[Advaita-l] Regarding the discussion"Do the vedas say that Brahman is not the ultimate reality of the world"

[Ananta Bhagwat]

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Namaste,

As a little aside one may ask the question: Is their any brahma-jnAna in saMhita-s and brAhmaNa-s? Following is my understanding (open to corrections):
saMhitA and brAhmaNa sections do not
contribute much to the jnAna-kAnDa in spite of their voluminous compilation.  Still
the traces of Knowledge as a monist principle are visible in Rk saMhitA, particularly in manDala X, though it is difficult to exclusively label them with a
particular type of monism such as monotheism or pantheism. 
Earliest
sign of monist tendencies is available in the famous quote of Rgveda in
the first maNDala
(I.164.46): “ekam sad viprA bahudhA vadanti...”
(of the One Being, sages speak in diverse ways...). In third maNDala
(III.54.8) these tendencies take monotheist form: “The Infinite One
is the Lord of the unmoving and the moving”. 
Later
in maNDala X of Rgveda the
monism crystallizes under various names such as  brAhmaNaspati
(X.72), viSvakarmA
(X.81 & X.82), Aditi
(X.89), purusha (X.90),
The One Being (X.114.5), prajApati (X.121),
vAc (X.125), and
finally Creation (X.129). Out of these hymens; the purush
sUkta (X.90), the vAc
sUkta (X.125) and the nAsadIya1sUkta (X..129) stand out for
clear monist tendencies. Particularly X.129 is rich in speculation
and contains the seed of both non-dualistic monism and agnostic
indeterminism which one can link to the later development of advaita
and concepts like mAyA
/ avidyA through the vehicle of
upanishad-s.
The
same idea of Unity is discernible in the atharva veda
(AV)2:varuNa (IV.16.1-5),
Aditi (VII.6.1), Him
(IX.10.28), skaMbha (X.7.17),
yaksha (X.7.38), One
Only (X.8.11), prajApati (X.8.13),
and Self (X.8.44).. Conception of Aditi
brings out monist tendencies similar to those of vAc (X.125
of RV).
Principle
of Unity in the name of prajApati
and purusha is also
seen in white yajuH
(vAjasaneyI) saMhita
and the taittirIya brAhmaNa.
In Satapatha brAhmaNa
(IV.2.2.1) it is said 'sarvam hy ayam AtmA'
(this Self is everything).
ananta


	1 Traditionally	it is known by this word which is derived from the first word of the	sUkta – nAsadAsit.

	2 Many	hymns in AV are adoption of RV hymns and hence the transmission of	the same principle.
3. Based on books by Prabhudatta Shastri (1910) and Srinivas Dixit (1964)




----- Original Message ----
From: "srikanta at nie.ac.in" <srikanta at nie.ac.in>
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 11:30:55 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] Regarding the discussion"Do the vedas say that Brahman is not the ultimate reality of the world"

This is with reference to the Email of Sri.Vidysankar Sundareshan 
regarding my EmailMarch 25,2008) on the question of Sri.K.R.Narayanan "Do
the vedas say that Brahman is not the ultimate reality of the world"(March
24,2008).
Vedas contain both karmakanda and jnana kanda.In most of the Upanishaths
Jnana kanda start after condemning the karmas.For ex.in the
Mudakopanishath it is said "Pariksya lokan karmacitan nirvedamayat
brahmano nasti akrtam krtena....."
Further the Upanishath continues condemning the karmas"plavahyeta adrdah
yajnarupah......"
But the Vedas even though at the end contain the vedanta portion contain
mainly and vastly the karmakanda.The karmakanda donot categorically state
that Brahman is the ultimate reality of the world,as in jnanakandaThis is
reserved for the jnanakanda.The karmakanda contains mainly the
yajnas,yagas,grhyasutras,ganam,mantras,the methods of appeasing the Gods
and Godesses.That is the cause for splitting the vedas as Purvamimamsa and
uttaramimamsa,with Jaimini as the authority for purvamimamsa and vyasa for
the uttaramimamsa.
regards,                                             N.Srikanta.




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