[Advaita-l] Question on Sarpa sUkta of Krishna Yajur veda

Ajit Krishnan ajit at mudgala.com
Sun Dec 5 13:51:27 CST 2004


Namaste,

I do not know too much about this, but here goes...

There is a strong tradition linking Skanda & Sarpa. This includes the
worship of the image of Sarpa as Skanda, and the worship of Sarpa along with
Skanda.

The story of Garuda & Vasuki is said to be in the Skanda purana. The divine
eagle, was starving, and attacked Vasuki while looking for prey. The sage
Kashyapa intervened, and requested Garuda to desist. He told Garuda of a
place where he would be able to satisfy his hunger. He told Vasuki, the
great Shiva bhakta, of a mountain where he would not be bothered again. He
was told that Kartikeya would come there at a later time, and always remain
by his side. 

I was also told of fragments of another legend where the lord took the form
of a snake to kill some asura in a mountain-cave. He was joined there by two
other divine snakes (probably vasuki and takshaka), and his samadhi took
place here. (This is said to be another meaning of the epitheth "guha"). 

It is also interesting to note that Skanda is commonly worshipped to rid
oneself of ailments relating to snakes.

In the panchayatana puja, the lord is invoked by some as follows:
"asmin naaga-bimbe naaga-raajaM sameta shrii subrahmaNyaM dhyaayaami ... "

Sri Chandrashekara Saraswati (Kanchi Shankaracharya) is said to have given a
discourse on Muthuswami Dikshitar's Subrahmanya Kriti. One line of this
kriti is "vaasuki takshakaadi sarpa svaruupa dharanaaya". He says that sarpa
literally means kundalini, both having a wriggled, spiral-like form. [
Subrahmanya has the kundalini shakti itself as his weapon, in the form of a
vel ]

In the course of his discourse, he is said to have asked rhetorically if
Shankaracharya has ever mentioned this identification. He replies that in
the Subrahmanya Bhujangam, the word "bhujangam" in the title itself refers
to a snake who uses his entire body as his hands. 

He also talks about the seeming contradictions designed to take us above
"hate". It was a poisonous snake that was used to churn the ocean for
nectar, and Subrahmanya has for his vehicle a peacock, the enemy of snakes. 

The Tirumala hills on which Lord Venkateshwara resides is also called
seshagiri. The acharya says that "sarpa svaruupa dhara" refers to
Subrahmanya as the Tirumala hill itself.

	ajit

-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org] On Behalf Of
vishwanthan Krishnamoorthy
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 7:38 AM
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: RE: [Advaita-l] Question on Sarpa sUkta of Krishna Yajur veda

namste,

why is sarpa sukta chanted for kumara?
nighR^ishvairasamaayutaiH is chanted during Arathi in
our temple. In some temples in Kerala that i have
been, Skanda is worshipped as a Sarpa can someone shed
some light on this,

thanks
vishwanathan 

--- Ajit Krishnan <ajit at mudgala.com> wrote:

> 
> Sarpa Suktam:
> 
> namo astu sarpebhyaH : 		Taittiriya Samhita 4.2.8
> idam sarpebhyaH : 		Taittiriya Brahmana 3.1.1
> nighR^ishvairasamaayutaiH : 	Taittiriya Aranyaka
> 1.12
> 
> The first part is found among the udaka-shanti
> mantras. The second & third
> parts are taken from the nakshatra sukta & aruna
> prashna respectively.
> 
> 	ajit
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> [mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org]
> On Behalf Of S.Krishnan
> Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 8:41 PM
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Question on Sarpa sUkta of
> Krishna Yajur veda
> 
> Shri Ananad,
> 
> Sarpa sUkta of Krishna Yajur veda: Where does it
> occur? Is it part of
> Samhita/Aranyaka/Brahmana
> Also I recall a panchasat in first prasnam of
> Aranyakam (Surya Nanmaskara
> Prasnam) ending with "subrahmaNyom"
> 
> Thanks
> 
> S. Krishnan
> -------------
> Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2004 10:50:28 +0000
> From: "Anand Hudli" <anandhudli at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Re: Question on Kumara Suktam
> of Rg Veda
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Message-ID:
> <BAY101-F20B5FD4BF6D34E6D3BCE4FD7BF0 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
> 
> rama.balasubramanian at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> >I am trying to locate the so-called Kumara Suktam
> in the Rg Veda,
> >which is used in Subrahmania temples in Tamil Nadu.
> Can any Rg vedin
> >provide the exact reference, so that I can consult
> my book?
> 
> Coincidentally, I had the same question until I
> enquired of some of my Tamil
> friends. The subrahmaNya sUkta consists of three
> R^ig Vedic sUktas:
> 
> 1. maNDala 4, sUkta 15: The R^iShi here is vAmadeva
> gautama, devatAs are
> agni, somaka, and the ashvins. The meter is the
> celebrated gAyatrI
> 
> 2. maNDala 5 sUkta 2:  The R^iShi is kumAra Atreya,
> the devatA is agni. All
> but the 12th verse are in triShTup. The 12th is in
> shakvarI.
> 
> 3. maNDala 10, sUkta 62: The R^iShi is
> nAbhAnediShTha, the devatAs are
> vishvedevas or angirasas and sAvarNi. The sUkta has
> various meters - jagatI,
> anuShTup, pragAtha, gayatrI, and triShTup.
> 
> The first two sUktas speak of "kumAra" whereas the
> fourth R^ik in the third
> sUkta contains the word "subrahmaNyaM". Probably
> this why these sUktas are
> used in the worship of kumAra.
> 
> There is a tradition of the Krishna Yajur veda where
> the sarpa sUkta is used
> as a subrahmaNya sUkta, perhaps because it ends with
> "subrahmaNyom.h".
> 
> Anand
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
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