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Dear readers,

The 26th annual Yajyanushthan of four Vedas has commenced with effect from 30th April, 2006. His Holiness, Swami Ram Swarup ji, Yogacharya recites and explains the mantras in Hindi daily, for eight hours. His Holiness has now decided to spread the knowledge of Ved mantras in English on the web site for the benefit of readers with effect from today. Being Busy, he will only be able to explain one or two mantras in English. Only idea of the mantras will be explained, please. It will enable the readers to know about the subjects/preach of the Vedas.

Please read Previous Questions and Answers section before sending in your questions.

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Your question will be directly addressed by Swami Ram Swarup Ji. Note: 1. Swamiji answers mostly all questions. He is usually busy in writing books, daily Yajyen and other activities. There might be a delay in receiving your replies. 2. Selected questions and answers...

2 month long Yajna was held from April, 2002 to June 09, 2002. Also conducted were various Sanskars.

Details of upcoming Yajnas will be forthcoming.

Chetas Mana is called Chitta,where the deeds done by us are noted and the time to come in future, the result of deeds(sin or sacred) are to be faced. Rig-Veda Mantra 1/164/20 says that there is a tree on which two alive birds who are friends too,live together.Out of those one eats the ripened fruit of tree where as second does not take ,instead watches all around .It means that human body is like a tree.Tree can be cut,burnt,destroyed etc.Similarly our body is always destroyed.Secondly,in human body the two birds are “SOUL” and “ALMIGHTY GOD”. God is omnipresent and therefore abides in every SOUL as well as everywhere. So the relationship between God and Soul is like a friend.Thirdly only Soul eats ripened fruit of the tree and not Almighty God. It means we “SOUL” always bears the result of the good or bad deeds in the shape of pleasure and sorrows accordingly and not by Almighty God. Being Omnipresent the God always watches every deed of human being which by His power are automatically printed on the Chitta. Yajur Veda Mantra 40/12 also preaches that God is everywhere. Therefore, we must always follow the Vedas teachings to do instigated deeds too for the self-benefit and for human beings and thus should not do any kind of sin because the God is looking everybody. The five senses manage the Mind to do sins and mind further makes agreed the Soul to follow.

ASPIRANT CONTAINING EKAGAR VRITTI IS ONLY ENTITLED TO LEARN YOGA PHILOSOPHY

Yoga practice prevents such type of process of conveying the “Vritti” to “Chitta/Mind”.See that the Yoga education is only preached to the aspirant who is capable to understand and the first Sutra of the Samadhi Paad clearly states that there are five stages of Chitta,kshipt(confused) ,vikshipt(perplexed),moodh(fool,ignorant),ekagar(concentrated,undisturbed)and nirudh(total stoppage).First three stages are full of ignorance and worldly desires etc.,and aspirants have been denied to get the preach of Yoga philosophy by the Shashtras .The four stages “Ekagar” (concentrated,undisturbed)i.e.,has crossed the mud of worldly falsehood .In this Ekagar stage of “Chitta” the education of Yoga is preached only,otherwise it will go in vain.So before starting the Yoga philosophy to learn,one should learn basically about Yama and Niyama. There are five Yamas(restraint of passions).

1. AHIMSA-non-violence means not to harm through mind, voice, action to anybody else just as injury or to loose all enthusiasm but to love each other and live together peacefully.

2. SATYA-truth -from mind, voice and action always speak truth, accept truth and do hard deed to realize truth, never accepts falsehood.

3. ASTEYA-theft -from mind, voice and action never do theft and escape from fraud.

4. BRAHMCHARYA-celibacy/chastity- to control on five organs, five senses and eleventh the Mana.To restraint from indulging in sins and unreligious sexual indulgement etc.

5. APARIGRAH-non acceptance of unnecessarily materialistic articles or not to store the worldly articles beyond necessity. 

Similarly there are five Niyamas.

1. SAUCH-Purity to live in neat and clean atmosphere of residence, kitchen, environment etc., to take bath daily and dress/article of the house must be purified. This is outer purification. The inner purification is to think always for auspicious/instigated deeds to leave endless desires to fulfill materialistic comforts jealousy etc., to study Vedas/holy booksand to be connected with wiser for their preach.

2. SANTOSH-Satisfaction whatever we get through hard-working and instigated deeds we must live upon and must be satisfied . In any circumstances of sorrow etc., we must not loose the truth and be satisfied.

3. TAPA-Religious austerity/Penance to bear the consequences in religious path like continuous sitting to listen preach for a long time, to serve Rishi-Muni/Ashram in every season and to bear the obstacles if comes. To listen Vedas/holy books , to do Yajna,to serve and to denote for Rishi-Muni/true Saints, to think always religious matters to control the body and to do auspicious deeds.These are TAPAHA(religious austerity).

4. SWADHAYAYA-Study of religious true holy books like Vedas, Shashtras etc., which inspires towards MOKSH(final liberation) and the silent repetition of a holy Mantra(name of Almighty God).It is also a study for self realization.

5. ISHWAR-PRANIDHAN— Faith on God to do always instigated deeds and to dedicate the result thereof to Almighty God. 

So before starting the Yoga education these ten educations(Yama and Niyama) helps in concentration of mind or fixing it on one point of Yoga philosophy to realise God. It helps to become us an ascetic failing which the Ekagar stage is not obtained and thus all the Yoga education goes in vain.However it does mean that one should leave the family life.Ascetic means only to leave the bad habits/sins etc., which are also not permitted in Vedas/Shashtras .Our ancient Rishi-Munis and even Lord Krishna or Shri Rama were married but by virtue of the study of Vedas and practising Yoga philosophy they all became equivalent to God .Now a days we see that oftenly everyone is after doing only Yoga Aasan(Posture) saying that he is learning and doing Yoga. These people are mostly after the materialistic wave. His mind is not concentrated ,he is perhaps looking after his body only to maintain it well ,keeping aside the main motto of concentration and worshipping adorable God.See that body is always destroyable and how long can it be maintained? The body of Ravana,Dutyodhan and Kansa was well maintained but due to lack of spiritualism it was of no use.On the other hand the well maintained body of Shri Rama ,Krishna,Arjuna,Bhishma and several others served the people by virtue of spiritualism .So we must first appreciate,respect and accept this ancient, Vedic and traditional education right from the beginning i.e., practising Yama and Niyama to destroy the first three worldly/materialistic stages of Chitta viz.,kshipt,vikshipt and moodh briefed above to enable us to concentrate our mind on a Ekagar Vritti.So that we may be able to practise real Yoga philosophy.This will naturally help to live together peacefully and to build a strong Nation because the worship means to progress in Science as well as in Spiritualism together so that we may build a strong Nation—the requirement of the real spiritualism, promoting international brotherhood and peace. 

Traditional Yoga education starts right from learning Yama and Niyama i.e., on-violence, truth, not to be thief, to control on senses, satisfaction, purity, religious austerity, study of religious books and faith in Almighty God. The materialistic environments, now a days, has ruined the traditional aspects and therefore, to follow the above qualities are not being taken in human life with the result the loving atmosphere or brotherhood between public has gone away even internationally. Mostly, we now start doing Asana (posture) and we give it the name of learning Yoga Philosophy.

We see in Mahabharata and Ramayana that in the ancient time, this Yoga Philosophy along with above qualities promoted the international brotherhood with long, happy life. Because the ancient Rishi-Munis/public practiced regularly its eight paths i.e., Yama, Niyama with the result they used to achieve final eighth stage of Samadhi (Salvation). Suppose if we now are doing Asana/exercises only or little bit Pranayam but there is no sign of satisfaction, non-violence, truth etc., in our life .So the mere doing Aasan’s practice will not achieve the main mottoes of Yoga philosophy i.e., Ahimsa, justice brotherhood and Samadhi with long happy life. In the absence of which we will not love the human beings like Lord Rama/Krishna/Rishi-Munis etc. They loved the public as well as fought for justice also. Now days, often it has been a tradition to do the Asana with the intention to take care of health only. If we see the health of Ravana, Kansa, Duryodhan and Dhristrashtra etc., so we will find that no body is available on the earth to compare in this matter but there good health only became the reason of destruction of family and peace of public so the Yoga philosophy does not target the health point only. Mainly it is a worship and preach to whole of the world to live and let live .So keeping in view the said aspects we must therefore not merely study the first and second Sutra of Patanjali Yoga Shashtra that Yoga is only Samadhi or total stoppage of “Chitta Vritti” is called Samadhi i.e., realization of God. We will have to recollect this traditional Yoga philosophy in the spiritual way also that full eight paths of Yoga education concentrate, teaches how to worship God, promote international brotherhood including spreading non-violence and discharging the duties about family and nation.

Then we reach at the final stage of Samadhi. Certainly, therefore, traditional Yoga philosophy requires the deepest study of Patanjali Yoga-Darshan wherein we also find the references of immortal knowledge of four Vedas. In Vedas there are three immortal truths to be studied and known. First in Almighty God, second Soul and third is Prakriti (matter). God is one who creates Universe from Prakriti. Souls abide in human bodies. God and Souls are alive but Prakriti is non-alive matter. God and souls are immortal but the matters created from Prakriti are destroyable. So our body is as well as the whole Universe made from Prakriti is at one time destroyed, usually we see these happenings in the Universe daily like death, destruction of matter, food, cyclone, earthquake etc. Prakriti has got three qualities-Rajo, Tamo, Soothe Chitta (mind) is also made by the said three qualities of Prakriti.Sato quality is an indication of enlightment i.e., wisdom therefore, “Tato Chitta” is a wiser, Tamo is idleness. Therefore, Tamo Chitta never likes hard working and thus is lazy and unreligious. Rajo has qualities to do sins only. Therefore, by virtue of practicing Yama, Niyama and worship etc., when the Chitta attains the Sato qualities and ascetic stage and starts knowing the true religious preaching. At this stage the alive Soul feels himself totally separate from non-alive Rajo, Tamo and Sato qualities of prakriti.

Therefore soul is alive and human body where in “chitta” is a part thereof, is non-alive. Therefore soul understands the knowledge viz., separation of “chitta” but “chitta” being non-alive matter does not know anything else. At this Samadhi stage the soul has got no worldly contacts .It is called “Asampragyat Samadhi” i.e., final liberation .It will be appreciated that mere doing Asana, the stages mentioned above can never be achieved /realized .Our birth is actually meant for attaining the said stage, the animals or birds etc., are not meant for this wisdom. And to attain the said stage the practice of Ash tang Yoga has been stated the best way in the Vedas /Shashtras.

To know the real meaning of any language, it is necessary to learn the grammar. The culture of a country is based on its literature (culture) and we can say literature is culture and culture is literature. The eternal knowledge i.e., four Vedas have been the culture of India and even the culture of the whole world, being the oldest literature of the universe. So every word of Vedas, which has the meaning of its grammar, can not be denied being true and the meaning against the grammar or against the Vedas is not acceptable by the learned being unauthentic.