Gems
Topic started by Nagarajan (@ dkf-gw.dkf.de) on Mon Mar 19 03:39:24 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
KENA UPANISHAD
By whom directed does the mind project to its objects?
By whom commanded does the first life breath move?
By whom impelled are these words spoken?
What god is behind the eye and ear?
That which is the hearing of the ear,
the thought of the mind, the voice of the speech,
the life of the breath, and the sight of the eye.
Passing beyond, the wise leaving this world become immortal.
There the eye does not go, nor speech, nor the mind.
We do not know, we do not understand how one can teach this.
Different, indeed, is it from the known,
and also it is above the unknown.
Thus have we heard from the ancients who explained it to us.
That which is not expressed by speech,
but that by which speech is expressed:
know that to be God, not what people here adore.
Responses:
- From: Vishvesh Obla (@ 1cust231.tnt1.albany.ny.da.uu.net)
on: Mon Mar 19 10:17:31
Non-being then existed not nor being:
There was no air, nor sky that is beyond it.
What was concealed? Wherein? In whose protection?
And was there deep unfathomable water?
Death then existed not nor life immortal;
Of neither night nor day was any token.
By its inherent force the One breathed windless:
No other thing than that beyond existed.
Darkness there was at first by darkness hidden;
Without distinctive marks, this all was water.
That which, becoming, by the void was covered,
That One by force of heat came into being.
Desire entered the One in the beginning:
It was the earliest seed, of thought the product.
The sages searching in their hearts with wisdom,
Found out the bond of being in non-being.
Their ray extended light across the darkness:
But was the One above or was it under?
Creative force was there, and fertile power:
Below was energy, above was impulse.
Who knows for certain? Who shall here declare it?
Whence was it born, and whence came this creation?
The gods were born after this world's creation:
Then who can know from whence it has arisen?
None knoweth whence creation has arisen;
And whether he has or has not produced it:
He who surveys it in the highest heaven,
He only knows, or haply he may know not.
… and there are hymns...in the Vedas, so full of thought and speculation that at this early period no poet in any other nation could have conceived them. I give but one specimen, the 129th hymn of the tenth book of the Rigveda. .. It is a hymn, which long ago attracted the attention of that eminent scholar H T Colebrooke ...." - Frederich Max Muller ( Ref. 4, page 10)
The hymn of creation is a great document of the dynamic sensibility and perception of mankind in its pre-historic stages. I have read better translations than this one. If interested you can find a wonderful translation from Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India .
- From: Nagarajan (@ dkf-gw.dkf.de)
on: Tue Mar 20 07:52:22
The one who has not thought it out has the thought of it.
The one who has thought it out does not know it.
It is not understood by those who understand it;
it is understood by those who do not understand it.
When it is known by an awakening, it is correctly known,
for then one finds immortality.
By the soul one finds ability;
by knowledge one finds immortality
- From: N.V.K. Asrhraf (@ 202.9.175.244)
on: Sat May 19 00:13:51
The Babylonian Creation Epic (2nd Millenium BCE)
Most ancient cultures developed stories to explain how the world came to be. Here I reproduce a part of the Babyloning creation story.
When skies above were not yet named.
Nor earth below pronounced by name,
Apsu, the first one, their begetter
And maker Tiamat, who bore them all,
Had mixed their waters together,
But had not formed pastures, nor discovered
reed-beds;
When yet no gods were manifest,
Nor names pronounced, nor destinies decreed,
Then gods were born within them.
(continued.....)
- From: N.V.K. Ashraf (@ 202.9.175.244)
on: Sat May 19 00:22:48
Egyptian creation story:
I am he who came into being in the form of the god Khepera,
and I am the creator of that which came into being, that is to say,
I am the creator of everything which came into being:
now the things which I created, and which came forth out of my month
after that I had come into being myself were exceedingly many.
The sky (or heaven) had not come into being,
the earth did not exist, and the children of the earth,
and the creeping, things, had not been made at that time.
I myself raised them up from out of Nu, from a state of helpless inertness.
- From: N.V.K. Ashraf (@ 202.9.175.244)
on: Sat May 19 00:26:01
Japanese creation myth (8 AD)
The Beginning of the World:
Before the heavens and the earth came into existence,
all was a chaos, unimaginably limitless
and without definite shape or form.
Eon followed eon: then, lo!
out of this boundless, shapeless mass
something light and transparent rose up & formed the heaven.
This was the Plain of High Heaven,
in which materialized a deity called Ame-no-Minaka-Nushi-no-Mikoto
(the Deity-of-the-August-Center-of-Heaven).
Next the heavens gave birth to a deity named Takami-Musubi-no-Mikoto
(the High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity),
followed by a third called Kammi-Musubi-no-Mikoto
(the Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Deity).
These three divine beings are called the Three Creating Deities.
- From: anu nair (@ 164.164.86.66)
on: Thu May 31 08:45:36
Sumerian stone Tablets(3800-2700 BCE): Epic of Gilgamesh
The one who saw all [Sha nagba imuru ]I will declare to the world,
The one who knew all I will tell about
He saw the great Mystery, he knew the Hidden:
He recovered the knowledge of all the times before the Flood.
He journeyed beyond the distant, he journeyed beyond exhaustion,
And then carved his story on stone.
- From: anu (@ 164.164.86.66)
on: Thu May 31 08:47:20
Epic of Gilgamesh(contd.)
After heaven and earth had been separated
and mankind had been created,
after Anûum, Enlil and Ereskigal had taken posesssion
of heaven, earth and the underworld;
after Enki had set sail for the underworld
and the sea ebbed and flowed in honor of its lord;
on this day, a huluppu tree
which had been planted on the banks of the Euphrates
and nourished by its waters
was uprooted by the south wind
and carried away by the Euphrates.
A goddess who was wandering among the banks
siezed the swaying tree
And -- at the behest of Anu and Enlil --
brought it to Inanna's garden in Uruk.
Inanna tended the tree carefully and lovingly
she hoped to have a throne and a bed
made for herself from its wood.
After ten years, the tree had matured.
But in the meantime, she found to her dismay
that her hopes could not be fulfilled.
because during that time
a dragon had built its nest at the foot of the tree
the Zu-bird was raising its young in the crown,
and the demon Lilith had built her house in the middle.
But Gilgamesh, who had heard of Inanna's plight,
came to her rescue.
He took his heavy shield
killed the dragon with his heavy bronze axe,
which weighed seven talents and seven minas.
Then the Zu-bird flew into the mountains
with its young,
while Lilith, petrified with fear,
tore down her house and fled into the wilderness.
- From: anu (@ 164.164.86.66)
on: Thu May 31 08:57:05
Khalil Gibran: Song Of The Soul
In the depth of my soul there is
A wordless song - a song that lives
In the seed of my heart.
It refuses to melt with ink on
Parchment; it engulfs my affection
In a transparent cloak and flows,
But not upon my lips.
How can I sigh it? I fear it may
Mingle with earthly ether;
To whome shall I sing it? It dwells
In the house of my soul, in fear of
Harsh ears.
When I look into my inner eyes
I see the shadow of its shadow;
When I touch my fingertips
I feel its vibrations.
The deeds of my hands heed its
Presence as a lake must reflect
The glittering stars; my tears
Reveal it, as bright drops of dew
Reveal the secret of a withering rose.
It is a song composed by contemplation,
And published by silence,
And shunned by clamour,
And folded by truth,
And repeated by dreams,
And understood by love,
And hidden by awakening,
And sung by the soul.
It is the song of love;
What Cain or Esau could sing it?
It is more fragrant than jasmine;
What voice could enslave it?
It is heartbound, as a virgin's secret;
What string could quiver it?
Who dares unite the roar of the sea
And the singing of the nightingale?
Who dares compate the shrieking tempest
To the sigh of an infant?
Who dares speak aloud the words
Intended for the heart to speak?
What human dares sing in voice
The song of God?
- From: Bharat Mallapur (@ ppp2-242.blrr02.wipro.net.in)
on: Thu Oct 4 14:14:18
hi there,
I am interested in the original 129th hymn of the tenth book of rigveda ( as described in your forum's posting)in sanskrit. I hear it frequently in "Discovery of India" on DD National.
If anyone has the original verse, could you please send it to me at or at least a link to some good info to
bharatmallapur@rediffmail.com .
thank you.
- From: Humble_Hindu (@ spider-loh-td034.proxy.aol.com)
on: Thu Oct 4 19:49:02
Wonderful posts.
The above clearly reflect the superiority of Vedic thought against the inferior quality verses from Egyptian and Sumerian mythology.
The mythological verses from Egypt and Sumer are attempts to attribute creaton to their desired god in florid language, which is basically a feature common to all cultures. The Vedas are replete with it. Sumerian, Babylonian and Egyptian myths are full of it. In fact, the Korran contains nothing else apart from this !!
But the Vedic verses clearly prove that the ancient Indian mind was trying to grasp something wiser, something more profound, something greater. It is true, that many Vedic minds, like the rest of the world they inhabited in 1,500BC, was not more advanced than other cultures.
But some Vedic minds WERE superior. They reached out for greatness. they stepped outside the constraints of the box that imprisoned their intellect, and searched for the TRUE meaning of God.
- Fie upon the OTHER verses in the Vedas.
- Fie upon the Sumerian & Egyptian and Islamic mythological books.
- But glory to those magical few verses in the Vedas, that remain unparalelled today.
- From: fact (@ 210.81.12.116)
on: Sat Oct 13 19:55:29
This humble hindu is an indianised Taliban
- From: anu (@ 203.200.144.135)
on: Tue Oct 30 08:01:39
Gibran on The Beauty of Death
Let me sleep, for my soul is intoxicated with love and
let me rest, for my spirit has had its bounty of days and nights;
Light the candles and burn the incense around my bed, and
Scatter leaves of jasmine and roses over my body;
Embalm my hair with frankincense and sprinkle my feet with perfume,
And read what the hand of Death has written on my forehead.
Let me rest in the arms of Slumber, for my open eyes are tired;
Let the silver-stringed lyre quiver and soothe my spirit;
Weave from the harp and lute a veil around my withering heart.
Sing of the past as you behold the dawn of hope in my eyes, for
It's magic meaning is a soft bed upon which my heart rests.
Dry your tears, my friends, and raise your heads as the flowers
Raise their crowns to greet the dawn.
Look at the bride of Death standing like a column of light
Between my bed and the infinite;
Hold your breath and listen with me to the beckoning rustle of
Her white wings.
Come close and bid me farewell; touch my eyes with smiling lips.
Let the children grasp my hands with soft and rosy fingers;
Let the ages place their veined hands upon my head and bless me;
Let the virgins come close and see the shadow of God in my eyes,
And hear the echo of His will racing with my breath.
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