The Real and the Unreal - In praise of Veda Vyasa ! .....

[Guest guest]

Our beloved Chitta-ji writes...

 

" Vyasa is not merely a person – he is the soul that occupies a

position in the manifestation of Reality, just like Indra and Varuna

are positions occupied during a cycle of creation by souls with the

requisite merits............"

 

OH! chitta-chitta! These words touched my heart. Veda VYASA was not

a person- He was an institution. Just few weeks ago , we celebrated

the 'Vyasa Puja' - on this day, not only the Great Veda Vyasa is

honored and worshipped but all the Gurus. Thus Vyasa has become a

synonym for THE INSTITUITION OF 'Guru'

 

Chitta observes ,

 

"Vyasa is the amsha of Ishwara that manifests at this point in human

history to compile the wisdom of Sanathana Dharma so that the light

of the Vedas may not flicker out in the dark age of Kali. That is

His Leela. "

 

Yes , veda vyasa is the 'amsha' of Ishvara. In fact, Adi Shankara

Bhagvadapada himself worshipped Veda VYasa as an avatar of Lord

Vishnu. ( VIBHAVA AVATAR-when the Lord incarnates in the form of a

sage or a rishi.)

 

one of the The dhyana slokas of Sri Vishnu Shasaranama goes like

this ...

 

Vyasaya vishnuroopaya vyasaroopaya vishnave |

Namo vai brahmanidhaye vasisthaya namo namah ||

 

Hail thee, Vyasa, again and again; Thou God in human form, Thou scion

of Vasistha's race. It is from Thee that all knowledge springs !

 

 

Where Vedavyasa is addressed as "vishnuroopaya" ( a form of vishnu)

 

Adi Shankaracharya, wrote the Bhashya (word-to-word meaning) of the

1000 names of Vishnu that are there in this sahasranama stotra, in

the 6th century ad. The story of writing this is also an interesting

one. Actually, being a great Devi devotee he wanted to write the

commentary on the Lalita sahasranama stotra and asked a disciple to

bring the text. The dicple brought the Vishnu sahasranama text. Twice

this mistake was repeated and then Shree Shankaracharya heard a

Divine voice asking him to write the commentary on the Vishnu

sahasranama.

 

(http://www.astrojyoti.com/contents.htm - 71k - Cached )

 

also, Veda vyasa presented the Vedas to the world on a full moon day.

(pournami). What is the significance of a full moon? - The mind

should be as bright and pure as a full moon. The full moon has no

blemishes. And our most beloved Kenji would say to understand the

cosmic mystery of the universe (rta), we need a 'pure' and

a 'blemish' less mind free of impurities.

 

Veda Vyasa was the ADI guru.

 

SHANKARA BHAGVADAPADA IS THE JAGAD GURU.

 

sruti smriti purAnAnAm

Alayam karuNAlayam

namAmi bhagavatpAdam

sankaram lOkasankaram

 

We salute the sacred feet of Sri Sankara, the abode of Srutis,

Smritis, Puranas and of compassion, and who ever accomplishes the

good of the world !

 

(http:www.asanet.com/sringeri/journal/vol1no1/pranams.html )

 

Now, on another note ....(power of the intellect?)

 

Swami Krishnananda says this on Vyasa Puja day at the Divine Life

society ...

 

"However, the Sutrakara, the author, Vyasa Krishnadvaipayana tells us

that even the fact that God created the universe, everything is

sustained by Him and everything returns to Him, is something that we

cannot know with the power of our intellect merely. Intellect is

insufficient to understand even this fact of the creatorship, etc.,

of the Supreme Being. The scripture is the authority. Revelation is

our guide. The ancient teachers' proclamations are to be our light.

Or else, our poor brains cannot know that God created this world.

 

So, "Sastra-yonitvat" is the third Sutra, because of the fact that

Sastra or the scripture is the base or the foundation of the

knowledge of God as the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer. Therefore,

the authority finale is Sastra. Pratyaksha and Anumana—perception and

inference—are not sufficient. Because, perception is direct operation

of the senses in regard to visible things, and God is not a visible

object. Therefore, God cannot be regarded as an object of Pratyaksha

Pramana or proof of perceptional operations of the senses. So it

fails. Inference is based on perception; we cannot, therefore, regard

inference also as finally valid, because there are inferential

philosophies which deny the existence of God. Sankhya is one, and we

have many other schools of very profound philosophy even in the West,

all based on very incisive logic,—induction, deduction, etc. But,

they come to the conclusion that we may exist and the world can go on

even without a God. So it is not true that the intellect is always a

safe guide in coming to the conviction that God is the Creator,

Preserver and Destroyer. God is not an object of either sensory

perception or inferential logic. This knowledge can come to us only

by instruction from a master, from a Guru, through revelation which

is recorded in the scriptures. Sastra is the scripture, which is the

document available to us of the revelations of the great masters.

So, `Agama Pramana'—scriptural or revelatory authority—is final.

 

This can be corroborated by the statements of the Upanishads

themselves, says the author in the fourth Sutra, "Tattu Samanvayat. "

 

(snip)

 

Many Sutras convey no meaning at all, if you study them merely from

the grammatical point of view. In some Sutras there are only one or

two words which give us no sense. To cite only one such case, one

Sutra merely says, "Smaryate cha"—which means, `it is remembered.'

What is remembered, we cannot understand. The commentators are the

receivers of the tradition. "Sampradaya Acharyaih", these are the

words uttered by Acharya Sankara. He says, `We know it through the

tradition of the great masters.' He does not say, `Through my logic I

understand.' Sankara, though he was a master logician, was also a

great respector of ancient tradition and Gurus. That is the humility

of the great man, together with the power of his intellect. "

 

(http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/fest/fest_08.html - 40k - Cached) -

 

WHAT BEAUTIFUL WORDS! we can never understand the great scriptural

texts by intellect alone ; only by guru's grace or ANUGRAHAM! How

else can we explain the wonderful discourse given by Ken-ji ( born

and bred in England , went to Benaras, india in the springtime of

his youth and met Mata AMRITANANDAMOYI and Pandit Kavirajand returned

years later to master the sanskrit language and then learn the Rig

veda . RESULT- we advaitins also benefitted from this transmission of

guru's grace.)

 

HARI AUM TAT SAT!