To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/12/26 02:34
Subject: [K-list] shiva - fighter of pseudo spirituality
From: Zala

2

      It is important to analyze the meaning of the term shiva. In
trying to find the meaning of the word shiva, we must know
whether or not the Samskrta (sanskrit) language was used in those
days. Some
people say that the Samskrta language was imported to
India from Central Asia, but this does not seem to be
correct. Rather it is more reasonable to say that in those
days one almost identical language was current all the way
from Central Asia and Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia. The
branch of that language that was popular in Southeast Asia
was called Samskrta, while the language that was spoken in
the northeastern parts was Vaedik (Vedic).

      The Aryans migrated to India from outside, no doubt,
but the Aryan influence was not so discernible in Southeast
Asia as in the northwestern parts of India. The Vaedik
language came to India with the Aryans, but the Samskrta
language is an indigenous language of India; it did not come
from outside.

      It is not at all possible to trace the exact antiquity
of the Vaedik language, because the only book that is
available in that language is the ancient Rkveda, and the
Rkveda was not in written form in those days either. The
people of those days did not know how to read and write;
they had no knowledge of any alphabet. They were not at all
acquainted with the letters a, a, ka, kha*, etc.
__________________________
*The first two vowels and the first two consonants of
Samskrta.

      The alphabet--the Brahmii script, the Kharoshi script,
and the subsequent scripts born out of them--were invented
some time during the last 5000 to 7000 years. The Sarada,
the Narada, and the Kutila scripts were variants of the old
Brahmii script, and the Shriiharsa* script is a variant of
the Kutila script. The script in which modern Bengali is
written is the Shriiharsa script.
_
*Author's note: Of the existing scripts in South Asia, the
Shriiharsa script is the second in antiquity to the Sarada
script (Kashmiirii script). A manuscript written in the old
Sarada script can be found in the historical museum of the
author's (Anandamurtiji's) Calcutta residence.

      The Rkveda was composed about 15,000 years ago.
Scripts were totally unknown in those days. It would not be
incorrect to say that although the human race came onto the
earth about a million years ago, its civilization started
only about 15,000 years ago. This shows that human
civilization and human culture are not very old in relation
to the antiquity of the human race. We should not belittle
civilization for being so recent, but neither can we
venerate it as being very old.

      In the days of Shiva, the Aryans started entering
India from the northwest. Many of them had already arrived,
many were on the way, and many were still making
preparations to come. The Vaedik language of the Aryans who
had already arrived in India had exerted a widespread
influence on the spoken dialects of the indigenous
population of India, such as the Kash, the Scythians, the
Euchi, the South Kusan, etc. Obviously, Samskrta, the common
language of the indigenous people of the then India, was not
outside the orbit of influence of the Vaedik language; but
that influence was not unilateral; that is, the Vaedik
language was also influenced by the Samskrta language.

      Tantra had its origin in India, and Shiva gave a
systematic form to it. Of course, Tantra in its Kashmiirii
and Gaoriiya Schools did exist before Shiva, but in a
scattered and crude form. So naturally one has to admit that
Shiva was born and brought up in an environment of Tantra,
although it was not classical Tantra.

      Shiva was well acquainted with the Vaedik language and
the Vaedik religion. Both in the Vedas and in the Tantrik
treatises, we come across references to Shiva, but not in
very ancient texts, because it was not possible to put works
in writing in very ancient times, due to the lack of
knowledge of the alphabet.* The Tantrik oral texts used to advise
people,"You should do this, you should do that, you should
hear and learn these lessons from your masters,: and so on;
because in those days it was not possible to write books, as
scripts had not yet been invented. The Vedas would also
advise people in the same way - to hear and learn things
from the masters. That is why the Vedas are called shruti in
Samskrta. Shruti means "ear"; so that which is learned by
hearing is called shruti.
______
*Thus much material was lost.

      The period of Shiva was a most turbulent period in
India. On the one hand there were the Aryans, the outsiders,
and on the other hand there were the indigenous people, with
their Tantra oriented culture and religion. Into this
conflict-ridden environment, Shiva was born.

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