24 Dec 2010
Hindu religion is very fortunate that it is built up by ancient learned sages, who analyzed the philosophy to the climax and hence, every concept is enlightened by the radiance of deep spiritual knowledge. This point was true in the past when Sanskrit language was the mother tongue of everybody so that whenever the scripture, the Veda, in the form of Sanskrit hymns, was recited, everybody understood it clearly. By this, every ritual was a revision of the spiritual concepts. Thereby, the spiritual knowledge was strengthened repeatedly. But, today what is the position of this greatest religion? The Sanskrit hymns are recited in every ritual as usual. Neither the reader nor the audience, understand the meaning of the scripture even once. It is a blind recitation of sounds in Greek and Latin. Everybody continues the ritual with the fear that if the ritual is not performed, there may be negative results in the present worldly life and also in the life after death in the upper world. There is no interest in ritual since knowledge is absent and the driving force of the ritual is only fear. Due to this unfortunate situation, people are not even listening to those sounds uttered by the priests and become busy in other activities. For example, when the ritual of the marriage is going on, nobody even listens to the sounds uttered by the priests even for fraction of a minute because nothing is understood. Everybody is busy in other activities and conversations during the ritual. Can there be more unfortunate thing than this? All the hymns speak something about God. You are neglecting them means that you are neglecting God. Can there be more insult than this to God? Can you expect even a trace of grace of God from such ritual?
The climax of misfortune is that even the priest, who reads the scripture, is unaware of the meaning. Do you find anybody who speaks something and does not understand the meaning of what he speaks and even the listener does not understand it? Even the birds and animals understand the meaning of the sounds generated within themselves. But, here is the peculiar situation, where even the human beings, who developed beautiful communication through systematic languages, speak and listen to some sounds without serving the real purpose of communication! By this, Hinduism, which was in the top position in the past, is now in the lowest position. The priest learns the hymns through recitation without knowing the meanings. He spends few years in learning this mechanical recitation of scripture and straightly enters the field of earning his livelihood. There is no need of mechanical recitation of the scripture, when the scripture is already printed. In those days, when the printing was not developed, there was no other way to preserve the scripture than through the mechanical recitation. Therefore, the process of mechanical recitation existed and hence, the mechanical recitation was justified. People blindly continue that process of recitation even today when the actual need for such recitation ended. This is called as blind tradition in which you follow something blindly from the past without analyzing it. It is said that all that is old is not gold and all that is modern need not be correct. You have to decide the correctness based on sharp analysis of everything i.e., old or modern (Puraanamityeva…).
The priest should learn the meaning of the scripture without wasting his time on blind recitation of the printed book. The priest can recite the scripture by reading the book in ritual and explain the meaning of hymns to create interest in the audience. The priests of the other religions like Christianity, Islam etc., read the books of scripture in the rituals. You may say that one should only recite and not read the book as per the authority of the scripture (Tathaa likhitapathakah…). This authority is not valid since it is only Smruti that is created by human beings and not Shruti that is created by God. The same Smruti also says that you should know the meaning (Anarthajno…). The priest himself generated the authority because he found the mechanical recitation easier than learning its meaning. The priest has also created a false propagation that the sound of the scripture itself generates good [grace of God] even without knowing its meaning. This is again the worst interpretation because the basic purpose of communication through language is murdered and hence, the logic (Yukti) opposes such false concept. The sage Yaska said that the scripture recited without knowing the meaning is totally a waste and will not give any result. The scripture also says that you should recite and also know the meaning (Adhyetavyo Jneyashcha…). In fact, the first word ‘Adhyetavyo’ means actually knowing the meaning only according to Sanskrit grammar and hence, recitation is not meant. Since you have forcibly superimposed the recitation as the meaning of the first word (Rudhi), the second word ‘Jneyashcha’ is introduced to negate the superimposed meaning of the first word. In fact, the very meaning of the Veda is to know the meaning and it means knowledge of the scripture and not blind recitation.
Responsibility of Temple Managements
All the managements of the temples should come forward to rectify this unfortunate mistake that cropped up [in] the Hindu religion. They should patronize the students to learn the meaning of the scripture and should discourage the blind recitation. They should also support the propagation of Sanskrit language in the Hindu public so that the people will understand at least the basic meaning of the scripture without translation by the priest and the priest may be involved in the elaborate explanation of the scripture. If this is done, God will be pleased to maximum extent since God Himself is the author of the Veda. If this fundamental mistake is rectified, there is no need of propagation of spiritual knowledge since every priest propagates the spiritual knowledge in every ritual. This should be the primary activity of the temple. The next activity of temples should be to help the beggars and poor people and to adopt discrimination of poor and rich in the devotees while serving the devotees with the funds. If this is done, God will be very much pleased with the managements of the temples.
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