Veda Pathasalas
I have visited two Veda Pathasalas. One in Sringeri Sankaramatham and one in Machilipatnam Sankaramatham. Both are charming, but the one in Sringeri even more so.
At beautiful Sringeri and at Machilipatnam, you can see young boys learning the Vedas traditionally from a guru. They have to learn by heart vast numbers of mantras perfectly. Every stage has a special name. One stage is a Ghanpathi and my grandmother told me that one of my ancestors was a Ghanapathi. She also told me that my ancestors had a gurupeetham at Rajahmundry but I have never been there. At Machilipatnam, they teach Sanskrit in the afternoons and mantras in the morning. At Sringeri Sarada temple, you can see the Vatus (brahmachari students) practicing the mantras they have learnt in the evenings within the temple compound. During the mornings, you can see them running shirtless in drizzle and mist towards their classrooms. They get one holiday once in 15 days for the full moon and the new moon. It is a delight to hear them chant the mantras. The senior students are engaged in a seprate classroom in a one on one discussion on philosophy and meaning of the Vedas in Sanskrit. Their faces glow very brightly. We felt blessed just to look at them.
At the end, I think that, at least in Andhra, they have to clear a government exam to become priests. Many stop at the mantra learning stage and do not go all the way upto the meaning stage. Since Brahmins are poor by requirement and have to eschew all worldly comforts while studying, at some stage they have to stop learning the Vedas and go into priesthood.
At MTM the boys are given Rs 500 for their food etc in cash per month and Rs 500 is deposited into their accounts to give them a small bank balance by the time they graduate.
All the mantras chanted at our weddings, gruhapravesams, namakaranams and sandhya vandanams are Vedic Mantras. These young brahmins have devoted their brain space and lives to preserving the most ancient oral tradition in the world, the Vedic mantras which we need on the most important occasions of our lives.
We owe them our respect and a debt of gratitude.
