Author: Swami Amritananda
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Swami Amritananda
Swami Amritananda
Publisher: Sri Ramakrishna Math
Year: 2013
Language: English
Pages: 187
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8171208029
Description
Because of the difficulty in understanding their true import, most of the Vedic Mantras are far from popular. Swami Amritananda has laid the devout public under an immense debt of gratitude by his lucid explanation of the Mantras.
This Vedic homage to Lord Rudra is remarkable not only for its phonetic grandeur but also for its universality of approach to the Divine. Rudra to whom these prayers are addressed is not a sectarian deity, but the Supreme Being who is omnipresent and manifests Himself in a myriad forms for the sake of the diverse spiritual aspirants.
Swami Amritananda has laid the devout public under an immense debt of gratitude by his lucid explanation of the Mantras. He has pressed into service the commentaries of Sayana, Bhatta Bhaskara, Abhinave Sankara, Vishnu Suri, Skanda Swami and Anobala to make the meaning of these mantras as clear as possible.
The central principle of Dharma is that there is only one God, the Ultimate Truth. That manifests itself in diverse forms for the benefit of the aspiring souls. Once this Truth is realized, all life's problems stand solved. As Swami Vivekananda observed. 'Each soul is potentially divine'. This potential can be made dynamic through devotion, meditation, selfless action or through philosophy. The Vedic mantras are meant to help us in all these ways. Two outstanding texts of Vedic mantras are the Sri Rudram and the Purusha Suktam. These grand and mellifluous hymns addressed to the Universal Being, called Rudra and Purusha, when chanted regularly will endow the mind with strength. To understand their real meaning commentaries are necessary.