[FairfieldLife] Re: Newsweek: We Are All Hindus Now

[cardemaister]

 The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: Truth is
One,
 but the sages speak of it by many names.

That *might* be from the famous(?) asyavaamasya-suukta (Rgveda I 164,
by RSi Diirghatamas), whose 39th verse begins like this:

Rco akSare parame vyoman yasmin devaa adhi vishve niSeduH.

pada-paaTha (word-reading, without sandhis or euphonic combination
of words):

ṛcaḥ | akṣare | parame | vi-oman | yasmin | devāḥ
| adhi | vi´sve | ni-seduḥ |

Verse number 46 goes like this:

indraM mitraM varuNam agnim Ahur atho divyaH sa suparNo garutmAn |
ekaM sad viprA bahudhA vadanty agniM yamaM mAtarishvAnam AhuH ||

pada-paaTha :

indram | mitram | varuṇam | agnim | ahuḥ | atho iti |
divyaḥ | saḥ | su-parṇaḥ | garutman | ekam |
sat | viprāḥ | bahu-dha | vadanti | agnim | yamam |
matari´svanam | ahuḥ //

Ralph T. H. Griffith's translation:

46 They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni, and he is heavenly
nobly-winged Garutman.
To what is One, sages give many a title they call it Agni, Yama,
Matari´svan.

If that's the same verse, we think to what is one is a way more
accurate
translation than truth is one, because 'sat' seems to be the present
participle
neuter singular nominative/accusative form from the verb 'as' (to be).

The word 'vipra' (= sage; nominative plural: vipraaH) is intriguing,
because its
etymological meaning seems to be something like 'inwardly excited':

vipra mf(%{A})n. stirred or excited (inwardly) , inspired , wise (said
of men and gods , esp. of Agni , Indra , the As3vins , Maruts c. ; cf.
%{paNDita}) RV. AV. VS. S3Br. [973,1] ; learned (esp. in theology) TS.
S3Br. ; a sage , seer , singer. poet , learned theologian RV. VS.

Although Monier-Williams doesn't seem to mention it, it seem quite
likely
that 'vipra' is derived from the root 'vip':

vip 1 (or %{vep}) cl. 1. A1. (Dha1tup. x , 6) %{vepate} (ep. also %{-ti}
; p. %{vipAna4} RV. ; pf. %{vivepe} Gr. ; %{vivipre} RV. ; aor.
%{avepiSTa} Br. ; fut. %{vepitA} , %{vepiSyate} Gr. ; inf. %{vepitum}
ib.) , to tremble , shake , shiver , vibrate , quiver , be stirred RV.
c. c. ;

A rather synonymous word, paNDita, is thought by some scholars to have
originally been 'spandita', which would prolly be derived from the root
'spand':

spand (often confounded with %{syand}) cl. 1. A1. (Dha1tup. ii , 13)
%{spandate} (rarely %{-ti} ; only in pres. base and inf. %{spanditum} ;
Gr. also pf. %{paspande} ; fut. %{spanditA} , %{spandiSyate} ; aor.
%{aspandiSTa}) , to quiver , throb , twitch , tremble , vibrate , quake
, palpitate , throb with life , quicken (as a child in the womb)
Pa1rGr2. Car. MBh. c. ; to kick (as an animal) Br. A1s3vS3r. ; to make
any quick movement , move , be active Hariv. ; to flash into life , come
suddenly to life BhP.: Caus. %{spandayati} (aor. %{apaspandat}) , to
cause to quiver or shake MBh. ; to move (trans.) A1s3vS3r.: Desid.
%{pispandiSate} Gr.: Intens. , see %{paniSpada4}. [Cf. Gk. $ ; perhaps
also 382800[1268 ,1] Lat. {pendo} , {pondus}.]

I guess it's anybody's guess, whether 'vipra' and '(s)pandita' are, at
least slightly,
from the Vedantic POV, derogatory words... :D

[FairfieldLife] Re: Newsweek: We Are All Hindus Now

[sgrayatlarge]

Like the great GK Chesterton said-

When you don't believe in God, it's not that you believe in nothing, you 
believe in anything


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer r...@... wrote:

 
 Subject: Newsweek: We Are All Hindus Now
 
 By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK 
 
 Published Aug 15, 2009
 
 From the magazine issue dated Aug 31, 2009
  http://www.newsweek http://www.newsweek ..com/id/212155
 
 America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by
 Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to
 identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American
 history). Of course, we are not a Hindu-or Muslim, or Jewish, or
 Wiccan-nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a
 fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that
 conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less
 like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each
 other, and eternity.
 
 The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: Truth is One,
 but the sages speak of it by many names. A Hindu believes there are many
 paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a
 third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional,
 conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn
 in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus
 said, I am the way, the truth, and the life No one comes to the Father
 except through me.
 
 Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65
 percent of us believe that many religions can lead to eternal
 life-including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to
 believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek
 spiritual truth outside church is growing. Thirty percent of Americans call
 themselves spiritual, not religious, according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up
 from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston
 University, has long framed the American propensity for the divine-deli-
 cafeteria religion as very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not
 picking and choosing from different religions, because they're all the
 same, he says. It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If
 going to yoga works, great-and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And
 if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works,
 that's great, too.
 
 Then there's the question of what happens when you die. Christians
 traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together they
 comprise the self, and that at the end of time they will be reunited in
 the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you need them forever.
 Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body burns on a pyre, while the
 spirit-where identity resides-escapes. In reincarnation, central to
 Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies. So
 here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent
 of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris
 poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're
 burning them-like
 Hindus-after death. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation,
 according to the Cremation Association of North America, up from 6 percent
 in 1975. I do think the more spiritual role of religion tends to
 deemphasize some of the more starkly literal interpretations of the
 Resurrection, agrees Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at
 Harvard.
 
 So let us all say om.
 
 Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah Let noble thoughts come to me from all
 directions
 - RIG VEDA