Dear Shri Krishna,
I'll skip the first question, as my views on that topic is not
consistent with our sampradaya. I'll also add two caveats - (a)
Though I may quote 'pramANas' in my reply, the conclusions are my own
and our traditionalists may disagree. (b) The reply may meander &
ramble, for which I apologize immediately to people with low
attention span.
Q2(a): Why is it important to memorize the veda mantras?
Q2(b): Can one directly skip this hard part and jump to
learning 'meaning of the vedas'?
Q2(c) Is a guru necessary to understand the meanings?
Short answers: (a) Because, that is the way it is. (b) No (c) No.
Long answers: (warning: rambling starts here...)
Section 1: Rapid loss of vedic branches
There used to be a saying - Even a cat in dakshinapatha knows
taittiriyam (taittiriyam -> a branch of yajurveda). Recently, I was
in the necessity of a qualified taittiriya expert who knows the
intricacies of tritiyeshti or dashahotra sacrifices. Things didn't
quite bear out. This is the condition of taittiriya yajurveda, which
is supposedly a "secure vedic tradition". Imagine the condition of
jaiminiya shakha of sama veda, where only about 5 80-year old
gentlemen know the entire mantras. Or the Katha yajurveda, whose
adherents are very limited in Kashmir and Himachal (already an
insecure tradition) and which may die out in front of our own eyes.
Or a handful of atharvavedis - who really belong to the atharvanic
tradition (in contrast to recent revival attempts by Kanchi mutt,
jeeyar mutt etc., where the focus in on mantra preservation with not
so much attention on the meanings, context, applications etc). If
turushkas destroyed couple of our vedic shakhas by invading &
massacaring, we are finishing off whatever survived. If this trend
continues, the hindus may have to learn about the vedas in western
universities. All the traditions would have been lost and the vedas
themselves would have become a museum piece. So, for (a) - Yes, one
has to memorize the mantras for the simple reason of not losing our
heritage & tradition.
Section 2: Traditional method of learning
The grihya sutras describe the "veda-vrata". After upanayana, one
enters the veda vrata, which gets completed only after
the "graduation bath" and the student becomes a snataka (Almost all
grihya sutras describe this; Atharva veda parisishta). This student
life is truly a "vrata" - this is a life full of restrictions,
fasting and restraint and devotion to the acharya. Sexual
transgression in this stage is a serious crime and the punishment is
that the student has to offer a donkey to Nirrti and wear the skin of
the donkey for one year and live only by begging. While begging he
should proclaim his deed (Paraskara grihya sutra; Manu smriti).
The Aranyaka portions are not even taught in the "village". The
student and teacher goes to the forest and the teacher reveals
the "secret teachings" there. Both of them undergo couple of vrata &
restrictions during the previous day (Ashwalayana grihya sutra;
shankhayana grihya sutra). This stuff goes on for atleast 12 years
(There is a variation in no. of years across the sutras). It goes
without saying that the guru/acharya is indispensable in this whole
setup (for (c)). This anecdote is to give a picture of how one learnt
the vedas traditionally.
Section 3: Meanings & modes of interpretation
There is traditionally 8 different modes of interpretation. So, the
answer depends on what type of 'meaning' one is looking for. I am not
even counting Arya Samaj type interpretation. I am skipping Aurobindo
school of thought and the likes of Kapali Shastri & R.L.Kashyap. I am
totally ignoring the Western Indologists' understanding. (They have
made some important contributions, though). In one mode of
interpretation, the recitation of the mantra - the sound pattern
constitutes part of the picture. One ignores it at one's own risk.
This interpretation is actually little known to people outside the
tradition and western Indologists will never quite underst
and it. (For details, read Yaska's Nirukta; Shaunaka's Brhaddevata).
I also should add that all the traditional modes are not opposed to
each other and in couple of instances they are complementary.
So, for (b) - can one understand "wireless digital communication"
without a teacher? Assuming one has sound knowledge of elctromagnetic
wave theory, DSP, calculus, probability & stochastic processes, one
can simply borrow few books from the library and hope to understand
it. That is of course one has adquate background in the pre-
requisites. This is a poor analogy: Coming back to the vedas -
associated with them are the vedangas (limbs of the vedas). I have
taken the liberty to include related material in the traditional
limbs -
(i)Shiksha, pratishakya, pada patha & allied texts - Deal with
phonetics, pronounciation; preservation of the 'spoken word' and
preventing corruption. This cluster has a non-trivial no. of texts.
Take a moment to think about this and refer question (b) again.
(ii) Vyakarana, the grammer, nirvachana - semantical analysis,
sphota - theory of the word: Tools for vedic text analysis and
interpretation
(iii) Nirukta & Brhaddevata - Former is work on etymology/philology
by Yaska. I included the latter because Shaunaka rejects couple of
Yaska's views and gives his interpretation.
(iv) Chandas - Actually the existing one describes both vedic metres
and classical metres.
(v) jyotisha & nakshatra vidya - Not same as our 'modern day
josiyam'. I would define this branch in my own words as - time
keeping based on astronomy for ritual purposes.
(vi) kalpa sutras, parisishtas, anukramanis - The first one a topic
in itself. I'll simply mention the divisions (srauta - crudely
translated as solemn rituals, grihya - .... as domestic rituals,
dharma sutras which later evolved into smritis (debatable) & shulba
sutras - construction of various fire altars. (Baudhayana gives proof
of pythogoras theorem in his shulba sutra - some 200 years before
pythogoras). Parisishtas are usually supplement & complement kalpas.
Anukramanis are indices of matras, meters and rishis.
BTW, the very first attempt to interpret the mantras occur in
brAhmaNa & AraNyaka portions themselves. The entire purpose of this
rambling is to give the glimpse of what our forefathers developed
to 'acquire the meaning' of the vedas. Part of the 'meaning' is in
application is a different story and is yagnika mode of nterpretation.
Sorry for rambling.
Regards,
Kasturi Rangan
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azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam
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