Vasishtha (Born to a Ganika!, born in astrologer's clan!!)

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Dear All, Again from VV Raman at: http://www.siddha.com.my/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000053-7.htmlLove and regards,Sreenadh

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Vasishtha

Another illustrious author of the Vedas and a member of the Saptarishiconstellation is Vasishtha, undoubtedly one of the greatest of the classicalrishis. His life and exploits suggest that he played a major role inestablishing the superiority of Brahmanas in the Hindu social structure. Asper Rig Vedic mythic visions (VII.33) he was born of the Vedic deitiesVaruna and Mitra when they were aroused by the sight of the apsara Urvashi.

Many monarchs performed important sacrifices with him as their familypriest. The Vishnu Purana explains that King Nimi once requested Vasishthato be chief priest at a sacrifice he was planning. The event was to last athousand years. Vasishtha told the king he regretted he had priorcommitments for the next five hundred years, but that he would come backafter that to serve in the king's undertaking. But upon his return hediscovered, to his surprise and disappointment, that Nimi had offered theposition of chief priest to Rishi Gautama. Vasishtha took this as a severeslap on the face, and promptly cursed the king to become disembodied. Nimi,who possessed imprecating powers himself, retorted with the same curse. Uponlosing his physical frame, Vasishtha entered the Vedic gods Mitra andVaruna, only to regain corporeality via Urvashi.

The Mahabharata (I: 176) describes Vasishtha as a mind-born son of Brahmaand husband of Arundhati. He is perhaps the only great personage to beintroduced through the wife's name.

We also read the strange episode in which Vasishtha goes to Ayodhya [not ofDasaratha times], a city full of happy and healthy people. After the rishicame into the palace the queen, at the command of the king, united with therishi. After this he returned to his hermitage. Twelve years afterconception, a child was born to the queen. He was Asmaka who founded thecity of Paudanya.

It is said that Vasishtha had another hundred sons, the oldest of whom wascalled Sakri. One day while Sakri was walking along a path King Kalmashapadacame from the opposite direction. The king ordered the eminent rishi's sonto move out of his way. Sakri said it was against the dharmashastra for aBrahmana to give way to a Kshatriya. An argument ensued as to who had theright of way. The king claimed priority on the basis of his power, therishi's son on the basis of principle.The angry king whipped Sakri. And Sakri cursed the arrogant king to become acannibalistic rakshasa. When the curse took effect, not one, but all of thehundred sons of Vasishtha were devoured by the king-turned-cannibal.

Vasishtha had conquered Ire and Desire: sign of great spiritual attainmentin the Hindu framework. Generally, he kept his cool under the most tryingcircumstances. But this was terrible news which even the great Rishi couldnot accept with equanimity. He decided to commit suicide. He climbed to thetop of Mount Meru, and took a headlong plunge from there to the hard groundbelow. But the rocks on which his head struck had become soft as cottoncushions. Then the rishi went through a forest that was ablaze, only toemerge unscathed by his passage through the flames. In great frustration hebound his limbs with a sturdy rope and plunged into a swelling river, butthe torrents flung him back to the bank. Next he repeated this attempt atsuicide by leaping into waters infested with alligators. But the waves threwthe rishi back again on terra firma. That was the end of Vasishtha'sattempts to put an end to himself.

It is difficult to fathom the significance of such episodes. Could it be tosay that in spite of attempts to eradicate Brahminical power by others, andeven when the Brahmins themselves tried to recede from their dominance insociety, they have always continued to play a major role there, i.e. theycould not be erased from Hindu society?

Every Hindu regards the cow as sacred. If we inquire into where in Hinduliterature this sacredness is declared, there is the Rig Veda whereBharadvaja Rishi has a hymn of the sacredness of the cow. Then again, in theMahabharata there are some chapters (Anusasana Parva) where Vasishtha givesa long discourse on the qualities and significance of that gentle animal. Hedescribes the cow as being always fragrant. They are the very source of allprosperity. They constitute the highest food. They are the best oblation forthe deities. He recommends the recitation of the cow's name in morning andevening. He says that one should never feel repugnance for the cow's urineor dung. He assures us that great merit would follow those who generouslygive cattle as gifts. The sacred cow is very ancient in Hindu culture.

The Puranas are not unanimous regarding the identity of Vasishtha's spouse.The Vishnu Purana says it was Urja, a daughter of Daksha. The Rishi is saidto have had seven sons through her. On the other hand, the Bhagavada Puranainforms us that it was Arundhati who was Vasishtha's wife. According to astory in the Mahabharata, six of the Sapta Rishi once abandoned their wives,all except Vasishtha. One of the stars of the Pleiades is referred to asArundhati.

V. V. RamanOctober 3, 2005

This is from Sir S .Radhakrishnan's book THE HINDU VIEW OF LIFE. PAGE 86,

"Vasishta was born of a prostitute, Vyasa of a fisherwoman, Parasara of aChandala girl."

PKR.

Indeed, and S.R. quotes:

gaNikAgarbhasmbhUo Vasishtha...

Visishtha came into being from the womb of a GaNikA (harlot).

V. V. RamanOctober 3, 2005

Thank you again Dr. Raman for that presentation on Vasishta which presumablyis taken from the puranas and itihasas.

But there is another reason why this piece must be separately eulogised, and Iwish to comment on. It possibly is also a reason why Dr. Raman wrote this, andon the sapta rishis, without quite saying so, but leaving it to the realisationand imagination of the reader.

This piece shows clearly the sheer absurdity of the puranashastras if takenliterally, which is what most hundreds of millions of Hindus do. Anyonebelieving this, as it is, has been taken for a major ride, the Big Dipper! Now imaginemillions of daft people do. Many even have taken to memorise sutras from theseshastras and quote freely to support orthodoxy or their pet beliefs, even wellknown acharyas! See how far all this is from Hindu spirituality.

But if the puranashastras - the theatre of the absurd, is taken as parables, oras metaphysical knowledge then there is some truth in this, and which is quitedifferent from its face value.

The Big Dipper was named after some prominent rishis whose name and somegeneology only is known. We know the Big Dipper is in the constellationPleadeis,known in sanskrit as Kritika. We also know that the 'God' of the Pleadeis isKartikka or Lord Muruga. And we can surmise that the sapta rishi stars points to

'that Lord' as the overlord of the 7 rishis, nay all of them, and as overlord of

knowledge and spiritual striving as that is what the rishis represent. Moreinformation along these lines can be obtained from what actually Vasishthataught in the vedas. (Surely no one believes that these stories are whatVasishtha actually wrote.) Even more so for the meditator who will 'see' thesoul body and its currents as 'stars of a constellation', which will then direct themeditator towards 'that Lord'.

But nothing more should be read from this. The song and dance of these storieswas simply written to entertain, inspire and even delude the people, to separate

the wheat from the chaff. Anyone holding on to these stories is a lost soultrapped in shastra, and further from Hindu spirituality than anything.

Knowingly or unknowingly this piece has established that. It is for this reasonthat I eulogise, and we are grateful.

Regards.

Pathma

I stand corrected on the constellations, the Big Dipper is not in the constellation Pleiades.

It appears that there were several Vasisthas. Here is some additional info below from various sources on Vasishtha. Incidentally my gotra is Nandinatha, as is Vasishtha's. There is no need for despair too as Vishvamitra eventually equalled Vasistha and became the guru to Lord Rama, thereby insinuating brahmanism will be ended.

It is true that there are no great Indian leaders like in the past, but it is also equally true that there are a great many capable people like Kalam, Vaypayeeand Manmohan. Greatness has been spread around a larger group of people.

Since the bakti period there has been no one like Subramuniyaswami, Prabhupada, Pramukh Swami, Mata Amritanandamayi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, andwhy, even Sai Baba. No one does social welfare work like him. And there is Master Ching Hai with a million meditating disciples, and she is reaching out to thefar easterners, reviving Hindu-Buddhist teachings like never before since Bodhidharma, Bhogadeva and Markandeya. There has never been anyone likethese personages in a thousand years. China and Indonesia will be the next great Hindu-Yoga-Buddhist nations. Even around me in Kuala Lumpur, I see thousands of people meditating several hours at a stretch, and now and then a few burstinginto parasiva. Thousands mind you just in Kuala Lumpur only. There was nothing like this in the 60s, 70s or 80s.

People complain about India, but I tell them what more can they ask for. India is the fastest growing nation, 8.1% growth in the last quarter, soon to eclipse the US in 2035 and China in 2045. The chinese themselves admit and accept this. This is the light at the end of the tunnel. What more can Indians ask for?

But for sure the puranashastra's days are numbered as Hindu theological texts as it has served it purpose in the past, now an albatross around the Hindu's neck. It may remain as 'Vyasa's Fables from the East', but totally disconnectedfrom Hinduism. We want it out. Not one of the great personages mentioned above has promoted it.

Regards.

Pathma

VASISTHA: (Sanskrit) Disciple of Maharishi Nandikeshvara (Nandinatha) (ca 250 bce) along with Patanjali and Vyaghrapada (as recorded in Panini's book of grammar) and Tirumular as well as the Sanatkumaras (as per the Tirumantiram). Also the name of several other famous sages, including the rishi attributed with composing the hymns of the Rig Veda's seventh mandala, another who plays acentral role in the epics and certain Puranas and Upanishads, and a third who expounds the ancient yogic wisdom to Lord Rama in the 29,000-verse Yoga Vasishtha.

VASISHTHA. [source: Dowson's Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology] 'Most wealthy.' A celebrated Vedic sage to whom many hymns are ascribed. According to Manu he was one of the seven great Rishis and of the ten Prajapatis.Vasishtha was the possessor of a "cow of plenty," called Nandini, who had the power of granting him all things (vasu) he desired, hence his name. A law-book is attributed to him, or to another of the same name. Vashistha's teachings in the Yoga Vashistha is similar to Kashmir Saivism, not particularly unusual, as his co-disciples as mentioned above are all great yogis who authoredtheir own books on yoga.

Agastya and Vasishtha are siblings as per the Rig, and Visvamitra a competitive contemporary.

Though Vasishtha is classed among the Prajapatis who sprang from Brahma, a hymn in the Rigveda and other commentaries thereon assign him a differentorigin, or rather a second birth, and represent him and the sage Agastya to have sprung from Mitra and Varuna. The hymn says, "Thou, O Vasishtha, are a son of Mitra and Varuna, born a Brahman from the soul of Urvasi. All the gods placed in the vessel thee the drop which had fallen through divine contemplation." The comment on this hymn says, "When these two Adityas (Mitra and Varuna) beheldthe Apsaras Urvasi at a sacrifice their seed fell from them. It fell on many places, into a jar, into water, and on the ground. The Muni Vasishtha wasproduced on the ground, while Agastya was born in the jar."

There is a peculiar hymn attributed to Vasishtha in the Rigveda (Wilson , iv.121), beginning "Protector of the dwelling," which the commentators explain ashaving been addressed by him to a house-dog which barked as he entered the house of Varuna by night to obtain food after a three days' fast. By it the dog was appeased and put to sleep, "wherefore these verses are to be recited on similar occasions by thieves and burglars."========================================