[Advaita-l] An instance of malicious interpretation of the Atharvaśirā upaniṣad

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear friends,

1)
V. Murthy :
<I heard the Soma plant is not available today. They use a substitute plant but I don't know if it has same effect of Soma.
They crush the plant to make juice. The drinkers of Soma juice used to sing Sama songs with the intoxication of Soma.
 They used to create a heaven like atmosphere in the Yajna place with the Saama Gaana. Soma intoxication
is not like alcohol intoxication. The Ritvijas were not drinking only one drop but definitely more than that to get intoxication.>

Sunil KB :
I did not write drinking only one drop of Soma. What I wrote is that only a small quantity is taken by  the priest, that too after 
diluting that with milk. As regards the availability, I heard that Ephedra gerardiana is the Somalata, and it is available. As 
regards the substitutes the Ayurvadic texts speak about 40 types of Soma plants, which mainly grow in the eastern part of the 
Himalayas.

Regards,
Sunil KB

--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 1/17/17, Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] An instance of malicious interpretation of the Atharvaśirā upaniṣad
 To: "Sunil Bhattacharjya" <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>, "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2017, 8:28 AM
 
 Namaste
 
 I heard the Soma plant is not
 available today. They use a substitute
 plant
 but I don't know if it has same effect of Soma. They
 crush the
 plant to make juice. The drinkers
 of Soma juice used to sing Sama
 songs with
 the intoxication of Soma. They used to create a heaven
 like
 atmosphere in the Yajna place with the
 Saama Gaana. Soma intoxication
 is not like
 alcohol intoxication. The Ritvijas were not drinking only
 one drop but definitely more than that to get
 intoxication.
 
 Modern
 musicians drinking alcohol filled drinks and producing music
 is
 a cheap imitation of the ancient Saama
 Gaana Ritvijas. They are not
 creating a
 heaven like atmosphere but hell like atmosphere only in
 doing this.
 
 On
 Tue, Jan 17, 2017 at 12:45 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya
 <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>
 wrote:
 > Dear friends,
 >
 > The statement
 "They say animal sacrifices are  not actual animals
 but only Pashus made
 >  of  vegetarian
 grains"  may not be (I repeat <may not be>)
 without some valid points.
 >
 > It is believed that the sacrificed pashus
 (obviously the non-vegetarian pashus) will take revenge on
 the sacrificer by eating the flesh of the latter
 (sacrificer), in the next birth and Manu also seems to have
 indicated this. This can possibly be obviated if the
 sacrificed pashu itself is a non-carnivorous animal or if
 vegetables like Kushmanda are sacrificed as Bali. The flesh
 eaters among the Hindus, eat the meat of the non-carnivorous
 animals. It is also believed that eating meat of
 non-vegetarian pashus (i.e., carnivorous animals) will make
 the mare aggressive and brutal. However, Vishwamitra is said
 to have taken dog's meat to save his life,  when there
 was a famine, but I do not recollect the reference at this
 time
 >
 > As regards
 Soma, I understand that only a small quantity is taken by
 the priest, that too after diluiting that with milk. As
 regards the Sura the finger is dipped and sucked, which
 ensures that only an insignificant amount is consumed. I am
 open to correction.
 >
 > Regards,
 > Sunil KB
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >
 --------------------------------------------
 > On Mon, 1/16/17, Venkatesh Murthy via
 Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 wrote:
 >
 >  Subject:
 Re: [Advaita-l]       An instance of malicious
 interpretation of the Atharvaśirā upaniṣad
 >  To: "V Subrahmanian" <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>,
 "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 >  Cc: "Advaitin" <advaitin at yahoogroups.com>
 >  Date: Monday, January 16, 2017, 6:50
 AM
 >
 >  Namaste
 >
 >  Bad logic of
 Dvaitis.
 >
 >  They
 say animal sacrifices are
 >  not actual
 animals but only Pashus made
 >  of
 >  vegetarian grains. No non veg.
 >
 >  But they say in
 Sautramani Yaaga liquor can be
 > 
 consumed but against
 >  Dharma
 Sastra.
 >
 >
 >
 >  On
 >  Mon, Jan 16, 2017 at 3:43 PM, V
 Subrahmanian via
 >  Advaita-l
 >  <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 >  wrote:
 >  > *An
 instance of  malicious
 > 
 interpretation of the Atharvaśirā upaniṣad*
 >  >
 >  > A short
 article on
 >  the above topic is
 available here for download:
 >  >
 >  > http://www.mediafire.com/file/l6som2xfpbcjj4t/Wrong_explanation_of_the_Atharvashir%C4%81F.pdf
 >  >
 >  >
 regards
 >  > subrahmanian.v
 >  >
 > 
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 >
 >
 >  --
 >  Regards
 >
 >  -Venkatesh
 > 
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 -- 
 Regards
 
 -Venkatesh