Class Name: Valmiki Week# 22: Mar 9, 2014

General Assembly

We started the GA with three Omkars followed by the Shanti Mantra and Prayer Before Studies In continuation of our series of stories of Sages, today Sridhar Uncle talked about Sage Valmiki. Before he became a Sage, he was a thief called Ratnakar. He used to assault people in the forest and rob them to feed his family. One day, he tried to rob a few rishis who were passing by. They did not have anything to give him, but asked him why he robs people. When he told them why, they asked him if his family would share his punishments as well in case he got caught. Ratnakar was very confident they would, but when he went home and askex his wife and son, both his wife and son said they would not share his punishment. It was when he found out that his own family was not willing to share in his punishment that made him give up robbing people.

Sage Narada came and asked him to focus on God and start praying to Lord . Ratnakar started chanting Rama Rama and did it for so many years that an anthill started growing around him. Seeing this a divine form came and blessed him and made him a Sage called Valmiki - Valmika means anthill.

One day as he was meditating in the forest, he saw a hunter kill two birds sitting on a trees. Sage Valmiki was very upset that he killed birds that did no harm to him. So he cursed him to suffer a long life separated from his family. He composed his first Shloka as he cursed the hunter.

Sage Narada narrated the story of Lord Rama to Sage Valmiki and blessed him to write the . It has almost 24,000 shlokas in seven different books/chapters called Kandas.

Sridhar Uncle briefly talked about Sage Veda . He is the one who wrote the over 100,000 shlokas in the . He was also the one who wrote the . The Vedas are written in 4 parts - Yajur, Sama, Rig and Atharva.

Announcements

March 23rd is Picture Day. Please come dressed in Indian attire.

Class

Gita Dhyanam and Gita Values • Chanted Gita Dhyanam and Chapter 13 values after opening prayers

Hindu Culture – Chapter 9

Urmi led the discussion on Chapter 9 – The Shastras

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The Veda’s are said to be eternal, they are a book of knowledge and knowledge is not something which is produced; it is ever lasting just as Newton’s law of gravity which is named after him, as he discovered it but did not create it. That’s why a scientific law has never been created but discovered, the knowledge of it was covered by ignorance and then that cover was removed. Revelation • Vedas are technically termed sruti, revealed knowledge. That they are revealed is an important point. They are not the composition of a human being, arrived at through intellectual and logical reasoning, based on sense perception.

• The verb root sru means to hear and sruti means that which is heard.

• When I hear something that which is heard by me is not my own composition but is spoken of or revealed by someone other than myself. For this reason the Vedas are said to be aparuseya, not of human origin and considered as revelations

• The Vedas are a breath of god

• Sruti is the breath of the Lord

• The second category of scriptures is called smrti, the Sanskrit root smr means to re- member and smrti means memory, thus smrti sastra is knowledge that is re- membered

• When we learn something from someone and then teach it to others, our method of teaching will differ from person to person.

• That knowledge which we teach and speak of from memory is called smriti; we have not produced or created that knowledge, but are imparting it as we remember it.

Practical Application of Sruti • In the Vedic times there were great kings and rishis who had studied the Vedas and who had practiced, mastered, and experienced the essence of that Knowledge in their lives.

• There were other people, who however, such as reunciates or householders who approached them and said: “Sir the knowledge imparted by the sruti is very difficult for us to understand. Please teach us a more practical application of that Know- ledge, which we can follow.

• This became a duty of the great masters, to communicate and teach the sruti ac- cording to the needs of a society at a particular time and place. This is always ne- cessary, for times constantly change: Society is not static but dynamic

• In fact, it is all due to smrit sastra that the Hindu religion has survived through time, despite numerous invasions and onslaught upon the culture. The great masters come from time to time to tell us not to become so ridged in our rituals, to be more flexible, and to live this Knowledge in a way that is suitable to the times.

• For instance, it is said that one should wake up early, have a bath in the Ganga River, and offer prayers to Lord Sun. It does not matter if there is a river in our town, we can just remember the Ganga while standing under the shower, where we are and this itself will be the Ganga snana. This is an example of a practical application of a sruti injunction, which, when taught by a master us called smrti.

• The second purpose of smrti sastra is to tell us what our specific duties and re- sponsibilities are. When we are told by sruti to strictly perform our duties, dedicating them to the Lord, we always have the problem of knowing exactly what our duty is, it is in the smrti sastra that we will find our specific duties pointed out

Manu and Smrti • Many teachers, called smrti karas, have appeared in our society. As a result, we have many smrti sasrtas, such as Parasara Smrti, Gautama smrti and Kautilya Smrti. Even the is technically considered a smrti because Lord remembered the Knowledge that as the essence of the and taught it to in his own words. However, the Gita has enjoyed the status of Sruti due to the fact that it focuses more on the spiritual knowledge that it does on day-to- day duties and observances.

• For the understanding of our specific duties and for the benefit of society, the most famous and important smrti is the Manu smrti. As the name it implies, this scripture originated with Manu, who was the mind-born son of the Creator Lord . From the name Manu we get the name mausya and manava meaning human being and later becoming man in English. Thus in , we are all regarded as the children of Manu

• When Lord Brahma started creating, it is said that Manu, the man, was born from the other half. Shatarupa became Manu’s wife and from these two came the rest of creation. We read a similar account in the Bible where God created Adam, and from Adam’s rib Eve was created. Thereafter, they became the parents of all other hu- man beings.

• Manu’s role in the universe was similar to that of a religious defencse minister of the total cosmos, to protect dharma and see that people follow the righteous was of liv- ing. Manu assured the maintenance of dharma.

• Lord Brahma himself taught the dharma sastra to Manu and it was Manu’s duty to impart this Knowledge to the rishis, who, in turn, taught the rest of society. In the first chapter of the Manu Smrti, therefore, we find Manu seated, while the other rishis approach and prostrate to him, saying, “O great Lord, you know the mystery the essence of the dharma sastra. Please teach it to us for the welfare of the entire society, for all people should know what is their common and specific dharma.”

• Manu answers by describing how the whole creation came forth from the one God. He tells them further that it was Lord Brahma who taught all this to him and that he has, in turn, taught Sage Bhrigu. Manu then requests Bhrigu to impart the Know-

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ledge to the sages present

The Problem of Desires • In the world we find that everyone engages in various activities to fulfill their desires.

• Curiously, we do not recognize that our attempts to fulfill a desire give rise to more desires and hence they multiply.

• We also know that the more desires a person has, the more agitated his or her mind will be. As long as desire exists in the mind there will also be restlessness, fear, anxiety, and constant worry. As a consequence of these worries, many other negat- ive emotions such as anger and frustration arise.

• The best principle is to give up all desires.

• At the same time to immediately become desire less is impossible. Realizing that desires create problems and that desirelessness is good but seemingly impossible, can we live with these desires and fulfill them without creating new ones? At the same time, how can we grow out of our present desires? The beauty of the dharma sastra is that is prescribes how to attain these goals, to rise above the desires and reach immortality, this is the art of the dharma sastra.

• In conclusion, the smrti sastra tells that the best state to attain is desirelessness, for the mind will then be ever at peace.

Homework

1. Please make sure to send in any Hindu culture summary before 5pm on Saturday to [email protected] 2. Parin will present Chapter 10 and Meera will present Chapter 11

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