Vedic Vision

On May 21, 2022, our beloved master, Om Swami posted an article here and urged all of us to take out some time towards the revival of Vedic Ideology. 

He said:

“The Vedic ideology is dying a slow death, it’s facing an imminent extinction “

This led me to delve deeper first to understand what is Vedic Ideology. So, I went back to the Vedas to understand the Vedic ideology. I found my answer in one of the verses in the Shukla Yajurveda ( 36.1). This verse succinctly describes the purpose of Vedas :

Rcham vacham prapadye

The purpose of Rig Veda Mantras is to offer our speech to Divine to purify it leading to all-sided perfection. 

Mano yajuh prapadye

The purpose of Yajur Veda Mantras is to offer our mind to Divine to develop it leading to righteous actions.

Sama pranam prapadye

The purpose of Sama Veda Mantras is to offer our life energies to Divine to fully develop our life energies so that we can reach our full potential.

Chaksuh shrotram prapadye

The purpose of Atharva Veda Mantras is to offer our sense organs like hearing, sight, touch, taste etc. to Divine so that we can bring divinity and perfection within them.

In other words, The Vedic ideology is to create an ecosystem that works on physical transformation, mental transformation, Vital energies transformation, and Verbal Transformation. No wonder, our Swamiji posts for the last ten years exactly coincide and revolve around this philosophy. He has been teaching us to live life in the Vedic Way.

Vedas also contain a final part attached to them as Upanishads. The purpose of Upanishads is to contemplate on Divine to understand its true nature. The idea is to make your intellect so subtle that you transcend it. So, Upanishads work on your intellectual transformation.

Before writing further, I would like to mention that I have great reverence for all the scriptures. I consider them non-different than divine and have personally observed many miracles at home and around just by keeping a specific scripture for a long time. 

With that, I propose my thoughts for SD Revival. If you find anything useful, you may add on to your personal plan.

Ideology : 

My personal experiences have led me to this understanding that the ultimate purpose of all the Vedas and other scriptures is ultimately to realize our true dharma, our true nature. To make us realize that we all are immortal, eternal, and complete in every way. We should work towards spreading the ideology, the eternal message of Sanatana Dharma so that we can preserve this for generations to come. This means going back to the scriptures, reading them understanding them, and spreading the message. Contemplating upon the message of the scriptures reminds us of our final Goal of life, freedom from duality and embracing oneness.

Practices :

Any idea becomes obsolete if we do not work towards making it a reality. If Ideology is like a science, practice is like a technology to work around that ideology. The essence of all the rituals is to create practices around their ideology to attain the final goal. This means contemplating upon the various practices of Sanatana Dharma, the ideology it represents, and how practicing a certain practice helps you towards your inner and outer transformation. Daily rituals and practices help us walk the path of righteous actions, Dharma.

Festivals:

Most of the time, when we start our spiritual journey, we become too serious and start thinking enjoying is a sin. However, contrary to the belief,  Santana Dharma puts a lot of emphasis on the enjoyment of life, so much so that Kaama( pleasures and enjoyment) is mentioned as one of the major goals of life. This is where the beauty and importance of festivals come into the picture. This means learning about the festival, the story behind it, the spiritual significance, and how can we learn to live in a mode of Leela and festivals all around. Festivals help us to find pleasure and joy in living. It also helps us to live in the moment.

Sadhana :

There comes a time in every seeker’s life that they do not need an external push. They internalize the message and want to move the path sincerely. Sadhana in Sanatana Dharma is meant for these seekers who understand the ideology, who have practiced a few rituals and have stayed aligned to dharma, who have liveliness in their being, and now want to walk towards the path. Sanatana Dharma have wealth of resources
(Artha) to help them and calls these resources roadmap as Sadhana. Our beloved master has recently launched an app, Sadhana App to bring together major sadhanas of Sanatana Dharma in one place. It is an ongoing project and team sadhana will continue to work towards evolving and improving the product. 

Success Stories:

Sanatana Dharma is incomplete without them. The practitioners of Santana Dharma are the most important pillar of Dharma. Without them, it would have crumbled long back. If there are no takers, and no people to practice, it will crumble in the future. This means we should read the stories of various practitioners of different practices and paths within our culture, understand the significance, and spread what one can learn from them. This does not necessarily mean Bhakti saints of Santana Dharma. It also means Yoga practitioners, SriVidya Upasaks, Gayatri Sadhana Upasaks, Mantra Sadhaks, Tantra Sadhaks, Karma Yogis, Jnana Yogis, and various householders practitioners. This also means the personal experiences of people like you and me, who are walking this path. Every drop adds upto to the ocean. We are Santana Dharma. 

Let’s give our best, one at a time, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, and offer it to Divine.

Let’s Live, Imbibe, Practice, and Propagate.

I offer this post to Vedmata Gayatri, who is the source of all inspiration.

All Glories to Swami ji alone !!!