We celebrate Guru Purnima to express our gratitude to Veda Vyasa and the lineage of gurus. They carried the rich Vedic wisdom right into our hearts. How grateful should we all be? But, what was the situation to prior to Veda Vyasa? Has no-one learned Vedas?

Prior to Veda Vyas also, there were several great rushis and munis who had the ability to go through the vast Vedic scriptures, understand, analyse, practise, utilise, and walk a specific path they were interested it. However, it became clear to Veda Vyasa that the brain power of human beings is decreasing rapidly as time went by due to several reasons. One prime reason was increasing desire for temporary pleasures. Therefore, he took charge of classifying and elaborating the scriptures to help us all, to at least have some means to go through it easily.

LEVEL ONE
Veda Vyasa classified the Vedas into 4 parts (Ruk, Yajus, Sama, and Atharva). He further structured them into 1131 branches. He assigned one owner to each branch, and made them responsible for practising it and carrying it to future generations.
LEVEL TWO
Vedas had solutions to problems at physical, mental, intellectual, and spiritual levels. He therefore assigned Jaimini, his disciple to classify the texts relevant to mental and intellectual levels into separate scriptures. He himself owned the texts relevant to spiritual level and gave us 545 Bramha Sutras, and 156 Adhikaranas. These contain the essence of Upanishads.
LEVEL THREE
Not everyone may be interested in inner spirit. There was a need to address many people who were looking for history. He then wrote Mahabharath, which embedded all aspects of Vedic scriptures. He challenged everyone saying – “There will not be anything that I haven’t explained in Mahabharath which you will find anywhere else!”.
LEVEL FOUR
There is no rule that people accept history as history. There is every chance that people dilute or interpret history the way they want to for a variety of reasons as time goes on. Hence, he chose to write Puranas. In these, he elaborated the powers of each devatha and gave opportunity to people of different interests to connect with the power and attain their goals.
LEVEL FIVE
Ultimately, no matter what interests people may have – the supreme power that runs everyone and everything is God. Hence, he wrote Bhagavatham to describe God’s beautiful form, divine qualities and history of all the great devotees!

Now, take a pause and think about which of the five levels do you feel more connected to? Begin to explore it. Approach a guru in case of any questions! If you are already a practitioner of one or many of these Vedic wisdom levels, then pass it on by sharing with people around.

Ramanujacharya was not only a perfect practitioner of this Vedic wisdom, but also a great example of an outstanding analyser and an extra-ordinary writer. History states that Saraswati Devi herself felt relieved after Ramanujacharya elaborated the Brahma Sutras written by Veda Vyasa (Level Two above). She named that magnificent scripture written by Ramanujacharya as ‘Sri Bhashyam‘.  He authored 9 great books which brough all the Vedic wisdom into one line, by solving any seemingly inconsistent texts with a heart that sought the truths!

Ramanujacharya said, “There are no untouchables by birth. It is the attitude that makes one untouchable. For example: one who does not share what he knows with others is actually an untouchable. True respect therefore cannot be earned by taking birth in a specific family, but it is earned through the principles he/she leads the life by. A family is one that passes on the principles and practices coming from their elders down to their kith and kin. Because these principles and practises have their roots in Vedas”.

Unfortunately, the chain has become fragile in past few generations. Hence it is essential to revive the wisdom back into the blood of every family. We can begin with reading scriptures, asking questions to right gurus, and of course seeking blessings of God for making us His instruments.

Ultimately, what are we looking for from this vast Vedic wisdom?

God’s Grace! While God is always compassionate to grace us. It is us who haven’t been ready to accept it. This acceptance comes from teachings of gurus. Let’s see how the acharyas and alwars together passed on God’s grace right into our hearts.

God’s grace lies in an ocean of His divine qualities. Nammalwar is the gigantic cloud who absorbed it from the ocean. He showered it on a big mountain named Nathamuni. There are two huge canals named Sri Ramamisra and Pundareekaksha who carried the flow of grace down to a big lake named Yamunacharya. This lake split into five huge channels that gathered the grace in a big dam named Ramanujacharya. From this dam, there are 74 big pipes (acharya purushas) that carried the grace all the way to our homes, our hearts. These hearts can now experience the rich taste of God’s grace, an experience beyond words and that which is eternal compared to the pleasures we experience otherwise!

– From the discourse of Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji
-16th July 2019, Guru Purnima

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