[Advaita-l] aruNa prashna & upanishad chanting in evening

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Bhaskar,
 
Your comments below are extremely surprising, to say the least. From the very beginning,
the vaidika tradition is full of diversity. There are customs specific to the specialists in each
veda.  Then, there are customs specific to the adherents of different sUtra-s within a given
veda. On top of it, there are practices that are specific to region and perhaps even to a given
village, depending on the individual histories of the people there. A lot of times, "this is how
my guru taught me," is more than enough to validate the variation in practices. It is only to
accommodate the need for adjusting as per circumstances that we allow SishTAcAra as a
validating principle in itself and charge the SishTa-s with the responsibility of not violating
fundamental Srauta injunctions. This situation can give rise to doubts, sure, but again, that
is why, there is the upanishadic teaching that says "ye tatra brAhmaNAs sammarSinaH ..
 tathA tatra/teshu vartethAH". And there are later dharmaSAstra texts that point to the
customs of the learned in specific regions (AryAvarta/brahmAvarta/madhyadesha etc) as
the best. 
 
We should celebrate this diversity. It is not "unfortunate", by any means. All that is required
of a specific person is to understand and apply the rules as they apply to the specific situation.
And precisely because of the diversity intrinsic to our traditions, from the earliest times, there
is a lot of room to adapt and honor the spirit of the rules, even if not observing them to the
letter.
 
Expecting a "one size fits all" approach to our traditions is totally alien to our general outlook.
It is a sign of the increasing alienation of the Indian mind from our true roots. Nothing in the
variety of styles of reciting the vedas can invalidate a philosophical outlook regarding their
pramANatva. And nothing in the various regional variations in customs among vaidika-s can 
invalidate the status we give the vedas either.
 
Vidyasankar
 

> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> From: bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com
> Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:22:07 +0530
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] aruNa prashna & upanishad chanting in evening
> 
> sAshatAnga praNAms Sri Vidya prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
> 
> In the context of vaidika karmA, the rules are necessarily in place. 
> 
> > And unfortunately these rules are not uniform across the vaidika 
> prapaNacha!! Hence there is lot of deviations & controversies in vaidika 
> karmANushtAna and related issues. I myself seen in Apasthambha agnimukha 
> prayOga atleast 3 different methods in vaidika circle. And in bOdhAyana-s 
> too there exists different method of agnimukha within their own tradition 
> in the name of 'pAtha bedha'.
> 
> Chanting portions of the veda in the context of karmA needs to adhere to 
> the rules as handed down. 
> 
> > Again this is too exists only on book!! Again in apasthAbheeya 
> agnimukha, some chants chatvAri shrunga & eshahi devaH pradishOnu sarvAH 
> etc. maNtra-s, some do not, instead they recite some shlOka-s which is 
> used in AshvalAyana agnimukha prayOga !! And bOdhAyana-s use different 
> veda maNtra-s though their sva-shAkhA is yajurveda. 
> 
> That said, we should also recognize that there can be a lot of variation 
> in the rules, but that
> need not bother us. 
> 
> > I am not able to understand this allowance and accepting the variation 
> in the rules and at the same time maintaining the rigid & uncompromising 
> rules in karmAnushTAna and veda pArAyaNa. 
> 
> What customs are followed in Kashi can be quite different from the customs 
> followed in Kurnool, but that is par for the course.
> 
> > again I am failed to understand why this difference?? If the vaidiks 
> in kAshi & Kurnool strictly following the same gruhya & shruta sUtra-s as 
> per their sUtra (like apasthAmbha, AshvalAyana, bodhAyana etc.) the 
> procedure and viniyOga maNtra-s also should be one and the same no?? If 
> the variance allowed within the same circle of tradition, then we have to 
> say there is no hard & fast rule that needs to be observed in vaidika 
> karmAnushtAna and in the name of 'pAtha bedha', custom, any deviation can 
> be allowed without much insistence on injunctions of sUtra-s.
> 
> > This is applicable to style of vedic chAnting also, there is different 
> style adopted in kAnchi pAtha, Mysore pAtha (andhra & dravida pAtha)..I've 
> seen in North India, maNtra-s chanted in entirely different style and 
> sometimes I could not make out even which maNtra they are chanting from 
> veda!! :-))
> 
> > Kindly clarify how we can maintain the uniformity of veda-s and its 
> svara-s while allowing these differences in the nAme of saMpradAya and 
> pAtha bedha??
> 
> Your humble servant
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar 
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