[Advaita-l] meaning for certain mantras

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 15 Oct 2008, Siva Senani Nori wrote:

> subhaanave mahodayaaya namah!
>
> Sir,
>
> It is very interesting that you point out that the maarjana mantra 
> starting with "dadhikraavuNNo akaarisham.." refers to a horse, as it no 
> doubt does (the mantra continues as .. jishnOh aSvasya vaajinah...). I

I looked into this and according to Mahidharacharya commenting on 
Vajasaneyi Samhita (where this rk occurs as 23.32), in the ashvamedha, 
this is addressed to the sacrificial horse.  Dadhikravana is the Sun in 
the form of a horse who is born in the East from the Mahodadhi.  This is 
usually translated in English as milk-ocean but should more appropriately 
be curd-ocean.  (Cf. the Gujarati word for curd or yogurt dahi which is a 
direct prakritization of dadhi.)  One is also reminded of the puranic 
story of ucchaihshravas the divine horse who was born from the Mahodadhi 
during the amrtamanthan.

So the connection of this rk with curds is not totally arbitrary.

> am sure that this mantra, followed by "aapo hishThaa mayo bhuvah..." 
> (which is a prayer to the waters to be good for the saadhaka) is a part 
> of the sandhyaa vidhi followed by many.

We ourselves don't use that mantra for marjana but during panchamrtasnana 
in puja.



-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>