Gayatri Mantra and adhikara

[Sankaran Jayanarayanan]

Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM>

Thanks for your reply!

>Sankaran Jayanarayanan wrote:
>
>> I heard that there is a restriction on the Gayatri Mantra: that it
can
>> be chanted only in India, or that it is effective only in that
>> geographical location. Is this true?
>
>No. It is said gAyantamtrAyateti gAyatrI.
>

What is the source of this statement?

>> Moreover, this mantra is permitted to be chanted only by Brahmins:
why?
>> (The Arya samaj, among others, has not followed this rule.)
>>
>> Lastly, is there a connection between the above two questions: that
>> Brahmins are not allowed to travel outside India due to the lack of
the
>> efficacy of the Gayatri Mantra beyond India's boundary?
>
>?!!
>
>shrImad AchArya's direct disciple shivasoma migrated to Cambodia [1].
>Inscriptions mentioning sha.nkarabhagavatpAda are found there.
shivasoma
>was the rAjaguru of a king there.

There are lots of doubts about the exact geographical locations during
Shankara's times. Even the birthplace of Shankara can be debated.
Totakacharya, one of the direct disciples of Shankara, and the first
pontiff of the Badrinath Math, mentions that Shankara was born in
Chidambaram in Tamilnadu. The other references say it is Kaladi in
Kerala. Given that even Shankara's birthplace is vague, I'd doubt any
reference to the disciple of Shankara being the Rajaguru in Cambodia.

> H.H shrI bhAratI kR^ishhNa tIrtha
>__sha.nkarAchArya of pUri__ travelled to the US in the sixties. Let's
>once and for all get rid of this bogus stuff about geographical
>locations.
>

When my father returned from Germany after his PhD, his Guru would not
accept him as a disciple. It is not that Guruji specifically refused to
allow him back as a disciple, but that as a general rule, it was known
that he did not accept someone who had travelled abroad. Later, he
happenned to see my father somewhere and said that he had "relaxed this
rule." Crossing the seas does seem to have had some connotations of
"unholiness."

>The gAyatrI mantra is to be chanted by dvijas only, which does not mean
>just brahmins. The Arya Samaj has no place in advaita.
>

My question can still be paraphrased: Dvijas alone are eligible to chant
the Gayatri Mantra. Why?

>[1] Bhagavatpada Sri Sanakaracarya, by Dr C. Sivaramamurti. He is an
>eminent archaeologist. This text mentions quite a few achaeological
>evidences wrt shrImad AchArya.
>
>Rama.

Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM> wrote:

>Subject: Re: adhikAra
>
>>OK, we've two criterions -
>>1. vedaAdhikArA - one who's eligible to study the Vedas
>>2. mokshaadhikArA - one who's eligible for moksha
>>
>>First let me state my position that no amount of arguing can
contradict
>>the enormous amount of evidence in the scriptures as to what makes a
>>brahmana - birth.
>
>This is EXTREMELY unfair IMO. Vidyasankar has spent valuable time in
the
>middle of writing his thesis as to why there is nothing called
>moxAdhikAra and here it is again.

OK.

> Do members actually read posts or just
>use the list as an opportunity to write whatever they please?
>
>>OK, but when Vedanta is so universal in it's perspective, how can the
>>study of the Vedas be restricted only to the Brahmanas?
>
>Vedas are NOT restricted to brahmaNa-s. Please read the texts properly
>and get to know what adhikAra means before applying your "logic".
>
>>Vedantic knowledge can be had from even the smritis (Gita, Yoga
>Vasishta
>>etc). But the specific rituals with the hyms are present only in the
>>shruti (if I'm wrong please correct me).
>
>You are compeletly wrong.
>
>>Brahman) and 2. One need not be a Brahmana to be a jnani. And this is
>>straight from the shruti itself, which would supercede even Shankara's
>>authority (if we're interpreting him correctly).
>
>This clearly shows that you have been reading NONE of the posts. I have
>clearly posted quotes from various authorities that anyone is
                                                     ^^^^^^^^^^
entitled
^^^^^^^^
>to GYAna.
^^^^^^^^^
>

It is easy to see from Shankara's BSB that,"... Moxa can follow only
from a previous study of the Vedic texts."

Which implies that not just anyone, but only one who is or has been a
Dvija in a previous life can acquire GYAna. This is a fundamental
requirement that Shankara explicitly lays out in his Brahma Sutra
Bhashya.

>Rama.
>

-Kartik

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