June Topic: MAyA in the Vedas: Some more key words

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--- "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk wrote:

> advaitin, ken knight

> <anirvacaniya>

> wrote:

> Namaste.

>

> Here is a comment on the word 'MAyA'. Many of us

> would be familiar

> with the derivation:

> 'yA mA sA mAyA'

> meaning, 'What is not, is mAyA'.

 

Namaste Professor and all others following this

series,

 

At the moment I request everyone's patience as I keep

talking around the word mAyA in order to set the stage

with the various players that will help us to become

part of the RgVedic experience, I hope. Please can we

store this valuable posting of Professor Krishnamurty,

and I thank him for it, until we move into the section

of this series.

I have added the following to my original list of key

words because of your postings on Time and the

interest in Rta.

As explained previously, I am a little rushed today so

the following may be somewhat garbled but should be of

use:

 

Some more key words

 

Tapas: ‘the creative flame of contemplative exertion,

the contracting to an inner point of dissolution and

the subsequent expansion to an infinitude of creative

possibilities.’

That is a quote from Jeanine Miller’s book ‘The

Vision of Cosmic Order in the Vedas.’

The ultimate tapas is that from which sat and asat

emerge as the nAsadIya sUkta states:

RV X. 129.3

táma aasiit támasaa guuLhám ágre .apraketáM saliláM

sárvam aa idám |

tuchyénaabhv ápihitaM yád aásiit tápasas tán

mahinaájaayataíkam ||

 

‘Darkness there was: at first concealed in darknss

this All was indiscriminated chaos.

All that existed then was void and form less: by the

great power of Warmth (tapas) was born that Unit.’

 

That is the Griffith translation.

Here is a more poetic translation:

‘In the beginning, pregnant darkness was by dissolving

darkness secretly enfolded. Unformed, unseparate that

fluid was this entire creation. While the boundless

source of being was by unformed being thus enclosed,

That One, through light of knowledge (tapas) brought

Itself forth, to be.’

 

Add the two together and we still won’t get near to

the Sanskrit but it helps us to see the importance of

the word ‘tapas’ in the Vedic understanding.

In this earlier hymn ‘tapas’ is used following a plea

to the ‘heroic vigour’ in Indra’s heart. This vigour

is related to true faith and speech and empowers the

austerities ritualised through yajna:

RV IX 113.2

aá pavasva dishaam pata aarjiikaát soma miiDhvaH |

Rtavaakéna satyéna shraddháyaa tápasaa sutá

índraayendo pári srava ||

 

'Lord of the Quarters, flow thou on, boon Soma, from

Arjika land,

Effused with ardour and with faith, and the true hymn

of sacrifice. Flow, Indu, flow for Indra's sake.'

 

(Dr Yadu, please note that second line on Rta/satya)

 

At the human level the notion of ‘tapas’ is related to

the difficult times as well as the austere practices

of those rishis seeking unity in the power of the

universe:

ná tám áMho ná duritaáni mártyam índraavaruNaa ná

tápaH kútash caná |

 

 

yásya devaa gáchatho viithó adhvaráM ná tám mártasya

nashate párihvRtiH ||

 

‘No trouble, no misfortune, Indra-Varuna, no woe from

any side assails the mortal man

Whose sacrifice, O Gods, ye visit and enjoy: ne'er

doth the crafty guile of mortal injure him.’

 

VisRSTi

This has been described as the projection of the inner

into the outer. If we return to the nAsadIya sUkta we

find Griffith using the word ‘creation’. I would

suggest that this is an error if we take ‘creation’ to

mean a ‘Big Bang’ process in Time with a beginning,

middle and end. I do not think that this would agree

with the Vedic vision that does not seem to have such

a word for Time in this sense, they only seem to have

a ‘middle’ as it were. The word being translated as

creation is visRSTi but a better translation would be

emanation, an ongoing, beginningless and endless

single event that is ever changing but ever complete

in itself.

 

RV. X. 129.6,7

kó addhaá veda ká ihá prá vocat kúta aájaataa kúta

iyáM vísRSTiH |

arvaág devaá asyá visárjanenaáthaa kó veda yáta

aababhuúva ||

 

‘Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence

it was born and whence comes this creation?

TheGods are later than this world's production. Who

knows then whence it first came into being?’

 

iyáM vísRSTir yáta aababhuúva yádi vaa dadhé yádi vaa

ná |

yó asyaádhyakSaH paramé vyòman só aÑgá veda yádi vaa

ná véda ||

 

‘He, the first origin of this creation, whether he

formed it all or did not form it,

Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he

verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.’

 

As with so many Sanskrit words, visRSTi, contains the

meaning of movement, a going outward and in the

following it signifies the confident, powerful

movement of the warrior about to overcome all the

lesser powers of the physical world.

 

RV I.122..11

sá vraádhato náhuSo dáMsujuutaH shárdhastaro naraáM

guurtáshravaaH

vísRSTaraatir yaati baaLhasR'tvaa víshvaasu pRtsú

sádam íc chuúraH

‘That man, most puissant, wondrously urged onward,

famed among heroes, liberal in giving,

Moveth a warrior, evermore undaunted in all encounters

even with the mighty.’

>From the older hymns of the RigVeda the word brings

with it this expansive, freeing meaning as in the

following which notes how the hymn, emanating from a

tongue freed from minor matters, draws down Indra into

the ritual event, an event in which Indra himself lies

waiting to be released. That last point is very

important and will be returned to later.

 

RV VII.24.2

gRbhiitáM te mána indra dvibárhaaH sutáH sómaH

páriSiktaa mádhuuni | vísRSTadhenaa bharate suvRktír

iyám índraM jóhuvatii maniiSaá ||

 

’Indra, thy wish, twice-strong, is comprehended:

pressed is the Soma, poured are pleasant juices.

This hymn of praise, from loosened tongue, made

perfect, draws Indra to itself with loud invoking’

 

The power of speech to fulfil this intention in the

emanation is beautifully illustrated in the following

hymn to VAk, in which Vrtra is to be slain and the

intuited speech to be set free to fill the ritual

event through the command of Indra.

 

RV.VIII. 100

deviíM vaácam ajanayanta devaás taáM vishváruupaaH

pashávo vadanti |

saá no mandréSam uúrjaM dúhaanaa dhenúr vaág asmaán

úpa súSTutaítu ||

 

‘The Deities generated Vak the Goddess, and animals of

every figure speak her.

May she, the Gladdener, yielding food and vigour, the

Milch-cow Vak, approach us meetly lauded.

sákhe viSNo vitaráM ví kramasva dyaúr dehí lokáM

vájraaya viSkábhe |

hánaava vRtráM riNácaava síndhuun índrasya yantu

prasavé vísRSTaaH ||

 

‘Step forth with wider stride, my comrade Visnu; make

room, Dyaus, for the leaping of the lightning.

Let us slay Vrtra, let us free the rivers let them

flow loosed at the command of Indra’

 

Soma

I do not want to get into a discussion as to whether

Soma is merely an intoxicating herb pressed out during

a ritual or an inner spiritual ‘pressing’ of

inspiration. That can be dealt with later. But as the

word appears in the hymns above I thought that it

would be of interest here, in this section that is

really looking as yajna. This is a story from the

Satapatha Brahmana for the etymological derivation of

soma.

Shatapatha Brahmana, (3.9.4.22-23) ‘Now as to why he

is called Soma. When he first became sacrificial food

for the gods, he thought within him, ‘I must not

become sacrificial food for the gods with my whole

self!’ That form of his which was most pleasing he

accordingly put aside. Thereupon the gods were

victorious; they said, ‘Draw that unto thee, for

therewith thou shalt become our food!’ He drew it unto

him even from afar, saying, verily, that is mine own

(sva me), hence he was called soma. Then as to why he

is called yagn[a (sacrifice). Now when they press him,

they slay him; and when they spread him, they cause

him to be born. He is born in being spread along, he

is born moving (yan gayate): hence yan-ga for yan[ga,

they say, is the same as yagn[a.’ (translation by

Muller.)

 

 

This theme can be followed throughout the tradition

through such as Vishnu’s incarnation as

yajn[a-varaaha. The primeval boar signifying

sacrifice, in the Kalika-Purana,( Chapter 30), in the

Atharva Veda, 9.5. Krishna Yajur Veda 9.21.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

=====

‘From this Supreme Self are all these, indeed, breathed forth.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

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