[Advaita-l] Reciting veda ghana pATaM

[Ravi Parimi]

> Yes, here in South India there is a high status in vaidik circle for one
> who learnt ghana/salakshaNa ghana type of recitation...Normally we call
> them with a suffix *ghanapATi*..Like rAmakrishna ghanapAti, jayarama
> ghanapATI etc. I read somewhere a Sanskrit slOka that says  those who
> recite pada pATa would get dviguNa puNya phala, and those who recite krama
> pATa would get triguNa puNya phala & those who recite jatA pATa would get 6
> time more phala than mere recitation of saMhitA pATha.  Interestingly there
> is no mention about ghana pATa here :-))

I read the same sanskrit sholka you mentioned except that it
attributed ananta phala for ghana parayna. To the unsuspecting
devotee, such a shloka might provide enough stimulus to embark on a
journey of learning vedic chanting, and revel in the intricacies of
sandhis, swaras and pronunciations.

If I never knew how to chant the ghana but wanted the infinite phala
described in the above shloka, I'd be very disappointed. It would seem
to me that all these pundits and their students have done the right
thing to accumulate a whole lot of punya for this life and the lives
to come by.

To hone one's skills of vedic chanting, ghana serves a great purpose,
and it has the other benefits that Sri Krishnamoorthy mentioned. Their
use is limited only to the people who can do it. To the common man, a
lecture on Upanishads/Gita is more helpful than a CD full of ghana
chantings.

I think it is pretty ridiculous to attribute phala to different kinds
of chanting modes, and that the shloka has no basis. Why should one be
guided by the thought of phala for learning vedic chanting? Why not
focus just on chanting than on the phala it will bring sometime in
future ?