Vivekananda on the Vedas part (10)

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We are presenting the following work by Sister Gayatriprana.

Your comments are welcome. Parts 1 to 9 were posted earlier. This is part 10 ... jay/Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 10

PART I:

THE ORIGINS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VEDAS AND VEDANTA

 

(continued......)

d) Vedic Studies in Gujerat, 1891 - 1892

At Porbandar, Swami Vivekananda was a guest at Sankar Pandurang’s place. He was the governor of Porbandar (Sudampur). Swami Vivekananda said that in the whole of India he had not seen Pandurang’s equal in Vedic learning. As a commentary on the Atharva Veda was not available, he compiled one himself. Swami Vivekananda used to speak with him in Sanskrit and in a short time become an adept in it. (13)

Sankar Pandurang [was] a learned pandit attached to the court of the Maharaja of Porbandar. At that time he was translating the Vedas and he also begged the Swami to remain and to help him in this extremely arduous task. So both worked constantly for several months, the Swami interesting himself more and more deeply in the study and interpretation of the Vedas, perceiving the greatness of thought contained therein. Here also, he finished reading the Mahabhashya, the great commentary of Patanjali on Panini’s grammar. (14)

The more he studied the Vedas, the more he pondered over the philosophies which the Aryan rishis had thought out, the surer he was that India was in very truth the mother of religions, the cradle of civilization, and the fountainhead of spirituality. But he was bitter in his soul that all this glory should seemingly lie buried under ignorance and that the millions were unconscious of it. He knew that the tides of the invasion of foreign cultures for centuries had incalculably swept away many of the glories of the culture of the race in the eyes of the people themselves, and that many of the pandits, who ought to be the custodians of this culture, had become mere chatterers of Sanskrit grammar and philosophy and were only as so many phonographic records of its past, without being possessed of its sprit and of the sense of responsibility as to their adding to that culture the fruits of original, intellectual and spiritual researches. (15)

During his stay in Khandwa, the civil judge gave a dinner to the Bengali residents in honor of Swami Vivekananda. Before going to attend the party, he took with him a book, which was a collection of some of the Upanishads, saying that there should be some reading of an interesting and instructive nature to pass the time usefully before and after dinner. When the guests arrived, he read some of the very intricate and abstruse passages and explained them in such a way as a boy could understand. There was among the guests Babu Pyerlal Ganguly, a pleader, who was held to be a more than average Sanskrit scholar of that part, who took the role of critic. But when he went on listening to the illuminating replies and comments of Swami Vivekananda, he felt himself vanquished. When the reading was finished, Pyari Babu whispered to Swami's host that Swami's very appearance foretold greatness. (16)

In the city of Bombay, Swami Vivekananda met Mr. Ramdas Chhabildas, a noted barrister... who cordially received him and requested Swami Vivekananda to live with him. The swami remained at his house and used to spend most of his time in pursuing his knowledge of the Vedas to a still further degree. Quite accidentally he met in Bombay Swami Abhedananda… who speaks of him as a soul on fire, tortured with emotion, and seething with ideas pertaining to the restoration of the spiritual consciousness of the ancient Hindus. (17)

In Poona, Swami Vivekananda met the renowned Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and he had great satisfaction in conversing with this great Vedic scholar upon many interesting subjects, remaining for ten days as a guest in his house. (18)

(to be continued......)