[Advaita-l] True scholarship

[S Jayanarayanan]

 Raghav Kumar Dwivedula raghavkumar00 at gmail.com wrote:
 
> Namaste Kartik ji
> You are fortunate to associate with a Mahatma like Sri R.K.Srikanta ji.
> I was drawn to the following para in his obit in 'The Hindu' viz.,
> 
> "He was a man with liberal and rational outlook. He held women in high
> esteem and taught them vedic mantras and performances of rituals".
> 
> Could this be taken as a precedent/pramANa for today's times w.r.t women
> studying the Vedas given your Guruji's orthodoxy and scholarship?
> 
 
Not sure what to make of the claim in the obituary, but this much I do know:
In the 1980's, every single student who studied Veda recitation along with me under my Guruji's tutelage was a
Brahmin male (or at least a Dvija). During the worship on Pradosham days at the local Shiva (Jalakanteswara)
temple that he emphasized his students to attend, all those chanting the Rudram were Brahmins (or Dvijas).
 
When I visited him many years after his retirement (around 2008, he must have been ~80 years old), he said,
"In my younger years, I was of the opinion that women shouldn't chant the Vedas. But when my granddaughter
picked up some of the Mantras I was reciting, I didn't stop her, but encouraged her to do so, as I felt it
wasn't wrong!"
 
Here's my guess:
Upon retirement and becoming a grandfather, perhaps he relaxed his views with regards to a few stringent rules
that were adhered to in the past, having entered an older age?
 
Also, an exception does not alter the general rule. One or two outliers don't imply a pattern and cannot
sustain a tradition. I would personally suggest refraining from teaching the Veda Mantras to women in
general, unless an order to the contrary comes from a well-known authority on Vedic Dharma, like the
Sringeri Mahasannidhanam.
 
Of course, there are many stotras open for women to recite, such as the Vishnu and Lalita Sahasranama, various
works like the Soundarya Lahari, the shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita, etc.
 
> Om
> 
> Raghav
> 
 
Regards,
Kartik