Why do Hindus Worship Cow?
Liberals allege that the reverence of the cow that the Hindus show is just a modern invention of political Hindus in the 'cow belt'. They say that the Hindus did not originally worship the cow and there is no inner logic to do so. Srinath Mohandas in this brief article analyzes, by explaining what the Vedas are and what the Yajna is, why cows are worshiped in India.
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The Vedic Yajña: A Conduit for Transcending the Conditioned Consciousness
Evolutionist and anthropological frameworks of interpretation have belittled the Vedic mantra as well as the Vedic Yajña by categorizing the two as naïve and obscure religious expressions (e.g. through labels like hymns and rituals, respectively) of the early humans. This article highlights the consciousness-altering potential of the Vedic Yajña and the role of the Vedic mantra in it by positing that the Vedic Yajña is neither just a ritual nor merely a metaphor; rather it is a powerful performative element in its own right, which pervades the ‘conditioned consciousness’ of its performer and uplifts the same to ever higher planes of consciousness, thus revealing to the performer/practitioner subtler layers of reality on the way to the Truth.
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Nature of the Divine in Hinduism: One or Many?
This is an excerpt from the book, “Veda Mimansa – Volume 1” by Shri Anirvan. In this brief foray, Shri Anirvan describes how Hindus do not find any internal contradiction between believing in a formless, attribute-less divinity in the form of Supreme Consciousness and on the other hand, worshipping hundreds of deities with proper forms and attributes.
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Agama & Bhavana – The Source of Language Intuition
In this excerpt from his famous work "The Vakyapadiya of Bhartrhari with the Vrtti" Shri K. A. Subramania Iyer discusses the nature of knowledge and the sense with which we acquire it. He talks about how the language is intuited, how it originates in human consciousness and how it is manifested in the form that we are familiar from.
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Six Kinds of Intuitions (Pratibha)
In this excerpt from his famous work "The Vakyapadiya of Bhartrhari with the Vrtti" Shri K. A. Subramania Iyer discusses the nature of knowledge and the sense with which we acquire it. He does not only talk about the outer knowledge but also inner knowledge in this timeless gem on India's great wisdom in language and linguistics.
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The Fifth Veda
This is an excerpt from the book “Veda Mimansa – Volume 1” by Shri Anirvan. The Vedanta in reality is the culmination of the Vedic philosophy. It is the exposition of the meaning of the Veda from the standpoint of ‘Knowledge’ (Vijnana). Therefore, it may be said that in order to discover the meaning of the mantras, we have to have a foundation of comprehensive knowledge of the Upanisad, an intimate acquaintance with the Trantra, the Purana and a direct experience of the methods of the Yogic and Tantrik spiritual praxis.
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Inadequacy of the Intellect – Wisdom of the Upanishads
In this brief excerpt, Will Durant explains the importance of Upanishads and how they tell us about the inadequacy of the intellect. To our own day the Upanishads have remained to India what the New Testament has been to Christendom- a noble creed occasionally practiced and generally revered. Even in Europe and America this wistful theosophy has won millions upon millions of followers, from lonely women and tired men to Schopenhauer and Emerson. Who would have thought that the great American philosopher of individualism would give perfect expression to the Hindu conviction that individuality is a delusion?
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Eternal Words of the Vedas
In this excerpt, from Veda Mimansa, Volume I, Shri Anirvan discusses the notion of the eternality of the words of the Vedas. He discusses the age old debate between the Mimansakas and the rationalists, in which the Mimansakas claim that the very words of the Vedas are eternal and not just the meaning, and the rationalists consider only the meaning is eternal. In this brief excerpt, Shri Anirvan navigates through this debate and in the process interprets the origin of language and the importance of the Vedas.
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Apaurusheya and the Origin of Language
In this excerpt, Shri Anirvan talks about Apaurusheya and how the origin of language is related to it. Sanatana Dharma, its scriptures, its philosophy and its institutions are famous for not crediting the individual for certain achievement, or failure, for that matter. Indian arts, famously remain nameless. Shri Anirvan, in this very deep piece analyzes the basic idea of Apaurusheya behind this tradition.
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Ritual and Meaning in the Vedas
This is an excerpt from the Prologue of ‘Veda Mimansa – I’ by Shri Anirvan. This article talks about one of the most fundamental misconceptions about the Vedas; that the Vedic mantras have no meaning and are completely divorced from the Upanishadic philosophy. In this brief piece, Shri Anirvan clears all misconceptions about the problem.
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