#LIBERATING_INDIAN_MIND-48
#BIBLE and #RIGVEDA

Impact of Buddhism is too well known to be denied. What is not discussed is the cultural climate modified by prolonged presence of the Indo-European speakers who worshiped Vedic deities and took pride in Vedic legacy despite the fact that their language had suffered loss and decay due to substrates but it appears they had preserved the purity of the Vedic verses in their prayers and ritual recitations.

Bible conversely gives an idea that the prayers कीर्तन and अर्चना sung during the Rigvedic time (गायन्ति त्वां गायत्रिण: अर्चन्ति अर्कं अर्किण: ब्रह्माणस्त्वं शतक्रतो उदवंशं इव येमिरे) that has come down to the present time appear to have been popular among them. The psalms in the bible do not fit well in formless God, or for that matter yogic meditation. Their spirit is the same as we find in कीर्तन and prayer.

The word chhanda (छन्द) Avesta Zend, reaches Europe as canto, and chant, we think through the same source and it should have been in vogue till the time Bible started to be taking the shape of a book.But quite interesting is Sama (सामगान) slightly aberrant as psalm (कीर्तन) and song (with verbal formations sing, sang, sung). Mark the spirit;

Praise God with
shouts of joy.
all people
Sing to the glory of his name
Offer him glorious praise.

One of my copies of Bible contains 149 of Prayers (PSALMS), the other has none. What is important for us is the fact that prayers inevitably presage iconic presence which is absent, but the void created by discard of images was compensated by fetishism such as cross, pictures and paintings of Crucifixion, Mary with child and, elaborate paintings depicting the story of Christ that are fascinating. This is almost a parallel development emulating Buddhism.

We know how closely idolatry is associated with Buddhism. The Persian term BUT (बुत) is nothing but corruption of Buddha. Many of the readers may be holding the dubious view that idolatry started after Buddha, and none shall disagree that popularity of temples and idols among Hindus was an aftermath of Jainism and Buddhism. Earlier makeshift crude images of gods and goddesses were made instantly either of clay or flour and perhaps consigned to the sacrificial fire conclusively in सर्वाहुति . That is a side issue for us here. What disturbs me is the fact that out of religious inversions even the wisest thinker of the west passes idiotic comments on idolatry, not excluding Marx.

There is proof that earlier Bible wasn’t monotheistic, the plural forms were later edited to make them singular, even so the the faint reminders can be detected by any perceptive person. It appears that prior to fourth century when hatred for Romans incensed the Zealots to eliminate all the vestiges of Roman culture and glories including all the knowledge to force the followers to know nothing except there so called Holy Book, even Christianity was not as insane and intolerant as it became thereafter. West had the first taste of revolution in the plebeian revolution which threw the entire Christian world into the the dark age spread the over a millennium. Marxists rejecting all the knowledge that is incompatible with Marxist writings follow the course with similar madness interpreted as confidence.

I want to underline the fact that pluralism, openness, concern for ecology, polytheism, and images even grotesque in appearance are more sensible, more preferable in the larger interest of the only habitable and most beautiful planet in the universe. The idea of Supreme inalienable and ever present in the material and spiritual world and ever expanding and revealing itself (ब्रह्म एव इदं सर्वं यद् भूतं यच्च भाव्यम) is the only scientific basis for a spiritual and material optimal realization. Science could kill the God and has killed it. How can in negate the idea of Brahma unless it negates its own self.#