INSTITUTE FOR PLANETARY SYNTHESIS E-mail:
[email protected] Website http://www.ipsgeneva.com THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SCRIPTURES THE PURUSHA SUKTA This is a course on the symbolism of the Vedas given by Dr E. Krishnamacharya in 1982 and 1983 at the Institute for Planetary Synthesis in Geneva. The text taken for this study is a hymn from the Yajur Veda called the Purusha Sukta, meaning “the utterance of the cosmic Person”. It is one of the main vedic hymns. The Purusha sukta is sung in two different places in the Yajur Veda: in the Upanishad portion called Yajur Aranyaka or Taittiriya Aranyaka, and in the ritual called Manushya Medha, the symbolic Man sacrifice. INTRODUCTION To give a better understanding of the significance of the vedic texts, here is an outline of the main vedic texts and their import. There are four books of vedic literature called Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yayur Veda and Atharva Veda. The Rig Veda contains stanza called “Riks” (mantrams). Exoterically, Rig Veda means the book that contains the original formula of mantrams. Veda means wisdom. Esoterically, Rig is the same as Vãk, that is the uttered word, in Sanskrit. The “R” in Rig indicates the two levels of the origin of the voice: R2 = the “R” uttered with the tip of the tongue, as in the words “red”, “Ram”, Rama”. R1 = the original trill in the vocal cords, without which the voice does not exist. We could not hear the respiration without that trill. Hence, Rig Veda esoterically means the voice uttered and heard and the trill that is produced in the vocal cords.