Understanding Veda Karma Kanda- Path of Rituals: An Old and Rare Book (Set of 2 Volumes)

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Born in Tiruchirappalli on 26th September 1926, G.K. Kannan joined Railways in 1945. He served in various capacities till 1981 and voluntarily retired as Assistant Signal & Telecommunication Engineer. Mysore. During the service, he was a member of Railway Engineers Territorial Army. Consequently he had occasion to enter Bangladesh (Sylhet Sector) during the 1971 Indo-Pak conflict. This personal experience of the tragedy of war had its own effect. After retirement, he went on an extensive pilgrimage of India, including Himalayan trekking to visit temples situated in high altitude remote corners. He was also associated with social service work in the cause of handicapped children, children, whose parents are life-convicts and leprosy patients, etc. at Sri Perumbudur and Tenkasi.

Due to divine grace, he had the opportunity, right from an young age, to come into direct contact with great Mahatmas and have their blessings in various forms, like personal conversations/Pada namaskara/ participation in Pada Yatras/honorary service as Administrative Manager/Touch/Sight/Lectures, etc.

The Paramacarya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sathya Sai Baba. Ramana Maharshi, Chinmayananda, Sivananda Sarasvati, Yogi Ram Surat Kumar are notable among them. The writings of J. Krishnamurti, Rajneesh, Sri Ramakrshna Paramahamsa, and Vivekananda, Subramanya Bharati had their own effect in moulding the writer.

In trying to understand the path of rituals, lectures and reports of lectures of Paramacaryal had a deep influence, resulting in this Brahma Yajna debt discharge act.

Understanding Veda, Karma Kanda is his maiden venture.

Understanding of the Vedas in their practical sense is a difficult one, as all the Vedas form one unit. The Rg Veda contributes prayers to be recited at the rituals: the Yajur Veda contains mantras to accompany rituals in minute detail. It is interesting to note that the Rg Vedic prayers are, in a general form, connected with particular deities like Agni, Indra, etc. who are not connected specifically with any rituals. The Rg Veda mantras are directly utilised in soma YAJNA as Sastra, and in other yajnas as yajya and Puronuvakya. However, in the performance of big YAJNA, the Rg Veda becomes obsolete. Small yajnas are prescribed with one agni with simple initiation. But mantras of the simple yajnas are not enough. So they take mantras from big yajnas. Of course, there are samskaras, which purify human beings; and, as said by Manu, for creating a divine one, samskara rituals, become necessary. Jatakarma. Namakarana. Annaprasana, Choulobakarana. Vivaha etc., are directly connected with every day life. For instance, birth, naming, first food taking, first hair dressing. education and marriage and others are secular ones. But these occasions are very important in one's life. Mantras for these samskaras are directly connected with material actions. So these samskaras are not connected with the fire cult originally. But at the time of Grhya Sutras, the fire-cult was introduced. So offerings in the fire are also Included in these samskaras. The process of kindling this fire and keeping it enkindled also is very simple. Maintaining this fire is also prescribed. Though the samskaras are not presecribed in the Vedas, yet they are performed with Vedic mantras. Hence they are known as vaidic. But in fact as these samskaras are prescribed in smrtis, they are called smarta karma.

**Contents and Sample Pages**