What is the purpose of going
to Shloka class? The correct answer should be “To develop faith”.
What is faith? Faith is
another name for trust.
In what should we develop
faith? We should develop faith in God. We should develop faith in
the religious texts (Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita etc.) that teach us how
to reach God. We should develop faith in our AchAryAs who correctly
interpret these religious texts and lead us on the right path to God.
Why should we develop
faith? For a lot of goals in life, it is easy to follow instructions and
achieve the goals. We can see for ourselves that by following the
instructions pertaining to the goal, we actually achieve the goal. For
example, if your goal is to solve the rubik’s cube, you can follow the rubik’s
cube instructions and see for yourself that you have solved it. Here, the
goal (a solved rubik’s cube) is
very visible. However, there are some goals in life, that are not so
visible - goals such as understanding AthmA, understanding the purpose of life,
reaching God etc. First of all, God himself is not visible to us.
Just to know that God exists, we need someone’s help. This someone
needs to be qualified to help us. Also, this someone needs to be thinking
of our welfare. Our religious texts (Vedas,
Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita etc.) are this someone, who can help us know
about God and how to reach him. Only by developing faith in the religious texts, we'll be able to trust what it says.
Now, how does one develop
faith in the Vedas? If the Vedas talk only about God and how to reach
him, then, whoever comes to listen to the vedas, they’ll attain God and won’t
be on this earth to tell the rest that “Yes, what is said in the Vedas work!”.
On the other hand, whoever does not come to listen to the Vedas, is never going to come anywhere near the Vedas in the future as well, since they are never going
to develop the faith. In order to avoid this catch-22 problem, the Vedas
not only talk about God and how to reach him, but also about other mundane
goals and how to reach them.
Let me tell you an example of
how the Vedas built the faith of one person who initially had absolutely no
faith in the Vedas. As you may have guessed,
this guy was bad and had a lot of enemies. He kept getting defeated by
his enemies, in spite of trying various means. Then, someone who cares
for his welfare told him to approach a rishi who could help him defeat his
enemies. This guy approached the rishi. The rishi asked him to do sEnai (சேனை) yAgam. Just by doing this yAgam,
his enemies vanished. Then, the guy started living more peacefully,
without having to confront enemies and in due course of time, got
married. His needs were increasing and he wanted to gain wealth.
Now that he trusted the rishi, he approached the rishi and asked him if he
could help him earn a lot of wealth. The rishi asked him to do vAyava
yAgam. vAyu is wind God. Just like the wind blows all the dirt and
accumulates in one place, the rishi said after performing this vAyava yAgam,
vAyu will blow away all the wealth and dump it at his place. The guy
became wealthy. Then he wanted to have children but unfortunately, was
not blessed with children. He again approached the rishi. This
time, the rishi asked him to perform the puthra kAmEshti yAgam. Just like
King Dhasaratha performed this yAgam to get children, this guy also performed
the yAgam and got children. Now, the guy was curious. Instead
of having to approach the rishi for each and every obstacle, he wanted to be
able to solve his problems himself. So, he enquired the rishi – where did
you learn all these yAgams. Can I learn them too? Then the rishi
revealed that all these yAgams were detailed in the vEdAs. The rishi accepted
the guy as his disciple and started teaching the vEdAs. The rishi taught
him the pUrva khAnda that talks about such yAgams, their benefits and the right
procedures to perform them. The rishi then went on to teach the guy the
utthara khAnda, that talk about Brahmam (God) and the way to reach him,
etc. Eventually, the guy attained mOksham.
As you can see,
the guy started off with performing the sEnai yAgam which is a thAmasic
yAgam. Then, he slowly graduated to more rAjasic yAgams and finally ended
up learning about Brahmam and attaining mOksham. In order to build faith
in the vEdAs and attract people to it, the vEdAs contain all three kinds of
information – sAthvic, rAjasic and thAmasic. People aspiring to reach God
should avoid the thAmasic and rAjasic portions and focus on the sAthvic
portion. This is where an AchArya comes in.
First, the
AchArya helps us to avoid thAmasic and rAjasic pursuits and shows us the path
to God. Second, the Acharya leads us on the right path to God.
Talking about the right path to God, there are two things to remember: 1)
Right
path is the one that takes us to the right destination. 2) Right
path is the quickest and easiest path that takes us to our destination. Let’s talk about each of these two aspects of
the right path.
- Right path is the one that takes us to the right destination. To understand this, you need to know “yathA upAsanam, thathA phalam”. This means, your understanding of God and His qualities, determines what you seek from Him, and you will get only what you seek (no more, no less). If you understand God as the possessor of all the wealth in all the worlds (அண்டக் குலத்துக்கு அதிபதி) and seek the same, you will be blessed with good wealth. If you understand God as the AtmA (not paramAthmA) and keep meditating on the AtmA, you will be freed from the circle of life and death and attain a lesser form of mOksham, called kaivalya mOksham, where you’ll continue enjoying the AtmA forever and ever, just outside vaikunTam, but will never be able to enjoy the much superior paramapada mOksham. On the other hand, if you truly understand the differences between body, AtmA and paramAthmA and make reaching paramAthmA your goal, then you will reach paramAthmA. Here again, depending on your understanding of who paramAthmA is, you may reach that person and remain in his abode for a long time, until his abode gets destroyed during the next praLayam and then start over after the next creation. If you understand srIman nArAyaNA as the paramAthmA and seek to reach Him, then, you will be blessed with paramapada mOksham. So, the duty of the AchAryA is to make you understand what the right destination is.
- Right path is the quickest and easiest path that takes us to our destination. Let’s say you are very clear that paramapada mOksham is your destination. You can get there only after your karmAs are zero (no good karmAs, no bad karmAs). There are many ways to get rid of karmAs and attain mOksham. There is karma, gnAna, bhakthi yOgAs, which rely on your effort and will take many births to get rid of the karmAs. And then there is sharaNagathi, where you admit the enormous nature of the task, realize that it is difficult for you to do it yourself, and surrender the burden of getting rid of karmAs to perumAL. The path of sharaNagathi leads you to mOksham at the end of this birth itself. Thus, another duty of the AchAryA is to make you follow the quickest and easiest path to reach your destination.
A shloka class
develops this faith in the religious texts and in the AchAryA that interprets
these religious texts. Based on the
shloka class you choose, you will develop faith in the AchAryA behind that
shloka class and in the destination that that AchAryA preaches. If that destination turns out to be the right
one, well and good. If you somehow later realize
that is not the correct destination, you will have to give up that faith,
develop new faith and start over. So choosing
the right shloka class is very important.
As a child, it is very difficult for you to research all the above
topics and choose the right shloka class.
So, at this point, all you can do is to trust me and cheerfully attend
the shloka class in which I put you in. J
