Author: David Frawley
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 275
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8120811607
Description
Being the first translation of the Rig Veda available in the West by an author trained in the Vedic and Yogic traditions, this book unlocks many of the mystical and esoteric keys to the Vedas not previously noted.
The Rig Vedas is jot only one of the oldest sacred scriptures of the world, but also one of the most misunderstood. Past scholarship has dismissed the hymns of the Rig Veda as being expressions of a primitive animistic mentality that only rarely rose to true spiritual and philosophical heights. This book demonstrates that this judgmental view is ill-founded. Author's fine renderings of select Vedic hymns bear a witness to the fact that their composers were sages and seers - powerful poets who knew the art of symbolic and metaphoric communication. The Vedic hymns give us a unique glimpse not into a primitive mentality but a mentality and culture that revolved around the highest spiritual values and visions.
The Rig Veda is perhaps the oldest book in the world, dating back to the dawn of history. It is the fountainhead of the spiritual traditions of India and the oldest text in any Indo-European language. It is compendium of wisdom, poetry, mythology, riddles, and above all yogic and meditational insights which are relevant for all who wish to understand the deeper spiritual impulses behind human civilization.
This is an important and riveting book, ushering in a new and sounder tradition of Vedic interpretation and scholarship.
Contents
Foreword by Subhash Kak
Preface
PART I : INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
THE RIG VEDA, THE BOOK OF MANTRA
The Veda Reexamined
The Rig Veda
The Golden Age
The Solar-Dawn Religion of Enlightenment
The Aryan Seers
The Gods
Gods and Goddess
Mantric Language
Method of Translation
CHAPTER 2
CHANTS TO HEAVEN AND EARTH AND CHANTS TO THE DAWN
Heaven & Earth as the Divine Father & Mother
Yielding Clarity & Honey-Bliss
Resplendent with Clarity
Hymns to the Dawn, Ushas
Goddess Human in Mortals
The Birth of the Eye of the Gods
The Guiding Goddess of the Days
The Beneficent Daughter of Heaven
The Path-Goddess of Men
A New Eon of Life
As Sons to the Mother
PART II : THE FOURFOLD GODHEAD
CHAPTER 3 : AGNI, CONSCIOUSNESS-FORCE, THE SACRED FIRE
The Flame of the Sacred
An Ocean of Oneness
This Immortal Light in Mortals
The Foremost Station of the Bird
The Knower of All Births
The Cosmic Victory of our Ancient Fathers
The White Horse if Born in the Forefront of the Days
The Magical Invoker
I am The Fire
Question the fire
May We have the Power to Control the Stallion
The Power of Sacrifice in the Supreme Ether
The Universal Ruler
CHAPTER 4
INDRA, PURE BEING, THE SPIRITUAL MAN
Cosmic Warriors in the Battle for Light
The Divine Warrior
The Dragon-Slayer
In the Esctasy of Soma
I have been Born as the Sun
How to Sing the Mystic Song
Who Slay his Own Parents
The Wielder of the Vajra
According to his Own Will he created Himself
Indra speaks as the Hawk
Generating at once the Sun, Heaven & The Dawn
Conscious with the Energy of Life in Every World-Age
You have conquered All Births
You have Transcended All Existence
CHAPTER 5
SURYA, INTELLIGENCE, THE SOLAR SELF
The Sun of Creation
The Solar Self
Savitar, the Sun of Transformation
The Ancient Solar Yoga
Mitra & Varuna : The Divine Friend & lord
Through All the Manifold Births of Men
Flying Like a Hawk
The Sunlight Rain of Bliss
Sons of the Infinite Mother
Varuna, the Unborn Who Upholds Heaven
Sailing on the Cosmic Ocean
Mitra, the Divine Friend
Vishnu, The Pervader
The Fostering Sun, Pushan
The Sun-Bird
May We Be Infinite
CHAPTER 6
SOMA, THE IMMORTAL NECTAR, THE BLISS OF PURE PERCEPTION
Vedic Alchemy : How to Extract the Soma
Driving Away False Thinking
The Pillar of Heaven
The Being of Splendor
The Priest of the Gods
The Single Eye
The Cosmic Atom
The Poet-Seer
The Lord of the Mind
Yielding the Milk & Clarity of the Imperishable
Four Infinite Oceans of Splendor
The Spirit Effused for the Absorption
The Essence of the Perceptive Faculties
Soma as the Sun
Into the Belly of the Tree
Secret Nature of the Father & Mother
The Seven-Mouthed Chants
PART III : THE GODDESS
CHAPTER 7
THE GODDESS, THE POWER OF THE DIVINE WORD
The Muse
The Goddess Intelligence
The Forms of the Goddess
The Goddess of the Water
Sarasvati, the Goddess of the Flowing Stream of Inspiration
Sita, the Goddess of the Plowed-Up Earth
Rodasi, Goddess of Transformed Heaven & Earth
Like Women in Childbirth
PART IV : APPENDICES
Glossary of Terms
Key to Translation of Vedic Terms
Bibliography
Index