Deivathin Kural # 31 of (Vol 2) of 05 Oct 2007.

Om Namah Sivaya.Deivathin Kural # 31 of (Vol 2) of 05 Oct 2007.(continued from DK # 30 of 03 Oct 2007.)Mantra Yoga and Mantra Siddhi.86. There is one empire of 14 worlds, with an Emperor. For that Chakravarti, all life forms are citizens. The Empire is also 'Anaadi' and so is the Emperor. When you have an empire, emperor and citizens, you have to have Law also. When everything else in that empire is 'Anaadi', so should the Law be 'Anaadi'. That Law is the Veda. Only difference is that, the 'Anaadi' empire of 14 worlds is, temporarily permanent, going through the cycle of Creation, Sustenance and Growth, followed by Dissolution.87. The world comes into being, grows, gets dissolved; again comes into being, grows, gets dissolved; the cycle goes on and on. The Emperor and the Law of Governance; are for ever. At the beginning of each cycle, the Emperor creates the empowered bureaucracy and runs the whole show. Yoga saastra talks of a state of equanimity between the physical ear with its auditory capabilities and the cosmic 'Aakasa'. At that moment, the 'static' noice of the cosmos becomes readable, audible, discernible sounds. The God made bureaucracy thus becomes the first to read and understand the Veda Sounds. For example, for 'Pranava' Mantra, Parabrhma is the Rishi!88. Veda Adhyayana itself is a Mantra Yoga! You see, the moment any one utters a single Mantra of Veda in trying to start the process of what is Adhyayana, in that instant, there is a 'meeting of the individual's mind with a Mantra', however infinitesimal the meeting may be, there is a meeting. We know that Arterial blood flow can be discerned by bare hands, by touching suitable places in the body. This is indicative of, pulses of heart beat, blood pressure, whether there is fever or not and so on. This touching of the Arterial flow used to be known as to check the ,'Naadi'. This also has co-relation with distribution of fresh air to the various parts of the body. These movements of the blood and air, have a direct effect on the mind and vice-versa. That is to say that, vibrations in the Naadi affects feelings of anger, hate etc., and in turn, feelings and mental attitudes affect the vibrations in the Naadi. These are practically seen, in day to day life. If you are calm and cool, there is a corresponding pleasantness of face evident! That is why, there is a Tamil proverb, which says, "agaththin azhagu mugaththil theriyum!"89. Through Pranayama of Raja Yoga, these 'Naadi' pulses can be so controlled, as to avoid all the unnecessary feelings, attitudes and behaviour. So all the happiness and peace can be enjoyed, without any dependence on the the state of affairs in the material world! For this, if Raja Yoga is a path, so is Mantra Yoga, another route. When we chant a Mantra, the sound is created by the air of our breath, (the actual sound originating in Mooladhara or the lower tip of the spinal chord; Swadishtaana or lower abdomen; Manipooraka or the navel umbilicus; Anaahata or the heart; Visuddhi or the throat), passing through the throat, touching the tongue, upper and lower lips; is heard as the sound. So, this sound of the Akshara in turn causes those Nadis of those parts of the body to resonate, there by affecting the state of the persons mind accordingly. Veda Mantras are so formed as to avoid unwanted reactions of the mind, retaining only those that are beneficial for individual, society, all life forms and the whole world! The definition of a Mantra is, "...mananaath thraayate... ", meaning, "...that which protects by practice..." . The duty of all brahmins, that is 'ekavedi or dwivedi or trivedi or chaturvedi', is to keep chanting the Vedas, so as to benefit himself and the world at large.90 Siksha Saastra, tells as to how this chanting is to be done and how it is not to be done! "geethi, seegri, sira: kampi,thatha likita pataka: I anarthagna: (hi) alpa kantascha shadaite pataka adamaa: II" There are six types of things forbidden. They are, 'geethi'. Singing the Veda mantras in self styled tunes is not to be done. It has to be chanted only in its own fixed 'udaattam, anudaattam, swaritam' pronounciation as taught by the Adhyaapaka. Next don't is 'seegri'. You cannot speed up Veda pronounciation, while teaching or practicing, just because you have to catch up a bus or a train or even a plane! It is just not done! The efficiency of Vedas is adversely affected both by speeding up and slowing down! Another not to be done is, 'sira: kampi'. Shaking your head or body is not to be done. You have to sit in Padmasana or Sukhasana, with total attentiveness, as otherwise any movement of the body or head will adversely affect, the response of the 'Naadis', to the sounds of the Mantras. 'Likita pataka:', is the one who writes the Vedas down and reads from there. This is wrong. Vedas are to be heard and chanted. This I have elaborated in my earlier talks. Last point is about understanding the meaning of the Mantras being chanted. The meaning of 'anarthagna: ', is the one who does not understand or mis-understands. Veda Mantras should be understood and chanted. The last one, in the not to be done list, is 'alpa kandan'. When we chant the Vedas, it should be a full-throated recital and not a mumbling whisper. Veda Mantras benefit, by suitable responses in the vibrations of the Naadi of not only the individual chanting, but the all those who are listening. To spread the sounds of the Vedas, as much as possible in the atmosphere, should be the aim. So these six rules should be adhered to when chanting the Vedas.Usefulness of the Sound and Meaning.91. A point about 'anarthagna :'. Like Manikka Vachagar says in 'Siva Puranam', "....solliya pattin porul unarndu solluvar..." ,when we chant the Mantra understannding the meaning, the effect is more. Here an opposite idea occurred to me. I share it with you in a lighter vein. In the Sanskrit language, if you say some thing and then add a suffix, 'tharam', it is better than the previous. 'Veeryavath' means 'powerful'. 'Veeryavath tharam' means, 'more powerful'. In Chandokya Upanishad (I.I.10), it says that 'those who chant the 'Onkara Pranava Mantra', knowing the meaning, they get the effect which is, 'veeryavath tharam'. So this means that, those who chant it not knowing the meaning, are getting powerful effects, ie., 'veeryavath' . Adi Sankara in his bhashyam has said that, even when chanted without knowing the meaning, there is quite a good effect of the Pranava Mantra.92. Because, even while not knowing the meaning, the attitude that, 'my elders have told me and so I will do it / chant the mantra', is better than knowing the meaning and chanting! This attitude itself is more beneficial, than all the intellectual expertise. Especially in the case of Veda Uchcharanam, the beneficial effects of the correct pronounciation and the resultant resonance in the 'Naadi' of the person chanting and those listening in; is more important. The 'sound effect' is more immediate than the secondary effect of knowing the meaning. I would go one step beyond and say that, not knowing the meaning is even better than knowing. Say there is a collector. He recieves a letter from an unread rustic, who is a farmer, requesting some favour. He tells the collector, 'I do not know what is written here Sir! I told someone to write on my behalf. But the problem is like this.' Then he submits the application, explaining his position in a few words. The Collector, is likely to look at the application favourably. You may end up antogonising the Collector, if you put up a cogent case through the help of a lawyer! Now-a-days when, head-weight, pride and misuse of powers are on the increase, humbleness and humility seems very hard to find, I am just loudly thinking that, 'may be, trust and faith are more important than, intellectual understanding of Mantras!The Greatness of the Vedas.93. Veda is without an origin or end. It is not man made. It is the starting point for all creations. Is that all it's greatness? There are many more attributes of greatness about Vedas. Its sound causes resonance in the human being as well as in the atmosphere, benefitting all living things and the worlds. Not only are the human beings the beneficiaries, but also all living things. Nowhere else, that is in no other religious texts, such sentiments expressed such as, "...loka : samastha : sukhino bhavanthu; sarve jana : sukhino bhavanthu... " inclusive of, "...te dvipath chatushpath. ..", meaning thereby, "...let all the worlds be comfortable; let all people be comfortable; ... ", going on to include, "...two legged animals and four legged animals, ...grass, weeds, trees, mountains, rivers...sun, moon and stars...", praying for the well being of the whole Universe. All this is not only wished for, but happens by the special sounds of the Vedas.94. Not only the special sound effects, Vedas also deserve admiration and respect, for the superior thought processes, unthinkable by other religions! Broad minded, un-parochial intellectuals of any country and any religion, are uniformly awestruck at the enormity of the greatness of thoughts; literary fineness of expressions; the beauty and delicateness in handling social life situations; high religious principles; moral advices of eternal values; scientific views and concepts yet to be fathomed, deciphered or even comprehended; and so on. There is no end to the Vedas and or it's greatness either!95. The Mantras, since they have vibratory sound effect, they do not have to have any sensible meaning. In day-to-day life, do we not enjoy 'Raaga Aalaapana', without a word or meaning? Does not the sound effect of the 'Raaga' itself suffice? Scientific experiments have proved that instrumental music could increase the yield potential of fruit and flower plants! This is proof of the creative power of sound. It also proves that, words and meaning are language specific, while sound is far above in order of effectiveness.96. The added value of the Vedas is that, not only does it have superior sound effects, but its words too have refinement and nobility of thoughts. In Tamil there are some wonderful 'sthothras' or prayer songs. Those songs are capable of bringing tears to your eyes and melt your hearts. But only some of these songs come to be chanted repeatedly, like the 'Thirumurugarruppad ai', or 'Irumaluroga' in Thiruppugazh for getting rid of diseases, or the 'mazhai vettal padigam' of Tevaram, for praying for rains and so on. There may be more heart rending songs by those authors. But only some of them get more often repeated because of the power of the sounds, which raises them from the level of songs to Mantras. It is the same Adi Sankara who is the author for both 'Soundarya Lahari and Sivananda Lahari'. But the latter does not have the impact of 'Soundarya Lahari', whose each and every song has the 'Mantra Sakthi or Power'.97. There are meaningless Mantras of pure sounds. There are slokas of very intricate meaningfulness of no Mantra power. But the greatness of the Veda Manras are that, they are very high in the order of Mantra Power as well as meaningfulness. Say there is a medicine which is bitter but very effective in its power to cure. There is another of good taste but not very good as a medicine. But, 'kooshmanda lehiyam', is very nice tasting and is also good as a medicine (as a diet supplement for convalescents) ! Veda is like that. It has the Mantra power as well as being high in esoteric philosophical values. Once again, there are portions of the Vedas purely devoted to the worldly endevour and portions going beyond the humdrum monotony of common aspirations. It has advices to individually take care of the single person, successively raise his/her attitude and behaviour, with the immediate kith and kin, to various social levels; from the micro to the macro; as an individual, part of a family, part of a village, part of a community; rights and duties towards self, others, nation and humanity as a whole. Not even that, his duties towards all living things and Life as such. How should your behaviour be, as a son, as a father, as a husband, as a woman, as a citizen, as a householder, as a shop keeper, as a minister, as a king; and so on and so on. Vedas are the highest book of Law.(To be continued.)Sambhomahadeva.