Atmavichar,
"But he told me that the first step to make yourself eligible to get the meaning of any holy text is to daily chant it or write it daily and and have it stored in your memory and sow the seeds there and keep it nourishing daily and later it will grow and give you the fruits at the right time .
He was echoing the same as what Kanchi Paramacharya did only that he was quite blunt with regard to not giving the meaning .
I am right now doing the same for Bhagwan's Tamil works as well as other classical works in Tamil/Sanskrit "
I fully agree and endorse this approach.This is what Master Mahasaya says (from M,The apostle and the Evangelist),as he teaches a few verses of Bhagavad Gita to a devotee and asks him to commit to memory:
M. (to Buddhiram) These are steps to a man’s fall. Listen to them now:
Dhyayato vishayan pumsah samgasteshupjayate,Samgat jayate kamah kamat krodhobhijayate.Krodhat bhavati sammohah sammohat smritivibhramah,Smritibhramshad buddhinasho buddhinashat pranashyati.
[Brooding on the objects of senses, man develops attachment to them;from attachment comes desire and from desire anger.From anger comes delusion, from delusion, confused memory, and thereby, the ruin of reason and the man perishes with this ruin of reason.(Gita 2:62,63)]"
(Counting on his fingers) 1. Brooding on sensory objects 2.Attachment 3. Desire 4. Anger 5. Delusion 6. Loss of memory 7. The ruin of reason. Please count them on your fingers."
Buddhiram repeats them with M. five times one by one. The bhaktas do the same.
M. (to Buddhiram) Speak. Tell me from memory.Buddhiram Brooding over sensory objects, desire, anger (He cannot tell further).M. Attachment. Then what? Loss of memory, then what?
Buddhiram: Loss of reason.
M. Please repeat them again and again some time more as you sit here.
Buddhiram sits down and repeats them.
M. (to Buddhiram): Do it, do it, finish it up. When you memorise it, it enters the mind. It takes so little time if you will so."But the lazy can’t do it. (Pointing at a person) For example, he. How lazy he is! (The devotee sheds tears).Those who want it, how little time they need to memorise it. Commitit to memory, please commit it to memory".
(Pointing at a person) You tell him."(to a person, pointing at another) I asked him to memorise two shlokas daily, but he never did."
M. (to Buddhiram) Do it, do it quickly. You see, I have begun withthe second chapter directly with atma-tattva. The contents of the first chapter, I have just described verbally."
"And how do people read? Word by word, taking days. Whereas, I have started immediately with atma-tattva."
M. (to Buddhiram) And to memorise the inflection and the word is also not of little importance. When you are introduced to one, you want to know the other also."You must know a little of Sanskrit. You see, shastras are all in this language."
Just see, we were talking of other things but since a shloka came to memory, it all changed. All this is like the match stick catching fire.
They illumine the mind, every word is like a lamp.If you remember or just recite all these along with mediation over them, you succeed.So long as feeling does not become same with those words, you should only memorise them and repeat them. As you repeat them, a fire gets lighted within, like it happens when a piece of wood is rubbed with another.Feeling remains latent in all these words. That is why, the words of the avatara and of the spiritually great have so much power. Feeling is power. This power takes hold of the mind and takes it to the Absolute Power at the end.
Thakur used to say, ‘It is like holding the links of the chain one by one to reach the plank.The plank is underwater."
Namaskar.
