Through the navagunjara, Krishna teaches Arjuna that ultimate reality is One, but it appears different to different people, depending on their point of view and their own innate svabhava or nature, writes HARSHA V DEHEJIA
In the Oriya Mahabharata written by Sarala Das, there is an episode where Arujna in his wanderings comes across a strange animal which is a composite of nine animals. The Navgunjara as it is called, has the head of a rooster, the neck of a peacock, the waist of a lion, the hump of a bull, the tail of a serpent, the leg of an elephant, another leg of a tiger, yet another leg of an antelope and a human hand holding a lotus. Arjuna’s natural reaction is to take his bow and attack the monster before it attacks him. But suddenly Arjuna notices that navagunjara is holding a lotus. He lowers his bow and wonders what this creature is.
Ultimate Reality
Krishna then appears to him and says that the navagunjara is another of his forms, similar to the Viratsvarupa of the Bhagwad Gita. In the navagunjara, Krishna expresses the plurality of approaches to and the understanding of reality.Ultimate reality, Krishna teaches Arjuna is one, but it appears different to different people depending on their point of view and their own innate svabhava or nature. Remember the vedic injunction, ekam sat bahuda vipra vadanti, Krishna says. The Hindu tradition is neither monolithic nor unitarian, but instead plural and multifaceted, where multiplicity rather than uniformity is the watchword and, therefore, approaches to this reality have also to be varied. We have a number of gods and goddesses which lead to different sampradays or religious sects and, therefore, there are many and varied temples, festivals, rites and rituals.
Equally, we have various darshanas or philosophical systems which go from the frankly atheistic to the strongly theistic, from Advaita to Dvaita and every shade in between. Different darshanas and sampradays were part of the whole, not independent and at odds with each other; they were held together in harmony in the tapestry of Indic thought, just as different threads make a fabric, or many spokes support a wheel and many branches arise from the same trunk which finds its nourishment in the springs of water in the earth. Like the spokes of a wheel, all systems of thought meet at the centre, the bindu, the still centre of movement; it is the same water that they drink. It is the centre at which they all meet. That centre is Brahmn or sat, chit and ananda. We have a robust tradition of dialogue and debate where philosophers who championed different systems of thought would engage in public debates in arenas called Kutuhalashalas and those who won would be honoured and those who lost would gracefully accept defeat A story is told of Adi Sankara, an Advaitin who went to debate with Mandana Mishra who was a Mimamsak.
When Sankara asked where he would find Mandana Mishra’s home, he was told that as he kept on walking northwards he would soon come to a path where even the birds would sing hymns of the vedas.This was his sign that he had reached. The navagunjara motif is very popular in Odisha and is often painted on patachitras. It is sculpted at the northern side of the Jagannath Temple, Puri. Also, the Nila Chakra disc atop the Jagannath temple has eight navagunjaras carved on the outer circumference, with all facing towards the flagpole above. Navagunjara is also depicted in Ganjifa playing cards as the king card and Arjuna as the minister card. The navagunjara is perhaps the most interesting and evocative mythic animal in the tradition.
中文翻译：
加拿大籍印度裔教授HARSHA V DEHEJIA写道：克里希纳(Krishna)通过那瓦衮加热瑜伽瑞兽向阿周那教诲终极现实虽然独一，但是不同的人因其观点和先天自性或本性看到的终极现实是不一样的。
图片附件: Navagunjara31.jpg (2021-12-28 01:35, 24.75 KB) / 下载次数 4402
