Myswizard

Purusha*

In Hinduism, Purusha (”Cosmic Man”) is the “self” which pervades the universe. The Vedic divinities are considered to be the human mind’s interpretation of the many facets of Purusha. According to the Rigvedic Purusha sukta, Purusha was dismembered by the devas — his mind is the moon, his eyes are the sun, and his breath is the wind.

In Samkhya, a school of Hindu philosophy, Purusha is pure consciousness. It is thought to be our true identity, to be contrasted with Prakrti, or the material world, which contains all of our organs, senses, and intellectual faculties.

Daily Invocations by

The Significance of the Purusha Sukta

The Purusha-Sukta of the Vedas is not only a powerful hymn of the insight of the great Seer, Rishi Narayana, on the Cosmic Divine Being as envisaged through the multitudinous variety of creation, but also a short-cut provided to the seeker of Reality for entering into the state of Superconsciousness. The Sukta is charged with a fivefold force potent enough to rouse God-experience in the seeker. Firstly, the Seer (Rishi) of the Sukta is Narayana, the greatest of sages ever known, who is rightly proclaimed in the Bhagavata as the only person whose mind desire has not been able to shake and, as the Mahabharata says, whose power not even all the gods can ever imagine. Such is the Rishi to whom the Sukta was revealed and who gave expression to it as the hymn on the Supreme Purusha. Secondly, the Mantras of the Sukta are composed in a particular metre (Chandas) which has its own contribution to make in the generation of a special spiritual force during the recitation of the hymn. Thirdly, the intonation (Svara) with which the Mantras are recited adds a part to the production of the correct meaning intended to be conveyed through the Mantras and any error in the intonation may produce a different effect altogether. Fourthly, the Deity (Devata) addressed in the hymn is not any externalised or projected form as a content in space and time but the Universal Being which transcends space and time and is the Indivisible Supraessential essence of experience. Fifthly, the Sukta suggests, apart from the universalised concept of the Purusha, an inwardness of this experience, thus distinguishing it from perception of any object.

The Sukta begins with the affirmation that all the heads, all the eyes, and all the feet in creation are of the Purusha. Herein is implied the astonishing truth that we do not see many things, bodies, objects, persons, forms, colours or hear sounds, but only the limbs of the One Purusha. And, just as, when we behold the hand, leg, ear, or nose of a person differently, we do not think that we are seeing many things, but only a single person in front of us, and we develop no separate attitude whatsoever in regard to these parts of the body of the person, because here our attitude is one of a single whole of consciousness beholding one complete person irrespective of the limbs or the part of which the person may be the composite, we are to behold creation not as a conglomeration of discrete persons and things, with each one of whom we have to develop a different attitude or conduct, but as a single Universal Person who gloriously shines before us and gazes at us through all the eyes, nods before us through all the heads, smiles through all lips and speaks through all tongues. This is the Purusha of the Purusha-Sukta. This is the God sung in the hymn by Rishi Narayana. This is not the god of any religion and this is not one among many gods. This is the only God who can possibly be anywhere, at any time.

Our thought, when it is extended and trained in the manner required to see the Universe before us, receives a stirring shock, because this very thought lays the axe at the root of all desires, for no desire is possible when all creation is but one Purusha. This illusion and this ignorance in which the human mind is moving when it desires anything in the world - whether it is a physical object or a mental condition, or a social situation - is immediately dispelled by the simple but the most revolutionary idea which the Sukta deals at the mind with one stroke. We behold the One Being (Ekam Sat) before us, not a manifoldness or a variety to be desired or avoided.

But a greater shock is yet to be. For, the Sukta implies to any intelligent thinker that he himself is one of the heads or limbs of the Purusha. This condition, where even to think would be to think as the Purusha thinks - for no other way of thinking is possible, and it would be to think through all persons and things in creation simultaneously - would indeed not be human thinking or living. Just as we do not think merely through one cell in our brain but think through the entire brain, any single thinker forming but a part of the Purusha’s Universal Thinking Centre, ‘a Centre which is everywhere with circumference nowhere’, cannot afford to think as it is usually being attempted by what are called Jivas or individual fictitious centres of thinking. There is no other way (Na anyah pantha vidyate). This is Supramental thinking. This is Divine Meditation. This is the Yajna which, as the Sukta says, the Devas, performed in the beginning of time.

The Purusha-Sukta is not merely this much. It is something more to the seeker. The above description should not lead us to the erroneous notion that God can be seen with the eyes, as we see a cow, for instance, though it is true that all things are the Purusha. It is to be remembered that the Purusha is not the ’seen’ but the ’seer’. The point is simple to understand. When everything is the Purusha, where can there be an object to be seen? The apparently ’seen’ objects are also the heads of the ’seeing’ Purusha. There is thus, only the seer seeing himself without a seen.

Here, again, the seer’s seeing of himself is not to be taken in the sense of a perception in space and time, for that would again be creating an object where it is not. It is the seer seeing himself not through eyes but in Consciousness. It is the absorption of all objectification in a Universal Be-ness. In this Meditation on the Purusha, which is the most normal thing that can ever be conceived, man realises God in the twinkling of a second.

THE PURUSHA-SUKTA

Thousand-headed is the Purusha, thousand-eyed and thousand-legged. Enveloping the earth from all sides, He transcends it by ten fingers’ length.

Note:- This is the first Mantra of the famous Purusha Sukta of the Veda. Here the transcendent totality of all creation is conceived as the Cosmic Person, the Universal Consciousness animating all manifestation. The word ‘earth’ is to be understood in the sense of all creation. ‘Dasangulam’ is interpreted as ten fingers’ length, in which case it is said to refer to the distance of the heart from the navel, the former having been accepted as the seat of the Atma and the latter symbolic of the root of manifestation. The word ten is also said to mean ‘infinity’, as numbers are only up to nine and what is above is regarded as numberless.

All this (manifestation) is the Purusha alone - whatever was and whatever will be. He is the Lord of Immortality, for He transcends all in His Form as food (the universe). Such is His Glory; but greater still is the Purusha. One-fourth of Him all beings are, (while) three-fourth of Him rises above as the Immortal Being.

That, Three-footed (Immortal) Purusha stood above transcending (all things), and His one foot was this (world of becoming). Then He pervaded (everything) universally, the conscious as well as the unconscious. From That (Supreme Being) did the Cosmic Body (Virat) originate, and in this Cosmic Body did the Omnipresent Intelligence manifest itself. Having manifested Himself, He, appeared as, all diversity, and then as this earth and this body.

When (there being no external material other than the Purusha) the Devas performed a universal sacrifice (in contemplation by mind), with the Purusha Himself as the sacred offering, the spring season was the clarified butter, summer the fuel, autumn the oblation. They set up for sacrifice the Purusha as the object in their meditation, Him who was, prior to all creation, and they, the Devas, Sadhyas and Rishis, performed (this first sacrifice).

From that (Purusha), who was of the form of a Universal Sacrifice, the sacred mixture of curds and ghee (for oblation) was produced. (Then) He brought forth the aerial beings, the forest-dwelling animals, and also the domestic ones. From that (Purusha), who was the Universal Sacrifice, the Riks and the Samans were produced; from Him the metres (of the Mantras) were born; from Him the Yajus was born.

From Him were born horses and whatsoever animals have two rows of teeth. Verily, cows were born of Him; from Him were born goats and sheep. And when they contemplated the Purusha (as the Universal Sacrifice), into how many parts did they divide Him (in their meditations)? What was His mouth called, what His arms, what His thighs, what were His feet called?

The Brahmana (spiritual wisdom and splendour) was His Mouth; the Kshatriya (administrative and military prowess) His Arms became. His Thighs the Vaisya (commercial and business enterprise) was; of His Feet the Sudra (productive and sustaining force) was born. The Moon (symbol of the mind) was born from His (Cosmic) Mind; the Sun (symbol of self and consciousness) was born from His Eyes. Indra (power of grasping and activity) and Agni (will-force) came from His Mouth; from His Vital Energy air was born.

(In that Universal Meditation as Sacrifice) the firmament came from His Navel; the heavens were produced from His head; the earth from His feet; from His ears the quarters of space; - so they constituted the worlds. The enclosures of the sacrificial altar were seven (the seven metres like the Gayatri), and twenty-one (the twelve months, the five seasons, the three worlds and the sun) were the logs of sacrificial fuel, when the gods (the Pranas, senses and the mind) celebrated the universal sacrifice with the Supreme Purusha as the object of contemplation therein.

By sacrifice (universal meditation) did the gods adore and perform (visualise) the sacrifice (Universal Being). These were the original creations and the original laws (that sustain creation). Those great ones (the worshippers of the Cosmic Being by this type of meditation) attain that Supreme Abode in which abide the, primeval contemplators (the gods mentioned above) who thus worshipped that Being.

I know this Great Purusha who shines like the sun beyond darkness. By knowing Him alone does one cross beyond death; there is no other way of going over there.

*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Purusha”.

The Vedas

The Vedas (Sanskrit:- वेद), collectively refers to a corpus of ancient Indo Aryan religious literature that are considered by adherents of Hinduism to be revealed knowledge. The word Veda means Knowledge and is cognate with the word “wit” in English (as well as “vision” through Latin). Many Hindus believe the Vedas existed since the beginning of creation. The texts of the Vedas have several references to specific patterns in the ancient flows of the Ganges River, which coincide with the sites of its ancient (but now dried) tributaries.

The newest parts of the Vedas are estimated to date back to around 500 BCE. The oldest text (RigVeda) found is now dated to around 1,500 BCE, but most Indologists agree that a long oral tradition possibly existed before it was written down. They represent the oldest stratum of Indian Literature and according to modern scholars are written in forms of a language which evolved into Sanskrit. They consider the use of Vedic Sanskrit for the language of the texts an anachronism, although it is generally accepted.

Contents
The Vedas consist of several kinds of texts, all of which date back to early times. The core is formed by the Mantras which represent hymns, prayers, incantations, magic and ritual formulas, charms etc. The hymns and prayers are addressed to a pantheon of gods (and a few goddesses), important members of which are Shiva, Varuna, Indra, Agni, etc. The mantras are supplemented by texts regarding the sacrificial rituals in which these mantras are used as well as texts exploring the philosophical aspects of the ritual tradition, narratives etc.

Organization
The Mantras are collected into anthologies called Samhitas. There are four Samhitas, the Rk (= Poetry), Sāman (=Song), Yajus(=Prayer) and Atharvan (=A kind of priest) commonly referred to as the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Each Samhita is preserved in a number of versions, the differences among them being minor, except in the case of the Yajur Veda, where there are the “Black” (krishna) and “White” (shukla) versions, with the Black also containing explanatory material apart from the Mantras. The Rig Veda contains the oldest part of the corpus, and consists of 1028 hymns. The Sama Veda is mostly a rearrangement of the Rig Veda for musical rendering. The Yajur Veda gives sacrificial prayers and the Atharva Veda gives charms, incantations, magic formulas etc. Apart from these there are some stray secular material, legends, etc.

The next category of texts are the Brahmanas. These are ritual texts that describe in detail the sacrifices in which the Mantras were to be used, as well as commenting on the meaning of the sacrificial ritual. The Brahmanas are associated with one of the Samhitas. The Brahmanas may either form separate texts, or in the case of the Black Yajur Veda, can be partly integrated into the text of the Samhita. The most important of the Brahmanas is the Shatapatha Brahmana of the White Yajur Veda.

The Aranyakas and Upanishads are theological and philosophical works. They often form part of the Brahmanas (e.g. the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad). They are the basis of the Vedanta school of Darsana.

Position and compilation
Hindu tradition regards the Vedas as uncreated, eternal and being revealed to sages (Rishis). The hymns of the Rig-Veda Samhita are believed to have been collected and arranged by Paila under the supervision of Vyasa. Others were chanted during religious and social ceremonies and were compiled by Vaishampayana under the title Yajus mantra Samhita (see Yajur-Veda). Jaimini is said to have collected hymns that were set to music and melody — ‘Saman’ (see Sama-Veda). The fourth collection of hymns and chants known as Atharva Samhita.

Philosophies and sects that developed in the Indian subcontinent have taken differing positions on the Vedas. In Buddhism and Jainism, the authority of the Veda is repudiated, and both evolved into separate religions. The sects which did not explicitly reject the Vedas remained followers of the Sanatana Dharma, which is known in modern times as Hinduism.

In later Hinduism, the Vedas hold an exalted position. They are regarded as Shruti, i.e. Revelation, and the Brahminical caste based on the Vedas forms an important part of Hindu religious life to this day. Vedanta, Yoga, Tantra and even Bhakti acknowledge the Vedas as revelation.

Study
In the dharmashastras the study of the Vedas was regarded as a religious duty of the three upper varnas (Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas). Women and Shudras were neither required nor allowed to study the Veda (this came to happen only in the very Later Vedic or the Sutra Age, because numerous evidences suggest that all humans were equally allowed to study the Vedas, and many Vedic “authors” were women). Elaborate methods for preserving the text (by learning them by heart and not by writing), subsidiary disciplines (Vedanga), exegetical literature, etc., were developed in the Vedic schools. In the fourteenth century Sayana wrote famous commentaries on the Vedic texts.

In modern times, Vedic studies are crucial in the understanding of Indo-European linguistics, as well as ancient Indian history.

It may be interesting to note that Hinduism encourages the Vedic mantras to be interpreted as liberally and as philosophically as possible unlike the Abrahamic religions (concerning the Tanakh, the Bible and the Koran). Infact, too literal interpretation of the mantras is actually discouraged, and even the three layers of commentaries (Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads), which form an intergral part of the shruti literature, actually interpret the seemingly polytheistic, ritualistic and highly complex Samhitas in a philosophical and metaphorical way to explain the “hidden” concepts of God (Ishwara), the Supreme Being (Brahman) and the soul or the self (Atman). Also, many Hindus believe that the very sound of the Vedic mantras is purifying for the environment and human mind.

Religious views: Monism, Monotheism, Henotheism and Polytheism
The religion of the Vedic period, particularly at its earliest, was distinct in a number of respects, including reference to females in positions of religious authority (female rishis, or sages), an apparent lack of belief in reincarnation, and a markedly different pantheon, with Indra generally the chief god, and little mention of the later primary gods Vishnu and Shiva, although Brahma does appear quite frequently.

While Hinduism is generally monistic or monotheistic admitting emanating deities, the early Rig Veda (undeveloped early Hinduism) was what Max Müller based his views of henotheism on. In the four Vedas, Müller believed, a striving towards One was being aimed at by the worship of different cosmic principles, such as Agni (fire), Vayu (wind), Indra (rain, thunder, the sky; also the King of gods), etc. each of which was variously, by clearly different writers, hailed as supreme in different sections of the books. Indeed, however, what was confusing was an early idea of Rita, or supreme order, that bound all the gods. Other phrases such as ekam sat, vipraha bahudha vadanti (Truth is One though the sages know it as many) lead to understandings that the Vedic people admitted of fundamental oneness. There were attempts at monism by subordinating other gods to singular entities or gods of supreme power, three most notably being Vishvakarma, Indra and Varuna, though Indra was the most eulogized as supreme in his 200 Rig Vedic verses. From this mix of monism, monotheism and naturalist polytheism Max Müller decided to name the early Vedic religion henotheistic. He decided that while polytheism did not fit with views so clearly admitting of fundamental unity, monism in his opinion was not yet fully developed.

This, however, is clearly a one-man view. Extremely advanced, indeed unprecedented and thitherto unduplicated ideas of pure monism are to be found in the early Vedas, notwithstanding clearly monist and monotheist movements of Hinduism that developed with the advent of the Upanishads. One such example of early Vedic monotheism is the Nasadiya hymn of the Rig Veda: “That One breathed by itself without breath, other than it there has been nothing.” To collectively term the Vedas henotheistic, and thus further leaning towards polytheism, rather than monotheism, is to ignore the bent of the Vedas that laid the foundation for the Upanishads as early as 1000 BCE.

Cosmogony
The Vedic view of the world and cosmogony sees one true divine principle self-projecting as the divine word, Vaak, ‘birthing’ the cosmos that we know from ‘Hiranyagarbha’ or Golden Womb, a primordial sun figure that is equivalent to Surya. The varied gods like Vayu, Indra, Rudra (the Destroyer), Agni (Fire, the sacrifical medium) and the goddess Saraswati (the Divine Word, aka Vaak) are just some examples of the myriad aspects of the one underlying nature of the universe.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “The Vedas”.