Rudri - 4 - A glimpse into the Yajur Veda

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Hope you all had a good Sunday. Here I am back with today's discussion on the Rudri.

 

Thank you Karen and Rajan on your question on the Rudri, which have

been forwarded to Swamiji and will be posted whe he responds.

 

Rajan- your question on if Rudri and Rudrashtadhyayi are different

texts .. They are both one and the same, we just refer to it as Rudri

to make it simple.

 

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OK ! Last week, we looked at an overview of the Hindu Scriptures, with

a high level understanding of the Shruti, Smriti, the four Vedas, the

four sections to each Veda and then examples of each of the four

sections of the Vedas.

 

Today, we will focus briefly on the Veda of the Rudrashtadhyayi - the Yajur Veda.

 

The term “Yuj” means to unite, "Yajna" is the sacrifice of egotistical

attachment, and ‘Veda’ is derived from ‘Vid’, which means “to know”.

The Yajur Veda, therefore, means the wisdom of the sacrifice of

egotistical attachment. This Veda is drawn predominantly from the

mantras of Rig Veda and modified for the use in a Yajna or worship.

 

There are two major versions of the Yajur Veda: the Krishna and the

Shukla . The Krishna Yajur Veda, is more common in South India, is

the older and arguably the more widely used of the two. The Shukla,

predominant in northern India, contains nearly the same material, but

in a considerably different order.

 

The earlier Krishna Yajur Veda was taught by Sage Vaisampayana. Later,

Rishi Yajnavalkya is believed to have brought the Shukla Yajur Veda or

Vajasaneyi Samhita from the Sun-God as a different version. It is said

that when Sage Vaisampayana refused to teach his version of the Yajur

to Yajnavalkya, the latter is said to have got his divine teachings

directly from Sun-God himself.

 

Some of the chapters in the Shukla Yajur Veda have become more

renowned than the others – known variously as the Rudram , Rudri or

the Rudrashtadhyayi, which is the text that we are about to go into

great detail soon.

 

Swamiji says, “The Rudrashtadhyayi comes from the Shukla section of

the Yajur Veda. The Shukla section, or the bright illuminated

portion, is hymns that inspire humanity to express unity

consciousness in all actions they perform”

 

Next we will focus on Rudra – who is this Lord Rudra and why we want to sing his glory.

 

JAI SHIVANanda

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