May-June, 2017Vol. 13 # 62

(contd. page 2)

Vedic Insights Unveiledby Modern Sages

How do we express our gratitude to the rishi-s, who

have not only revealed to us the mantra-s but also have

given us a vision of the ideals which we should

pursue? A simple way is to remember some of their

names and memorize some of their mantra-s. We

should also try to understand the deep meaning of the

mantra-s and try to apply this wisdom in our everyday

life. This is easier said than done, as clarified

presently.

We should be aware that we have today many Veda

mantra-s easily accessible to us because thousands

laboured during several thousands of years in

chanting the Veda mantras correctly stressing how to

preserve their correctness. Even today we see many

traditional schools who focus only on chanting. Many

of them are not even aware of their meaning. They are

convinced of the utility of the mantra-s used in

sandhya-worship but also in popular rituals including

birthday celebrations, marriage and funerals. Thus in

some sense most of them are not aware of the real

power of mantra-s. Reciting the sandhya-mantra-s

including the famous Gayatri mantra-s does help them

in their everyday life, but they do not go beyond it.

They may participate in the complex yajna rituals and

get some benefit. This state of affairs has been in

existence for several thousands of years.

Even Ramayana with its many stories of rishi-s

mentions many Yajna-like rituals, but not any mantra-

s. Some opine that the absence of mantra-s may be due

to the belief that the mantra-s should not be placed in

books which are meant to be heard by persons of all

varna-s. It was said that mantra-s should be heard only

by brahmins, as mentioned in some obscure books

without any authority of the Veda-s. Sri Damodar

Satavalekar and Sri Daivarata are two persons who

have contributed gracefully in preserving the Veda in

the 20th century.

‘Ashtanga Yoga’ (by Susheela Hegde) & ‘Arthritis’ (by T. K. Jagannathan) book relase, 21.06.2017 (International Yoga Day)

(L to R) Dr. R.V Jahagirdar, Susheela Hegde, Prof. R. L. Kashyap, T.K. Jagannathan, Lalitha Jagannathan

2May-June, 2017SAKSHI Newsletter :

(contd. page 3)

For various reasons, Veda-s were considered as

dealing with Karma Kanda or the details of rituals.

Only Upanishad-s were said to be connected with

deeper knowledge. This attitude is present strongly

even today in many places.

The Vedic society was prosperous in all ways having

the ability to repel the foes, face successfully the

challenges of every day life and maintain its culture

and integrity. The lack of interest in Veda learning lead

to the weakening of the society resulting in foreign

invasions and subjugation by foreigners for over a

thousand years. This has been mentioned elsewhere.

The first person in the two millennia (0 CE-2000 CE)

to declare that Veda-s have deep knowledge was

Swami Anandateertha (or Madhvacharya) (1238-

1317 CE) who was born in Pajaka, Udupi in

Karnataka. He is also a great Vedantist, developer of

the dualist school of Vedanta (dvaita Vedanta), one of

the 3 major schools of Vedanta. He wrote a detailed

commentary in Sanskrit on the first 40 sukta-s of Rig

Veda involving 489 mantra-s. He stressed that every

mantra has a spiritual interpretation, even though it

may have other meanings connected with nature such

as rainfall, storms, lightning etc. His work is written in

long ornate sentences which makes them hard to

understand. One of the great teachers in the same

dvaita lineage is the Revered Swami Raghavendra

(1595-1671). He posed and answered the basic

question: “How does one assign meanings to the

various words occurring in the mantra?” First of all,

the Vedic Sanskrit is substantially different from the

classical Sanskrit familiar to the pandits in this

millennia. Secondly since these pandits associated the

Veda mantra-s with rituals, they gave automatically

ritual based meanings to most words, without giving

any deep reason. Madhvacharya was the first one to

point out that every mantra has 3 types of meanings,

adhi bhuta (physical), adhidaiva (deva) and adhyatma

(spiritual) and indicated them for the 450 mantra-s of

RV. He also showed hidden spiritual meanings in the

words, not related to rituals. Raghavendra Swami

expressed his basic ideas on spiritual interpretation in

his book, ‘Mantrartha Manjari’. Unfortunately most

pandits of even the dvaita school completely ignore

the work of the masters, Madhva and Raghavendra on

the Veda, and concentrate only on their dvaita ideas.

There are other well known persons such as Swami

Dayananda Sarasvati (1824-83) who tried to

popularise the deep meanings of Veda mantra-s.

But the first person to focus on the deep spiritual

psychological ideas in Veda was the famous Saint and

Yogi Sri Aurobindo (SA) (1872-1950). He wrote

extensive essays on the meaning assignments and

wrote a series of articles in English in his monthly

FelicitationSAKSHI felicitated Yoga Guru Smt. Lalitha Jagannathan on 21.06.2017 to commemorate International Yoga Day. This is in recognition of her dedication to the field of Yoga. She has taught yoga to innumerous ladies and has become an instrument in improving their health. Her speciality is inspiring people to pursue Yoga practice. who ever talks her for half an hour will definitely take interest in Yoga.

Smt Lalitha Jagannath is a postgraduate in Political sciences from Bombay university. When the two children moved to secondary school she persued her B.Ed and became a high school teacher for English, History and geography. She has

taught in Bombay, Poona schools and finally at Aurobindo Memorial school Banashankari.

She learnt Yoga at Swami Yogendraji Institute, Bombay in 1985 and ever since and even now she has been teaching complete yogasana mostly for women.

She is actively involved in social service like teaching spoken English to the poor students. She is a trained Carnatic music singer. Her hobbies include extensive reading and writing articles on various subjects.

Her moto “Each One teach One : Each One feed one:” Then In India no one will be an illiterate and no one will be hungry.

3May-June, 2017SAKSHI Newsletter :

(contd. page 4)

journal Arya, the first issue being published in Aug

1914. All the essays in English, titled, “On the Veda”,

were published in a book form, with the title “The

Secret of the Veda”, in 1952. Sri Aurobindo developed

a new method for understanding the Veda. SA

mentions several books on Veda in English, but not the

great Sanskrit books by Madhvacharya and

Raghavendra Swamy. SA translated the 1000 mantra-

s among the 2000 addressed to Agni, later published in

1946 in the book, “Hymns to the Mystic Fire”. Among

the ten thousand mantra-s in Rig Veda, he translated

about 3000 of them into English carefully. Most of the

translations were published after his demise in 1950.

His Vedic translations are never mentioned by any

Vedic scholar in the West or the academics in India

knowing English. Blaming the Indian Sanskrit Vedic

pandits for not taking interest in SA books is grossly

unfair, since the book by SA on Veda involving his 40-

word sentences and obscure words was a hard read

even for me.

I assumed even 40 years ago that the SA book was

written in a great hurry. I was surprised that SA himself

agreed with this view in his 1949 letter. Finally, when it

was proposed in 1949 to bring out The Secret of the

Veda as a book, Sri Aurobindo dictated in reply:

“The publication of the Secret of the Veda as it is does

not enter into my intention. It was published in a great

hurry and at a time when I had not studied the Rig

Veda as a whole as well as I have since done. Whole

chapters will have to be rewritten or written otherwise

and a considerable labour gone through; moreover it

was never finished and considerable additions in

order to make it complete are indispensable.”

Sri Aurobindo never found time for the necessary

revision.

Persons who were familiar with Veda and Sanskrit

made the following observations, (a), (b) and (c):

a) Sayana (1315-1387) in his commentary on all the

mantra-s of Rig Veda assigned the meanings of the

words based on the rules suggested by the grammarian

Patanjali and arrived at his interpretation. How can

one say that the assignments of SA are better?

b) One of my Vedantic teachers SN said, “I am aware

of the Bhashya-s written on the metrical Upanishad-s

such as Mundaka”. Here the commentator handles

each verse one by one. Then for each verse, he gives

the meanings in Sanskrit for a group of three or four

words. At the end he gives the combined overall

meaning in Sanskrit. He may add additional

explanation at the end. Has SA done any such thing for

any sukta in RV?

My answer was ‘a partial yes’ and ‘a dominant No’.

The most useful part of the entire book ‘The Secret of

the Veda’ is not the first part of 20 essays, but the

second part which gives a detailed commentary on the

13 sukta-s. For each sukta, SA first gives the summary

translation verse by verse each involving 25-40

words. He gives the Samhitapatha, not indicating the

individual words. It is our problem to relate the

Sanskrit words to his English translation. Next, he

gives his commentary on each sukta in 5 to 8 pages, in

English. He does not refer to any verse by number. If

we know Sanskrit we can assign one or more para-s

with each verse. Sometimes he indicates the Sanskrit

verse he is discussing via footnotes. There is a wealth

of very useful info in the commentary. The question is

how to relate them to the specific words in the Veda?

The traditional Bhashya-s do it very well.

C) SA uses the word ‘secret’ frequently. Three

possibilities are, (i) meaning of a word (ii) the specific

power of each deva, i.e., Agni as power of Divine will

(iii) Some event like the battle between Indra and

Vratra. Secret involves hiding. Who is doing the

hiding? Insight is a better word. The last two sentences

in the Foreword in p. 357 (written in 1919) which ends

with, “The secret of the Veda, even when it has been

unveiled, remains still a secret” is a typical Aurobindo

exaggeration.

Vasishtha Ganapati Muni (1878-1936) (VGM) is a

great saint -savant-scholar of this century. He knew

Sanskrit very well, but not English. He was a master of

Rig Veda deities. He was aware of the Sayana

commentary and its limitations. He wrote several

essays, indicating the way to view the Veda mantra-s.

His ideas were known only to his disciples. All his

writings (collected works of 12 volumes) were

published 75 years after his death.

One of the great works of VGM is the “Indra

Sahasranama stotra”. A litany of Indra involving 1000

epithets in Rig Veda was revealed to him. It is very

4May-June, 2017SAKSHI Newsletter :

nice to hear it. But the interesting fact is that he gave

the triplet identifier (Mandala, sukta, mantra) to every

one of the 1000 names, something like the compilers

of Rig Veda. Note that during his time, the extensive

indices of Rig Veda were not accessible.

T.V. Kapali Sastry (TVK) (1886-1953), a disciple of

VGM had heard from VGM his insights on veda.

TVK started his own Veda studies from the age of

seven, had read the commentary of Sayana and knew

its value and its limitations. Slowly a new way of

looking at the Veda which emphasizes, both the

spiritual and psychological insights, got a form in his

mind. Almost by “chance”, he came across the issues

of the ‘Arya’ Magazine published from 1914 onwards

by Sri Aurobindo (SA). He noticed how the

interpretation proposed by SA were closely related to

his own insights developed in the last two decades. He

was a disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi and joined the

Aurobindo Ashram around 1930.

Since TVK was a teacher in a well known school, he

was aware of the criticisms made about the work of Sri

Aurobindo on Veda. TVK realised that the view of the

SA will be appreciated by Indian pandits only if the

book is in Sanskrit, not a book in English which they

did not understand.

So in 1946, TVK started his commentary on Rig Veda.

First he wrote an extensive introduction to his

commentary, answering the criticisms not only of

Sanskrit pandits but also those of eminent scholars

like Dr. Radhakrishnan.

Sri Aurobindo blessed his undertaking. TVK decided

that he will not use any info from Purana-s. Rig Veda

is a vast book and Veda reveals its own secrets. Every

secret or insight in the Veda is probably mentioned in

several places in various Mandala-s. TVK because of

his Vedic mastery could do this cross reference. He

also assigned the meanings of the words in the Veda

using the Patanjali's grammatical suggestions. The

same rules can suggest several meanings for the same

word different from those given by Sayana Acharya.

TVK also handled the criticisms (b), and (c). His

bhashya is in the same format as those of Upanishad-s.

Regarding (c), TVK wrote a booklet of about 41 pages

in Sanskrit listing specifically the ‘secret’ or ‘rahasya’

in the first 1400 mantra-s commented by him, by

taking groups of three or 4 mantra-s. Its complete

translation in English is published by SAKSHI

(2015), with the title ‘Vedic Secrets’.

By 1950, TVK completed the commentary in Sanskrit

called as “Siddhanjana” and was printed in 2 volumes

(about 1000 pages). TVK handled only the first eighth

of Rig Veda involving 121 sukta-s or 1460 mantra-s

out of 10,552. A close reading of this commentary

gave a person some understanding of the depth of Rig

Vedic wisdom and its relevance for modern living.

TVK felt (quoted by MPP) that the insights given by

him is sufficient for a serious student to complete the

translation of the entire Rig Veda! If the task was so

easy, TVK could have at least completed the first

Mandala, writing on 70 more sukta-s.

Sri M.P. Pandit, the chief disciple of TVK, who

published the Sanskrit Bhashya, collected all the

manuscripts of TVK, printed and published them as

“Collected Works of TVK”, in 12 volumes. He also

got the complete translation into English the extensive

introduction of TVK on Veda known as Bhumika

(partially done by TVK himself). The praise lavished

on the original Sanskrit work of TVK by the great

scholar S.K. Ramachandra Rao (SKR) (1925-2006)

opened the eyes of many to appreciate the Veda. Note

that SA or TVK do not touch the other 3 Veda-s. For

more details, see the book compiled by SAKSHI,

“Exploring the Mystrey of the Veda” by SKR and

other great savant scholars.

SKR encouraged the SAKSHI staff to bring out the

complete translations of all the four Veda-s in English

and their rendering into Indian languages such as

Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. All the English

translations of the four Veda-s were made available in

2014. The Kannada translations of all four Veda-s are

available now (2017); The Tamil and Telugu

translations will be completed in 2018. SAKSHI sells

every year about 30,000 books on Veda only in

English and 8 Indian languages. Now, at least there are

a few thousands who have some appreciation of the

Vedic insights and their utility for modern life.

5May-June, 2017SAKSHI Newsletter :

Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga

Institute

1107-B/1, Shivajinagar, Pune

Date : 20th June 2017

Dear Shri. R. L. Kashyap

I thankfully acknowledge the receipt of your

monumental work of translation of Veda-Samhitas

into English. The enormity of your work is mind

boggling. The dedication is really immense. This is

indeed hugely praise worthy work of you. No praise

will be sufficient for your contribution in bringing to

light the eternal wisdom to the people of our era.

Generations to come in Bharata Varsha will be

indebted to you and the whole team behind you. It is a

great presentation as well. Please convey our sincere

congratulations to “SAKSHI” and the Sri Aurobindo

Kapali Sastry Institute of Vedic Culture, Bengaluru.

Thanking you,

Yours truly,

Prashanth S. Iyengar

(S/o Padmabhushana BKS Iyengar)

Dear Dr. Jahagirdar,

Delighted to read your email & the events

hosted by you & SAKSHI.

I am glad to hear you organizing the

Purohits’ workshop & that 85 purohits attended. Glad

to note that Prof gave lectures to them. As we all knew,

these purohits, who went to Patasalas when they were

young were only taught to chant and perhaps the

‘gross’ or external meaning - but not the ‘spiritual or

psychological meanings’! It is thus clear to us that the

task ahead is much more deeper and more complex

and more Herculean than our worst imaginations!

But we keep on doing what we can do. I applaud

SAKSHI’s work in many multi-directional ways.

Kind regards,

R. Narayanaswami, Ph. D.

Scientist (NASA, USA)

Dear Sir,

Many thanks for “SAKSHI News

Letter” which I received today. The note

from Dr. Kashyap sir, “Yoga in modern times” made

me spell bound by its depth and comprehensiveness. I

particularly cherish the sentence “One should focus

not only on one’s own development but also on

helping the nighbours to lead a helthy and prosperous

life”. I only wish this article should be given as wide a

publicity as possible, particularly in view of

“International Yoga Day” on 21st of June.

yours sincerely

M.J. Lakshmana Rao

To

Managing Trustee, SAKSHI

It is with great honor we would like to

bring to your attention that our Surabhi

Foundation Trust has been recognized and

appreciated for our efforts on “World Against Child

Labour Day” as one of the key contributors in grass-

root level for the eradication of child labour by the

Ministry of Labour - Karnataka.

We take this opportunity to sincerely Thank you! for

all your efforts - without which we would have fallen

behind in our efforts. We accept this appreciation on

behalf of all of you! and promise to continue our work

to reach many many more needy kids.

Many thanks again for all your efforts and invaluable

time!

Best Wishes,

A.S Patil and Team

Surabhi Foundation Trust

ArthritisArthritisT. K. Jagannathan

Yoga – Pranayama : A Fusion therapy

J U S T R E L E A S E D

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6May-June, 2017SAKSHI Newsletter : www.vedah.com

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