My last posting (3 / 3)

[S. V. Subrahmanian]

5.  Finally the topic of Shruti.  This stemmed from the thread "Is gItA an
Upanishad?".  Our current prevelant understanding is that it comprises of
the 4 major Vedas with all its constituents (brahmanas, Aranyakas, mantrAs
etc).  I recently learnt the following from more than one source and I feel
is truth.  I am not quoting the source as it might lead to controversies.  I
do not want the attention diverted from the thought to the person behind the
thought.

Shruti is vibration that emanates from the Brahman.  It is eternal, it is
the basis of creation and it exists, pervades all matter in the form of
vibration(sound).  Every material object is a concretization of a sound
vibration that is Shruti.  Any sound is Shruti, be it the supernova
explosions, or a rustle of leaf, or a scream of a baby, Vedic chants of
Brahmins, song of a nightingale all are Shruti.

Just as the plant kingdom is vast and yet a few of them have medicinal
properties which scientists after research have found out, there are
vibrations in this Universe that are conducive for one's spiritual
development.  They are the Vedic Mantras, which is a subspace of Shruti and
which have been after arduous effort, cognized by the Rishis.  These select
few have meanings which if understood can unshackle man from his illusory
bondages.

All this says is that all the Vedic Mantras are perfectly valid, but only
that they are a subspace of the space namely Shruti.  This explains a lot
more than the conventional defintion (which I wrongly termed myopic and
invited the wrath of Shri Vaidyaji):

1.  By identifying its true meaning as one-level of abstraction higher than
what we have been thinking we are not disturbing any of the existing
subspaces (chief among them the Vedic knowledge).   All our Vedic knowledge
is still vaild, correct and efficacious.  All our Acharyas are still
correct.  They are not violated by this discovery.

2.  It explains the existence of mantrAs outside the limits of conventional
Vedic texts.  There have been Tamil Siddhas who have given prescriptions of
mantrAs in Tamil !  P. Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship devotees call
their Masters works as "Cosmic Chants" and repeat them sometimes for an hour
together and feel the same effect we get by chanting mantrAs.

3.  It also explains why the mantrAs have a sound value independent of the
meaning-value in them.  It is popularly known that the mere chanting of
mantrAs has a mere beneficial effect even if the meaning is not understood.
That belief is explained by the expansive view of Shruti.  For resonance
with the fundamental vibrations of certain frequencies can produce positive
effects.

In the process of questioning and trying to find answers I
absorbed/distracted many of your attentions from much more serious
enquiries.  My apologies are due.  I wrote this long mail only to explain my
stand as some of the senior members of the list were offended by my
postings.   I probably did not know how to communicate my doubts and ideas
and hence it had a deleterious effect.  Once again sorry.

Anyway this will be my last, and I will watch over other's postings in
silence.

Shri Vaidyaji wrote:
p.s: I am in no stretch of imagination a founder of this list - that credit
goes to Ravi who so diligently started & ran this list as sole
administrator/moderator from the earlier site, and to Jaldhar who currently
hosts our list; this list is where it is due to them and due to the other
heavy weights we have here - I am as much an indebted member as you and as
any one else!

Reply:
Oh that's ok.  You too have made good contributions in the past.  You also
deserve credit.

With love and respects,

S. V. Subrahmanian
svs_shankara at hotmail.com
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