SLOKA OF THE WEEK:

Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta
Ādi 7.106
prabhu kahe, vedānta-sūtra īśvara-vacana
vyāsa-rūpe kaila yāhā śrī-nārāyaṇa

prabhu kahe — the Lord began to speak; vedānta-sūtra — the philosophy of Vedanta-sūtra; īśvara-vacana — spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead; vyāsa-rūpe — in the form of Vyāsadeva; kaila — He has made; yāhā — whatever; śrī-nārāyaṇa — the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

TRANSLATION

The Lord said, "Vedānta philosophy consists of words spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa in the form of Vyāsadeva.

JOURNAL:

I just finished reading "Inside the Hare Krishna Movement", by Mukunda Goswami. In this book he points out this sloka, and Srila Prabhupada's purport, as important instructions for would be writers.

"A sūtra is a compilation of aphorisms that expresses the essence of all knowledge in a minimum of words. It must be universally applicable and faultless in its linguistic presentation." Anyone familiar with such sūtras must be aware of the Vedānta-sūtra, which is well known among scholars by the following additional names: (1) Brahma-sūtra, (2) Śārīraka, (3) Vyāsa-sūtra, (4) Bādarāyaṇa-sūtra, (5) Uttara mīmāḿsā and (6) Vedānta-darśana.

There are four chapters (adhyāyas) in the Vedānta-sūtra, and there are four divisions (pādas) in each chapter. Therefore the Vedānta-sūtra may be referred to as ṣoḍaśa-pāda, or sixteen divisions of aphorisms. The theme of each and every division is fully described in terms of five different subject matters (adhikaraṇas), which are technically called pratijñā, hetu, udāharaṇa, upanaya and nigamana. Every theme must necessarily be explained with reference to pratijñā, or a solemn declaration of the purpose of the treatise. The solemn declaration given in the beginning of the Vedānta-sūtra is athāto brahma jijñāsā, which indicates that this book was written with the solemn declaration to inquire about the Absolute Truth. Similarly, reasons must be expressed (hetu), examples must be given in terms of various facts (udāharaṇa), the theme must gradually be brought nearer for understanding (upanaya), and finally it must be supported by authoritative quotations from the Vedic śāstras (nigamana).

As I understand the above purport, when writing on spiritual themes I should 1) tell the audience what I am going to write about, 2) tell them why the subject is important, 3) give pratical examples, 4) develope my theme, and 5) support the theme with quotes from scripture. I find this good advice and will try to follow these instructions in future articles that I may write.