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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
The function I was called to inaugurate and I inaugurated last evening was actually connected with Sankara Jayanthi celebration and also an extension of it. So, I thought I would speak something about Sankara and the manner in which his life relates to the Vedic life, the Vedantic life and its dissemination.
I always wondered about Sankara’s advent and what preceded his life. Vedas and Vedanta are ageless and they have been in vogue in our country right from the time immemorial. But we don’t have a clear history of what all happened in between and how this Vedantic knowledge has surfaced every time and subdued all other systems of thought and triumphed.
Sitting here, I am trying to look back. We have Ramayana written in Treta Yuga. Then we have Mahabharata written in Dwapara Yuga. At the end of it, that is in terms of actual calculation, it is more than 5000 years old. You know, we have calculated and found out 5152, 5153, 5154 (years old). That is the time, the Mahabharatha was written after the whole characters had shed their body, even that much is written there, the Mahāprasthāna of Yudhishtira and his brothers along with Draupadi. They climbed Himalayas, and as they climbed you will find oxygen is less and less and the body has to fall. And Draupadi’s was the first body to fall. Then one, two, three, four and five. Yudhishtira is the last.
So, this Mahabharata is a wonderful compact and comprehensive writing which includes everything including the death of the Pandavas. Something very wonderful. This Bhagavad Gita is part of it. This Bhagavad Gita is considered to be one of Prasthāna Trayam. The Prasthāna Trayam, a combination of three texts, that is the written, documented, cultural presentation about the country. One part of it is the Upanishads, another part is the Bhagavad Gita which is a commentary on Upanishad and the third is the Brahma Sutras.
After the composition of Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita was included in the Prasthāna Trayam, finding what it deals with and how it deals with. So, it goes very much with Upanishads. Now after Mahabharata was written, Bhagavad Gita came into vogue. Certainly, it must have been read at least by a few people. But you find, our Buddha had his advent 2500 years back. People used to say 2500 when I was in Kolkata. So, it should be more than 2560 or 70.
After Buddha’s advent, because he was a prince and he took to this kind of a Buddhism, so many people followed him. Philosophy was composed in the name of Buddhism, Hinayana, Mahayana, this, that and all. Unless a religion is supported by philosophy and it offers food for reason, I don’t think it can survive on the surface of the earth because man is intelligent, and he want to understand and approach the matters from the intelligence and reason level. And intelligence is the highest faculty in the human. So, unless the intelligence is able to find inspiration, compulsion and fulfillment, no religious practice can ever survive. So, Buddhism evolved lot of philosophy and the trend continued according to me, for about 1300 years.
That was the time, Sankara was born, and he went to Govindapada, his Guru. Govindapada initiated him into Brahma Vidya, and finding Sankara to be intelligent and masterly, he told him, “All these Vedantic and Upanishadic texts are practically eaten by white ants. Nobody is able to understand and gain insight from them. Can you do something about it?” He took it as a call, and with lot of dedication, Sankara started propagating and disseminating the Upanishadic wisdom, writing a commentary for Bhagavad Gita, then Upanishads and Brahma Sutras.
Those were the days of high scholarship. So many people had written many different types of philosophy and all of them were supported by their own reasoning and excellence. So, Sankara had to cull out and pick out people one after the other. The only way of travel was walking. And all the important scholars and leaders of thought he met, and by virtue of a discussion and debate, he brought forth the supremacy and overwhelming nature of the Upanishads, the Paramātma tattva.
How was he able to do it? As far as I am able to see from here, all our Puranas and itihasas have only one mission and purpose, it is to inculcate viveka in the minds of the people. If you are able to imbibe and develop viveka, the art and process of discriminating between good and bad, right and wrong, useful and useless, just like our eyes distinguish between white color and black color, this is what we want.
So, before Sankara, there was a great Maharshi called Jaimini. One Jaimini is said to be the disciple of Vyasadeva himself. If it was so, then Jaimini differed from Vyasadeva. And he said “The entire Vedas have only one purpose, that is to make the man do something or not do something. The prohibition and injunction provided by the Vedas alone are valid. Any other statement or revelation is useless. It is artha-vāda, eulogistic.”, he said. So, only the injunctional and prohibitional statements of the Vedas are to be heeded. So, the Vedas became vidhi and nishedha. Suppose Vedas become vidhi and nishedha, and they are not heeded by the people, then the Vedas become useless. That position cannot be accepted.
The word ‘Veda’ itself refers to knowledge. So Vedas are a book of knowledge. Any knowledge has its own intrinsic weight, worth, and compulsion. If somebody has written a book on fire and its properties, unless you heed them, you will not do justice to the usage of fire. So, it stands no option on the part of the reader. That is why it is called, not vidhi and nishedha mandatory, but revelatory. The Sanskrit words are Jaimini said , “Vedas are mandatory, kāragās.” And Sankara said “They are revelatory, jnāpakās.”
I am even now wondering, two people are looking at the same sanctifying Vedas and one say is, “It is only asking you to do and not to do.” Another says “No, that will be to defeat the very purpose of the Vedas. They only reveal the truths which you cannot otherwise know. And whatever truths they have revealed, they are valid, they cannot be invalidated. You are the self whether you know it or not. If you know it, you are benefited, if you don’t know it, you incur a great loss.” This fundamental position of seeing the Vedas and finding them to be revelatory, not mandatory, whereas Jaimini said “They are mandatory and not revelatory. So, don’t go in for the Vedas to have any enlightenment as such. Only obey them their commands.”, I think this is something that our people should know, the whole world should know. How the same text can be viewed by two different people in an absolutely conflicting manner? Jaimini’s sutras, I don’t think are any more prevalent with the same sanctity and acceptance, as they were when they were written and for a few decades or centuries.
So, 1250 years back when Sankara came up, that was the time, this Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Brahma Sutras came to light. And ever since then, they have been in force in the country. Whatever literature we read about Upanishad, Vedanta and Vedantic truths etc., are only on the basis of what Sankara has revealed. Then came Ramanuja saying it is not so. Then came Madhwa saying it is not so. So, the differences of opinion will always remain. Now, you have to understand what are these differences for and how and when you will have to transcend them. Our sastras finally say,
You listen to a variety of versions from siddhas, yogis and tattva darshis etc. After hearing all of them, if you can remain unruffled and peaceful, that is the supreme state. I was speaking about doubtlessness, samsayātma and nissamsayatwa. This is also something very important. Sankara simply dismisses. He doesn’t question whether swarga is there or not. “Mahatmas have said it. I am not going to debate upon them. I can only say that things which are not experiential, reject them and whatever are experiential hold on to them. There you are satisfied.” This kind of a reasoning which finally takes you, takes reasoning itself to its own natural climax and conclusion is something that all of you should understand. Let us be practical and in that practice he says, non-experiential things, reject and experiential ones, accept. And this is how, he focuses reason in the matter of understanding and practicing our great Vedic and Vedantic life. Vedas are revelatory and not mandatory. To the extent a truth is mentioned, if you read it, you have to honor it because it’s a truth. If you don’t honor it, you stand to incur loss and menace.
I think these are points which people should know. I was mentioning to some extent about these points saying that, it is Sankara Jayanthi, people generally celebrate it, but nobody tries to know what Sankara said and thought, and what Sankara would like us to be. He would like us to be discreet and discriminating in the matter of understanding life, understanding the world and choosing our objective, making sure that we don’t miss the truth and we don’t miss the chance of fulfilling our life as human.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.