Victorious Agni, grant us wealth with wisdom, wealth with brave sons, famous and independent,
Which not a foe who deals in magic conquers............
Guard us, O Agni, from the hated demon, guard us from malice of the churlish sinner:
Allied with thee may I subdue assailants.
This is that Agni, served in many places, whom the rich lord who brings oblation kindles,
And round him goes the priest at sacrifices.
O KING, the potent and terrific envoy, kindled for strength, is manifest in beauty.
He shines, all−knowing, with his lotty splendour: chasing black Night he comes with white−rayed Morning.
2 Having o'ercome the glimmering Black with beauty, and bringing forth the dame the Great Sire's Daughter,
Holding aloft the radiant light of Surya, as messenger of heaven he shines with treasures.
3 Attendant on the Blessed Dame the Blessed hath come: the Lover followeth his Sister.
Agni, far−spreading with conspicuous lustre, hath compassed Night with whitelyshining garments.
4 His goings−forth kindle as 'twere high voices the goings of the auspicious Friend of Agni.
1. THIS is that Agni, he by whose protection, favour, and help. the singer is successful;
Who with the noblest flames of glowing fuel comes forth encompassed with far−spreading lustre.
2 Agni, the Holy One, the everlasting, who shines far beaming with celestial splendours;
1. O AGNI, shared by all men living bring us good luck for sacrifice from earth and heaven.
With us be thine intelligence, WonderWorker! Protect us, God, with thy far−reaching blessings.
2 These hymns brought forth for thee, O Agni, laud thee for bounteous gifts, with cattle and with horses.
Good Lord, when man from thee hath gained enjoyment, by hymns, O noblyborn, hath he obtained it.
3 Agni I deem my Kinsman and my Father, count him my Brother and my Friend for ever.
I honour as the face of lofty Agni in heaven the bright and holy light of Surya.
4 Effectual, Agni, are our prayers for profit. He whom, at home thou, Priest for ever, guardest
Is rich in food, drawn by red steeds, and holy: by day and night to him shall all be pleasant.
5 Men with their arms have generated Agni, helpful as some kind friend, adorned with splendours,
And stablished as Invoker mid the people the ancient Priest the sacrifice's lover.
6 Worship, thyself, O God, the Gods in heaven: what, void of knowledge, shall the fool avail thee?
As thou, O God, hast worshipped Gods by seasons, so, nobly−born! to thine own self pay worship.
7 Agni, be thou our Guardian and Protector bestow upon us life and vital vigour.
Accept, O Mighty One, the gifts we offer, and with unceasing care protect our bodies.
4 O Agni, what thou deemest wealth, Victorious and Immortal One!
Bring thou to give us vigour,−at your glad carouse −splendid at sacrifices. Thou art waxing great.
5 Skilled in all lore is Agni, he whom erst Atharvan brought to life.
He was Vivasvan's envoy, at your glad carouse−the weIl−loved friend of Yama, Thou art waxing great.
6 At sacrifices they adore thee, Agni, when the rite proceeds.
All fair and lovely treasures−at your glad carouse−thou givest him who offers. Thou art waxing great.
7 Men, Agni, have established thee as welcome Priest at holy rites,
Thee whose face shines with butter,−at your glad carouse−bright, with eyes most observant. Thou art waxing
great.
8 Wide and aloft thou spreadest thee, O Agni, with tby brilliant flame.
A Bull art thou when bellowing,−at your glad carouse−thou dost impregn the Sisters. Thou art waxing great.
1. I LAUD your Mighty One who joyeth in the juice, him who is shared by all men, who created all;
Indra, whose conquering strength is powerful in war, whose fame and manly vigour Heaven and Earth revere.
2 He with his friend is active, lauded, good to man, Indra who must be glorified by one like me.
Hero, Lord of the brave, all cars are thy delight, warring with Vrtra, or for waters, or for spoil.
3 Who are the men whom thou wilt further, Indra, who strive to win thy bliss allied with riches?
Who urged thee forward to exert thy power divine, to valour, in the war for waters on their fields?
4 Thou, Indra, through the holy prayer art mighty, worthy of sacrifice at all libations.
In every fight thou castest heroes on the ground: thou art the noblest song, O Lord of all the folk.
5 Help now, as Highest, those who toil at sacrifice: well do the people know thy great protecting might.
Thou shalt be Everlasing, Giver of success yea, on all these libations thou bestowest strength.
6 All these libations thou makest effectual, of which thou art thyself supporter, Son of Power.
Therefore thy vessel is to be esteemed the best, sacrifice, holy text, prayer, and exalted speech.
7 They who with flowing Soma pray to thee, O Sage, to pour on them thy gifts of opulence and wealth,
May they come forward, through their spirit, on the path of bliss, in the wild joy of Soma juice effused.
1. THOU, mighty Agni, gatherest up all that is precious for thy friend.
Bring us all treasures as thou art enkindled in libation's place
2 Assemble, speak together: let your minds be all of one accord,
As ancient Gods unanimous sit down to their appointed share.
3 The place is common, common the assembly, common the mind, so be their thought united.
A common purpose do I lay before you, and worship with your general oblation.
4 One and the same bt your resolve, and be your minds of one accord.
United be the thoughts of all that all may happily agree.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
YET ANOTHER STUNNING RELIGIOUS LEADER - RAMANUJAM
Ramanuja: Encyclopedia II - Ramanuja - Visishtadvaita philosophy
Ramanuja - Visishtadvaita philosophy
Ramanuja's philosophy is referred to as Vishishtadvaita because it combines Advaita (oneness of God) with Vishesha (attributes). The philosophy is monotheistic.
Ramanuja - God alone exists
Brahman is the only thing that exists. Everything else is simply a manifestation of Brahman. Brahman to Ramanuja was Narayana.
Ramanuja - Differences with Sankara
Adi Sankara had argued that all qualities or manifestations that can be perceived are unreal and temporary. They are a result of ignorance. Ramanuja believed them to be real and permanent and under the control of the Brahman. God can be one despite the existence of attributes, because they cannot exist alone; they are not independent entities. They are Prakaras or the modes, Sesha or the accessories, and Niyama or the controlled aspects, of the one Brahman.
In Sri Ramanuja’s system of philosophy, the Lord (Narayana) has two inseparable Prakaras or modes, viz., the world and the souls. These are related to Him as the body is related to the soul. They have no existence apart from Him. They inhere in Him as attributes in a substance. Matter and souls constitute the body of the Lord. The Lord is their indweller. He is the controlling Reality. Matter and souls are the subordinate elements. They are termed Viseshanas, attributes. God is the Viseshya or that which is qualified.
History shows that the followers of sankara are answerless till date to the strong arguments of ramanuja(in his sri bhashya) and his followers(satadushani of desika,...). In a bid to escape strong objections raised by ramanuja and his successors, most advaitins take a disguised route of neo vedantism, where they argue that vaishnavism is one another path to realise brahman. Ironically, the very brahman of ramanuja and sankara are different.
ramanuja opines, wrong is the position of the Advaitins that understanding the Upanishads without knowing and practicing dharma can result in Brahman knowledge. The knowledge of Brahman that ends spiritual ignorance is meditational, not (as Advaitins seem to presume) testimonial or verbal.
In contrast to sankara, ramanuja holds, There is no knowledge source in support of the claim that there is a distinctionless (homogeneous) Brahman. All knowledge sources reveal objects as distinct from other objects. All experience reveals an object known in some way or other beyond mere existence. Testimony depends on the operation of distinct sentence parts (words with distinct meanings). Thus the claim that testimony makes known that reality is distinctionless is contradicted by the very nature of testimony as a knowledge means. Even the simplest perceptual cognition reveals something (Bessie) as qualified by something else (a broken hoof, “Bessie has a broken hoof,” as known perceptually). Inference depends on perception and makes the same distinct things known as does perception.
Against the Advaita contention that perception cannot make known distinctness but only homogeneous being since distinctness cannot be defined, well, sorry, perception makes known generic characters (cowhood and the like) that differentiate things. If what you Advaitins say were true, why should not a person looking for a horse be satisfied with a buffalo? Remembering could not be distinguished from perceiving, because there would be only the one object (being). And no one would be deaf or blind. Furthermore, Brahman would be an object of perception and the other sources (prameya).
He also holds, The Advaitin argument about prior absences and no prior absence of consciousness is wrong. Similarly the Advaitin understanding of a-vidya (not-Knowledge), which is the absence of spiritual knowledge, is incorrect. “If the distinction between spiritual knowledge and spiritual ignorance is unreal, then spiritual ignorance and the self are one.”
Ramanuja picks out what he sees as seven fundamental flaws in the Advaita philosophy for special attack: he sees them as so fundamental to the Advaita position that if he is right in identifying them as involving doctrinal contradictions, then Sankara's entire system collapses. He argues:
I. The nature of Avidya. Avidya must be either real or unreal; there is no other possibility. But neither of these is possible. If Avidya is real, non-dualism collapses into dualism. If it is unreal, we are driven to self-contradiction or infinite regress.
II. The incomprehensibility of Avidya. Advaitins claim that Avidya is neither real nor unreal but incomprehensible, {anirvacaniya.} All cognition is either of the real or the unreal: the Advaitin claim flies in the face of experience, and accepting it would call into question all cognition and render it unsafe.
III. The grounds of knowledge of Avidya. No pramana can establish Avidya in the sense the Advaitin requires. Advaita philosophy presents Avidya not as a mere lack of knowledge, as something purely negative, but as an obscuring layer which covers Brahman and is removed by true Brahma-vidya. Avidya is positive nescience not mere ignorance. Ramanuja argues that positive nescience is established neither by perception, nor by inference, nor by scriptural testimony. On the contrary, Ramanuja argues, all cognition is of the real.
IV. The locus of Avidya. Where is the Avidya that gives rise to the (false) impression of the reality of the perceived world? There are two possibilities; it could be Brahman's Avidya or the individual soul's {jiva.} Neither is possible. Brahman is knowledge; Avidya cannot co-exist as an attribute with a nature utterly incompatible with it. Nor can the individual soul be the locus of Avidya: the existence of the individual soul is due to Avidya; this would lead to a vicious circle.
V. Avidya's obscuration of the nature of Brahman. Sankara would have us believe that the true nature of Brahman is somehow covered-over or obscured by Avidya. Ramanuja regards this as an absurdity: given that Advaita claims that Brahman is pure self-luminous consciousness, obscuration must mean either preventing the origination of this (impossible since Brahman is eternal) or the destruction of it - equally absurd.
VI. The removal of Avidya by Brahma-vidya. Advaita claims that Avidya has no beginning, but it is terminated and removed by Brahma-vidya, the intuition of the reality of Brahman as pure, undifferentiated consciousness. But Ramanuja denies the existence of undifferentiated {nirguna} Brahman, arguing that whatever exists has attributes: Brahman has infinite auspicious attributes. Liberation is a matter of Divine Grace: no amount of learning or wisdom will deliver us.
VII. The removal of Avidya. For the Advaitin, the bondage in which we dwell before the attainment of Moksa is caused by Maya and Avidya; knowledge of reality (Brahma-vidya) releases us. Ramanuja, however, asserts that bondage is real. No kind of knowledge can remove what is real. On the contrary, knowledge discloses the real; it does not destroy it. And what exactly is the saving knowledge that delivers us from bondage to Maya? If it is real then non-duality collapses into duality; if it is unreal, then we face an utter absurdity.
Ramanuja - Caste system
He was critical of the caste system. He said, "Does the wearing of a sacred thread make one a Brahmin? One who is devoted to God (Narayana) alone is a Brahmin."
Ramanuja: Encyclopedia II - Ramanuja - Visishtadvaita philosophy
Ramanuja - Visishtadvaita philosophy
Ramanuja's philosophy is referred to as Vishishtadvaita because it combines Advaita (oneness of God) with Vishesha (attributes). The philosophy is monotheistic.
Ramanuja - God alone exists
Brahman is the only thing that exists. Everything else is simply a manifestation of Brahman. Brahman to Ramanuja was Narayana.
Ramanuja - Differences with Sankara
Adi Sankara had argued that all qualities or manifestations that can be perceived are unreal and temporary. They are a result of ignorance. Ramanuja believed them to be real and permanent and under the control of the Brahman. God can be one despite the existence of attributes, because they cannot exist alone; they are not independent entities. They are Prakaras or the modes, Sesha or the accessories, and Niyama or the controlled aspects, of the one Brahman.
In Sri Ramanuja’s system of philosophy, the Lord (Narayana) has two inseparable Prakaras or modes, viz., the world and the souls. These are related to Him as the body is related to the soul. They have no existence apart from Him. They inhere in Him as attributes in a substance. Matter and souls constitute the body of the Lord. The Lord is their indweller. He is the controlling Reality. Matter and souls are the subordinate elements. They are termed Viseshanas, attributes. God is the Viseshya or that which is qualified.
History shows that the followers of sankara are answerless till date to the strong arguments of ramanuja(in his sri bhashya) and his followers(satadushani of desika,...). In a bid to escape strong objections raised by ramanuja and his successors, most advaitins take a disguised route of neo vedantism, where they argue that vaishnavism is one another path to realise brahman. Ironically, the very brahman of ramanuja and sankara are different.
ramanuja opines, wrong is the position of the Advaitins that understanding the Upanishads without knowing and practicing dharma can result in Brahman knowledge. The knowledge of Brahman that ends spiritual ignorance is meditational, not (as Advaitins seem to presume) testimonial or verbal.
In contrast to sankara, ramanuja holds, There is no knowledge source in support of the claim that there is a distinctionless (homogeneous) Brahman. All knowledge sources reveal objects as distinct from other objects. All experience reveals an object known in some way or other beyond mere existence. Testimony depends on the operation of distinct sentence parts (words with distinct meanings). Thus the claim that testimony makes known that reality is distinctionless is contradicted by the very nature of testimony as a knowledge means. Even the simplest perceptual cognition reveals something (Bessie) as qualified by something else (a broken hoof, “Bessie has a broken hoof,” as known perceptually). Inference depends on perception and makes the same distinct things known as does perception.
Against the Advaita contention that perception cannot make known distinctness but only homogeneous being since distinctness cannot be defined, well, sorry, perception makes known generic characters (cowhood and the like) that differentiate things. If what you Advaitins say were true, why should not a person looking for a horse be satisfied with a buffalo? Remembering could not be distinguished from perceiving, because there would be only the one object (being). And no one would be deaf or blind. Furthermore, Brahman would be an object of perception and the other sources (prameya).
He also holds, The Advaitin argument about prior absences and no prior absence of consciousness is wrong. Similarly the Advaitin understanding of a-vidya (not-Knowledge), which is the absence of spiritual knowledge, is incorrect. “If the distinction between spiritual knowledge and spiritual ignorance is unreal, then spiritual ignorance and the self are one.”
Ramanuja picks out what he sees as seven fundamental flaws in the Advaita philosophy for special attack: he sees them as so fundamental to the Advaita position that if he is right in identifying them as involving doctrinal contradictions, then Sankara's entire system collapses. He argues:
I. The nature of Avidya. Avidya must be either real or unreal; there is no other possibility. But neither of these is possible. If Avidya is real, non-dualism collapses into dualism. If it is unreal, we are driven to self-contradiction or infinite regress.
II. The incomprehensibility of Avidya. Advaitins claim that Avidya is neither real nor unreal but incomprehensible, {anirvacaniya.} All cognition is either of the real or the unreal: the Advaitin claim flies in the face of experience, and accepting it would call into question all cognition and render it unsafe.
III. The grounds of knowledge of Avidya. No pramana can establish Avidya in the sense the Advaitin requires. Advaita philosophy presents Avidya not as a mere lack of knowledge, as something purely negative, but as an obscuring layer which covers Brahman and is removed by true Brahma-vidya. Avidya is positive nescience not mere ignorance. Ramanuja argues that positive nescience is established neither by perception, nor by inference, nor by scriptural testimony. On the contrary, Ramanuja argues, all cognition is of the real.
IV. The locus of Avidya. Where is the Avidya that gives rise to the (false) impression of the reality of the perceived world? There are two possibilities; it could be Brahman's Avidya or the individual soul's {jiva.} Neither is possible. Brahman is knowledge; Avidya cannot co-exist as an attribute with a nature utterly incompatible with it. Nor can the individual soul be the locus of Avidya: the existence of the individual soul is due to Avidya; this would lead to a vicious circle.
V. Avidya's obscuration of the nature of Brahman. Sankara would have us believe that the true nature of Brahman is somehow covered-over or obscured by Avidya. Ramanuja regards this as an absurdity: given that Advaita claims that Brahman is pure self-luminous consciousness, obscuration must mean either preventing the origination of this (impossible since Brahman is eternal) or the destruction of it - equally absurd.
VI. The removal of Avidya by Brahma-vidya. Advaita claims that Avidya has no beginning, but it is terminated and removed by Brahma-vidya, the intuition of the reality of Brahman as pure, undifferentiated consciousness. But Ramanuja denies the existence of undifferentiated {nirguna} Brahman, arguing that whatever exists has attributes: Brahman has infinite auspicious attributes. Liberation is a matter of Divine Grace: no amount of learning or wisdom will deliver us.
VII. The removal of Avidya. For the Advaitin, the bondage in which we dwell before the attainment of Moksa is caused by Maya and Avidya; knowledge of reality (Brahma-vidya) releases us. Ramanuja, however, asserts that bondage is real. No kind of knowledge can remove what is real. On the contrary, knowledge discloses the real; it does not destroy it. And what exactly is the saving knowledge that delivers us from bondage to Maya? If it is real then non-duality collapses into duality; if it is unreal, then we face an utter absurdity.
Ramanuja - Caste system
He was critical of the caste system. He said, "Does the wearing of a sacred thread make one a Brahmin? One who is devoted to God (Narayana) alone is a Brahmin."
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