Vedic Mantras
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Benefits Of Chanting Vedic Mantras
By: Acharya M R Rajesh
Of the panchamahayagnas or five great sacrifices, the first is Brahma yagnam or Sandhya vandanam, the performance of which banishes all stress and improves self-esteem. Sandhya also means union of jivatma with paramatma, the micro with the macro. Chanting these mantras is your conversation with God, with no one to come between you and the divine. Hence the potential is infinite. Once you gain self-confidence and are stress-free, you will never contemplate suicide – the bane of even educated, literate people in Kerala, for instance. So regain your atma shakti, the divine power, your potential, that is right there inside you.
The second yagna is pitru yagna addressed to your parents and your gurus. It is more important to take care of your parents while they are living rather than offer prayers to them when they are dead. Shradam or rituals for the dead lose all meaning if you do not respect, revere and take care of parents while they are alive. This is true shradam. This is a salient feature of vedic culture, to revere elders and take care of them in their old age.
The third yagna is agnihotra or deva yagna. Agni or fire of knowledge is most powerful. It spreads light, and this is symbolic of spread of divinity everywhere. The Olympics start with the flame, is it not? They run with it across countries, spreading ‘light’. Agni is also symbol of prosperity. When food and herbs are offered to the fire, it is symbolic of offering what you have to others first. Give to those who are in need. Give, not for personal benefit but for common good, for cosmic good.
The fourth is naimitika karmas and these include 16 shodasha kriyas, performed on special occasions. The first among these is garbha daanam or how to make a good child. Pumsa vana is for longevity and then you have others like seemantham for a good life, upanayanam for the child to realise that he is divinity personified, ‘You are That!’
The fifth and last of the panchamahayagnas is nara medham yagnam, rites for the departed, in reverential remembrance of all that we benefited from ancestors who have gifted us with the history of humankind they carried in their genes and that which we will carry forth as well. Depending on how we live our lives, we will enhance or degrade our genetic pool -- for everything that we do eventually becomes a habit and in due course perhaps gets manifested in our genes as well, for better or for worse. That is why we pay so much importance to right living, to show reverence to all life and to the environment.
In ancient times, every home had a sacred grove, indicating reverence for nature. Of course, we need to take everything in the current context – but preserving sacred groves, whether in one’s home or outside in public spaces, will definitely benefit the environment that is getting degraded by global warming. Vedic knowledge, if applied to current times in the right context, can only benefit us –no vedic ritual is directed at personal benefit; it is all meant for good of the entire community for as the sacred scriptures point out, vasudhaiva kutumbakam – we are one family. Good karma generates even more good karma and will benefit everyone. (Acharya M R Rajesh, head, Kasyapa Veda Research Foundation at Kozhikode, Kerala, held a Somayagam.
