Hindu Gods and Goddesses

Friday, December 2, 2016

“God” is Really the Lord of Hell and “the Devil” is Really God . . .?

Chapter 3 from To Be or Not To Be...brahman or Abrahman / The World Turned Upside-Down


“God” is Really the Lord of Hell and “the Devil” is Really God?!

 

Pasupati Horned God from Indus/Saraswati Civilization[i]

 

To simply state the gist of the theory to be presented in the following, the Hebrews were originally “Hindus,” or at least Abraham’s tribe was before Abraham’s break with the religion of his forefathers, before Abraham's tribe left the place and religion of their ancestors and traveled west to Palestine, as was touted by Aristotle and many other ancient and recent historians and thinkers and a theory many yet espouse outside of the official Western religio-historical establishment.  The Hebrew god “Yahweh,” with whom Abraham made a covenant upon breaking ties with his ancestral religion, bears many similarities to and is likely derived from/is the same being as Deva Yama, the Hindu/Buddhist/Asian Lord of Death and Hell and Judge of the Dead (more or less as was known in Europe as “Hades,” among other appellations), in concert with Yama’s priest Deva Agni, the god of fire, who is called “yahva” in the Rig Veda, the most ancient scriptures in the world.  Abrahman means “unfaithful one” or “without brahman [‘God’]” in Sanskrit, and according to Hinduism, Lord Yama is in charge of those who do not know brahman, of those who are Abrahman.

            In the Rig Veda, the God of Fire Lord Agni is praised as “yahva” twenty-one times.[ii]  According to Hinduism, “Yama is closely associated with Agni in the Rigveda.  Agni is both Yama's friend and priest...”[iii]  The Sanskrit word agni, by the way, is whence the English word “ignition” is derived.  Yahweh of the Hebrew religion is thus not unlikely something of a multiform expression of both Lord Yama, Lord of Death and Hell and Judge of the Dead, and Yama’s Priest, the God of Fire Lord Agni, called yahva in the Sanskrit of the Rig Veda, very much like how El and Yahweh were originally separate deities that later became one in the Hebrew tradition.  El in the Semitic languages means “might, strength or power,” not unlikely derived from the Tamil El, “1. lustre, splendour, light; 2. sun; 3. sunshine; 4. day time; 5. day of 24 hours; 6. vehemence; strength.”[iv]   From the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon and the online Wisdom Library, yahva is defined as:

 

yahva   restless, swift, active (applied to Agni, Indra and Soma) RV.; continually moving or flowing . . . m. . . . a sacrificer . . . f. du. heaven and earth RV. ; pl. the flowing waters . . . the seven great rivers . . . [v]

Yahva (यह्व).—a. Ved. 1) Great, powerful.  2) Active, restless, continually moving. -m. An employer of priests for sacrifices[vi]

Yahva (यह्व).—m. (-hvaḥ) A sacrificer, an institutor of sacrifices.[vii]

 

 

            As noted in chapter 1, the Hebrews might be understood as “Fire Worshippers” in terms of their devotion to “Yahweh,” a name almost certainly derived from the Sanskrit yahva, an appellation or adjective never applied to Yama, but is in fact most often applied to Yama’s priest and friend Agni in the Rig Veda.  The name Agni is also found in any number of words for “fire” nigh globally, and many fire gods as well as words for fire worldwide are likewise directly related to the Sanskrit word/name agni.[viii] else to other Sanskrit terms for fire or “fire god.”  

Ognebog/Ogne/Ogni is the Slavic god of fire.  Ognyena Maria is the Slavic “Fiery Maria,” an assistant to the Sky-god Perun (one of Hindu sky god Indra’s names is Purandara).  The ancient Albanian fire god is Enji, acknowledged by the academy as directly related to the Hindu Agni (often the order of consonants or even entire syllables get switched around as a word is expressed in another tongue).  In the Lithuanian tradition, "šventa ugnis" means “holy fire” (Sanskrit svanta/svAnta means n. `\" seat of the Ego \"\', the heart … m. `\" heart-born \"\' , love … mfn. having a heart … mfn. being in the heart … auspicious, fortunate … n. the heart (as the dominion of the self)[ix])  Latin for fire is ignis, and thus the English “ignition,” from Sanskrit agni.  The Akkadian and Babylonian god of fire is Girra, close to the Sanskrit gRhya, “m. the house-fire.”  The West African Yoruba peoples’ deities Ogun (fire god, god of metalwork) and Aggayu (volcano god) are almost certainly related to the Sanskrit agni.  The English name Agnes means “pure,” implying the purification of fire.  Etruscan fire/sun god Śuri is not from agni, though is quite obviously related to the Hindu Surya/Sura, Sun god of the Hindu tradition.  Similarly, the Norse god of fire, Logi, related to the Middle High German word lohe, though by some slightest chance might be anciently related to the name agni would be more likely related to the Sanskrit word lohitAzva (mfn. having or driving red horses … m. fire … N. of Siva).  Logi was a jötunn (Old Norse jǫtunn, Sanskrit jaTin m. an ascetic), a type of being compared to gods, dwarves, elves and giants, who are also called risi (Old Norse for giant; Sanskrit RSi m. holy singer, poet, saint, sage, hermit, a Rishi, Tamil riSi sage, saint[x]).  The Slavic fire and metalworking god Svarog was touted by some to have originally been a sky-god, and thus his name is directly related to a name of Indra, “Svaraj,” to the heaven of Indra, Svarga/Svarga-Loka, and to the Sanskrit root svar generally.

 

The fire etymology was one of the first to be proposed by the Slovene linguist Franc Miklošič (1875), who explained the theonym Svarog as consisting of the stem svar ('heat', 'light') and the suffix -og. The stem svar itself was derived from an earlier *sur "shining" .

Some researchers, including Aleksander Brückner[9] and Vatroslav Jagić,[10] have suggested that the name stemmed from the word svar meaning "argument, disagreement", or the verb svariti "to quarrel".[xi]

 

 

Sanskrit           svar     … the sun, sunshine, light, lustre … bright space or sky, heaven …

svarAj   mfn. (nom. %{-rAT}) self-ruling m. a self-ruler … mfn. self-resplendent, self-luminous … m. N. of Brahma1 … of Vishnu-Krishna …of a Manu … of one of the 7 principal rays of the sun

Svārāj (स्वाराज्).—i.e. svar-rāj, m. Indra.        

svari  mfn. noisy, boisterous RV.

Svarita  a. sounded, accented

svaritR  mfn. sounding, noisy, loud, boisterous

 

 

The Slavic god of the Underworld is known as Viy, Ny, Peklabog, Nija, Nyja, Pekla, Pekelnybog, Pekollo, Pekollos, Pikollos, Peklos, Poklos, Peklo, Pieklo, Pekelle, Pikiello, Patello, Patelo, Patala.  “Ny is the god of the underworld who acts as psychopomp, that is to say the guide of the souls into the underworld.  He is associated with subterranean fire and water, snakes and earthquakes.”[xii]  One of Lord Yama’s names is Pavaka, “One who purifies.”  The Sanskrit word for the Underworld is Patala.  In fact, all of these names of the Slavic Underworld god/psychopomp seem very likely to have been derived from or are otherwise closely related to various Sanskrit words (Sanskrit definitions from Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon[xiii]):

 

Slavic              Viy

Sanskrit           Vah (वह्).— 1) To carry, lead, bear, convey, transport 2) To bear along, cause to move onward, waft, propel 3) To fetch, bring 4) To bear, support, hold up, sustain 5) To carry off; take away

 

Slavic              Ny      

Sanskrit           nI, nayati, -te  , pp. {nIta3} 1 lead, guide, conduct, direct (l. & [[-,]] f.); carry away, remove; draw near, attract; bring to or into (acc., esp. of an abstr., {prati}, dat., or loc.); M. (A.) lead home … take the lead, head (gen.); w. {daNDam} bear the rod, i.e. inflict punishment; w. an adv. in {sAt} reduce to or change into, e.g. {bhasmasAt}; w. {zUdratAm} make a person (acc.) a €u1dra; {samatAm} make equal; w. {duHkham} make unhappy. pain; w. {pritoSam} gratify; w. {kSayam} destroy (cf. {I} & {gam}). C. {nAyayati} cause a person or thing to be led or carried away by (instr.) to (acc.). D. {ni3nISati, -te} be willing to lead etc., to carry off, to bring into (acc.); to find out or ascertain. I. {nenIya3te} lead away as a captive, have power of (acc.). -- {accha} lead near or towards (acc.). {ati} lead over or beyond (acc.); … {apa} lead or take away, put off, remove. … {abhi} lead near or towards (acc.); fetch, procure; represent, act, perform (d.). {ava} lead down, push or put into … {abhyava} lead down or pour into (acc.). {vyava} pour out singly… {A} lead or bring near, fetch, cause; lead or bring towards or into (acc., w. {kzam} subject, subdue), lead or bring back ({ñpunar}); pour in, mix; offer, sacrifice. … {upA} lead or bring near, draw towards (acc.); get or cause to (gen. of pers. & acc. of th.); lead away, carry off. … {samA} conduct together, gather, collect; lay together (the hands); conduct towards, … lead off ({vadhAMya} to death); … carry off, lead away… lead away… {pra} bring forwards, lead further, promote; convey (r.); conduct or take to (M. to one\'s self), present, offer; bring or reduce to (a state); employ, inflict (punishment); … {saMpra} bring together, collect, raise (taxes); employ, inflict (punishment)

 

Slavic              Nija, Nyja

Sanskrit           nijur    f. singeing, burning, destroying by fire RV. ii, 29, 6.

 

nijur    f. burning, consuming.

 

nijUrv P. %{-jUrvati} , to consume by fire RV.

 

Slavic              Peklabog, Pekla, Pekelnybog, Pekollo, Pekollos, Pikollos, Peklos, Poklos, Peklo, Pieklo, Pekelle, Pikiello

Sanskrit           pakS    cl. 1. and 10. P. (Dha1tup. xvii, 14; xxxii, 17) %{pakSati}, %{-Sayati}, to take, seize

 

                        pakva      mf(%{A}) n. (considered as p.p. of 2. %{pac}; cf. Pa1n2. 8-2, 52) cooked roasted, baked, boiled, prepared on a fire … baked or burnt (as bricks or earthenware pots) … ripe, mature (lit. and fig.) RV. … accomplished, perfect, fully developed (as the understanding, character &c.) MBh. BhP. ; ripe for decay, near to death, decrepit, perishing, decaying ib. ; digested W. ; n. cooked food , dish RV. AV. S3Br.; ripe corn AV. ; the ashes of a burnt corpse ib.

                       

                        pakal   1. dividing, separating; 2. middle; 3. middle position, impartiality;  

 

pAkala   a. quite black. (Lord Yama is said to be and depicted as black/dark complected)

 

pAvaka           mf(%{A4})n. pure, clear, bright, shining RV. VS. AV. (said of Agni, Surya and other gods, of water, day and night &c.; according to native Comms. it is mostly = %{sodhaka} \"\', cleansing, purifying \"\') ; m. N. of a partic. Agni (in the Puranas said to be a son of Agni Abhimanin and Svaha or of Autardha1na and Sikhandini1) TS. TBr. Ka1tyS3r. Pur.; (ifc. f. %{A}) fire or the god of fire Up. MBh. Ka1v. &c.; N. of the number 3 (like all words for `\" fire \"\', because fire is of three kinds see %{agni}) Suryas.; a kind of Rishi, a saint, a person purified by religious abstraction or one who purified from sin

 

Slavic              Patello, Patelo, Patala

Sanskrit           pAtAla  n. (rarely m.; ifc. f. %{A}; perhaps fr. 2. %{pAta} as %{antarAla} fr. %{antar}; cf. Un2. i, 116) one of the 7 regions under the earth and the abode of the Nagas or serpents and demons … sometimes used as a general N. for the lower regions or hells; in MBh. also N. of a town in the serpent-world) … an excavation, hole in the earth MBh.; the submarine fire

 

As a sidenote, there is an archaeological site in Peru called Patallacta, very possibly indicating that thereabouts was the Hindu “Underworld” realm known as Patala/Patala Loka/Patal Loka.  According to the generally accepted name origin of Patallacta: “Patallacta (possibly from Quechua pata elevated place / above, at the top / edge, bank (of a river), shore, llaqta place (village, town, city, country, nation).”[xiv]  As noted in the definition above, there was/is a town in the “serpent-world” known as Patala.  If Patallacta happened to be a placename of Sanskrit origin, it would correspond rather succinctly to the Sanskrit/Hindu placename Patala-Loka (Patala “one of the 7 regions under the earth and the abode of the Nagas or serpents … a general N. for the lower regions … also N. of a town in the serpent-world”); loka  (free or open space, room, place, scope, free motion … a tract, region, district, country, province.[xv]  Loka is root to the English location, local, etc.).  Though the Quechua “pata” translates as “above, at the top,” the Sanskrit pata generally indicates downward (pAta m. flying, flight; fall, downfall), as Patala is “the Underworld” to Bharat/India, further “down” than Naraka-Loka (“Hell”).  In Tamil paTa is “a particle of comparison.”  From the perspective of someone in Patala, up and down are inverted in relation to the perspective of someone on the opposite side of the globe.   The direction that is “down” to someone in Eurasia is “up” to someone on the other side of the globe in the Americas/Patala, thus pata and Patala are down to someone in India, whereas pata and the land called Patala are “up” or “above” the ground, and above Naraka-Loka, “Hell,” to someone in a land once called Patala that existed in Peru, the Americas generally and thereabout, the “Underworld” to Eurasia and Africa.  Recall the quote in chapter 1 from the Yoga Vasisthana, “

 

All these bodies that move about in the world by their lack of freedom are thought to be up and down relative to our position on earth.  So when there are ants on an earthen ball, all its sides are reckoned below that are under their feet, and those as above which are over their backs.[xvi]

 

 

To return to the discussion of Yahva Agni and fire, traces of Sanskrit and Tamil words for fire are rife in Native American Indian words for fire.  Quechua word for fire nina might correspond to the Sanskrit nidah (nidah  P. … to burn down, consume by fire[xvii]).  Lakota word for fire pȟéta[xviii] is phonetically close to the Sanskrit vidah (P. %{-dahati}, to burn up, scorch, consume or destroy by fire[xix]), else is perhaps more likely related to pAtha  (m. = %{patha} g. %{jvalA7di} ; fire L. ; the sun L[xx]).  Shoshone ku', kukki, kukkwe, kuna", kuna-I, kottooppeh, and any number of other Shoshone words for or related to fire beginning with ku or ko,[xxi] would possibly correspond to the Sanskrit ka, kaNa, kuNDa, kukkuTa, etc., and Tamil kanal, kuTai-tal, kutapa, etc., and any number of other Sanskrit and Tamil words related to fire beginning with ka, ko and ku.[xxii]  The Cahuilla word for fire is kú-t.[xxiii]  The Paiute words for fire are ku'su or ko'so,[xxiv] quite close to Sanskrit kuSAku.[xxv]  The Lenape word for fire is tentey, and the Huichol tatewari is the fire god of shamans, both Native American words for fire that are very possibly derived from Tamil words related to fire such as taNal, taNTilam, taTTai, tImaTu-ttal,[xxvi] etc.  Hopi words for fire are uuwingwa, likely from Agni, and qööhi,[xxvii] göahi or qööhi, phonetically close to Tamil words for fire kocci or koLLi.  Iroquois katsista is rather close to the Sanskrit kuSAku and Tamil kataz-tal, kaTaiyanal final deluge of fire, kATAkkini 1. great fire, conflagration; 2. a strong fire, kaTTazal “raging fire,” kASTAkkini, kuTai-tal, and other Tamil words for fire beginning with kat.[xxviii]  The Mapuche (Chile and Argentina) word for fire is petrehue,[xxix] quite similar to and likely derived from/related to a number of Sanskrit and Tamil words[xxx]:

 

Sanskrit           pAtha  m. = %{patha} g. %{jvalA7di} ; fire L. ; the sun L. ; n. water L.

pAtraTira       (?) m. (only L.) an ex-minister (W. `\" an able or competent minister \"\') ; a metal vessel; mucus running from the nose; rust of iron ; fire

pItu     m. who drinks or dries up \"\' , the sun or fire

Tamil               piramam         01 1. the supreme being; 2. Brahma1; 3. Visnu; 4. Siva; 5. sun; 6. moon; 7. fire

pAtha  m. = %{patha} g. %{jvalAdi} ; fire L. ; the sun L. ; n. water L

pItan   1. sun; 2. fire

pItu     1. sun; 2. fire; 3. chief elephant in a herd

 

 

In Australian aboriginal languages, there are more than a few likely Sanskrit or Tamil related words for fire, such as Nyoongar language karla, karlak, kalla or kaarl and Warumungu karrarlarla (Tamil kAlavam fire; karka mf(%{I4})n. … good, excellent … m. a white horse … fire; kaRkam 02 1. water jar; 2. white horse; 3. Fire; karugkal 1. boulder of black rock, large granite stone; 2. flint for striking fire; karuku-tal 1. to be scorched, scarred; to blacken by fire or the sun; koLLi 1. fire), Luritja waru and Warlpiri warlu (Sanskrit vArUDhA f. (only L.) fire; Tamil vaRu-ttal 1. to dry, grill, fry, parch, toast [-ttal indicates the preceding word is a verbal noun]), Guugu Yimidhirr yugu (yajJa m. worship, devotion, prayer, praise; act of worship or devotion, offering, oblation, sacrifice … a worshipper, sacrificer … fire), Wiradjuri wiiny (Sanskrit vahni m. … the conveyer or bearer of oblations to the gods (esp. said of Agni, `\" fire \"\', or of the three sacrificial fires see … partic. fire … fire in general or `\" the god of fire \"\'; vani f. wish, desire AV. m. fire; vinirdah P. %{-dahati}, to burn completely, consume by fire), Bundjalung bidi (vidah P. %{-dahati}, to burn up, scorch, consume or destroy by fire, vidheya mfn. … to be kindled (as fire)), Arabana maka (Tamil makAvIram 2. sacrificial fire; makAvIran 1. fire-god; makAccuvAlam a sacrificial fire; makAkkini sacrificial fire; makAnalam sacrificial fire), etc.  Australia has certainly had contact with India and Southeast Asia for thousands of years, and the above examples of Sanskrit and Tamil related words in Aboriginal languages are not particularly exceptional.

Suffice it to say, Deva Agni, the “Hindu” god of fire, as well as other Sanskrit and Tamil words for fire, are echoed in words for fire and the names of fire gods and goddesses globally.  Agni, called “Yahva” in the Rig Veda, the most ancient scripture in the world, was known in many places by many peoples globally, and as Yahva Agni is friend and priest to Lord Yama, he is very likely a significant part of the origins of the construction of the Hebrew god “Yahweh.”

That the Hebrews were very much into fire sacrifices before their temple was finally destroyed, “burnt offerings” and such, further indicates more than a resonance with the Sanskrit term yahva, as one of the meanings of yahva is “a sacrificer,” and Deva “yahva” Agni is the God of Fire, priest of Lord Yama.  The Rig Veda even uses Yahva as a name for Agni in at least one case, and not merely as an adjective.

 

I may only mention that yahva in one instance (Rv. X. no. 3) is used in the vocative case, and Agni is there addressed as "O Yahva ! you are the sacrificer of the gods." This, clearly shows that the word was not only familiar to the Vedic sages, but that it was applied by them to their [demi]gods to signify their might, power or strength and Griffith has translated it by the English word for ‘Lord’ in several places.[xxxi]

 

 

Thus, to the ancientmost religion of the world, “Yahva” is a name of Deva Agni, the Lord of Fire, and by proxy and definition (“restless, swift, active … continually moving or flowing (applied to the waters) … a sacrificer … heaven and earth”) was likely contingently applied to his friend Lord Yama, Lord of Death and Hell and Judge of the Dead, him who Yahva Agni serves as priest.  Some have noted that the plans for the Temple of Solomon match the general design for Hindu temples, as both are built analogous to the human form reclined, thus figuring the temple as a body, as well as the body as a temple, via analogous tropes in both traditions.  Nothing about this interpretation doesn’t make sense.

 


Hebrew Temple and Vedic Temple designs in relation to the human form[xxxii]

 

 


Hindu Yajna fire sacrifice[xxxiii] and Hebrew temple altar for burnt offerings[xxxiv]

 

 

            The Hindu and Hebrew altars for burnt offerings are very similar in appearance and function, both are square and elevated above ground level, though most Hindu offerings are vegetable and not animal.  To contend that these two sacred altars built for fire sacrifice are not derived from the same source ritual practice is absurd.  The similarities of these altars further indicate the nigh certainty that the Hebrews were originally “Hindu” before Abraham and his tribe departed from “Ur of the Chaldees” to travel to Palestine and to establish their new religion, which, as it turns out, was constructed as something of an imitation or reflection of, and built from so many bits and pieces of, the religion they left behind.  The term “Jew” comes from the Hebrew word Yĕhūdhī, and specifically refers to the tribe of Judah (which means "thanksgiving" or "praise").  If Yĕhūdhī were derived from a Sanskrit word:

 

Sanskrit           hu, juhoti, juhute       , pp. {huta3} (q.v.) pour into the fire, cast [[,]] into the fire, offer, sacrifice. C. {hAvayati} cause to sacrifice or be sacrificed. D. {juhvaSati} wish to sacrifice. I. {johavIti} sacrifice repeatedly. -- {adhi} sacrifice upon or over (loc.). {abhi} pour out the libation upon, make an oblation to (acc.). {ava} pour out upon (loc.). {A} offer in (loc.), offer an oblation to (dat.), worship with oblations (acc.). {upa} offer in addition. {pra} offer continually or successively. {prati} offer in return. {sam} sacrifice (together).

juhoti  m. burnt oblations

 

 


Devi Sri Lalitha Tripura Sundari[xxxv]

 

 

            The plethora of important terms in the Hebrew religion coinciding with Sanskrit terms reifies the likelihood that “Yahweh” of the Hebrews and Christians is very likely derived from the Sanskrit yahva, referring to Yahva Agni and Yama, the God of Fire and the Lord of Death and Hell, the Judge of the Dead who presides over Naraka-Loka (“Hell”) and the Pitṛloka (Heaven realm of the ancestors).  The Judeo-Christian-Islamic “Devil,” in terms of the origins of said figure, similarly bears more than anecdotal (if mostly inverted) connections to the God of Abraham’s forefathers, Maha Deva Shiva as Pasupati, the Protector of Animals and Souls, known as the Horned God to pre-Christian Europe.  Similarly, the greatest Avatar of Shiva’s Consort, Devi Lalitha, the Goddess of Play, the Divine Feminine Supreme, Maha Shakti (Her Who Is All Power).  Lalitha is insulted as “Lilith” in Hebrew and Christian lore.  Thus, the Abrahamic religions essentially upended the order of the Old Ways, placing “Civilization” over Nature and the (rather skewed) Masculine over the Feminine. 

            In other words, over the course of the development of the Abrahamic religions, Deva Yama, the Hindu Lord of Death and Hell (in conjunction with his priest Deva “yahva” Agni), was rendered “God” as the Hebrew “Yahweh,” and the figure who was formerly “God” (Sanskrit brahman or Deva), the Nature God, Protector of Animals and Souls, i.e., to Abraham’s forefathers and much of the ancient world, became figured as “the Devil” by the renderings of Judeo-Christian (and later, Islamic) mythology.  Contingently, the Greatest expression of the Divine Feminine, The Great Mother, Goddess of Play Devi Lalitha, Her who God the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer all bow before, was rendered as the whore or demon “Lilith” by Judeo-Christian traditions, as Lilith was supposed to be Adam’s wife before Eve was created, but she would not submit to a man as greater, and was thus “cast out of the Garden.”  Related to these conjectures, I shall present evidence that might indicate the Hebrew rite of circumcision is similarly derived from an ancient Hindu incest taboo rite connected to a certain myth about Brahma, God the Creator.

Something that bothered me from my days as a Southern Baptist minister and perhaps when I was still in high school, back in the days before I realized myself a yogi and whilst an undergraduate student at Oklahoma Baptist University and pastor at the First Baptist Church of Connerville, Oklahoma, or perhaps before (I resigned and later renounced all trappings of my ministry and moved to Chicago for grad school at the U of C after finishing my undergraduate degree), i.e., when I still considered myself a Christian, I made note of a rather confusing idiosyncrasy regarding the Judeo-Christian concepts of Heaven and Hell and “the afterlife” generally.  According to Jewish tradition, the destination of souls after they die is a place called “Sheol,” or “the Bosom of Abraham” to Christians (New Testament, Luke 10:22).  Sheol is described as “down,” as in underground.  The Hebrew word Sheol is translated to the Greek word “Hades” in the Septuagint (Koine Greek translation of the Old Testament compiled and translated by a group of seventy or seventy-two rabbis.  Note the Sanskrit root to the Greek Septuagint, sapta “seven”), and that Greek term generally translates to the English “Hell,” if you didn’t know!!  This troubled me a bit, but I brushed it aside, assuming some theological explanation was surely expounded in some doctrinal statement somewhere. 

According to Hinduism, souls go to the Preta-Loka to await judgement by Lord Yama in Naraka-Loka, almost certainly the origin of the Hebrew understanding of Sheol and Christian understanding of the “Bosom of Abraham.”  From Yogapedia, “Preta Loka is a lower realm, in which departed spirits reside after physical death and prior to judgement in Naraka Loka.”[xxxvi] 

One other clue I was granted in those days that something is amiss in the orthodox Judeo-Christian narrative, as previously mentioned, was a statement made by a rather conservative religion professor at Oklahoma Baptist University after a lecture about Abraham and his crew moving west from “Ur of the Chaldese” to Palestine.  Ur has been determined to be in close proximity to (else a part of) Indus Valley/Sarasvati Civilization, identified by most archaeologists as having existed in far southeastern Iraq.  It ought be noted, however, that many ancient place-names across Asia included the prefix “Ur,” and the site identified as Ur in Iraq is not “beyond the Euphrates,” as the Bible claims, but rather is on the same side of that river as is Palestine.  In Iran there is an ancient town that is called Ur that is inhabited to this day.  There are even many indications that the original homeland of the Hebrews, before their break with Abraham’s father’s religion, was Kashmir,[xxxvii] else part of Indus Valley/Sarasvati Civilization.  In any regard, at the end of this lecture, Dr. Dawson concluded with rather a scowl:

 

“Now there may be those who tell you that Abraham is somehow connected to the Hindu god Brahma . . . but we know better than that, now don’t we?!”

 

Though certainly intended as a warning to those wishing for a career with the church, this short closing statement was somehow proffered as a clue to those real seekers of truth who might be sitting in that lecture hall—whether intended as such or no.  I later explored that strand of the historical narrative to conclude that indeed, papa Abraham was a “Hindu” (if not a term coined until three thousand years later) before he went apostate and left the homeland and faith of his fathers.  Voltaire (1694-1778) posited that Abraham and his crew were a tribe of traveling brahmin priests.  Even Aristotle taught that the Hebrews were of the philosophers of India! Again, Abrahman is Sanskrit for “unfaithful one,” or “one who does not know brahman (‘God’),” and I am thus in fact contending “Abrahman” is the actual name that was given the Father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by his god “Yahweh” (Yama and Yahva Agni) as Abram left the faith of his father.

 

Hindu “Heart Chakra” symbol Anahata, with six-pointed star shatkona, [xxxviii] and Hebrew six-pointed star of David[xxxix]

 

 

As quoted in chapter 1:

Donald M. Craig points to ancient sources regarding a history of Abraham from India:

 

…Flavius Josephus …(in the) Antiquities of the Jews … quotes Aristotle (384 BCE–322 BCE) as saying that Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers and are known as the Calani. Clearchus of Soli was a student in Aristotle’s school. In his book, De Somno, he elaborates on the story of how Aristotle discovered this information, but the basic concept remained the same.[xl] 


Megasthenes was a traveler who became an ambassador of Seleucus I of Syria to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, the first unifier of India, before the latter’s death in 288 b.c.e. According to Godfrey Higgins, in the first volume of his massive Anacalypsis, Megasthenes wrote that the Jews were an Indian tribe or sect called Kalani. Except for the spelling he agreed with Aristotle and Clearchus.

Higgins also claims that Ur of the Chaldees, the home of Abraham mentioned in the Bible, was actually Ur of the Chaldeans. “Chaldean,” he continues, is actually “Kaul-Deva” or the Holy Kauls, a Brahmanical caste of India. The Kauls or Kaulas are today considered to be a Tantric tradition.

He writes that the tribe of the Brahmin Abraham was expelled from or left India and settled in Goshen in Egypt. Finally, he states, “The Arabian historians contend that Brahma and Abraham, their ancestor, are the same person [emphasis added].”[xli]

 

 

            If the Hebrews were indeed called “Calani/Kalani,” as Aristotle and Megasthenes did claim, this would very much fit with the supposition that the Hebrews are under the authority of Deva Yama, as one of Lord Yama’s names is “Kala.”  Thus the name touted by Aristotle to describe the Hebrews, “Calani,” and who Megasthenes called Kalani, would be equivalent to the Sanskrit kala + ni, “those who follow Kala/Yama,” else to the Tamil Kālaṉ, which translates as “Lord Yama” or “messenger of Yama.”  The term kalani also has significance in the Shakta tradition, devotion to the Great Mother, possibly indicating the Hebrews were originally of a tantric tradition, and perhaps related to the Kaulas/kaulika cult, as Godfrey Higgins claimed.  There are two villages in Bihar, India and in Madhya Pradesh, India called Kalani, and a neighborhood in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India called Kalani Nagar, reifying that said appellation used by Aristotle and Megasthenes to name the Hebrews is not unlikely Indian in origin.

Calani /Kala-ni   Name attributed to the Hebrew people by Aristotle and Megasthenes.

Sanskrit           kAla    … time (as leading to events, the causes of which are imperceptible to the mind of man), destiny, fate … time (as destroying all things), death, time of death (often personified and represented with the attributes of Yama, regent of the dead, or even identified with him …[xlii]

                        nI        mfn. leading, guiding, leader or guide[xliii]

Tamil               Kālaṉ  “Yama” else “messenger of Yama.”[xliv]

Shaktism         Kalanī (कलनी) (cf. Kandacakra) refers to “one who generates” representing an aspect of Kalī, according to the Jayadrathayāmala: one of the earliest and most extensive Tantric sources of the Kālīkrama system.[xlv]

           

Dr. S.R. Rao, renowned Indian archaeologist whose teams are credited with the discovery of the Harappan port cities of Lothal and Dvarka,[xlvi] notes the discovery of Indus seal script in Ur (Iraq) and as far away from the Indus Valley/Sarasvati as Bahrain, indicating the certainty of trade across southern Asia and likely indicating the presence of communities of traders from the Indus Valley/Sarasvati living in Ur.[xlvii]  Roa’s interpretation of Indus script postulates “uniformity of the script over the full extent of Indus-era civilization,”[xlviii] comparing the script to the Phoenician alphabet.  Indeed, evidences abound that Indus Valley/Sarasvati civilization was quite cosmopolitan, and that colonies or at least communities of traders from the Indus Valley/Sarasvati did exist at least so far away as Ur in Mesopotamia, and likely even much further from Harappa and the days of Indus/Sarasvati Civilization than that, as indicated by the Gundestrup Cauldron of Denmark.  As another example of the continued and abiding connection between the Vedic tradition and Denmark, the Danish vide/ved/viden, “know/knowledge,” is a direct cognate to the Sanskrit vid/veda, “know/knowledge.”

Sutkagan Dor, the westernmost archaeological site identified as part of Indus Valley/Sarasvati Civilization, at one time likely a port city,[xlix] is by the southern part of the border between present day Pakistan and Iran, less than 900 miles (“as the crow flies” or as Google Earth ruler does measure) from the current mouth of the Euphrates, and transit via the nautical route from nearby ports might have been even closer to the Euphrates during early phases of Indus Valley/Sarasvati Civilization when sea levels were somewhat lower.  Carnelian beads from the Indus Valley/Sarasvati that date to 2600 BCE have been found in Ur, and Indus seals with Harappan script have been found at Ur, Babylon, Kish and other Mesopotamian sites.[l] 

These things in mind, to posit that Abraham’s father’s tribe in Ur originated from Indus Valley/Sarasvati Civilization/India and were practitioners of the religion of the Indus Valley/Sarasvati Civilization or India, i.e., to argue that Abraham's father and ancestors were adherents to the knowledge of the Vedas and of brahman, that they were “Hindu,” is not much of a stretch at all.  Even if Abraham’s Ur was not in Indus Civilization proper, nor in Kashmir, and actually was the site called Ur in Mesopotamia, it still seems very likely if not certain that Abraham’s father was “Hindu.”



Illustrations of Indus Valley/Sarasvati seal (3000 BCE) and Indus carnelian beads, both found in Mesopotamia[li]


            Even by the time of Abraham’s grandson Jacob, “Hindu” practice is still recorded amongst the Hebrews.  The stone pillar that Jacob anointed with oil was almost certainly understood by him as a Shiva lingam. 

 

“And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.” (Genesis 28:18 King James Version)

 

 


Pujaris anointing a Shiva Linga[lii] and Lingam from Mohenjo Daro, Indus/Sarasvati Civilization.[liii]

 

 

            If Abraham, Sarai/Sarah and Hagar of the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are indeed connected to Hindu Creator Brahma (or Abrahman), His Consort Sarasvati, and Ghaggar (a river tributary/near to the Sarasvati River, which together were the primary sources of water and location of most settlements in Indus Valley/Sarasvati Civilization), as many have logically contended, then it is similarly not a stretch to assume that there is a connection in terms of the Hebrew rite of circumcision and the Hindu myth about Brahma losing His fifth head.  The basic mythemes do well enough meet in a careful analysis of the Hindu and Hebrew mythology, and circumcision is certainly a form of “decapitation.” 

            According to one of the versions of the myth that explains why Brahma, the Creator, is not much worshiped in Hinduism, early in the process of creation Brahma wanted someone to help with the task of creation, and so created a lovely and intelligent maiden.  After a time, Lord Brahma began to desire this beautiful and intelligent woman that He had created (think of the John Hughes movie Weird Science).  The maiden sought to evade His lustful gaze, so Brahma grew a “fifth head” to continue to gaze upon her.  Shiva then shows up and tells Brahma that as He had directly created said Maiden, She is thus Brahma's daughter!![liv]  Shiva then severed Brahma's “fifth head” with His fingernail, as touted in some versions of the myth.  Usually, Shiva uses His Trishul or another blade to sever heads when such violence proves necessary. That Shiva used His fingernail in some versions of the tale obviously indicates that the “head” severed was rather small, and it is not too much a stretch to assume that this “head” severed was a foreskin!! 

To follow this line of reasoning, in its origin the Hebrew rite of circumcision was an incest taboo rite derived from an ancient Hindu myth!  Indeed, quite along those same strands of the mythological narrative and reasoning that posit Abraham’s “Yahweh” was in fact Deva Yama (and “Yahva” Agni), as Yama’s authority would be prescribed by the beliefs of Abraham's father for one who had left the religion of brahman, for one who is Abrahman, it seems not at all unlikely that the practice of circumcision is related to the aforementioned myth about Brahma losing His fifth head.  That Sarasvati, thus created by Brahma, is technically His Daughter is quite analogous to Abraham telling the Philistine king that Sarah is his sister.  The mythemes are too close to be unrelated, considering the many other coinciding evidences.

.           Essentially, Yahweh, worshiped by Jews and Christians as “God,” is actually the being Abraham's forefathers and much of Asia (and Europe via “Hades” and various other names) knew as the Lord of Death and Hell, Deva Yama (in concert with Yahva Agni), as indeed, the Hebrews were almost certainly originally “Hindus.”  And then what did the Abrahamic project do next along those lines of reasoning but to render the Person who was God to Abraham’s forefathers into “the Devil,” into “the adversary” in their mythmaking (the Hebrew word satan means “adversary” in a general sense in the Old Testament usage, and not necessarily in terms of a supernatural adversary).  By the way, the concept of “the Devil” or whatever “satan” as an arch-evil adversary was very much unknown to Abraham and the religions of his day (though the idea of demons and such malevolent spirits was certainly extant), and in fact the figure of “the Devil” developed much later, likely via Zoroastrian influences upon Judaism.  Hinduism, and sanAtana dharma generally as expressed variously in so many religions globally, did not and does not grant such power to any evil spirit, nor to evil generally, as the Lord of Hell and Judge of the Dead Deva Yama is a just and righteous god.

As an aside, Hades, the Greek Lord of Death and the Underworld, whose name is earliest writ as Áïdēs, which means “hidden,” or “unseen,”[lv] is not unlikely derived from else related to the Sanskrit adRSTa (mfn. unseen, unforeseen, invisible, not experienced, unobserved.[lvi]).  As noted a number of pages ago, Ny/Nija/Patala, Slavic names for the psychopomp who accompanies souls to the Underworld, are all directly related to Sanskrit/Hindu terms related to Yama and his role as psychopomp and to the name of the Hindu Underworld realm Patala.  Other European Underworld deities related to/derived from Sanskrit include the Albanian Mortja (Sanskrit mRtyu “death, god of death”), Latvian Mara (Sanskrit mara “death, dying”), and the Celtic Ankou (Sanskrit antaka   mfn. making an end, causing death; m. death; Yama, king or lord of death; Tamil Anu (“Death”) else arukal (1. rareness; 2. Death), or Arawn (Sanskrit araNa   mfn. without fighting (as death i.e. natural death)).[lvii]  Indeed, a significant number of the pre-Christian European names of gods of the Underworld are closely related to else derived from Sanskrit or Tamil terms related to the Underworld realm Patala and to Lord Yama and his priest and friend, the God of Fire Yahva Agni, as is also true of the names of most European Sky Gods in relation to Hindu Sky Gods, etc.

            It has been noted by scholars and indeed by popular culture that the figure of “the Devil,” especially in European Judeo-Christian lore, was largely a bastardization of the Horned God.[lviii] This Horned God, via various expressions and interpretations, was worshiped across Europe and parts of Asia as “Cernunnos” and by other names, was and is known in India as Pasupati, the Protector of Animals and Souls, an ancient horned Avatar of Shiva depicted on Indus Valley/Sarasvati seals (4-5,000+ years old).  Pasupati was apparently even worshipped in the Americas, very likely evinced by the Blackfoot name for “the Great Spirit” Apistotoke or Iihtsipaitapiiyo'pa,[lix] and by horned deity effigies found all over the Americas and rather prominently depicted in Native American Indian rock art, often shown surrounded by animals. 

Among the most emblematic depictions of the Horned God in the Americas is the “Great Hunt” petroglyph at the Nine Mile Canyon petroglyph site in Utah, wherein a horned figure is depicted surrounded by a herd of bighorn sheep with hunters approaching.  This petroglyph is possibly depicting the Navajo deity Nayanezgani/Naayééʼ Neizghání, a horned figure who protects the people from monsters and is associated with the hunt, well enough like Pasupati Shiva, the Protector of animals and souls.  “The name is a relative clause that may be analyzed as naa-yééʼ "enemy-dangerous" + neizghán "[he] kills several [of them]" + -í "person who..."  The evil monsters Nayanezgani/Naayééʼ Neizghání destroyed were called the Anaye or Nayéé’, the which would well enough match the Sanskrit term anaya 1 m. bad management; bad conduct (gambling, &c.), anaya 2 m. evil course, ill luck; misfortune, adversity.  If from Sanskrit, the name Anaye/Naayééʼ Neizghání, would likely correspond to anaya + naz, nazyati 1 ({-te}) & {nazati} ({-te}), pp. {naSTa} (q.v.) be [[,]] lost or missing, vanish… {nAzayati} ({-te}), pp. {nAzita} make disappear, expel, destroy, violate, deflower; lose, also from memory, i.e. forget. -- {apa} be gone. {ava} wane, disappear. {nis} C. expel, drive away … C. make disappear, destroy, annihilate, kill.

 


Horned God/Pasupati (Protector of Animals and Souls) Petroglyph, Nine Mile Canyon, Utah, U.S.A.[lx]

 

 

Deva is Sanskrit for “God” (Latin Deus, Latvian Dievs, Lithuanian Dievas, French Dieu, etc.) and Devi is Sanskrit for “Goddess” (Latin Dea, Latvian Dieviete, Lithuanian Deivė, French Déesse, etc.), and the term “devil” seems to likely have origins in Persia (quite near where many still worship Deva and Devi) via the Avestan (early Iranian used in Zoroastrian scripture) language term daeva, which translates as “wrong gods,” or “gods who are not to be worshiped,”[lxi] a term that was essentially an inversion of the Vedic “Deva,” as the Zoroastrians were to whatever degree in conflict with the Vedic “Hindus.”  The Judeo-Christian construction of “the Devil” is thus derived from a starkly dualistic construction adopted from Zoroastrianism’s rejection of the non-dual nature of brahman, and subsequent demonization of the Devas.

 

Talk of ‘us’ and ‘them’ has long dominated Iran-related politics in the West. At the same time, Christianity has frequently been used to define the identity and values of the US and Europe, as well as to contrast those values with those of a Middle Eastern ‘other’. Yet, a brief glance at an ancient religion – still being practiced today – suggests that what many take for granted as wholesome Western ideals, beliefs and culture may in fact have Iranian roots.  Even the idea of Satan is a fundamentally Zoroastrian one.[lxii]

 

 

            “The Devil” is a construct emblematic of dualistic Zoroastrianism adopted by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, very much in line with the program of Abrahman, of dualistic opposition to the ancient order of brahman, of Nature, of “God” as such was known to Abraham’s ancestors.  As with the Abrahamic religions, Zoroastrianism was also constructed in opposition to the Vedic tradition, the religion of the ancient Persians’ ancestors as well as of the Jews’, Christians’ and Muslims’ ancestors, and is thus “Abrahman-ic” as are the Abrahamic religions, constructed in opposition to the Vedic brahman, as well as embracing a blatantly dualistic understanding of the Divine, dividing “God” into two opposing gods.  The Avestan word daeva means “demon,” an obvious diss to the Vedic religion and the Devas and Devis, the Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism, and in fact of much of the world previous to the Abrahamic religions.

 

 


Above pictured are one scene embossed on the Gundestrup Cauldron depicting the Horned God, found in Denmark and dating to well over two-thousand years old,[lxiii] and the Indus Valley/Sarasvati Pasupati Seal (ca. 2300 BCE).[lxiv]  Note that the animals surrounding the horned figure are facing the same directions relative to the central figure in both, and that the yoga posture Moolabandhasana is not shown so well-executed in the European version of the seal, so far from the Indus Valley/Sarasvati and India.  This “Horned God” was rendered as “the Devil” by the Abrahamic religions.

 

 

            According to sanAtana dharma/“Hinduism,” the greatest expression of the Goddess Mother of the Universe is known as Devi Lalitha, and She is as much brahman (“God”/True Being) as are Shiva and Vishnu.  “God” Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, are generally shown beneath Her and bowing before Her, else with Shiva reclining on Her bed appearing rather like a little boy else a tiny man, as She is greater than all of the other Devas and Devis.  Lalitha is the Goddess of Play, and is Maha Shakti, Her Who Is All Power.  Without Her, the Devas are powerless.  The concept of Shakti is at least echoed by the modern American adage, “Behind every great man is a greater woman.”  The Lalitha Sahasranama expounds a thousand sacred names of the Goddess of Play, Her who is All Power, Her who is the essence of the Divine Feminine.


  Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva bow before Lalitha (public domain)[lxv]

 

 

Lalitha is insulted as “Lilith” in the Jewish and Christian traditions, as according to their tellings Lilith was supposed to be Adam's wife but would not submit to him as greater, and she was thus exiled to the desert and rendered a “demon,” cursed to copulate with and give birth to thousands of demons each day, according to one of the nastiest myths about Lilith (“nasty” is likely of Sanskrit origin:  naSTa   mfn. lost, disappeared, perished, destroyed … spoiled, damaged, corrupted, wasted, unsuccessful, fruitless, in vain; 1 nAsti  not, there is not; n. non-existence mfn. incorporeal; m. assertion of non-existence, atheism; 2 naSTi f. loss, destruction, ruin[lxvi]).  I ought note, by Her Nature as Goddess of Play and from what I know of Her, Devi Lalitha has certainly had a ball with that one!

Devi, the Goddess Mother of the Universe, is praised in Book 10, Hymn 125 of the Rig Veda, the most ancient scripture in the world, as Her that upholds men and Gods and the whole of existence, a rather stark contrast to the Abrahamic portrayals of the ancient Divine Feminine and of women generally.  This hymn is called the Vac Suktam (vac, root to “vocal,” etc., suktam means hymn) or Devīsūktam, the “Goddess mantra” of the Rig Veda.

 

HYMN CXXV. Vāk

1. I TRAVEL with the Rudras and the Vasus, with the Ādityas and All-Gods I wander.

I hold aloft both Varuṇa and Mitra, Indra and Agni, and the Pair of Aśvins.

2 I cherish and sustain high-swelling Soma, and Tvaṣṭar I support, Pūṣan, and Bhaga.

I load with wealth the zealous sacrificer who pours the juice and offers his oblation

3 I am the Queen, the gatherer-up of treasures, most thoughtful, first of those who merit worship.  Thus Gods have stablished me in many places with many homes to enter and abide in.

4 Through me alone all eat the food that feeds them, each man who sees, breathes, hears the word outspoken.  They know it not, but yet they dwell beside me. Hear, one and all, the truth as I declare it.

5 I, verily, myself announce and utter the word that Gods and men alike shall welcome.

I make the man I love exceeding mighty, make him a sage, a Ṛṣi, and a Brahman.

6 I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion.

I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven.

7 On the world's summit I bring forth the Father: my home is in the waters, in the ocean.

Thence I extend o’er all existing creatures, and touch even yonder heaven with my forehead.

8 I breathe a strong breath like the wind and tempest, the while I hold together all existence.  Beyond this wide earth and beyond the heavens I have become so mighty in my grandeur.[lxvii]

 

 

            So to recap, I am essentially theorizing that: Abraham’s original appellation given him by “Yahweh” (Lord Yama and his priest Yahva Agni) was “Abrahman,” which means “unfaithful one” or “atheist” in Sanskrit; the Jewish and Christian God Yahweh is actually a refiguration of Yama, the Lord of Death and Hell and Judge of the Dead (along with his friend and priest Lord “Yahva” Agni), according to the religion of Abraham's forefathers and most of Asia (and indeed, to at least some tribes living in the Americas), known as Hades to the Greeks.  The Judeo-Christian “Devil” is actually a bastardization or inversion of the God (and Goddess) that much if not most of the ancient world worshiped, the Horned God, the God of Nature, Shiva, the God Abraham's tribe worshiped before Abraham and his crew broke with his kin and left Ur and the tribes of his “Hindu” kin and the religion of sanAtana dharma (“Hinduism”), circa 1900 BCE; Devi Lalitha, Her to whom God the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer all bow before, was rendered as the demon Lilith; and Hebrew and thus modern circumcision generally originated from an archaic incest taboo rite!!  Rather mind-boggling if not paradigm shattering concepts to wrap your thoughts around, at least if one's perspective is constructed from a Jewish, Christian or Islamic background.

 


14th Century Chinese depiction of Lord Yama[lxviii]

 

 

            The following description of Lord Yama seems rather like the “Judgment Seat of God” the Hebrews and Christians talk about, does it not?  (except that the Christians tout the Judge of the Dead as residing “up in heaven,” and generally leave out the possibility of reincarnation):

 

He is the god of departed spirits and judge of the dead. A soul when it quits its mortal form repairs to his abode in the lower regions; there the recorder, Chitragupta, reads out his account from the great register called Agrasandhani, and a just sentence follows, when the soul either ascends to the abodes of the Pitris (Manes) [ancestors], or is sent to one of the twenty-one hells according to its guilt, or it is born again on earth in another form.[lxix]

 

 

            The Realm of the Pitrs (“fathers”/ancestors), the Pitṛloka, might be the place Christians refer to as “Heaven,” as indeed in said realm one does get to be in the company of the ancestors, and Yama is the Lord of that heaven realm.  According to the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon description of Yama,[lxx]  “in the Veda he is called a king or . . . ‘the gatherer of men,' and rules over the departed fathers [pitr means “father”] in heaven.”[lxxi]  The twenty-one hells as touted by sanAtana dharma might correspond in whatever guise to the 22 layers of the Mayan worldview, with an Underworld, Xibalba with its nine layers (the which arrayal is perhaps somehow echoed or otherwise presented in Dante's “Nine Circles of Hell”)  and then thirteen Heaven Realms.  Regardless, an ancient and relatively cohesive and united if diversified narrative is the framework for nigh all the world's religions, and Lord Yama or varied figurations of him are known nigh globally, even in the pre-Columbian Americas.  The Dene of northern Canada revere Yamba Deja (Yama Deva?) as the creator of Dene Law,[lxxii] and the Sanskrit word yama translates as “righteous restraint” and as “any rule or observance,” as well as referring to the name of the Lord of Death and Hell.  The Mayan God of Death is Yum Kimil, quite definitively analogous to “Yama.”  One of the most ancient tribes in the Americas, the yamana tribe’s name means either “man” or “alive” or “not dead.”  From the Yamana English Dictionary of the Speech of Tierra Del Fuego:

 

Yamana         yamana s.  By this term the Yaghan tribe distinguished themselves from all other natives who spoke a different language as well as from all foreign peoples this term primarily means Humanity. Human, pertaining to mankind, alive, sensible, not dead …[lxxiii]

Sanskrit           Yama     the god of death, death[lxxiv]

na          ind. not, no, nor, neither[lxxv] [often applied as a suffix to mean not this or that]

yamana           mf(%{I})n. restraining, governing, managing VS.; m. the god Yama[lxxvi]

 

 

The Yamhela are one of the Kalapuya peoples of the Pacific Northwest, doubly evincing that those people were connected to Lord Yama, who is also known as Kala.  The Yemasee (“Yvmvse”) Indians of Georgia (Muscogee language group) are quite likely named after Deva Yama, else after other definitions of the Sanskrit term yama:

 

Muscogee/Mvskoke    Yamasee/yvmvse        tame[lxxvii]

 

Sanskrit                      yama        m. a rein, curb, bridle RV. v, 61, . . . the act of checking or curbing, suppression, restraint (with %{vAcAm}, restraint of words, silence) ... self-control forbearance, any great moral rule or . . . (in Yoga) self-restraint (as the first of the eight Angas or means of attaining mental concentration) … any rule or observance...[lxxviii]

 

 

Indeed, by this very rational interpretation of the religion and myths of Judaism as stemming from a break with the religion of Abraham's ancestors, who were “Hindu” (though again, not a term generally used until about a thousand years ago), it appears that primary to the project of the Abrahamic religions has been to invert or otherwise challenge the paradigm of Abraham's ancestors.  Thus the Lord of Death and Hell, Yama, in concert with his priest and friend “Yahva” Agni, is elevated to figuring as “God” Yahweh to the Hebrews and Christians, and brahman, Pasupati/Shiva (and Vishnu and the Mother, etc.), God to Abraham's ancestors, the God of Nature known as “The Horned God” in Europe, is rendered as “the Devil/the Lord of Hell” by this inverted paradigm, and Lalitha, the ancient Goddess Mother who Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, God the Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer all bow before, is rendered as the “whore” or “demon” Lilith, inversions that likely assumed such starkly dualistic form via Zoroastrian Persia or in Mesopotamia before being embraced by Judaism and later by Christianity as part of their Abrahman-ic programs.

            Though sounding rather nefarious, this inversion is perhaps to be characterized as an early attempt to construct a means to deal with the question, so prominent in this age, “To Be or not to Be,” brahman or Abrahman, and to deal with the propensity for discourse to fall into stupid dualism.  With Yama (Sanskrit “righteous restraint”) in concert with Yahva Agni (“active purifying fire”) as “God Yahweh,” and Shiva (Sanskrit "auspicious, propitious, gracious, benign, kind, benevolent, friendly"[lxxix]) rendered as “the Devil” and Lalitha (Goddess of Play) figured as “the demon” or “whore” Lilith, the Devas still have both ends of the dualistic duel in hand.  A much healthier arrayal of this question, however, a more peaceful and honest deployal of this oxymoronic yet pivotal query is certainly as played by Hinduism and Buddhism touting brahman and Abrahman, respectively.  Regardless, both these lila (plays) of “To Be or not to Be” can be perceived as stratagems to channel the dualistic impetus of the Kali Yuga into manageable constructions, as architectonic socio-cultural artifices somehow (by Someone?) devised to deal with the nature of humans in this Age when we are said to maintain only one-quarter of the intelligence and understanding of humans at our best (three Ages ago, according to the teachings of sanAtana dharma).  Thus, there is a trinity of the Abrahamic/Abrahman-ic religions which end up as counter-balances to each other, dualistic oppositions arranged in a triad, which effectively cancels out much of the potential damages done by such binary-oppositionalism by distributing such dualistic impetuses into triple categories. 

It might be seen that these political, religious and socio-cultural constructions are indeed devised else at least managed by “the Divine,” by “the play of the Gods” (again, whether “the Gods”/“God” be merely us, extra-terrestrial mentors, or even a “biological imperative,” or no) to prevent the self-other/“us vs. them” dichotomies from utterly destroying humanity in our most dumbed-down state.  To allow Yama to be called “God” and Shiva to be rendered “the Devil” rather ensures that righteousness will be maintained, regardless of the fictitious nature of that inversion, as Lord Yama’s very name means “righteous restraint,” and Maha Deva Shiva is Most Compassionate and Playful, as is Devi Lalitha.  “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” as are all the Gods and Goddesses. All beings are players in this Grand lila, this Play that lasts lifetimes and ages long and that is ALREADY ETERNITY.

Those things noted and all further critical and self-critical analyses aside, the rather dishonest inversion played by the Abrahamic religions, the turning of the Lord of Hell into “God” and contingent rendering of God Shiva, the God of Nature, as “the Devil,” and the Great Mother Devi Lalitha not so subtly slandered as the “demon Lilith,” does deserve to be outed, to be unveiled for the world to critically consider.  As Jesus who is called Christ is said to have said, “The truth shall set you free!”


 


[i] Ernest John Henry Mackay, “Indus pottery figure of horned deity,” Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain, January 1, 1935, uploaded March 12, 2022, accessed April 2, 2023, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indus_pottery_figure_of_horned_deity.jpg.

[ii] Subhash Kak, “Was Aristotle's Claims of Indian Origins of the Jews True?” Swarajya, November 27, 2015, .https://swarajyamag.com/culture/was-aristotles-claim-of-indian-origin-of-jews-true.

[iii] “Yama-Hinduism,” Wikipedia, 23 April 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yama_(Hinduism).

[iv] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “el,” accessed September 26, 2025, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[v] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “yahva,” accessed May 3, 2021, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[vi] Wisdom Library Search the Database: Glossary, Wisdom Library Peace-Love-Dharma, s.v. “yahva,” accessed August 11, 2025, https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/yahva.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] “List of fire deities,” Wikipedia, last edited May24, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fire_deities

[ix] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “svanta,” accessed December 2, 2024, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[x] Wisdom Library Search the Database: Glossary, Wisdom Library Peace-Love-Dharma, s.v. “rishi,” accessed February 20,2024, https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/rishi.

[xi] “Etymology of Svarog, Wikipedia, last edited June 25, 2025, accessed August 19, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_Svarog.

[xii] “Deities: God Svarog,” Slavic Sun Light, accessed March 30, 2025, https://slavicsunlight.weebly.com/deities-04.html.

[xiii] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[xiv] “Patallacta,” Wikipedia, last edited March 14, 2025, accessed April 4, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patallacta.

[xv] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “loka,” accessed April 4, 2025, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[xvi] “Yoga-Vasistha English Translation,” translated by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891), edited by Thomas L. Palotas (2013), UpasanaYoga, accessed October 31, 2022, http://upasanayoga.org/docs/YVas.htm#Ch%203.30.

[xvii] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. prefix “n” s.v. “fire,” accessed April 3, 2025, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[xviii] “pȟéta,” Wiktionary, last edited January 14, 2025, accessed August 21, 2025, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/p%C8%9F%C3%A9ta.

[xix] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. prefix “v” s.v. “fire,” accessed August 29, 2023, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[xx] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. prefix “p” s.v. “fire,” accessed August 29, 2023, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[xxi] Shoshone Dictionary, The University of Utah Shoshone Language Project, s.v. “fire,” accessed November 17, 2024, https://shoshoniproject.utah.edu/language-materials/shoshoni-dictionary/dictionary.php?sho_search=&english_search=fire&search=Search.

[xxiii] “Form kú-t,” lexibank, accessed April 3, 2025, https://lexibank.clld.org/values/utoaztecan-Cahuilla-fire-1.

[xxiv] “Northern Paiute,” Languages of hunter-gatherers and their neighbors, accessed April 3, 2025, https://huntergatherer.la.utexas.edu/languages/language/11.

[xxvi] Ibid., s.v. prefix “t” “fire.”

[xxvii] “THE  EL  MORRO  VOCABULARY ENGLISH - KERES - ZUNI - HOPI - DINÉ   LANGUAGES,” SŪDUVA Online, accessed February 24, 2025, https://www.suduva.com/el_morro_words.htm.

[xxviii] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. English “fire” prefix “kat,” accessed February 24, 2025, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[xxix] Mapuche-English Dictionary, InterPatagonia, accessed February 24, 2025, https://www.interpatagonia.com/index_i.html.

[xxxi] Sidhartha Bahadur, “Yahvah - God in Indian Veda, same as ‘Jehovah’ of the Hebrews?” Radha Name News, May 15, 2018, https://www.radha.name/news/general-news/yahvah-god-in-indian-veda-same-as-jehovah-of-the-hebrews.

[xxxii] Aria Nasi, “Squaring of the Circle: Fitting Infinity into the Finite,” Aria Nasi Research, February 19, 2015, https://nasiresearch.com/2015/02/19/squaring-of-the-circle-fitting-infinity-into-the-finite/?_wpnonce=a127907894&like_comment=251.

[xxxiii] Srkris, “Yajna1,” Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain, September 16, 2009, accessed March 19, 2023, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yajna1.jpg.

[xxxiv] “Illustration from Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia (1906—1913),” Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain (PD-Russia-1996), accessed March 19, 2023, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brockhaus_and_Efron_Jewish_Encyclopedia_e2_023-0.jpg.

[xxxv] Arjunkrishna90, “Tripura Sundari on Pancha Brahma Asana,” digital image, Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0, accessed February 22, 2022, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tripura_sundari_4.jpg.

[xxxvi] “Preta Loka,” Yogapedia, last updated: December 21, 2023, https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/10466/preta-loka.

[xxxvii] Hassnain, 6-10.

[xxxviii] Atarax42, “Anahata chakra,” Digital Image, Wikimedia Commons, July 28, 2014, accessed May 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chakra4.svg.

[xxxix] Shalom3, “David Star With Hebrew Word Chai,” Digital Image, CanStockPhoto, accessed and purchased rights June 2016, https://www.canstockphoto.com/david-star-with-hebrew-word-chai-69891121.html.

[xl] Rainbow Warrior, “Brahma and Abraham: Covenants of Common Origin.”

[xli] Ibid.

[xlii] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. prefix “kala,” accessed August 29, 2023, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[xlv] Wisdom Library Search the Database: Glossary, Wisdom Library Peace-Love-Dharma, s.v. “kalani,” accessed February 20,2024, https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/kalani.

[xlvi] “Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao,” Wikipedia, Last edited March 14, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikaripura_Ranganatha_Rao.

[xlvii] Rao, S. R. "Trade and Cultural Contacts Between Bahrain and India in Third and Second Millennia BC." Bahrain Through the Ages the Archaeology. Shaikha Haya Al Khalifa and Michael Rice, eds (London: Routledge, 1986), 376-382.

[xlviii] “Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao,” Wikipedia.

[xlix] “Sutkagan Dor,” Wikiwand, accessed May 6, 2021, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sutkagan_Dor.

[l] “Indus-Mesopotamia Relations,” Wikiwand, accessed May 6, 2021, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Indus%E2%80%93Mesopotamia_relations.

[li] Ernest John Henry Mackay, “Indus Valley unicorn seal and etched carnelian beads found in Kish, Mesopotamia,” Wikimedia, Creative Commons Public Domain, August 7, 2020, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indus_Valley_unicorn_seal_and_etched_carnelian_beads_found_in_Kish,_Mesopotamia.jpg.

[lii] Kharmacher, “Libationsritual mit Schlange an einem Lingam auf einer Lotusblüte. Khajuraho,” National Museum, New Dehli, CC0, Wikimedia Commons, accessed March 1, 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20.02c_Libation_ritual.tif.

[liii] Kharmacher, “Lingam Mohenjo Daro,” Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0 International, December 16, 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lingam_Mohenjo_Daro.jpg.

[liv] Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, London, New York:  Oxford University Press, 1973, pp. 123-127.

[lv] “Hades,” Wikipedia, last edited May 14,2025, accessed June 18, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades.

[lvii] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “,” accessed June 18, 2025, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[lviii] See R. Lowe Thompson, The History of the Devil - The Horned God of the West - Magic and Worship (London:  K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1929).

[lix] “Native American Legends: Apistotoke,” Native Languages of the Americas, accessed February 21, 2023, http://www.native-languages.org/apistotoke.htm.

[lx] Scott Catron, “Hunt Scene petroglyph along Nine-Mile Canyon National Backcountry Byway, near Price, Utah,” Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0, May 14, 2006, accessed March 16, 2023, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HuntSceneNMC.JPG.

[lxi] “Daeva,” Wikipedia, last edited April 28, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daeva.

[lxiii] Nationalmuseet, Roberto Fortuna og Kira Ursem, “Gundestrupkedlen,” Digital Image, Wikimedia Commons, 2007, accessed June 23, 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gundestrupkedlen-_00054_(cropped).jpg.

[lxv]  “Devi Bhagvat Ki Pramukh Kathayein देवी भगवत  की  प्रमुख  कथाएँ Scans excerpted from number 1647 of Geeta Press, Gorakhpur, Subhead and Matra collated, देवी भगवत की प्रमुख कथाए,” digital image, Astrology and Vaastu Center, February 19, 2012, http://jyotishgurgaon.blogspot.com/2012/02/devi-bhagvat-ki-pramukh-kathayein.html.

[lxviii] By ColBase: 国立博物館所蔵品統合検索システム (Integrated Collections Database of the National Museums, Japan), CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88353113

[lxix] “Yama,” Encyclopedia for Epics of Ancient India, accessed May 5, 2021,       http://www.mythfolklore.net/india/encyclopedia/yama.htm.

[lxxi] Ibid.

[lxxiii] Rev. Thomas Bridges, A DICTIONARY OF THE SPEECH OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO,” Ensayos Tierra Del Fuego, accessed July 7, 2025, https://ensayostierradelfuego.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/YAMANA-ENGLISH-A-DICTIONARY-OF-THE-SPEECH-OF-TIERRA-DEL-FUEGO-Rev.-Thomas-Bridges.pdf.

[lxxiv] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “yama,” accessed July 7, 2025, https://www.sanskrit-lexico.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[lxxv] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “na,” accessed August 1, 2022, https://www.sanskrit-lexico.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[lxxvi] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “yamana,” accessed August 1, 2022, https://www.sanskrit-lexico.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.

[lxxix] “Shiva,” Wikipedia, last edited October 10, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva.

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