[Advaita-l] Dog Headed God

[Venkata sriram P]

Dear Srikanta,
 
The interesting points which you mentioned are not as per saMpradAya.  First of all, linking the “sunaka” word to Vaiswadeva,  Vaishwanara & Saunaka Muni is sampradAya viruddha.   
 
Some of the scholars without knowing the srauta siddhanta ascribe the “vi” and “shwa” with vaishwadeva to be insects & dogs.  The sAstra is very clear here that says “viswedeva devata asya vaiswadevah”.   Among the pancha pAka yajnAs, vaiswadevah is one among them which is related to 12 Viswedevatas.   
 
Taking the “shwa” from Vaishwanara is sAstra-viruddha and there is no sAstra pramaNa for this.  It is related to “vishwa” and hence “vaishwanara”.   Going as per your finding, then the term “vishwam” of Vishnu Sahasranama should have been “krimi-kItaKa-sunaka-maya tattva” which is blasphemous.  
 
As regards the name of Saunaka Muni,  he is a great sage who is ever immersed in atma tattva.   There is a special characteristic which is ascribed to Saunaka Muni and that is “sabda grahaNa sakti”.    Whatever may be the distance and wherever he was, Saunaka Muni used to assimilate the tattva jnana from His Guru Suta Mahamuni.    Saunaka with tremendous concentration and rapt attention used to assimilate the vidyas from Suta Muni.   It is this special attribute of “sadba grahaNa sakti” which is also present in Sunaka.  Sunaka (Dog) can grasp the distant sounds; can smell and trace out the culprits.   
 
As regards the Dattatreya Tattva, it has been rightly perceived that 4 vedas are 4 sunakas but if we go further deeper, they are a-kAra, u-kAra, m-kAra & ardha-mAtrAs respectively.    This was told to me by great mimAmsaka scholar of Sringeri Mahamahopadhyaya VK Dongreji.  
 
Regs,
Sriram