Vedic Dharma

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna. Pranam to all Vaishnavas,

Vedic Dharma

Sanatana Dharma (Righteousness for ever ‘of’ that which has no beginning orend), is a truthful way of life. It basically started with Sruti “that which is heard”. The master of vedic age called Rishis, heard eternal truths in their heart and they taught their disciples orally, by transfer of thoughts which were later compiled as Scriptures. Saint Chadrasekhara Saraswati (former Sankaracharya of Kanchi

Mutt) had cured the chronic ailment of a rich devotee, just by making him distribute free of cost several copies of scriptures like Bhagavatam and Ramayanam to poor devotees.

Vedic rituals

For performing vedic rituals (with a high fidelity to scriptural injection and tradition, and with deep devotion , earnestness and application), ‘satwic’ persons with vast knowledge and deep devotion are required. The Scriptures have entrusted Brahmanas, with this duty.

Bhagavan Krishna says in Gita, chapter 17, sloka 23 & 24 :

” It is said that om, tat and sat are the three words used to indicate brahma, theSupreme Absolute Reality. Brahmanas, the Vedas and Yajnas were originallycreated from these three words. Therefore, dedicated followers of the Vedasalways commence the performance of sacrifices, charities, austerities andactivities prescribed in scriptures by uttering the sacred syllable om. “

Sri Krishna defines ‘Brahmanas’ in Gita, chapter 18, sloka 42 :

“ Control of the mind and senses, penance, purity, tolerance, simplicity, knowledge of the self and of bhajana and firm faith and realization in sastra, are the characteristic qualities and duties (karma) of the brahmanas born of their own natures “ .

The fact that Brahmanas have helped immensely the task of protecting the vedic dharma as the upholders and preachers of it has to be admitted by all .

Unfortunately in this difficult age ’Kali Yuga’, even virtuous persons are tempted by materialism to deviate from their ‘prescribed duties’. The widespread disrespect of Brahmanas has forced many of them to give up vedic path and look for other avenues. This phenomenon has gradually deteriorated vedic faith thereby depriving ‘divine grace ‘ to it’s followers. Saint Chandrasekharara Sarasvathi strongly advised the believers of ‘Santana Dharma’ to fulfil their obligations towards ‘Devtas’ by offering the required vedic rituals (to be

performed by Brahmanas) without fail . He confirmed that a devotee who makes such an offering gets it’s benefit regardless of correctness on the part of the Priest.

Bhagavan Krishna says in Gita , Chapter 3, Slokas 11,12 & 13 :

“May you please the devatas by this yajna, and may they please you in turn by granting your desired fruits. Satisfying one another in this way you will attain the supreme auspicious goal. Being pleased by your yajna, the devatas will award you your desired goals. Therefore a person who enjoys the ingredients given by the devatas, without first offering them to the devatas, is certainly a thief. Saintly persons who accept the remnants of yajna become free from sin, but those who cook grains and other foodstuffs for

their own sake are sinful, and certainly partake of sin.”

The above logic is also applicable to religious practices like marriages. Such functions strengthen human relations and help distribution of wealth in the society, by way of direct and indirect assistance to several needy people.

Spiritual Enlightenment

At the time of death, the body dies but the soul never dies. The soul passes from one body to another after the death, like a body changes clothes, the soul goes on taking endless number of bodies; until it pays off all the karmas attached to the soul. The path the soul takes is decided by the past actions, popularly known as "Karmas". After death the soul seeks an ideal body to be born again. So if one is born rich or poor - it is because of his actions in previous life. Thus a man continues the journey of life and death with karmas attached to it from one life to another by undergoing pain or pleasure. The different methods of god realization provide an easy way to put an end to the drama. Then the individual soul, which is called "Jeeva" (a finite form of the supreme), will realize the Supreme Godhead. This ‘self realization’ is called Enlightenment.

Bhagavan Krishna confirms in Gita , Chapter 18, Slokas 65 & 66 :

“Offer your mind to Me ; become My bhakta by hearing and chanting, etc, about My names, forms, qualities and pastimes ; worship Me and offer obeisances to Me. In this way, you will certainly come to Me. I promise you this truthfully because you are very dear to Me. Completely abandoning all bodily and mental dharma, such as varna and asrama, fully surrender to Me alone. I shall liberate you from all reactions to your sins. Do not grieve.”

In order to reach enlightenment, a human being could adopt different methods of God realization which are as follows -

Karma Yoga – It is a system of attaining freedom through selfless actions. The word “Karma” means “to do”, thus Karma means work. The Karmas which we do dictate our past, present and future. An individual should engage himself in good karmas. Jnana Yoga – It is a system of reaching enlightenment by adopting the path of knowledge. Bhakti Yoga – Bhakti Yoga comes from the word “Bhaj” which means “to be attached to”. Through this the devotee goes for total surrender to the supreme God and in this process a total dissolution of “I” or “Ego” takes place.

Conclusion

‘Eternal truths’ of ‘Sanatana Dharma’ can not be compromised to accommodate those hypocritical “liberal views” of modern, ‘man-made’ religions. All vedic followers must be aware of the following decree of Lord Krishna , ( Gita, Chapter 4, Sloka 40) :

ajnas casraddadhanas ca / samsayatma vinasyatinayam loko 'sti na paro / na sukham samsayatmanah( Those who are ignorant, faithless and of a doubting nature are ruined. For the doubting person, there is happiness neither in

this world nor in the next. )

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA!!!

SriKrishnaDasa Rajeev

---------------------------

Original Message : Kalpana Subramanian <kalpana_arvind1> wrote:Has anyone in the group done any research on the origin of the sect - brahmins? Obviously in the beginning of the world, people were not born brahmins.. The scholars were considered the brahmins, the kings/warriors kshatriyas, the merchants vaishyas and the other menial workers who really did the majority of the hard physical work were considered (unfairly) as the 'low-caste'.. So how did this become so deep-rooted that all these sub-sects have

to become their own factions, and keep up all the millions of rituals and try to be different in some way from every other sub-group?? How is this kind of partitioned system going to promote unity among the people..?? One of my colleagues at work in the US asked me- if the caste system were really based on trade/skill, does a learned low-caste man get promoted to 'brahminism'?? Logical question, and I felt ridiculous to say that was no reason enough to 'become' a brahmin and actually there was no way anyone could really be converted into brahminism.. which really boils down to the fact that there

is really nothing that dilineates a brahmin from the rest of the world..one has to lead a good life and follow good values and principles irrespective of which club one belongs to.. I suppose in the old ages, brahmins were noted for their knowledge of the scriptures/sanskrit, wisdom, soft-nature and orthodoxy/vegetarianism.. Today there is really no such quality that truly sets a brahmin apart from the rest.. many modern brahmins are non-vegetarians (bengali brahmins have always been non-vegetarians, so I wonder what the big deal is with the rest of the brahmins not eating meat.. anyways..) Today brahmins do business, and are in the army, there are good ones and corrupt

ones like in any other religion.... so should we not re-visit the very basis of our existence or rather, the existence of the group called 'brahmins'.. exactly who are we?? Any further thoughts on this would be helpful.. Also, I personally feel there is no need to form groups specially for iyers/iyengars/nadars or whatever.. the kinds of messages in such grps that I read seem to be very generic and mostly applicable to anyone.. What's the purpose - to become more narrow-minded and know only what brahims do?? Why not learn abt how other people across the world do things very well?? Think outside the box..I personally think we should get away

from such factions and clannish thinking and be more open to other races/cultures/'so-called religions.. we need to remember that in the beginning there was only one man and one woman on the earth who produced all the generations that came later.. and no-one knows if that person was hindu/muslim/iyer or whatever.. Down the ages, we have conveniently kept some traditions and forgotten some other basic ones.. if we want to celebrate a wedding as if we lived abt 300 years ago (jaanavasam on the road/kaasi yathrai, and invite the whole town to the wedding, etc.) we need to go back and ride in bullock carts instead and forget about

air-conditioning, etc... why get modern only for some conveniences?? anyways, there is no end to this line of thought, so I will stop here. But the thought really irks me that we constantly complain about the lack of unity in our country and yet we promote our own rules and dogmas so staunchly and rigidly within each and every sub-sect as if it were the only one that ever existed!! My argument is on a different plane and I am questioning the fact that the peoples of the world are so divided and narrowly focused on their own little worlds that they have lost focus of the whole picture.. If you think about it, the

attititude should be that the whole world is one family.. /Kalpana

ALL-NEW Messenger - all new features - even more fun!