[Advaita-l] Personalities in veda-purANa

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

Namaste,

Here are some ideas on this topic as I understand 
them:

RSi of a mantra: description of the dominant state 
of chitta wherein the meaning / content/ Rta 
embodied in the mantra is revealed. Thus 
vishvAmitra = vishva + amitra, i.e. state of chitta 
that is non partial, non attached to anything. 
This state is most conducive to understand the 
import of gAyatrI mantra. This is also the reason 
why we remind ourselves of the RSi of a mantra 
before we do a manana (or even japa) of the mantra. 
This is not to deny historical existence of an 
embodied being that is described as vishvAmitra in 
say rAmAyaNa. In fact due to continuous association 
with the state of chitta best described as 
vishvAmitra, tattva darSI-s started referring to 
this personality mentioned in rAmAyaNa as 
vishvAmitra.

Legends in purANa: Consider the famous itihAsa - 
mahAbhArata.The events in the kuru family were 
reflected upon by veda vyAsa. In these events he 
saw all aspects of puruSArtha-s in a grand form. 
Hence he decided to compose a kAvya which would 
be an ultimate treatise on puruSArtha. So names 
used within this itihAsa have been chosen by vyAsa 
to (probably) represent the tattva-s that he "saw" 
the characters represent. Of course the raw material 
for this kAvya was derived from real incidents, but 
choice of incidents, name of characters, and 
probably even cities are vyAsa's choice. For 
example: arjuna means one who earns (arja). So 
incidents in his life that would not represent 
this trait would have been kept out of
mahAbhArata.

One may understand other issues in this topic in a 
similar manner.

Regards,
Shrinivas


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