“Enter Blazing” – Jayadvaita Swami Commits a Grammatical Error (BG 11.28)
BBT International’s edited 1983 edition: “As the many waves of the rivers flow into the ocean, so do all these great warriors enter blazing into Your mouths.”
Original and authorized 1972-edition: “As the rivers flow into the sea, so all these great warriors enter Your blazing mouths and perish. I see all people rushing with full speed into Your mouths as moths dash into a blazing fire. O Visnu, I see You devouring all people in Your flaming mouths and covering the universe with Your immeasurable rays. Scorching the worlds, You are manifest.”
Sridhara Swami’s commentary: “As unlimited currents of water helplessly flow in innumerable rivers and are propelled from multiple channels into the ocean, the mighty warriors of the Kaurava and Pandava armies are seen to be helplessly propelled into the flaming, gnashing mouths of the visvarupa or divine universal form of Lord Krishna.”
Kesava Kasmiri’s commentary: “How helplessly do the mighty warriors of the Kaurava and Pandava armies enter into the flaming mouths of Lord Krishna’s visvarupa or divine universal form? As helplessly as unlimited currents of water from innumerable rivers are propelled into entering the ocean.”
In his translations of Visvanath Cakravarti Thakura and Baladeva Vidyabhusana’s Bhagavad-gita commentaries, Bhanu Swami also translates Bg. 11.28 as follows: “As many swift currents of rivers flow towards the sea, so these heroes of the world enter Your flaming mouths.”
Tridandi Sannyasi Bhakti Ananda Goswami Replies
RE: By Srila Prabhupada’s mercy I was blessed with the mentoring of the great Vaishnava Sanskrit Bhakti Shastra Acharya, Dr. Acharya Prabhakar Mishra. Dr. Mishra was a greatly renowned Sanskrit Master, and Srila Prabhupada’s beloved First Disciple. Srila Prabhupada lived with Dr. Mishra, whom he named as Acharya, for more than 5 years in Jhansi. During that time Dr. Mishra helped Srila Prabhupada with his Sanskrit-English translation studies and Srila Prabhupada was Acharyaji’s Spiritual Master. I initially met Dr. Mishra in Kathmandu in1982, when we were both on the Executive Committee of the World Hindu Organization, under the Patronage of HRM (the late lamented) King Birendra of Nepal. Having the opportunity to question Acharyaji regarding all of my concerns about various important issues, including the topic of Srila Prabhupada’s Books, and the fact that many of his translations were not ‘literal’, Dr. Mishra thoroughly satisfied me that Srila Prahupada’s translations were strictly based on the Tradition of Guru, Shastra and Sadhu. Thus sometimes there was important content contained in a word or verse that was not obvious, and which had to be brought-out in the verse’s translation. This Srila Prabhupada was able to do due to his vast and deep understanding of the Vedic-Vaishnava Tradition, and Dr. Mishra defended Srila Prabhupada against all of his critics.
The “Blazing Mouths” Example
“Agni is the god of fire, the messenger of gods, and accepts sacrifices made to him from anyone who is devoted to his Lord. Agni is associated with Vedic sacrifice, and takes sacrifices of the devotees to their beloved and much respected and adored gods in his fire.”
The importance of Krishna-Vishnu’s BLAZING MOUTHS in this verse is not obvious unless one understands that the entire Agni Hotra Vedic Fire Sacrifice System is based on the concept that AGNI IS THE TONGUE OF VISHNU THAT ACCEPTS (CONSUMES) SACRIFICE. Compare Latin IGNIS, English IGNITE, the Greek’s Name of Asclepios Iasas as AGNITAS and the Name of Jupiter (or Zeus Volcanos) as IGNATIOUS (of FIRE). Throughout the ancient World the Purusha-based sacrifices of the Vedic-based civilizations were typically either ‘Libations’ (Soma-related) or Agni-Hotra related Fire Sacrifices.
Thus even the Murtis or Icons of HARI as Lion-Headed TIME, Kalah in His Gita Revelation, sometimes graphically depicted His Tongue as being the Flame of His Sacrificial Altar. So as Vishnu Kalah, or Shiva-Kalah-Bairava, the Buddhist Kala-Bairab, or the Persian Supreme Lord ZERVAN, and all related ‘wrathful’ Lion-Headed Forms of the Supreme Lord HARI as TIME / KALAH, His Blazing Mouth is associated with His continuous and final consumption of the Cosmos. Agni is His TONGUE! In all of the Vedic Revelation related Fire Sacrifices, AGNI / FIRE was considered His Tongue. Thus His BLAZING MOUTHS were a persistent feature of His Iconography, Oral and Scriptural description throughout the ancient World. Icons in which His lolling Tongue grotesquely stretches-forth from His Mouth are again a visual representation of His ‘Tongues of Flame’ receiving all the sacrifices of the World / Cosmos.
In this same way, if one knows the Revelatory Tradition of the Primal Bhakti Tradition, one can actually understand how IMPORTANT IT IS THAT SRILA PRABHUPADA TRANSLATED SRI KRISHNA’s BHAGAVAD-GITA THE WAY THAT HE DID. Srila Prabhupada’s authorized Translation is SO RICH WITH LAYERS AND LAYERS OF PROFOUND MEANING, which no other translator has ever managed to convey into English, that it is truly an INCOMPARABLE contribution to the historical knowledge-base, spiritual recovery and reunification of all humanity.
I have always tried to explain to others that what I have discovered about our ancient unity as one people of HARI, would NOT have been possible without Srila Prabhupada’s English Translations and elaborate Purports to Sri Krishna’s Bhagavad-gita AS IT IS. When I read the BBT-I edited edition, I was stunned to realize that many of my realizations and comparative religious discoveries would not have been possible if I had been depending on the ‘superior’ BBT-I edition of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita AS IT IS. Thus, although anyone can translate the Gita, without Srila Prabhupada’s great in-depth knowledge of the entire Vedic-Vaishnava Guru-Shastra-Sadhu Tradition, they cannot possibly understand the depth of content, the deepest and broadest meaning of the verses.
Thus for a person of LESS realization to edit Srila Prabhupada’s Books is to inevitably remove actual content-of-meaning from them and as a result to thus un-avoidingly ‘dumb them down’. Additionally, it is simply unethical to change and then re-publish an author’s works after they are no longer available to approve such changes. J Swami’s edited Gita should be published as his version of Srila Prabhupada’s Gita, not AS Srila Prabhupada’s personally approved GITA Translation.
Ministry of DEW adds: Acts 2 The Holy Spirit at Pentecost
rudrāṇāṁ śaṅkaraś cāsmi
vitteśo yakṣa-rakṣasām
vasūnāṁ pāvakaś cāsmi
meruḥ śikhariṇām aham
SYNONYMS rudrāṇām—of all the Rudras; śaṅkaraḥ—Lord Śiva; ca—also; asmi—I am; vitteśaḥ—the lord of the treasury; yakṣa–rakṣasām—of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas; vasūnām—of the Vasus; pāvakaḥ—fire; ca—also; asmi—I am; meruḥ—Meru; śikhariṇām—of all mountains; aham—I am.
TRANSLATION Of all the Rudras I am Lord Śiva; of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas I am the lord of wealth [Kuvera]; of the Vasus I am fire [Agni], and of the mountains I am Meru.
PURPORT There are eleven Rudras, of whom Śaṅkara, Lord Śiva, is predominant. He is the incarnation of the Supreme Lord in charge of the modes of ignorance in the universe. Among the demigods Kuvera is the chief treasurer, and he is a representation of the Supreme Lord. Meru is a mountain famed for its rich natural resources.
Regarding Fire Sacrifices, it is significant that Fire / Agni was considered the Tongue of VISHNU, and that the Greek Biblical word for a ‘Prophet’ was the same title used for a Greek Fire Priest of HELIOS! Compare the Sanskrit ‘Purohita’ for a Vedic Purusha Sukta and Soma / Haoma (Persian) Sacrifice related Fire Priest of VISHNU. Additionally, by tracing these same ‘Vedic’ Sacrifice Fire Priest Traditions to the Early Roman State Cult of the ‘Vestal Virgins’, one can also find many connections. For example, the home hearth and state ‘Vestal’ Fire Sacrifice Cults were related, and from these ‘Hearth’ or Fire Cults, various ‘Vesta’ and Uesna’ words were derived. I have seen ancient Latin texts in which the associative home-hearth ‘meal’ (Sacrifice) offerer is the Uesna ‘Priest’ / Cook.
Thus the development of the Latin verbal system, or Latin word order, … uesna is an exact cognate to Latin cena ‘dinner’ (< *kesna); *g is also. (Source)
Clearly again we are looking at some historically deep religious deep religious and linguistic relationship between the Fire Sacrifice Cult of the Sanskrit ‘VISHNU’ and Latin Uesna related Hearth Cult. The Latin Vesta, Greek Hestia and Sanskrit Vastu. Such VIS / VAS / USH etc. related words are from Nostratic Linguistic Super Family Roots, not just from ‘Indo-European’ roots, so we find more of them in the Afro-Asiatic language families too!
Hestia: goddess of the hearth, from Greek hestia “hearth, house, home, family” (see vestal).
Vesta: Roman goddess of hearth and home, late 14c., corresponding to, and perhaps cognate with, Greek Hestia, from hestia “hearth,” from PIE root *wes- (3) “to dwell, stay” (source also of Sanskrit vasati “stays, dwells,” Gothic wisan, Old English, Old High German wesan “to be”). *COMPARE Greek hestia “hearth, house, home, family” with Sanskrit VASTU*
As the ‘root’ of the Holy Name ‘VISHNU’, this is same *wes- (3) VISH, VAS, USH, (See English IS, WAS) meaning ‘to be’, to exist, to endure or to dwell, “to dwell, stay” (source also of Sanskrit vasati “stays, dwells,” and we see the Lord Himself, as the Supreme Being, Paramatma, is the Dweller in the ‘Heart / Hrid or Core’ (Hari-Daya) of every body. He is the original Afro-Egyptian Per-Ausu, the Greek (and Biblical) Polieus, the Sanskrit East’s Supreme Purusha. As Ausu (Osiris) in S. Egypt was the Supreme ‘WAS’ Deity of Thebes, He was Was-Dios / Vasu-Deva of the city of ‘Wast’. He was Vasu-Deva of the city of Vastu Per-Ausu! Egyptian Theban Wast, Sanskrit Vastu, Greek Hestia and Roman Vesta and Uesna are all related as well as the Biblical ‘Prophets’ traditions of YISHMA (VISHNU) – YAHU or YESHI-YAHU, the One Who Is. Hebrew Toba-Yahu is Vasu-Deva with the names exchanged.
The Pre-Zoroastrian ancient Persians were Agni Hotra ‘Fire Worshipers’ who worshipped their Lion-Headed Cosmic Time-Man Zurvan as Supreme. He was without any doubt the Vaishnavas’ Krishna-Vishnu as Kalah, the Shaivites’ Kala-Bhairava, and the Buddhists’ Kala-Bairab. He was also the All-Devouring Lion-Headed Time ‘Wrathful’ Universal or Cosmic Time-Man form of the Jews’ Yahu Tzabaoth, and the Greeks’ form of Zeus Cronus or Three-Eyed Zeus Tri-Opes, or Helios Tri-Oculus, the ‘Infernal’ Zeus (Judge of the Dead) and the Romans’ Jupiter-Saturnus. All of these Lion-Headed, Cock-Headed and/or Three-Eyed Wrathful or ‘Infernal’ forms of the Supreme Lord were somehow associated with Sacred Sevens and the Keeping of a Saturns’ Day / Saturday ‘Sabbath’ or Holy Day.
In Egypt, Yahu Tzabaoth was the Supreme Lion-Headed Universal Form of HERU-AUSU-ATUM, known as JUPTER-ZEUS-AMUN or HEKA, or Apedemak in Meroe. The Kushite Pharaohs of Wast (Thebes) in S. Egypt worshipped Him at their temple complex of Naga (in Meroe) as the Multi-Lion-Headed and Multi-Armed, Human-Bodied form of Apademak. In the Alexandrine Era, the Kushites identified this same Supreme Deity, Lion-Headed Apademak, with their Naga-Bodied-Human-Headed or Lion-Headed form of Ausar-Serapis (Osiris).
Various Jewish amulets and other miniatures of the Semitic Jews’ Supreme Deity IAH / ‘JAH’ / YAHU (The Wrathful Yahu Tzabaoth ‘Lord of Hosts’ of the Exodus story) depicted the Lord in His ‘composite’ Time-Man / ‘Zodiac’ or Cosmic Form, with a Lion or Cock’s Head, and a Human and/or a Naga Body. These common depictions of Yahu Tzabaoth as Universal Time were worn as protective amulets or buried-with Jewish soldiers. An enormous collection of these Jewish miniatures is curated by the authors of this very important text book:
Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel
I was given the American publisher’s written permission to use limited reproductions of the images and quoted text from this important book. I was not even charged for the formal use privilege, but I was restricted to a limited number of copies printable for hand-outs with my museum and lecture tours. My 2000-01 USA National Lecture Tour began with my Los Angeles Museum Tour and Lecture. for that project, I was assisted by Mr. Vrn Parker, the kind owner of this ‘COLLECTED WORKS‘ website.
Later during that year-long speaking tour, I delivered two related accepted research papers at the international ‘Waves’ (World Association of Vedic Studies) Conference, which was held at the Steven’s Institute in New Jersey.
Everywhere during my 2000-01 Lecture Tour, I displayed and compared the Sacred Nama-Rupa Name-Form Evidence from the Afro-Heleno-Semitic (Biblical) Heliopolitan Federation Traditions, to the Arab, Persian, Vaishnava, Shaivite, Shakti and Pure Land (and Tantric) Buddhist Traditions. No honest person, seeing this authentically ancient evidence, can dispute the profound relatedness of these Devotional / Bhakti-Yoga Traditions.
The authors of “Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel“, while being heavily religious biased in their reasoning and conclusions, never-the-less provide confirmative proof of many of the assertions that I have made in my general thesis, since the 1960s.
I have all-along asserted that the original pre-dynastic Egyptian African Nile Delta, Rhodes and Crete related worship of ‘Helios’ as the Original and the Greatest Kouros’ of Rhodes (Krishna), was the same religion as that of Heru-Ausu in all of Egypt, and the religion of Eli-Yahu in the Biblical Levant. The all-pervasive form of this Original Supreme Duo-Deity was their Afro-Egyptian Atum / Aton / Aten / their Hebrew Adon-Yahu and their Greek Atomos form, known in the Eastern Bhakti traditions as the Sanskrit ‘Param-Atma’, Supreme or Holy Spirit / Atma. Thus Heli-Os-Atomos, the Heliopolitan African Heru-Ausu-Atum (Adon etc.) was the Original Most Holy Trinity of the Mediterranean Region and the Biblical Levant, and this same Trinity was worshiped in the East as Hari-Vasu-Paramatma or Krishna-Vishnu (Baladeva) and Param-Atma.
Not only can the Egyptian and Jewish worship of ‘Helios Kouros of Rhodes’ (Krishna) be proven from the Jewish miniatures in this book, but the fact that Yahu was once the BL ‘Baal’ of the Western Semites is also confirmed in this extremely important text book. My additional decades of research on the BL Holy Name of Bala-Deva has proven to me that Bal-Dios / Bala-Deva was once one of the most important by-names of Yahu or Vasu-Deva! Whole cities were once dedicated to His worship. These were the great ‘Palm Cities’ like Jericho and Palmyra. Yahu was once called by His ‘BL’ name in every city where He had a shrine or temple. This book confirms the era in which Yahu was called ‘Baal’, but it does not go into the many forms of the BL name that were associated with Him. He was even known by His cognate BL names and worshiped by the Romans, Greeks, Afro-Egyptians, the Semites and the Persians, as well as the Eastern Vaishnavas.
The large collection of Jewish miniatures that is described and depicted in this book clearly shows that there was a very close relationship between the Afro-Helleno Helios (Heru-Ausu) worship of Egypt and Greece, and that of the Western Semites / Jews. But there is a problem with the book. The problem is that the authors, while honestly describing and displaying the very abundant miniature evidence, still deny the equally clear import and meaning of it! Instead, in their book, they performed intellectual contortions, in their religiously biased attempt to explain-away the real significance of the revelatory evidence. Thus despite their own overwhelming evidence that the Supreme Afro-Egyptian Deity Heru-Ausu was the Greek Heli-Os and the Biblical Eli-Yahu, the authors still sought to utterly separate the African, Indo-‘Aryan’ Greek and the Semitic ‘deities‘, to deny Their real identity as the same Persons of the original ‘Godhead’.
Apparently, coming from the Anglo-Germanic ‘Aryanism’ tradition of scholarship, it appears that the authors could not accept the profound meaning of the clear evidence before them, and therefore were compelled to ‘spin’ their evidence in order to avoid the conclusion that Heru-Ausu-Aten, Heli-Os-Atomos, Eli-Yahu-Adon (and the East’s Hari-Vasu-Atman) were all persons of the Same Triune Godhead. Tragically, it appears that their Indo-Aryan versus Semitic and Hamitic bias has blinded them from ‘seeing’ / recognizing the obvious. The long separated tribes and ‘linguistic families’ of humanity originally worshiped the Same Self-Revelatory Godhead!
Later the post ‘New Testament’ Gnostics mis-interpreted the icons and symbols of the same kind of Jewish miniatures, and misrepresented them, just as they usually misunderstood and misrepresented the Lion-Headed Universal Time-Man form of the Jewish Deity, Yahu. This pervasive Gnostic-related occult error led to Yahu Tzabaoth, Lord Nara Hari as Kalah Himself, being confounded with the Zoroastrian ‘Devil’ Ahriman, or with the Gnostics’ evil ‘Demiurge’, and various other and later ‘demons’ or occult alchemical or astrological figures.
Another extremely important illustration for this article is that of the Fire Sacrifice for the Vedic Mass Rite related Moksha Rtya Manumission Rite of ‘Adoption’, Initiation or Ordination! In these Vedic Fire Sacrifices, the Tongue of VISHNU consumes and burns-up the sins / vi karma of the one(s) being initiated or ordained. These are all related to the sin-destroying original and all-sufficient self-sacrifice of Lord Baladeva as the ‘sin-taking’ original spiritual master and the self-sacrificed Rig Vedic Cosmic Purusha (Jesus Christ).
Srila Prabhupada instructed all of his ‘initiated’ disciples to participate in one of these sin-renouncing and purificatory Vedic Fire Sacrifices. Like the Catholic Apostolic Mass Rite, these Vedic Moksha Rtya Rites of Missa / Moksha Liberation are all Manumission Rites intended to ‘free’ or liberate (Moksha / Missa ‘release’ or ‘send forth’) a sin-oppressed or captive soul from their slavery to the false gods ‘of the world’ and the burden of any past sin, to enter a completely new life as a free ‘Twice Born’ or ‘Born Again’ Child of God!
Agni: The Fire Altar
[Agni and the fire altar occupy a central role in the Hindu tradition; they are integral to domestic rituals as well as temple consecration. The Vedas noted that historically, Brahmin priests were tasked with starting and handling the fire.
The first altars of the Aryans were those of the cult of fire. Agni, the fire, was celebrated in the Vedic hymns and kindled upon earth to carry prayers and offerings to the highest heavens. The central domestic rituals of the householder—daily rites, marriage rites, and finally funeral rites—took place at the fire altar. Laying and ritually kindling the fire altar was the job of brahmin priests. In ancient India, great rituals, called yajnas, were sponsored by kings and became increasingly elaborate, often involving several fires and many priestly specialists.
In the world of the Aryans, as glimpsed in the Vedas, there were hymns addressed to Agni and other gods, but there were no temples, nor were there murtis of the gods. In the Vedic age, the gods were imaged only in words. Agni was described as the one with flaming hair and golden jaws, the messenger of the gods, through whom oblations were carried from earth to heaven. Even the most elaborately constructed fire altars were not permanent, but were constructed in a temporary ritual arena called a yajnashala. The Agnicayana, for example, involved the construction of an altar, built of layers of brick in the form of a large bird. When the rituals were completed, the site was burned and abandoned.
Today, after three thousand years, the fire altar is still an important part of domestic ritual life. When a child is named, when his or her first hair-cutting is performed, when a boy receives his sacred thread, or when a couple is married, the fire altar is central to the rite. When a temple is consecrated in South India or in South Carolina, the fire altar is still central to the rites of consecration. The fire is the first flickering, portable, renewable icon and altar of the Divine.]
Roman / Latin Easter Vigil Mass Rite Holy Fire Traditions are also very influenced by the Lighting of the Sacred Pyre / Fire by Saint Patrick of Ireland. Here is one version of the legend…
The fire of St. Patrick that led to Ireland’s conversion
The pagan druids were astonished at what happened and many converted to Christianity because of it.
Not long after St. Patrick returned to Ireland to preach the Gospel to the pagan population, he made preparations for the celebration of Easter. It was customary for Christians to light a bonfire at the Easter Vigil (in honor of Jesus, the “light of the world”) and so St. Patrick set up his fire to be quite large and visible for miles around.
The local druids were furious, as it was a tradition in the region on the very same night that no one could light a fire until the king’s fire was lit by the druid priests. Death was the penalty for anyone who defied this law.
The druids informed the king that if this fire was not extinguished, the person who lit it would rule over all of Ireland.
Enraged, the king got into his chariot and raced to the fire with many armed warriors, ready to slay the person behind it. Before reaching the saint, the king sent a few messengers to speak with St. Patrick. However, after listening to the words of St. Patrick, some of the messengers were converted to Christianity.
In other versions of the story, the messengers tried to extinguish the fire of St. Patrick, but were unable to do so. They believed it was some sort of superior magic and that St. Patrick was a powerful magician.
Eventually St. Patrick spoke directly to the king, and while the chieftain did not immediately convert to Christianity, he was so impressed with St. Patrick that he gave the missionary permission to preach the Gospel to the native population.
The “light of Christ” subsequently conquered the land of Ireland, and St. Patrick was able to convert an entire nation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Philip Kosloski – published on 03/16/19 – updated on 03/11/21
There are many competeing versions of this story, but in my favorite version, while the Rajarshic and Tamasic Druid Priests wanted to kill Saint Patrick, he was fearless and persisted in his unifying plan to Lite the Sacred Christian Pyre on the same night as the ‘Pagan’ festival! At that time, the senior Sattvic Druid Priest, recognizing Patrick as his brother-priest in the same faith, of the same primal ancient tradition, allowed Patrick to Lite the Holy Pyre on his behalf!
One of the interesting ways that the Vedic Fire Priesthood of VISHNU has been recovered in the Roman Catholic Tradition, is in the lighting of the sacred ‘Christ is Risen‘ Fire during the world-wide ‘midnight’ celebration of the Easter Vigil Mass! Beginning in the tomb, the sacred flame is passed-out to the devotees (like it is passed around at Arotika) and is used to light the other Sacred Flames that rapidly spread throughout the Entire Holy Land! All over the World this Sacred Rite / Rtya is repeated with the joyous cry of ‘Christ is Risen, Hallelu-Jah!‘
This astonishing event of two saintly priests, a Celtic Druid, and a ‘Roman’ Catholic, spiritually recognizing and honoring each other, forever reconciled the historically separated ancient traditions of the ‘Roman’ Christians and the Sattvic-tending ‘Pagan’ Celts.
In the Celtic ‘Roman’ (Latin Rite) Catholic Mass Rite (Vedic Moksha Rtya) tradition of Saint Patrick of Ireland, the amazing story is told that the Sattvic Druid Priests of Ireland formally converted to Catholicism at a High Easter Vigil Mass, when they honored Saint Patrick by allowing him to light their Sacred ‘Returning Spring’ Bonfire! The story is that the Chief Druid Fire Priest at that event yielded his sacramental authority, as the Purohita / Propheta of his people, to Saint Patrick, who then lit the Spring’s Sacred Re-Born Bon-Fire.
The last time that I was able to attend a Roman Catholic Easter Vigil Mass, it was very windy and our very dear Priest’s Easter Vestments nearly caught Fire in the ‘Bonfire’ blaze outside of the church, before we could all light our candles for the ‘Christ is Risen Hallelujah‘ procession into our church for mass. Some devotees had to grab his blowing vest-ments (same root as vastu) to keep them out of the flames as he was lighting it and it was roaring-up.
Easter Vigil Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The mass begins with the lighting of the Sacred Fire, outside of the church, in the video at 6 minutes. The rest of the mass is not including the traditional sharing of the Sacred Flame ‘Light of Christ’ and the great procession of the devotees into the church for mass, due to the current cautionary pandemic safety measures.
The Orthodox Easter: the Holy Fire from Jerusalem to the World
[No traditional crowds due to Virus]: It is the morning of Holy Saturday according to the Julian calendar and the diversified world of Orthodox Christians: Greeks, Armenians, Copts and others. A prodigy is awaited, which according to an ancient tradition manifests itself right on the stone of the Sepulchre: a flame, a sign of Christ’s Resurrection.
Jesus Christ is the Original Hierophant and Propheta / Purohita Fire Priest, Master of Divine Love Mysteries and the Universal Time-Man Self-Sacrificed form of the VAL-IANT, VAL-OROUS and CHI-VAL-ROUS World Saviour, VAL / VAL YAHU. The Vedic Fire Sacrifices are also like the Divine Light / Glory of God, as a from of Baladeva, who is Sri Krishna’s self-effulgence & circles / chakras, halos, auras and coronas are pictorial puns for the name of Hari.
| Valor (n.) c. 1300, “value, worth,” from Old French valor, valour “valor, moral worth, merit, courage, virtue” (12c.), from Late Latin valorem (nominative valor) “value, worth” (in Medieval Latin “strength, valor”), from stem of Latin valere “be strong, be worth” (from PIE root *wal- “to be strong”). The meaning “courage” is first recorded 1580s, from Italian valore, from the same Late Latin word. (The Middle English word also had a sense of “worth or worthiness in respect of manly qualities”). |
| *wal- Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to be strong.” It forms all or part of: ambivalence; Arnold; avail; bivalent; convalesce; countervail; Donald; equivalent; evaluation; Gerald; Harold; invalid (adj.1) “not strong, infirm;” invalid (adj.2) “of no legal force;” Isold; multivalent; polyvalent; prevalent; prevail; Reynold; Ronald; valediction; valence; Valerie; valetudinarian; valiance; valiant; valid; valor; value; Vladimir; Walter; wield. It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin valere “be strong, be well, be worth;” Old Church Slavonic vlasti “to rule over;” Lithuanian valdyti “to have power;” Celtic *walos- “ruler,” Old Irish flaith “dominion,” Welsh gallu “to be able;” Old English wealdan “to rule,” Old High German -walt, -wald “power” (in personal names), Old Norse valdr “ruler.” |
Jesus is the Rig Vedic ‘Creation Hymn’ Purusha-Sukta related incarnation of Lord BALA-DEVA, the BL-YAHU of the Biblical Arab Semites, the Greeks, Romans, Afro-Egyptians and everyone else. Just study how many BL by-names HE (YAHU) had in His Great Palm Cities like Jericho and Palmyra! In Palmyra alone, He was worshipped under many linguistic versions of His BL (BALA-DEVA) Holy Name, by travelers from Africa and the Far West of Europe, all of the way to the Far East.
For thousands of years, pilgrims from everywhere came to Palmyra to worship Him as the Universal Savior. There, as everywhere else, He was always worshipped with His ‘Father’ or Alter-Form, HERU / HELI / ELI / ARI / ALI or HARI etc. He, BALADEVA (VASU-DEVA, TOBA-YAHU), was considered to be the Descending and Revealing ‘Second Person’ or ‘Second Self’ of the Original Supreme ‘Person’ or ‘Father’ of the Triune Godhead of ELI-YAHU-ADON (ADON-YAHU).
All of the Vedic Fire Sacrifices invoked His Original Cosmic Self-Sacrifice as the Virata-Rupa or the Universal Form of Purusha.
One of the most important features of these Vedic Fire Sacrifices was to purify someone, someplace or even something, by destroying Sin, which was associated with pollution / defilement and disease. Originally the ‘Fire Priests’ were the cooks that made the Holy (allowed) Offerings, on the state or home hearth, which ‘purified’ and sanctified the sacramental food-stuff, making it materially and spiritually safe to eat or drink.
Compare Sanskrit TAMAS and Hebrew word TUME.
In all kinds of Vedic Manumission Rites (Moksha / Mukti Rtyas) the ‘Sins’ of the nation or the people or person are offered into the Fire, to be Consumed and Destroyed by Agni, who is the ‘Tongue of VISHNU’. See God as IGNATIUS and ASCLEPIOS as AGNI-TAS!
Igneous (adj.) 1660s, from Latin igneus “of fire, fiery,” from ignis “fire,” from PIE *egni- “fire” (cf. Sanskrit agnih “fire, sacrificial fire,” Old Church Slavonic ogni, Lithuanian ugnis “fire”).
Igneous rock Etymology: The word “igneous” is derived from the Latin ignis, meaning “of fire”. Volcanic rocks are named after Vulcan, the Roman name for the God of Fire.
Etymology: Ignatius A saints’ name from the Latin gens name Ignatius, Egnatius, of uncertain meaning, by folk etymology associated with Latin ignis (“fire”).
Proper noun: Ignatius: A male given name; of mostly Roman Catholic usage in English.
Ignaty: A Russian male given name from Russian.
| Translations +Male Given Name ~ Aragonese: Inazio // Armenian: Իգնատիոս (Ignatios) // Basque: Inazio (eu), Iñaki (eu) // Belarusian: Ігна́т (Ihnát) // Bulgarian: Игнатий (Ignatij) // Catalan: Ignasi (ca) // Czech: Ignác // Dutch: Ignatius // Esperanto: Ignaco // Finnish: Ignatios, Ignatius (fi) // French: Ignace (fr) // Galician: Ignacio (gl) // Georgian: ეგნატე (egnaṭe) // German: Ignaz, Ignatz // Greek: Ιγνάτιος (el) (Ignátios) // Hungarian: Ignác (hu) // Irish: Iognáid // Italian: Ignazio (it) // Latin: Ignatius // Latvian: Ignats m // Lithuanian: Ignacas // Occitan: Ignaci m // Polish: Ignacy (pl) // Portuguese: Inácio (pt) // Romanian: Ignațiu // Russian: Игна́тий (ru) (Ignátij) // Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: Игнац + Roman: Ignacije // Slovak: Ignác // Slovene: Ignacij, Ignae m // Spanish: Ignacio (es) // Swedish: Ignatius // Ukrainian: Ігнатій (Ihnatij) // Vietnamese: Inhaxiô, Y Nhã |
The Holy Fire in Scripture, History, and Science
Description: Each year at Pascha (Easter), an inexplicable phenomena, called the “Holy Fire” (Greek: “Holy Light”), appears near the tomb of Jesus in the church of the Holy Sepulcher (Jerusalem). Regarded by many as the world’s oldest public miracle, it is also the subject of recent scientific investigations. Topics:
II. Where is the Holy Fire found in Scripture?
III. What is the History of the Holy Fire?
IV. What does Science tell us about the Holy Fire?
Holy Fire in the Traditional Worship of God and Jesus Christ: Please watch this important lecture on the History of Holy Fire in the Apostolic Greek Tradition & please note that the ‘Glory’ of God in the Biblical Greek language is DOXA, which linguists know is cognate with the Sanskrit TEJAS, and Jesus Christ as the Light of God and Light of the World is PHO in the Greek Bible, which is cognate with the Vaishnava and Pure Land Buddhist BHA, as in various VISHNU Names and the Pure Land Buddhist DHARMA KAYA Name, AMITA-BHA! So Jesus Christ is the Burning Tejas or Effulgence or ‘Glory’ of God the Father, and the PHO / PHOSE / BHA ‘Light of God’, who ‘Enlightens the World!’
This video gives a brief explanation of the Easter Vigil Rite / Rtya of Lighting the Resurrection Candles from the Sacred Fire at the Sepulcher during Easter Vigil Mass: Christ is Risen! Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday: Celebrations in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the place of the Resurrection, the celebrations of Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday evoked the great announcement of the resurrection.
The astounding parallel here is that the Vedic altar (or ‘Hearth’) Fire / Pyre represents the Cosmic Sin-Consuming and Destroying Sacrifice of the Supreme Purusha, and that same Passionate Burning Sin-Destroying Love has been seen by the Catholic Saints, mystically manifest as the ‘Sacred Heart’ of Jesus! So when you see an icon of a Heart with a Cross, issuing Flames, or enveloped in Flames, these Flames represent the Final Destruction of All of the World’s Sins, in the Heart of Jesus Christ, the Universal Savior!
The Cross, of course, represents the original Yupa ‘Cross’ or Naga-Stanu ‘Stake’ / Pole (or Axis Mundi ‘Tree’), to which the Cosmic Purusha was fixed for His Universal Sacrifice.
Wikipedia says this about the Holy Fire, Palmyra & Ba’al
[The Holy Fire (Greek: Ἃγιον Φῶς, “Holy Light“) is described by Orthodox Christians as a miracle that occurs every year at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Great Saturday, or Holy Saturday, the day preceding Orthodox Easter. However, many dispute the alleged miraculous descent of the Fire.
Description from within the Orthodox faith
Orthodox tradition holds that the Holy Fire happens annually on the day preceding Orthodox Pascha (Orthodox Easter). During this time, blue light is said to emit within Jesus‘ tomb, rising from the marble slab covering the stone bed believed to be that upon which Jesus’ body is to have been placed for burial. The marble slab is now in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem. The light is believed to form a column of fire, from which candles are lit. This fire is then used to light the candles of the clergy and pilgrims in attendance. The fire is also said to spontaneously light other lamps and candles around the church. Pilgrims and clergy say that the Holy Fire does not burn them.
Before the fire is lit, the Patriarch kneels inside the chapel in front of the stone, with crowds gathered outside. When the fire is lit, the Patriarch comes out of the church with two lit candles. Thousands of pilgrims as well as local Christians of all denominations gather in Jerusalem to partake and witness this annual event.
The Holy Fire is taken to Greece by special flight, and similarly to other Orthodox countries or countries with major Orthodox churches, such as Georgia, Bulgaria, Lebanon, Romania, Egypt, Cyprus, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Russia, being received by church and state leaders.]
Palmyra (/ˌpælˈmaɪrə/; Tadmor; Arabic: تَدْمُر Tadmur) is an ancient Semitic city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early second millennium BC. Palmyra changed hands on a number of occasions between different empires before becoming a subject of the Roman Empire in the first century AD.
The city grew wealthy from trade caravans; the Palmyrenes became renowned as merchants who established colonies along the Silk Road and operated throughout the Roman Empire. Palmyra’s wealth enabled the construction of monumental projects, such as the Great Colonnade, the Temple of Bel, and the distinctive tower tombs. Ethnically, the Palmyrenes combined elements of Amorites, Arameans, and Arabs. The city’s social structure was tribal, and its inhabitants spoke Palmyrene (a dialect of Aramaic), while using Greek for commercial and diplomatic purposes. Greco-Roman culture influenced the culture of Palmyra, which produced distinctive art and architecture that combined Eastern and Western traditions. The city’s inhabitants worshiped local Semitic, Mesopotamian, and Arab deities.
The temple was built on a tell with stratification indicating human occupation that goes back to the third millennium BC. The area was occupied in pre-Roman periods with a former temple that is usually referred to as “the first temple of Bel” and “the Hellenistic temple”. The walls of the temenos and propylaea were constructed in the late first and the first half of the second century AD. The names of three Greeks who worked on the construction of the temple of Bel are known through inscriptions, including a probably Greek architect named Alexandras (Greek: Αλεξάνδρας). However, many Palmyrenes adopted Greco-Roman names and native citizens with the name Alexander are attested in the city.
The Temple of Bel was converted into a Christian church during the Byzantine Era. Parts of the structure were modified by Arabs in 1132 which preserved the structure and converted the Temple into a mosque. The enormous temple courtyard (approx. 200 x 200 meters) held mud-brick houses among the ruins, and served as a fortified citadel for the village of Palmyra (known as Tadmur during the 1100s). The mosque in the temple proper and the dwellings remained in use until the 1920s when Franco-Syrian archaeological missions cleared the temple grounds of its postclassical elements. Most of the Corinthian columns of the inner colonnades still showed pedestals where the statues of the benefactors stood. The temple was aligned along the Eastern end of the Great Colonnade at Palmyra.
Bel of Palmyra, Syria
| See also Ba‘al Bel and the Dragon Belial Belus (disambiguation)Belus (Assyrian) Belus (Babylonian) Belus (Egyptian) EN (cuneiform) Marduk List of Mesopotamian deities |
A god named Bel was the chief-god of Palmyra in pre-Hellenistic times, being worshipped alongside the gods Aglibol and Yarhibol. Originally, he was known as Bol, after the Northwestern Semitic word Ba’al (usually used to refer to the god Hadad), until the cult of Bel-Marduk spread to Palmyra and by 213 BC, Bol was renamed to Bel. The temple of Bel was dedicated to this god, which was destroyed by ISIS.
Bel (/ˈbeɪl/; from Akkadian: bēlu), signifying “lord” or “master”, is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in the Mesopotamian religion of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. The feminine form is Belit ‘Lady, Mistress’. Bel is represented in Greek as Belos and in Latin as Belus. Linguistically, Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with the Northwest Semitic Baal with the same meaning.
Early translators of Akkadian believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian Enlil was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. Current scholarship holds this as incorrect, but one finds Bel used in referring to Enlil in older translations and discussions.
Bel became especially used for the Babylonian god Marduk and when found in Assyrian and neo-Babylonian personal names or mentioned in inscriptions in a Mesopotamian context, it can usually be taken as referring to Marduk and no other god. Similarly, Bêlit mostly refers to Bel Marduk’s spouse Sarpanit. However, Marduk’s mother, the Sumerian goddess called Ninhursag, Damkina, Ninmah and other names in Sumerian, was often known as Belit-ili (“Lady of the Gods”) in Akkadian.
Other gods called “Lord” could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra is an example, though in the later period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god.
Similarly, Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon as born to Cronus/El in Peraea is unlikely to be Marduk.
During my early days as a Brahmacharya student studying under the great saintly Vaishnava Acharya, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (Srila Prabhupada)., I wanted to qualify for Brahmin initiation, so that I could light the sacred fire and cook for the Lord. Swami Prabhupada was very strict about Vedic protocol for this devotional service. Strict Vaishnava Brahmanas were to eat, or even to smell or to look-at only properly prepared and ‘offered’ consecrated food and drink or flowers etc. Cooking must be done on the sacred fire, kindled naturally by a pure Brahmana.
No electricity was ‘offerable’ for cooking or lamps offered, these sacred lamps must be of Holy Ghee (purified cow’s milk butter fat). Candles, if ever used, had to be of pure Ahimsa bee’s wax, never lord or animal fat. My Catholic Priest said that this was also the standard for candles that he was to use in the church.
The brahmana is trained in preparing the ‘hearth’ for the public devotions or the ‘home hearth’. After constructing the sacred hearth and consecrating it, the Fire Priest / Priest-esse alone can kindle the Sacred Agni Fire upon it, studying the state and home hearth religion of the Uesna (compare VISHNU) Vestal (Greek Hestia related) Virgins of ancient Rome, is quite revealing in regard to the Vedic Agni Hotra Purusha Vastu (Purusha-Rtya / Rite dwelling places, Vastu) in the ancient East.
All of these related Vedic ‘Aryan’ Fire Priesthoods and Priest-esses were also connected to those of the Supreme Deity in Egypt and the Biblical Levant. WS-DIOS (VASU-DEVA) of the city of WST (‘Waset’, Vastu) in Southern Egypt, was also called Dios-Polis-Magnus during the eras of the Greco-Roman-Egyptian empires. Clearly that name indicates that WST / Waset / Vastu or Thebes, was also known as the city / dwelling place of Maha-Deva-Purusha / Dios-Polis-Magna.
Vaishnavas, Shaivites, Shaktas and Pure Land Buddhists should all recognize the Holy Name Maha-Deva as that of the Supreme Lord, Shankara, as Shiva. The fact is that WS DIOS, the presiding ‘WAS scepter’ Deity of WST (‘Waset’ Thebes) was the same pan-Egyptian Deity as AUSU (YAHU as AUSAR / OSIRIS) in the Heliopolitan North, and that AUSAR (Greco-Roman OSIRIS) was worshiped in Egypt as a corpse, copulating with ISIS / ESSE, His ‘Shakti’, just like Shiva Shava (corpse) in the ‘Hindu’ East is depicted as copulating with Mother ISHI (ISHVARI) as Kali. This fact further identifies WS-DIOS WASU-DEVA of Thebes in Egypt as Dios-Polis-Magnus, namely Shiva Mahadeva of the East.
The association of Lord Ramachandra of the South Indian and Sri Lankan Ramayana tradition in the ‘Hindu’ and Buddhist East, with Shiva worship there, is also observable in the Ramayana connections to ancient Ethiopia and Kush, Meroe and the pharaonic cult of WST (Vastu) Thebes / Diospolis Magnus.
Of course the importance of the Sacred (miraculous) Fire Sacrifice tradition in the Bible is of great prominence. from beginning to end, the God of the Bible and His ‘Prophets’ and ‘Angels’, and His defining stories and key rituals and doctrines are associated with his various forms of miraculous or ‘Holy Fire’. In many instances, the details in the Bible reveal the Biblical Hebrew and Jewish ‘tribes’ ‘Vedic’ religious origins. It is purely mundane anti-Semitic ‘white Aryan‘ master-racism that has insisted on ‘othering‘ the Biblical Semites as non-Aryans!
Sattva / Goodness; Rajas / Passion & Tamas-Tumah (Tume) / Ignorance.
The Vedic-era term ‘Arya’ never referred to a ‘white’ race! A Vedic ‘Arya’ was a person of noble character, by virtue of their Sattvic ‘Vedic’ belief system and behavior. It was a person’s or culture’s tendency-toward developing a Sattva-Dharma-ordered ‘high civilization’ that defined them as an ‘Aryan’. the defining characteristics of a ‘high civilization’ are embodied in a single ‘Arya’ or in an ‘Aryan’ community. It has nothing to do with mundane ‘race’ or a tribes skin color or a person’s sex or gender. We all start-out as completely untrained babies, and have to learn to become Sattvic civilized ‘Aryas’. Srila Prabhupada never stopped exhorting us to ‘just try to come up to the Sattvic Mode of Goodness’.
The struggle against Tamas (See Hebrew defilement, Tumah) and ‘up’ from the Tamasic ‘Mode of Ignorance’ and degradation, through the intermediate ‘Mode’ of Rajarshic Passion, to the truly civilized state of Sattvic Goodness, is faced by every individual and every society. Achieving and maintaining a condition of ‘Vedic’ Sattva Dharma is part of the Vedic goal of human civilization.
The four puruṣārthas: “Dharma (righteousness, moral values), Artha (prosperity, economic values), Kama (pleasure, love, psychological values) and Moksha (liberation, spiritual values)” are the 4 related goals of Vedic (Arya) high civilization.
The Brahmanas’ vision of the theo-centric mystical sacramental social body of the Self-Sacrifices Cosmic Purusha (Afro-Egyptian PER-AUSU, Greek Biblical POLIEUS, Eastern PURUSHA) is the origin, inspiration and template for the Sattva-Dharmic ordering of all of humanity’s first ‘high civilizations’.
For the first simple mastery of fire and the other elements, the first ‘Vedic’ (divine knowledge, compare Sanskrit Veda, Hebrew Yeda and Greek Oida) Priests and Priest-esses orders their lives and that of their peoples, theistically according to their ‘vision’ and ‘wisdom’ vidya of the Supreme Lord’s sacrificial social body of the Rig Vedic Purusha Sukta ‘Creation Hymn’. Compare the Vedic Brahmanas as Purohita Fire Priests, Greek Propheta Hestia-related Fire Priests of Heli-Os and the related Biblical ‘Prophets’ who were also the Fire Priests of Eli-Yahu.
In Africa (Egypt) the Northern Heliopolitan Nome Federations of Heru-Ausu and the Southern Theban Nome Federations of Heru-Ausu (Heli-Os / Eli-Yahu) also had their own ancient and traditional Hestia related Pyro / Fire-Sacrifice Cults.
“Some people might say Mantras have no power. Please see how the Purohits bring up a flame [jwala] for the Homa without a match stick or Camphor. They invite Agnidevada by chanting Vedamantras and offers coconut water. Immediately fire arose. This Homa was performed at Shiva Temple KPHB 7th phase, Hyderabad on 10-02-2020” ~ How to start a fire without match.
Atheists accuse the ‘spontaneous’ or ‘miraculous’ Holy Fire Priests of using mundane trickery to produce the Sacred Fires of the Catholic Easter Vigil or of the East’s Vedic Agni Hotra Sacrifices. However, all of the Holy Fire Cult methods of drawing-forth or invoking fire from stone, wood, magnified light, friction or fuels like ghee or natural gases, are in a sense MIRACULOUS! The distinction is between a ‘natural’ miracle or mystery and a ‘supernatural’ one. Atheists simply refuse to credit God for the Everyday Miracles of His Creation, such as Fire. Fire is hidden within everything, even sunlight, stone and milk (ghee)! The Vedic Fire Priest knows how to call-forth, control and use such Miraculous Fire.
“It would be prudent not to fall for gimmicks and get carried away by the unsubstantiated claims. Unless these purohits at Hyderabad have cracked some code, there is no way an agni can be generated only by the power of veda mantras. If one is conversant with veda mantras, he/she would know about arNis, samidhs etc. which are used to create agni by causing friction rubbing against themselves (in the absence of camphor etc) with the chanting of veda mantras. It is because creation of agni was difficult in those early vedic days that people were exhorted by vedA to maintain the gArhpatya agni of tretAgni (or panchAgni) without ever extinguishing and there is a special formulae and prAyaschitam which one had to perform if that agni got ever extinguished accidentally. If you hear the audio in the background, it is a vedic portion popularly known as Durga sUktam — though the verses are addressed to jAtavEda rUpA of agni, his request is sought to cross over the samsara sAgaram and is in no way an invocation to agni to present or light himself on the dry twigs.” ~
Holy Fire can also be seen as Light from Heaven (Lightning) as the Vajra of Indra / Zeus (Helios) Fulgar, and natural gas flume ‘Lemnos Shrines’, as on Mt. Sinai. There is a ‘miraculous’ science of the creation of fire from milk, wood and stone, sunlight etc. and the sacred methods for ‘Invoking’ Agni to come-forth from such substances.
The All-Purifying Sin-Destroying Pyre / Fire of God’s Redeeming Love, in the Heart of the Lord of Sacrifice, JESUS PURUSHA. At the end of Kali Yuga, the present age, the remnant of the sinful world will be cleansed by Fire, and this is Arjuna’s Vision of Kalah Devouring the Cosmos in His ‘Flaming Mouths’.
The Fire-Related ‘History of Salvation’ is traditionally recited during certain masses and describes how the Pillar of Flame by Night and Smoke by Day Led and Protected the Jews and the ‘Mixed Multitude’ fleeing chattel slavery in Egypt! This episode of divine intervention must be understood from the Bhagavad Gita, Shaivite and Pure Land Buddhist and other perspectives.
Along with the related Geological Upthrust ‘Parting of the Red Sea’, this ‘Pillar of Fire’ was a Theophany of Shiva’s Jyotirlinga, which was seen when KRISHNA-KALAH appeared in His ‘Pillar of Fire’ Theophany in the Bhagavad Gita. This episode in Salvation History also needs to be examined from the Geological Perspective. The science of the Hephaestion / Vulcan and Juno-Moneta (Laxmi) related Lemnos Shrines, the burning Volcanic-origin sulfur rocks of the Biblical Holy Land. This is a Miraculous Holy Fire ‘Scriptural’ Natural Phenomena!
Collected Works Archive of Bhakti Ananda Goswami 
