Thursday 15 June 2017

The Vedic Gods- Narayana

    Rk Veda gives the details of Gods and Goddesses (deva, devi, devata). These are in a way elementa Gods like Fire (Agni), Air (Marut/Vayu), Rain (Varuna), etc. All these are the manifest forms of one God only, called Narayana. Rk Veda asserts Only Narayana as the God and all else His manifestations. Even this Narayana is not any person (purusha) but the ultimate one can attain as the highest position, a state of pure Consciousness. It is attainable by anybody not by acquisition, any practice, study or effort, but by a process of discarding what all one has acquired! It is said that the sage Nara-Narayana attained this status of 'Narayana' by austerity, yajnya, meaning giving up, sacrifice. Ahirbudhnya Samhita gives more details regarding this. (See F. Otto Shredder: Introduction to Pancharatra, Ahirbudhnya Samhita, Adyar Library, Chennai)
   What the Rk Veda states about the purusha sukta, devi sukta, shree sukta, saraswati sukta, bhu sukta etc is the same as the ones found in many pancharatra samhitas and thereby there is noi contradictions. The Lakshmi Tantra is all about the powers (shakti) of Narayana.and His Sudarshana. In fact, there is no difference between Lakshmi, sudarshana, or Narayana at all. Ahirbudhnya is supposed to be Shiva or Maheshvara who got this knowledge about Lakshmi and Narayana from Sankarshana. "After a long penance, Ahirbudhnya says, he got to know that this 'true knowledge' was the 'science of sudarshana'. He says, "The ultimate is the beginningless, ndless and eternal reality, which is devoid of all names and forms, beyond all speech and mind, the omnipotent whole which is absolutely changeless. From this eternal and unchangeable reality there springs a spontaneous idea or desire (sankalpa).The idea is not limited by time, space or substance." This eternal, nameless, immutble one is called the 'brahmn'.
   Brahmn cannot be expresses in thoughts, ideas, words or any other means. The most suitable word may come very close to 'tyat' or simply, 'That'. This is what is called "That's It' (Om tat sat iti). For want of a single name, Brahmn is known by several other names such as avyakta, Bhagavan,  Parmatman, Atman, vasudeva, prakruti, pradhana, etc. All these do not mean anything! Certainly the anglicised word 'GOD' will never come near these!!
   In Ahirbudhnys samhita sudarshana is considered as that most powerful one behinf all creation and dissolution!  

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