RigVeda and the Indian Systems of Approaches to the One

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Sorry. Due to hardware problem the file got truncated.

-- Himanshu

 

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RigVeda and Indian Systems of Approach to the One :

(notes from selfstudy - svaadhyaaya)

V : The Attitude of Vedic Rishis - how they viewed what they saw.

---- Himanshu B. Dave

 

ahamannamahamannamahannam | ahamannaado.a.ahamannaado.a.ahamannaada.h |

aha~m"slokak.rdaha~m"slokak.rdaha~m"slokak.rt |

[taittiriiya up. 3-10]

 

{I am food, I am food, I am food; I am the eater, I am the eater I am the

eater of the food; I am the joiner, I am the joiner, I am joiner [of them].}

[a part of 3 - 10 from Taittiriya Upanishad]

 

food -- anna --all that I take in as input from the environment in which I am;

for the physical body it is physical food, water and air; for pranamaya kosha it

is signals from sense organs; for manomaya kosha it is thoughts; etc.

 

eater -- annaada.h -- anna + ada.h - one who eats food; various layers of my

self which receive or deals with the inputs;

 

joiner -- "slokak.rt -- one which sets up or establishes link or relationship

between two things; "sloka = joint, relation, link, composition;

 

The Rishi, as a conclusion of his spiritual investigations, suddenly

realizes that "I am everything" aha.m brahmaasmi and in great wonder and

pleasure utters these words. "I am all the things that I perceived as

separate from me, I am the perceiver and I am the reason/method that the

perception takes place. I am the known, knower and knowledge."

-oOo-

 

In previous postings we have seen some back ground ideas useful in

understanding RigVedic mantras. In this posting we have a glimpse of how a

Vedic Rishi views the world. The contents of RigVeda is so vast that one is

at a loss how to select mantras for discussion. The attempt here may not be

the best.

 

The attitude of RigVedic Rishis is typified by diirghatamaa, author

of several suktas in Mandala I. We shall take his compositions from sukta

[RV I-164]. This is the longest sukta (52 mantras) in RigVeda and which has

characteristics of an Upanishad. Mantra [i-164-20] from this sukta appears

in several Upanishads (dvaa supar.naa ...). Sayanacharya, the commentator of

Vedas, has written a rather unusually long commentary on this sukta. We

start with this mantra :

 

indra.m mitra.m varu.nam agnim aahur atho divya.h sa supar.no garutmaan |

eka.m sad vipraa bahudhaa vadanty agni.m yama.m maatari"svaanam aahu.h ||

[RV I - 164 - 46] (words separated for ease of reading)

 

{They have called [Him] Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni and the celestial,

good-winged Garutman. Learned call the One that exists by many [names] as

they speak of Agni, Yama and Matarishva.}

 

Names of some of the "gods" have been explained in previous postings.

Remaining like Varuna, Matarishva and Yama will be explained as need arises.

 

Garutman (garuda, eagle?) is interesting and should be mentioned here : this

name and "syena (hawk) always denote in RigVeda Self of a yogi who has

achieved nirvikalpa samaadhi or has gone beyond that to manona"sa stage. The

name "syena is very appropriate because it "flies" very high, but is able to

"see clearly" objects on the "earth". Do you understand this? The words

within "" are iceberge words! This was just to give you an idea how code

words of RigVeda were probably selected.

 

Back to our mantra. IMHO this .rcaa should be considered one of the most

important ones in RigVeda. It clearly and unequivocally shows that so called

"Hindu" religion (properly Vedic or Sanatana Dharma) is NOT polyatheist but

monoatheist. It also indirectly gives Advaita concept, because garutmaan is

Atmaa, and it is said that it is just a name for the One, used by learned

persons.

 

The next mantra we take up is :

 

"sakamaya.m dhuuma.m aaraad apa"sya.m vi.suuvataa para enaavare.na |

uk.saa.na.m p.r"snim apacanta viiraas taani dharmaa.ni prathamaany aasan ||

[RV I - 164 - 43] (words separated for ease of reading)

 

{I see nearby the smoke of the burning cow-dung and by that all-pervading

lowly [effect], discovered the distant cause [fire]. The priests have cooked

the Soma, the bestower of sacrifice, for such are their primary duties.}

 

Seemingly the first and the second half do not have a logical flow of ideas,

but it is not so.

 

Roughly, the Rishi is saying that I can visualize the Parabrahma (distant =

not accessible by senses or mind) by seeing the smoke (the Universe and its

perceptions) which is nearby (accessible to my senses and mind) spread around

me. Various levels of information processors in my brain (priests) have

prepared the meditative state (Soma), which gives me this clear understanding,

(bestower) because so are their properties.

 

priests, cow-dung, smoke -- see footnote below.

 

We take the first half : there are two aspects of meanings here :

(i) I am able to conclude about the presence of the distant "fire" on seeing

the smoke spread around nearby here.

(This shows ability to conclude.($))

 

(ii) My conclusions about the distant entity is based on what I see nearby

(around) me and to that extent, they are limited; in the sense that

any limitation in my perceptions of nearby objects may colour my

understanding of the distant entity.

(This shows the limitation of that ($) ability.)

 

In fact the name of the Rishi, diirghatamaa itself is very interesting. Some

say it denotes the fact that he was blind (a mantra in other sukta says so,

but that "blindness" may not be physical), by etymology -- ati diirgha.h

tama.h andhatvam yasya sa.h -- but that is a minor (gau.na.h) meaning.

Becasue the Rishi pointed out that our conclusions about the distant Reality

is always based upon what we are able to perceive near us, i.e. what is

accessible to senses and mind, he is called "one having extended ignorance"

-- diirgha.h aparihaarya.h tama.h avidyajanita.h yasya sa.h -- The Rishi

wants to say that we can never "reach" Parabrahma.

 

v------------------------

smoke of burning cow-dung -- the smoke is called "lowly" indicating lower

level of understanding of reality. The perceived World is denoted by smoke.

Whenever there is fire there is smoke. So, there IS "fire" (the Supreme Being

exists, sat). Why smoke of burning cow-dung? cow is vaak, the languages

through which a human mind works. The milk products are useful output of cow

(see posting no. 3), cow-dung is the "lowly" output. The smoke is the result

of burning this lowly output of cow -- the misunderstanding of my mind

(smoke) about the nature of the World generated by processing (burning) the

wrong or lowly kinds of thoughts (cow-dung). The RigVedic Rishi is extremely

accurate in his representation.

 

priests -- throughout RigVeda concept code priests (.rtvik viiraa.h naraa.h)

denote several functional regions of human brain which constitute the levels

of information processors corresponding to the four levels of vaak. These

brain-functions take in messages (havi) at less abstract levels and send

them (huuta) to the higher level. There are four priests usually mentioned

(at some places in RigVeda more are mentioned, corresponding to more levels

of vaak) -- hot.r, adhvaryu, udgaat.r and brahmaa. They are also called

Ribhus (.rbhava.h). This is a very important concept to understand RigVeda,

because, wherever RigVeda talks about yaj~na, directly or indirectly, these

"priests" get involved. Idea of Vedic yaj~na is clear only if this is

understood. Not knowing this, many scholars have stumbled.

 

Note very clearly that the priests are not something separate from a person,

the "institutor of yaj~na" (yajamaana), they are part of his own brains

working.

 

The links between vaak and "priests" are :

environment >-vaikhaarii-> hotaa -madhyamaa-> adhvaryu -pa"syantii->

udgaataa -paraa-> brahmaa

 

The mantra clearly says that the Soma is prepared (apacanta) by these

priests, Soma which bestows the benefits of a yaj~na. What is the major

benefit of a yaj~na? Clear understanding.

^------------------------

 

We take one more mantra before ending this posting. Consider the following :

 

saaka.mjaanaa.m saptatham aahur ekaja.m .sa"d id yamaa .r.sayo devajaa iti |

te.saam i.s.taani vihitaani dhaama"sa sthaatre rejante vik.rtaani ruupa"sa.h ||

[RV I - 164 - 15]

 

{Of those born together, sages have called the seventh the single-born. Six

are twins, are movable and are born of gods. Their desirable [properties],

placed severally in their respective places, are various in forms. [They]

revolve for that which is stationary.}

 

The seven born together are : bhuu.h bhuva.h sva.h maha.h jana.h tapa.h

satyam -- these are seven fields of awareness. They constitute the seven

levels of awareness. Out of these six are born together (all except satyam),

due to Maya (this is indirectly indicated by the word vik.rtaani in the

second half of the mantra.) They are twins because there is a field and its

awarer (controller) or a god and his "wife" ("sakti). They are movable means

that the consciousness changes from one state (field) to another. They are

associated with "gods" like mitra, agni, vaayu, a"svinau, b.rhaspati, varuna,

suurya.

------------------------

At some places in RigVeda, these fields are called the six .rtava.h ("seasons"),

each having two months, and hence they are called twins. RigVeda says that

the six seasons (i.e. twelve months) are due to the Moon (mind), the

thirteenth month (puru"sottama maasa) is due to the Sun (Paramaatmaa). This

tallies, of course, with Jyotish, because, in Hindu calendar, the twelve

months are calculated by movement of the Moon and the thirteenth month is

added to synchronize them with the Sun's (apparent) movements. This is a

very good example of Vedika Homology, one of the basic characteristics of

RigVeda. The ancient Rishis have observed these striking similarities

denoting essential unity amongst various phenomena and recorded them.

------------------------

 

Out of these, the seventh, satyam, is a single one or single born. Why?

Because it is its own "sakti, he is everything merged into one.

 

Each of the six have their own desirable properties and each has its own

abode. Each has its own form. They revolve, i.e. go from one to aother, for

the benefit of the seventh, satyam, the non-moving, non-changing one. As if

the six are servants and the one is the master.

v------------------------

bhuu.h -- the normal waking state awareness; surface consciousness,

characterized by response to external inputs and heavy activities

at Cerebral Cortex;

corresponds to p.rthivii;

bhuva.h -- the field of mental activities at first level of abstraction;

e.g., when you read a good poem and understand its purport, your mind

is working at this level of awareness;

corresponds to antarik.sa.h;

sva.h -- the field of mental activities at second level of abstraction;

e.g. when you are enjoying good music (not fast) your mind is

working at this level of consciousness;

this level of field and next three correspond to div;

maha.h, jana.h tapa.h -- fields corresponding to successively higher

levels of awareness;

a meditator passes through these levels as he progresses in a

particualr session and also in overall practice;

satyam -- the Absolute; Atmaa; it is not an awarer or is awarer of itself

only. So it is field and its awarer together. (Refer to the

mantra at the top of this posting.)

^-------------------------

 

Sayanacharya very rightly points out in his commentary that the seventh,

satyam, does not have a "god" associated, because it is not the result of

the brains activity (gods), rather it is the cause of that.

 

The word rejante (moving) should be interpreted to mean "be active" they are

the "doers of actions" but not the seventh, satyam.

 

The word vik.rtaani is the seed of idea of vivartavaada (the World perceived

is apparent modification or distortion of the One). The six are vivarta of

the seventh.

 

That is how a typical Vedika Rishi saw the World and Self.

 

Oh! there are many many more mantras which can be discussed, but we must

stop somewhere.

 

Dear List Members,

We have completed here introductory part of this series. Now we shall take

up specific suktas/mantras which indicate seeds of various streams of

thoughts about different approaches to the One, but before that I would like

to have feed-back from you :

(i) Are the ideas generally expressed clearly enough?

(ii) Is there anything about which you have serious objection?

(iii) Is the style of presentation, which is tutorial style, conductive for

the topics?

(iv) Do you feel that some more back-ground information should have been

provided?

(v) Does the series of postings help you in some way? Should it be

continued?

 

I shall appreciate your response on any of these points and wait for some

response before continuing.

 

..o bhadra.m no apivaataya mana.h |

 

 

With best wishes to all.

-- Himanshu

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Himanshu,

Namaste. Even with my little English; I truly enjoyed reading your work. I

feel very fortunate to be able to read & understand in some lavel. It is so

beautiful, I do not know how to explain it. It reminds me of what Gopini

have said in Bhagbatam , "Bhuvi grinanti te virudha jana". You are a true

donor or giver. Maha dani in the earth (in this list). I use to think, I may

not be able to understand Veda; I am very encouraged to read more now.

Thank you Sir.

Yours.

SRU.

 

 

 

In a message dated 7/17/00 3:43:27 AM Pacific Daylight Time,

hbd writes:

> Oh! there are many many more mantras which can be discussed, but we must

> stop somewhere.

>

> Dear List Members,

> We have completed here introductory part of this series. Now we shall take

> up specific suktas/mantras which indicate seeds of various streams of

> thoughts about different approaches to the One, but before that I would

like

> to have feed-back from you :