--- In [email protected], "mark robert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > _____ > > From: Bob Brigante [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 11:46 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: New Vedic Translation? > > > > > --- 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. > > > > ------------------ > > > > Bob, > > > > It's nice that you can have so much faith in those who claim to > know Soma without supplying a sound Vedic foundation. I mean the > problem is the contrary evidence present in Vedic literature's > own main book: the Rig Veda. And virtually everyone in the Vedic > scene ignores it with some sort of weird mass-denial. In other > words, just read the first Vedic texts for your self, instead of > trusting someone else's commentary (that's probably based on > layers and layers of previous commentaries). > > > > -Mark
************** I have confidence, based on my experience with the centerpiece of Vedic culture (TM), that Maharishi's revival of Vedic wisdom (the Ayurveda and Soma-explaining content of which he handed off to Chopra) is authentic -- therefore it not necessary for me to re- invent the wheel, but instead rely on people of higher consciousness to package this material for me (and, conversely, not rely on people of unknown consciousness to interpret the material for me). The Vedas are coded (Jaimini describes some of the encoding in his analysis of the Vedas) and hard to understand. >From "The Concise Srimad Bhagavatam," SUNY Press, 1989, available at http://www.21stbooks.com/ : Lord Krishna continued: "The utterances of the veda are hard to comprehend. The articulate sound of the mantra alone is not the truth. The real meaning of the veda is hidden and known only to me. Therefore, only he who is solely devoted to me, can grasp it." p. 360, Book Eleven, Ch. 21 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/
