Re: (Incarnation in Vedas)

Koenrad,

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Koenraad Elst" <koenraad.elst@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "shivkhokra" <shivkhokra@> wrote:
> >
> > > Unfortunately, for a class of historians who want to show that Mahabharata post dates the arrival of Greeks in India, yavan implies Greeks which is obviously as incorrect as saying yavan mughals were greeks!
> >
> > The relevant issue is the *original* meaning of the word in the Indian world. You seem to be saying that the match between Hebrew _yawan_ 'Greek' and Sanskrit _yavana_ is a coincidence.<
>
> As an old hand at discussions with Hindu revisionists, with whom I agree on some points but disagree on others, please let me explain the "relevant issue". It is that most of these Hindus have no sense of historicity. They look at the past the way a prescientific eye looks at the sky: no sense of depth,<....> e.g. back-projecting the Puranic notion of reincarnation and karma onto the Rg-Veda where it is absent.
>
(Please turn on Unicode UTF-8 in your browser to render brahmi characters correctly).

We will discuss one topic at a time.
It is perplexing when people make statements that rg-veda has no re-incarnation when it is present abundantly. Please look at the following verses and do let me know if you still hold this thought:

Rg Veda (10.14.8)
सं गच्छस्व पितृभिः सं यमेनेष्टापूर्तेन परमे व्योमन् ।
हित्वायावद्यं पुनरस्तमेहि सं गच्छस्व तन्वा सुवर्चाः ॥८॥

Meet Yama, meet the Fathers, meet the merit of free or ordered acts, in highest heaven.
Leave sin and evil, seek anew thy dwelling, and bright with glory wear another body.


Rg Veda (1.164.4)
को ददर्श परथमं जायमानमस्थन्वन्तं यदनस्था बिभर्ति ।
भूम्या असुरस्र्गात्मा कव सवित को विद्वांसमुप गात परष्टुमेतत ॥

Here the Rishi is asking who has seen the
precise mode of how the boneless soul comes
to inhabit bony tenement i.e the body. And then he
asks if a man did not know this himself, who has ever
moved out of himself and gone to the wise man to
receive illumination in it


Rg Veda (1.164.30):
अनच्छये तुरगातु जीवमेजद धरुवं मध्य आ पस्त्यानाम ।

Here the rishi is saying that the moving life principle (soul) is firmly
established inside these tenements of clay (human body)!



Rg Veda (1.164.38)
अपां परां एति सवधया गर्भीतो.अमर्त्यो मर्त्येना सयोनिः ।
ता शश्वन्ता विषूचीना वियन्ता नयन्यं चिक्युर्न निचिक्युरन्यम ॥

Here the rishi says that the immortal joined with the
mortal body moves backwards and forwards by virtue of its
natural power; and the mortal and immortal elements move
ceaselessly in opposite directions, the result being that
people can see the body and not the eternal soul.


Rg Veda (1.164.31)
अपश्यं गोपामनिपद्यमानमा च परा च पथिभिश्चरन्तम ।
सध्रीचीः स विशूचीर्वसान आ वरीवर्ति भुवनेष्वन्तः ॥

Here the rishi explains that the guardian of the body (soul) moves unerringly through forward and backward paths, and that it kept on returning frequently !

Note the guardian/herdsmen mentioned here is the soul.

Regards,
-Shivraj