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The Vedic Tradition Cosmos, Connections, and Consciousness Subhash Kak SVYASA University 2022 Subhash Kak Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bengaluru ©Subhash Kak, 2022 2 The Vedic Tradition Contents Preface 5 Part 1: Overview 1. The Secret of the Veda 8 2. Life and Yoga 31 3. Nanā Devi ...

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The Vedic Tradition: Cosmos, Connections, and Consciousness Subhash Kak SVYASA University

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The Vedic Tradition Cosmos, Connections, and Consciousness

Subhash Kak

SVYASA University 2022

Subhash Kak

Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bengaluru ©Subhash Kak, 2022

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The Vedic Tradition

Contents Preface

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Part 1: Overview 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

The Secret of the Veda Life and Yoga Nanā Devi Ambā and the Zodiac Early Many-Faced Viṣṇu and Śiva Images The Śiva Sūtra: Play of Consciousness The Buddha and the Veda The Nine Darśanas

8 31 42 52 62 70 77

Part 2: Large Connections 8. Archaeoastronomy in India 9. Visions of the Cosmos 10. The Shaman’s Abode 11. Uttarakuru and the Slavs 12. Xinjiang as a Part of the Indic World 13. Space and order in Prambanan 14. Svetovid and Śiva

84 106 121 131 143 152 163

Part 3: Sanskrit and the World 15. On the Classification of Indic Languages 16. Language Families and Indo-European 17. Sanskrit and Ancient Migrations 18. The Notion of India 19. Racism, Eurocentrism, and Indology 20. Brāhmī on an Anthropomorphic Figure

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175 184 193 204 212 221

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Part 4: Inner and Outer Cosmoses 21. Time, Space and Structure in Ancient India 22. The Garbha Upanisad 23. Ritual, Masks, and Sacrifice 24. Gautama on Logic and Physics 25. Laws of Thought and Indian Logic

229 242 253 266 277

Part 5: Reality and Art 26. Early Indian Architecture and Art 27. Art and Cosmology in India 28. Pāṇini and Bharata on Grammar and Art 29. Goddess Lalitā and the Śrī Cakra

289 312 325 332

Part 6: Science and Consciousness 30. A Brief History of Indian Science 31. Indian Foundations of Modern Science 32. Indian Physical and Chemical Thought 33. Proof of the Existence of God

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344 356 365 398

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Foreword The idea of this collection of essays was suggested to me recently by Chanceller H.R. Nagendra of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana in Bengaluru that is popularly known as S-VYASA University. The collection consists mostly of published papers that have appeared in various journals, not all of which may be readily accessible to the researcher or the interested layperson. The essays have been divided into six parts to cover different aspects of this tradition that presents its enduring influence not only on the intellectual and lived life in India, but also on the rest of the world. These are: (i) Overview; (ii) Large Connections; (iii) Sanskrit and the World; (iv) Inner and Outer Cosmoses; (v) Reality and Art; and (vi) Science and Consciousness. Apart from essays on the earliest layers of the Vedic tradition, there is material on its pervading influence on modern science. Many will be intrigued by how quantum theory, the deepest theory of physics that we know, is seen by scholars to be consistent with Vedanta, and may like to explore primary sources for themselves. Each chapter comes with its own references. The first part begins with essays on how to read the Vedas and the discovery of its insights through different disciplines of Yoga, along with the translation of seven hymns from the Ṛgveda. The other essays describe the Goddess in the Ṛgveda and in neighboring civilizations, many-faced Viṣṇu and Śiva images, the Śiva Sūtras, how the Buddha on his deathbed accepted the notion of the atman, and how the six darśanas may be increased to nine. The second part has two chapters on archaeoastronomy of Indian temples and monuments, the practice of shamanism, and Vedic ideas beyond the Himalayas in Central Asia, the Slavic world, and in Indonesia. The third part has essays on the Indo-European language family and how it was misused by European scholars to futher nineteenth-century colonial ends. It also has a chapter on the notion of India within the Indian tradition and a reading of Brāhmī letters on a figure that has implications for our understanding of the history of Indian writing. The essays of the fourth part are on the notions of space and the design of early temples, the Garbha Upaniṣad, deeper connections between ritual, masks, and sacrifice, and logic in Indian thought. The fifth part begins with an essay on early architecture followed by material on art and cosmology and idea of Pāṇini and Bharata Muni on grammar and art. There 5

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is an additional essay on the architecture of the inner cosmos as described by the Śrī Cakra. The last part of the book is devoted to science and consciousness. It begins with a brief history of Indian science and how it has influenced moden science in surprising ways. There is a chapter on the history of Indian physical and chemical thought with focus on the Vaiśeṣika system. The very last essay is a proof of the existence of Īśvara in the perspective of contemporary physics and computer science. The original publication information is provided on the first page of each essay. The published material has only been corrected for typographical errors and the selection has been made to keep the overlap in the material to a minimum. The style across the essays is not always consistent since the publication requirements of different journals are often different. Stillwater May 2, 2022

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PART 1 OVERVIEW

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1 The Secret of the Veda * INTRODUCTION Most people are perplexed about the Vedas. Very few have read them, and those who have find them difficult to understand. They can’t make sense of its many divinities, sacrifices, rituals, riddles and paradoxes. They are also confused by the praise showered on them by outsiders. Here’re just a few quotes (from hundreds to be found in the literature): Arthur Schopenhauer: “Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in the world.” Henry David Thoreau: “Whenever I have read any part of the Vedas, I have felt that some unearthly and unknown light illuminated me. In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism. It is of all ages, climes, and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. When I read it, I feel that I am under the spangled heavens of a summer night.” J. Robert Oppenheimer: “Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries.”

The reader of the Veda wonders why these (and other countless) luminaries say nice things about the Vedas when they can’t see that in the translations of the texts or the interpretations they learnt in school and college. Writing nearly 80 years ago, the great scholar Ananda Coomaraswamy wrote this of accounts of Hinduism by Western scholars and their Indian followers: “[A]lthough the ancient and modern scriptures and practices of Hinduism have been examined by European scholars for more than a century, it would be hardly an exaggeration to say that a faithful account of Hinduism might well be given in the form of a categorical denial of most of the statements that have been made about it, alike by European scholars and by Indians trained in our modern skeptical and evolutionary modes of thought.” [emphasis added] (Coomaraswamy, 1943)

Repeated countless times over the past eighty years, these translations and interpretations form the foundation of instruction, public policy, and the practice of law. Deracinated Indians have internalized it and sincerely believe it to be the truth. Most dismiss such translations by believing that true meaning can only be attained after a life time of sādhanā, or spiritual practice, under the guidance of a qualified Guru. *

Oklahoma State University (2018) and Academia.edu (2021)

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Over a hundred years ago, Sri Aurobindo wrote essays interpreting the Vedas but when asked to issue the material in 1949 in a book form he thought a revision was essential: “The publication of the Secret of the Veda as it is does not enter into my intention. It was published in a great hurry and at a time when I had not studied the Rig Veda as a whole as well as I have since done. Whole chapters will have to be rewritten or written otherwise and a considerable labour gone through; moreover, it was never finished and considerable additions in order to make it complete are indispensable.” He died the following year without attending to the revision, and the original material was put together in the form of a book in 1956 under the title The Secret of the Vedas with Selected Hymns, which has now been made freely available by the Ashram (Aurobindo, 1996). Meanwhile, popular translations and interpretations have continued to repeat old incorrect theories. The problem is that literally all academic translations of the Vedas are unsound. They may be faithful in literal rendition but mostly the deeper and contextually correct meanings elude them. The difficulties of interpretation were pointed out by Yāska in his Nirukta nearly 3,000 years ago: Sanskrit: tat ko vṛtraḥ? — meghaḥ iti nairuktāḥ, tvāṣṭro ‘suraḥ ity aitihāsikāḥ (Nirukta 2.16) English: “That (who) Vṛtra?” — “A cloud” says the narrator, “An asura, Tvaṣṭri’s [son]” say the storytellers.

Generally, the cloud is not in the outer sky but in the inner one, and the asura is not a demon but a certain cognitive agent. Academic translations present infantilizing narratives that Yāska warned against because the authors don’t get it. These translations are like the map of a city made by a blind mouse using odor alone, which may be accurate in the depiction of the many pathways and the relationship between them, but totally missing the broader or deeper picture. If the translators only paid attention to the interpretative mechanisms within the tradition, they wouldn’t be so wrong. The tradition says that the understanding has three layers: ādhibhautika आिधभौितक (related to the body), ādhidaivika आिधदै िवक (related to cognitions within the mind), and ādhyātmika आ�ा��क (related to the ātman, or consciousness). The first is for children, the second for people focused on doing things and making sense of change, and the third for the deep understanding of reality. The academic translations present the Veda at the level of kindergarten stories. Schoolbook narratives informed by a surface understanding meant for children have misinformed several generations of students. THE FIRST MANTRA In order to explain the secret of the Veda, I take the very first mantra of the Ṛgveda: अि�मीळे पुरोिहतंय��दे वं ऋ��जं | होतारं र�धातमम् | | (ṚV. 1.1.1)

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Here’s the translation people see on the Internet: I laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of sacrifice, The hotar, lavishest of wealth. (Translated by Ralph T.H. Griffith, 1896)

Agni is fire, but how can it be Priest, God, minister of sacrifice, and the rest that follows. And why is it important to have a priest or minister of sacrifice? What is the meaning of sacrifice? What is God, if we don’t see him anywhere? Why is Agni “God” and why is lauding him important or relevant? Why speak of things that cannot be tested? It is a jumble of words that takes you nowhere. You stop and give up. DEEPER MEANING We must first understand who Agni is. To the uninitiated, Agni is the physical fire that one can see. The deeper meaning of Agni is the light (or spark) within that lifts the veil on the lamp of consciousness; yet another meaning is Vāc or speech. Agni and Vāc are two manifestations of the same deeper reality. This is expressed in the poetic expression that Vāc and Agni both reside in the waters and in trees. The waters of materiality hide the spark of Agni and the sounds of their waves; from trees comes fire as well as the wood for flutes and other musical instruments. There is a deeper connection between the elements of tejas (fire) and vāyu (air) that is explained by the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra that has had a surprising influence on contemporary science. [Note 1] Devam, translated by Griffith as “God”, is from the root div which means light, and the devas are the cognitive centers in the mind. [Note 2]) The word “God” is meaningless here excepting in its primary meaning of Light. The devas are the centers of agency that are the constituents of our mind. So here is the deeper meaning of words and the translation is: I praise Agni, the priest [purohita] who is the light [devam] and the invoker [ṛtvij] of the sacrifice, whose chants [hotṛ] bestow treasure.

Imagine that your habits and conditioning have thrown a veil on your consciousness, by making you only see what you are familiar with. This veil can be penetrated by using the human manifestation of fire (that is speech of Agni, the purohita in the chants as hotṛ) to connect with the inner spark (devam), so that the covering is dissolved and one is in touch with one’s true self. The veil is only momentarily lifted just like one is only momentarily in the present moment. Most of the time, we inhabit either our past (which is dead and gone) or make dreams about the future (which doesn’t exist). The idea of spiritual practice is to make that dissolution of the veil persist for ever longer period of time. How to do it is the practice of yoga. 10

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Agni as in Ṛgveda 4.58.3

The process of connecting from speech to inner light needs a bridge and that is the mysterious role of Agni as invoker. Why mysterious? Because we are not talking of things, but rather of the workings of consciousness, which is not a material entity. This process of invocation requires a mastery of the processes that are symbolized by the Goddess. It reeks of mystery since we use Agni (speech) to connect to the inner Fire in a process that takes us beyond the act of sacrifice. What about treasures that are bestowed? The journeying to the source is transformative, and it is also punarjanman, the rebirth, the end of the yajñá, the sacrifice. When connected to the source, capacities that lay latent, come alive. The treasures that one comes by were within one’s reach all along, excepting one wasn’t aware of them, or one didn’t know where to look for them. The process also reveals the many levels at which one can connect to reality. These are the various lokas, planes of existence or worlds (the English word look is a cognate), whose knowledge and mutual relationships help one navigate through different aspects of experience making it possible for one to master the world through saṅkalpa. In physics, it is like the directing of evolution by observation. [Note 3] What are the many divinities of the Ṛgveda? These are the lights at different points in the inner space of the mind, the embodiments of various cognitive capacities. If you use your senses at the deepest level to connect to the self, you are going from the fire to the heart of the senses to the inner sun. If your focus is on the transformative processes within the inner cosmos, then this energy is Devi. If your desire is to follow to the root of your consciousness through a path of auspiciousness and equanimity, then the divinity is Śiva. There are any number of points of light that one may name variously that take us to the Source. These are not competing but complementary paths. What is the origin of this desire? It is one’s innate temperament and the milieu in which one is raised. There are different kinds of sādhanā to practice which are described in the Vedic texts, which are truly a manual of universal spiritual science or ātma-vidyā. One may even provide this free translation: I praise the spark [of insight], riding my chant, that becomes light and invokes a transformation in me bringing me new powers. The praise of Agni is to fortify oneself in one’s faith in this process of self11

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transformation. The rest of the hymn unpacks the attributes of Agni and speaks of how invoking it has worked in the past and how it will bring well-being in the future. Just the first mantra of the Ṛgveda opens up an entire world of wisdom and insight. This is the doorway to the secret of the Veda. [Note 4] AGNI, INDRA, SURYA Each maṇḍala of the Ṛgveda (excepting 9, which is dedicated solely to Soma) begins with a hymn to Agni. The spiritual practice takes stock of the body or the earth (whose presiding deity is Agni, both in its fire and speech aspects), moves on to hymns invoking the prāṇa or the atmosphere (with the deity Indra who represents the senses that we must use to navigate through the mind), and finally to hymns that invoke the sun or the lamp of consciousness (Sūrya in its external aspects which shines in any number of pots of water generating an apparent multiplicity behind which lies a unity). In Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā 16.2, Agni has two forms, the fierce Rudra and the auspicious Śiva. This triplicate order views privileges movement and thus constitutes the sacred theatre of the external ritual. When the ritual is done within the inner space, the three are mapped into divinities with which the sādhaka can have a more personal relationship. DEVI, ŚIVA, VIṢṆU Agni, in its manifestation as speech, the Goddess Vāc, is transformative and since the body is the ground, it interpenetrates into the higher fields or lokas. Indra, the lord of the senses — the mind — viewed at a higher level of abstraction is assimilated into Śiva with many layers of consciousness. The solar deity is invoked as Viṣṇu, whose upholding of the Moral Law is represented by his three strides the span the world. The transformative energy manifests together with Śiva and Viṣṇu as Pārvatī and Lakṣmī. The exploration of the inner cosmos is Tantra that helps one discover the inner architecture of one’s self and its relationship with the outer world. SOMA The entire ninth maṇḍala of the Ṛgveda is devoted to Sóma Pávamāna, “purifying Soma”, that has mostly been seen as the pressing of the drink of the same name from a plant. Beyond this, Soma represents the moon but also sometimes Viṣṇu or even Śiva (as Somanātha). The moon is lit and nourished by the sun; it is the mind which is illumined by the lamp of consciousness. Since the individual ‘s self-identification is with the mind, it is in the moon where the divine nectar of immortality resides. The pressing of the Soma is the purification of the mind, mirrored in the sacred theatre of the pressing of the herb that it makes it possible to connect to the heart of one’s being. With the above understanding of the purification of the mind, it is easy to see the logic of the symbolic rebirth of the consecrated man at the beginning of the Soma rite that is described in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa 1.3. Both Suśruta and Caraka in their Ayurveda texts speak of rejuvenation through Soma, hinting at both the use of the purification of the mind 12

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and the power of the herb. THIRTY-THREE DIVINITIES The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad has a dialog that deals with the question of the number of divinities. The great sage Yājñavalkya is asked: “How many gods?” He answers: “Three hundred and three, and three thousand and three”. This question is repeated and this time Yājñavalkya says: “Thirty-three gods.” On further questioning, Yājñavalkya says that they are six, and then three and then two and then one and a half, and finally one. atha hainam vidagdhaḥ śākalyaḥ papraccha: katy devāḥ, yājñavalkya, iti. sa haitayaiva nividā pratipede, yāvanto vaiśvadevasya nividy ucyante; trayaś ca trī ca śatā, trayaś ca trī ca sahasreti. aum iti. hovāca, katy eva devāḥ, yājñavalkya, iti. trayaś triṁśad iti. aum iti. hovāca, katy eva devāḥ, yājñavalkya, iti. ṣaḍ iti. aum iti. hovāca, katy eva devāḥ, yājñavalkya, iti. traya iti. ...