Brihadaranyaka Upanishad : bewildering content ??

[Guest guest]

Namaste, Please refer to

 

http://www.celextel.org/ebooks/upanishads/brihadaranyaka_upanishad_2.htm

 

VI-iv-18 : ... should have rice cooked with the meat

of a vigorous bull ...

 

First I must admit I have'nt studied the Upanishad or

any commentary on it but I was browsing through it

online and came across this. Swami Krishnananda's

commentary on this upanishad runs into 520 pages but I

wonder if he has commented on this part.

 

Some metaphor or deep meaning in this section of the

upanishad. The few preceeding lines and following

lines (relative to the above line) are all perplexing.

Any comments/thoughts on this ?

 

regards,

Shailendra

 

 

 

 

 

Make your home page

http://www./r/hs

[Guest guest]

advaitin, Shailendra Bhatnagar

<bhatnagar_shailendra> wrote:

> Namaste, Please refer to

>

>

http://www.celextel.org/ebooks/upanishads/brihadaranyaka_upanishad_2.

htm

>

> VI-iv-18 : ... should have rice cooked with the meat

> of a vigorous bull ...

>

> Some metaphor or deep meaning in this section of the

> upanishad. The few preceeding lines and following

> lines (relative to the above line) are all perplexing.

> Any comments/thoughts on this ?

>

> regards,

> Shailendra

 

Namaste,S-ji, INHO

 

If you read the verse you will see that it is saying for those who

want a material pleasure or occupation, then this is the food. Also

remembering that the Vedas include animal killing as well. It is the

times and places. For those on a spiritual or yogic path the diet is

different for spiritual and health reasons.

So it is not going into the morality of eating meat here, but

assumes the person is a meat eater. There is always the possibility

he is talking about the meat from a sacrifice as well. Which they

would believe as 'special'.

 

I am always perplexed by spiritual people advising or eating meat.

The Dalai Lama, himself, says he eats meat every other day for

his 'health's sake'. This is on his doctor's instructions, when

there are perfectly good medicines and supplements.

 

I can only put it down to the development, or lack of, of the

vijnanamayakosa, and the development of Daya for all

beings.............ONS...Tony.

[Guest guest]

advaitin, Shailendra Bhatnagar

<bhatnagar_shailendra> wrote:

> Namaste, Please refer to

>

>

http://www.celextel.org/ebooks/upanishads/brihadaranyaka_upanishad_2.

htm

>

> VI-iv-18 : ... should have rice cooked with the meat

> of a vigorous bull ...

 

 

Namaste.

 

I referred to Swami Krishnananda's exposition of Brihadaranyaka

Upanishad of the above passage. He has a general write-up on the

entire section of iv of Chapter VI. I reproduce it below. My own

comments follow Swamiji's exposition quoted below;

 

"The fourth section, which is the conclusion of the Sixth Chapter,

elaborates the mystical rites connected with the various stages of

the procedure and process of childbirth, which includes a fairly

detailed touch of the spiritual implications or the diviner aspects

of ordinary love-making or the manifestation of the usual

relationship between man and woman (Kama). Uninformed students of

the Upanishad hold the erroneous opinion that the section dealing

with the way of acquiring wealth and the romantic periods in one's

social existence are unbecoming of an Upanishad which is expected to

deal with the nature of God, or the Absolute. The criticism arises

from quarters having no knowledge of the connection of the temporal

with the spiritual or the interrelationship of every stage in

evolution with every other stage, the higher stage at every level

being implicit in the lower and the lower one getting illumined in

the higher by the spotlight of knowledge. The spiritual is the

vitalising value in the secular; which is what enables the latter,

at the proper time, to evoke the deepest levels of even the

mightiest genius. As stated earlier, the Upanishad is a

comprehensive text explaining the ways of an integrated life,

pointing to ultimate perfection, as is abundantly made clear in the

doctrine of the Five Fires - Panchagni Vidya - wherein the

importance of every stage in creative integration is visualised in

its relevance to the realisation of complete being".

 

My comments to Shailendra-ji. It is to avoid such confusions which

are likely to arise in our immature minds that traditionalists keep

on restricting us from attempting to study the Upanishats from

books ourselves. On the other hand they emphasize that we should

systematically learn them from a guru sitting at his feet!

I would also like to draw our attention to certain 'prohibitions'

in Kaliyuga of certain practices that were however valid in the

other yugas. The Section iv of the Upanishad above may be referring

to these practices. I had occasion to refer to this in my note:

 

http://www.escribe.com/culture/advaitin/m25817.html

 

 

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

[Guest guest]

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

> My comments to Shailendra-ji. It is to avoid such

> confusions which

> are likely to arise in our immature minds that

> traditionalists keep

> on restricting us from attempting to study the

> Upanishats from

> books ourselves. On the other hand they emphasize

> that we should

> systematically learn them from a guru sitting at his

> feet!

 

Namaste Prof Krishnamurthy-ji, Indeed Br Upanishad is

not something one can casually browse online and

secondly I did not search in Swamiji's book either and

sent off an immaturish email. Thanks for responding.

 

regards,

Shailendra

 

 

 

 

 

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