Eligibility to read the shruti

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

This is a good topic that deserves a separate thread.

 

There is no restriction to study sruti besides one's eligibility to do it. And what is this eligibility? Sruti states that sudras have no eligibility to study sruti, but sruti also states that a sudra is anyone who is grief-stricken.

Some would argue on the strength of the following verse that only those who have received mantra-diksha are qualified brahmanas:

 

janmana jayate sudrah

samskarad bhaved dvijah

 

"By birth one is a sudra, but by the purificatory process (of samskaras) one becomes a dvija."

 

Thus some would conclude that those who have not undergone the purificatory ceremonies of pancha-samskara (tapa, pundra, nama, etc.) should not study the shruti.

 

Others, may interpret 'samskara' to refer to the ten purificatory ceremonies of Vedic culture (beginning with garbhadana samskara, etc.). Thus one not purified by such processes should not read or recite from the shruti.

 

Shankaracharya argues that a shudra (one who has not undergone purification through samskara) should have molten lead poured down their throats if they recite the shruti.

 

Of course today the shruti is something like Time Magazine or Newsweek, where it is thrown here and there and quoted by any and everyone without discretion.

 

According to traditional Vedantists, the shruti should not be treated in such an open manner. It is a great secret only revealed to the highly qualified and pure soul under the guidance of the Guru. Thats quite a bit different then the modern method of ordering the Upanishads through amazon.com or some other book store, reading them, and expecting to somehow become realized by the external mechanical process without the guidance of the sat-guru.

 

So what does the world do when practically no one possesses the internal qualification to study the shruti? For this reason we have been given the Puranas, which contain the same absolute conclusions as found in the shruti, but they are presented especially for the common man. In this sense, the Puranas are even more valuable then the Vedas in the modern age.

 

When I get time I will post some nice excerpts from Sri Jiva Goswami's Tattva Sandarbha regarding the special position of the Puranas in the age of Kali.

 

[This message has been edited by jndas (edited 07-13-2001).]

[shvu]

 

janmana jayate sudrah

samskarad bhaved dvijah

Where is the above said?

 

Shankaracharya argues that a shudra (one who has not undergone purification through samskara) should have molten lead poured down their throats if they recite the shruti.

May I ask where he argues thus?

 

Thanx

 

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

I think a more accurate quote is that they should have lead poured in their ears for hearing shruti, and their tongues cut out fro chanting shruti. Anyway, here is a translation of Shankara's Brahma Sutra bhasya to 1.3.38 (translation by Ramakrishna Matha):

 

'By the smriti he is debarred from hearing, studying and acquiring the

meaning of the vedas. The smriti mentions that a sudra has no right to

hear the vedas, no right to study the vedas, and no right to acquire the

meaning of the vedas and perform the rites. As for probhition of hearing

we have the text 'Then should he happen to hear the vedas, the expiation

consists in his ears being filled with lead and lac [Gau. Dharma sutra 52].'

'He who is a Sudra is a walking crematorium. Hence one should not read in

the neighbourhood of a Sudra [Vasistha, 18]... Then there is

the chopping off of his tongue if he should utter the vedas and the

cutting of the body to pieces if he should commit it to memory [Gau.

dharma sutras, 12.4]...'

 

[Guest guest]

According to traditional Vedantists, the shruti should not be treated in such an open manner. It is a great secret only revealed to the highly qualified and pure soul under the guidance of the Guru. (Jndas)

 

Sri Caitanya has ordered His followers to always utter the mantra Hare Krsna that is a Upanisadic mantra. This mantra is a very deep secret from Upanisads and identical to Omkara in all aspects. He has opened sruti in a very revolutionary way and was severely criticized at His time by all kind of Vedantis, smartas, and so on. He also has instructed Satyaraj Khan that no Guru's guidance was necessary to have this secret revealed.

 

Sri Caitanya's movement to wildly spread the essence of all Vedic hymns in such a sublime way is to be considered the main evidence of His divine character and universal guruship. Instead to search after some loosen slokas from dubious sastras, His followers should point out this practical example to proof Sri Caitanya's divine character and exceptional position among all sadhus and gurus. Even the most obstinate Vedantist would accept this evidence.

 

Therefore, as sruti has been completely opened and freely distributed by such a mahabhagavata, the argument that 'the modern method of ordering the Upanishads through amazon.com or some other book store, reading them, and expecting to somehow become realized by the external mechanical process' is a bogus process have no basis. Everyone will have some benefic result by studding sastras proportional to individual's qualification. Isn't Gita itself an Upanisad?

 

For certain it is good to go to a school and to have a good instructor. But Hari states that He will give intelligence (yoga-buddhi) to attain Him according to individual's surrender to Him. And Sri Caitanya's Siksastakam 1st sloka provides the method on how to study sruti.