Ramanisblog

Tag: Sanskrit Literature

  • Intellectual Bhakti Kalidasa’s Genius Vagarthaviva

    Bhakthi is a form of worshiping God.

    Bhakti is Love tinged with Devotion, Mind, Heart and Soul.

    It is an emotional bond.

    God as Man and woman.Jpg
    Man Woman God,Shiva and Sakthi

    Like Music Bhakthi can transport you into God’s.

    Hinduism attaches importance to Bhakthi, mostly emotional as a means of being with God, Realizing the Ultimate Cause.

    There are other means too.

    Path of Knowledge, Gnana Yoga, where one is wise enough to realize the transient nature of things and the Permanence that is God/Reality.

    Path of Action, where the renunciation of the fruits of action, at the mental level itself, is Karma Yoga.

    Raja Yoga , the path of controlling breath by strict practices.

    All these paths are from experience.

    Logic plays a secondary role.

    And these have delivered results as the Lives of Great souls reveal.

    I have noticed a fact that there seems to be two approaches even in bhakti.

    When I go through some inspired Sanskrit Poems, Tamil Verses, in the Bhakthi Bhava, the approach of Love  of/to God,I find there are two distinct types.

    One is Bhakthi tinged with Reason and Intellectual approach.

    Another is total emotional immersion in the Love of God.

    And example of an intellectual bhakti may be discerned in Kalidas’s first sloka of Raghuvamsa , which set about describing the Dynasty of Lord Rama.

    Curiously the work that is about to talk about Lord Hari,Vishnu , begins with a Sloka on Lord Shiva and Parvathi.

    This is the sloka.

    The genius of Kalidasa lies in that this poem is open for Twenty Five meanings!

     

    वागर्थाविव संपृक्तौ वागर्थप्रतिपत्तये|
    जगतः पितरौ वन्दे पार्वतीपरमेश्वरौ||
    Vag-arthou-iva-samprukthou-vag-artha-prati-patthaye-jagathah-pitarou-vande-parvathi-paramesvarou”
     I salute the parents of the world, Parvati and Parameswara, who are inseparable like the “vAk” (word) and “artha”(its meaning); to gain expertise in the right understanding of the words and their meanings.

    ‘The verse is addressed to many deities depending on how we interpret it. Thus:

    1. Parvathi parameshwarau  means divine Mother Parvathi and Lord Shiva. Very simple! This is the original intended meaning by Shri Kalidas.  All other meanings are our interpretations. Arrangement(anvaya): Vagrthapratipattaye vagarthaviva sampriktau jagatah pitarau parvatiparameshwarau vande |
    2. Sampruktau Parvathi Parameshwarau:  inseparable or conjoined (samprukatu) Lord Shiva and Shri Devi. What is the deity? Lord Ardha Nareeshwara! i. e. the deity in which right half is Lord Shiva and left half is Shri Devi. Just amazing! Right?  Arrangement(anvaya): Vagrthapratipattaye  jagatah pitarau vagarthavivasampriktau parvatiparameshwarau vande |
    3. Parvathipa – rameshwarau: Pravathipa means Lord Shiva and Rameshwarau means Lord Vishnu. In other words, it represents popular deity Hari –Hara(Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva). sampriktau suggests that Hari and Hara are intricately connected together. Arrangement(anvaya): Vagrthapratipattaye  jagatah pitarau vagarthavivasampriktau parvatipa-rameshwarau vande |
    4. Parvathipa – rameshwarau: Parvathipa means Lord Shiva accompanied with Parvathi Devi. Rameshwaru means Lord Vishnu with Ramaa(Shri Lakshmi). Arrangement(anvaya): Vagrthapratipattaye  jagatah pitarau vagarthavivasampriktau parvatipa-rameshwarau vande |
    5. Vagarthau parvathipa rameshwarau:  Saraswati Devi is Vak and Artha is Brahma.Parvathipa : Parvathi Devi and Lord Shiva. Rameshwarau: Shri Lakshmi and Lord Vishnu. This is par excellence! It represents the Hindu Trinity Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva along with their consorts Saraswati Devi, Lakshmi Devi and Parvathi Devi. Arrangement(anvaya): Vagrthapratipattaye  jagatah pitarau iva(sthithau),  sampriktau, vagarthau parvatipa-rameshwarau (cha) vande | HereVagartha indicates Brahma accompanied by Saraswati Devi. Samprikta refers to Lord Brahma and Lord Hari-Hara. It says, Lord Brahma, Hari(Lord Vishnu) and Hara(Lord Shiva) are intricately connected together.

     

    What are we Praying for in the verse?

    Again, it depends on how we interpret! Let us see.

    1. Vagarthah  pratipattaye:  Vak also means word and speech. Artha means meaning. So, the entire phrase says – To know the word and its meaning. In other words, to get expertise in literary skills.  It also means – to know speech and its meaning to get proficiency in oratory skills. This is the original meaning  as intended by Shri Kalidasa.
    2. Vak also means The Holy Vedas. So, the word vagartha means: meaning of the Vedas. Now, vagartha pratipattaye means to access the meaning of the Vedas. All others below are our insights.
    3. Pratipaataye vagartha:  Pratipattaye means to access. Vagartha :  inseparable Lord Shiva and Parvathi Devi. They together form the Universal Self. Accessing means to merge with them. In other words, we intend to merge with the Universal Self, i.e. to achieve liberation(moksha).  This is the real goal of yoga and the highest purpose of human life.
    4. Vak-artha, pratipattaye: Vak also means Shri Devi  or Kundalini Devi  who gives liberation(moksha) and artha  means prosperity or material enjoyment(bhoga). Shruti(The Vedas) says – Devim vacham ajanayanta devah etc. Remember, Shridevi is the consort(power) of Lord Shiva who is the ruler of liberation(moksha). It is well-known that Shri Lakshmi is the presiding deity of prosperity and material comforts.
    5.  Vak, artha  and pratipattaye: As said earlier, Vak  symbolizes liberation(moksha),Artha  is material enjoyment(bhoga) and Pratipatti means Knowledge.  Together, these three represent three presiding deities Parvathi Devi, Lakshmi Devi and Saraswati Devi respectively. Caution: This meaning is based on vagartha (word and its meaning) only. So, may not be grammatical.

    Mathematically, how many meanings are possible now? 5 x 5 = 25! You may pick your combination and pray now! Is it not magical and amazing!?  Hats off to the Great Poet Shri Kalidasa!!

    Citation.

    https://rudrakshayoga.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/vagarthaviva-a-magical-verse-from-poet-kalidasa-one-prayer-25-meanings-part-3/

     
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  • Thirty Million Manuscripts 700 Poetic Meters Amazing Sanskrit

    With Thirty Million  Manuscripts existing even today,Sanskrit is the oldest Language of the world and the Rig Veda , which is in Sanskrit ,is the oldest literature of the world.

    There is a view that the Hitti Language is older than Sanskrit.

    Not so.

    I shall be posting on this  an article.

    Some interesting Facts about Sanskrit.

    Encrypting the value of pi in a shloka. – There is a numbering system in Sanskrit called the Katapayadi system. This system ascribes a number to every letter or alphabet in the script, something similar to the ASCII system in computer science. When the letter in the following shloka is replaced with their corresponding number from the Katapayadi Sankhya, we get thevalue of pi accurate to 31 digits.
    गोपीभाग्यमधुव्रात-शृङ्गिशोदधिसन्धिग ।
    खलजीवितखाताव गलहालारसंधर ॥
    OR
    Gopibhagya madhuvrata srngisodadhisandhiga|
    Khalajivitakhatava galahalarasandhara||
    (The shloka extolls Krishna and his achievements.)

    Read my post on this.

    Sanskrit is the “mother” of the most languages of North India and even the Romani language of the Romani people (“Gypsies”). To be precise, the Indo-Aryan languages evolved from Middle Indo-Aryan languages, which in turn evolved from Old Indo-Aryan = Sanskrit). Moreover, even the Dravidian languages (Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and to quite some extent Tamil), which do not have their origins in Sanskrit have borrowed such a large proportion of their vocabulary from Sanskrit that it could well be called their foster-mother.

    There is a Sanskrit epaper ,even to-day,since 1970,published out of Mysore.

    The Sanskrit’s sphere of influence extended all the way to South-East Asia (what is now Laos, Cambodia, etc.), without any invasion or use of military power originating from India.

    Though the importance of Sanskrit has diminished significantly in the last few centuries, it is far from a dead language: Sanskrit literature continues to thrive and flourish, with novels, short stories, essays and epic poems continuing to be written, and its authors picking up several literary awards (including the Jnanpith award in 2006).

    It is the official language (along with Hindi) of the state of Uttarakhand.

    The most extreme example are the Vedas, which apart from being among the world’s oldest texts might well be the ones with the largest interval of time between their composition and first being written. The oldest layers are dated around 1500 BCE by modern scholars, and they were not set down in writing until probably the Gupta period (5th century or so), which makes some 2000 years.

    Despite the above fact (initial reluctance to writing), the proliferation of works continued, with the result that there are an estimated over 30 million Sanskrit manuscripts today with a conservative estimate of 7 million in India itself. This means there are orders of magnitude more manuscripts in Sanskrit than in Latin and Greek put together.

    These manuscripts are on a very diverse range of topics, everything from sacred texts to literary works (poetry, drama, satires, histories, epics, novels) to scientific works (mathematics, linguistics, logic, botany, chemistry, medicine,) to entire works on things as seemingly obscure as elephant-raising or even “A Method to Grow Crooked Bamboos for Palanquin Beams”.

    Poetry in Sanskrit is extraordinarily diverse, with over 100 common meters, and books of prosody listing over 600 metres. Its literature includes works of dazzling complexity, including works that tell several stories at once using puns, works that contain words several lines long, brilliant examples of constrained writing, …
    Research has shown that the phonetics of this language has roots in various energy points of the body and reading, speaking or reciting Sanskrit stimulates these points and raises the energy levels, whereby resistance against illnesses, relaxation to mind and reduction of stress are achieved.
     
    Sanskrit is the only language, which uses all the nerves of the tongue. By its pronunciation, energy points in the body are activated that causes the blood circulation to improve. This, coupled with the enhanced brain functioning and higher energy levels, ensures better health. Blood Pressure, diabetes, cholesterol etc. are controlled. (Ref: American Hindu University after constant study)

    Sanskrit is the Most Computer Friendly Language.

    Citation.

    Amazing Sanskrit

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  • Human Migration World History India

    I have often wondered about terms like Domicile and migration.

    Human migration.png
    Human migration.png

     

    If we understand History and follow it, we shall know that no one can claim to be a domicile of any place!

     

    The movement of Humans from prehistoric times is so complex and changing, it is impossible to say who was in one place first.

     

    Whenever we read History of Human migration we find that when people move from one place,it is stated that they mixed with the people in that place.

     

    How did these people come to be there?

     

    And from where?

     

    If migration takes place it has to be from one place to another.

     

    The place from where they moved from, how did they arrive there at the first place?

     

    European History says that Asia served as a sort of reservoir for Humans to migrate from.

     

    How did they come to be there at all?

     

    European history says, in migration, people came in waves from Asian, through the Urals and Russia, through the landmass of mideast .

     

    The group that came through Russia settled down and mingled with people over there.

     

    The other group .

     

    The first wave settled in Spain Pyrenees, North of Africa, in England,Scotland and Wales,and in Gaul.

     

    The second wave settled in Bulgaria, Hungary

     

    The third wave Huns, settled finally in Germany, after raiding all the ethnic groups settled before them.

     

    Then there were the Vikings who raided the Gauls, Anglo-Saxon.

     

    However all the information here are theories.

     

    There is yet another theory that states that people migrated from Africa.

     

    Curious is that while the west acknowledges that The Vedas are the first Literature of Mankind and were in existence at least from 5000 BC

    no body bothers to check the refernces found in the Vedas , Puranas, and Ithihasas on people, culture and places.

     

    There is another Language and civilisation found in India which is as old as the Vedas .

     

    Tamil.

     

    Tamil literature is at least 500o years old.

     

    Puranas quote Tamils, Tamil Kings.

     

    Ramayana and Mahabharata do the same.

     

    References are found in Sanskrit Literature, Tamil Literature  ,Vedas Puranas ,Ramayana and Mahabharata about people and places which are now Europe, US,Africa, Russia,

     

    Middle east, Iran, Southeast Asia, Polynesia .

     

    These references are not used, I presume, it hurts the pride of these scholars to accept India as a the cradle of Human Civilisation.

     

    So overwhelming are the artifacts and archeological finds, they have to grudgingly accept Indus Valley civilisation!

     

    They are yet to accept the Sarasvati Valley Civilisation.

     

    The Tamil civilisation is totally ignored as also the influence of this culture in Huan Migration in world History.

     

    I have also noticed a curious fact,

     

    Hindu,Indian Religious, Cultural artifacts and archeological finds are found all over the world.

     

    I have quite a few posts on this under Hinduism.

     

    But not a single artifact or archeological find has been found in India relating to History or culture or Religion of the other civilisations in the world which predate Vedic period or Tamil culture.

     

    I shall be examining the concept of Human migration from Dravida to rest of the world, including the Sarasvati Valley civilization.

     

    This will be with help of Vedas, Puranas,Ramayana, Mahabharata, Tamil and Sanskrit Literature.

     

     

     

     

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  • Which History Is Correct Sanskrit Or Tamil

    There are references in the Vedas about the Tamil Kings, though they are very few.

    Some of the, nay most, them relate to Tamil as a Language of Dravida, meaning South,or Kings associated with Literature, things like Pearls, elephants  purchased from the Chera Kings, apart from Spices and fine cloth from Korkai.

    National Library,Kolkata
    Books, Manuscripts , National Library,Kolkata,Click to enlarge.Image from:National Library,Kolkata

    The earliest reference is in the Rig Veda where it is mentioned that Pearls were brought from the Tamils for offering in the Yagnas.

    Fine clothes, especially Saree Cloth was brought in for offering in the Yagnas.

    The reference to Tamil kings, which is most popular is the reference to a Chera King, Perunchotruudiyan Neduncheralaathan, who was reported to have fed both the armies of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Mahabharata war.

    There are references in the Ramayana to indicate Lord Rama visited the ancient cities of Tamil Nadu, including Vaitheeswaran Koil,Rameswaram , among other  places.

    The curious fact is that there are no references to the expeditions of Tamil Kings into the North, or the great battles of the South.

    Nor do I find any references to the valor and Philanthropy of the Tamil Kings in the Sanskrit Literature.

    The reference of King Sibi, who was reported to have offered the flesh of his thigh to a Bird in Tamil literature is often linked to Lord Rama’s ancestry of Ikshvaku Dynasty.

    This is open to debate.

    But the references to Sanskrit Literature , The Puranas and Epics are innumerable to recount in this post.

    So much so Tamil has a Ramayana and Mahabharata Edition in Tamil composed by Great Tamil Poets, like Kambar and Villputooraar.

    The earlier Tamil Books like Tholkaapiyam, Agathiyam,Thirumurugaatruppadai mention Vedas and Lord Muruga and mention Muruga as Skanda of the Vedas.

    But by dating one says that Rig Veda is the earliest literature of Mankind.

    It mentions the Tamils of Culture , so are the Ramayana and Mahabharata

    If the oldest literature of Sanskrit were to mention Tamil , Tamil must ant-date Sanskrit.

    Curiously enough, as I said earlier there is no mention of Tamil Kings or Literature in detail.

    My question is that which History is Correct?

    By Tamil’s admission and quotes of Vedic Life, Sanskrit and Vedas must have preceded the Tamils.

    Yet Sanskrit quotes Tamil/Tamils?

    Which history is correct?

    Are both of them correct?

    Will some readers contribute?

    *Inshall be posting more from Archaeology as well om this subject.

    The intention is, not to prove which is ancient Tamil or Sanskrit but to find the curious relation of these languages which  date the other ancient

     

     

     

     

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