Unable to control himself, he assaults the girl and commits the Original
Sin (Caste mixing) that resulted in the doom of the world. In some versions,
such as that of the
Kalika Purana, Brahma, the Androgyne, split
between desire and the will to resist sin, ends up cleaving in two, becoming
Man and Woman.
 In other variants dating from the
Rig
Veda (10: 61, etc.) Brahma commits incest and is castrated by Shiva s
arrows. The two gods are only called Prajapati ("Creator") and Krishanu
("Archer"), but are readily recognizable. Again, the result is the destruction
of the world by Fire, allegorized as the split fiery seed of Brahma. Brahma
is Father Sky and his daughter is Mother Earth. This remarkable hymn makes this fact clear in his final lines, which closely parallel those of Hermes'
Emerald Tablet:
The Sky is my father, the
engenderer, the Navel.
My mother is the Wide Earth,
my close of kin.
Between these two ample
bowls lies the Yoni.
In it the Father placed
his daughter s embryo.
Vedic Hymns are extremely complex and difficult
to understand. But we can discern here the same elements than in the Hesiodic
myth of Ouranos and Gaia commented further above. As over there, we have
here the Primordial Incest of the lustful father; the identification of
the couple with Heaven and Earth; the birth of the gods (Angirasas); the
separation of Heaven and Earth.
Novel elements are the Conflagration that
destroys (or nearly) the world and the origination of the Cosmic Yoni (the
Vadavamukha) and of the Navel of the Earth (Mt. Meru or Atlas). This Cosmogonic
motif became extremely popular in India, and is told in a myriad forms
in later Hindu mythology such as that of the
Brahmanas and the
Upanishads.
The Primordial Incest later assumes a different
character, with Brahma being identified with the Sun (Vishvasvat, Savitri,
etc.) and the daughter with Suryâ. The children engendered are not
the Angirasas but their equivalents: Manu, Yama, Yami, the Ashvins, etc..
The Original Sin of the Twins
A series of
Brahmana texts develops
the consequences of the incestuous act which, as we said, is the Original
Incest. The relationship with the myth of Adam and Eve and the Original
Sin is evident. It is known that Adam was tempted by irresistible Eve and
that his fall the Fall of Man is the mythical equivalent of the decapitation
of Dadhyanch and the castration of Brahma, Prajapati and Ouranos.
Even this allegory is (disguisedly) included in
the Judeo-Christian myth. There, the skull of Adam is known to have become
Mt. Calvary, just as the head of Dadhyanch became Mt. Kailasa and the phallus
of Brahma became the Navel of the World. The Navel (Nabha) is the
Pillar of Heaven just as is Mt. Atlas or the
linga Shiva Sthanu.
The Pillar of the World is the same as
the
omphalos ("navel") of the Greeks and the
Bethel of the
Jews or, yet, as Mt. Meru, the Polar Mountain. The Sanskrit word (nabha)
embodies an idea of "axis", "nave", "navel" as the Center (or Axis) of
the World, around which the world whirls.
The Vedic hymn also mentions the dual of
the Navel or Linga, the Yoni. The Cosmic Yoni is the giant chasm that separates Heaven
from Earth at their common boundary in the outskirts of the world. It is the Vadava-mukha, the divide located in Indonesia, the true site
of Lanka. In India it is called the divide between "World" and "Non-World".
These are to be understood not really as Heaven and Earth but as the two
distinct hemispheres of the earth, Orient and Occident or, more exactly, the Old World and the New.
Such is indeed the original meaning of
the names of Dyaus and Prithivi, which Hesiod translated as Ouranos and Gaia
and later authorities understood as Heaven and Earth. The ancient Hindus
were fond of allegories, which they utilized to hide the esoteric contents
of their myths. In other variants of this Cosmogonic myth, Prajapati, the
Daughter (Ushas or Dawn) and the Archer (Shiva) are identified to constellations,
respectively, Mrigashiras (the Deer s Head), Rohini (the Gazelle) and Krishanu
(Sagittarius). But stellar myths are far too complex to discuss here, as
we do elsewhere, in our book on Atlantis.
The Fall of Adam and the Engendering of Creation
As we said above, these are were allegories intended
to mislead the profanes. In certain variants of the myth, the daughter
assumes a variety of animal shapes in order to escape her lustful father.
She becomes, serially, a cow, a gazelle, a mare, a dove, a she-wolf
and even minor vermin. But all in vain, for her husband assumes a similar guise. So, they mate in each form, thus engendering the variety of Creation.
And, what is most important for us, they
also engender the many different races of men is this way. These are represented
as the Ashvins, the Gandharvas, the Devas, the Asuras, the Angirasas, etc..
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