SAUNDARANANDA 7.31: Another One Gone

tath" aaNgiraa raaga-pariita-cetaaH
sarasvatiiM brahma-sutaH siSheve
saarasvato yatra suto 'sya jajNe
naShTasya vedasya punaH pravaktaa

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7.31
So too did brahma-begotten Angiras,
when his mind was seized by passion,

Enjoy sex with Sarasvati;

To her was born his son Sarasvata,

Who gave voice again to the lost Vedas.

COMMENT:
Angiras is celebrated as the inspired bard/seer who authored the hymns of the Rg Veda. Here Nanda describes him as brahma-sutaH, "brahma-begotten," referring to the legend that Angiras was born from brahma's mouth.

If you believe in what the Monier Williams dictionary calls "the one self-existent impersonal Spirit, the one universal Soul (or one divine essence and source from which all created things emanate...)" then brahma, or Brahma if you prefer, might be the Sanskrit word for the object of such belief. But when a legendary bard is praised as being born from brahma's mouth, then brahma is surely better understood as something less spiritual and more real, such as sound itself -- which seems to be closer, etymologically, to the original meaning of brahma.

Speaking of sacred sound, sometimes I sit in lotus and listen to the slow movements of Vivaldi's bassoon concertos. The bassoon, they say, is apt to sound pompous or comical. In spite of that (or possible because of that?) I feel an affinity with the voice of the bassoon, or even a sense of belonging to it.

In sum, this verse as I hear it relates to what Paul Madaule (author of "When Listening Comes Alive") calls the Ear-Voice Connection -- in which arena this translation work is going on every day, as also the search for stillness is going on every day. Because stillness, no less than the letting in of sound and the letting out of voice, is very much a function of the ear. And the use of the ear, it seems, can be made gradually more conscious, less unconscious. As a person with deep-rooted ear problems, this is mainly what I am devoted to practising, not in intense bursts of trying, but primarily by sitting every day, four times a day, relentlessly.

When people strive to be right in their "sitting posture" the problem is primarily in their ear. Therefore dropping off of deluded concerns with "posture" might also be a matter not of the head or the neck or the back, and still less of the hands, but primarily of the ear.


EH Johnston:
So too Angiras, son of Brahman, with his mind overwhelmed by passion, cohabited with Sarasvati ; she bore him a son, Sarasvata, who promulgated again the lost Vedas.

Linda Covill:
Similarly Angiras, son of Brahma, had sex with Sarasvati when his mind was encompassed with desire. From her was born their son Sarasvata, who again proclaimed the lost Vedas.

VOCABULARY:
tathaa: ind. in that manner , so , thus
aNgiraa (nom. sg.): m. N. of a RShi , author of the hymns of Rg Veda. ix, of a code of laws , and of a treatise on astronomy (he is said by some to have been born from brahmaa's mouth)
raaga-pariita-cetaaH (nom. sg. m.):
raaga: m. redness ; any feeling or passion , (esp.) love
pariita: mfn. surrounded , encompassed , filled , taken possession of , seized (with instr. or in comp.)
cetas: n. mind

sarasvatiim (acc. sg.): f. "abounding in ponds" ; N. of a river (celebrated in RV. and held to be a goddess whose identity is much disputed ; in later times becomes goddess of eloquence)
brahma-sutaH (nom. sg. m.): son of brahma
brahman: n. pious effusion or utterance , outpouring of the heart in worshipping the gods , prayer ; the sacred word (as opp. to vaach , the word of man) , the veda , a sacred text , a text or mantra used as a spell ; the sacred syllable Om ; n. (exceptionally treated as m.) the brahma or one self-existent impersonal Spirit , the one universal Soul (or one divine essence and source from which all created things emanate or with which they are identified and to which they return) , the Self-existent , the Absolute , the Eternal (not generally an object of worship but rather of meditation and-knowledge )
suta: mfn. begotten , brought forth ; m. son
siSheve = 3rd pers. sg. perfect sev: to serve ; to enjoy sexually , have sexual intercourse with (acc.)

saarasvataH (nom. sg.): m. N. of a RShi (fabled to have sprung from the personified sarasvatii river) MBh.
yatra: ind. in which place, wherein
sutaH (nom. sg.): m. a son
asya (gen. sg.): of him
jajNe = 3rd pers. sg. perfect (middle voice) jan: to be born

naShTasya (gen. sg. m.): mfn. lost , disappeared
vedasya (gen. sg.): m. the vedas
punaH: ind. again, once more
pravaktaa = nom. sg. m. pravaktR: mfn. one who tells or imparts or relates ; a good speaker ; an announcer , expounder , teacher ; the first relater of a legend
pra- √ vac: to proclaim , announce