RE: Re:Shrisha Rao's reply to my letter- Dig est Number 148

[Guest guest]

Continuing the discussion on points raised by Shri Cavale

2. For the sake of an argument they can agree that Vedas could be the real

Truth that is there, but the people who transmit them can cause some

distortion about the real message that the Vedas carry. As the Vedas were

kept in the people's memory rather than on a tangible structure like a

book

or engravings, it can not be the original correct revelation of Truth.

 

According to vedic scholors and gurus, without the process of writing the

rishis had devised many ways to prevent errors from creeping into the vedas.

They had numerous safegaurds, infact in Shikshvalli(Taittareeya Upanishad,

which I have started to learn ) it begins with

Seeksham Vyakhyaa syaamah- varna Swarah- Maatraa balam- saama Santaanah)

 

Seeksha deals with Varna, Swara, Maatra, Strength, Saama and Santaanah.

 

They have a foolproof method to chant each mantra in various patterns and

combinations known as Vaakya, pada, Krama, Jata, Maala, Sikha, rekha,

Dhwaja, Danda, Ratha, Ghana etc.,

 

Sometimes we hear Vedas being chanted in various ways back and forth and I

learnt that this was not only to please our ears, create happiness within us

or to create that natural grandness but the main object was to ensure that

there is no mistake in the original meaning or sound pattern of words. This

is true with other patterns of Karmam, Jata, Sikha, Maala etc.,

 

Not going into more details, the whole system of chanting vedas was devised

in ancient times to preserve the purity of the word, sound, intonation,

pronounciation, accent and sound combinations of the vedas. How much time

should be taken to utter each word, how to regulate breathing so that the

vibrations can occur at a particular part of the body to give rise to the

pure word is laid out in the vedanga, Seeksha. Thus this system advocates an

error less method of preserving and teaching vedas.

 

Best wishes,

 

/Phanindra Mankale

 

Om Shri Raghavendraya Namah:

 

 

napsrao

Raja R Cavale

Cc:

8/29/99 9:31 PM

Re: Re:Shrisha Rao's reply to my letter-

Digest Number 148

 

napsrao <napsrao

 

Dear friend,

In reply to your specific point about distortion being

inevitable in transmission, I have 3 points to make :

1. Distortion can be in the words, sentences and structure of

the composition.

2. It can be there in the meaning ascribed to a faithful

rendering of the original.

3. It can be also there, when the original is not free from

ambiguity as in the case of say - The constitution of a country.

The first one can only be taken care of by the method of

transmission from one generation to the next. Let me quote Prof

Maxmuller on this - reg. the Vedas.- copied from an article

being written for Thathvavada (English)

As an introduction, let me quote some extracts from the book -

" What can India teach us? " containing some lectures by the

great Orientalist scholar F. Maxmuller. A few quotations have

been given at random mainly to show the profound effect that

western scholars with different cultural, civilisational and

intellectual perspectives have had on our thinking. I have no

intention here of critically evaluating these in depth.

" That the Veda is full of childish, silly, even to our minds

monstrous conceptions, who would deny? But even these

monstrosities are interesting and instructive; nay, many of

them, if we can but make allowance for different ways of thought

and language, contain gems of truth and rays of light, all the

more striking, because breaking upon us through the veil of the

darkest night "

" Now the Rigveda alone, which contains a collection of ten books

of hymns addressed to various dieties consists of 1017 poems,

10580 verses and about 153,826 words. How were these poems

composed - for they are composed in very perfect metre - and

how, after having been composed, were they handed down from 1500

before Christ to 1500 after Christ, the time to which most of

our best Sanskrit MSS belong? Entirely by memory. This may

sound startling, but - what will sound still more startling, and

yet is a fact that can easily be ascertained by any body who

doubts it - at the present moment, if every MS of the Rigveda

were lost, we should be able to recover the whole of it - from

the memory of the Shrothriyas of India " .

There is no doubt what so ever that the method of their

retention in the racial memeory was carefully crafted that there

is no distortion with time.

Regarding the second point, one does require a continuing

civilisation and interpretational aids for the compositions -

which Hindus do have, unlike most others. Most of the theories

about " writing of the Vedas " ,

epics etc are attributable in their original form to western

scholars who have tried to sustain a calendar of events

corresponding to the Biblical age of earth.

Regrading the third point, amendments are needed when what is

being stated does not correspond to reality - due to change or

due to incomplete or ambiguous contents. This does not even

arise when eternal truths are being stated after their discovery

by great scholars with the blessings of the Supreme Being.

Let me sum up, by saying that we can not have any confidence in

a belief system which is unsupported by any structure other than

some thing like the Vedas - short of the Supreme being coming

down and PERSONALLY telling us the truths. No intermediaries can

be accepted for obvious reasons. Hindus strongly believe that

Truths are visualised and not just accepted on authority from

others.

NAPSRao

 

 

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nAham kartA hariH kartA tatpUjA karmachaakhilam.h|

taThaapi matkR^itaa pUja tatprasaadhEna naanyaThaa|

tadbhakti tadphalam.h mahyam.h tatprasaadaat.h punaH punaH |

karmanyaasO harAvevam.h vishNOsthR^iptikaraH sadhA ||

 

" I am not the doer, shri Hari is the doer, all the actions that I do are

His worship. Even then, the worship I do is through His grace and not

otherwise. That devotion and the fruits of the actions that come to me

are due to His recurring grace "

If one always practices to do actions with a dedicated spirit to Hari,

in this way, it pleases Vishnu.

--- Quoted by Sri madhvAchArya in GitA tAtparya