of a great saint Jayadeva.

Near the city of Puri in Orrisa where Lord Jaganatha with his brother Bhalarama and sister Subhadra reside, there was a village called Bilvagaun. In that village lived a pious couple namely Narayana Sastri and Kamalabai.Their life was fully devoted to Vishnu and they knew nothing other than HIM. But one thought was always troubling Kamalabai was that they did not have a son. Every time she prayed to Lord she would only express this desire and continued her service to Lord. One day Lord appeared in the dream of Narayana Sastri and told him that he would be blessed with a son!

Narayana Sastri instead of feeling happy felt angry with his wife for having asked for such a boon form all pervasive God! He felt ashamed and hung his head in shame!

On that very night Lord appeared in Narayan Sastri’s dream as a Brahman and told him that it is God’s will. Days passed and a child was born to them. They named him as Jayadev and was brought up as a devotee of Narayana.

Attaining marriageable age his parents searched and found a gem of a girl called Padmavati among their relatives. The marriage was performed with all the gaiety

And the young couple started their life. It was all dedicated to the Lord once again.

Daily poojas and bajans were routine. Jayadeva developed extraordinary ability to compose songs in praise of the Lord Jaganatha.He started composing ashtapatis called Geetha Govindam that is quite popular even today!

One day early in the morning during his composition while singing as Krishna addressing Radha , Jayadeva sang that his head was so hot and splitting and called upon Radha to place her cool like a lotus petal foot on his head! Immediately Jayadeva felt immensely sad for having sung like that and reprimanded himself and tore the palm leaf to pieces. Soon after he called his wife Padmavati and told her that he is going to the river to take his bath and would return for his morning pooja.

Within few moments Padmavati heard the foot steps of her husband and came out wondering what happened. There she saw Jayadeva having applied oil to his head

Coming hurriedly towards her. Jayadeva asked her to immediately bring him the palm leaves and the pen and added that he would add a line before he forgets. Padmavati as directed brought him the leaves and the pen. Jayadeva wrote a few lines and went back to take his bath satisfied.

On his return he performed his pooja and then asked Padmavati to bring him the palm leaves. He was awe struck! He could not believe his own eyes. He asked Padmavati whether she wrote anything. Padmavati replied that it was him who wrote on the leaves with oil dripping from his head! And also pointed out the oil stain on the leaves. The very same line he had written was found in the leaf!

He was overwhelmed with joy at the truth that Padmavati had received the grace of Lord. He ended that ashtapati with words that said, “the husband of Padmavati has won”


Bye now! See you in the next issue.

Veda gyan
Welcome to the sixth issue of Veda Gyan

In this issue we shall learn about Yajur Veda. This Veda mainly deals with procedures of performing yagnas. It is quite elaborate and descriptive. There are two versions of Yajur Veda namely Sukla Yajur Veda and Krishna Yajur Veda that are white and black! There is an interesting story behind these names.

Sage Vaisampayana taught Yajur Veda to a number of students. One of them is Yagyavalkya. It was a usual custom for the guru to go to the King’s court every day and bless him and come back. It so happened that one day the Guru had gone out of town and could not go to the King’s court. He accordingly deputed his pupil Yagyavalkya to go to the court and bless the King. When Yagyavalkya went to the king’s court he was away. After waiting a little while Yagyavalkya sprinkled the turmeric powder smeared rice on his throne and returned back to the ashram. To every ones surprise at the palace the throne had become a live tree issuing forth sprouts!

The next day the king was told about this strange happening. The king realising the greatness of the student sent a word to the ashram that from the next day the sishya could come and bless him every day! But the guru took it otherwise, feeling jealous of the sishya and reprimanded him. Yagyavalkya felt insulted and did not offer the ghee offerings in the yagya in the fire altar meant for his guru. On being questioned he was forthright in explaining his innocence. The argument between the guru and the student continued and finally the guru said that that Yagyavalkya was not fit to hold the Knowledge taught by him so far and he should reject it forthwith. Readily Yagyavalkya brought out all the knowledge acquired and assimilated as a big ball of flesh and blood from within his body and threw it out. The guru immediately changed the rest of the students into birds that eat flesh called Tittri and made them eat the flesh. Later he turned them back as humans! But the knowledge acquired was not in order because the birds had consumed the flesh in a disorderly manner. Thus the knowledge so acquired came to be called Krishna Yajur Veda or black Yajur Veda.

Yagyavalkya went out of the ashram and wanted to get back the knowledge he had lost. So he did penance and prayed to Lord Surya and the lord appeared before him and asked him what he wants. Yagyavalkya narrated the entire episode and requested him to impart the holy knowledge to him. The Lord explained the difficulty of learning from him because he is moving at a very fast pace and the student has to face him and

Move backwards in the same pace, and could not afford to rest till the knowledge is acquired, and the assimilation of that had to be very fast as there is no time for review. Yagyavalkya agreed to all these conditions and started learning and the lord was pleased with his dedication and sincerity. Upon finishing the entire portion of the

Veda Still what Yagyavalkya learnt was only the size of a grain of sand the lord blessed him and said that the portion of Veda he had learnt would be henceforth known after Him, that is Sukla Yajur Veda that means White Yajur Veda!

Yajur Veda is divided into a number of Anuvakas and subdivided into Viniyogas. The entire Veda deals with rituals or yagnas that we had explained in our previous issue.

Recensions or Reviews of this Veda are Taittriya Sanhita, Katthaka Sanhita,Maitrayani Sanhita,Kapisthala Sanhita belonging to the black Yajur Veda.

Madhyanadhina Sanhita and Kanva Sanhita belong to White Yajur Veda. Interesting information is that the Sun God appeared before him as a white horse taught this to Yagyavalkya! Vajin means horse that is why this is also called Vajasaneyi Sanhita!

Is it not amazing to learn that knowledge is related to Sun God and White horse etc? And we use adjectives like brilliant student, luminary personality, and enlightened person, horse sense etc. in everyday usage.


In the last issue I promised to explain certain rituals, now let us know the “Why” of these in this issue and the forthcoming ones.

The use of ghee in yagnas.

The Dharma of all Brahmin folk is to lead a simple life of a mendicant and acquire the highest knowledge and impart that to others thereby making the entire society benefit.

All rules and duties of these folks were designed, to suit student life and thereafter that of a teacher.

They were forbidden from acquiring huge wealth, eat and make merry as they please! They had to lead a much disciplined life and beg for alms every day and eat, only to keep their ego under check!

The students normally stayed with their teacher in his house or hermitage and helped him in his daily routine and learnt the lessons. The teacher in turn taught not only the scriptures but also yoga, meditation, steeped in spirituality.


The students were expected to have good concentration and pay undivided attention to his teachings. The teacher will impart the knowledge in the easiest way to assimilate by using examples that the students are familiar with.


Thus cows, ghee, moon, honey, Sun, rock, water, light, fire etc were frequently taken as examples to express inner qualities of an individual.

Cows were representation of knowledge because they were important source of nutrition and thereby ensured the well being of the individual and in Sanskrit the word “Go” means cow also meant light or knowledge!

Similarly Ghee was associated with intellect. This was because ghee or clarified butter is highly inflammable and helps in fire surging forward. Similarly the intellect should be alert to absorb all knowledge and assimilate. Ghee when poured forms an unbroken stream without any fissures. The intellect should also be supple or with flexibility and not be rigid and fragmented. Fire represented strong will power normally turned towards the divine. This is how the ghee came to be associated with intellect. Wherever a student or any other person was expected to concentrate and contemplate, the accompanied ritual was always associated with fire and ghee as offerings. Even if the offerings were other things as twigs or food, they will be accompanied with ghee.

Why do we offer ghee using the leaf of Purasai, tree? In the earlier issue we talked about this tree- Issue 2 where, in the Brahmaloka the tree was listening to the discussion of Rishis about Vedas and clearly understood the concept. As a confirmation of its understanding, the leaf of this tree split at the bottom, near its stem into two. Thereby affirming the virtue of detachment from the worldly pleasures! Then onwards the tree’s leaves began to be used to pour the ghee into fire to acquire knowledge. You all know by now what the fire and ghee represent.

With this we conclude this issue.

Veda gyan
Issue 5


Dear Readers,

Welcome to the fifth issue of Veda gyan. In this issue we shall learn first about Samaveda , later we shall take up other Vedas because this Veda is in song format and is full of prayers to God!


Samaveda is divided into three major parts and contains 1875 verses. The three divisions are Purvarchika, Uttararchika and Mahanamni archika.


Uttararchika comprises of Sukatas, Mahanamniarchika has ten verses only and Purvarchika is divided into Agneya kanda (Chapter), Anindra kanda, Pavamana kanda and Aranya kanda. Most of the verses of Samaveda are repetition of Rig Veda only. But we are unable to know whether Rig Veda or Samaveda that is first in the order of precedence.

Purvarchika is sung in two different forms namely 1. Gramageyagana 2. Aranyagana.

Uttararchika is sung in two different forms namely 1.Oohagana 2. Uhyagana.

The whole Samavedic hymns are sung in various metres ranging from 24 to 104. Of these Gayatri is 24 syllables.


Samaveda is sung along with additional swaras that are called stobas. These stobas are representation of various deities like Earth, Moon, Indra, Agni, Vayu etc. So in one song they pray to more Godhead.

Now a brief life sketch of a great saint of our times.

Sadasivendra Sarasvati also popularly known as Sadasivabrahmendra was a great yogi of 18th Century. Though we do not have much data on his family, we have some information on his student days.

It was at Tiruvisanallur a small village near kumbakonam on the banks of river Kaveri.There lived a teacher called Ramabadra Dikshita who was famous for his works like Janakiparinaya.

His famous contemporaries were Sri Venkatesa also known as Sridhara Ayyaval in his later years that invoked Goddess Ganga and brought her forth from his well at his home! And Gopalakrishna, who later came to be known as Mahabashyam Gopalakrishna Sastri, the preceptor of Tondaiman Kings who ruled from Pudukottai.

Sadasiva was one among them. During those days the boys were married early in their childhood. At the end of his student life he came to know that his wife had come of age in a distant village. His mother was happy to receive him. When he reached his teachers quarters for dinner he had to wait for more than an hour for his dinner. This made him thoughtful and set the process of renouncing the married life in motion!

He avoided his home and became a wandering monk. He did not even spare the leaves thrown away with remnants of food. People took him to be a crazy youth! But soon he found a preceptor in Paramasivendra Sarasvati. He began studying Yoga under him apart form other scriptures. He made great progress and during this period he composed a number of songs that are famous even today!

Manasa Sancharare.is one of his famous compositions. Then the Pibhare ramarasam which is hummed even by the younger generation. He also composed a poem called Atmavidya vilasam that reveals his attainment of realisation. During this time an important incident happened in Sadasiva’s life that changed his stature totally. Because of his scholarship he would bother those who come to meet his teacher with a lot of questions and derive satisfaction on their predicament of not able to answer his questions. This practice was widely resented by all. The news reached his preceptor and he was visibly annoyed and exclaimed “Sadasiva when you will learn to keep your mouth shut?”


The student realised his folly and took a vow not to speak for the rest of his life! He prostrated before his teacher and took leave of his master and became a wandering mendicant. One day he was resting his head on the embankment that divided the fields and one of the labourers remarked that even those who had given up the world found it necessary to rest their head on the embankment! This struck Sadasiva and he started lying down on the ground. Next day when the labourers passed they noticed the change and remarked that those who profess to scorn all worldly things are not still insensitive to criticism! These small falls in his march were stepping stones for great success.

Sadasiva reached the banks of Amaravati near Coimbatore District and spent his days on the riverbed. Once when he was lying on the sands of the river in Kodumudi. Suddenly there were flash floods in the river, which carried him along. The villagers on the banks were helplessly watching their beloved saint whom they looked upon with awe and reverence being buried deep in the sand by the torrent water current! They quietly returned to their home regretting the episode. Three months passed when the floods subsided and water became scarce. The village officers began the erection of Korambu (A small bridge made of wooden planks for villagers to cross over). When one of the labourers plunged his spade he encountered some obstruction. When he drew it back a few drops of blood dripped from it. Now the officers and workmen gathered around and dug a deep pit around the spot. Wonder of wonders they found the yogi buried deep into the sand with his limbs lying in different directions but he was lost in trance! They carefully dug him out and brought him back to consciousness with care. To everyone surprise he walked away after some time as though nothing happened.


In another incident our sage was wandering in the night and found a paddy heap and he laid on it stretching his arms and relaxed watching this the guards wanted to castigate him and approached the saint with sticks in their hands stretched upwards. When the yogi looked at them they simply froze and were in that position till the next day dawn when their master arrived and started enquiring his guards the yogi simply got up and left the scene! As soon as he left the place the guards returned to their normal posture.


Like this a number of incidents have taken place. He has been spotted in two paces at the same time; he had transported a lot of children to Madurai from Kodumudi in a second and later brought them back after witnessing the rathotsav there! Once his limbs were chopped off by a Muslim chieftain but the saint walked without any pain, which rattled the offender, and immediately he came and begged for his pardon. The saint forgave him and just looked at his own elbow and immediately the severed part got fused together!

Source: Book of Brahmasutra Vrtti by Sri Sadasiva Brahmendral in its forword.

Just imagine about 150 years ago a great saint like this lived amongst us!


In the next issue we shall discuss more about relevance of rituals and also some important rituals of ours.


Next issue will feature some explanation about why we use ghee in yagnas? Why we use the leaf to pour ghee as offering? Why we keep a vessel full of water with coconut on the top and with mango leaves placed firmly on plain rice? Why we sprinkle turmeric powder smeared rice when some one does pranam? What is the significance of Dharba grass?



Bye now.