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, " Kishore patnaik "

<kishorepatnaik09 wrote:

>

> There was a paper written in

> http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/ejvs1301/ejvs1301article.pdf

>

> which dismisses the Vedas as the books of drunkards.

>

 

 

That's unfair. It says that at some point in Vedic history, the

seers experimented with psychedelic drugs, probably not the

amphetamine Ephedra but a mushroom. They sought inebriation, or

rather an altered state of consciousness, as is obvious from the Soma

hymns and hardly disputed. I don't know which of the two plants is

the case, and perhaps the two were used. But an interesting point

about the mushrooms is that they continued to be used by other

northbound IE tribes.

 

The medieval witches used it, giving them the sensation of flying.

The Berserkers, Germanic warrior-bands, used mushrooms which gave

them the sensation of being very tall, making them moch their enemies

as small and thus removing all fear in battle. The phenomenon is

alluded to in Lewis Carroll's " Alice in Wonderland " (and in a

Jefferson Airplane song based on it), where Alice alternately takes

one mushroom then another in order to become taller and smaller.

 

Regards,

 

KE

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That's unfair.That is hardly surprising (and perhaps a very mild ) protest. Rsis never sought intoxication and in fact, Rg Veda is full of cautions against such state of mind. It is unfortunate that westerners seek to interpret Indian culture in a very diminutive manner in the name of science.

Perhaps, for this very reason of misinterpretations of half knowledge and bias that restrictions on reading Vedas has been imposed. I shudder to think what would have been the fate of the writer had he assumed the same tone on interpreting anyr religion other than Hinduism.

Kishore patnaik

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