I have been hearing a lot about dumping vedas on the basis of Manusmrithi.
I have been hearing a lot about dumping vedas on the basis of Manusmrithi. Read this and help me get the thoughts when did our scripts got polluted. I definitely think vedas are not only for Brahmins.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/IISc_Suicide.pdf
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/IISc_Suicide.pdf
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/IISc_Suicide.pdf
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/IISc_Suicide.pdf
Why one has to go to Manu-smriti, even in Bhagavadgita it says in 2.45 (trigunya vishayaah...) that Vedas have to be transcended (not rejected) means the one who has lived his life according the Dharma and when he gets Moksha icchaa then he has go beyond Veda - towards Vedaanta (not towards anarchy) and get into Contemplation etc.
ReplyDeleteI am not clear Krishnamurthi CG as to what you meant.
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant was that - Manusmriti's meaning is wrongly taken. Vedas should not be dumped, it means you have to go beyond. Which essentially means first the life has to be brought into order as per Veda (in one way it is science, but both objective and subjective science - holistic science)- then question what is the purpose of this order - so that whatever that can bother one is bypassed through the orderly life - then one will get sufficient energy and time to focus on the next - which is the ultimate purpose of life - Moksha /Nirvana /Spiritual emancipation - call it by any name.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a arduous and painful journey towards moksha without the order - the same thing is told in yogasutra - Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama (these are the first 4 limbs in Ashtanga yoga -each one has sub-classes) before one gets into pratyaahara -turning mind inwards - if the order is not there one reaches a roadblock in the journey.
So if it is wrongly taken that the orderly life - which is prescribed by Veda is to be rejected, then we can't reach anywhere let alone moksha.
If one is going in a wrong way, one can never reach the destination.
I understand your point now. But is there any place where our caste based demarcation is carried through generations? I doubt there be some text like this, then how come that people just blindly complain about vedas. what can be done to set it straight?
ReplyDeleteWe have only Varnas - which is based on Svabhaava also not just birth. Drona in Mahabharata was by birth a Brahmana but by svabhaava he is a Kshatriya, - none higher or lower - the word mukha in Sanskrit is used for mouth and not for face. It was a wrong interpretation that Brahmanas came from Purusha's mukha means the one who makes vedic sounds or the one who protects vedas (thus Brahmana - many of the Vedic rishis are not Brahmanas by birth including Vyasa)
ReplyDeleteJaati is a later addition and has no shastra basis. This is purely social thing and not shastric thing. How and why this is followed, what are the pros and cons - we need to inquire and take forward that are necessary and leave the rest.
Gotra means (गाः त्रायते इति गोत्रः) the one who protects 'Go' is a GotraH (Go means Veda, Bhoomi, Cow, shree, etc.). Earlier Rishis have given us a particular school of Vedic teaching or shaaka (shakha doesn't mean branch in this context). Through that Shaakha they protected the Veda. Thus Gotras strart from them. The one who is born into that lineage has that particular shaakhaa passed onto him - transferred through generations. So first every one is encouraged to study "svashaakhaa" - one's own shaakhaa.
So who can teach Veda ? - the one who protects can only teach - The one who has got it as a 'sampat' from his own forefathers (inherited), he only can teach - who can study ? - everyone can study vedas - no restrictions. In fact all varnas can (Shudras are only given exemption from studying and not prohibitted as popular belief).
What is required - yagnopaveedam - means what ? - the father proclaims during the ceremony that he gives up his son for Agni. Literally the boy is given to the Guru. It is up to the Guru to see what to be done next for the boy. If the Guru says - let the boy take sannyaasa then the father can't do anything - this is as per the defined rule.
Also during vedic study one has to maintain many aacharaas (disciplined conduct) which are not easy to practice - most important one is that you can't study anything else during your vedic study - this itself is a big sacrifice - you're spending about 7-8 years not studying maths, science, etc. - who is ready to do this nowadays.
Thus those who come forward to study must be respected, protected, nurtured (taken care of) - because they are doing all these not for their own benefit (nowadays things are different).
These kind of things are there in Grhya, Dharma shastra and other scriptures. Lot of restrictions are also prescribed for Brahmanas - so one sided criticisms are baseless and wrong.
All these things are for what - one's own accent towards moksha as well as guiding others. At some stage automatically the Vedic pundit leaves the veda and proceeds further, towards Vedanta. This means he looses his fundamental thinking that "there is a world and it needs help", "through my vedic pricipled life I'm helping others", etc. Because there is 'no world', 'none other than him', these kind of revelations he attains through his selfless inquiries. He may be still practicing certain practices which he was doing during his vedic studies etc. - they are not out of any desire, but out of an orderly life that gets automatically carriedout, the body does it on its own - like how the body on its own digests the food it receives without any need for any concious effort - the same way the aacharaas are carried out. The concious effort with desire is what needs to be overcome - not out right rejection of order.
what i think that sudras were exempted or later on discarded by texts such as manusmriti, is that the people dont have a basic understanding of vedas. like if there is a child who has heard vedic mantras from his father/grandfather would learn faster than a child who has not heard of it yet. this with every generation has evolved as a thought that only the ones born are brahmins.
ReplyDelete