aTMAKARAKA pLUS 2

[Guest guest]

Dear Venkateswara Reddy

 

you

<<I appreciate your excellent understand, esp CYCLICAL--The

Indescribable's "desire" to be many led to this process of motion AND

creation (the universe is called gaja - ga = motion and ja = birth). >>

me

Many thanks for your positive appreciation and clarifications

 

you

<<Cyclical motion, and hence time, resulted from Ajyam, iDhma, and havis

(cf. puruSa sUktam). These are primordial r`tu-s, from which the r`tu-

s on various pariDhi-s were resulted.>>

 

me

Who is "Ajyam, iDhma, and havis?".

 

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita As It by Srila Prabhupada: Chapter 10

 

TEXT 30

kalah kalayatam aham

kalah -- time; kalayatam -- of subduers; aham -- I am;

 

TRANSLATION

Among subduers I am time.

 

you

<<Shruti(oral transmission) is the only way to avoid distortion-s. That

is the primary reason.The reason is not Retentiveness.>>

 

me

I do not agree with you in this one. Have you heard of the Chinese

whispers. A soldier friend of mine told me that one day they try them.

They had 100 soldiers standing up on a cue. Someone gave an oral

transmission to the first one and to be transmitted to all of them. At the

end, the 100th soldier was saying a complete different thing to the original

message.

 

Also we can remember that in the beginning of creation, Krishna gave the

Vedas to Brahma and in the course of time, the Vedas were distorted. That

is way Krishna say in the Bhagavad Gita that whenever and wherever there is

a distortion to the Vedic teachings, He comes Himself or sends His

representatives to put things right.

 

you

<<The whole

post-18 century english translations of Scriptures are biased in some

way (Indology influence, like yavana = Greek, which is wrong).

Otherwise, we would have lost veda-s under church(brit-s) ruling in

India.>>

 

I admit that a certain part of Indology is bias, but not all. for example,

I know a devotee that went to university to become an Indologist, and his

contributions to Indology are quite positive.

Also, I do not agree that the Greeks are wrong. Some of them may be but not

all. Among the original 18 fathers of Vedic astrology we have a Greek

(Yavana).

 

Srila Prabhupada said that in Vedic times a king in India had 5 children.

Later on they went to live in different parts of the world, one of the

started the Greek civilization and another the Turkey civilization.

 

Many selfish interests may try to "kill" the Vedas, but Krishna protects

them and therefore the Vedic culture will always be around human culture.

 

you

<<The ancient gurukula teaching involved the following:

six darshana-s, like climbing six steps in knowledge scale;

at least one Veda recitation fully by heart;

Samskr`ta vyaakaraNa complete - to know the Veda

The last step is: any one or more of the shaastra-s

 

Till the British came, there were 157,000 gurukulas teaching like

this, as per the account of MacCaulay himself!

 

The shaastra-s were then digested by the student in light of

the Veda(s) and darshana-s. vyAkaraNa, jyOtiSa, AyurvEda,

(Dhanurveda for kings) were the major shaastra-s, but kalpa,

nirukta, chchandas, etc. were also digested to master these

shaastra-s. puraaNa-s were never the key part of this

teaching or any shaastra; they are studied in the afternoons

of early years in the gurukulas, since history and moral are therein. Even

today they are never treated as part or basis of any shaastra, as our

english educated friends these days

impress on us.>>

 

me

157,000 gurukulas!. That is a lot. Gurukula means the school centred on

guru. (teacher).

 

It is my opinion that the 18 Puranas are Vedas as well. And of all of them

the Srimad Bhagavatam is considered the Maha Purana, or the greatest (Maha)

of all.

 

There are 6 Puranas to be understood by those in the mode of tamas

(ignorance). 6 others are for those in the mode of passion, and the other 6

Puranas are for those in the mode of satva (goodness).

 

In 1995-97, I did write a book on Jyotish, to be published one day. Here

there is an extract to it.

******

Veda in Sanskrit means knowledge and we have the four Vedas; the Sama, Rik,

Yajur and Atharva Veda.

 

There are also the Ithihasavedas:

 

1. Purana (there are 18 Puranas and the most important is the Srimad

Bhagavatam which is considered to be the cream of the Vedas).

2. Itivritta (history). Here we can include the Ramayana.

3. Akhyayika (tales).

4. Udhaharana (illustrative stories).

5. Dharmashastra (religious knowledge).

6. Arthashastra (economical development).

 

There are 6 Upavedas:

 

1. Ayurveda (medical science).

2. Dhanurveda (military science).

3. Gandharvaveda (musical science).

4. Shilpashastra (architecture and the arts).

5. Varta (agriculture, trade, and protection of cows).

6. Dandaniti (science of government and politics).

 

There are 6 Vedangas:

 

1. Siksha (phonetics, pronunciation and articulation).

2. Chandas (prosody, rhythms and metre).

3. Vyakarana (grammar).

4. Nirukta (etimology, glossarial explanation of obscure Vedic terms).

5. Kalpa (ceremonial injunctions, rituals and religious practices).

6. Jyotisha (astronomy and astrology, where mathematics is important).

 

There is also the Vedanta, (conclusion of the Vedas), and the 108

Upanishads.

 

Vedic astrology works in conjunction with the 6 sciences or Upavedas as

follows:

 

· It helps the physicians to detect the seat of the illness by studying the

horoscope of the patient.

· It can help the military regarding the best days and even the best times

to start battles and can help to see the potential of individual soldiers

for training purposes.

· One of the services to music is that it can pinpoint the best times of the

day and season for performing suitable ragas (emotional music), for the

benefit of people.

· To the architect, it shows the best times to purify the ground, lay the

foundations, erect the structure of a building, install the frames (windows

and doors), and the best time to enter the building for the first time.

Also, it can advise the orientation of both the building and each room

according to the horoscope of the owner or the donor, as in the case of a

temple, school or hospital. For the artist, the astrologer can indicate

the best materials to be used (clay, wood, stone, etc.) and can determine

the most auspicious time to start the project.

· Astrology can tell farmers the best times and seasons to till, plant and

harvest, and can inform them about the planetary nature of every plant in

order to attain a better nutritious or medicinal potency. Astrology can

also indicate the compatibility of different plants to avoid "quarrels" or

pests. It tells them as well of the meteorological trends. To cowherdsmen,

it shows the best times to buy or sell cows, horses, oxens or other animals

(but not for slaughter purposes), and the best times for impregnation in

order to have healthy animals. To traders, it tells them the best times to

buy, sell, barter or travel.

· To politicians, it tells them the sociological trends of the country and

the best times to start new projects.

 

Another important service provided by astrology is the calculation of

calendars for both civilian and religious practices and for keeping the

records of times for rituals and important ceremonies like weddings.

***

In my opinion, Dhanurveda is not only for kings but for soldiers as well.

 

Because soldiers are the protectors of society, they should learn about

Dhanurveda literature and also about Arthashastra, or the books dealing with

economical development and rules.

 

We can study about dharma from the 9th house; karma from the 10th; artha

from the 11th and moksha from the 12th.

 

In my personal reference library I do have a copy of the book Kauntilya's

Arthasastra by R. Shama Sastry. It is a very interesting book.

 

I read about the news that the Indian government is studying at present some

dhanurvedic books, to find out how to feed soldiers with special diets that

enhance their night vision, and makes them go on without eating or drinking

water for weeks.

 

Best Wishes

Natabara Das