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Written by Sri Swami Chandrashekarendra
Saraswati |
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My duty is to impress upon you again and again that it is your
responsiblity to keep the Vedic tradition alive. Whether or not you
listen
to me, whether or not I am capable of making you do what I want you to
do, so long as there is strength in me, I will keep telling you
tirelessly:
"This is your work. This is your dharma. “It is for the sake of the
Vedas
that the Acarya established this Matha. So, no matter how I keep
deceiving you in other ways, as one bearing his name I should be guilty
of
a serious offence if I failed to carry out with all sincerity at least
the
responsibility placed on my shoulders of protecting the Vedic dharma.
That is why I keep speaking again and again, and again, not minding the
tedium, about the need to sustain this dharma.
It has not been all talk. A number of concrete schemes have been and are
being implemented in pursuance of our ideal. I have come here to beg of
you for your help. If you think I am not begging for your help, take it
that I
am issuing you a command to serve the cause of the Vedas. However it
be, the work I have undertaken must be done.
Vedam odiya Vediyarkkor mazhai
Niti mannar neriyinarkkor mazhai
Madar karpudai mangaiyarkkor mazhai
Madam munru mazhai enappeyyume
According to this well known Tamil poem, the earth will become cool and
the crops will grow in plenty only if it rains thrice a month. It rains
once
for the Brahmin who chants the Vedas in the right manner; it rains once
for the king who rules justly; and again it rains once for the woman who
ramains true and constant to her husband.
It is not in my hands to make sure that the rulers rule justly, strictly
adhering to dharma. Sannyasins like me have nothing to do with the
government. But I believe that, as the head of a Matha with the duty of
protecting dharma, I have a responsibility with regard to the other two
matters. How does a religious head see to it that a woman adheres to her
dharma, remains true to her husband? The trends seen today are
contrary tc stridharma (code of conduct for women). I have the title of
"guru" and so it is my duty to warn womanhood against things that are
likely to undermine their dharma. When child marriages were prevalent
there was little opportunity for women to go astray. If a girl is
already
married before she attains puberty she will develop strong attachment
for her husband. If she is not married at this age she is likely to feel
mentally disturbed. But our hands are tied because of the Sarda Act.
But, if I have not entirely washed my hand of the subject, it is because
of
the hope that public opinion could be created against the Sarda Act and
the government compelled to respect it. After all, so many other laws
have been changed in response to public opinion or otherwise.
Unfortunately, the attitude of parents and of women in general has
become perverse. Instead of trying to conduct the marriage of their
daughters in time, parents send them to co-educational colleges and
later
to work along with men. When I see all this I inwardly shed tears of
blood: I am losing my confidence in my ability to arrest this trend.
If Brahmins keep chanting the Vedas, the rulers will rule justly and
women will remain steady in their wifely dharma. It is in this hopw that
all
my efforts are turned to maintaining the Vedic dharma.
You must make a gift of your sons for this purpose, also of your money.
Well-to-do people must help children of the poor with cash so that they
may be encoruaged to learn the Vedas. We need money to pay the
teachers, to buy books, to administer the Vedic schools. We have drawn
up a modest scheme to raise funds. You pay one rupee a month and in
return you will receive (by post), apart from the belssings of the Veda
Mata(Mother Vedas), the prasadas of Sri Candramaulisvara after the puja
performed to him at the Kanci Matha. If you send your donation
mentioning your naksatra [the asterism under which you are born] the
prasada will be sent to you every month of the day on which the asterism
falls.
Nowadays, we receive "chain letters" invoking the name of Sri
Venkatacalpati (of Tirupati) and with the threat added, "if you don't
send
copies of this letter to such and such number of people, you shall turn
blind or shall be crippled.” Out of fear many people make copies of the
letter to be sent to various addressees. I too sometimes wonder whether
we could do something similar to promote the Vedic dharma!
I do not ask you much- just one rupee a month. Don't you pay the
government taxes, whether or not you like to do so? Take this - the one
rupee- as a levy imposed by me. It is a tax you pay to run my
government,
my sarkar which is no bigger than a mustard seed. You deny yourself a
bit
of your pleasure for this, your outing to beach or your visit to the
cinema.
You will thus carry out a fraction of your duty and my duty will have
been
fulfilled. |
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