Re SingavEL kunRam

[Guest guest]

Badri wrote:

SingavEL kunRam

>>While we don't see this practise anymore by the brahmana

>>priests, at the earlier times they were extremely angry

>>at the Buddhists because the Buddhists criticised the

>>vedic sacrifices. periyavaachchaan piLLai expresses his

>>irritation at the Buddhists (for their opposition to

>>vedic animal sacrifices) in his commentary to

>>thirumaalai.

>>But the vedanta scholars probably never thought highly of

>>the vedic sacrifices!

 

I think this is a ver valid comment. Brahmins drove

Buddhism pretty much out of India, but still remained vegetarian. It is hard

for

us to say whether it was their preference(ie., vegetarian meals) even before

Buddha's time. Nevertheless, the fact that meat lost importance in Brahmin's

life indicates that they never cared for that or found it more beneficial to

their health and spiritual life. Also the Vedic sacrifices ( of Vedas) had

already been reduced in the Jnana Yagna of the Upanishads (Vedanta), for eg.,

Yasvaivam vidusho yagnasyatma .............., where all the beastly things of

Vedic sarifice has been substituted symbolically with spiritual things like

shraddha. I don't know whether these mantras pre date Buddha. In any event,

Jnana Yagna mantras are part of the Sri Vaishnava Aradhanam.

 

Perhaps, tha anology for consuming meat but not truely caring for it is

evident in our own life in the Americas. Many Hindus, who never tasted meat in

India have started enjoying meat here. As much as they enjoy meat, perhaps

they won't miss it if meat is totally banned.

 

Also Vedic sacrifices belong to the Vedas. Vedanta philosophy is of the

Upanishads. Most Hindus consider Upanishads and Vedas as the two faces of a

same coin. However, many Western scholars hold the view that the Vedas and

Upanishads originated from different sources. They claim that the Vedas are

foreign to India and the Upanishads are strictly of indigenous origin. Joseph

campbell further comments that the Brahmins of the Vedas were the best

interpreters of the myth the world had ever known at that time (now of course

it would be Joseph Campbell!) and once they came across the Upanishads (forest

Philosophy), they immediately saw the relation between their Vedic view and

the

Upanishadic views. Since then they started interpreting the Vedas through

Upanishads. They pounded on the Upanishadic thoughts so hard that it became

amalgamated with the Vedas. Thus, they appear inseparable to us. I don't know

how valid these interpretations are. However, I must add that we do find

similarities between the Vedas and the Pre-Christian European Myths: But of

the

Upanishads, it is strictly of India. We can also argue that Vedanta

(Upanishads) which is the maturation or culmination of happened only in

India,

and elsewhere, it remained at a rudimentary level.

 

K. Sreekrishna