svara in veda mantras

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The importance of svara while chanting veda mantras.

 

When chanting veda mantras such as rudram, chamakam, purushasUktam, etc., it

is very important to see that no mistake is committed in the svara. There is

a famous verse which says that mistakes in chanting vedic mantras can lead

to disastrous consequences. The verse is:--

 

mantro hIna: svarato varNato vaa

 

mithyAprayukto na tamarthamAha|

 

sa vAgvajro yajamaAnam hinasti

 

yathendraSatru: svarato aparAthaat||

 

The meaning is:- Any deficiency or mistake in the pronunciation of a svara

or a letter will result in the mantra failing to convey the intended

meaning. It is like a verbal thunderbolt. It harms the performer of the

ritual, as it happened due to mistake in the svara in pronouncing the word

"IndraSatru:".

 

There is an anecdote in SrImad bhAgavata (skandha VI, ch.9) relating to

this. Once Indra asked ViSvarUpa, the son of TvashtA to perform a yAga for

the gods. During the yAga, ViSvarUpa gave some oblations to the asuras

because his mother was an asura woman. This angered Indra and he killed

ViSvarUpa. TvashtA, the father of ViSvarUpa, wanted to take revenge on Indra

and so he performed a yAga for producing a person who would kill Indra.

While making the oblations into the fire he chanted, "IndraSatro

vivardhasva". The meaning he intended for this expression was, "O, slayer of

Indra, grow mighty". But he made a mistake in the svara of the word

'IndraSatro'. So the meaning became "O, you who are to be killed by Indra'.

(By the change in the svara the word became a bahuvrIhi samAsa instead of a

tatpurusha samAsa). As a result, vRtrAsura who emerged from the sacrificial

fire was killed by Indra in a fight.

 

What is said above applies only to vedic mantras, which have svara such as

udAtta, anudAtta and svarita and not to other stotras, etc.

S.N.Sastri

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "S.N. Sastri" <sn.sastri wrote:

>

> The importance of svara while chanting veda mantras.

 

Sashtang pranams Sastri-ji.

Thank you for that extremely valuable advice/warning.

 

It is mightily important for us as sadhakas to not learn chanting of

important chants like purushasuktam and rudram directly from the book.

 

I have personally used this website to buy CDs which have wonderfully

authentic renditions of various chants like Aditya Hrdaya Stotram,

Rudram/Chamakam, Shrisuktam, etc.

 

http://www.matchless-gifts.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=23

 

There are many other sites online where you can freely download mp3s

of renditions of these different chants.

 

The trouble trying to chant from a direct reading of the books is that

one fails to grasp the right intonations and metres( esp. true for

rudram chanting) and as so beautifully pointed out by Sastri-ji fails

to derive the benefit of such chants.

 

Humble pranams to all vedantins

Sashtang pranams Sastriji

 

Shyam