My Journey into the Sanskrit Texts
I have always been drawn to India, her beauty and wisdom, and especially the
Bhagavad Gita. Over the years of my life I would try again and again the read
the Bhagavad Gita, only to realize that I simply did not understand it. Since
2002, I began an ongoing serious study of various translations of not only the
Bhagavad Gita, but of the wonderful Mahabharata (which contains the Bhagavad
Gita), the Upanishads, texts on Samkhya, many of the Kashmir Shaivite Sanskrit
texts, a few Samhitas, and lastly the Rig Veda (said to be the source of all the
others).
Thanks primarily to Exotic India Arts online, I was able to get 100s of
translations of the sacred texts and scholarly books, the majority of which were
authored by Indians, which deepened and expanded my understanding. I have said
smiling to friends that at long last I had understood the Bhagavad Gita, but to
do so I had to read 500 other books!
The Sanskrit texts are a vast ocean reflecting the wisdom knowledge of 100s of
enlightened masters over 1000s of years, when India was made up of diverse
kingdoms. There is no such thing as Hinduism. The term Hinduism was created only
in recent history by foreigners:
"The Sanskrit name for the Indus River is 'Sindhu' and with the coming of Arabic
speakers to India around 1000 CE the term 'hindu' first appeared. Arabic
speakers pronounced 'sindhu' as 'hindu' and used the word to refer to those
living on the other side of the Indus River. Consequently, the term was
originally a geographical reference that included many peoples. As late as the
16th century the term even referred to Muslims living within India because they
too lived beyond the Indus. By the end of the 18th century, however, the British
were using the term to refer to the people of India who were not Christian,
Muslim, Sikh or Jain. The 'ism' was added early in the 19th century. Later the
word was appropriated by 'Hindus' themselves as part of their national and
religious identity; and so today the term has evolved as the name for the
religion of the Vedas. The more correct Sanskrit term for this religion is,
sanatana-dharma, 'the eternal way', but since the term 'hinduism' has
emerged, we will use this word." [sanskrit.org]
SANATANA DHARMA
There is no word for religion in Sanskrit.
Hinduism is not a religion. It is an Inquiry. We in the west use our word
'religion' and apply it to India, but they do not. There is no word for religion
in Sanskrit - none. They use the Sanskrit term:
SANATANA DHARMA, meaning "the
spiritual laws that govern the human
existence. Sanatana Dharma is to
human life what natural laws are to the physical phenomena.
Just as the phenomena of gravitation existed before it was discovered,
the spiritual laws of life are eternal laws which existed before they were
discovered by the ancient Rishis (sages) for the present age during the Vedic
period." [sanatana-dharma.tripod.com]
What has come to be termed Hinduism is actually a process of Inquiry, with
varying 'approaches' to the One that permeates All.
Anyone who begins to study this vast body of knowledge is
bound to feel a little overwhelmed. There are so many texts, for example there
are 200 Upanishads, of which 13 are considered to be core teachings. Then there
are the many various schools of thought that have interpreted the basic texts to
reflect the lens of their particular school. Many more Sanskrit texts have yet
to be translated and in India, Sanskrit scholars are endeavouring to do so.
What we in the west initially knew of the Sanskrit texts was wrongly presented
primarily by scholars who were employed by the British Raj through the East
India Tea Company for the explicit purpose of making Indians doubt their own
faith. Most Indians could not and still cannot read Sanskrit, and thus remain
dependent on their local priest for understanding them. Some of these paid
western scholars later apologized for this egregious propaganda, but the damage
was done and still lingers toxic in the air.
Most horribly misleading are the early translations of the Rig Veda, which make
the sacred verses in the Rig Veda appear to be the work of a primitive people
who worship cows and make sacrifices to idols. Even a cursory look at Indian
culture will make it clear that ancient India was anything but primitive. When I
read my first translation, I was appalled! I instinctively knew that the
translation could not be right. The Rig Veda was the source of the most subtle
and brilliant metaphysics on the planet – and the key to liberation from Samsara.
So how could mere 'cow' worshipping lead to that?
Later I found that the Sanskrit word for cow
GAU had over 27 meanings including:
ray of light, sunlight, light, perception, the sense organs, knowledge, wisdom,
the soul, consciousness, the Earth, the sky, a singer, a song, substance, and
herds of stars. As I slowly began to teach myself Sanskrit, I came to understand
that the words that make up the verses had multiple layers of meanings. The
ability to perceive these meanings is dependent on the level of consciousness
and wisdom of the one reading and translating.
The Sanskrit used in the Rig Veda is not the Sanskrit of the latter texts, and
translations of the Rig Veda are wildly diverse. One cannot help but be
astonished at the unrelated meanings that have been forced out of these sacred
ancient verses. Indian scholars themselves admit this and have said that to
date, there is no agreement on the meaning of the Rig Veda. What to think? The
Rig Veda is the source of all the other sacred Sanskrit texts and yet either it
cannot be translated in English (which is a very limited language of commerce),
or they don’t know what it means.
According to sage Sanskrit scholars, even in ancient times the Rishis and
enlightened masters knew that as we descended down into the Kali Yuga, the real
meaning of the Rig Veda was being lost. Thus these great ones composed the
Upanishads and other Sanskrit texts to serve as bridges of knowledge into our
current dark era. The Mahabharata was also a massive repository of all that had
come before it and the Bhagavad Gita, which is a small part of the Mahabharata,
is the essence, the jewel-like distillation of the wisdom knowledge in all the
other previous Sanskrit texts, and so brilliantly conceived and written that it
is India’s trusted refuge.
These texts were not intended to be ‘quick or easy’ reads. They are meant to
generate a depth of concentration that will allow the sincere ones to open their
hearts and approach the God-within. They are doors to enlightenment. For the
message of the sacred Sanskrit texts is simple: There is only the One. Beneath
the manifested multiplicity, perceived via the endlessly differentiating five
senses, is Oneness. Everything is the One! The immeasurable imperishable
immutable Oneness created all these universes to play in — and Veiled Itself as
you and me, and every other living creature, in order to experience ITs infinite
Self through the ‘appearance’ of limitation. We are That ONE!
Our daunting arduous task is how to get from the consciousness of being Veiled
in the Illusion of Separation, imagining that we are the small ego-self – to
remembering that we are the One playing in Time & Space. It is not so easy to
undo what God has done! It was not intended to be easy. The Sanskrit texts
contain exquisitely subtle metaphysics and whisper their liberating
MOKSHA secrets to us through the
voices of the ancient Rishis, who had indeed Become the One.
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