[Advaita-l] Need information on learning Vedas online

[Shreekrishna]

SrigurubhyO namaH

Respected members,

This is an interesting discussion. I am of the opinion that India is as
difficult an atmosphere as any other part of the world to pursue
vaidika-sampradAya in. The ideal jij~jAsu, in my opinion, perhaps couldn't
care lesser what the world outside is like, insofar as he has created a
conducive atmosphere for his sAdhana and adhyayana, no matter where he
lives. Deliberations on how much puNya there is in any AdhyAtmic pursuit
staying in a land that does not qualify as karmabhUmi is outside the
purview of this discussion, for as far as the ideal jij~jAsu is concerned,
puNyArjana should perhaps become an incidental gain enroute to a much
larger objective (which in some sense is going to be related to something
pAramArthika). As we do know, IshAvAsya emphasizes - "kurvannEvEha karmANi
.... ".

The above said, I am as far from the ideal jij~jAsu as I possibly can be.
Living in an alien land has its limitations and contributes a wee bit to my
distance from being an ideal jij~jAsu. Nonetheless, I have found over the
years, that there are a few more hours in the day that I obtain to invest
in something less corporeal, as opposed to losing those hours stuck in
traffic in Indian metros. For me, the journey into the world of vEdAs is a
both a matter of jij~jAsA and a matter of learning something that in a
sense is "rightfully/dutifully mine" and passing it on to posterity. It may
not be entirely inappropriate to state that the number of authoritative
Sanskrit scholars or shAstra exponents outnumber those who are
authoritative dvivedins/trivedins. This, by no means, undermines the
importance of any of these aforementioned sections of the society. I just
feel that they are very different ballgames, sometimes with very different
purposes.

I live in what I could call a hamlet in southeast USA, where the cumulative
brahmin-by-birth population might not even be quarter-a-century, let alone
the ones who perform sandhyAvandanam and associated nityakarmas. To some
like us, who have an ounce of curiosity/interest at this time in life (and
who knows how life will change) but not the local bandwidth to feel
satiated, it is just a desire to make hay while the sun shines, that we
have to resort to non-traditional media to learn vEdAs or shAstrAs. Then
again, I do chicken out from giving my career and comforts up for learning
vEdAs at Kashi or Kanchi. So, Skype/GTalk could come to the rescue of some
of us who populate this weird stranded-at-various-levels space, who really
want to have the cake and eat it too.

Finally, I may have to disagree that a knowledge of Sanskrit relieves one
from the "crutches of translations" based on what really was meant by
translations, but in the event that they were references to bhAShyas or
commentaries, it would not be an unfair assessment of the current society
that there are few who can claim to have understood prasthAnatrayI
flawlessly without the help of *some* commentary or the other.

Thanks for your time, suggestions and opinions.

sarvE bhadrANi pashyantu,
HarayE namaH
Shreekrishna.


On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 5:54 AM, Rajaram Venkataramani <
rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree.
>
> Is any senior vaidhika in sringeri or any other place protecting vaidhika
> dharma in traditional manner opposed to learning over skype?
>
> On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 9:39 AM, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com
> >wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 17 Aug 2013, Rajaram Venkataramani wrote:
> >
> >  RV: What is the reason? As Vedas are sakshat Ishwara and chanting itself
> >> is
> >> a great upasana, I thought it is highly desirable to learn Vedas more
> than
> >> Sanskrit.
> >>
> >
> > Recitation (svAdhyAya) is important no doubt but the vedas also have a
> > practical use.  They are not just some super bhajan.  In particular
> > diligent performance of nitya and naimittika karma is a must for all
> > Brahmanas.  Thus knowing the mantras and procedure for that is top
> priority
> > but after that there are other things.
> >
> > Today everyone and anyone are claiming vedic this and vedic that.  There
> > is so much bad information out there (E.g. this Vidushekhara Bhattacharya
> > affair.) and it is less likely ou will be misled by the unscrupulous if
> you
> > are well-informed.  This is a particular concern for those who are
> isolated
> > from the astika community whether insider bharat or outside.
> >
> > Also if we are going to be established outside of Vedic cultures
> > traditional environment (again in India or outside) we need to build up a
> > proper infrastructure to ensure our continued progress.  Too many times
> > I've seen people get overenthusiastic, bite off more than they can chew
> and
> > then flame out.  And n particular we who are parents need to be literate
> so
> > we can ensure our children are dharmically literate.
> >
> >
> >  The latter is no doubt important to learn especially to access
> >> literatures that have not been translated properly or to understand the
> >> explanations.
> >>
> >
> > As you increase your sanskrit knowledge, you will find translations to be
> > crutches you can increasingly do without.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
> > ______________________________**_________________
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