RigVeda and the Indian Systems of Approach to the One

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Dear Advaitin List Members,

Here is my first posting.

I hope it will be useful.

 

-- Himanshu

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Prof. H.B. Dave

Co-ordinator for Institutional Development

and Professor & Head of Department of Computer Engineering

Dharmsinh Desai Institute of Technology, College Road

NADIAD 387001 (Gujarat) India

Tel : (O) +91 268 60502 ® +91 268 61025 FAX : +91 268 60501

e-mail : hbd

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RigVeda and Indian Systems of Approach to the One :

(notes from selfstudy - svaadhyaaya)

I

---- Himanshu B. Dave

 

akha.n.dama.n.alaakaara.m vyaapta.m ena caraacaram |

tatpada.m dar"sita.m yena tasmai "sriigurave nama.h ||

 

"sa"nkara.m "sa"nkaraacaarya.m ke"sava.m baadaraaya.nam |

suutrabhaa.syak.rtau vande bhagavatau puna.h puna.h ||

 

{The graceful Guru who clearly showed the meaning of the word "tat", by

which the whole Universe, consisting of animate and inanimate objects, is

pervaded, I pray to that teacher again and again.}

 

{Shri Adi Shankara is a form of Shiva and VedaVyasa is a form of Shri

Vishnu. I bow down to both the author of [brahma] Sutra and its commentator,

again and again.}

 

There are four types of Guru :

i. Patia guru - a teacher like a road-sign; he shows a correct direction

in which to go, but he himself has not gone, nor is it possible for him to

go,

"there".

 

ii. Panda guru - a teacher like a priest in a place of pilgrimage; he is at

the place physically, shows how and helps in worship, but himself has

possibly not reached "there".

 

iii. Sad guru - a real teacher, who has understood the essence of the

scriptures, himself has gone "there" and knows how to direct you

"there".

 

iv. Pande guru - one's Self or Paramatman as the guru.

 

These four types also, generally, give the chrnological order in which a seeker

finds his guru. The ultimate guru is Self.

 

The first shloka prays to these aspects of guru.

 

We also salute our two great teachers, Shankara and Vyasa, the first to

explain clearly the ultimate meaning of the texts collected and arranged and

also written, by the other.

 

In the title, there is a pun on the word "selfstudy".

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A brief note about symbols and nomenclature used in this series :

1. Such notes will appear as "footnotes", as this one is. I hope it will not

distract the reading of the main material. The limitations of text-mode

leaves me no other option.

 

2. In all Sanskrit text quoted, the following text coding is used :

s - dantya, "s - talavya, .s - murdhanya

.h - visarganiya, .m - anusvara, .a - avagraha

"n - kanthya, ~n - talavya, .n - murdhanya, n - dantya,

vowels : a aa i ii u uu .r .r.r .l e ai o au a.m a.h

 

consonants : k kh g gh c ch j jh .t .th .d .dh t th d dh p ph b bh

etc.

Capital letters are not used.

3. All direct translations of Sanskrit text enclosed within {}, where added

words are within . Alternate meanings/very short explanations within

().

 

4. All references within .

 

5. Explanations, discussions etc. in free form.

 

I hope the reader will find these not too confusing.

This will allow me to respond to suggestions from some list members

for additional information as footnotes.

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g.rtsamada.h vi"svaamitra.h vaamadeva"scaatri"sca |

bhaaradvaaj.h vasi.s.tha"sca ka.nvaadi prabhuutaya.h ||

 

naama .r.se.h d.r.s.taarthasya pritirbhuutaakhyaanavat |

aakhyaayasyaami sa.mk.siptena vedaantasa.mgati d.r.s.taye ||

 

sa.mvardhanaaya baalaanaa.m sa.mmataye saadhakaanaam |

vinodaaya suj~naanaa.m hi e.sa.h svalpaprayatna.h ||

 

{Gritsamada, Vishvamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Bharadvaja, Vasishtha and Kanva

[these seven] and several others [are Rishis of RigVeda]}

 

{The divine love of each of these Rishis, who has seen the Truth, appeared

as a text (mantra). I propose to briefly explain these for showing the

relation [of these mantras] with the Vedanta philosophy.}

 

{For helping the beginners, for seeking the approval from those already on

the path and for mere amusement of those who already "know", [i make] this

small effort.}

 

The text of RigVeda Samhita contains more than 10,000 mantras, arranged in

form of 10 Mandalas. The textual structure of RigVeda is more like a modern

anthology of technical papers, rather than random text of prayers.

 

Out of these :

Mandala I - An Introduction and summary of the main ideas in the remaining

parts of RigVeda;

 

Mandala II to VIII are "authored" respectively by seven Rishis named above;

 

Mandala IX - this whole Mandala is devoted to Soma, reason for which we

shall see later on in our discussions;

 

Mandala X - Conclusions derived from the previous Mandalas.

 

Apart from the seven Rishis mentioned above, we shall have occassions to discuss

mantras by other Rishis like Diirghatamas, Shunahshepa, etc. There are several

Rishikas

(female Rishis) also.

 

Yaskacharya (cir. 2000 BC), the first "etymologist" whose text is available

today - called Nirukta - says as follows, explaining mantras from RigVeda :

..r.serd.r.s.taarthasya pritirbhavatyaakhyaanasamyukta

{The divine love felt by the Rishi, who has contacted the Ultimate Reality

gets expressed in verbalized form.}

 

 

The Great Discovery :

 

Many many years back, possibly when mankind started using its brain to do

conscious analysis of his relation with the Universe, our ancient Rishis made

some important discoveries. These discoveries concerned Self, the Creator

(if one wants to say so) and the World, the known and unknown, knowable and

unknowable. In the observed Universe, they found an underlaying unity, a

very subtle kind of analogy, which led them to investigate the nature of the

Ultimate Reality.

 

They found that the One origin of all is approachable by certain

means and found that tool. They realized that this was extremely important

knowledge and took steps to see that it is not lost. What we have available

today in form of RigVeda is (possibly partial) representation of that

knowledge. We Indians consider it our greatest heritage, why, it is the

greatest heritage of humankind.

 

Western scholars, who tried to study very deligently these texts, were,

unfortunately for them, limited in one very important way. They did not know

the true nature of these texts. It was something like a English language

teacher being called upon to translate a technical paper on Neuclear

Physics. Not only the subject and its special use of word is unknown, but

the symbols used to convey the iceberge of concepts are not known. This

situation still exists to a large extent. The most generous assessment they

made are represented by the following (paraphrased) words of Max Muller

(bhatta mok.samula he called himself). He thought that European scholars

understood Vedas better than Acharyas like Adi Shankara. Those scholars see

in the scripture a heterogeneous ideas, where sublime and childish, grandure

and grotesque co-exists. They termed them "babbling of a child humanity,

inspired children, simple-minded worship".

 

It is clear that those Rishis who visualized suktas like Creation, Vak,

Nasadiaya, Mrityu are not likely to babble in other, less abstract matters.

 

The Western scholars are totally unacquainted with the methods by which the

knowledge contained herein is arrived at, the nature of the knowledge and

the methods by which it is transmitted from one human brain to the other.

 

To illustrate this point, take just one result of modern physics. The

electron tunneling effect, which to a layman will seem to be totally

unbelievable at the worst and a magic at best, is in fact explained

theoretically and demonstrated in commercially available devices.

 

Vedas are written in a coded language, using various symbols, *which are

consistent across the totallity of Vedas*. A great store of spiritual

experience and conclusions thereof awaits anyone with right preparation

(adhikara) who studies Vedas.

 

RigVeda uses words denoting simple day-to-day objects like cow, horse,

milk, ghee, water, well, etc. as code words or technical words. The method

of expression is also special. For example, (as will be explained in later

postings) analogies are given in a reverse order.

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This has confounded most of the scholars, both Western and Western-trained

Indian. It is generally found that in order to make a sense out of a mantra

without taking into account the above mentioned special methods, these

scholars had to add extra words while translating, from their imagination,

saying that "the text is very elliptic here." This is uncalled for and not

necessary -- to say the least.

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The purpose of the text is to convey knowledge about abstract concepts

through various means - simplest being lakshana, then Dhvani, Vashatkaar and

some peculiar constructs which I shall illustrate in the next posting.

 

I think I have overshot the length (and your patience).

I have a request to the List members. Please hold your questions and

comments till the next posting.

 

With best wishes to all,

 

-- Himanshu