Probably, you think that it is a silly question. But the Vedas have an interesting explanation 😉 This explanation is given in the very beginning, just before a Vedic ritual starts.
The first and the foremost thing is to prepare the Yajamana for the ritual. He is supposed to take Deeksha or some kind of oath taking. He is supposed to strictly follow some rules and regulations throughout the conduct of the ritual.
This Deeksha starts with a nice and clean shave. Typically, his head is shaved barring only a small tuft of hair at the back of his head called the shikha. His facial hair is also shaved. His nails are trimmed. And finally, he freshens himself up by taking a bath. Now the funny thing starts. The text says that after the bath he has to wear clothes. Isn’t that obvious? Not really, the Brahmana texts give reasons for each and every small act. So, why should the Yajamana wear clothes?
Apparently, long long ago, cows did not have skins to cover their body. So, they used to suffer during harsh weather. Being animals, they could not stitch some clothes for themselves. The devas pitied the cows. So, they removed the skin of man and used it to cover the cows. Now the cows are happy. But this has a serious consequence. Whenever a man approaches any cow without having properly dressed, the cows get scared. They fear that the man might snatch back their skin to cover himself. So, they run away from a man who is not properly dressed. Only when a man approaches them properly dressed, the cows take the courage to come near him! That is why a man should cover himself with clothing!!!
What an absurd explanation! you may wonder. Yes, it is indeed an absurd explanation. But such absurd explanations can be found throughout the Brahmana texts. Each and every action is followed by some absurd explanation. Why did the Vedic people do that? Was it meant to confuse people? Was it part of the secrecy? Or were these people inebriated and blabbered some insane things? One keeps wondering.
I don’t know why they did that since in other parts of the Vedas, especially in the Upanishads, these people seem to make lot of sense. Is it possible that it was an intentional act with a well-defined purpose?
Let me digress a bit to make some sense out of these absurd ideas and possible motive behind them. You probably have watched several videos of one highly popular Indian Guru these days. People generally get quite impressed by his fluent delivery of speech, his command over the English language, his authoritative tone and so on. Most people consider him as the smartest Guru, even though he pulls down great souls like Jesus Christ and Buddha and calls them old fashioned. He openly endorses commercialization of spirituality. But still people seem to ignore all that and lap up whatever he says. Why?
If you carefully analyze the kind of statements he often makes, you will find lot of absurdity in them. Most of what he says, however confidently, is nothing but absurd. But still, people seem to ignore that, except some people who hopelessly try to expose him. Why?
I think that that is where the power of absurdity lies.
You might have heard of koans used by Zen Buddhist teachers. Most of the time, these koans border on the edge of absurdity – like “the sound of one-handed clap”, “Buddha is in your cup of tea”, and so on. Do any of these sentences make any sense?
What these koans are doing is to make you ponder on hidden meaning of these apparently absurd statements. That sharpens your mental focus.
But beyond that point, absurdity can have interesting consequences.
When you hear a series of absurd statements, in the beginning you concentrate on what could be the real hidden meaning of those statements. But after a while, if you keep hearing such absurd statements, for which you find no meaning at all however much you try, your mind starts ignoring such statements. But if you force yourself to keep listening to more such absurd statements, the logical part of your mind just shuts itself off. It just starts accepting whatever is told without any analysis, without any judgement.
That could be both a useful tool as well as a dangerous one.
It is useful in the sense that you pay attention to what you are asked to do without questioning every act. Some kind of total submission. But it could be dangerous in the hands of a selfish person, who could totally derail and exploit you. I don’t know which of these two apply in the case of the Guru I just mentioned. For all you know, he could be using absurdity just to cover his lack of knowledge and confuse people.
But throughout my reading of the Vedas, especially the Brahmanas, I have observed these mental transformations that take place because of absurdity. In the beginning you get repulsed by the absurd explanations. But when you continue to read the texts, you pass through a stage where you just dismiss those explanations as absurd and go ahead. But gradually, you get so used to them that you stop being judgmental and accept whatever is told to you.
Was that the intent of these ancient Vedic sages who keep sprinkling absurd ideas and explanations throughout the texts especially when these texts are supposed to involve some actions? I do not know.
Unlike in the case of the Guru that I talked about; I can’t suspect the good intentions of these great sages nor do I have any doubt about their knowledge. I will be very happy to know if someone has a better explanation for these absurd statements.
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A series discussing the most ancient of the Indian scriptures, nay the world scriptures namely the Vedas. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2021
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