30th October 2012 - QA 1

Gurudev, we are starting the Vedic Wisdom Sessions from tomorrow with the Upanayana (holy ceremony of wearing the sacred thread). We have about a hundred people from Europe. Could you give us some directions about how this Vedic Wisdom can be used in our day to day life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See Vedic Wisdom has been here since time immemorial. There is no fixed time as to when the knowledge began or started. It was not started by any one person alone. It was something that people got when they went deep into meditation.
Many Rishis meditated and when they meditated they heard something in the deep silence. Whatever they heard, they started saying it and asked somebody to note it down. This was then passed down from person to person by word of mouth - The Oral Tradition.
And similarly, all the other different disciplines; the Materia Medica, i.e., Ayurveda (ancient science of Medicine) was also downloaded.

Do you know how Ayurveda was born?
Once in Central India, there was a forest called Naimisharanya. In that forest, 84,000 meditators and saints gathered. They discussed, ‘We need to do something for the welfare of the society for all times to come.' This was their intention.
So they said, 'Let us go into meditation and download the knowledge of Ayurveda; the science of life.'
But then if everyone goes into deep meditation, who will be there to scribe it. So they assigned that task to one Rishi. That one Rishi said, ‘I will be awake and write it all down. You all meditate and say whatever comes to you after going into deep meditation.' So, 84,000 Rishis meditated, and one Rishi Bharadwaja noted it all down on palm leaves. So, that is how the entire Ayurveda was downloaded from the consciousness and that is why even today it has stood the test of time.
Nobody can refute whatever herb they have prescribed for whatever organ. It stands as the testimony of truth even today.

Similarly the science of music was also downloaded.
In music, there are seven sounds, ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni’, and these seven sounds are connected to seven animals. Like the elephant which is so big, it says ‘Ni’. Whenever an elephant makes a sound, there is ‘Ni’ or Nishada (a sound or a harmonic note in music).
Similarly the nightingale makes the sound ‘Pa’. The nightingale sings in the fifth harmonic ‘Pa’. Similarly the harmonic sound ‘Re’ is attributed to the Rishabha (buffalo).
So when different animals make sounds, then ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa’ is produced. But only humans can sing in all those tunes.
I tell you, Gandharva Veda has fantastic knowledge about music. Musicians should learn this. It is very interesting.
They say there are mainly 72 tunes or Ragas and these 72 Ragas have many offspring (referring to the different child ragas or tunes derived from the 72 principal ragas). And there is this one Raga called the Kharhar Priya which has two thousand offspring.
So, how the music and the tune and the tone are born is mentioned in the Gandharva Veda. It is very interesting.
Similarly Sthapatya Veda (the science of architecture and direction) talks about how to make a house and in what direction it should be in and what are the effects of these things. But many of these scriptures and this knowledge is lost today in the world. Sometime in the medieval age, all these scriptures and relics were burnt down. All this knowledge was not encouraged. Many of them are lost.