Written by London swaminathan

 

Date: 14 FEBRUARY 2017

 

Time uploaded in London:- 20-55

 

Post No. 3636

 

 

Pictures are taken from various sources; thanks.

 

 

contact; swami_48@yahoo.com

 

In Sangam Tamil Literature, which is 2000-year-old, Sanskrit word Amrita (nectar) is used in at least 40 places with three different Tamil spellings (amiztham, amirtham, amutham). Tirukkural, which belongs to the post Sangam period has at least three couplets with the word Amrita. Mahabharata which is several thousand years old has got interesting slokas on nectar and poison (Amrita and Visha)

 

Here are few similes on Amrita and Visha from Mahabharata:

 

yat tad agre visam iva

parinaame amrtopamam

tat sukha saatvikam proktam

aatma buddhi prasaadajam 6-40-37

 

That which is initially like poison (but) like nectar in maturity, that is called the saatvika happiness, born of serenity of soul and mind.

 

visayendriya samyogaad

yat tad agre amrtopamam

parinaame visham iva

tat sukham rajas am amrtam 6-40-38

 

That which is initially like nectar owing to contact of the objects of sense and the sense and the sense organs, but like poison in maturity, that is known as Rajasam happiness.

 

Vyasacompared Amritam with sweetness and extreme contentment, sweet fruits (3-155-44), water (3-152-22), an interesting story (1-90-5) and a consoling word (1-147-24).

 

Poison is compared with anger.

The sage’s son of hot temperament is likened to poison (visakalpa rseh sutah 1-36-23)

 

Yudhisthira is very much pained to remember the insult to Draupadi in the assembly; this painful insult is likened to the essence of poison.

duuve visaye va rasam viditvaa (3-35-17)

 

That great army of Dhrtaraastra), while destroyed in three battle field, displayed violent paroxysms like a man after having drunk poison) 6-79-23)

saa vadhyamanaa samara dhaartaraastri mahaacamuuh

vegan bhhuvidhaams cakre visam piitve va maanavah

 

Amrita in Tamil Veda Tirukkural:-

Tiruvalluvar, author of Tirukkural, used the word nectar in three couplets:-

“The food into which the children’s little hands have been dipped will be far sweeter to the parent than nectar” (64)

 

“ A discourse addressed to unsympathetic hostile ears is like poring sweet nectar into a filthy gutter” (720)

 

“Her arms are made up of nectar, for their touch revives my life whenever it occurs” (1106)

 

–Subham–