28 Years of Vedic Teaching by Srinivasan Sastrigal

Vedas are one of the most significant medium of learning important lessons related to regular life and also about dharma and sastras. In olden days, Kings from Kshatriya varna and the Brahmins, who themselves are a varna, are taught vedas, sastras and other important teachings in Vedic style of schooling.

Nowadays, where our life is mostly influenced by the lifestyle of westerners, there are still some good amount of people, who are really blessed to have been exposed to these kinds of cultural and traditional lessons, in the form of Vedas and satsangs.

OUR GURU SRINIVASA SASTRIGAL

Also, due to the lack of recognition of these noble deeds, many Sanskrit scholars and Vedic pundits have lost their students and interest in teachings; and to earn a livelihood, they’re into many other working fields.

Still the good amount of people who value our own Indian culture and understand the importance of these Vedas and Sastras, help their kids to learn them too. I consider myself very lucky to be in the good company of many culturally active individuals.

Snap from the 28th year celebration

Srinivasan Sastrigal, a veteran in these Vedic activities continues the legacy of his father Shri Raju sastrigal, who initiated this Veda class, started in the early 1950’s. He celebrated his 25^th year of Veda class in the year 1974, which was organized in a grand manner by the principal of Raja Veda Pathasala, Shri Lakshmikanth Sharma (oldest or the First Veda Pathasala), with the Sessions Judge Shri Anjaneyalu as the Chief guest in the very premises of Navaneetha Krishnan Temple.

Second batch Students with Srinivasan Sastrugal and his wife

One of the notable alum of Raju sastrigal is Shri Subramaniya Athreya, who’s now working in NASA. He is a student from the 1^st batch of the Veda class. NASA is a space research organization, where it has a separate research department for Sanskrit as it values the richness of Sanskrit and Vedic subjects.

From the 28th year celebration

Srinivasan Sastrigal is teaching Vedas to individuals ranging from school goers to office goers. This post is to celebrate the occasion of completing his 28 years of the noble cause that he is doing without any expectations.

The most important thing is that Raju Sastrigal and Srinivasan Sastrigal are teaching Vedas without even charging a single penny from the students.

On 27^th May 31, 2019, he and his students successfully began their journey of 29^th Year of the class. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this anniversary function held at the Navaneetha Krishnan temple, where he conducts classes regularly, every day from 7PM to 8PM.

He teaches the basic Vedic lessons like Sri Rudram Namakam and Chamaka, Sukthams, Upanishads and Surya Namaskaram (Day classes). Also he blessed all his students and also told that those who’ve learnt Vedas, not only from him, generally all are reaching heights and are leading a happy life.

Srinivasan Sastrigal is an important sastrigal who never misses any Paramacharya’s Jayanthi and takes part in homam, vedic chantings and all. He also makes his students to attend all these events and also chants during the procession of Adi Shankara, Maha Periyava, Periyava and Bala Periyava photos on their respective jayanthi.

Author Vishwanath with his brother in his right and Guruji's son in left

When I asked him about the strength of the class from the beginning, he said that “Around 10-13 students comes for the class. Nowadays because of the pressure in the school students, they’re made to go to tuitions for each subject out of compulsion for scoring high marks in the rat race and find no time for the Veda class”. This 3^rd batch has the second highest strength compared to that of the first batch which is of around 15-20 students and in the second batch just with 6-10 students.

Me with Prahaladhan

The boy in the above picture is Prahaladhan who is just studying in 5^th standard. While listening to the story of boys discontinuing Veda classes for tuitions, he said out of curiosity that he’ll leave schools and tuition for Veda classes. However, this is just good to hear from a small kid, but the enthusiasm from this boy is energetic and I wish many kids from their young age should be trained to chant vedas, Shlokhas and Sahasranamams. Not only chanting, they should go to temple regularly and pray for the wellness not only for themselves, but also for the wellbeing of the country and all other entities.

Glimpse from the 28th year anniversary

I assume parents are the sole reason and a great teacher for teaching and inculcating the culture and traditional importance to the kids of future generation.

Please note that our culture should be inherited at any cost, or else we have no other option to lose our kids leading the unhealthy western lifestyle. Even westerners gives huge importance to the Indian culture and diversity but not the very own citizens of India.

Special thanks to Vishwanath anna for contributing some key points.
Special thanks to Vinitha Akka for being my proof reader.

Yours East Gaterr

Natural Remedy for Diabetes

The moment we hear the word ‘Diabetes’, it almost shakes us no matter what we are going through. Today, people from all age groups are more cautious when it comes to sweet and other food, because we fear that it might end up in increase in body sugar level.

Nowadays diabetes has become a business by itself because of the greediness of some money minded doctors and pharma industry. As I believe today every household spends more than 10% of their income in medicines.

The major reason for us falling prey to such diseases is the drastic lifestyle change we had gone through over years. The main reason for these kind of deadly diseases are the unhealthy food we consume regularly. Junk foods, without any second thought, are a huge contributor for these diseases.

Next comes the aerated and non-aerated soft drinks. The shocking fact about these drinks is that, the sugar in those soft drinks we consume takes more than 5 days to dissolve in our body. For regular consumers of soft drinks, think before you buy it next time.

We all know how much we are into all these junk foods and soft drinks. Now coming back to this post, I just wanted to share the best medicine for the cure of ‘Deadly Diabetes’. Many of my readers might know about this medicine already, if so, then it won’t take much time to share this post and help your family, friends and dear ones.

Here I’ve come up with a powder and also a seed. There is a detailed process to make the powder and the seed is consumed raw before every meals.

Ingredients required

• Fenugreek – Vendhayam – Methi (250g)
• Black Cumin seeds – Karunjeeragam – Kala Jeera (100g)
• Carom – Omum – Ajwain (100g)

The first step is to soak the fenugreek in water overnight. Then, in the next morning wash twice and tie it up in a dry cloth. Next day the fenugreek will sprout out, then dry it up in the hot sun. When it totally dries, roast it in mild heat.

Also roast the Black cumin seeds and carom seeds in mild heat. Mix all the three and powder it in the mixer.

Consumption:

You should have 1 tsp of this powder in lukewarm water. Once in the morning in empty stomach and another time before going to bed. Do not consume anything else after having this powder at night.
Having this powder continuously for 2-3 months will result in a positive balance in the blood sugar level.

This powder not only helps us with sugar level, but also:

• Helps in proper functioning of the heart
• Removes the unwanted fat

The seed I’m talking about is “Then Kani”. This Then kani is available in all Naatu Marundhu shops (Desi Drug stores). It is a dry fruit with a seed inside. The shell has to be broken in order to get the seed.

The seed is very bitter, but when it is consumed, helps a lot in controlling the blood sugar level. The seed should be consumed in empty stomach in the morning, then half an hour before lunch and dinner. This seed drastically decreases the sugar in our blood, so we should monitor the sugar level for a caution in order to avoid low sugar level in the blood.

With this homemade medicine, we could easily balance the blood sugar level. It’s one of the efficient and effective method. I wrote this post only after personally witnessing the change my mother had undergone after having this powder and Then Kani seed. If this both items are consumed, you can witness the change within weeks.

Temple for the cure of Diabetes

Try this and you shall not worry about your blood sugar levels in your life again. In the meantime I'm about to write about a temple, where specials prayers are done for the cure of Diabetes. Any Guesses about the temple? You can answer it in the comment section.

Yours East Gaterr

Vedanta Desika Commemorative Stamp

I got this great opportunity to attend the stamp releasing event to mark the 750^th birth anniversary of Shri Vedanta Desika, organized by Sri Vedanta Desika Manipaduka Indraprastha Trust on 2^nd May, 2019, whose chief guest was our Hon’ble Vice President of India, Shri Venkaiah Naidu.

About Vedanta Desika

Vedanta Desika Stamp

Vedanta Desika, is one great philosopher of Vaishnava Sampradayam. He was born in 1268 C.E to Anantasuri and Totaramma in Toppul, a remote village in Kanchipuram. Vedanta Desika’s actual name was Venkatanatha. At the age of 21, he was married to Kanakavalli. In 1316 AD, they had a son named Kumara Varada. They migrated to Srirangam. During his stay in Srirangam, he witnessed the sacred town being attacked by Muslim invaders and many innocents were slaughtered. Cauvery River turned into red with the innocents’ blood.
 

All the guests releasing stamps

Vedanta Desika had great command in Sanskrit, poems and learnt all scriptures. He composed many poems throughout his lifetime. His principles and artworks were so magnificent. 

Somehow because of western influence in the Indian Education system, we failed to learn about such great personalities during our school times. Not only Vedanta Desika, but many other prominent philosophers, poets and leaders were ignored and failed to mark their place in our school textbooks.

After attaining mukti at the age of 101, Vedanta Desika’s legacy was carried by his son and his disciples who followed his path.

For a brief history about ShriVedanta Desika you can refer the elaborate article in the Swarajya Magazine orits webpage.

Hon'ble Vice President

Our Hon’ble Vice President, shared his thoughts about Vedanta Desika, initially spoke about the Aahara Niyama, one of the finest works of Vedanta Desika. He told that how westernization and modernization have changed and influenced our young generation’s food habits. Instead of having our healthy foods which has high medicinal qualities, they are very much liking the junk foods. He also mentioned that ‘Instant Food’ means ‘Constant Disease’. 

While talking about the problems going on today, he spoke about terrorism and mentioned that “Terrorism has no religion. It’s against humanity.”

Talking about the progress of the country our Vice President said that “Peace is a pre-requisite for progress.” He said, “If we have tension, we can’t have attention”.
 

Releasing the souvenir

Mentioning about the two important principles for a happy and progressive life, he said:

1. Arogyamay mahabhagyamu – Health is the great boon.
2. Manava Seva Madhava Seva – Serving the mankind is service to God.

A memento from the event

He also mentioned that our school textbooks should carry such great personality’s life story. The important thing is to teach humanity through spiritualism. For attaining universal peace, mere prosperity can’t bring happiness. Happiness requires something more, he said.  

A photo opportunity with Vice President of India

Attended such important event for the first time and it was enthralling to learn a bit from such events. Looking forward to attend more and write more about such events.

Yours East Gaterr