[Advaita-l] Question on Sarpa sUkta of Krishna Yajur veda

[vishwanthan Krishnamoorthy]

Thank you very much for the interesting post.
also heard from an upasaka about the relation between
skanda and kundalini and that the subramanya worship
is an integral part of Srividya. An interesting
fact(?) i heard was that in the advanced stages of
upasana, the upasaka starts resembling the upasana
devatha and that in the case of advanced Subramanya
upasakas, their skin starts getting dry and mottled
like that of a snake. 

regards
vishwanathan

--- Ajit Krishnan <ajit at mudgala.com> wrote:

> Namaste,
> 
> I do not know too much about this, but here goes...
> 
> There is a strong tradition linking Skanda & Sarpa.
> This includes the
> worship of the image of Sarpa as Skanda, and the
> worship of Sarpa along with
> Skanda.
> 
> The story of Garuda & Vasuki is said to be in the
> Skanda purana. The divine
> eagle, was starving, and attacked Vasuki while
> looking for prey. The sage
> Kashyapa intervened, and requested Garuda to desist.
> He told Garuda of a
> place where he would be able to satisfy his hunger.
> He told Vasuki, the
> great Shiva bhakta, of a mountain where he would not
> be bothered again. He
> was told that Kartikeya would come there at a later
> time, and always remain
> by his side. 
> 
> I was also told of fragments of another legend where
> the lord took the form
> of a snake to kill some asura in a mountain-cave. He
> was joined there by two
> other divine snakes (probably vasuki and takshaka),
> and his samadhi took
> place here. (This is said to be another meaning of
> the epitheth "guha"). 
> 
> It is also interesting to note that Skanda is
> commonly worshipped to rid
> oneself of ailments relating to snakes.
> 
> In the panchayatana puja, the lord is invoked by
> some as follows:
> "asmin naaga-bimbe naaga-raajaM sameta shrii
> subrahmaNyaM dhyaayaami ... "
> 
> Sri Chandrashekara Saraswati (Kanchi Shankaracharya)
> is said to have given a
> discourse on Muthuswami Dikshitar's Subrahmanya
> Kriti. One line of this
> kriti is "vaasuki takshakaadi sarpa svaruupa
> dharanaaya". He says that sarpa
> literally means kundalini, both having a wriggled,
> spiral-like form. [
> Subrahmanya has the kundalini shakti itself as his
> weapon, in the form of a
> vel ]
> 
> In the course of his discourse, he is said to have
> asked rhetorically if
> Shankaracharya has ever mentioned this
> identification. He replies that in
> the Subrahmanya Bhujangam, the word "bhujangam" in
> the title itself refers
> to a snake who uses his entire body as his hands. 
> 
> He also talks about the seeming contradictions
> designed to take us above
> "hate". It was a poisonous snake that was used to
> churn the ocean for
> nectar, and Subrahmanya has for his vehicle a
> peacock, the enemy of snakes. 
> 
> The Tirumala hills on which Lord Venkateshwara
> resides is also called
> seshagiri. The acharya says that "sarpa svaruupa
> dhara" refers to
> Subrahmanya as the Tirumala hill itself.
> 
> 	ajit
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> [mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org]
> On Behalf Of
> vishwanthan Krishnamoorthy
> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 7:38 AM
> To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
> Subject: RE: [Advaita-l] Question on Sarpa sUkta of
> Krishna Yajur veda
> 
> namste,
> 
> why is sarpa sukta chanted for kumara?
> nighR^ishvairasamaayutaiH is chanted during Arathi
> in
> our temple. In some temples in Kerala that i have
> been, Skanda is worshipped as a Sarpa can someone
> shed
> some light on this,
> 
> thanks
> vishwanathan 
> 
> --- Ajit Krishnan <ajit at mudgala.com> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Sarpa Suktam:
> > 
> > namo astu sarpebhyaH : 		Taittiriya Samhita 4.2.8
> > idam sarpebhyaH : 		Taittiriya Brahmana 3.1.1
> > nighR^ishvairasamaayutaiH : 	Taittiriya Aranyaka
> > 1.12
> > 
> > The first part is found among the udaka-shanti
> > mantras. The second & third
> > parts are taken from the nakshatra sukta & aruna
> > prashna respectively.
> > 
> > 	ajit
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> >
> [mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org]
> > On Behalf Of S.Krishnan
> > Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 8:41 PM
> > To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> > Subject: [Advaita-l] Question on Sarpa sUkta of
> > Krishna Yajur veda
> > 
> > Shri Ananad,
> > 
> > Sarpa sUkta of Krishna Yajur veda: Where does it
> > occur? Is it part of
> > Samhita/Aranyaka/Brahmana
> > Also I recall a panchasat in first prasnam of
> > Aranyakam (Surya Nanmaskara
> > Prasnam) ending with "subrahmaNyom"
> > 
> > Thanks
> > 
> > S. Krishnan
> > -------------
> > Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2004 10:50:28 +0000
> > From: "Anand Hudli" <anandhudli at hotmail.com>
> > Subject: [Advaita-l] Re: Question on Kumara Suktam
> > of Rg Veda
> > To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> > Message-ID:
> > <BAY101-F20B5FD4BF6D34E6D3BCE4FD7BF0 at phx.gbl>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
> > 
> > rama.balasubramanian at gmail.com wrote:
> > 
> > >I am trying to locate the so-called Kumara Suktam
> > in the Rg Veda,
> > >which is used in Subrahmania temples in Tamil
> Nadu.
> > Can any Rg vedin
> > >provide the exact reference, so that I can
> consult
> > my book?
> > 
> > Coincidentally, I had the same question until I
> > enquired of some of my Tamil
> > friends. The subrahmaNya sUkta consists of three
> > R^ig Vedic sUktas:
> > 
> > 1. maNDala 4, sUkta 15: The R^iShi here is
> vAmadeva
> > gautama, devatAs are
> > agni, somaka, and the ashvins. The meter is the
> > celebrated gAyatrI
> > 
> > 2. maNDala 5 sUkta 2:  The R^iShi is kumAra
> Atreya,
> > the devatA is agni. All
> > but the 12th verse are in triShTup. The 12th is in
> > shakvarI.
> > 
> > 3. maNDala 10, sUkta 62: The R^iShi is
> > nAbhAnediShTha, the devatAs are
> > vishvedevas or angirasas and sAvarNi. The sUkta
> has
> > various meters - jagatI,
> > anuShTup, pragAtha, gayatrI, and triShTup.
> > 
> > The first two sUktas speak of "kumAra" whereas the
> > fourth R^ik in the third
> > sUkta contains the word "subrahmaNyaM". Probably
> > this why these sUktas are
> > used in the worship of kumAra.
> > 
> > There is a tradition of the Krishna Yajur veda
> where
> > the sarpa sUkta is used
> > as a subrahmaNya sUkta, perhaps because it ends
> with
> > "subrahmaNyom.h".
> > 
> > Anand
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
=== message truncated ===



		
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