vedabhASya - Vedic Studies

Graha is a place that is seized/captured for the purpose of dwelling. Consciousness dwells in nine places in the life of a living being, in particular us the human beings. These places are the nava-grahas. 1. The first dwelling of consciousness is the binding of 'life' with a physical body.  2. The second dwelling of consciousness is the conscious 'mind' in a being. 3. The third dwelling of consciousness is adaptation to obstacles by a being. 4.  The fourth dwelling of consciousness is knowing or learning by a being. 5.  The fifth dwelling of consciousness is impacting other beings by communication, reproduction etc 6.  The sixth dwelling of consciousness is driving physical actions by a being (thoughts to action). 7.  The seventh dwelling of consciousness is responding/reacting to external stimuli/forces by a being. 8. The eight dwelling of consciousness is the sub-conscious mind in a being 9. The nineth dwelling of consciousness is the unconscious mind in a be...

 As usual for the festivals of India, there are multiple stories on why people celebrate Deepa-avali. Here is my story on it. Naraka-asura is is the son of Earth (Bhumi, Aditi) and the Boar (varAha avatar of god Vishnu)  that guards the forests of Earth.  He got friendship of Mura, a demon that induces vices (of selfishness and self-centrism) in our mind. When he became very powerful he started abusing Aditi, the divine Mother Earth herself.  After bearing it all for a very long time, in another eon,  Aditi complained to SatyabhAma, the wife of Krishna, the ruler of west of India (while Naraka ruled in other corner, the east of India).  Krishna and Satyabhama teamed up, fought and killed Naraka. But before that they have to kill Mura, the  demon that induces the vices of selfishness and self-centrism in Naraka's mind. At the time of death (as Mura got killed), Naraka realized his mistake, begged forgiveness and asked for a boon. That people will celebr...

  Nava-ratri means nine nights. Nights induce fear in human beings. But nights also nourish them. There are three fear inducers in a human life that also nourish them. Huge barriers (be it social, human, natural etc etc) in front of our life induce fear in us. We have to develop the strength to cross these potential barriers to achieve something. If we cross-over these barriers, they nourish us.  dur-gA in sanskrit means one that can not be stopped. This quality is personified as a feminine divinity in vedic literature.  So we invoke durgA (invoke means worship in vedic terms), the strength in us, not to be stopped by any barrier. The ability of others to harness resources for their growth (which we call wealth) induces fear in us. We have to develop that ability in us  to harness the resources around us for our growth. If we achieve that wealth, it nourishes us.  Laksh-mi means the 'mark' or 'characteristics' in us. The hallmark of human life is the ability to ...

If we trace back the roots of English word 'divine' to Latin/Greek etc, we we will land up at saMskrt word 'diva' which means dawn or daybreak.  Those that give us the dawn or daybreak, those that gives the light that relieves us from darkness are 'diva' or divine.  If knowledge is light and ignorance is darkness, then those that give us knowledge are divine. If peace/happiness is light and gloom/sad is darkness, then those that give us peace/happiness are divine. Slokas are 'divine' because of the knowledge in them. They are not divine because of their sounds. The way they have been recited, the sounds they produced has been changing continuously over centuries. Even the vedic recitations have different ways of recitation of the same thing. sAma veda recitations of the same sloka are different from other vedic recitations. Then there are umpteen recitation methods.   Scriptures that give us ancient knowledge are divine, as they give us  the knowledge of...

Sumangali Prarthanai - A discriminatory ritual ?  I In the South Indian Brahmins, there's a custom, peculiar to them called 'Sumangali Prarthanai'.  This is not described in any Grhya Sutras, nor followed in the Brahmin communities in the North. As such this is a 'laukika' ceremony and not a veda sastric ceremony. Laukika means worldly or ordinary life. Like the several laukika rituals in a marriage, this is a ceremony by the Sumangalis, for the Sumangalis and of the Sumangalis, that emerged out of day to day life needs. Sumangali means those women whose husbands are (supposed to be) alive. As it stands today, it seems a discriminatory ritual, excluding women who lost their husbands. The underlying message of this ceremony seems to be like women who die before their husbands die, alone or gifted and blessed. Also women who participate in this ritual seek that boon of dying before their husbands die.   Sumangali Prarthanai - Not in saastras or sutras In-spite of all ...

 In Andal's  thiruppaavai pasuram 17,18,19 there's a great psychology.  How do we wake up Krishna..?  First Andal wakes him up through the mother and brother (from whom Krishna was born and with whom he played together). Then Andal wakes him up through his girlfriend.  The pasuram 18, calling nappinnai as nadagopan's marumagal (which meant sister's daughter), where krishna is referred to as her 'maithunan' (which means mama paiyan in those days) depicts nappinnai as his girlfriend, not yet married.  Then comes the pasuram 19 which talks about krishna sleeping with nappinnai .  Now Andal is waking up krishna through this wife. Krishna is the govinda, the Adi Purusha, the avyaya puruSa sAski, the eternal witness, inside all.  Body is like the cart. Mind is the horse. Our self is the driver. If our self becomes one with cart or horse, vehicle runs amok. Our self has to detach from body and mind and witness them to control them. This witness is the ma...

  pathaam vaasal means the one with paththu vaasal (ten doors). Our 'self' has ten entry/exit points in this manifest world. Our 'self' is like a street with ten doors. They are the five indriyas with which it processes information (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch) and five indriyas with which it executes functions (work using hands, motion using legs, speech using mouth, recreation using genitals, metabolism using digestive and respiratory systems). But the 'self' in itself is a door to the consciousness behind (though it is like a street with ten doors to the manifest world). The principle behind this is, from that consciousness rises the 'self' that exists in all life-forms and separates them from non-living. But that consciousness is just a witness to the self. It does not interact with the self. The self cannot see the consciousness. This witnessing consciousness is called purusha, the avyaya sAksi (eternal witness). Thus the manifest 'self...

Understanding animal signs was an ancient science. In those days people lived in very close quarters with animals, both domesticated and wild. Hence they had opportunity to understand the animal signs clearly and related it to understanding the environment better. For eg. when does dragonfly fly a lot..? when there's a lot of moisture in air and about to rain. So simple. When lizards make sound, they do either to avoid fighting or for courtship. In either case they are asking for their acceptance. So when people say something and lizard makes sound, people mis-interpret it as acceptance. lizards make sound asking for acceptance. We also had various beliefs in the past based on our environment at that time. You are not supposed to hit on top of the head (it means you are unprotected and face death). You are not supposed to wave off with your right hand (lakshmi will leave you), but you can do so with left hand or left foot (poverty leaves you). You are not supposed to hit your chest...

There's an asana called savasana or yoga nidra which anyone can do. A trainer, by using verbal cues, repetition, imagery etc heightens the concentration and focus of participants. This relaxes them and makes them amenable to suggestions  from the trainer.  This is how hynposis also works. An alternative to this technique is used in rural india today. In a dark room lit with few lamps,  with pictures in brilliant red (long wavelength) colors and with certain sounds, priests shift individuals into a high concentration and focus state and make the person before them to do what they want.  Many swamijis/gurujis help their disciples arrive at the same concentration and focus (leading to mind relaxation) by combination of their voice, music, room settings, chants, decor etc etc.. The above techniques were used for long times as a cure to psychotic disorders by relaxing the patients (like how hypnosis is used today as an augmented clinical therapy). In many cases of depress...

saMkhya (based on the saMkhya kArika of Iswara krishna) design pattern has 24 elements excluding the purusha. Basically it's a design pattern for evolution in matter and consciousness domain. The design pattern is "A detached observer drives the evolution of the evolute". Observer is purusa. evolute is prakrti.  For eg we define a parameter called 'energy' which is abstract, but which is known through its effects such as mass, heat, motion etc. we attribute one cause called 'energy' to all these effects, because they are transformable between each other. We say they express the same 'energy'.  The abstract energy is the 'puruSa' the observer.  All the matter and biological forms are the prakrti, the evolute. Same way we define a parameter called 'consciousness' which is abstract, but which is known through its effects such as signaling, growth, death etc,  We attribute one cause called 'consciousness' to all these effects, b...

Philosophy comes up when science is in-adequate. They are just part of the same circle. Humans have been observing and explaining various natural phenomena due to their 'intellect'. They see patterns that repeat and use that in their daily life. Probably everything was philosophical at the start. As the human capabilities improved, things that get defined, measured and predicted very well, pass onto the realm of science. The rest is termed philosophy. As the light of knowledge (various types of jnAna) illuminates the circle more and more, the definition, measurement, predictability becomes more and more, and those parts pass into realm of science (vi-jnAna - that we certainly know) from philosophy (saMjnana, sajjnana etc - the whole or true knowledge). As vaidika maarg got interpreted into a life of pure rituals, siddhartha started questioning it and came up with shunya tattva, saying there's nothing (shunya) beyond this life and human life is result of our own karma. With ...

Agnihotram rAmAnuja tattacharyar’s book ‘Hindu matham enge pogirathu’ was discussed in U2Brutus channel. The idea it propagated was in a vedic marriage ceremony, the priest wants to have a sexual relationship with the bride.. First point is in his book Agnihotram rAmAnuja tattacharyar highlighted how priests who have no idea of the meaning of mantras blabber something and used the Rg veda Mandala 10 Hymn 85 verse 37 as an example. Rgveda Mandala 10 hymn 85 talks about savitar sending his daughter surya as bride to soma, in the ‘car’ of asvin, with asvin as the bridesmen and this marriage of soma and surya producing all the beings of the earth, resting on the ‘dharma’. In science we can visualize it as Sun, a Main sequence star (savitar) emitting its solar energy (surya) transported through the electromagnetic field (asvin), which reaches the moon (soma), whose reflection on the earth, produces all the beings of the earth, based on the laws of the Universe (dharma). In some grhya sutras...

Dao or Tao is an ancient chinese philosophy, which means 'path', but which actually indicates the underlying law and order of the Universe. It's like 'Rta' (rhythm/order) and 'dharma' (law) of this Universe. The philosophy says one must live in accordance Dao (rta /order and dharma/law which is the nature of Universe). To live like that, one must detach from the desires that spur human action and align actions to the underlying Dao (nature) of the Universe (the rta and dharma). How similar is Dao to vedantic thoughts..? 1. Dao/Tao is about detachment (human desire) to make humans act in sync with Dao/Tao with the belief that spontaneity or natural human action is the best to live in sync with Dao/Tao. 2. Vedantic thought is also about detachment from one’s own ‘self’ which appears similar to Dao/Tao. But that detachment from ‘self’ is to observe like a witness or sAksi, our ‘self’ and all other ‘self’. This detached witnessing of our thoughts and actions as ...

The Shiva-Vishnu paradigm Across our vedic scriptures, Shiva refers to the unmanifest, detached witness of something and Vishnu refers to the unmanifest, detached witness that makes that something out of Shiva.  It's like what we call as Energy, which we do not understand but know that it makes the Universe and Mass, which is holding the energy in a specific region of space that becomes the foundation of all Universe (be it Higgs or Strong).  As the witness, it is Shiva,  As the action initiator it is Vishnu. Hence every new beginning is associated with Vishnu and what exists just before it is Shiva. Since new things arise after destruction in karmic cycles, Shiva got referred to destruction. Our new year is in the month of Chaitra. Our new month beginning is the day of amavasya. Our new day beginning is dawn at 5:30 to 6am. All these are associated with Vishnu. Hence the month before the new year, the month of phalguna, the day before amayasya, the time before the dawn, ...

AI is going to impact the domain of spirituality, as it's going to impact other domains. Spiritual LLMs can spit out great spiritual answers that seem extremely attractive in comparison to the discourse of gurujis. They can do discourses like modern day self-acclaimed spiritual gurus and answer questions of disciples in extremely attractive ways. This could mean we will have chatguruji apps in plenty coming up on different shades of philosophies from osho to advaita. These app discourses can heal/steal the heart and mind much more powerfully than any human beings. Maybe each guruji will build their own LLMs or may use off-the-shelf LLMs and customize answers suited to their taste for their bhaktas. What they need is to just feed all their discourses and talks that they delivered to their audience. Combine with it the books written in the name of gurujis, guruji LLMs can revolutionize the voice of gurujis and answer like guruji years after they are gone too. Due to different spiritu...

Often these verses in Chandogya Upanishad are quoted to claim that chandogya upanishad says varNa is by birth. Let's see these slokas of Chapter 5.10, as I translate and interpret it. Executive Summary of Chandogya Upanishad Chapter 10 Due to Sun and Moon's effect on Earth, day, night, summer and winter solstices, years etc happen in cycles. Due to effect of moon, ancestral worlds of life is formed in Earth which also follow the cyclic pattern, releasing gases to sky, changing the atmospheric contents, forming clouds, bringing rain to distant lands and bringing out advanced life forms that devas eat (plants, trees, wood). Being that eat these plants and their products, evolve into 2 kinds, based on the work they do.  Those species said to do attractive work (produce something) called brahmana, ksatriya, vaizyas and those species said to be stinking work of scavenging like dogs, pigs, candalas.But then there's a third kind who are just born and die without any evolution call...