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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
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Re: Ancient Hindu Texts [Re: Satyapriya]
#16271129 - 05/23/12 12:26 AM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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The Bhagavad Gita is actually a portion of a larger body of text known as the Mahabharata. The Gita is a section in the middle that is a fairly pivotal moment in the text.
The other well known Sanskrit epic is the Ramayana; Where the Gita focuses on Vishnu's incarnation as Krishna, the Ramayana is focused on another incarnation as Rama.
The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are different from the Vedas (which contain the Upanishads). The Vedas are largely mantra and philosophical texts; the Epics contain philosophical teachings but are passed down in a story format that has allowed for their dissemination among the broader population. The Vedas are passed down as tradition chiefly among the priests, some of whom still perform the classic fire ceremonies.
The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are focus of various cultural presentations. Everything from storytelling, festivals and plays to (more recently) comic books and cinema.
The other body of text you may wish to examine are the Puranas. The Puranas are another group of texts geared toward passing down philosophical teachings among the lower castes. They are, individually, not as long as the epics; they may be considered closer to our conception of fairy tales as they are short, tend towards a moral, and the stories vary among which of the deities or sages they focus on.
Edited by Tantrika (05/23/12 12:43 AM)
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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
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Re: Ancient Hindu Texts [Re: Chronic7]
#16271925 - 05/23/12 07:57 AM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
The Chronic said: I partularly enjoy the - Ribhu Gita, the Avadhuta Gita & Astavakra Gita, and of course the teachings of Ramana Maharshi which are taken by Hindus & many others to be just as divinely inspired as any other Gita.
They all strictly deal with the absolute, not many stories about morality or lengthy passages, the Gita's i listed contain many utterances spoken by dudes whose minds were established in that absolute non-dual state of existence, each verse is only a few sentecnes long at most but they contain the entire essence of all holy books combined.
Tat Tvam Asi
I think it depends on what you want from the reading, cool anecdotal stories, or actual liberation

If looking for work with lessened cultural dressing, these are good additions to the Upanishads/Vedanta.
The work of Adi Shankara (founder of Advaita Vedanta) may also be appealing.
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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
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Re: Ancient Hindu Texts [Re: Satyapriya]
#16273996 - 05/23/12 04:24 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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In terms of Vedic texts, pulled this up for the Upanishads: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/4624794/The_Upanishads_%28read_by_Tessa_Morgan%29
If you're up for an e-book aside from the audio books this is Shankara's commentary on the Upanishads:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6962552/Principal_Upanishads_with_Shankara_Bhashya-English_Translation%5BT
The Upanishads are later Vedic texts and are predominately philisophical.
Do you have access to a University database of articles at all? If you are and you feel up to exploring the ancient spiritual poetics my course-packs could come down off the shelf to pull some book/article titles for you. My copies are in print so, unfortunately, PDFs would be a bit more difficult.
My interest in the cultural presentations of the epics extends into the perceptions surrounding them. When the earliest cinematic and tv drama versions were aired it was time of interesting cultural developments. Devotees in attendance of the film screenings considered them a sacred matter and in some instances would prostrate themselves as they would to static artistic renderings of the deity. Within the tradition, they can be said to be experiences of the divine.
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