Devayana and Pitriyana

[Vivek Anand Ganesan]

Namashkar,
   I thank all the members of this list who responded to my question.

   Because of my lack of knowledge of the Vedas and my ignorance of
the beautiful Sanskrit language, I have to content myself with reading
books like "Introducing Hinduism", "Teach yourself Hinduism in 21
days" etc.
As Shree Vyas pointed out, foreigners do distort meanings.  In fact,
that is the main reason I joined this forum.  I want to remove any
misconceptions I have regarding Vedanta.  I am also trying to remedy
my deficiencies but Self-taught Sanskrit, Vedanta can only take one so
far.  I believe that the correct way to study any Darshana is at the
feet of an able guru.  But, until I do so, I hope to gain as much
learning and insight as possible from the sAdhakas in this forum.  In
that spirit, I seek clarification on certain concepts presented in our
scriptures which I feel I have not understood and/or misunderstood.
Please bear with me.

   Could someone please explain to me what "DevayAna" and "PitriyAna"
mean?  I understand that these terms are dealt with quite extensively
in the vedas.  Is this true?  Also, I have heard explanations that
these  -"yAnas" are the precursors of the -"Yogas", -"Margas" like
Bhakti-Yoga, Jnaana-Yoga etc., which came later.  Can this be justified?

Thank you,

-Vivek.


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