Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 13 on 14 August 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We are studying the Taittiriya Upanishad This first chapter called Sikshavalli has 12 sections and the first section is devoted to Peace chant Shanti Patha as well the 12th section also only slight word differences are there in the 12th Anuvaka that is because as if the student has been granted the grace and was able to successfully complete then we enter into the 2nd section and what is the 2nd section about? how to pronounce what is called science of phonetics so the section starts so if we have to study Veda and why is Veda to be studied? so that we can be as happy as possible in the world in this world in the higher worlds and finally the only purpose one and only purpose of every scripture of any religion is to lead one back to God what it means is we go on touting saying through our mouths we have come from God and if a human being has given birth to a child it will not be a dog it will not be a rat it will be a human being so every species must produce the same species what does it mean? it means the cause and the effect cannot be different the effect is nothing but the cause with form name and particular purpose in mind or with particular quality so we have come from God because every religion or most people they believe we have come from God and God commanded us to live this kind of life and we will have to go back to God so the purpose of every scripture is to lead us to God but we forget occasionally how do we know we forget? because first of all we do not think about God secondly our nature if God is the creator cause, ultimate cause then we also must have the same nature we cannot be different the law of cause and effect whatever be the nature of the cause effect also will have the same nature then we think that He is somewhere He is limited somewhere means what? He is limited maybe He is like a human being but maybe He is having tremendous amount of personality capacity knowledge compassion etc but He is not much different from each one of us I am a human being and He also must be human being the moment we say God is elsewhere we are making Him another object in the world just like ourselves so that is a wrong concept of God and then we forget God the consequence is we behave as if we are not having divine nature we are having what is called demonic nature asuri gunas and then as a result we suffer and nobody wants suffering therefore everybody wants happiness and happiness is the very person of God another name for God is happiness another name for God is existence another name for God is consciousness or infinite knowledge and that is what we also want but we forget we confine ourselves so the purpose of every scripture is slowly gradually but surely to lead us to God and in these steps every scripture can be divided into three categories first of all you study the scripture study doesn't mean one has to be literate one can hear also one can listen to a talk one can listen to parents one can listen to wise people and thus become cultured etc so the first step is how to study the Vedas and for the study of Vedas one must learn how to read the Vedas and how to speak the Vedas how to chant the Vedas for that purpose the science of pronunciation and this is what is called science of phonetics has to be evolved and as we discussed earlier Sanskrit language is considered to be the best language not only because of the phonetics it is the best language suited for even the advanced computer science unfortunately nobody had really gone deep into it everybody hints at it but few venture into it and do something about it so in the second section completely how to understand how many alphabets are there and how they are divided and when the sounds when we are speaking because the teacher has to convey only through sounds and the student also has to repeat after him and the student when he grows up he has to convey the same thing that is why you notice if parents are Welsh then the language will be Welsh if they are from the Ireland then the way of pronunciation will be Irelandic pronunciation if they are from America then the pronunciation will be American pronunciation if they are from South India it will be South Indian pronunciation South Indians can easily recognize which person however nice English he may be talking but by the way the person pronounces unless of course he is born and brought up in that particular culture so very important is the important place is the phonetics and that was dealt with in the second section and there are six disciplines are necessary first of all what is it Varnaha so what is the Varnaha means sound pitch where from a particular alphabet is coming and we have earlier also dealt with it that they are coming from the beginning of the throat middle of the throat whether the tongue touches the upper part of the mouth or the lower part of the teeth whether the lips get combined or not so we have seen that is called Varnaha Swara means where we have to put how beautifully modulation we have to understand what is called pitch and then Matra where we have to put emphasis when you refer to Oxford dictionary then they will give certain peculiar signs and even those syllables which indicate where it has to be emphasis has to be placed is a very tough thing even today I could not crack how they do that so this is called Matra so while chanting Vedic Mantras Udatta Anudatta etc. etc. will come and then we also have to understand properly whether it has to be short vowel long vowel or Pluta whether three times we have to prolongate etc. then Balam whether it should be uttered for example I said Ka Te in Jainite is called consonant is called Ka Ka etc. Ka Cha Ta Ta Pa Enjana means consonants first consonant Ka doesn't require so much of strength but the second one Ka requires tremendous then Sama Sama means modulation and that also has to be learned Santana neither too fast neither too slow but medium speed one has to do when a child what is called Hindu child in the olden days of course then he learns all these things he becomes perfect especially for one reason in the olden days there was no written form and therefore they have to carefully hear and the Vedic Rishis emphasize it's very important to imitate the teacher exactly even a little bit of what is called mispronunciation not really mispronunciation but placing emphasis that can lead to what is called Samasa error instead of one type of Samasa where it can instead of Tat Purusha Samasa it can become Bhagavari Samasa in which case the meaning is completely altered it may be even the same and therefore all these things have been taught this is called the science of phonetics it is called the science of Siksha and that is what we have dealt the important point is it cultures I also mentioned earlier that when a person speaks as it should be spoken then that person also becomes refined not only in speech but it also affects the moods therefore a cultured person when he speaks when he acts people can understand and that is what in modern language they say he is a very good gentleman gentleman does not mean a person who is always gentle but a cultured person a language itself is given it may take one year two years it does not matter thereafter so the teacher goes on chanting and the student will be capable and in those olden days they are focused upon this they are not cluttered with thousand things nowadays you also must have noticed they will never have any background at all they will have no back so they have become such a slaves to the background music and what type of music God alone knows I can never understand what type of language it is going on anyway this person is capable of distinguishing every letter of the alphabet properly so he will be able to speak properly so that he can also understand and he can also convey right understanding to other people so this capacity to understand oneself is the most important thing to understand yourself and to be able to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most  important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so this is the most important thing to understand yourself so God means existence God means pure consciousness God means bliss these three are not three separate qualities but there are three ways of trying to understand God so when God's grace that means  but an enlightened person even while going through this it is the body which is suffering the mind which is suffering and I am not the body that identification will be absent in the case of an enlightened soul in our case we are very much in the mind so finally that knowledge comes God is beyond time beyond space that means at all times he is and at all places he is which means there is no time where and when God is