| Max Muller, a scholar on Indian studies and comparative religion, claims the Vedas are the oldest literary text, or rather that they take us back in time further than any other, to the most primitive state of man’s religious writings. (8) And according to Rev. L. H. Mills, the learned translator of the Zend Avesta, the Gathas are not as old as the Vedas: “As it is the absence of Mithra and his colleagues who appear in the later Avesta permit us to place the Gathas (the oldest portion of the Zend Avesta) considerably later than the oldest Riks.” (9) The writings of the Rig Veda in the earliest times was referred to as the “honey doctrine.” (10) This has to do with the use of honey, along with milk, in the Soma ceremony. The Atharva Veda could be considered an extension of the Rig Veda, as it includes numerous verses adapted from the Rig Veda. The Rig Veda, being a very simple composition of hymns to just a few gods without a lot of variance, the Atharva Vedas contain lots of discourse on procedures for everyday life. The Atharva Vedas are deemed to be written during the period of 1200 BC - 1000 BC. (11) Placing the Rig Veda in perspective, the Pyramid Texts date to approximately 2400-2300 BC. The Nag Hammadi Scrolls date from the 2nd to 4th century BC, and the Rig Veda date to approximately 1500 BC, and the original myths and the ceremony itself are thought to date to at least 4000-3500 BC. (12) In Vedic times, the “seers” empowered the various kings and aided in their development sometimes being raised up by them, such as Rama. They were said to retire into seclusion at the close of the Mahabharata War. (13) What we are reading in the Rig Veda and most ancient mythic texts are the writings of these “seers.” These were visionaries or shamans of the culture. In the Hindu pantheon there are a large number of healing deities including The Adityas, Agni, Apah, The Asvins, Bhaisajyaraja, and Bhaisajyaguru, Brahma, Brhaspati, Daksa, Dhanvantari, Dhatr, Indra, The Maruts, Rudra, Sarasvati, Savitr, Soma, Surya, Tvastr, Varuna, and Vata, or Vayu. (14) Generally, all deities we will discover are “healing deities.” If they are not mushroom deities directly, they are deities which represent the forces of nature which bring us the mushroom deities, so in essence they are “messengers” of the great god/dess. In ancient India, the main river was the Saraswati, which had several channels. The “Mother Goddess” as water was deified as their main river. The ancient Hindus worshiped this water source as the spring of all life. Some of her epithets included the “Goddess of Wisdom” and “Mother of the Vedas.” She was once associated with Sarasvat, a river god. (15) From the Rig Veda we read: “Best Mother, best of Rivers, best of Goddesses, Sarasvatī, we are, as ’twere, of no repute and dear Mother, give thou us reknown. In thee, Sarasvatī, divine, all generations have their stay. Be, glad with Śunahotra's sons: O Goddess grant us progeny.” (16) |
What I find interesting, is that over and over the Hindu prayers to the goddesses and gods ask for “progeny,” or children. All scholars till this point have assumed this to be the ability for humans to birth children, but I would like to propose that they are talking about spores and the children are the mushrooms. They are therefore, asking for a plentiful harvest, not personal fertility. There are just too many instances of this one quote, mixed into the hymns which are mainly about mushrooms and Soma. Asking for fertility in childbirth appears to be a bit “out of place” in this context, it seems to me. In the following hymn, Divodasa, an Aryan king in Vedic mythology, was said to be born from the river Saraswati: “To Vadhryasva when he worshipped her with gifts she gave fierce Divodāsa, canceller of debts. Consumer of the churlish niggard, one and all, thine, O Sarasvatī, are these effectual boons.” (17) Brahma, who was the Supreme Creator was married to Sarasvati. Aditi is a mother-goddess depicted in Hindu literature. According to the Rig Veda, Aditi is said to be the wife of Kasyapa or of Brahma, and the mother of the Aditya, by whose will the universe is made possible; and she also personifies death because she consumes everything. She is sometimes identified with the guise of the cow. (18) In the Rigveda (I.32.9), she is identified as the mother of Vrtra, the demonic serpent slain by Indra, therefore, she is also a serpent goddess. (19) In the Hindu pantheon, Shiva was identified with both Rudra and Agni. While Rudra was considered a storm god and Agni, a fire god, as we will see, both of these deities relate to the mushroom in various ways. Shiva’s emblem is the linga and lingham, which many associate with the phallus, but after investigating this myself, I have found no reason to believe this is the case. Shiva was attended by a bull, known as Nandi. (20) There are many instances of Shiva being depicted with mushrooms either on top of his head or in his hands (17a, c, e). (8) The Fountainhead of Religion” A Comparative Study of the Principal Religions of the World and the Manifestation of their Common Origin from the Vedas, Ganga Prasad, Book Tree 2000, (1927), p. XXV, paragraph 5 and Page XXVI, paragraph 1; Chips from a German Workshop, vol. 1, p. 4 (9) ibid; (Rev. L. H. Mill's translation of the Zend Avesta, part III, Introduction, p. xxxv: Sacred Books of the East series) (10) Soma The Divine Hallucinogen – David Spess, Park Street Press, Rochester, VT. 2000, p. 3-4 (11) Michael Witzel (2003), "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Editor: Gavin Flood), Blackwell, page 68 (12) Mary Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism, 1989, 1:3 (13) Gods, Sages and Kings: Vedic Secrets of Ancient Civilization, David Frawley, Passage Press, Utah, 1991, p. 142 (14) The Healing Gods of Ancient Civilizations, Walter Addison Jayne, M.D., Yale University Press (1962), p. 160 (15) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 109 (16) Rig Veda II, 41, 16-17 (17) Rig Veda VI, 61, 1 (18) Jordan, Michael, Encyclopedia of Gods, New York, Facts On File, Inc. 1993, p. 3; Bowker, John, The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 20 (19) The Great Cosmic Mother, p. 219 (20) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 101 |