[Advaita-l] ANOTHER QUESTION ON RV AND VEDANTA ROOTS...

[Venkata sriram P]

Namaste,
 
//  indraM mitraM varuNaMagnimAhurathO divyaH sA suparNO garutmAn
EkaM sat viprA bahudhA vadanti agniM yamaM mAtarisvAnamAhuH //

The niruktakAra Yaska explains the above mantra and says the Truth
is One which is Agni.  And sAyaNa interprets it as Aditya.  
 
So, the same Truth which is One and Only One is perceived rather
“envisioned” by Seers as Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, Suparna,
Yama and Matarisvan. 
 
The Rg Veda categorizes devatas as 33 in number.  People even
scholars wrongly translate the “dEvata” as god but fail to understand
that the conceptually both are different.  The root of dEvata is “div” 
which indicate the “prakAsa” tattvas who are luminary beings.  And if we
translate the dEvata to god, the conceptual beauty and principle
associated with the word “dEvata” is getting distorted.  
 
Now, one must not forget that there is bahu-dEvata-arAdhana during
the Rg Vedic Era which is crystal clear from the various sUktAs of 
Rg Mandalas.  But, inspite of “bahu-dEvata-arAdhana”, the underlying
principle is “Eka Ishwara upAsana”.  Please note that I am emphasizing
on the principles of “dEvata”, “Ishwara”, “arAdhana” & “upAsana”.
 
So, the shrutivAkya “ekO dEvaH sarvabhUtEShu gUDaH” reverberates with
“Eka Ishwara tattva” which echoes with Advaita Siddhanta. 
 
So translate the above that gods are many but God is One, I have slight 
reservations with the translation of dEvata & Ishwara as god & God.  
The difference of “g” & “G” is taken with a pinch of salt.
 
Now, coming to the other mantra dvA suparNaM sAyuja sakhAya samAnaM 
vrikShaM………”, this is a wonderful symbolism of 2 birds sitting on the
“same tree”.  One of the birds is “enjoying” the “sweet fruits” and the other
is a “silent observer” of the former one though it is it’s riend “sakhAya”.  
 
The tree is saMsAra vrikSha; the enjoyer of the fruit is jiva who is 
enjoying his karma-phala; whereas the “silent observer” is the 
paramAtma who is a sAkshi to all.  Both are on the same Tree but
the later is perched on a slightly higher branch.  This implies
both are in world however, one is immersed in it and the other is
a silent observer, “unattached”.  But both are friends so both are of
same nature but are separate due to upAdhi dOSha. 
 
The berries of the tree are sweet because the viShaya vAsanAs
which we enjoy are sweet in nature.  

As regards the Atmananda who wrote commentary on AV Sukta, 
I could not trace his biographical details.  But this much I am 
sure that he is different from Shri Atmananda Krishna Menon Ji.
 
As regards the Author of the book Dr. C.Kunhan Raja, he worked as 
Professor of Sanskrit in Andhra University, Andhra Pradesh.  
 
But i would suggest you to go for the Ramakrishna Mutt Publication of the
AV Sukta by Swami Amritananda.  
 
Apart from this, there are several publicationsby several scholars like :
 
1. "Thousand Syllabled Speech (sahasrAkSharA vAk)-Vision of Long Darkness (dIrghatamas)", 
2. suparNa sUkta - analysis by Shriman Ekkirala Anantacharya etc. 
3. A gloss on AV Sukta by Prof. Satvalekar 
 
Regs,
Sriram