Volume I, Number 11, December 2009

A key Vedic teaching is that we should view God as our mother. The most important relation that a child has is that with the mother; analogously God is the cosmic mother Savita who gives birth to the entire universe. Although every relationship is a two-way one, a mother is exceptional in that she gives everything to her child without expecting anything in return. Similarly, God benevolently makes available all that we need for our overall good such as food, water and air. Our vital body systems function due to Her so that even when we are deep in sleep this continues to be the case. Although our relationship with Her also seems to be a one-way affair (because we cannot visualize what we can give to Her) there are, in fact, some responsibilities incumbent upon us humans in order to be good children.

Every relationship needs to be nurtured at three levels: knowledge, action and togetherness. The corresponding Sanskrit words are jnana, karma and upasana. a) Jnana – Just as we must know our loved ones well, we must also know our duties and responsibilities towards God. b) Karma – Our actions ought to fulfil these duties and responsibilities. c) Upasana - We must, exclusively and devotedly, spend time with God. We must be faithful in all three facets of our relationship with God.

Prasthanatrayi – Jnana, Karma and Upasana

As a whole the triad of jnana, karma and upasana is called prasthanatrayi (three-fold journey) in Sanskrit; in India the vehicle traditionally utilised for this journey is Sandhya (also, called Sandhya-Vandanam or Sandhyo-Pasana). As explained by Maharsi Dayananda Sarasvati (1824-’83), the books of the Vedas correspond neatly to these three dimensions of jnana, karma and upasana.

a) Rigveda mainly details vi-jnana (the spiritual sciences, shedding light on the nature of both God and the soul) b) Atharvaveda covers jnana (wordly knowledge such as the material sciences; family, community and political affairs)
Yajurveda deals with karma
Samaveda covers upasana

Jnana: We must know and understand the true nature of self and God. I, the individual, am a tiny spirit within the body structure for which the Sanskrit word is atma. Likewise, the entire universe is inhabited by an infinite cosmic spirit, called God – for whom there are many Sanskrit names e.g. Atma, Paramatma, Isvara, Paramesvara, Brahma, etc. But, His own name is Om, the most natural sound that exists in the universe. Furthermore, we must understand the relationship between our soul and God. The Vedas teach us that a proper understanding of anything cannot be complete without an increased awareness, appreciation and affinity towards the creator. An enlightened person always seeks to know the artist from the art. Similarly, differentiating the creator from the creation enables us to learn the differences between matter and the spirit. Both material sciences and spiritual sciences must be studied together – avidya and vidya (or apara vidya and para vidya). Knowledge cannot only be derived from books and teachers but must also be acquired by personal experience, such as self-realization and God-realization – atma-saksatkar and isvara-saksatkara. The importance of gaining experiential knowledge is illustrated by the meaning of the Sanskrit word for philosophy darsana – seeing is believing!

Karma: Knowledge must be used to guide karma. The objective of improving the quality of our knowledge is to apply it to improving the quality of our actions and behaviour. An average human being performs karma to obtain its fruits – the end results. Crucially however, the best human beings perform excellent karma as a matter of nature or habit without consciously having any vested interest in making any type of personal gain. niskama is one word used to describe such karma – disinterested action. The word yajna is more commonly used in the Vedas to describe this concept of acting in a giving way without having the remotest motive of desiring any gain in return.

Upasana: Thus, it is inevitable that such a person will succeed in the third dimension of life, namely, upasana – to be with God. How to best attain this is explained par excellence by Patanjali, the author of Yoga-Sutra; it is the ultimate objective of human life.

Although we must make step-by-step progress in all three of these directions on a day-to-day basis, the relative balance varies at different stages of human life. So, student life is dominated by knowledge, the married householder’s life is dominated by karma and retirement should be dominated by upasana. Nevertheless, it must be re-emphasised that the Vedas teach us that we must perform the other two components daily in addition to the dominant one.

The Vedas Say:

Ya im cakara na so asya veda ya im dadarsa hiruginnu tasmat

Sa maturyona parivito antarbahupraja nirrtima vivesa. Rgveda 1.164.32

Its meaning: One who is action-oriented, but who does not care to know his true self, is destined to go through the wombs of many mothers by the One who sees every event and delivers justice.

Purport: Those who are engaged in karma alone and do not balance their life with true knowledge and communion with God (jnana and upasana) must take birth again and again.

Where Do We Go Wrong?: Not only is modern-day education heavily biased towards material sciences but its objective nowadays is also to maximize one’s personal income. Few people these days seem to have a true love of knowledge. Thus, knowledge is a means and not an end. This is contrary to the Vedic objective – jnanan-mukti (described classically in the Samkhya-Darsana by Kapila) – that true knowledge is experientially learning to contemplate both God and the soul in order to eventually gain liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Most people these days focus on devoting their life towards karma, in particular the acquisition of material wealth, to the exclusion of gaining true spiritual knowledge and upasana through the prescribed method of Astanga Yoga. In conclusion, people must devote some time everyday to study the Vedas and perform Vedic Sandhya as a meditative experience; neglecting to do so will perpetuate the sense of a lack of fulfilment.

- Dr Harish Chandra

B. Tech. (IIT Kanpur)

Ph. D. (Princeton, USA)

Vedoday2050 News

1. List Transfer and New Articles: We are pleased to announce that we have completed the transfer of the original mailing list to the googlegroup. This month we begin to send new articles. If you know somebody who may like to receive these articles direct then you may send us their addresses to us at vedoday2050@gmail.com.
2. Articles on Sandhya at www.arya-samj.org: A series of articles based on the talks delivered by Dr Harish Chandra on "Sandhya: The Vedic Meditation" at Arya Samaj West Midlands, Birmingham (UK) appear at their website. You are welcome to see them at www.arya-samj.org. Incidentally, this relates to the above article of the month.
3. Calendar for 2010: Dr Harish Chandra's tentative calendar for 2010 appears to be as follows:
January 1-21 - UK
January 22 to February 25 - India
February 26 to June 25 - UK (except for April 8 to 15 in Calgary, Canada)
June 26 to July 1 - USA (Midwest)
July 2 to August 2 - Canada (Toronto region)
August 3 to 7 - USA (New York region)
August 8 to 22 - Guyana, South America
August 22 to 26 - USA (New York region)
August 26 to September 30 - India
October 1 to December 31 - UK
Anybody interested in organizing his lectures, talks, workshops in the adjoining locations is welcome to write to us at vedoday2050@gmail.com.

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