Removing The Sheen From Buddhism

[Husky]

When searching the Rig, there were a few things one couldn't help noticing:



+ A line from somewhere in the sukta to Cows in RV 6.28 has been translated even by Griffith as "I long for Indra with my heart and spirit." :zo lief:

"(इन्द्र) इच्छामीद्धृदामनसा चिदिन्द्रम्" seems to me to be the part that it matches.



+ In that same sookta, but before the above mentioned line I think, the Griffith translation that's provided for another statement is "To me the Cows seem Bhaga, they seem Indra, they seem a portion of the first-poured Soma."

Well, not knowing the deep Vedic meaning and all (and not being deep myself), I'll agree in the only sense I can - i.e. the superficial sense of going by the translation at face value: I can see how Hindoos would know to recognise their Gods embodied in cows [and elephants etc].

(But I daresay all animals seem inexplicably - one might say divinely - beautiful to my eye. But there's something about animals, isn't there. The 'je ne sais quoi'.)



+ And in RV 10.158: "सुसंदृशं त्वा वयं प्रति पश्येम सूर्य । वि पश्येम नृचक्षसः ॥" or thereabouts is translated as "Thus, Sūrya, may we look on thee, on thee most lovely to behold, See clearly with the eyes of men."



+ And the first line of RV 2.3.3 again: ईळितो अग्ने मनसा नो अर्हन्देवान्यक्षि मानुषात्पूर्वो अद्य ।

That bit is translated by Griffith as "Adored in heart ... O Agni"



And those are just the examples I found in shlokas from already-posted sooktas. That is: I wasn't even looking.



But it all certainly puts a sock in the absurd claim that there's no "bhakti" in the Vedas". Really?



But Piety - the Roman word used in its original, i.e. Hellenistic=heathen sense - naturally goes hand-in-hand with Gods-based (=Gods-centred) religions. I.e. heathen religions. And piety/bhakti to the Gods is the source of all pooja among heathens.



Then again, delusional [alien] people keep asserting that Daoism has no Gods :mad: or else that "at least Daoism has no bhakti/piety". Shima? The Daoists are profoundly attached to their Gods - i.e. with deep and abiding affection (of a kind that's peculiar to heathens who still know their ancestral Gods). Quite as much as the Hindus have had for theirs. Daoists call their Gods "Divine Parents" - which is their English translation for their Chinese phrase. And that phrase is an immediate encapsulation of all the Daoist Gods and Goddesses (i.e. all Daoist Heaven): they're actually all included in that reference "Divine Parents".

I have consciously copied and been parroting this very phrase for the Hindu case, because it literally applies:* Hindus have always called their Gods Mata and Pita (and Pitamaha) etc. Indeed, IIRC a Surya stotram in the MBh (the Dhaumya one I think) lists among Surya Bhagavan's names all three: "pitA mAtA pitAmahaH". :lief: And IIRC MBh again tells us that Vayu, being Praana itself, is similarly naturally the Divine Father of all that lives and breathes (and the All really). That sort of deep and intimate knowledge of the character/nature of their ancestral Hindoo Gods is whence native Hindoos' attachment for their Gods derives. The Hindoos who know/would know their ancestral Gods have a natural and profound attachment to and piety for them.**



Can look westward for an example and see quite the same thing: Seneca and Julian weren't the only Hellenes going about knowingly calling their ancestral Gods and Goddesses their Fathers and Mothers. There are a number of ancient Hellenistic hymns that even I have come across in translation mentioning this.





* Rather like SE Asian Daoists have used "jaya bhakti" (in Roman script) as the deliberate translation for a Daoist Temple's Chinese name.



** I like the word that was used to translate into English Julian's own statements about what he feels towards his Gods - I recall this word as being "affection". (I'd hate to admit to having memorised it. "IIRC" therefore.) In any case, it certainly fits Hindus' (and Daoists' etc) feelings too. Indeed, in Shinto (and Hindu religion etc), even animals are described [and attested] as feeling the same piety for the Kamis. Shintoists naturally regard native animals as being Shinto too, since the Kamis appear in person to native Japanese and interact with these - be these human or other animal kind. Again, it's very similar to the Hindu ("etc") case.