Every word of Vedas? A bit more

[Guest guest]

Good Morning Benjamin,

I thought that I should add a little more before moving on to my next posting

which will in fact have some more to say on this topic of authority in the

RgVeda.

We are very fortunate in South Asian culture that we have thousands of years of

development of its original teaching available for us to study today. Although

the invevitable corruption and exploitation of the texts occured regularly there

has always been the thread of purity, in accordance with the concept of Rta

(this is the prototype for the later teaching of dharma) that all-pervading

order in the universe. This is where the purity of intention is so important.

Very early on after the appearance of the Vedas in a written form there

developed six ways for students to get at the meaning of the hymns while

maintaining the all-imporatant purity. These were called the Vedangas. I will

be looking more at these in a later posting but here is a short extract from

that posting:

 

'The Vedangas were first numbered as six in the SadviMSa BrAhmaNa of the SAma

Veda where they are said to be the limbs of the goddess SvAhA, consort of Agni.

In the Mundaka Upanishad, the rishi Angiras gives the traditional teaching on

the two kinds of knowledge to be acquired, dve vidye veditavye:

 

‘..There are two kinds of knowledge to be acquired; the higher and the lower,

this is what, as tradition runs, the knowers of the import of the Vedas say.

 

Of these, the lower comprises the Rgveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, the

science of pronunciation, ShikshA, the code of rituals, kalpaH, grammar,

vyAkaranam, etymology, niruktam, metre, chandah and astrology, jyotisham. Then

there is the higher knowledge by which is realised that immutable, aksharam.’

Mundaka Up. I.1.4,5.'

 

 

 

I will particularly be looking at the etymology of YAska in this study but it is

important to note that each of these is important if we are to fully appreciate

the meaning of the hymns.

 

In the light of my last reply to you, I particulary want to consider chanda,

translated above a metre but think of it as the English development in the word

'chant'.

 

I have said that when I read the OT psalms I have trouble with the stanzas

demanding obliteration of my enemies and what seems to be calls for wealth for

'me'.

 

And yet if I sit back and listen or join in with the Gregorian chant my

interpretation of the words vanishes as the waves of sound open the heart. Is

it just that the beauty of the chant is a superimposition on the meaning of the

words? Maybe.

 

But in the Vedic tradition the chant is integral with the meaning of the

mantras. To separate one vedanga from the others in our study, as we must do in

the constraints of the Web, is prone to error if we lose the overall unity. That

is why I posted the audio sites so that people would be able to hear the mantras

as well as read them.

 

 

 

May I give some personal examples. Twenty years ago my wife was an evangelical

Christian convinced by the claimed exclusiveness of her adopted tradition. For

many years I have worked to bring members of different religious traditions

together in Interfaith activities. At one such event in a London synagogue a

young boy chanted verses from the Koran. My wife dissolved in tears for she

heard, in the classical Arabic chant, a meaning far beyond the English

translation being given. Some years later, while we were staying at Ramanashram,

I always knew where to find her when she had gone missing. She would be in the

hall listening to the Vedas and Upanishads being chanted. Now, with both the

latter and the Koran, there is a connection with a deeper level of meaning

through chant; this connection occurs in the eternality of what was called the

'sound of the Vedas' in my earlier posting. I believe the same is true for the

Coptic chants in the Christian tradition.

 

That there are levels of meaning, in the same sounds, in accordance with

intention I would like to demonstrate from personal experience again.

 

I was with a group of teachers, on retreat, studying our chosen subjects for the

purposes of setting up a new school syllabus. In a neighbouring room the

musicians were singing in various harmonies. The sound they were making was

exquisitely beautiful and much enjoyed as a background to my own study. The time

came to meditate, that sattvic time of evening was obvious but the musicicians

had become absorbed and attached to the beauty of their music, rajas had become

dominated by tamas to put the evnt into the terminology of the gunas. As the

rest of the large house settled into meditation the singers continued to sing.

Suddenly there was a switch in 'my' hearing of their sounds. From exquisite

beauty their sound became ugly, discordant. Their leader must have heard this

too in the larger quiet emerging in the house. They stopped singing and joined

in with the quiet.I would suggest that this had to do with the correct time and

place which is part of the teaching in the kalpa vedanga.

 

I have had many other personal examples of the meaning of an outer sound

changing as more subtle sounds appear. Hence my main present study into meaning

and ineffability in language. But I will not go down that path for the moment.

I just wanted to offer this thought about the importance of hearing our ancient

traditions chanted in a manner as close to that in which they were first

sounded. Just reading the English translation gives but a limited meaning

although but even this limited meaning contains the essence of the original, if

we can peel away the covering.

 

 

 

I hope that this is of use,

 

 

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

Benjamin <orion777ben wrote:

 

Hi Kenji,

 

Let me ask you a pesky question right here, before we get started.

 

I don't doubt there is much sublime inspiration in the Vedas, but I

also wonder if EVERY word is so divine.

 

For example, I have read that much of the Vedas is simply concerned

with obtaining material wealth from the Gods, sons, cattle, etc.

 

The prayers to Greek Gods were no better than this!

 

Is it perhaps a bit too pious to say that EVERY word is divine?

 

Hope this doesn't arouse too much reaction from Brahmins! :-)

 

Hari Om!

Benjamin

 

 

 

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