--- In [email protected], "mark robert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > _____ > > From: Bob Brigante [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 6:30 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: New Vedic Translation? > > > > > --- In [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > <SNIP> > > > There is also a longstanding tradition that cannabis sativa is > the > soma plant. No firm > > opinion here. > > > > L B S > > ********** > > Deepak Chopra's first book, Return of the Rishi, convinced me > that > the soma plant is a very rare plant that grows only on slopes of > the > Himalayas, and grows following the cycle of the moon -- it used > to be > on the shelf at the Fairfield Library if you're interested. > > > ------------- > > > > Bob, > > I didn't read it (Chopra). What was his hypothesis based on? The > Rig Veda, or other comments of commentator's commentaries? Have > you tried reading the direct Soma translations yourself? If not, > try it. What does it sound like they are describing? > -Mark
****** Well, Chopra was not presenting a hypothesis, but simply identifying the soma plant, in a way that any botanist when asked would identify an oak tree -- there's no mystery about the nature and location of the soma plant among knowledgeable Vedic priests in India. It's only westerners who think soma is a mushroom or whatever. In any event, the rarity of the soma plant [Chopra notes that Balraj (? -- I have don't Chopra's book in front of me, so I don't remember the name of the Ayurveda expert Chopra mentioned) has only seen the plant once in his life] means that its location as a plant has little meaning. What is relevant is that humans produce soma when Cosmic Consciousness is gained. Mental development is complete when CC is gained, but there is further development possible on the level of the senses, and that is what soma is for -- it extends the range of the senses to celestial values, so that one can see the Self in all of Creation (as opposed to CC, when the unlimited awareness is witnessing an entirely separate material creation). When soma has done its job, and Brahman/Unity Consciousness is gained, then the body produces amrita, the nectar of immortality, which allows one to live forever in that body if desired. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
