A Quotes from Swami Sivananda – “Who is a saint?
He who lives in God or the Eternal, who is free from egoism, likes and dislikes, selfishness, vanity, mine-ness, lust, greed and anger, who is endowed with equal vision, balanced mind, mercy, tolerance, righteousness and cosmic love, and who has divine knowledge is a saint.
In the following article – Mathomathis would like discuss about one of the well-known sages of all time: “Maharishi – Veda Vyasa”
Our mythology speaks of many Vyasa; and it is said that there had been twenty-eight Vyasa’s before the present Vyasa-Krishna Dvaipayana took his birth at the end of Dvapara Yuga. Krishna Dvaipayana was born of Parasara Rishi through the Matsyakanya, Satyavathi Devi – under some peculiar and wonderful circumstances. Parasara was a great jnani (all knowing, wise) and one of the supreme authorities on astrology and his book Parasara Hora is still a textbook on astrology. He has also written a Smriti known as Parasara Smriti which is held in such high esteem that it is quoted by our present-day writers on sociology and ethics. Parasara, through his meditation skills/powers came to know that a child, conceived at a particular Ghatika or moment of time, would be born as the greatest man of the age, nay as an Amsa (part of) of Lord Vishnu Himself.
At a very tender age Vyasa gave out to his parents the secret of his life that he should go to the forest and do Akhanda Tapas. His mother at first did not agree, but later gave permission on one important condition that he should appear before her whenever she wished for his presence. This itself shows how far-sighted the parents and the son were. Puranas say that Vyasa took initiation at the hands of his twenty-first Guru, sage Vasudeva. He studied the Shastras under sages Sanaka and Sanandana and others.
He arranged the Vedas for the good of mankind and wrote the Brahma Sutras for the quick and easy understanding of the Srutis; he also wrote “The Mahabharata” to enable humans who had a lesser intellect, to understand the highest knowledge in the easiest way. Vyasa wrote the eighteen Puranas and established the system of teaching them through Upakhyanas or discourses. In this way, he established the three paths, viz., Karma, Upasana and Jnana. To him is also attributed the fact that he continued the line of his mother and that Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura were his progeny. Vyasa’s last work was the Bhagavata which he undertook at the instigation of Devarshi Narada who once came to him and advised him to write it as, without it, his goal in life would not be reached.
Vyasa is considered by all Vedic followers as a Chiranjivi, one who is still living and roaming throughout the world for the well-being of his devotees. It is said that he appears to the true and the faithful and that Jagadguru Sankaracharya had his Darshan in the house of sage Mandana Misra and that he appeared to many others as well.
As we know that, there are six important systems of thought developed by our ancients known as the Shad Darshanas or the six orthodox schools of philosophy, viz.,
- Sankhya, Yoga
- Nyaya
- Vaiseshika
- Purva Mimamsa and
- Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta.
Each system has a different shade of opinion. Later, these thoughts became unwieldy, and to regulate them, the Sutras came into existence, Treatises were written in short aphorisms, called “Sutras” in Sanskrit, meaning clues for memory or aids to long discussions on every topic.
In the Padma Purana, the definition of a Sutra is given: – It says that a Sutra should be concise and unambiguous; but the brevity was carried to such an extent that the Sutra has become unintelligible and particularly so in the Brahma Sutras. Today we find the same Sutra being interpreted in a dozen ways. The Brahma Sutras written by Vyasa or Badarayana for that was the name which he possessed in addition are also known as Vedanta Sutras as they deal with Vedanta only.
They are divided into four chapters, each chapter being subdivided again into four sections. It is interesting to note that they begin and end with Sutras which read together mean “the inquiry into the real nature of Brahman has no return”, meaning that “going by that way one reaches Immortality and no more returns to the world”.
About the authorship of these Sutras, tradition attributes it to Vyasa. Adi Guru Sankaracharya, in his Bhashya, refers to Vyasa as the author of the Gita and the Mahabharata, and to Badarayana as the author of the Brahma Sutras. His followers-Vachaspathi, Anandagiri and others identify the two as one the same person, while Ramanuja and others attribute the authorship of all three to Vyasa himself. The oldest commentary on the Brahma Sutras is by Sankaracharya; he was later followed by Ramanuja, Vallabha, Nimbarka, Madhva and others who established their own schools of thought. All the five Acharyas mostly agree on two points, viz.
- That Brahman is the cause of this world and
- That knowledge of Brahman leads to final emancipation.
But they differ among-st themselves on the nature of this Brahman, the relation between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul, and the condition of the soul in the state of release. According to some, Bhakti and not Jnana, as interpreted by Sankara, is the chief means of attaining liberation.
