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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00033 Jul 2005

 
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Dear srivaishNavap perunthagaiyeer,

Generally for learning any thing and everything, in olden days, 
people have to approach a guru, in his vaasasthalam [residing place] -
 pay respects to him every day when they arrive for learning [anjali -
 saashtaanga praNaamam or dhandam as it is called] and then start the 
learning process. While leaving the guru for the day, again the 
students have to pay respects and then leave for the day. When 
finally leaving the guru, after completing the course of study, they 
have to pay some guru dhakshiNa as per their capacity or as demanded 
by the guru or guru's wife. Just recall the command to sri 
krishNa `bring my dead son as your guru dhakshiNai', the guru 
pathni's askance to sri krishNa since guru saandheepani did not want 
anything from the lord.

Generally the gurus will be `maharishis' and as such they will be 
living in aasramams in forests or on the riversides. So commuting 
from their own place or from nearby was more a difficult task in 
those days. As such the students carried out the gurukula vaasam 
method ?staying in guru's place. Furthermore the teaching is through 
oral method ? spoken by teacher repeatedly, heard by the students 
repeatedly and `by hearted' by the students. The vEdhaas and 
upanishadhs, hence, are called sruthis and smruthis. As such the 
learning was a little bit slow process. 

So the vEdhaas and upanishadhs and their rich meanings were taught 
over a stretched period of time, and as such were made available in 
the rishis' aasramams. Sometimes these vEdhaas and upanishadhs 
themselves were called `forests' since taught in forests, also since 
it is difficult to get at the meaning without searching quite a lot. 

Compare that with present day systems. We turn to a textbook or 
dictionary or encyclopedia for understanding about any new thing 
easily [in the previous 21st century]. Separate lexicons are 
available for almost all subjects. That made the learning process 
simple.

 In the 22nd century, we take even more simpler route - nowadays ? do 
the prapaththi or take sarNaagathy route as in sree vaishNava 
sadhaacharam - surrender to Mr. Computer the super lord, through the 
aachaaryan Mr. Mouse, who operates at the command of the lord, takes 
us through the archiraadhi maargam for a fast moksham viz. Dr. 
Google. 

All the gnaanam - the thathva thrayam ? 3 secrets ? the data or 
matter, to be learnt, is all placed by that super lord in a flash for 
learning by us, the dhaasaboothaas, and the mahath aachaaryan Mr. 
Mouse again guides us to sift through. Without this lord and the 
teacher, the life has become dull these days. May be the wife's face 
is not seen for that particular day but not a day passes out without 
seeing at least once this lord and the teacher.  

I could hear the murmur ? hey, all these are known to us. What is the 
point you want to give? Yes. The point is ? vEdhaas and upanishadhs 
and their meanings were available tied to a mortar ? the grinding 
stone - [ural] in a remote village where ignorant ladies were 
dominant. Now I wonder ? how is that I missed this all these days ? 
because in our house also we had a big ural ? we lived in a village 
where many ignorant ladies were there. I could have learnt these 
vEdhamas and upanishadhs better and in an easy manner. 

Also I have to change my opinion because the verse says the vEdhams 
and upanishadhs are not stored in machines called computers these 
days, nor in rishi's brains in those forest aasramams those days. 

Now read the verse - 

varam imam upadhesam aadhriyadhvam nigama vanEshu nithaantha 
chaarakhinnaa: |
vichinutha bhavanEshu vallaveenaam upanishadh arthham ulookhalE 
nibadhDham ||
2-28 krishna karnaamrutham by leelaa sukhar

meaning: hey folks, do not roam in the forests and get tired ? 
forests called vEdhaas and upanishadhs ? take this advice and 
practice ? search for the `meaning' of the vEdhaas and upanishadhs, 
being tied to the mortar ? [ural] in the houses of gOpees.

Now a point arise ? if we are going to search in many houses, how 
that `meaning', will be available in all places ? for it is singular ?
 arthham. If it is tied to one particular ural ? grinding stone it is 
ok. Then there must be many meanings. Not one. Yes, says the author 
in another verse now read that verse. 

anthargruhE krishNam avEkshya chOram badhvaa kavaatam jananeem 
gathaikaa |
ulookhalE dhaama nibadhDham Enam thathra api dhrushtvaa sthimithaa 
babhoova || 
2- 51 krishna karnaamrutham by leelaa sukhar

Meaning: one gopee seeing krishNa stealing butter caught him and tied 
to a mortar in her house. Then she upon closing the door [so as not 
to allow krishNa escape] went to his mother [yasOdhaa] to report. Lo! 
She was stunned to see krishNa tied to mortar there also. [yasOdhaa 
standing by side?]

Now, I know you are going to ask me Sir, in the bhaagavtham only 
yasOdhaa tied krishNa to mortar. Now this author says in two places 
two different persons ? one yasodhaa and another gopee ? tied him. Is 
it correct?

Let us see the answer in next post.

 Dhaasan

Vasudevan m.g 







azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam
 
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