Hari
Om
'Freedays' are the 'gather our thoughts' days;
Q&As; a general page reviewing the week so far…
There was a comment yesterday which warranted a
response… which grew and grew and grew.
Therefore the response has now transformed into today's Freeday post!!!
Hari
OM
Thank you Pearl! By 'all of
this', it is assumed you mean all of Aatmaavrajanam posts. (TattvabodhaH
itself, is available with commentary by Guru-ji from any of the CM links on the
sidebar...but here is a direct link to the CM-USA site for this publication.)
Certainly,
the blog is set up so that anyone can enter at anytime and simply begin at the
beginning. It can, in this manner, be read like a book. When setting up,
the possibility of collating the first year's posts into an official e-book was
a tickle at the back of the mind, and this is still a distinct possibility...
your comment, therefore is timely and encouraging. There are of course many
Advaita Vedanta items on-line. Many were researched prior to producing
Aatmaavrajanam as it was necessary to ascertain what, if anything, could be
added to that pool.
One
of the things which was striking was that all the sites visited appeared to
assume that the reader had already, at the very least, come into contact with
the term 'Vedanta'. On-line courses can also be obtained, but to embark on any
of these without having experienced the gurukula system would likely seem
mesmerising; and any which step outside the system, by default tend to 'dumb
down' both the subject and the student.
Then
there are those who have usurped the Philosophy to their financial advantage.
One must not be overly critical. The
Chopras and Tolles of the world at least are raising awareness of a possibility
to think outside the body, to think universally.
The
fault lies in that the source of their inspiration is not being acknowledged.
That source is so ancient, the dating of it is still hotly disputed; though
almost everywhere now in academia, it is recognised that Sanskrit texts are
themselves young, compared to the content they convey. The tradition is an oral one and the writing
of the teachings came about during one of the renaissance periods of Sanskrit
history, Sri Veda Vyaasa being credited with the collation and production of
the non-verbal form. The oral teaching continued however and all who enter the
gurukulas are expected to learn the chanting of the scriptures, not simply rely
on print. The whole essence of the Philosophy is
to take it into oneself, use it, become it. It is there for any to
discover who are prepared to sit in supplication to the Higher, and who are
prepared to surrender the ego sufficiently, as the Rsis did, so that the
eternal sound thrums through and the truth dawns.
The
tradition is so stable, it can be said without fear, that what is chanted today
is the same as what was chanted millennia ago. It is now considered that the
oral history may stretch back as far as ten thousand years.
The
teaching methodology, which you will now begin to experience on Text-days, was
that the aachaarya would chant, the shishya would repeat and this would be done
until it was set in memory. Then the aachaarya would 'break' the Sanskrit into
its grammatical parts in order to reach the kernel of meaning. The shishya thus
learned the language, its grammar and its meaning altogether.
In
recent times, the need to change the Sanskrit into other languages has meant
(as it did with the Bible) that there were going to be challenges in conveying
the true meaning. No words can really do this though. It comes down, again, to the shishya taking
in the words, working them internally (mananam) and reaching their own
conclusions. … Why is all this
being told in response to the comment made?! Getting back to
Aatmaavrajanam and its place in this 'pool'; this particular blog has been set
up as a personal saadhana (daily practice) which also addresses सेवा/seva (service
to others), भक्ति/bhakti (devotion) and विभक्ति/vibhakti (sharing). Having had the great fortune
of sitting in gurukula and learning from a master, it is a small repayment of
debt to now convey the knowledge gained in as pure and sincere a manner as
possible. What is more, Gurudev established a system of teaching which both
honoured the gurukula system and
satisfied the modern mind. Further, it
is graded in the manner which Adi Shankaraachaarya himself began and therefore,
if followed accurately, cannot fail the ardent seeker.
In
this tradition, the shishya makes an offering to the guru, to cover their
upkeep (the students always stayed in the home of the master in the same way
that apprentices once did in Western tradition). Originally, that would have
been to take along food and wood for the cooking fire and such like. Nowadays,
of course, the use of 'coin' is unavoidable and it is this which has led to a
large number of fraudulent gurus in India - and, it might be said, globally!
Greed can bring down the noblest of the noble.
When
one finds a true guru, then, it is value beyond any riches this world can
offer. To seek to make money from the knowledge of the ages feels very contrary
to purpose. That said, aachaaryas can
reasonably expect some form of दक्षिणा/dakshinaa ('fee' as exchange for service), just as ministers of the
church have stipend.
At
this stage there is no plan to place a 'dakshinaa' button for donations here,
therefore it could be that publication of posts in more of an actual book-form
is a possibility. Or perhaps, more appropriately, a 'work-book' to formalise
what is being read on screen.
That
said, given the very small readership here, this particular aachaarya will
perhaps have to remain in 'austerity' mode.
However the key aim outside of consolidating one's own learning is to
bring awareness of Advaita Vedanta to an audience which might otherwise miss it
altogether; and even if only another dozen folk in the world find a fresh way
of living from what they find here, then the work is being done.
Thus
concludes the response generated from a single thought… for now…
YAM
xx
