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PURUSHA SUKTHAM – Prof.M.M.Ninan<br />
The Yajna described<br />
The Creation of Manifest Fallen World by the gods.<br />
The rest of the verses were interpolated in time and shows the infiltration of the Gnostic theology. Since they<br />
were interpolations, the order of appearances do vary in various sources.<br />
From here onward the suktham goes on to speak about a sacrifice of the <strong>Purusha</strong>. This is typically a Vedic<br />
Sacrifice procedure associated with the creation including the yantra and mantra. It is a clear portion of<br />
extreme poetic freedom that went too far astray so that it did lost its meaning and does not make sense – if not<br />
even contradictory. Commentators had a tough time to explain it away. The way out they took was, that this is<br />
really not a physical sacrifice but imagined sacrifice – mental sacrifice. So don’t give too much emphasis on the<br />
yantra and mantra.<br />
The word Yajna has two meanings essentially. The first meaning is Effort and the other meaning which is<br />
indirect is Sacrifice.<br />
The dictionary defines sacrifice as follows:<br />
The act of offering something to a deity in propitiation or homage, especially the ritual slaughter of an animal or<br />
a person. A victim offered in this way. Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to<br />
have a greater value or claim.<br />
In the following verses of <strong>Purusha</strong> Suktha we have therefore a serious problem. Since there is no greater God<br />
than the <strong>Purusha</strong>, to whom are the sages sacrificing the <strong>Purusha</strong> to? If <strong>Purusha</strong> is giving himself as a sacrifice<br />
for the creation of the world, why is it being done by the gods? Where did these gods come from and when?<br />
From what follows the sacrifice is done by the gods and the sages where as they themselves are later said to<br />
have evolved out of this sacrifice. All together therefore there is a confusion in the thought pattern of the rest of<br />
the Upanishads. This may be most probably because we are reading it out of context and the whole of the rest<br />
of the portion should have come in some other context. I suggest a few alternate context which will make it<br />
relevant. But the continuity of the suktha is severely hampered by such interpretation.<br />
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