Re: Significance of Secrecy in prayers

• To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
• Subject: Re: Significance of Secrecy in prayers
• From: dchakrav@netserv.unmc.edu (Dhruba Chakravarti)
• Date: 3 Jan 1996 10:56:08 -0600
• Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
• Organization: University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA
• References: <4cb5df$bna@babbage.ece.uc.edu>

GOPAL  Ganapathiraju Sree Ramana (gopal@ecf.toronto.edu) wrote:

:  guhyaath guhyatharam param 

Dear Gopalji:

It is more a matter of tradition than anything else. As you know, there 
are many examples of this secrecy in Upanishads.  The one example that I 
can think of is I believe, in Chandogya Upanishad, when Svetaketu went to 
the kshatriya king to learn.  The kshatriya king was in possession of a 
secret vidya that was till then, only available to kshatriyas.  The king 
however, shared his vidya with Svetaketu.

The illreputed tradition that limits the pronouncement of Om in a mantra 
to the initiated (dikshita), also seems a secondary outcome of this 
parampara tradition. It is indicated in one of the first few verses of 
Chandogya that by saying Om, one declares that he/she knows the meaning 
of the mantra and agrees with the meaning of the mantra.

With best regards,

Dhruba.
 

• Prev: Re: Definition of Hindu (Was defn by VKRao) very long
• Next: Re: turtle
• Index(es):
  • Main
  • Thread

	This site is part of Dharma Universe LLC websites. Copyrighted 2009-2011, Dharma Universe.