>From what I can see, Vedic Soma makes someone immortal and invulnerable.
Rig veda describes Soma is a hallucinogenic used for intoxication.
1. Intoxication, though not addiction, is a central theme of the Veda, since the sacrificial offering of the hallucinogenic juice of the soma plant was an element of several important Vedic rituals. The poets who “saw” the poems were inspired both by their meditations and by drinking the soma juice. The poems draw upon a corpus of myths about a fiery plant that a bird brings down from heaven; soma is born in the mountains or in heaven, where it is closely guarded; an eagle brings soma to earth (4.26-7) or to Indra (4.18.13), or the eagle carries Indra to heaven to bring the somabo
2. we have seen a Vedic poem (10.119) in which someone exhilarated (or stoned) on soma says that the drinks have carried him up and away, “Like horses bolting with a chariot.”
Source:
Doniger, Wendy (2009-02-24). The Hindus: An Alternative History (p. 122).
Soma (Sanskrit: soma) or haoma (Avestan) was a Vedic ritual drink[1] of importance among the early Indians. It is mentioned in the Rigveda, particularly in the Soma Mandala.
It is described as being prepared by extracting the juice from a plant, the identity of which is now unknown and debated among scholars.
Yes, except that they call them ahura, IIR(ead)C.
Similarly, that sacred / intoxicating drink of the Vedas, called soma, was called haoma in Persia, I've read.
I think it's worth noting-- there's some serious work exploring these kinds of things in the ancient world (Temple of Kykeon, Soma of the Rg Veda, Amrta, Cintamani) and it's still an open subject. Terence McKenna theorized that Psilocybin mushrooms might be responsible for, "mystical visions through substance" but as a practicing, "Hindu" (Chaitanya follower) I've come to find that in the case of the mystical substances of ancient India that there's actually a very involved and very profound philosophical tradition(s) surrounding Amrta (Love of Godhead; Bhakti) Soma (Moon Juice for The God of Heaven) and Cintamani (Puranic equivalent of the Philosopher's Stone) that really doesn't have anything to do with, "psychedelic culture" outside of being generally mind expanding.
tl;dr: She was last holy remnant of the age the Hellenic Greeks idealized about-- The Homeric period before book culture and the Sophists. The time when magic and unadulterated heroism ruled the Earth. Think about Tolkien the next time you trip. The magic isn't in a molecule baby, it's in us!
In the Mahabharata, Shukracharya due to his alcoholism caused Kacha to be killed, ground up and mixed in his alcohol by the Asuras. After going through an ordeal of having to teach Kacha the secret Sanjivani knowledge, Shukracharya came to his senses, and pronounced these sayings on drinking:
“Whoever foolish brahmana henceforth drinks alcohol out of delusion, he should be considered as devoid of dharma, a killer of brahmanas, and should be forever despised in this world and the next.”
This is as far as Brahmins are concerned. However, since Vedic times there have been special yajnas for Kshatriyas where drinking is done in a restricted way so as to allow them to indulge in their vices but in a controlled way. I believe the yajna in which drinking is allowed is either Rajasuya or Sautramani.
The Dharma shastras (law books) by default condemn alcoholism for any person regardless of occupation. However, in consideration of physical exertion and exhaustion of Kshatriyas and Shudras, alcohol is allowed for them to bring some relaxation and relief of pain.
Sometimes we get posts that just tickle the curiousity. I like that.
I think trying to find the meaning of Alu through etymology alone is strenuous. I’ve studied rituals from India, especially the timeline from Vedic to medieval times. The ritual is usually passed down through priests or in some lineages through gurus. If they die, a lot of the culture and knowledge dies with it.
If you read the Vedas and then you see a vedic ritual, you just know how much difference there is between the dry words and the actions that infuse and inspire.
That said, Alu might be something along the lines of Soma, which in Vedic ritual is an intoxicating beverage to meet the gods.
The bee was very important for Indo-Europeans, because honey has a really good shelf life, a necessity when one is nomadic.
From the Rig Veda I 154:
“?????? ?????????? ????? ??????? ???? ????? ???????? ??????? ? ?????????????? ? ?? ????????????? ???????: ???? ?????? ????? ?????: ?
????? ???????? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? ? ?????????? ? ?? ??????????? ??????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ?
tad asya priyam abhi patho asya? naro yatra devayavo madanti | urukramasya sa hi bandhur ittha vi??o? pade parame madhva utsa? ||”
Madhva seems to be an epithet for the Vedic Vishnu, Indra, and later Krishna. The Sanskrit word for honey is Madhu, sharing the same root as mead. So you could loosely translate it as “mead-sweetened”. My hypothesis is that soma was not a psychoactive drug but mead drank in a ritual context.
The bee was so important to the Vedic religon that the earliest iconography of Vishnu is simply a bee resting on a lotus flower. This leads me to believe the Vedic non-Puranic Vishnu was a mead swigging warrior, as opposed to the later Puranic Vishnu/Krishna, who himself was likely a disciple/devotee of Shiva as evidenced by his many Shiva rituals in the Bhagavad Gita.
It’s hilarious to think how Krishna was retconned as Vishnu, when he is himself a huge devotee of Shiva!
> J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and director of the Manhattan Project, learned Sanskrit in 1933 and read the Bhagavad Gita in the original form, citing it later as one of the most influential books to shape his philosophy of life.
His later description of the moment is:
> We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
It's in the Indian Vedas, Mahabharata and Ramayana. It's worth picking up copies, they've got planetary colonies, nuclear weapons, hollow earth, even instructions on how to build anti-gravity devices, a lot of the medical science in them is more advanced than we have now, in fact just today the Indian Government announced a multi-million dollar expedition to find a plant mentioned in one of them ( http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-07-indian-state-life-savi... )
Also I realise this sounds crazy out there, but if you're interested keep an open mind and read them. The actual copies and stay away from research authors like Childress.
> The term maya occurs 70 times in Rigveda and around 27 times in the Atharvaveda; and in all these places Yaska, Sayana, Dayananda Saraswati agree the term means Prajña, jnana-vishesha (specific knowledge). The term Asuri-Maya in the Yajurveda at one place was translated by Uvvat as the "knowledge of the vital air". With regard to the usage of the word Maya in the Rigveda, Radhakrishnan opines it was only used to signify might and power. Maya as the cause of illusion or as the sense of Avidya (lack of knowledge) has never been used in the Vedas. According to Monier Williams, Maya meant wisdom and extraordinary power in an earlier language, but later the word came to mean illusion and magic.
So, depending, "Maya" can mean "illusion" or "mirage", but the original meaning might be closer to Prajña, which means "non-discriminating knowledge" or "intuitive apprehension". According to Chan and most Zen lines, those "states" of consciousness are obtained by practicing non-clinging discrimination in a given moment. Maybe one way of thinking about this is not adding to the observation of something that has been discriminated already.
Chan texts mention holding vexation and the polar observations of the vexation (good vs. evil or light vs. darkness as examples) without "adding" to the metaphor. The "adding" is the part that can be considered important (to not do). Consider the highly polarized topics that result from unfettered discourse on the Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc
"Sitting with the rock is wet" without wondering how much longer it is going to rain.
Or, observing an imagined (in mind) scenario without "adding to it" in the moment that it is being perceived.
>[..]In Vedas, too, it is mentioned that Sudras are created from the feet of Purusha[..]
That is the varna system. There is no caste system in Vedas or in Hinduism.
The same verse from Purusha Suktam also appears in Zoroastrian Avesta Yasna and the Pahlavi Denkard.
‘Caste’ comes from ‘Casta’, a Portuguese word.
Now…what does it mean by allocating different parts of the body to different categories of people?
‘Purusha’ is the cosmic man. Before the gods were created, there was Purusha. The gods themselves came from the sacrifice of Purusha. The immortality of gods was granted to them because they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the mortals/humanity. So every time they perished, they were resurrected.
The concept of yagna in Hinduism symbolises the sacrifice of the gods. Vedas say that our lives too are a sacrifice. We live and we die. We merge with a universal consciousness. When we are no different from this universal consciousness, we are resurrected too. That is the principle of reincarnation. In sacrifice, we will find our resurrection.
The sacrifice of a god and the resurrection of said god is a recurring theme in many faiths and religions.
The Purusha Suktam is a poem about sacrifice of The Cosmic Man. He has a thousand heads and a thousand limbs. And how his sacrifice comes down as the five elementals of fire, air, earth, water and space. From these, all of creation is born..as earth and skies, planets and stars, forests, oceans, land forms. This disembodied Cosmic Man enters as sunshine and rain. Plants, mammals, birds and insects are created. And then so is man..sun becomes the soul and moon becomes the mind. Seven sheaths of gross matter is formed as the physical bodies..from his body, the four varnas are created so man can create division of labour. Nowhere is caste mentioned. Nor do the Vedas ask people to discriminate against each other.
A Brahmin lives on charity and studies Vedic knowledge for teaching and for the world benefit. A Kshatriya takes that knowledge and implements it as a ruler. A Vaishya takes care of the material needs that fuels the system. The Shudra works and creates what society needs.
The varna system reflects the four purusharthas: dharma, artha, kama, moksha. The Brahmin has to uphold Dharma(divine law). The Kshatriya has to deliver artha(material goals) according to Dharma. Vaishya and Shudra are motivated by artha and kama(material goals and desires). Moksha is for anyone who seeks it..and hence for everyone.
Brahmin lives on charity but is bound by religious rules and regulations. Kshatriya has power, but also has duty. Should be ready to fight and die to protect his people. Vaishya is free to accumulate wealth but also has responsibility to fund the entire society. Shudra only needs to work to take care of his desires, has to bear burden of labour and owes nothing to anyone. This system worked as there were many small manageable kingdoms and there was conformity. Conformity means less conflict. There was mobility between small kingdoms that if one was allergic to the homogeneity, there was another place to belong to..until the Muslim invaders came first abs then British raj came and got rid of the kingdoms.
Now Brahmins had to work and Kings were useless. Merchants were burdened to pay dictators and invaders and colonial masters. Resources were diminished and there was no more fair redistribution of available resources. It was a survival game now. The solid foundation and implicit safety net was gone. Every one of the varnas has one benefit and one handicap. So each one depended on the other three and peaceful balance was easier to maintain.
It’s like a game of Jenga. Take away one piece and everything comes crumbling down. Invasions and colonialism keep pulling pieces all the time but the system was self healing. Until it wasn’t.
You are mistaken. There is no caste in Hinduism. Purusha suktam is about the sacrifice of The Cosmic Man. It appears in the Rig Veda and also in other religions of that time. Hinduism is the only surviving polytheistic religion. It draws ire because of it’s very existence. It’s a threat abs irritant to the monotheistic faiths because of its foundational difference of opinion wrt individual soul, consciousness and it’s place in the universe.
Monotheism cannot erase Hinduism although there has been efforts to tarnish its core. Yes..Purusha Suktam is part of Hindu scriptures. Varna is mentioned. Caste isn’t. Social edits to a religious text is someone else’s responsibility. That is collateral damage due to civilizational pressures.
Hinduism is not for everyone. And that’s ok. There are many religions in the world. And different faiths. As well as atheism and agnosticism and ignosticism. But I don’t think a casual assassination of the Hindu faith that is followed by approximately one billion people is warranted or should be condoned due to incomplete religious literacy.
Rig veda describes Soma is a hallucinogenic used for intoxication.
1. Intoxication, though not addiction, is a central theme of the Veda, since the sacrificial offering of the hallucinogenic juice of the soma plant was an element of several important Vedic rituals. The poets who “saw” the poems were inspired both by their meditations and by drinking the soma juice. The poems draw upon a corpus of myths about a fiery plant that a bird brings down from heaven; soma is born in the mountains or in heaven, where it is closely guarded; an eagle brings soma to earth (4.26-7) or to Indra (4.18.13), or the eagle carries Indra to heaven to bring the somabo
2. we have seen a Vedic poem (10.119) in which someone exhilarated (or stoned) on soma says that the drinks have carried him up and away, “Like horses bolting with a chariot.”
Source:
Doniger, Wendy (2009-02-24). The Hindus: An Alternative History (p. 122).
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