Most nominal advaitins I know (and especially brahmin followers of the various Shankara maths) hold that chanting of vedic hymns is valuable. What's the point?
I believe even the math gurus hold vedic chanting to be valuable.
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Sign up to join this communityMost nominal advaitins I know (and especially brahmin followers of the various Shankara maths) hold that chanting of vedic hymns is valuable. What's the point?
I believe even the math gurus hold vedic chanting to be valuable.
Practical value of chanting for the society/culture is for preserving the Vedas generations over generations. Chanting for preservation has some benefits over written/printing form because chanting also preserves the vocalization (which is very important to preserve the meaning). Ved-pathi brahmins not only chant Vedas like a song, they chant it with exact swaras. It is also not simple reading of Vedas. It also involves techniques like Ghan-path which involves breaking compound words in to its constituent individual words (called sandhi). Preservation by chanting has social effect of father-son, guru-shisya bonds. Although, the ved-pathi brahmins has strong beliefs that chanting vedic mantras are not same the same as memorizing it. They do it as a part of performing ved-puja. It is noted that memorizing sanskrit slokas improves the intelligence.