The Braahmin

Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Prashanthi Nilayam, 6 October 1962
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Sep 22, 2001

You may not remember it now, but this meeting started at 4.15 and perhaps most of you were here by 3.30 at least; and now the time is 7.40. You have heard the lucid exposition of Uppuluri Ganapathi Shaastry, who knows the different shades of meaning of every individual syllable of the entire Vedha. That is his Thapas (penance). And his Prema (love) towards you is so great that he puts all that vast learning into such simple and sweet Thelugu that even a child can understand and what is more, you become enthusiastic to know more. He has been helping you to understand the why and wherefore of the various rites and rituals and Manthras which are used in this Yajna, for this is Jnaana Yajna (sacrificial rite of spiritual wisdom), and every one must know the significance of everything done here.

He explained why earth from the royal stables, the royal elephant stables, the palace gates is considered sacred for the Yajna; why the earth from the anthill is also used in preference to other places. I took special care to bring these materials in their genuineness and gave these people everything they needed and told them not to be satisfied with substitutes and second-bests, for I know they too wish to seize this opportunity for performing a scrupulously correct Yajna. I want to show you and them that a Vedhic Yajna celebrated strictly according to Vedhic formulae will certainly grant the fruits promised by the Vedha Purusha (supreme being).

Vedha is a deep Sea containing precious Pearls

Remilla Suuryaprakaasha Shaastry spoke on Kumarilabhatta, who preceded Shankaraachaarya and revived Vedhic learning and overwhelmed the opponents of Vedhic ritual in those days. They are now arranging here the Seshaparyanka (serpent-like couch). The Thribhuvana Vijaya, for which Kalluri Veerabhadra Shaastry and others have been planning, will start soon. I had no idea of speaking today but since you will all be disappointed if I do not, I shall fill up the interval.

The two Shaastrys spoke very well, because their authority for all their statements is the Vedha, nothing less. Their purpose was also praiseworthy; to elevate man through the spread of the Vedhic teaching. When the mind is so pure and the brain so full, the words will certainly be sweet and nourishing. It is a very difficult task to dive into the deep sea, the beginningless and the endless Vedha, and bring up such precious pearls; not that the pearls are few, but because the sea is so deep. The Vedha teaches man lessons that take him beyond the ken of the three Gunas - the dull, the active, and the calm; the black, the red and the white.

The Vedha also speaks the language of symbols and one has to be well versed in Vedhic vocabulary and the technique to be able to interpret it, as Ganapathi Shaastry does or as Remilla does. For example, they said explaining a Manthra, that all men are children of Suurya. The meaning of that is: all those who have eyes to see are specially blessed by the sun, for the sun is the presiding deity of the inner and the outer vision. The Manthra does not mean that all men belong to Suuryavamsa (sun dynasty)! There are seven suns, seven types of rays; and that is the reason why you are advised to have half-closed eyes when you meditate on the form of the Lord. Then there will be the first three rays trying to penetrate the upper eyelid and the last three, the lower eyelid; but the eye will receive only the fourth ray, the fourth colour.

Such subtle secrets are also hidden in the hymns to the various Gods. It is not correct to say that each Vedhic God represents a force of nature that is patent to man: the rain God, the thunder God, the sun God, the dawn Goddess, etc. The glory and the majesty of the one God is visualised in various contexts and praised; that is all. The Manthras have far deeper meanings.

This Humanity is a motley Crowd of Pilgrims

It is often said that the Brahmin caste, out of hatred and contempt, has denied to the other castes the chance to study the Vedhas. If you go out to catch fish, you must equip yourself with the rod, the hook and the bait to attract the fish. If you desire to master the Vedhas, you must have the rod of Dharmic living, the hook of Vedhic Sanskrith, and the bait, viz., the Braahmin who is revered by the Vedhas and who revered the Vedhas in turn. The Braahmin has been prepared by a series of purificatory rituals or Samskaaras. This enables him and entitles him to pronounce the Manthras and to expound them.

Every one has not won the same sublime impulses and impressions. All of you listen to Me, but do all of you understand what I say to the same extent? Or, do all of you practise what I suggest to the same extent? No. Each understands or practises according to the tendencies, the roots which those tendencies have laid in the mind. Men are not so uniform. One person is not equipped like another. It is a motley crowd of pilgrims, this humanity.

The correct Pronunciation of Vedhas is essential

The Braahmin, when born is just a Suudhra; birth does not entitle him to take up the study of this mystery, even if the boy happens to be the son of a great Vedhic scholar! It is only when he has been formally initiated by a special ceremony that he can start the study of the sacred scriptures. The ceremony makes him a Braahmin; he is then born again into a sacred world of study and responsibility.

Many Braahmins have fallen from this responsibility of maintaining a certain ascetic simplicity of life and a certain level of scholarship. When the pure metal has been turned into an alloy, it has to be put into the crucible again. Again, whenever we find genuine Vedhic vessels like these Pandiths, we have to protect and preserve them. If people sit quiet when stones are thrown on these vessels by little folk swayed by foolish hatred, the vessels will be broken and Vedha too will become inaccessible.

If Braahmins are driven into the forest, the Vedhas to will enter the forest with them, for they are the repositories of Vedha. They study the correct pronunciation of each syllable and have, by a remarkable technique of keeping it in memory, preserved it through the ages, through all the calamities India had to endure. There was a boy who was reading aloud his English lessons at home but he did them so wrongly that the parents were one day put into a great fright. 'Milk' was what the boy was reading; he spelt it out first and then read the entire word. He shouted, "emmayelkay milk, emmayelkay milk, emmayelkay milk" so fast and so nervously that the parents felt he was shouting in fear, "Amma, Yeluka" - Yeluka meaning in Thelugu, the rat. Correct pronunciation is essential. Encourage the Brahmins to dedicate their lives to the proper study of the scriptures; you too will benefit by that study as you are benefiting these days here.

The Lord cares for single-minded Yearning

Jaathi and Neethi (caste and conduct) are based on each other and there is no Jaathi without its corresponding Neethi, or controlling restrictions. That is done for purposes of systematic training and for elevating the individual, not for suppressing or cheating him. If a boy is admitted in the primary school or the nursery school instead of a college, you cannot say that he is cheated or treated with contempt. It is the first step towards college and a degree.

But remember, the Lord makes no difference between caste and caste. What He cares for is virtue and single-minded yearning. When the elephant Gajendra raised its trunk and surrendered to the Lord and prayed to Him for succour, it was no longer a beast; its beasthood had dropped off. A piece of paper, however soiled or directed, is valued and kept in the strong box as a precious possession once it has imprinted on it the insignia of the reserve bank and called a hundred-rupee note. Bhakthi makes the lowest, the rarest of men.

There was a Bhaktha called Sena in Delhi at the time of Akbar's reign. He was the royal masseur at the court of the emperor. Every morning at seven the emperor expected him at his side and had ordered that he should massage his body for half an hour. One day, Sena entered his Puuja room as usual and, in the ecstasy of that vision of beauty, he lost all sense of time! His wife ran about in panic outside the closed door, for she had no mind to disturb her husband's concentration. Meanwhile, Akbar was being massaged by Sena at the palace and the emperor was praising him, "Sena, I have never felt so happy all these days; your fingers are indeed divine." When the session was about to close, Akbar saw in the cup of oil on the teapoy in front of him, the reflection of the masseur's face - and he was surprised to find that the face was of Krishna! He turned to examine the face of his attendant, but he was no longer there!

The Lord does not weigh the status or caste of the individual before bestowing His grace. He is all-merciful and His grace, like rain or moonlight, falls on all. The Vedhas themselves declare this. So, have faith in this and proceed to deserve it and to acquire it.