Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Hymn of Creation

Its been on the back burner for quite many years now, that I wanted to find the theme for 'Bharat Ek Khoj'. A sudden fever to have it now resulted in my finding it but the story doesn't end quite so simply. Just listening to the chanting at the start of the theme, brought to mind the hymn of creation that I had scribbled in my diary as a 13 yr old (ancient days when information was not available at the click of the google search button, but had to be written down for future references). I had to read it now and was entirely thrilled to get it from the first link of my google search since my trusty diary was no where in the near vicinity (so much for future reference).

I am even more thrilled that blogspot is able to publish the sanskrit font as well as the english transliteration. Hope this brings you as much wonder and joy as it has brought me-
Just a simple hymn#10129 from the Rgveda-

नासदासीन नो सदासीत तदानीं नासीद रजो नो वयोमापरो यत |
किमावरीवः कुह कस्य शर्मन्नम्भः किमासीद गहनं गभीरम ||
न मर्त्युरासीदम्र्तं न तर्हि न रात्र्या अह्न आसीत्प्रकेतः |
आनीदवातं सवधया तदेकं तस्माद्धान्यन न परः किं चनास ||
तम आसीत तमसा गूळमग्रे.अप्रकेतं सलिलं सर्वमािदम |
तुछ्येनाभ्वपिहितं यदासीत तपसस्तन्महिनाजायतैकम ||
कामस्तदग्रे समवर्तताधि मनसो रेतः परथमं यदासीत |
सतो बन्धुमसति निरविन्दन हर्दि परतीष्याकवयो मनीषा ||
तिरश्चीनो विततो रश्मिरेषामधः सविदासी.अ.अ.अत |
रेतोधाासन महिमान आसन सवधा अवस्तात परयतिः परस्तात ||
को अद्धा वेद क इह पर वोचत कुत आजाता कुत इयंविस्र्ष्टिः |
अर्वाग देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा को वेद यताबभूव ||
इयं विस्र्ष्टिर्यत आबभूव यदि वा दधे यदि वा न |
यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे वयोमन सो अङग वेद यदि वा नवेद ||

English Translitration-
nāsadāsīn no sadāsīt tadānīṃ nāsīd rajo no vyomāparo yat |
kimāvarīvaḥ kuha kasya śarmannambhaḥ kimāsīd ghahanaṃ ghabhīram ||
na mṛtyurāsīdamṛtaṃ na tarhi na rātryā ahna āsītpraketaḥ |
ānīdavātaṃ svadhayā tadekaṃ tasmāddhānyan na paraḥ kiṃ canāsa ||
tama āsīt tamasā ghūḷamaghre.apraketaṃ salilaṃ sarvamāidam |
tuchyenābhvapihitaṃ yadāsīt tapasastanmahinājāyataikam ||
kāmastadaghre samavartatādhi manaso retaḥ prathamaṃ yadāsīt |
sato bandhumasati niravindan hṛdi pratīṣyākavayo manīṣā ||
tiraścīno vitato raśmireṣāmadhaḥ svidāsī.a.a.at |
retodhāāsan mahimāna āsan svadhā avastāt prayatiḥ parastāt ||
ko addhā veda ka iha pra vocat kuta ājātā kuta iyaṃvisṛṣṭiḥ |
arvāgh devā asya visarjanenāthā ko veda yataābabhūva ||
iyaṃ visṛṣṭiryata ābabhūva yadi vā dadhe yadi vā na |
yo asyādhyakṣaḥ parame vyoman so aṅgha veda yadi vā naveda ||

Translation-
Not even nothing existed then
No air yet, nor a heaven.
Who encased and kept it where?
Was water in the darkness there?
Neither deathlessness nor decay
No, nor the rhythm of night and day:
The self-existent, with breath sans air:
That, and that alone was there.
Darkness was in darkness found
Like light-less water all around.
One emerged, with nothing on
It was from heat that this was born.
Into it, Desire, its way did find:
The primordial seed born of mind.
Sages know deep in the heart:
What exists is kin to what does not.
Across the void the cord was thrown,
The place of every thing was known.
Seed-sowers and powers now came by,
Impulse below and force on high.
Who really knows, and who can swear,
How creation came, when or where!
Even gods came after creation's day,
Who really knows, who can truly say
When and how did creation start?
Did He do it? Or did He not?
Only He, up there, knows, maybe;
Or perhaps, not even He.
This seems to be eerily similar to Navajo creation story called Dine Bahane which basically states that the creator is just thinking about Earth, darkness, skies, dawn and beauty. And just out of that everything has manifested. I intend to read the translation of the entire orally transmitted poetry and might revisit this topic and see how close this is to what has been stated in the Rgveda.

Sources of the content (many many thanks for the wonderful service to humankind)-
Sacred Texts
Princeton

The video with the chanting & the translation-
Hymns From The Vedas - Creation
Hymn of Creation : Rigveda Nasadiya Sukta

charged by the mystical truths,
Rain

Monday, August 11, 2008

WE WON!!!!


PEOPLE...We finally have a gold medal!

Abhinav Bindra won the 10m Men's Air Rifle.
We saw the victory ceremony and we felt goosebumps when the proud anthem of India was played. This is a red-letter day and tomorrow we celebrate!!!

Here are some excerpts from the commentary-

The gold medalist with an outstanding score of 100.5 in the Final moving all the way up from starting in 4th place, Abhinav Bindra from India.
Bindra's final score was 104.5
Bindra lived at Colorado Springs for about 6 months several years ago and trained with the US team. He is a super kid and winning the gold medal couldn't have happened to a nicer Kid
Bindra's Final score of 104.5 was outstanding and carried him to the gold medal, even though he trailed by 2 points in the preliminary
Abhinav Bindra, India, who in the reigning World Champion, is now also the 2008 Gold Medalist. His final score is 700.5

HINDU ARTICLE


proudly Indian, JAI HIND!!!
Rain

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Cards of fortune

Corporate card, in store card, library card, transit charge card....ALL of these cards are causing me such a lot of trouble that I am actually physically sick!!!
Also my 'you live, you learn' moment of the week is - Stay where you are and do not go out of the way to give anyone any importance because that will come back and bite you when no one is concerned about your absence.

Just caught the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics at Beijing.
WHOA. The Chinese know how to put on one magnum opus of a show!

Indian contingent showed lack of uniformity and the commentators mentioned just how poor the sports infrastructure was even though we were mostly on the same page as China (who is a sports superstar) with respect to population and prosperity.

Cranky and sniffly,
Rain