[Advaita-l] on vAnara-s

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

Namaste,

On the occasion of kRSNa jayanti:

In rAmAyaNa, we hear about existence on vAnara-s
who were half ape - half humans. They lived in
south India. However no remains of any kind of
such beings has ever been found and very likely
it will not be found. In such circumstances do 
we dismiss vAnara-s as a myth?

If not we need to look at other explanations. 
Here is one:

vAnara-s were infact human beings who belonged 
to a sect devoted to animal-upAsanA (I suspect
this would be the pashupati sect). In particular
vAnara-s were especially devoted to upAsanA of
vidyA-s that combined human and ape elements.
jAmavant is an example of upAsaka who combined
human and bear elements in his vidyA/ upAsanA.

similarly:
nAga-s combined human and snake elements in their
vidyA/ upAsanA,
garuDa-s combined human and bird elements in their
vidyA/ upAsanA
gANpatya-s combined human and elephant elements
in their vidyA/ upAsanA.

side note: Foremost of vAnara-s shrI hanumAn was
made to loose the yoga siddhi-s obtained by such
upAsana-s UNTIL he found shrI rAma and subsequently
used these siddhi-s only for rAma-kArya.
(i.e. if one is devoted to harI abuse of one's
capabilities is prevented.)

Regards,
Shrinivas


       
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