Peace invocation from Vedas

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FROM THE VEDAS

 

Om saha navavatu

Saha nau bhunaktu

Saha viryam karavivahai

Tejasvinavadhîtamastuma vidvishavahai

Om shanti, shanti, shanti

Om.

May He protect us both. May He help us both to enjoy the fruits of

scriptural study. May we both exert together to find the true meaning

of the sacred text. May our studies be fruitful. May we never quarrel

with each other. Om Peace! Peace! Peace!

 

 

Krishna Yajur Vedataittiriya Upanishad 2.2.2

 

 

Knowledge Travels on Harmony

 

 

Averting contention and achieving a union of minds

 

 

Commentary by Swami Chinmayanand

 

This peace invocation is chanted both by the teacher and the taught every day during the study of the Vedas. In thus reminding themselves, before their study each day, that they are to exert themselves together in order to experience the Truth of the Upanishads, they get more and more tuned up with each other. This condition of perfect unison between the teacher and the taught is unavoidable in the study of the subjective science, Vedanta.

As in the modern colleges, Vedanta cannot be learned merely from the bazaar notes. A deep and intimate personal experience is to be conveyed by the teacher in teaching the students. A transcendental experience that inspires the experiencer to a complete sublimation of his ego-centric consciousness cannot become a theme that can be sung through the flimsy instrument of language. Therefore, the success in understanding the Vedas and ultimately gaining the experiences of its Truth is dependent entirely upon the seeker's capacity to tune himself to the Master's own intimate experiences which are expressed vaguely in the intuitive song sung by him in the finite language of the text.

This perfect unison between the teacher and the taught generally gets molested by some misunderstanding between them. It may be either in the form of the teacher's dissatisfaction towards his student, or it can be due to the student's misjudgment of the teacher's attitude or words. If either of them suffers from a similar clogging of the heart, they become, as it were, " shortcirculated, " and the transference of knowledge is immediately blockaded. In order to avoid such a sad plight and to assure a perfect tune up—both from the teacher to the taught and from the taught to the teacher—this stanza with all sincerity is chanted daily by the preceptor and the disciple. Any constriction of heart in either of them towards the other will screen off the flow of light and love between them. Unless there are the unseen beams of mutual love and respect, the reverence and admiration connecting the thrilled heart of the inspired saint and the thirsty head of the sincere students, no actual transaction of Truth-experience can take place. Upanishad being a subjective science, these adjustments are unavoidable.

In the Vedanta classroom, the teacher writes with words on the heart slabs of the boys; the students read the golden letters of knowledge in the light of kindling love, and understand them with a " head " peeping out of his " heart. " In the still moments of its silent inspirations, in quick and brilliant flashes, the boy experiences the Truth transcendental.

Hence the chanting of peace-passage both in the beginning and in the end of each chapter and each day.

 

Swami Chinmayananda (1917-1993), Vedantist writer, lecturer, translator, dynamic spiritual leader and Hindu renaissance founder of Chinmaya Mission International

 

 

The Vedas are the divinely revealed and most revered scriptures, sruti, of Hinduism, likened to the Torah (1,200 bce), Bible New Testament (100 ce), Koran (630 ce) or Zend Avesta (600 bce). Four in number, Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva, the Vedas include over 100,000 verses. Oldest portions may date back as far as 6,000 BCE

 

Coutesy: www.hinduismtoday.com-- devishakti_india( divyabhakti

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