| You are here: Sri Vaishnava Home Page : Bhakti List : Archives : September 1998 |
From: Mohan Sagar (msagar_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: Tue Sep 08 1998 - 16:21:57 PDT
---------- > From: Mani Varadarajan <mani@best.com> > To: bhakti@lists.best.com > Subject: Re: Pancha Sooktham recitation > Date: Tuesday, September 08, 1998 2:38 PM > > > Dear Bhagavatas, > > I have heard from a few UpAdhyAyAs that one should recite Pancha Sooktams > > only after learning it from a teacher, since it is part of the Vedas. > > Is this true? Can someone shed more light on this? Are we allowed to recite > > Pancha Sooktams by just reading from the script? > > The people who told you this are absolutely correct. > The Vedas are not random words, nor are they mere > words. They are words that are set in a particular > order with particular intonations (svara) that have > a definite meaning. This meaning is said to reflect > the very nature of reality, both material and immaterial. > Saying the Vedas wrong is tantamount to misrepresenting > reality, and is the greatest disservice one can possibly > do to those divine words.... > There are always alternatives to reciting the Vedas. > During formal worship / tiru-ArAdhanam, you can > simply recite the ashTAkshara-mantra or sections > of the Divya Prabandham instead of the Vedas. These > are just as valid and sometimes sweeter, since we > can make sense of their meaning without difficulty. > --------------------- This leads me to the question as to whether such a rule also applies to the divya prabhandam, because it is considered by our sAmpradayam to be equal to vEda in meaning and importance. This question is a very general one, and extends even to those commonly known paasurams such as thirupallAndu and thirupAvai. adiyEn, Mohan