By chance, two birds have made a nest together in the same tree. The two birds are friends and are of a similar nature. One of them, however, is eating the fruits of the tree, whereas the other, who does not eat the fruits, is in a superior position due to His potency. The bird who does not eat the fruits of the tree is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who by His omniscience perfectly understands His own position and that of the conditioned living entity, represented by the eating bird. That living entity, on the other hand, does not understand himself or the Lord. He is covered by ignorance and is thus called eternally conditioned, whereas the Personality of Godhead, being full of perfect knowledge, is eternally liberated.” (“Srimad Bhagavatam” 11.11.6-7)
“There are two birds in one tree. One of them is eating the fruits of the tree, while the other is witnessing the actions. The witness is the Lord, and the fruit-eater is the living entity.” (“Svetasvatara Upanisad” 4.6)
“Although the two birds are in the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face to his friend who is the Lord and now His glories–at once the suffering bird becomes free from all anxieties.” (“Katha Upanisad,” quoted in Bhagavad-Gita 2.22 purport)
Adam & Eve Bridal Mysticism: The two birds in the tree = Atman and Jiva
In the Bhakti or Bridal Mysticism traditions of the ancient world, the finite spirit or soul and supreme spirit or soul were both commonly depicted as birds or doves. These ‘love birds’ can be found on countless artifacts from Egypt and Judea to the East. The theology that accompanied this tradition was that of God as the masculine giver Atman / Atum / Aten / Adon-Yahu / Atomos (the personal individual spirit not the impersonal indivisible thing) / Autos (self) / Ontos (being) / Atta etc.
In each of these Bhakti traditions, the feminine or receiver self-of-God and finite self as the ‘Bride of God’ (hence Bridal Mysticism) was considered to be the feminine Shekinah or Shakti and Jiva / H’va (Eve “the mother of all living”) / Zoe / Bios / Vivos / Ba / Chayah / Hayah / Chai / Chi or ‘living force’ etc.
Thus in such Bridal Mysticism, Purusha or God was always considered to be the masculine giver or lover, and the finite soul in relationship to God was always considered to be feminine, or the receiver.
The worship of a triad of a Divine (or Semi-Divine) Father, Mother and Child was common throughout the ancient World. Such threesomes were NOT the Most Holy Trinity of the Transcendent-Emanating and Mediating-Immanent Purusha (Giver) Godhead or the corresponding Trinity of Original (Transcendent)-Emanating and Mediating-Immanent Receiving Shaktis.
The Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity as taught by the Apostles of Jesus Christ was pervasive throughout the ancient World. It was part of the Primal Self-Revelation of the Original Supreme Personality of Godhead, HARI. HARI (HERU, OLU, ILU, HELI, ELI. ALI, URI. ORI, ARI, SOLE etc.) was inseparably worshiped with His Emanating and Mediating Second Self / Person Bal-Dios or Yahu, Baladeva or Vasudeva (Vishnu). They were also worshiped with Their Immanent (OMNI-present) Third Person, Their Holy Spirit / Param Atma / Atman. Thus the Revelation of this Most Holy Trinity of HARI-VASU-ATMAN can be found in earliest Africa, including Egypt as HERU-WASU-ATEN in Thebes and Amarna, or HERU-AUSU-ATUM / ATON in Heliopolis (and Northern Egypt). The Greeks worshiped This Most Holy Trinity as HELI-OS-ATOM and the Biblical Semites worshiped the SAME TRINITY as ELI-YAHU-ADON.
Each of the Persons of this Transcendent-Emanating-Immanent Giving (Purusha, Yang) Godhead was worshiped with Their Receiving Shakti, Prakriti or Yin. Thus Heru-Ausu / Kour-os Rhodos of Rhodes was worshiped with Kore Rhoda. Heru is Hari. Kore is Hare. Rhoda is Radha. Hekate (Sekhet, Shekinah) is Shakti. Kouros as Nymphos was worshiped with Kore as Nymphia. Kouros as Asteros was worshiped with Asteria, Helios was worshiped with Halia. Marinus (Narayana) was worshiped with Marina (Narayani, Mariam). Juvenalis was worshiped with Juventa (Yauvana with Yauvani). Theos / Dios was worshiped with Thea / Dia (Deva with Devi). Yahu (Ausu) was worshiped with His Asherah. The Supreme Soul ATUM / ATOM / ATON / ADON / ATEN was worshiped with the finite soul ‘BA / HEVA / EVE / JIVA.
Since the Original Persons of Meghistos Kouros and Rhoda-Kore never age beyond New Youth / Juvenile Nava Yauvana and Yauvani and never leave Their Sacred Rose-Lotus-Star Island of Rhoda-Nymphia-Asteria, all of Their variegated Forms for Pastimes are manifest through, with, in, and by Their ‘Expansions’. Thus Bal-Dios or Yahu / Wasu / Ausu Dios, the Second Self of Meghistos Kouros (Krishna), manifests ALL of the ‘subsequent’ Purusha (Yang) Forms or Persons of the Spiritual and Material Worlds. Rhoda / Radha likewise manifests ALL ‘subsequent’ Shakti, Prakriti or Yin Forms.
In authentic Jewish and Catholic Bridal Mysticism, the story of “Adam and Eve” is understood theologically as being about the fall of the Hve (Jiva) soul and the ultimate descent of God to be with his beloved and to rescue her from birth, death, disease, and old age. Adon / God pre-exists Adam the man, who is ‘made in his image’. The form of God who dwells with the finite self-soul in the garden of paradise is “imaged” by the Adam who also eats of the forbidden fruit of the tree, and so voluntarily joins Eve / Jiva in her fall of divine forgetfulness, but that is not the end of the story, because Aten / Adon-Yahu (who is also God in his “second person”), as the “second Adam” and ‘bridegroom’ lover-of-the-self / soul (Eve / Jiva), descends and incarnates Himself for the salvation of His beloved! Thus in Catholic and Jewish Shakti / Shekinah-related Bridal Mysticism, the entire cosmic manifestation is the unfolding drama of God’s invasion of his own created ‘lower’ realms of manifestation, to rescue his beloved Shekinah (Shakti as the first ‘Eve’), who has also descended there, like a mother to rescue all of her ‘fallen’ children. As Shekinah (Shakti), the original ‘Bride of God’, endlessly descends through every realm of manifestation to find and save her wandering forgetful distracted ‘fallen’ children, Eli / Hari is always both with her and ‘seeking her,’ in a Lila of love’s ecstasy of separation, and in fact she is also ‘missing’ Him in that inconceivable mood. (countless Purusha-Prakriti related religious traditions have been, and still are, centered on this giver-receiver or ‘Bridal Mysticism’ emanational metaphysics.)
Atman + Jiva in Tree
‘Adam’ Atma M. + ‘Eve’ Jiva F.
Djedje ‘Trees’ + Atef Crowns in Israel
Crowned ‘Beatified’ Jiva Soul cf/ Cyrus Fravarshi Persia
Djedje, Atman + Jiva Israel ‘BA’ Bios, Jiva
Of course, some understanding of emanationism or a plurality of persons in the Godhead is important in such Jewish and Jewish-related ‘Bridal’ Mysticism, and this is where Trinitarian theology comes into Catholic Apostolic tradition.
The Heliopolitan tradition of Egyptian emanational monotheism always worshiped the Supreme Lord in three masculine (metaphysically giver) primary features or forms or persons. These were Heru, Ausu and Atum (Greek Heli-Os Atum / Aten / Atomos / Autos / Ontos etc.) to the Hebrews, Israelites and Jews, these were Eli-Yahu-Adon, or Eli-Baal-Adon. This is our Hari (Krishna), Balarama or Vasudeva (a Mula Mantra name of Baladeva) and Paramatman, who are the three irreducible “persons” of our Krishna-centric giver (masculine) “Godhead”. Heru / Hari / Eli is the eternally transcendent “first person” of this Godhead. Baal or Balarama Vasudeva is the descending or incarnating and rescuing mediator or “second person” of the Godhead. Paramatman as Hari immanent is the all-pervasive indwelling “Lord of the Heart”. In fact, the words heart, cordia / kardia, core, courage and many others from the primal root ‘R / ‘L (HR, KR, CHR, SR, EL, AL, ILU / OLU etc.) derive from this primal name of God, which is his revelatory name as “love,” or the all-attractive one… Krishna! Hari is Krishna, who in his inconceivable Trinitarian oneness-and-difference is eternally
- Transcendent
- Emanating, incarnating and mediating
- Immanent.
Thus in devotional Salvific Pure Land Buddhism, Hrih is often invoked as the essential Bija seed or Mula Mantra of all three persons (or ‘bodies’ or transformations) of the Buddhist Tri Kaya Trinity. The original Dharma Kaya Adi Purusha Amitabha is Hrih. His “second person” or first expansion Samboghya Kaya Amitayus is also invoked with the Hrih mantram (along with all of his mediating emanation and incarnation forms as Lokesvara or Avalokiteshvara [Vishnu]), and the third person or Rupa Kaya immanent ‘Lord of the Heart’ of Pure Land Buddhism is also invoked with the primal Holy name of the Supreme Purusha (masculine giver or lover) Hrih.
Often today AL / HL / HR / KR root-related names of God have come to have the associative meaning of “Lord”, as in the common Catholic and orthodox Greek usage “Kyrie.” At this link, there is a short history of this particular Greek form of God’s name interpreted as the divine title “Lord.”
Hari or Krishna is always God-who-is-Love, the Supreme “Lord of the Heart,” which is his throne room or throne itself in the pura or body-temple of his incarnation. Thus the heart is the seat of Hari, God-who-is-Love. It is the Hrid / Heart / Cordia, Hridaya or Hari-Daya, where He resides at the core of all creations, as both the ultimate source and object of all of His Shekinah’s and Jiva’s attractions and affections.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08714a.htm A short history of Greek “Kyrie” as “Lord” in both the Latin and Greek Catholic liturgies.
The two birds episode referred to is also found depicted in a famous Indus Valley Seal. This is depiction of “Dwa Suparna Sayuja Sakhaya…” Rigveda mantra 1.164.20.
These ‘love birds’ can be found on countless artifacts from Egypt and Judea to the East. This includes not only the Indus Valley, but artifacts all of the way across Asia and into the Pacific Islands and the ‘Western’ hemisphere.
Similarly the Supreme Power being conceived as a personal but most Loving Father figure and the Closest Friend and Counsel as a male Entity, and as a very Eternally Loving Mother and Beloved in Female form are given in the famous Vamdev Sukta’s three mantras RV 4-31-1,2,3 i.e.
“Kaya Nashchtra Abhuvduti / Kastwa Satyo Madanam / Abhishunah Sakhi Namvita.”
Which only confirms that the spirit of all Dharma has a Universal soul.
If we put aside prejudice, it is clear that the entire religio-social complex of the Rig Vedic culture was predicated on the worship of the personal love and self-sacrifice Godhead as Adi Purusha, and His Prakriti as the mother of all living. The high civilization of Purusha’s Varnashrama Dharma Sacramental Social Body was incarnate through his Sattvic Purusha Sukta Sacrifice-related human connection to Universal Ritya.
Thus for example, throughout the entire ancient Mediterranean region, all high civilization was connected to the worship of Heru (Hari) Per-Us (Greek Polieus, Vedic Purusha) and His feminine Tyche, who was also called Fortuna-Moneta (Lakshmi). All Polieus temple city-state money was minted in her Fortuna-Moneta temples. “Lucre” (money), “luck,” “fortune” and “money” are all derived from her names. As the Shekinah / Shakti of the Supreme Father God Polieus (Egyptian Per-Us, Purusha) as “Providence,” Tyche-Fortuna was in every way iconographically and theologically ‘cognate’ with Mother Lakshmi, and in fact her by-name Marina (Biblical Mariam) is Lakshmi’s by-name Narayani. Nari-Narayani is Mary-Mariam. Rhoda is Radha. Mary the “Mystical Rose (Rhoda) is Radha. Juvenalis and Juventa are Krishna Yauvana and Radha Yauvani etc. Of course, the entire regional Purusha and Prakriti tradition eventually evolved into the Bridal Mysticism and Prakriti Tradition eventually evolved into the Bridal Mysticism devotional tradition of Apostolic (Catholic) Christianity, with its intense Marian Shekinah ‘Bridal’ Mysticism and Devotion.
Simply stated, early humanity had a primal devotion to one Supreme God, by the name of HR / HL / KR / KL/ EL / OLU / ILU Etc. This supreme origin or Father-God’s worship can be found by researching his by-names, beginning from his HR etc. Name, in the context of some form of emanational Divine Love ‘Bridal Mysticism’ in all of the major language families. Thus for the central African Niger-Korodofanian languages like Yoruban, the Primal Supreme Father God’s name may appear presently written various ways such as OLU or ORU. In ancient Egypt, where the class of Nilo-Saharan languages were used, modern scholarship has identified this same Supreme Father God’s name as being ‘R (Aspirate or ‘H’R), and most Egyptologies and Nilo-Saharan language scholars are now rendering this deity name as “Heru.”
I have studied the religion of “Heru the Elder” in great depth. It was the original Heliopolitan Monotheism of Egypt, and it was intimately connected to the Greek and Semitic (later Jewish) cultus of Rhoda (Radha) and Kouros Helios (Krishna) on the sacred lotus-isle of Rhodes. In recognition of their shared devotional to the primal and Supreme Godhead and His Shakti (Jewish Shekinah), on the ancient Nymphia (Lotus) isle of Rhodes, Africans, Europeans and Semites all worshiped Rhoda-Kouros (Radha-Krishna) together.
Niger-Kordofanian; Nilo-Saharan; Khoisan; Indo-European; Malayo-Polynesian
Twentieth-Century Developments; Bibliography; The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2006,; Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
Understanding the ‘R or ‘L primal holy name of God-who-is-Love, as it appears in various language families. According to the linguistic understanding of sound-shifting principles, the soft aspirate “breathing” or “H” may shift in several directions, “hardening” to Ch, (rarely J), K and G guttural sounds, or it may soften or shift towards the “S” sounds like S, Sh or even the phonated (voiced) Z. The initial soft aspirate “H” sound can also be dropped from the beginning of a word entirely, yielding to the initial vowel sound. As for the second letter or syllable of this primal holy name, the R and L are interchangeable. Thus obeying these philological comparative linguistic ‘rules’ of sound-shifting, it is easy to recognize that the HR-related names of the Supreme Father God in the major language families are actually related, and therefore at some pre-historical point in time shared a common source. Thus if we objectively, without religious prejudice, study the occurrence of these HR related Supreme Deity names, the astounding truth emerges that the Africans, so-called Indo-Europeans, and Western and Eastern Semites all worshiped the same Deity-of-origin, revealed by his holy name HR (OLU / HERU / ELI / ILU / HARI / HARA etc.) as the personal Supreme Father God. Heru (Horus the Elder)…n. Egyptian ‘Solar Monotheism’ OLU, ORU etc. Sub-Saharan Egypt (today’s Yoruban Supreme God) Heli, Helios (Horus the Elder), Kouros. Heliopolitan monotheism of Greece Sole, Soleus. Roman ‘Solar Monotheism’ Eli, Ali, Ari, Ori etc. Western Semitic including Hebrew-Israelite-Jewish and Christian (Biblical) Supreme Father God Ilu. Babylonian Supreme Father God Hari, Hara, Sura, Harih, Sureh, Surya. Indian ‘Solar’ related names of the Supreme Father God Hrih. Pure Land Buddhist Amitabha-related ‘Solar Monotheism’ across the entire range of Northern Buddhism, all of the way to, and including, Japan with the universal worship of this deity was the veneration of his feminine Shakti or Shekinah. Theirs was the religion of both universal creativity, and of giving-and-receiving redemptive grace and love.
Wikipedia: The Tree of Jiva and Atman appears in the Vedic scriptures concerning the soul.
The Rig Veda samhita 1.164.20-22, Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.1-2, and Svetasvatara Upanisad 4.6-7, speak of two birds, one perched on the branch of the tree, which signifies the body, and eating its fruit, the other merely watching.
Rig Veda samhita says:
1.164.20 Two birds associated together, and mutual friends, take refuge in the same tree; one of them eats the sweet fig; the other abstaining from food, merely looks on.
1.164.21 Where the smooth-gliding rays, cognizant, distil the perpetual portion of water; there has the Lord and steadfast protector all beings accepted me, though immature in wisdom.
1.164.22 In the tree into which the smooth-gliding rays feeders on the sweet, enters, and again bring forth light over all, they have called the fruit sweet, but he partakes not of it who knows not the protector of the universe.
The first bird represents a Jiva, or individual self, or soul. Shiva Samhita presents briefly the nature and the function of Jiva. It says: “Jiva lives in the man’s body and in the woman’s body as well. It is covered in all kinds of desires. There is a strong and tight relationship between him and the body throughout karma that was accumulated in the past lives. Every being enjoys and suffers according to his/her own past actions. The Jiva who’s done many good and virtuous deeds will enjoy a happy life and wonderful conditions in this world. But the Jiva, who, on the contrary, has done many bad deeds, will never find his peace. No matter what is the nature of his desire, positive or negative, it will always cling to the Jiva and follow him all the time, during his countless reincarnations.” When the Jiva becomes distracted by the fruits (signifying sensual pleasure), Jiva momentarily forgets the Lord and lover and tries to enjoy the fruit independently. This separating forgetfulness is maha-maya, or enthrallment, spiritual death, and constitutes the fall of the jiva into the world of material birth, death, disease and old age.
The second bird is the Paramatman, an aspect of God who accompanies every living being in the heart while she remains in the material world. He is the support of all beings and is beyond sensual pleasure.
Abraham does not mean non-Brahmana or Not-a-Brahmin as many prejudice anti-Semites or anti-Jews have claimed. First of all, one must consider the actual direct or associative meanings of a word or name in the context of its current native (or borrowed) known, or once known uses. Thus we know what HVE / Eve meant, when it occurred in Genesis, because of the definition that immediately followed calling her the “Mother of All Living” [‘Living’ Here = Hebrew Chai; compare Bengali ‘Chai’ and Chinese ‘Chi’], Genesis 3:20.
In the same way the associative meaning of ‘Abraham’ is “Father of a multitude,” from the root ‘AB’ (compare the root “PA” for Father), meaning ‘Father.’ Thus this associative name, given by God to His devotee, likened Him to the great Prajapati Brahma, the ‘Father’ of All of the Beings in the cosmic manifestation.
The ancient devotees, especially the Heliopolitan Monotheists, also enjoyed using many puns, and in the sacred languages of God, punning within and across traditions was also popular as a way to impregnate many more layers of meaning into either pictorial or spoken word. “A” as a prefix in Sanskrit is not always A Negative, and spoken differently is even a superlative! Thus A-Brahman would mean very or exceedingly Brahmana.
Either as a Father of multitudes, a Prajapati like Brahma, or as a great Brahmana, Abraham was related to the Tribe of the ‘Apiru, Sri Krishna’s family the Abhira cow herders, whose sacred revealed knowledge of God was called Yeda (Veda).
There are a vast number of solid verifiable connections, but once Abraham’s wife Sarai, by her new (Diksha) name ‘Sarah’ is considered, this alone shows some positive connection, because she is significantly associated with wisdom and learning, just as Brahma’s ‘Wife’ Saraswati is!
https://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/1270633-bridal-mysticism-atman-jiva-adon-eve/
Collected Works Archive of Bhakti Ananda Goswami 