Vedic Sanskrit words--Vaak and Brain, Bull and Bel (Wood Apple) Tree

Deities and the animals----Part2----The bull and the Bel Tree (Wood-Apple Tree).

The words in italics are the Itrans version of the Sanskrit words and can be found in the Sanskrit English Lexicon of Monier Williams (<https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/>).

A bull is vRiSha in Sanskrit. vRiSha also means who is causing varShaNa or 'rain'. These are from the root words 'varSha' meaning 'rain' and also 'year' and also ' division of earth or physical space'. 

From the activities of the Universal Consciousness or from praaNa changes are happening. Life from the divinity flows to the earth. Accordingly, physical space is also identified and named. Like, vaarata varSha is the space that showers radiance, madhu varSha is the space that showers sweetness or honey, uttara (north or beyond)  kuru (karma or activities) varSha is the space that is characterized by effortless work or salvation.

India was considered part of vaarata varSha, Switzerland as part of madhu varSha, and Russia as part of uttara kuru varSha.

The female form of a bull (vRiSha) is a cow (go). We have clarified the various meanings of the Sanskrit word go and its relationship with the animal cow in the article available at the link < https://vedicsanskritwords.blogspot.com/2017/12/sanskrit-word-related-to-go-all-words.html>

In short go or cow represents the 'sensory organs' or the 'active senses'. The revealing Consciousness or the power of Consciousness behind every revelation, behind formation of senses (or words) or behind the formation of an entity is called vaak.

Thus go also implies vaak or the power of Consciousness by which Consciousness multiplies or becomes many.

vaak has been addressed as dhenu (holy cow) in Upanishads and praaNa as the bull and mind as the calf.  (Refer to Verse 5.8.2 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.)

The Universal Consciousness or praaNa, raining life, revealing everything along the course of time, is called vRiSha. 

Thus in Upanishad it is said:

yada te avivarshatha athemaa praano te prajaa

aanandarUpam tisthThanti kaamaayaannam bhaviShyati (Prashnopanishada Verse 2.10)

When you rain, oh praaNa!

Your subjects wait in delight knowing that the desired anna will surely bloom.

anna means 'food'. anna actually means an/ana or praaNa scattering all over to nourish us.

The earth gets fertile by praaNa,  by rain, by the streaming Consciousness called soma, who reveals as the verdant plantation, as lives in the ocean, earth and air.

One of the most significant aspects of a bull is its virility, its ability to breed prolifically like varShaNa or raining from praaNa or the Universal Consciousness. Raining from Universal Consciousness is creating time and space as the universe and as every moment.

vRiSha or the bull is also described as the draft animal of the god or deity of the tree called Bel(Bael) tree or the Wood-Apple tree. This is a holy tree in the Hindu religion. This tree in an individual represents the brain with the spine (trunk) and the nerves streaming down the spine and spreading all over the body. The tree as a deity represents the 'universal brain with the trunk or the spine through which the nerves or the streams of  Consciousness are flowing in all directions in the universe. Thus Bel tree or bilva bRikSha represents the Universal Consciousness spreading everywhere from the core or centre of control.  'Bel tree' (the individual control and nervous system) in each of us is a branch (shaakhaa) of the Universal tree.

Thus the control (kaala / time and its effects) are happening from the universal Bel tree or bilva bRikSha  or from the Universal Consciousness. The control defines the time or the culture/ religion. This aspect of Consciousness is also called 'dharma'  or the 'god of religions' or 'the ruler'. Thus bull or vRiSha is also known as the draft animal of 'dharma' or 'the personalized religion' who rules over all the creation.

The word bilva means 'related to bila'.  One of the meanings of bila is 'bowl'. In Upanishad, the 'head' or 'brain' has been described as a 'bowl' positioned 'upside down and where 'the entire faculties, exhibited as the universe, is located.

(Thus this tells me that the English word 'bull' and ' bowl ' are probably related to the Sanskrit words 'bila' or 'bilva'.)

The word bila in Sanskrit means ' a cave, a hollow, bowl of a  spoon or ladle'.  Upanishad has described 'brain or head ' as arvaka bila chamasa urdha budhna---a bowl or a ladle with its bottom up.

Thus the hymn is : arvaka bila chamasa urdha budhna

                             (inside the cavity of  the ladle with its bottom up

                              yasmin yashoH vishvarupam nihitam

                             (where the universe as the treasure is contained)

         

                              tasmin aasate RiShaya sapta tIre

                           (there along its bank {rim} reside the seven seers/sages

                           vaak aShTamI brahmNaa saMvidaanaa. 

                           (vaak is the eighth, she who makes bramha known.) 

(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Verse 2.2.3).

Then further Upanishad has explained the above hymns as below:

The ladle with bottoms up (inverted ladle) is the 'head'.

The treasure (yasha) is praaNa (the active Universal Consciousness who is everyone's senses).

praaNa is 'vishvarupam' or the manifested universe in the external and felt internally.

Along the rim of the 'ladle' resides the 'seven seers'. The seers are the personalities of the Consciousness who are 

'Right and left eyes'---2 Seers 

'Right and left ears'---2 Seers

'Right and left noses'--2 Seers

 'Tongue & lips together i.e. speech, taste and touch'--1 seer

vaak, the consort of praaNa, who provides all definitions to praaNa to shape the universe is termed as the 'eighth'.  Eight is aShTa, and is from the root verb ash meaning 'to pervade, to reach '. vaak or Consciousness as vaak is there everywhere, reaching everywhere, surpassing, exceeding everything. Thus, vaak is heralding bramha, who is Consciousness as ever-growing.  It is for this reason, everything that the mind perceives is associated with a ‘ word’ or a vaakya; vaakya means a form of vaak.

  

A pair of Bel (Wood-Apple) fruits in two branches and splitting from a single stem is used in bodhana  or awakening (invoking) of goddess durgaa (also known as mukhya praaNa or eternal active Consciousness) in the idol or in the physicality or in the self. 

The two fruits are called shrIfala and shrIniketana.  shrIfala is the cerebrum and other associated parts (front and midbrain);  shrIniketana is the cerebellum (the hindbrain);  the stem is the brain-stem and the spine.

The senses, word processing, interpretations, the control of motors, or all the controls happen in the domain of the Cerebrum and Cerebellum.

It may be noted that in the above-quoted hymn, vaak the goddess of words or expressions is the central theme.

The branch of the Tree which is thornless, which is impeccable, which is leading, is used in invoking the goddess. This is the branch, which is the 'assertion-less self in us, which supports the sense of 'aham or I am ' in each of us. It is the Universal soul as micro-soul in us. In text, it is called, aatman, aatma-bodha, nija-bodha'. The senses, the other branches are created with aatma-bodha in the background or as the foundation.

We all have this principal branch aatma-bodha in us who is the same 'One' in everyone.

Here is the first line of the hymn to ' bilva vRikSha':

bilva vRikSham mahaavaagam rajatavaM vRiShasThitam

(The Bel tree is great and shining silver; he is seated on a bull)

naanaa alankara vhuShitam jaTaa maNdala dharinam

(He is adorned with various ornaments and is having the locked orb of hair!).

(' Locked orb of hair ' means our entangled intricate instincts.)

From the ‘head' is raining (varShaNa> vRisha>bull) the senses ceaselessly. This is why the head is also called 'sahasraara' which means from where sahasra (thousand) ara (spokes) are originating. It also means 'aatmanaa saha sravati',  flowing along with the soul or aatman.

Both the Cerebrum and Cerebellum have two halves or two hemispheres (represented by two Bel fruits connected to a single stem). The interpretations of words, and senses happen in Cerebrum which is called shrIfala.  Here all 'effects' or 'fala' are associated with 'shrI'. shrI is the elegance that manifests when it is known or experienced that the eternal Consciousness is the foundation or shelter (shrad) of everything. The word shrI is from the root word shrad meaning 'shelter'.  shrI is the elegance that one perceives when the things are seen founded in the Universal consciousness.

The cerebellum is shrIniketana.  shrIniketana means the abode or niketana that is adorned with shrI. 

All our movements and associated coordination, including the motion of the eyeballs, are controlled from this centre.

It has been cited in the hymns, that in the snow-capped peaks of the two mountains named meru-mandara and kailaasha, shrIfala tree grows and also shrInieketana.

It is notable that the brain is like a mountain terrain. I am quoting a line from the Internet----" The surface of the cerebrum is called the cortex. It has a folded appearance with hills and valleys." (https://mayfieldclinic.com/pe-anatbrain.htm).

(Written following the teachings of the great sage Shri.BijoyKrishna Chattopadhyaya (1875-1945) and his principal disciple Shri.Tridibnath Bandyopadhyaya (1923-1994).)

(debkumar.lahiri@gmail.com)