Date uploaded in London – – 5 March 2024
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This is my sixth article about Eagles in Hindu culture. The greatest Hindu wonder is that the oldest book in the world, The Rig Veda, mentions more than 100 birds and animals with rare unknown details. The Yajur Veda mentions more than 200 living beings and objects that were sacrificed in Asvamedha Yajna; many of them are not identified yet! Hindus were the first race in the world that used Nature to teach highest philosophy. Upanishad stories show how Hindu seers used Banyan Trees’ tiny seed and salt dissolving in water as similes to teach philosophy.
Dattareya in Bhagavata Purana quotes more than twenty things in Nature which gave him at least one lesson. Lord Krishna, Manu Smriti and Tiru Valluvar’s Tirukkural use the same tortoise simile to teach controlling sense organs. Manu and Valluvar used the same Crane/heron to teach patience and Timely action.
Sanskrit Subhashita says Learn six virtues from Crow and Valluvar also used crow to teach us good virtues. Thousands of Sanskrit and Tamil proverbs use animals and birds to teach us good habits. In our own times Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the Greatest Tamil poet Bharati used birds and animals to teach us high virtues.
(I have written over 1000 articles and five books on the above topics)
When we talk about Nature in the Western World, we can quote only two people. William Wordsworth and St Francis of Assisi. But in Hindu India, we can quote hundreds of poets and saints.
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Now let me add what I have found new in Hindu literature.
I was reading Patanjali’s Mahabhashya in 2015. I used to write marginal notes and at the back of the book, the subjects that interested me. Panini’s grammar treatise Ashtadhyayi is praised as a great wonder in the linguistic world. And Mahabhashya of Patanjali is equally a marvellous work. He has written a commentary on Panini’s work. I found out how Incas of South America drew huge mysterious figures which can be seen only from air planes. After reading huge animal, bird shaped army formations (Vyuhas) in Mahabharata and animal shaped buildings in Patanjali book, I came to know that they made small diagrams (blue prints) and expanded them to huge shapes.
Now I tell you about my new discovery. When I read Patanjali’s example ‘one behaves LIKE A DEER, LIKE A FEMAL EAGLE’ as examples of some grammatical constructions, I was wondering about its meaning. So, I put some question marks in the margin of the page. After six or seven years I was in the University meeting to finalise question papers for the coming years. Each one of us came with a model question paper. One person read about YALI in temple sculptures and another person was reading about EAGLE in nature. When I heard it shock waves went through my body. I came to know how eagles train their little ones to fly. What the mother eagles do is to push their little babies from the top of the mountain or from the highest branch in the tree. They always build their nests in the topmost branch of the tree. Mother eagles do it only when they can really survive such a push . This gave me the explanation for Patanjali’s remark ‘one behaves LIKE A FEMALE EAGLE’.
REFERENCES
Panin’s Sutra 6-3-36 is sued by Patanjali for the above comment.
Even in English they use phrases such as
Even Eagles Need a Push Sometimes!
Even Eagles Need a Push! (Book by David McNally)
This reminds me of another incident. When a boy wants to learn swimming, the trainers or experienced swimmers will take him to village well. Even after two or three experienced swimmers tell him what to do, the boy will be scared to do it. After two or three swimmers jumped into the well, suddenly others will push the new boy into the well. When he struggles in the water to keep his body afloat, others will help him. This is what the mother eagles do.
The wonder is Patanjali wrote about this Mother Eagle example 2200 years ago! Half-baked foreign writers created utter chaos in Indian History. From Rig Vea’s date and Buddha’s age to Kalidasa’s age they fixed their own dates which contradicts Hindu books. But fortunately, they all agree Patanjali lived 2200 years ago.
Not only that a sloka/ couplet in Sanskrit praised him as the author of three works,
“योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन ।
योपाकरोत्तं प्रवरं मुनीनां पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोस्मि॥“
“I bow with folded hands before Patanjali, the foremost among sages, who removed the defect of mind with Yoga, that of words with grammar and that of body with medicine.” (Unfortunately we couldn’t get his work on Ayurveda).
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Patanjali’s Mahabhashyam
“It was left to Patanjali to author a detailed commentary of Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, as instructed by Lord Nataraja himself. Patanjali is one of the three most famous Sanskrit grammarians of ancient India, other two being Paṇini and Katyayana who preceded Patanjali. Katyayana’s work (nearly 1500 vartikas on Paṇini) is available only through references in Patanjali’s work. Patanjali’s Mahabhashya covers only 1228 out of 3959 Sutras of Panini. It is in 85 Ahnikas or sections. Its diction is most elegant and has been considered as a model for Sanskrit prose. It was with Patanjali that the Indian tradition of language scholarship reached its definite form.” (quote from Vedanta Spiritual library).
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Hunting with Eagles in Mongolia
Another Discovery of Patanjali
Commenting on Panini Sutra 6-3-71, Patanjali used the example LIKE CATCHING BIRDS WITH EAGLES. In Tamil and Sanskrit we come across the example “use one animal to catch another animal”.
From Chanakya’s Arthashastra to Valluvar’s Tirukkural we see catching an elephant with another (female) elephant. Adi Shankara used many animals and plants in his Viveka Chudamani to emphasize Self Control.
Catching birds with eagles is practised in all Middle East countries even today. The wonder is that Patanjali was the first one to use it 2200 years ago just as an illustration in a grammatical work!
If Hindus can quote so many animals and plants in religious and grammar books, think about how much they would have contributed to biology books! Unfortunately, we lost all of them when Muslims set fire to Nalanda University Library and other places. We also did not pay much attention to the books due to continuous invasion from 3rd century BCE. Fortunately, we know the titles of those lost books through Leiden University publications. In Tamil we can easily list what we have lost in 2000 years. But in Sanskrit, the lost book titles themselves occupy large volumes! Leiden University has made subject wise volumes. Let us preserve what we have got and pass them on to posterity after using them.
(NOTE: when I googled about “Mother Eagles pushing their little ones”, half of them said that it is true; others said it is not true. But the fact of the matter is there are over 20 species in the Birds of Prey list. In some parts of the world some species follow some tricks. As for Patanjali, he wrote what he saw 2200 years ago).
My Old Articles on Eagle Mystery
Hindu Eagle Mystery deepens
Tamil and Vedas
https://tamilandvedas.com › 2013/02/16 › hindu-eagle-…
16 Feb 2013 — Hindus believe two different persons come as eagles in every yuga. The story has an underlying truth. That is, it has been going on for Yugas ( …
Eagle | Tamil and Vedas
Tamil and Vedas
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › eagle
26 Feb 2017 — Hindu Eagle Mystery deepens, 16 February 2013. 1.Why do Hindus worship eagle (suparna=garuda) from Rig Vedic Days till today? 2.Why do Hindus …
Roman eagle
Tamil and Vedas
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › roman-eagle
25 Sept 2014 — It was discovered near the Aldgate Tube station in London. Research paper written by London Swaminathan Post No.1310; Dated 25th September …
Syena
Tamil and Vedas
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › syena
18 Aug 2021 — Many of them actually belong to people with eagle totem. They were against people with snake totem (Nagas). It is the ancient history of India.
Tagged with Garuda
Tamil and Vedas
https://tamilandvedas.com › tag › garuda
Many of them actually belong to people with eagle totem. They were against people with snake totem (Nagas). It is the ancient history of India. One must go …
—Subham—
Tags- Patanjali, Eagle, Discovery, Push, Mahabhashya, Panini,hunting with eagles
Tamil and Vedas 