FW: Question about ashramas - (from Madhava)

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Please find sending below the answer to my question from my teacher.

 

 

Poojya amma,

 

praNAms!

 

I heard that there is a relation between the four parts of the veda (i.e.

Mantra, Brahmana, Aranyaka, Upanishad) and the four ashramas prescribed

(i.e. brahmacharya, gRahasta, vAnaprastha, sanyasa). I would humbly request

you to educate me on these points.

 

praNAms.

 

In Thy service,

Madhava

 

 

 

 

 

T.Madhava Kumar

12-2-2000

 

 

 

Blessed Self,

 

Om Namo Narayanaya! Salutations!

 

Just now I saw your letter about the four

setions of the Vedas and the four Ashrams. The four sections of theVedas are

intended to educate and evolve the sadhak from his jeeva-hood to the Divine

Stature. The Mantra Bhaga is the foundation in which every thing is so

profound that the deeper your delve the greater will be the growth of our

understanding. It is the basis for the evolution of the man from the Tamasic

to Sattvic levels and help him to highject himself into the Infinite.

 

At the lowest level man is tamasic and has got all ross desires for

objective enjoyment. For him the Brahmanas provide the physical performance

of yagnas and yagas with cumbersome karma knada with a threat that adverse

results will follow if he misses any one of the detailed rituals. For fear

of the adverse results, he has to be very alert and diligent in the

performance of sacrifices. Along with rituals, some upasanas are also

prescribed optionally to get superior results. Attrcted by the promise of

higher results when the upasanas also are done, he evolves quickly from

tamas to rajas. Then he beomes wiser and wonder whether it is really

worthwhile to keep so many desires to be fulfilled at such a great risk.

Then the Aranyakas step in to guide him that it would be better to meditate

on the One Supreme God who has total knowledge & powers to satisfy all

desires. Thus he gives up actual sacrfices and r! etires to forests and

performs mental upasanas. BY the time the mind is purer, nobler and it

understand the depth of meaning of All-Pervading, Omnicient etc. Then he

knows that God must be every where and formless in all. Tis quietnes his

rajoguna and he becomes sattivc enough to know that All-Pervading God means

present within also. Thus he becomes fit for the last section, Upanishads

and reaches the Supreme Self within.

 

In all the three sections of Brahmanas., Aranyakas and

Upanishads, the Mantras of the first section are used..with physical

applications in the Brahmanas, with esoteric meanings in Upasanas to

indicate the Impersonal God beyond the names and forms, and finally in the

Upanishads with a deeper meaning applied to the Self within. This interlink

between the different sections is described in Mundaka and other Upanishads

also.

 

2) The four Ashramas sre to gradually evolve an ordinary HImdu into

a better personality as he grows up...studentship, householder's

responsibilities, retirement from earnng and acquiring but fully dedicated

to religious practices in nearby forests, and finally renunciation to get

fully detached from society and the body and live for realisation.

 

With Prem and Om

 

 

Thy Own Self,

 

 

Saradapriyananda

 

 

 

 

_____

 

 

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