People and Places – The Swami 1 – What is your first language?

People and Places – The Swami 1 – What is your first language?



Download audio file (swami1.mp3)

Swami: Where are the cricket grounds in Australia … where test cricket is held?
Mark: Every city.
Swami: Every city?
Mark: I am from Brisbane.
Swami: Ah-ha Brisbane! Queensland.
Mark: That is right. Yeah.
Swami: Aah Adelaide, Perth and Sydney.
Mark: Where are you from?
Swami: I come from the south of India.
Mark: Where? Which state?
Swami: Andhra Pradesh.
Mark: Adhra Pradesh.
Swami: Yes.
Mark: So what is your first language?
Swami: That is Telegu.
Mark: But this morning you were chanting.
Swami: That was Sanskrit.
Mark: Sanskrit?
Swami: That is straight from the Vedas.
Mark: Right.
Swami: Vedas is the ..the..
Mark: The holy books?
Swami: The holy books.
Mark: Which mantra were you chanting?
Swami: That was..they were all in praise of the lord, Sun.
Mark: Surya.
Swami: The morning. Surya. The morning sun.
Mark: Gayatri aso?
Swami: Gayatri too and the Gayatri instead of just the one single mantra I chanted the whole stanza complete.
Mark: The long one?
Swami: From which this Gayatri was taken.
Mark: Uh-huh.
Swami: Gayatri was taken by some sages of yore so they said out of that…this bulk of stotras in praise of the lord Surya; this particular mantra has special potency.
Mark: Uh-huh.
Swami: So this is Gayatri. So that they gave to us. So that is what we chant. But I chanted the whole.
Mark: Is that the Rigveda?
Swami: This morning what I was chanting was from the Atharvaveda.
Mark: Atharvaveda?
Swami: Atharvaveda. Right.
Mark: It was very beautiful.
Swami: And Gayatri of course occurs in all the Vedas. All the four Vedas. The Rigveda. Rigveda is poetry. Yajurveda is prose and you have the Samurveda which is music. And then you have the Atharvaveda the fourth one. Like that.
Mark: Wow beautiful. Thank you.
Swami: (laughs)