Query: Adam and Eve

[Guest guest]

Many great religion has a mention of the story of Adam and Eve.

 

A spiritualist whom I once associated with insists on the existences

of Adam and Eve in Hinduism.

 

He went on to argue that Adam and Eve are known by different names.

Adam is known as Athma and Eve is known as Jeevathma. They are Shiva

and Shakti.

 

A study of Athma and Jeevathma explains many mysteries concerning

men, women, gods and goddess.

 

Is there any scriptural or any other evidence to prove the lives of

Athma and Jeevathma in Hinduism?

[Guest guest]

The previous Shankaracharya of Kamakoti pith had written in his book

how the adam and eve story is derived from a text of Upanishad though

it got mistold and had a wrong meaning.. He gives how the words got

changed into adam and eve, apple , etc.....

 

He writes that as distance from India increased the stories from Hindu

texts got mistold orally due to language and distance....

 

He does writes that adam and eve stand for atma and jivatama, but he

shows how the story in Hindu texts ends in a spiritual meaning , while

the adam and eve story is mistold to mean the exact opposite of the

original story from Upanishad.

 

The book is uploaded at www.kamakoti.org "Hindu Dharma"

 

Following is the extract relevant to you, you may disagree with:

 

 

It is likely, though, that, with the passage of time, some stories or

rites will become far removed from their inner meaning. Or, it may be,

the inner meaning will be altogether forgotten. So it must be that,

when new religions took shape abroad, after the lapse of thousands of

years-religions not connected with the Vedic faith that is the

root-the original Vedic concepts become transformed or distorted.

 

You must be familiar with the story of Adam and Eve which belongs to

the Hebrew tradition. It occurs in the Genesis of the Old Testament

and speaks of the tree of knowledge and God's commandment that its

fruit shall not be eaten. Adam at first did not eat it but Eve did.

After that Adam too ate the forbidden fruit.

 

Here an Upanisadic concept has taken the form of a biblical story. But

because of the change in the time and place the original idea has

become distorted-or even obliterated.

 

The Upanisadic story speaks of two birds perched on the branch of a

pippala tree. One eats the fruit of tree while the order merely

watches its companion without eating. The pippala tree stands for the

body. The first bird represents a being that regards himself as the

jivatman or individual self and the fruit it eats signifies sensual

pleasure. In the same body (symbolized by the tree) the second bird is

to be understood as the Paramatman. He is the support of all beings

but he does not know sensual pleasure. Since he does not eat the fruit

he naturally does not have the same experience as the jivatman (the

first). The Upanisad speaks with poetic beauty of the two birds. He

who eats the fruit is the individual self, jiva, and he who does not

eat is the Supreme Reality, the one who knows himself to be the Atman.

 

It is this jiva that has come to be called Eve in the Hebrew religious

tradition. "Ji" changes to "i" according to a rule of grammar and "ja"

to "ya". We have the example of "Yamuna" becoming "Jamuna" or of

"Yogindra" being changed to "Joginder ". In the biblical story "jiva"

is "Eve" and "Atma" (or "Atman") is "Adam". "Pippala" has in the same

way changed to "apple". The Tree of Knowledge is our "bodhi-vrksa".

"Bodha" means "knowledge". It is well known that the Budhha attained

enlightenment under the bodhi tree. But the pipal (pippala) was known

as the bodhi tree even before his time.

 

The Upanisadic ideas transplanted into a distant land underwent a

change after the lapse of centuries. Thus we see in the biblical story

that the Atman (Adam) that can never be subject to sensual pleasure

also eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. While our bodhi tree

stands for enlightenment, the enlightenment that banishes all sensual

pleasure, the biblical tree affords worldly pleasure. These

differences notwithstanding there is sufficient evidence here that,

once upon a time, Vedic religion was prevalent in the land of the Hebrews.

 

 

 

, "Tulasi" <thundergod999 wrote:

>

> Many great religion has a mention of the story of Adam and Eve.

>

> A spiritualist whom I once associated with insists on the existences

> of Adam and Eve in Hinduism.

>

> He went on to argue that Adam and Eve are known by different names.

> Adam is known as Athma and Eve is known as Jeevathma. They are Shiva

> and Shakti.

>

> A study of Athma and Jeevathma explains many mysteries concerning

> men, women, gods and goddess.

>

> Is there any scriptural or any other evidence to prove the lives of

> Athma and Jeevathma in Hinduism?

>