Vishnu and Shiva

[Ravi Mayavaram]

On Wed, 12 Mar 2003 14:23:14 -0500, Vidyasankar <vsundaresan at HOTMAIL.COM>
wrote:

>I have been trying to keep out of this discussion, but may I just point out
>a few problems?
>
>1. The devI sUkta begins, "ahaM rudrebhir vasubhiS carAmy aham Adityair uta
>viSvedevaiH" - Note that rudra is in plural, i.e. the 11 rudra-s, not the
>one Rudra as we think in popular terms. Similarly with vasu, i.e. the 8
>vasu-s and Aditya, i.e. the 12 Aditya-s.
>
>2. Note that if you are to interpret this as meaning that devI is the power
>behind rudra, so also is She the power behind Aditya. And we know from gItA
>10.21-23 that vishNu is one of the Aditya-s (AdityAnAm ahaM vishNuH), just
>as Sankara is one of the rudra-s (rudrANAM SankaraS cAsmi).


In addition to that, in bah.hvR^icha upanishhat.h, which is also  from R^ig
veda there is an explicit statement that vishhNu was born/created by devii
(vishhNurajiijanat.h). This work starts with "devii alone existed in the
beginning ...". The verse 2  gives a list, explaining that all beings
that were created by HER and SHE is the power behind all of manifested
universe.


devI hyekAgra evAsIt.h | saiva jagadaNDamasR^ijat.h |
kAmakaleti viGYAyate | shrR^i.ngArakaleti viGYAyate || 1||


tasyA eva brahmA ajiijanat.h | vishhNurajiijanat.h |
rudro.ajiijanat.h | sarve marud.hgaNA ajiijanat.h |
gandharvApsarasaH kinnarA vAditravAdinaH samantAdajiijanat.h |
bhogyamajiijanat.h| sarvamajiijanat.h | sarvaM shAktamajiijanat.h |
aNDajaM svedajamudbhijjaM jarAyujam.h yatkiMchaitat.h prANi
sthAvaraja.ngamaM manushhyamajiijanat.h || 2||

Anand  posted translation of some verses from this text in the past, for
instance see, http://www.escribe.com/religion/advaita/m3997.html.

Ravi