[Advaita-l] Pranava adhikara (Was Re: Guru for Devi Puja)

[Venkatesh Murthy]

Namaste

Yes the restriction is for Mantra Diksha, Mantra Japa and Prayoga like
Homa. Non dvijas and females cannot have Mantra Diksha with Om in
it.Many people are doing Japa like the Shadakshari Mantra and Narayana
Ashtakshari but it will not have any effect. Vedic Om is a very secret
word. Tamils may say it but it is not same Vedic Om. I have seen one
Sudra's son's name is Om. It is not Vedic Om.

When Guru says the Om directly in the ear of a qualified Dvija the
vocal vibrations are producing a different spiritual effect. When a
Non dvija or female is saying it the same vibrations will not be
there.

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 12:44 AM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan
<svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> 2. The quote from Smrti (specifically the Mahabharata) is a little bit
>> ambiguous because shrAvayet literally means "cause to listen."  As noted
>> above some think that the non-dvijas can only listen.  However
>> Shankaracharya specifically says that it is possible for a  Shudra to
>> become a jnani and jnana requires manana and nidhidhyasana as well as
>> shravana.
>
> How does one cause to listen? By reciting within hearing distance. As such,
> there is open adhikAra for everybody where itihAsa-purANa is concerned,
> as per the authority of Sankara bhagavatpAda. Having accepted this, we
> have to accept the possibility that one who is not a traivarNika male can/will
> also speak and think. Ears, mouths, tongues and brains are generally present
> in all human beings. Once SravaNa is admitted, none can prevent manana
> and nididhyAsana, if the listener is so inclined.
>
>> 4. The Gita says in 8.13:
>>
>>  OMityekakSharaM brahma
>>
>> This  could be translated as "OM is the one letter Brahman" or "OM is the
>> imperishable Brahman."  However you take it, it shows that for the
>> Vedantins, the omkara is more than just the essence of the Vedas, it
>> is Brahman itself.
> The translation could also be, "The one syllable, OM, is brahman".To this, add the verse gItA 17. 23 -
> om-tat-sad-iti nirdeSo brahmaNas trividhas smRtaH.
>
> Also note, as a matter of linguistic sociology, the Sri Lankan Tamil word for
> "yes" is nothing other than Om. Indian Tamil speakers say Am or Am-Am.
> As such, there is a very common-place, secular usage of this syllable, at
> least among one group of people, from the hourly wage earning labourer
> in the fields to the brAhmaNa priests in the various temples in Sri Lanka.What marks apart the recitation of the praNava in a japa or yajna is the
> ritual context and nothing else. The traditional restrictions all have to do
> with the ritual japa or prayoga of a mantra that has the praNava in it. This
> needs to be distinguished clearly from the fact that the syllable occurs in
> a text that is from the itihAsa-purANa genre, that conveys jnAna and which
> is open for study by all, as per the explicit words of Sankara bhagavatpAda
> himself. Regards,
> Vidyasankar
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-- 
Regards

-Venkatesh