[Advaita-l] 'somaH pavate....' Rg.Veda 9.5

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 11:29 AM, Kalyan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> //The Rg vedic mantra: सोमः पवते जनिता मतीनां जनिता दिवो जनिता पृथिव्या:।
> जनिताग्नेर्जनिता सूर्यस्य जनितेन्द्रस्य जनितोत विष्णोः 9.5  which depicts
> Shiva as the progenitor of agni, surya, indra, vishnu,//
>
>
> Here, Sayana does not interpret soma as a reference to Shiva.
>
> In fact, in Rig veda 7.40.5, Sayana interprets that all devas are branches
> of Vishnu.
>
> How do we reconcile this with the so-called birth of vishnu mentioned
> above? Madhusudhana gives us the answer. In BG, when the Lord says he is
> vishnu among adityas, the interpretation given for the word vishnu is the
> vAmana avatAra.


Madhusudana gives that meaning only as an alternative to the first one that
is given by all other commentators: one of the 12 Adityas named vishnu. It
is likely that he was influenced by Sridhara Swamin's interpretation of
that word in the BG.



> So the Rig vedic birth of vishnu in the above shloka is nothing but his
> incarnation as vAmana. This is also confirmed by the mention of birth of
> Indra, since Vishnu as vAmana is upendra, the younger brother of Indra.
> Hope that clarifies.
>

The Bhasmajabalopanishat which has the almost similar Rg vedic mantra:

ब्रह्म सोमोऽहं पवनः सोमोऽहं पवते सोमोऽहं जनिता मतीनां सोमोऽहं जनिता
पृथिव्याः सोमोऽहं जनिताऽग्नेः
सोमोऽहं जनिता सूर्यस्य सोमोऽहं जनितेन्द्रस्य सोमोऽहं जनितोत विष्णोः
सोमोऽहमेव जनिता स यश्चन्द्रमसो
देवानां भूर्भुवस्वरादीनां सर्वेषां लोकानां च ।

 is commented upon by Upanishad Brahma Yogin in his 108 Upanishads
commentary as:

He who is with Uma am I, Soma, the Brahman. He who has become Pavana (vayu)
as the Sutratma and purifies all (pavate) am I, Soma, the Parameshwara. I,
Soma, as Ishwara, create everything that is different from me, such as Agni.

Madhvas have interpreted the Soma of the Rg.vedic mantra as Vayu and for
the 'janitA vishnoH' they say 'vayu is the one who enables the knowledge of
vishnu', thereby adding the word 'knowledge' after the word 'vishnu' in the
mantra.

regards
vs