27 Feb 2010
Shankara never changed even a trace of traditional practices, which are called as rituals. He allowed the entire practical tradition as it is and stressed the part of knowledge in the Vedic statements. He asked the people to discuss the meaning of the Veda than performing the rituals without analysis. The analysis will change the motive of the doer. The motive must be devotion to God because all the Vedic hymns are prayers to God only. A prayer should be recited with the knowledge of its meaning, which alone helps to raise the devotion. Blind recitation of the prayer does not serve this main purpose. The Purva Meeimamsakas before the arrival of Shankara did blind recitation of the Vedic prayers, thinking that the sound energy of the Veda itself is capable of giving divine fruits. The sound energy is only a part of creation and not the creator. The divine fruits are given by God only and unless God is pleased with your devotion, such fruits are impossible. They neglected God to such an extent that gradually they started saying that God does not exist at all. They argued that the Veda is eternal, which cannot be truth, since the Veda is also created by God and becomes a part of the creation only. This is mentioned in the Veda itself (Asyamahato…). Since God became non-existent, devotion also lost its significance and hence, there is no need of knowing the meaning of the Veda.
Everything is concluded as performance of rituals with blind recitation of the Veda (Karma Kanda). The knowledge of the Veda (Jnana kanda) and the devotion to God (Upasana Kanda) disappeared completely. Even the ritual was performed in wrong and meaningless direction due to absence of knowledge. The word ‘Ghrutam’ was taken as mere ‘Ghee’ [clarified butter], which actually means food prepared with Ghee. The word Agni was taken as mere physical fire, whereas it stands actually for a good devotee having hunger. The fire hunger is called as Vysvyaanaraagni, which is the real deity of worship here. Due to absence of knowledge, the real meaning is lost and people started pouring Ghee in physical fire. The actual purpose is not served and sin was committed, since the food is burnt. Due to lack of analysis, instead of pleasing God and getting divine fruits, sin was committed, which was leading them to hell. Therefore, Shankara came down and condemned this school of thought and introduced knowledge and devotion into the ritual. He never replaced the ritual by knowledge and devotion. He asked them to perform the same ritual with knowledge and devotion. Due to knowledge, the ritual is performed in actual sense and due to devotion, God is pleased. The ritual is practical charity, which is donation of food, clothes and money to a deserving devotee. If you remove the ritual, only knowledge and devotion remain, which are nothing but reciting prayers to God without any practical charity. Such theoretical worship can give only theoretical fruits. Therefore, Shankara did not condemn the performance of ritual. He only condemned the ignorance in the rituals, which misled the rituals in wrong direction leading to sinful practice and subsequent hell. The ritual is illuminated with knowledge and devotion and the ritual is diverted to correct path of practice from the wrong path.
Today, the situation is again repeated. The priests recite the Vedic hymns blindly without knowing the meaning and the doer is also blind. Again the wrong practice has returned back and ghee is burnt in physical fire. Therefore, Shankara is again speaking through Me for transformation of rituals. The priest should not waste so much of time in practicing the blind recitation of the Veda. The priest can read the Veda from a printed book, and in other religions like Christianity and Islam, the scriptures are read through books. In course of repeated recitations, the priest may develop the capacity of recitation without book. That shows the seniority of priest. In any way, the recitation is not important and only the analysis of the recited hymns is important, which alone shows the correct path of knowledge and improves devotion to God. Unless this reform is implemented, Hinduism, which is considered as the king of religions, is going to continue as a bonded slave forever. The priest should not waste even a single minute in practicing the blind recitation. The priest should spend all the time in learning the Sanskrit language and in learning various Shastras, which help in giving the correct analysis of knowledge leading to correct direction. The present priest aims at earning money only through priesthood by threatening the people with false created ideas. This is the greatest sin and God will be furious to maximum extent. What is the use of such sinful profession? Instead, you become a scholar and carry on the profession as service to God. Then, God will give you thousand times more money to you and the entire society will respect you. Today, the money earned by you through this sinful profession does not give happiness to you or your family. The society also looks at the priest with low profile and sometimes even scolds the priest with bad language. Even the letters of the word Purohita are misinterpreted as the meanings of bad words! All the Vedic schools should adopt this suggestion and bring change in the syllabus.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★