Rudram

January 18, 2021

Table of Contents

Summary
SA/EN anuvAka 1 - 11

Class 1 (2021-01-16)

Primary aspect of Rg Veda is upasana. Mental worship. In Yajur Veda focus is karma.
Veda is divided into samhita (collection of mantras, hymns) and brahmana, which is dos and donts, rituals. Brahmana is subdivided into 1) brahmana 2) aranjaka 3) last portion is upanishad.
We’re all devotes of supreme will.
Rshih - the one who sees the truth. In Vedic times the vedic seers worshiped the same supreme will in the form of natural forces. Antarjami - inner controller, that’s the Isvara which Vedic hymns worship. We’re worshiping Isvara as multiple extracosmic persons.
For rshis the worship is born out of the wonder, glory of Isvara in the cosmos. For most devotees today wonder, glory of god, is replaces by desires and fears.
Rshis looked at water as manifest form of God. How nicely it promotes and sustains life. It is so abundant. Name is vArunah.
Bhakti is wonder, not sentimentality. When you wonder, there is no me and mine. Sentimentality mostly is about me and mine.
Whenever the rishi looks at the fire there is a wonder. It is the most powerful manifestation of universal power called God. Therefore fire became primary alter of worship for Vedic rshis. They worshiped wind, space which is grafity, sun, moon, stars, prthivi as mother, trees, plants. All their worship are born form the sense of wonder in the heart.
Chandogya upanishad, Brhadaranyika upanishad, beginning of Yajur Veda give an idea about Rudra.
Upanishads are not continuation of karma and upasana. They are revolution of them.
Human life are divided into three savanas (section). First 24y pratah savana. All our troubles are taken care of by parents. Next 48y up to 72y we’re independent people. We need some kind of propitiation -> Chandogya advises to worship Rudras.
Indriyas are called Rudras because they make us cry. And they themselves cry. Rudanti, rodayanti. Rudra is malevolent aspect of supreme will. You cannot have only good aspect in the creation. Best example for Rudra nowadays is Covid.
You’re always praying to the supreme will. Now you call it (address the aspect) Rudra, later something else, it is still one supreme will.
Don’t react to anger (of the other). Act. First do namaskara to anger. Prostrate if not welcome. Attitude like “Oh, Covid devata, my prostrations to you”.
Anybody carrying a weapon is Rudra. Don’t look at him as villain, criminal. Rudra has taken him over at the moment.

Class 2 (2021-01-23: Verse 1 - 5)

A mantra having a specific meter, i.e. a verse, is called Rg Matra. Prose mantra, meaning it has no specific meter, is yajuh.
Everything happens because of the higher power (Isvara). This recognition is called bhakti. Scientists say the same thing with a different terminology. A small thing is the way it is because the entire universe is the way it is.
Name of the unfavorable expression of the supreme will is Rudra. Rudra is the one who strikes, presented as a personification.
Verses are pointing towards seeing Rudra as virus/bacterial infection. They are asking not to be subjected to these as favour from Rudra.
Reason for putting a temple on the summit of a mountain. 1) Beauty 2) to reach the summit of a mountain you have to leave worldly life behind. You’re one with nature, with beauty. 3) It also requires earnestness in the heart. It requires effort, tapas.
In artificial beauty, jiva expresses. In natural beauty, Shiva expresses.
Giri is megha, rain bearing cloud. Agriculture depends on rains. Rain is considered blessing from above. The one who abides in that giri as the most pious life giving water is Shiva, called “girishanta”. Or the one who abides in (behind) the sacred words of upanishads. Puranic meaning - god abiding in the mountain of Kailash.
“Giritra” one who abides in the rain bearing cloud or in the words of upanishads and protects as.
Agrarian society means “purusham (people) jagat (living beings moving around)”. In modern times for city dwellers it’s only about purusham. Veda mantras begin with cattle, because for agrarian people cattle is their life.
Generally people don’t pray to gain God. This prayer is to gain Rudra, using the most auspicious words - shivena vacasa. Prayer or no, whatever you say must be Shiva. Why speak inauspicious, harsh words at all?
If you work under a boss you want a favourable disposition of your boss. Here authors are asking Rudra to think of them favourably.
These prayers say “naha” (us, all of us - family, community, cattle), not “mama” (mine).
If Covid-19 is Rudra’s weapon then the vaccine is Rudra’s blessing only. Both are his blessings.

Class 3 (2021-01-30)

Prayer: may the Isvara (Rudra) think nice about us and say nice things about us. May he bless us.
Blessing can be in the form of thought or speech. Generally it is thought of as speech.
Pratamah - foremost. Who was there as the time of creation. The cosmic person. Hiranyagarbha. That is Rudra only.
“Who am I?” Better question is “What am I”?
Students of Vedanta should pay attention to the word “deva”. Isvarah cinmayavapuhuh.
bhiSak - physician
Innocence is divinity. You find it with village folk (India), side by side which ignorance, which has no value. The innocent people look at the physician as a god.
dhanvantari - physician of the gods
We should not say english medicine, telugu medicine. Knowledge has no boundaries.
The faith you have into the doctor helps you to get out of the illness, recover quickly.
In fact you surrender to the physician. Illness cured by the physician is limited to the body. But there is psychological illness - seeking more. The sense of more. We’ve countless desires and then fears. This kind of illness is treated by surrendering to the higher power called Izvara. Immediate disease: sukhaduka cycle. Long range: birth and death cycle. Only Izvara (supreme will/prime mover) can treat that.
Agrarian society. Everywhere there are serpents. Serpent is in the psyche of vedic people. Serpent is anything which crawls. A crawling creature.
Two kinds of evil spirits: rakshasa - cruel, violent, they carry a weapon on their body. asura - people given unbridled pleasure-seeking 24/7. They are evil people because everything is looked at through pleasure seeking.
Weather has big impact on psyche. The way a person speaks and acts you can figure out the weather in which he was born and brought up.
Sun worshipers worship sun excluding everything else. We worship Isvara (in the form of sun) including everything else.
In India midday sun is very harsh, so it is the morning and evening sun that is worshipped.
When there is no thought, inner silence, spaciousness - there are no boundaries. When you abide in that, that itself is considered supreme worship of Isvara. If you want to make it saguna you can visualise in your heart the prime mover - upasana. If you want to come down further and need an image, look at the rising sun.
Vedic rishis did not worship God in man-made images. They worshipped god in god-made images. Waters, sun, candra, prthivi … They did not have the need to build a brick-and-mortar temple and install a image to worship God. To such an extend they looked at the rising sun as the supreme alter of God that they never missed a rising sun. They made it a rule.
asau - “rising sun” in vedic sanskrit.
tAmrah (copper-brown) -> arunah (ochre, reddish) -> babhru (white). In the heart of a vedic seer there cannot be anything more auspicious than that. They have a very special bond to the sun, which they feel in the heart. Seeing Sun as the most glorious aspect of the higher power.
How to worship? Say it with feeling, mechanical mumbling words has no value. And now you’re in direct communion.
In Newtonian physics the distance between the eyes and the sun is millions of miles. In Einsteinian physics the distance is zero.
You can see your position in the cosmic game of Isvara when you are praying to the rising sun.

Class 4

ayam - this “this”; asau - that “this”. Also a name for the sun that is in the yonder yet still visible to the eye.
Rishis loved to wake up before the sunrise and contemplate on the reality. What appears before of you is not real.
Personification itself is an aspect of the puranas. In the mantras you don’t see personification.
Here we’re not bringing the reality to the person. Here we’re rather taking the person to the reality.
Nama rupa should symbolise, signify the real. If it doesn’t do that the purpose of nama rupa is defeated.
While explaining mantras we don’t want to rely on Puranas as vedic mantras are much much older.
Nilakantaya - entire horizon is the purusha. The reddy horizon is his body. The dark blue (rain bearing) clouds here and there providing the contrast are the blueish neck.
gopa - cow herd boys. Protectors of cows. Signifies uneducated, unsophisticated even uncivilised humans, who occupy a very low rank in the social ladder. Even they enjoy the glory of the shrine called rising sun. You don’t need any other shrine, if you pay attention to this shrine. It’s open to all, without questions, differentiations and divisions. Yet we want to command and control the god. Here is the real God. You need not anybodies permission. Be your own priest.
You do not find a bird, a cow, a buffalo or an animal for that matter oversleeping while the sun is rising. Only humans sleep at that time, unfortunately.
Brahmana is one who is praying to Brahma - the rising and setting sun. Through devotion, mantra, in his heart connected.
“Give me happiness”. That is not a desire. You’ve every right to seek what you already are. Desire says “I do not have it I shall have it in the future”.
sahasraksAya - one with thousand eyes. Normally Indra. Indra is the cloud which is giving rain here. That Indra open his eyes and drops start to pour. From the eyes the drops of joy start to fall.
Lord Indra travels by elephant. Elephant looks like a cloud.
Desha kala vastu. If God is not here, that is not God. If God is not now, that is not God.
The vision, if you have that sensitivity, makes you a rishi. Do you want to be a rishi or a priest? Mantra is the same.
Shateshute - one with hundred quivers.
Empty ornaments vs. functional instruments.
Puranas have converted shiva - all-auspicious into a gentlemen sitting somewhere. Same for all-pervasive vishnu.
The prayer is a community prayer, not a personal. Personal is not very sacred…

Class 5

In a person’s life there is a personal order and there is a supra-personal order. Personal order: I do things of my own will, like taking breakfast of my own will. Supra-personal: order because of which sun rises etc. These interfere. If the supra-personal order favours the personal order it is called a blessing.
The person is a product of personal order. You are a person only if you desire this and that.
rodhayati (rudh) iti rudrah. One who makes you cry. Once the idea of punishment is there the idea of weapons is not far away. Primary weapon is archery because it can punish a person from a distance.
Matted hair of ziva: look at any mountain range. Assumed that the slopes are not denuded by deforestation. Then the slopes are full of impenetrable forest. That is the matted hair. Or or the mass of rain bearing clouds in the sky. Also, mountain people unlike civilized people do not care much about hair, you can find them with matted hair.
Weapon of Lord Rudra is sickness, infection. So blessing of Rudra is keeping his weapon away.
There is a bunch of words that attract the 4th case: namah, svasti, svAhA, svatA, alam (enough), vazat.
Instead of saying mama better say nah (we). That’s the nice way of prayer, just like Rudram. Use me and mine only when you tell Lord about your blemishes in order to to ask him to remove them. There is no wisdom in personalised prayer. There is wisdom only in community prayer.
Prayer has a minus point if it comes from fear. Convert it into a plus by making it a community prayer. Also, original (historically) prayers are community prayers.
When you’re seeking something to uplift yourself, then you can use mama.
Enemies here are internal enemies: kAma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mAtsarya (envy). Preferably avoid the enemy thing.
The reality which abides in the solar orb resides in your heart as well (Aditya hRdayam).
God is everywhere. Better yet: everywhere is God.
bAhu - hands, arms.
hiraNya - effulgence
senAnI - army chief. In every army chief Lord Rudra is sitting.
There is peace and there is war. The world is like that since the moment of creation and it will be like that until the moment of annihilation.

Class 6

The mantras have originated through, not in, the mind of a rshih who lived millennia ago.
Sanskrit which we are familiar with - set of rules fixed by Panini. It is not enough to understand vedic mantras. A commentary/explanation is needed. Inspite of having the commentary, we need to retain our original thinking.
Tradition: freezing the thought process. A bunch of “yes” sayers.
Original thinking vs. conditioning.
Woods (forrest) have the power to make you god conscious. Every single tree is a standing example of the infinite power of life. Trees are manifest form of the cosmic life called Hiranyagarbha. Woods are the God. Woods are the shrine.
Tree represents a nice model of meditation. It doesn’t move, it is silent. Soaring into the space. ekah - all alone.
Life restricted to a single organism is called jIva. Life which is universal - God (Hiranyagarbha).
Vision of the rshis - god consciousness.
When you see somebody falling a tree you feel like “come here instead, fall this body”. That is education. What we have is literacy.
arsha = darshanam.
Who are you to cut a branch? Did you give the permission to the tree to grow that branch? That is not a spiritual act. I do not even pluck a leaf.
Trees have life. Trees have emotions.
Lord protects all the lifeforms by giving life to it. Having created the form God has entered into it as life.
Pasupati protector of animals. Like a shepherd protects the sheep. All the life forms are “sheep”.
saspinjarAya: If a tree is the manifested form of God, why not grass and other horizontal spreading flora. This is not entirely green, but mixed with several hues. Lord as the meadow. Lord as wide marshlands.
There is the jada in you and there is the chetana in you. The chetana in you is the Lord. If you identify with the body you are the zava (cadaver). If with chetana you are ziva.
Religious mind invokes God periodically, contextually (when it is context to invoke God, he invokes). Wherever he feels in the worldly life that he’s in control of the situation, he will not invoke God. Only when the situation is out of his control. Religions mind is talks of God now and then when situation demands, but is conscious of the world only. For a spiritual person God is protecting always. He’s equally conscious of God in prosperity and in adversity. And he operates in the world.
bablushAya - He who is seated on a bull. babhru = cotton brown.
God created the world = God has written the poetry called world = God has painted on canvas the picture called world and the painter is found in the painting. The one who shines in the mosaic of the world is “babhrushAya”.
vivyAdhine - the one who hits hard
annAnAm pataye namah: anecdote: Some acarya thinks “who will take care of my son when I take to sanyasa?” He witnesses a lizard hatching out of its egg and catching a small fly. He understands. Lizard comes out of its shell and food is immediately provided by Ishvara. Belief that I’m providing food for my son is a wrong belief. I’m not providing food for my son. Bhagavan is providing food for me, my son and every other lifeform. Every time you remember food you remember god.

Class 7: flora; worldliness

harikeshaya - leaves of the tree, living manifestation of Lord, are like his hairstyle. Lord Shiva has green coloured matted hair. One with eternal youth. hari - green, black.
Become lover of trees. Learn to love flora and fauna. If you love the trees, plants etc. without the idea of Ishvara, you’re called environmentalist. If you love and see them as manifestation of Ishvara -> you’re a god conscious human being. That’s spirituality. That’s what students of vedanta should aim at.
upavItine - manifestation of sacred thread. A creeper on a tree. Like lovers.
pustAnAm - people of great qualities. Well nourished (pusti - nourishment) people. In the context of Upanishads and Gita we can say “people endowed with daivisampat”.
10 kinds of nourishment (blessing): speech, jnana, strong body and organs, big home, plenty of cash and grains, plenty of offspring, cattle, community in which you live is doing well, dharma (plenty if righteous actions), miraculous powers (can be ignored by us, creates attitude of believing anything).
bhavasya hetyai (weapon against worldliness): World is not the problem. Worldliness is (attachment to things, people, events). Look from Ishvara’s world of view. There is no more personal view. I’m waiting to know how Isvara decides. Not being attached to some outcome.
Religion (of the masses); puranas: good and bad are absolute. Devil is parallel to God. Division of the creation between good and evil betrays ignorance.
Rudra stands symbolically for prana shakti / cosmic life. That’s why Rudra is also called ksetranampati. Glory of the cosmic life can be seen everywhere. In the street, nature …
sUta - driver, charioteer
People have opinion that peace is god and war is devil. There is nothing like absolute good and evil. Everything is but manifested Isvara. War is also god.
rohita - reddy in colour
sthapati - one who commands authority, ruler; sculptor (architect, master builder)
Once you’re a devotee of Rudra you’ve no right to disturb a tree. You look at the tree in your heart as manifest form of Isvara.
mantrI - minister
vaNik - business people. Wholesales and retailers. Without them there is no economy. Without them there is no social life.
kakSA - bush; impenetrable region (secret knowledge)
Stop all landscaping activity. People are going to war against plants, trees, nature.
A blade of grass and the solar orb have the same significance in the scheme of universe.
We need oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. Plants need carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. We’ve to develop love and respects towards them.
Plant gets the water from earth, gets CO2 from atmosphere and gets the energy from the sunlight. They produce glucose and oxygen. We’re able to live because of plants. They sustain life on the earth.
vArivaskrt - creator of wealth (grasses -> rice, wheat).
oSadhi - plant that live only until they give crops

Class 8 - start of 3rd anuvaka; warfare; stealing

To surrender, to overcome the ego you need sattvaguna. That’s why they’re called sattvanAm pataye namah. If the encircled soldiers are rajasic, they will fight to the last man.
sahamAna - the one who crushes the enemy, who doesn’t forgive. Who insults. Who takes revenge. All this behaviour is represented by Lord Rudra.
stena - (gupta cora) something like a hacker. A hidden thief. Lord Rudra protects such thieves.
As long as you take good and evil as absolute, you’re a jiva. When you see the same glory of the awareness absolute which is paramatma in both good and evil you’re a jnani. These mantras help us to rise above the opposites. Here we see the glory of Isvhara in evil people also.
taskara - thief who steals openly.
Look at it (when you’re made a victim) as Rudra. Then you can let go of your grudge and bitterness. If you don’t let go of it, it will carry into every other relationship. And you will not be able to enjoy the present.
Rudra is not only a philanthropist but also an open thief.
vancata - cheater; parivancate - cheating again and again
stAyu - hidden thief, wearing the dress of sanyasi
Accept all the evil characters of society as manifest form of Rudra and forgive them. Once you forgive the evil guys your mental health will improve.
You cannot push somebody who is telling you “I love you”.
Entertaining ill-will itself drains your energy and increases you blood pressure.

Class 9

Concentration: when the mind wanders, you have to make it stay focused. That is enormous effort. Japa meditation is all effort because of this. Different from niddidhiasanam.
It is the nature of the mind to wander. Concentration - exclusion. You have to exclude everything but object of concentration.
Emotion is the movement of mind. Sensation, sentiment … Love is not an emotional experience. Attachment is. You have to come to love by negating all what love is not. Love is not an action, verbal statement, intellectual exercise, concentration of the mind, emotion, sentiment, sensation… When you negate all these things the mind becomes very silent and the pure being (sat) in which there is no doing is love. You cannot possible fail at this because your nature is this love.
aranyanam pataye namah - lord of the forest.
Children automatically play on/with the ground. It looks like there is automatic love for the terrestrial. Then slowly we lose our connection with the nature and become artificial. We have to rediscover this connection.
parichara - impatient, moving around, bazaar thief
You have to appreciate the talent of these rudras (thieves). Rise to that level of sarvatmabhava that the one who robbed you is looked at Rudra. You do that and you’re the real spiritual person.
Like in medicine there are many specialisations, so in thieves there are many kinds.
Even worst kind of robbers, those who kill, are protected by Rudra.
ushnisha - turban. Symbol of an (asiatic) gentleman.
kuluncanam - thieves of land, property, real estate. Big shots, usually Looked upon as respectable members of society.
Why are there villains in the movies? Because they come from the society and vice versa.
Horse - living idol of Rudra (any life-form for that matter).

Class 10 - 4th anuvaka

Earlier both anuvakas have highlighted the masculine aspect of Rudra. Now feminine is highlighted.
Any discrimination of the feminine is obviously irrational and ridiculous. We should not do such things.
There are great women warriors like in Indian history Rani Rudrama Devi, Rani Laksmi Bai.
Women do not lack in any aspect. As soldiers they can inflict as much damage as men to the enemy. Such women are indeed manifest forms of Rudra. Our prostrations to such women soldiers.
gana - group of people.
In the world, most of the worships are rajasa and tamasa. Our (vedantic people) must not be, it must be sattvika. But we should understand that even those aspects (rajasic and tamasic) are not different from Isvara.
grTsah - worldly people entirely dedicated to sense pleasures. The world is full of them. They are all rudras! You don’t go anywhere near them, at the same they we do not look at them as sinners. They are also paramatma svarupas. There is no division of good and bad in this world. It is entirely a projection of the condition mind. There is only brahman (Rudra in this context) in this world.
gRtsah - (other meaning) highly intellectual, clever. IT jobs.
In Sanskrit every word is define from a verbal root (dhatu). And dhatus have multiple meanings. The moment you connect a word to its verbal root it can have different meaning.
vrAta - motley crew
ganAnam tva ganapatim … is the praise of agni. You don’t find ganapati in the vedas. Ganapati of the purana corresponds to agni of vedas. Sun god (surya) of the puranas is the same as vishnu of the vedas.
gana-psychology: Man is a social animal. Because people are afraid of being lonely, they want to belong (that gives the feeling of security). They don’t want freedom. Even devatas come generally as ganas. Same for religious life. Members are ganas and the leader is ganapati.
Vedanta is the anti-thesis of gana-psychology. If vedantins form a gana, it goes againts the spirit of Vedanta. We love to stand single. But I understand that is how the world works. Every one of the ganas and the organizers of them are Rudra. We do not discriminate, our prostrations to both the good and the opposite.
Two ways of standing apart. You become nagna, put ashes all over your body, have matted hair … become weird. These are the virupas. The other, rajasic way: you decorate yourself, become extremely beautiful, ornamented…
virUpa - deformed, handicapped. Are also all manifest forms of Rudra.
mahatbhyah - great people. All Rudra only.
ksullakebhyah - useless people. All Rudra. (kSullaka - youngest, small, poor)
You should respect the lowest among the lowly as you respect the mighty. Respect both with equal devotion. That is the samatvam and then you know what is respect.
All the divisions (like great and lowly) are projections of the ignorant mind. Dharma adharma is all conditioning. Understand all are Rudra.
rathi - those who drive a vehicle.
When you can worship a vehicle why not look at the vehicle as manifest form of the intelligence of Rudra and do namaskara.
To all uber etc. drivers, our namaskara.
takSa - carpenter
kulAla - potter
kArmAra - smith
puJjiSTha - hunters of birds. Nowadays hatchery people. People specialized in killing the birds for food.
niSAda - fisherman
mRgayu - hunter
zvani - dog-leader
zvA - dog
Suppose a dog bites you. Then it is Rudra. If it has caused an injury, then it is doing the job of Rudra only. Go to a doctor, take injection, do nothing about the dog.

Class 11 - 5th anuvaka

Bhava - the presence, the one which is, the being. The presence of what? That question betrays your commitment to nama rupa. The “presence in the form of river”, as the river. Not the “presence of a river”.
We should always strive to feel the truth, the reality. Otherwise the entire study becomes conceptual and there is no point in that.
Sharva - one who destroys everything
There is only bhagavan. It is the human mind that projects good and evil.
Pashupati - lord of knowledge (derived from pash - to see); lord of animals. Animals are two legged (humans) and four legged. Thus lord of all. Bhagavatam - in Sri Krishnas herd there were not only cows, but sheep, goats, buffaloes. Jesus Christ - Son of God - also a shepherd. Idea from Bharat, coming to Middle East and back.
vyuptakesha - shaved head (hair, beard, moustache).
Avoid imagining about incarnations.
sahasrAksa - thousand eyes. Rudra has infinite eyes.
sipi - rays of light
vistha - surrounded by
midhustamaya - one who showers (blessings) whatever he showers, e.g. rain.
The lists here are only indicative, not exhaustive. Everything is Rudra.
samvrdhvane - one who has grown old but did not remain ignorant, whose glory is enhanced by his scholarship.
agriyAya - the one who was there before this creation, hiranyagarbha, brahmadeva; chief, the foremost one
Ashu - one who moves forward very quickly.
(In the beginning 5th anuvaka was recited, in the end the 6th.)

Class 12 - 6th anuvaka

There is no difference in the upasya (the worshipped - one god), only in the upasana (worship that includes nama rupa).
Gita: give up desires all-together. There is no distinction between cultivated and natural desires there. Binding or non-binding desires. The attempt to classify desires betrays the attitude to keep some of them.
Difference between “what I have” and “what I should have” is time. This is mental space, not chronological time. Therefore desire creates psychological time. And there is a second kind of gulp between what I’m and what I should be in future. Again psychological time is created and in the process karma. You’ve created schism between karma and karmaphala and thus samsara. I become blind to what I have. Do you know, I’ve infinite happiness in myself? And I have the cosmic life manifesting in this body/mind! I’ve infinite riches in myself and I’m blind to that and looking for something I do not have.
When you are a student of vedanta you’ve to examine what you already have instead of looking for something what you don’t have.
You jump into a well and yet do not fall into the well when you entertain desires and hope to realise yourself.
Intuition is a means of knowledge. It comes from a source deeper than the intellect. Body doesn’t know. Sense organs give us perception. Mind/intellect gives us inferential knowledge. The source deeper than intellect is the atma. Intuition originates from within your inner-most self. Therefore be guided by your intuitive knowledge.
If I depend upon intellect it will tell me “I lack a thousand things”. Therefore I know beyond the frontiers of the intellect, I enter into a deeper source which I can call only atma, then intuitively realize I’m the endless love, I’m free, I’m the universe.
I intuitively realize, see, understand that there is no other person in the atma, that there is no friend and foe. That nama rupa are unreal, mere appearances and the truth is essentially nameless and formless.

Never dismiss the obvious meaning. Then you look into somewhat deeper meaning. You should not manufacture meaning. That will become a distraction.
Among the jivas hiranyagarbha is the prathama jivah. He’s called jyeSTha. Therefore in the veda the word jyeSTha always refers to hiranyagarbha. And it is the rudra who is in the form of hiranyagarbha the cosmic person described in purushasuktam. And I’m (or the person infront of me) kaNiSTha, the last part of the sequence.
kaniSTha - youngest, inferior
For upasana saguna is required. The moment you come to saguna sakara it becomes male or female and rudra obtains the form of both male and female. In saguna nirakara there is no gender.
aparaja - immature. If there is some immaturity in me, that is also rudra.
sobhya - punya and papa. Everybody has some good and some not so good and even bad. Everybody is a mishra. Instead of dividing people into good and bad, overcome.
kSema - welfare. For a vedanta student welfare is self-realization. For a student of physics passing the exams in flying colours. In any kind of welfare, rudra obtains.
urvara - field full of crops.
u+sa becomes uSa
zUra - hero
bilma - helmet
kavaca - armour, shell, shield

Class 13 - 7th anuvaka

dundubhi - drum. In the old days drummers were accompanying solders into battle. Lord Rudra is represented by the sound that abides in the drum beating stick - Ahananya.
Running away from battlefield is considered a sin for a soldier.
drSNuh - fearless soldier
pramRSAh - soldier gathering intelligence
dUtAh - messenger
prahitA - servant, person sent by the master to do a given job
svAyudhA {su + Ayudh} - beautiful arm (weapon)
srutih - narrow footpath. You see the manifestation of Rudra in the little footpath. Because it helps you to reach the goal.
pathyA - road, highway. You hit the highway, stay on it and reach the destination. That’s the glory of a highway. Highway it is a very reassuring thing. Hitting a highway translates into reaching the goal. It’s a manifestation of Rudra.
We are so conditioned to anthropomorphic gods (Shiva, Vishnu, Vinayaka …) that we reach a point where god means that only. In a vedic literature ghat kind of context is not there. God is manifested as entire universe. You see bhagavan in a road because it leads you to your destination etc.
kAtAh - creek (a small flow of water which you can easily cross on foot), well
nIpa - tiny waterfall
sUdah - marshland, wetland. You see glory of Isvara in them, and you protect them.
saras - pond, a village tank. Source of life. When there is a tank try to see Rudra in that.
nadI - river. Why people take sacred bath in rivers etc. The answer is found in Veda: water is sacred. Water - manifest form of Isvara. River is particular form of water, thus “double sacred”.
vaizantA - small pond connected to the river, where there is no flow of water.
kUpah - well
varSa - rain. That is Rudra. Never, ever curse the rain. Cheer up, it’s Isvara. You should be feel it as Isvara’s glory. Study of rudram should bring out the sensitivity in us. Devotion, love of water is very characteristic of vedic rshis. Nowadays water bodies are not important any longer, instead image in a temple is worshipped.
Pay attention to different forms of water bodies, earth, fire, wind... Worship of graven images, priestcraft is popular religion. True religion is seeing God in a water body.
avarSa - ocean (it doesn’t depend on rain).
mehati {mih} mehati - to drop water, to shower (also ejaculate, pee) -> megha = cloud.
vastu - useful object which gives wealth. Rudra is manifested in such valuable things.
vAstu - house plot. Bhagavan obtains in it and protects it.

Class 14 - 8th anuvaka

soma in veda is the moon and the soma-creeper. Lord Rudra manifests as both. Uma is puranic meaning.
pUtika - malabar spinach, used as substitute for soma in soma yaga.
tAmra - reddy, rising sun
aruna - yellowish, already risen sun
sham - sukham
zangah - one who makes us happy
ugra - ferocious person, bhIma - frightening person. Both are manifest form of Rudra.
hanIyase - one who excels in killing the enemies. Gita: Arjuna, your job is to release the arrow. I kill. You get the credit. The one who slays does not slay, the one who is slain is not slain. Atma can neither kill or get killed. Therefore the real killer is Rudra.
We don’t justify killing. At the same time we don’t justify taking revenge on the killer.
Live and let live. You should apply it to trees and plants. Rishi doesn’t take a sword and start cutting the plants. Change your way.
tArA - long loud sound. Religious context: tArA is pranava.
shambhu - the one who creates happiness, one who makes you happy. It doesn’t come from outside. It comes from within you. Atma is the Rudra. It generates happiness in us.
mayah - sukham.
Mr. Shiva, Mr. Vishnu is wrong. It created a schism in hinduism. People believe that Mr. Shiva and Vishnu come down occasionally as avataras.
shambhu = shamkara.
Wherever and whenever you see happiness, e.g. dog eating its food, in the eyes of the other lifeform. Or when you look at trees, plants revelling in the rain, that should connect your heart to the Rudra, who is the origin of that sukham.
Look at jagat as nama rupa and different, it binds you. Look at jagat as the substratum (sat) Isvara and it liberates you.
shiva - the one who has transcended the three gunas.
shivatara - one who bestows also mokshasukhah.
Ishvara is the real preceptor, guru. Otherwise gurudom.
tIrtha - river, kUlA - bank
pratAranA - boatman, who helps you to cross the river
AlA - karma phala. AlAdha - Brahman who abides in jIva is AlAdha. Worship God in every life-form. You’re not doing service to the other person, you’re worshipping the god in the other person. That is the true religion. Vivekananda: worship god in man. Don’t do puja and neglect your duty (to the other people).
zaSpa - green tender grass (on the banks of the river). Develop sensitivity in small things. If you can avoid stepping on the grass, do it.
sikatA - sand
pravAha - stream

Class 15 - 9th anuvaka

IriNa - fallow land. It is Rudra only.
prapAta - express way, path used by many people. It is the abode of Lord Rudra.
kapardin - one with matted hair.
pulastih (purastih) - one who stands before you. This brings out the idea of SarvAtmabhAva.
goSTha - cow shed. Shed behind the house where cows live. In both Rudra abides.
kATa - impenetrable forest
hrada - deep lake
niveSpa - dew drop
paMsu - dust (tiny particles only seen in a ray of light in dark room)
rajasa - dust (which is all around(
zuSka - dry piece of wood
lopah - stony place
ulapa - grass; place where grass grows
sUrmi - lake full of waves
Have sensibility, sensitivity. Whenever there is a paper with something written on it - knowledge - represented by Saraswati, don’t step on it. It is also Rudra. Even more for living entities like green leaves. Don’t close the door with a bang. Have respect. That sensibility/sensitivity is the hallmark of a God conscious person.
aparugate - to reject, to uplift arm to strike/defend
Akhkhidan - one who causes wide-spread suffering. It is also Rudra.
prakhikhan - one who causes intense suffering.
kirikA - generous people
Rudra is both singular and plural also.
Heart stands for love and good will. Head stands for logic.
In Vedic literature, earth is chetana, living entity and therefore devata. Sun is also a living entity. Everything is consciousness and living. What you catch on the photo is dead body.
kSINa - decline, degeneration. thin, slender.
Human beings come and go, humanity doesn’t disappear. Rudra stands for humanity.
If you see a hurt animal. The injury is caused by Lord Rudra. If you go to a hospital and see many injured people - all that violence is inflicted upon them by Rudra himself.
vicinvat - accomplished people (goal -> realization). Discriminate people.
We (want to) see only the good side of God. That is wishful thinking. In real life there is war, death etc. also. All must be manifest form of Isvara only - all is God.
Anirhatebhyah - those, from whom one cannot escape. Once Rudra choses one to be killed, nobody can escape.
If you have sraddha, you allow the upanishad to tell something to you. It has a message to you. If you try to put your meaning instead of the statement of the upanishad because you don’t like the original message - that is utter lack of sraddha. If you have sraddha, you allow he sruti to tell you something with an open mind.
You teach the text by being faithful to the text. Don’t put the book away. Faith to the text should remain unwavering.
AmIvatkah - ones going on a rampage. Like Corona virus nowadays.
Essence of all the prose yajur mantras up to now:
- Punitive aspect of Rudra.
- Rudra is manifest in all and everything. Earth, creek, river, dry leaf … SarvAtmabhAva of Rudra.

Class 16 - 10th anuvaka

Except 1st anuvaka all mantras were from Yajurveda. Now we’re entering again into RG mantras.
dra - wretched state of life. drapih - Rudra as one who pushes one into it.
andhasaspate - Lord of the food. Ishvara is the one who really puts the bread on the table.
Generally a potmaker makes a pot and feels he’s done a good job. Ishvara creates the whole universe but doesn’t have a sense of accomplishment. He sustains the whole universe but doesn’t have a sense of ownership. He destroys the whole universe without anger/regret.
Shiva is the source of all wealth but he doesn’t own any of it. Kubera is the treasury secretary. Suppose the devote also doesn’t own nothing he’ll be metamorphosed into isvara. By owning the little you’re a litmited person. If you don’t own anything you own all. That’s the significance of addressing Isvara as daridra (unattached to weatlh).
Ama - sickness
Rudra has many bodies. Rudras are many.
One doctor is enough. At most get a second opinion. People should not be in a hurry, have tittiksha. Bear with it. It appears as if the calamity comes suddenly. Nothing comes suddenly, nothing goes suddenly. It only looks like suddenly. Accept the adversity with an equanimity of mind - vedantic way of living your life. But people want quick-fix solutions. So there will be guru who will provide the “proper ritual”. There is always a ritual/worship/ritual waiting to be brought out clever salesman who is planing for the weakness of the human mind.
The head of the family looks around and sees all the lifeforms: four-legged and two-legged ones. He looks at them with sense of equal love and concern.
The prayer is not only for one self, not only for the family, not only for extended family and the animals, but also for the entire village. Community prayer.
kapardi - matted hair. Nilarohita and kapardi: Rshi looking at the horizon seeing the rain-bearing clouds bringing water/life.
tavas = balam.
“May the Manu-father who knows everything bestow us with happiness and take away any reason for unhappiness.”

Class 17

Rudra is one and also many.
ukshantam - mature, young man
ukshitam - child in the womb
toka - offspring, grandson
sumnam - sukha karam (form which blesses with happiness, benevolent form of Rudra)
adhi - great
brUhi - please tell
sharma - happiness
“Mind, wake up, do not be lazy, you praise that Rudra so you can avoid being hit by that Rudra”.
“Rudra your armies may destroy the enemy, not us, we’re praising you”. We’re vedantic students. Whenever you see such mantras, substitute the enemies with inner enemies. We don’t have any enemies. There is no friend, no enemy, there is only divinity.
Kama is the captain of the six inner enemies. If you destroy it, all go.
durmati - undesirable attitude of the mind on the part of the Rudra
magha - oblation (cooked rice).
pinAka - bow
vikirida - one who gives (da) wealth (vikiri)
parAcIna - turned away from
mukha - head (arrowhead)

Class 18 - 11th anuvaka

Thousands of rudras commanding the earth. Please stand down, not stand by.
In Ramayana bow primary weapon is bow. In Veda bow is the primary weapon. In Mahabharata is one of the weapons.
In Vedamantras (only) the atmosphere, the sky is sometimes compared to the ocean. Sun is sometimes called Varuna.
griva - total neck
kantha - adams’s apple; throat
shiti - white
nilagriva shitikantha - sky with white clouds and then suddenly a black piece of cloud
Rudras are there on the earth, in the sky and now below the earth - adhah kshamAcarAh.
There are Rudras waiting to strike in the interstellar space also. E.g. meteors. The prayer is in the usual sequence bhuh, bhuvah, suvah. Earth, atmosphere, interstellar space.
adhipati - boss, over-lord.
Special dimension of “mafia” in India: Odd sanyasis, sadhus, religious/spiritual people who smoke marijuana, eat meat, drink alcohol, have women among them. Like a mafia don who took up worship of gods and goddesses.
anneshu pAtreshu - Rudras are sitting in the food and drinks (vessel, pots).
pathAm pathirakshaya - all the paths we take are also protected by Rudras.
tIrtha - river bank.
niSaGga - sword, quiver
When it comes to Rudra, only then finger namaskar (both hands clapped together) will work.
“Me and my family” - is a syndrome from vedantic point of view, because it puts you into a cocoon. We should encourage prayers that help you to come out of this, where the community is used. Use “nah”, don’t say “mama” or “me” all the time.
We hate the bondage of ajnana which manifests as kama, krodha, jealousy etc. These are our enemies and these we put into the wide open jaws of death represented by Lord Rudra.