June topic: mAyA in the Vedas: Power asnd Deception

[Guest guest]

Namaste all,

I have been wondering how to step into a careful study

of the hymns. Should I attempt a summary of previous

postings? Should I just get straight into some

examples of the word being used in context?

Finally, I decided to begin with a later understanding

of mAyA in advaitin terms but one which will link us

directly with the Rgveda.

 

Ken Knight

 

 

MAyA in the Vedas: Part 2. First posting.

 

Before we enter our time-machine we may like to take a

last look at the well-known countryside around us and

take a brief, farewell glance at:

PanchadaSI, Chapter II:

http://cc.1asphost.com/shastras/ebooks/other_books/panchadasi.htm

50. This peculiar nature of Maya is corroborated by

the Vedic text which purports, there was neither

non-existence nor existence then (i.e., before

creation) but there was darkness (by which is meant

Maya). This attribution of existence to darkness (or

Maya) is due to its association with existence, not by

virtue of itself, in as much as it (existence) is

denied to it (in the just mentioned Vedic passage).

51. Hence like nothingness, Maya also cannot be a

distinct entity in its own right. …..

54. Power does not operate in the whole of Brahman

but only in a part of it. Earth’s power of producing

pots is not seen in all earth but in a portion or mode

of earth only, viz., in clay, i.e., earth mixed with

water.

55. The Shruti says: ‘Creation is only a quarter of

Brahman, the other three quarters are self-revealing’

(i.e., not dependent on Maya’s effects for its

revelation). Thus does the Shruti say Maya covers but

a part of Brahman.'

 

Two of the Rgvedic hymns are being referred to here,

The Creation Hymn (NAsadIya SUkta) in verse 50 and

Purusha SUkta in verse 55.

By pressing the buttons marked ‘NAsa’ and ‘Pur’ on the

controls of our time-machine we accelerate off in a

perfect launch into our history.

 

Looking out we see the German scholars of the 19th and

20th centuries, beavering away with their Sanskrit

texts. In their work we will find many definitions of

mAyA and there we can identify the culprits for the

eventual translation into the English as ‘illusion.’

There is Monier Monier Williams writing in his

dictionary of Sanskrit that the meaning of the word

mAyA in the Rgveda is ‘illusion’ ‘fraud’ etc, this is

just not true. See ‘The Doctrine of Maya in the

philosophy of the Vedanta’ by P.B Shastri., p.5.

 

These Western scholars were dependant upon Sayana’s

commentary on the Rgveda and we note that we can see

him as we pass through the 14th century AD. He is

writing the words prajnA and kapaTa, ‘mental power’

and ‘deception’, as the definition of mAyA. And here

is his problem. Limited to an adhiyajna interpretation

of the Rgveda, limited to the outer forms, he has to

use division to distinguish between the elements of

meaning and by dividing his definition into these two

words he is losing the full flowering of the meaning

of mAyA as the power of a mysterious, intelligence,

appearing through its own heat, tapas, as many

different forms. He is missing the subtle meaning of

this extraordinary will-power underlying difference:

(anekarUpagrahanasAmarthya)

But he is too recent a commentator for us to stay and

discuss it with him so we zoom further into our

history.

The linear time-line that controls our imaginary

progress has a clever gateway mechanism that has been

irrevocably set at 400BC. Once we have zoomed past

that date we cannot return through the gateway until

this topic ends so Yaska is our latest authority to

whom we may go for non-dual insights.

 

The Creation Hymn (NAsadIya SUkta), RgVeda 10.129, and

Purusha SUkta, RgVeda 10.90 both appear on our

screens. To confirm on your screen go to:

www.flaez.ch

and navigate to Rgveda. Choose the Mandala(Book) and

SUkta(Hymn) numbers then choose Griffith to get

transliteration and a translation…if you want to know

more of the hymn go to ‘The Works’. (Please note, this

site has some scanning errors and verse 5 of Purusha

SUkta is not about ‘cats’ but ‘eats’)

If you want to investigate the meanings click on the

blue words and be taken to the dictionary and other

hymns in which the word is used. This is a wonderful

tool for our use.

 

The collection known as the Rgveda saMhitA has two

parts: Mandalas 2-9 are the older while Mandalas 1 and

10 are later additions. The above two hymns therefore

would be of the later collection and point to the

essential, unknowable mystery and the mystery of

appearance. Although often quoted with reference to

mAyA we will not spend much time with them now other

than take one line as our present mantra………please take

time to sound and listen to the Sanskrit:

 

aániid avaatáM svadháyaa tád ékaM tásmaad dhaanyán ná

paráH kíM canaása ||

 

‘That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own

nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.’

 

Were you tempted to let the eyes skim over the

Sanskrit and grab at the English?

If so, please go back. Look at the words. Hear them

sound in the mind. Then let the words sound in the

mouth. It is through such listening that space

expands. Take time to be in that space with our

ancestors. We may be studying together via the wonders

of the Internet but please do not let the ‘scanning’

habits we have developed to cope with ‘information

overload’ place a curtain over the mantras provided by

the Rshis for the purpose of explaining their

insights.

 

Let us now look up RgVeda 1.164. Verse 37 which has

the singer proclaiming:

 

‘What thing I truly am I know not clearly: mysterious,

fettered in my mind I wander.’

 

I know the feeling, my friend.

 

Maybe we should try to find the cave of the heart and

see if there is any light there. In that same hymn,

which is also very famous and known by the name

ViSvedevas to whom it is dedicated as well as being

the name of the poet, you will find mention of the

GAyatrI metre. This will now require us to go further

back in time into those Mandalas of the earlier

collection, in this case to 3.62. to the most well

known mantra in this GAyatrI metre:

 

10, tát savitúr váreNyam bhárgo devásya dhiimahi |

dhíyo yó naH pracodáyaat ||

 

‘May we meditate on the Supreme

On the all-pervading radiance of the ultimate source

of divine light.

May He inspire the innermost thoughts of our hearts.’

 

May we take that invocation into our future study.

Take note that we are here requesting the enlightening

of ‘dhI’ (see Key word posting). The lotus will open

at the touch of the Sun’s warmth.

 

Later tonight I will post the first of the major uses

of the word in the Rgveda. I do not want this posting

to become too long and having the later sections

deleted without being read. They are too important.

 

 

‘From this Supreme Self are all these, indeed,

breathed forth.’

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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