~~Om Namo Bhagvate Vasdudevayah~~ One of the most heavily misquoted Hindu texts in present time is Yajurveda 40.9 , The verse is also found in Ishopnishad#12. Anti Hindu forces lead by Jakir Naik use this verse to attack one of the main worship methods of Hindus, the idol worship. They try to twist the meaning of verse to propagate that this verse is against Idol worship. That is a complete lie as this verse does not even talk of worship. This post explains the correct meaning of the verse with complete lexical analysis Yajurveda: A brief description: The RigVeda is to describe the nature of whole universe and the characteristics of the every element and their intrinsic nature. The Yajurveda describes how the actors(living being) and the elements of this universe should interact. The word Yajurveda is derived from “Yajuh” means ”The divine codunct”. In brief if RigVeda is pure science then Yajurveda is applied science. It describes the noble conduct. In other words how human should perform karma, how he should differentiate between what to do and what not to do? Yajurveda Ch 40: --------------------- It contains 17 Shlokas in total, shloka defines the guidelines of moral conduct. This whole chapter is hence for conduct and not the guidelines of worship methods. Ishopnishad --------------- These same Shlokas are also in Ishopnshad. Upnishads which are the analysis of Vedas are also called as Vedanta, means the final knowledge. (Here I am explaining Yajurveda but same explanation applies to Ishopnishad) YajurVeda 40.9 (Ishopnishad #12) ------------------------------------------- “andham tamah pravishanti ye asambhutim upasate “ “अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति येऽसंभुतिमउपासते” This is one of the Vedic Shlokas which is heavily misquoted by Islamic missionaries headed by Jakir Naik and co. What meaning they tell? ---------------------------- This Shloka is misquoted in different way, sometime they just put the first line, “अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति येऽसंभुतिमउपासते” and translate like this: "They enter darkness, those who worship the natural elements" (Air, Water, Fire, etc.) "They sink deeper in darkness, those who worship sambhuti." Some other may produce similar wrong meaning. The complete Shloka Yajurveda 40.9 अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति येऽसंभुतिमउपासतेततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ सम्भुत्याम्रताः Does this Shloka talk of worship? Before giving the correct meaning of this Shloka, the very first thing we need to know, does this shloka talk about worship at all? The answer is no, this Shloka does not talk about the worship. Here is how?: Two Important words used in Shloka: Upasate(उपासते) and Ratah(रतः) ------------------------------------------------ The two sentences of the Shloka uses two verbs, Upasate(उपासते) and Ratah(रतः). These verbs decide the meaning of the complete Shloka. Now this does not need to have an advance understanding of language to know that two verbs should have same meaning for this Shloka to have any concrete meaning. Now lets analyze the word meaning of these two verbs: उपासते: This word has following major meanings 1. Revere or worship 2. Be devoted or attached to 3. To engage into Ratah (रतः) takes following meanings Ratah (रतः) : devoted or attached or addicted or disposed to The usasge Upasate(उपासते) as ( Be devoted or attached to), use वह धन का उपासक है या धन की उपासना करता है(He is deeply attached to or engaged into wealth) वह रूप का उपासक है या वह रूप की उपासना करता हैं(He is deeply engaged into beauty or attached to beauty) The usasge Upasate(उपासते) as “Worship” पंकज भगवान शिव का उपासक है(Pankaj worships Bhagvan Shiva)--- Upasate as Sakarmak Verb वह उपासना कर रहा है (He is worshipping)--Upasana as Akarmak verb. Meaning and Usage of word Ratah(रतः) Ratah (रतः) : devoted or attached or addicted or disposed to वह जुए में रत है(He is addicted to gambling)वह खेल में रत है(He is attached to or addicted to sports)वह पढने में रत है(He is devoted to or attached to studies) Sakarmak and Akarmak Kriya(सकर्मक एवं अकर्मक क्रिया) In Sanskrit and Hindi, there are two types of verbs. 1 Akarmak Verb(अकर्मक क्रिया) and 2 Sakarmak verb(सकर्मक) Akarmak Verb: A verb which does not need an object. For example. वह रो रहा है(He is crying) वह सो रहा है(He sleeping) Sakarmak Verb(सकर्मक क्रिया): A verb which needs an object. वह सेब खा रहा है(He is eating apple) वह साईकिल चला रहा है(He is driving bycycle) Some verbs in Sanskrit and Hindi are pure Akarmak, some pure Sakarmak and some both Sakarmak and Akarmak. The verb Ratah in above shloka is a pure Sakarmak and it needs an object to give its meaning. Upasate on other hand is both Akarmak and Sakarmak and can be used both ways. The interesting thing to note that Upsate when used as Akarkmak gives meaning of worship, but when used as Sakarmak with some object gives meaning other than worship, In the given shloka “Upasate” is used with object(Asambhooti) which is another proff it does not mean worship. Can this word Ratah(रतः) alone give meaning of worship No this word Ratah alone can never give the meaning of worship. Out of dozen meanings none gives meaning as “Worship”. There is just one very remote possibility if “Worship” is used as an object to the verb Ratah then it might give meaning of worship, like: वह पूजा में रत है(He is devoted to or attached to worship). Though one can try to use the word “Ratah” to give meaning of “Worship” if he adds “ Worship” as an object as above, but it is very wrong usage. The meaning of Ratah is more negative than positive and it indicates a kind of obsession and it is just foolish to assume that worship is an obsession. Such usage are wrong. At least such usage can not be used in advance literature like Vedas. Continue... ~~Shri Hari Om Tat Sat~~
