Veda Vyāsa codified, classified and assembled the four Vedas which were scattered all over the region, in a massive twelve year project with the help of a lot of gurus, sadhus and rishis. He also reconciled the differing opinions to finally recognise the Vedas as four fold. Not only that, he wrote the Mahabharata, the 18 Puranas (glories of specific deities through the teachings of dharma and moksha with stories) and finally the Brahmasutras, an analytic work presenting the intention of the entire shastra. He did this to re-establish the glory of the Śruti and passed it onto his students, who passed it on to their students, who passed it on further. This tradition carries on to this day. This guru-shishya parampara is preserved by the many Gurus, the ones who remove self ignorance, day after day, student after student, generation after generation. This teaching tradition has been sustained by our cultural and spiritual heritage comprising of everything from our forms of worship, our classical arts, our fold traditions, our way of living all pointing to the principle of oneness. One finds this to be true whether one is in Himachal Pradesh or Kanyakumari. Sampradāya translated in Sanskrit is that which has been handed over well. The knowledge (of brahmavidya - You are the whole as you are) handed downward from one generation to the other generation for hundreds of years is our sampradāya. Handed over well? What does that mean – Handed over till it is received by the student! The guru ensures that the knowledge is received as it should be received. The Guru does not hold back anything - the communication is 100% as the vision of the shastra is ‘You are the whole’. Nothing can take away or change this. This is the only knowledge which suffers no entropy i.e. no changes in the way in which it is handed down. Anyone who has played a game of ‘Chinese whispers’ whispering a one line message to one person who passes it to the next and who passes it to the next, knows that after even the 6th person, the message has changed. To make sure that there is no entropy, the methodology is as important as the message. This is made possible through repeated exposure to the shāstrā and if possible gurukulavasa – staying with the knowledge and hence the Guru for a length of time. An old saying - the teacher appears when the student is ready. The student has to discover the student in himself, the willingness to learn and discover before he/she can even recognize the teacher. And after sufficient learning, when the student is truly ready, another teacher appears... In this day and age, when vintage wine, family heirlooms, antique furniture and monuments are appreciated and praised for the number of years these have been preserved ( few hundred years perhaps), we are indeed blessed to be a part of an oral timeless parampara of Vedanta. It is a good day to renew one’s commitment to oneself and hence to self knowledge. Veda Vyāsa is very much with us as our Guru and also because he is one of the seven chiranjivis. ~ Swamini Brahmaprajnananda Saraswati
