Dear Respected Vaisnavas,
PAMHO! AGTSP! Today at home we discussed the following sentences in SB 2.2.34:
Although Brahmaji was to hear Vedic instructions directly from the Personality of Godhead, in order to satisfy the inquisitiveness of all prospective students of the Vedas, Brahmaji, just like a scholar, studied the Vedas three times, as generally done by all scholars.
We had a question from the above sentence. The grammatical structure of the sentence suggests that first Brahmaji studied the Vedas 3 times, and then he heard it directly from the SPG. (Although Brahmaji was to hear...). We felt this was a grammatical error and that in fact first Brahmaji heard the Vedas from the SPG, and then he studied it 3 times. Would you agree or do you feel there is another explanation?
We also had some nice lights on the above sentence as follows:
1. A student of the Vedas should be inquisitive; i.e. s/he should want to know what is the purpose of the teachings in the Vedas. He should not just want to know WHAT the Vedas say, but WHY they say it. S/he should want to know the 'so what'.
2. To properly understand a Vedic text, we need to study it carefully at least three times.
Question: We felt the first time should be to get an overview, then the next time we should study to get a clearer understanding of how the text is developing, and finally the third time we should study scrutinizingly word for word. Does anyone agree or disagree with our insight as to how this 3 times study is generally done?
He studied with great attention, concentrating on the purpose of the Vedas, and after scrutinizingly examining the whole process, he ascertained that becoming a pure, unalloyed devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna is the topmost perfection of all religious principles.
We had some nice lights on the above sentence:
1. When Brahma studied he did so in following way:
a. with attention
b. wanting to know what the intention of the instructions was (the 'so what')
c. scrutinizingly
2. he came to the conclusion that the purpose of every instruction of the Vedas is to help the student to gradually achieve attraction for Krishna and to serve Krishna only out of love and for no other reason.
Our insight: When we study SP's books, we should always keep this in mind: how does this instructions help me to come closer to loving Krishna and serving Him without any other motivation?
Your humble servant,
Cintamani dhama dasi
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