Friday, June 11, 2010

Prithvi-Dyava

In my last post we saw the togetherness of Indra and Agni. A mysterious connection between some cyclic nature with the properties of fire. All that is needed later on is to try to use them in any field of interest. For example you can debate for yourselves whether practical learning is better than theoretical learning. The use of these concepts can help you find the answer. You will realize that for subjects that require skill, practical learning is better while for those that don't require skill, theoretical learning is better. When you enter the Corporate World, your colleagues require you to do something and that requires skill. Hence it is best to engage in practical learning to blend well with the Corporate World. In the case of subject matters like the one in this blog, theoretical learning works. But to apply it practically, the reader will require practical assignments "to try for himself/herself". "Trying for yourself"... it's actually a good way of "learning" that can be deduced from the Indra-Agni relationship. Meditation works in the same way. When I began to learn these concepts, I went through two sources that explained in brief about the Deities. They were the book on "Indian Mythology" by Veronica Ions and the website I gave you earlier, http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vedaread.htm and I "tried to make out for myself" what they were talking about. I didn't go straight to the texts because it was even more confusing. But after I "learned" the connections and ideology well "by myself", the texts started making sense. So far I have worked on ten stanzas of the First Book of the Rig Veda successfully. It's still very tedious because of the language.

PRITHVI-DYAVA:

In Sanskrit this means Earth-Sky. Looks like we getting into the Universe now. Well... not exactly. It does start changing your perspective a little bit. When I introduced Agni(Fire), it was just something we learned through one of the natural elements. But the concept I'm going to talk about will give you an idea how to visualize Vedic ideology. This Earth-Sky combination can be visualized in general as an Object-Environment combination. A good modeling technique. Good for modeling Vedic ideologies as well.

We know well that the Earth gets its inputs from the Sky. Being on Earth, we get Sunlight, Heat, Rain, Oxygen, etc that all come from the Sky as inputs for our well-being. So in our Object-Environment generalization, the object gets its inputs from the environment. Inputs can also come from the Object/Earth but they take their route via the Environment/Sky. In return, the Object/Earth also gives back to the Environment/Sky. This can be drawn as an object that takes inputs and gives outputs. Sounds like a block diagram representation of something. These sort of representations do help a lot in understanding mechanisms or concepts. This is why simulation tools are built in almost every scientific field, because looking at mathematical equations doesn't always give a clear picture. Numbers always give clear pictures. Vedic understanding also happens in the same way. We too can build simulation tools for it once the concepts are clear and we know how to evaluate them on the number line.

Now let's get to the Indra-Agni relation where both of them are the sons of Prithvi-Dyava.

BIRTH OF AGNI:

The Vedic scriptures describe the birth of Agni through two objects. It's always two objects. They need to rub against each other to give birth to Agni(Fire). Some sort of Frictional Force. Out of the two objects, one of them is considered to be the Prithvi(Earth) and the other as Dyava(Sky). Since there is no other combination of masculine and feminine as such described in the Vedas, whenever two entities are "coupled" together to form another, the coupling entities are considered as Prithvi-Dyava combination. Here, the Earth is feminine while the Sky is masculine. Now let's look into this further. Let's put the Outside Environment as another object and "couple" it with the Object under consideration. Only if the two exist, the Object under consideration can take inputs. Another way of saying this, only if the two exist, the Object under consideration can "consume" something from its Environment. The same thing happens with "learning". "Learning" is actually a "consumption" of knowledge. "Sacrifices" are made only after viewing certain "external" events that affect the sacrificer. "Conversion" can only take place when there are atleast two things. For example, Steam comes from Water and Heat. Or Ice comes from Water and Chillness. Or Clean Water comes from Dirty Water and a Filter. This end-product of "conversion" is an extension of the Smoke giving aspect of Fire. I didn't cover this while explaining Agni because it required the understanding of Prithvi-Dyava.

BIRTH OF INDRA:

Just like Agni, Indra also requires two things (Prithvi-Dyava) to create it. It requires some "external" force to set an "object" into a "cyclic" motion. "External" forces don't necessarily set "objects" into cyclic motion but also to non-cyclic motion. Non-cyclic motions come under the Vayu concept which I will cover in my next post. Vayu is also a son of Prithvi-Dyava and it explains Newton's First Law of Motion, the Law of Inertia. Let's do more. "Balance" is always mentioned when there are atleast two things. It requires "coupling" of two points of a line to make a "closed loop" or a "circle".

When I explain Vayu, I will give the complete relation between Prithvi-Dyava, Agni, Indra and Vayu.

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