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--- In tiruvenkatam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, sudarshan madabushi 
<mksudarshan2002@xxxx> wrote:

Dear member,

Your question reminds me of what my children too
sometimes pose to me. Why try and learn by rote a
scripture like the Gita which is really meant to be
lived more than it is meant to be chanted? Good
question, indeed.

I often ask my two teenaged children:

Why did you have to learn way back in Class 3 or Class
4 in school the multiplication tables by rote? Didn't
your teacher then make you recite "two one's are two",
"two two's are four", "two three's are six"... and so
on, ad infinitum, ad nauseaum? Have you asked yourself
why your teacher in those lower classes made you
commit to memory first the multiplication-function
tables from 1 to 16?

The answer is clear, isn't it? When we have learnt the
multiplication tables by rote, it becomes easier later
on in the higher classes to perform other mathematical
functions easily and quickly. The brain or the mind by
then has become attuned to the 'X' function so well
that we soon become adept at doing the math even
mentally. It comes to us naturally as if by reflex.

What is true of maths is true of the scriptures too.
The Vedic tradition of learning sets great store by
memorization. Once things are firmly committed to
memory then higher learning of lofty "tattva"and
"siddhAnta" becomes easy and effortless. Once a Vedic
passage is recalled to mind merely by recalling it
from stored memory, imbibing its meaning and essence,
and reflecting upon its inner meaning and
significance, becomes a matter of ease. The same is
true of the Bhagavath-gita too which is said to be the
very cream of all Vedantic thought.

The Bhagavath Gita deserves to be memorized for yet
another reason, I should say. That is that the Gita is
wonderful poetry... it is extraordinarily beautiful
Sanskrit. If we are lovers of language then we must
memorize poetry.

I have known many people (my own mother, for example)
who had no formal education in Sanskrit and yet by the
time they had become older had cultivated a very fine
and sophisticated sense for the beauty of the
language. It was thanks mainly to their knowledge of
the Bhagavath-Gita. 

The idiom, the phraseology, the style and the rhythm
of the Gita is a marvellous treat indeed. If you want
to enjoy good poetry you have to first learn to recite
it well. This is true in fact, of all great poetry.
Even Shakespeare, Robert Frost or Auden.... How can
one explain the inner enjoyment one experiences
whenever one merely repeats those haunting and famous
lines of Robert Graves:

      "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
         And I have promises to keep,
       And miles to go before I sleep,
         Miles to go before I sleep".

Similarly, how can one who knows the Gita well explain
the inner bliss that simply envelops the soul when one
recalls and recites truly exquisite and memorable
lines from that scripture non-pareil? 

     "uddharEd AtmanAt AtmAnam
         nAtmAnam avasAdayEt
       Atmaiva hyAtmano bandhur
         Atmaiva ripur Atmanah"

The Lord said: "A man must elevate himself by his own
mind, not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of
the soul, and its enemy as well".

The best way, to my mind, by which we can help to
elevate the mind of our children is really to make
them memorize the Gita... that way their minds will
soon, in good time, become their life-long good friend
('bandhu'), not enemy ('ripuh')!

Thanks and regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan

 
--- nssuba03 <nssuba03@xxxx> wrote: 
-------------------------------
I have a doubt and request the esteemed members of
this group to 
kindly advise me. Gita is a textbook discussing a way
of living or 
the ideal way of living and therefore Gita ought to be
lived and 
experienced. I presume that this view is broadly
correct and if this 
is correct, my question is what purpose is achieved by
reciting or 
chanting Bhagavat Gita and by learning to chant it by
rote.  





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