UNIT 101  LESSON 1

The recommended minimum study time is 40 minutes, with a 5 minute break of quiet introspection after the first twenty minutes. Relax and read for internal understanding, not rote learning. The truth always lies beyond the words used to express that truth. Therefore look to the essence of what is presented. If you approach this and other lessons with an academic mind your study time will be much longer and the return less, therefore relax and open yourself to the true learning experience. If you wish to study the lesson more, then do so for fun, not for achievement.

LESSON ONE         THE LEGENDARY ARYAN INVASION

In this lesson, we have attempted to get away from an intellectual approach. When I was a child, our Ancient History teacher, Archie Locke, had a method that was very different from what was considered normal in those times.

He let us listen to the radio in every lesson.  On the radio there was a program that was quite imaginative for its day. A team of radio announcers were sent back in time. The dialogue each time was different, but it went something like this, pronounced with great emotion.

The TGV Drama

“Here we are, the TGV team on site.  Wait a minute! What’s happening here …? Oh my God, the Trojans are bringing forward a gigantic wooden horse. It’s immense.

 They’re dragging it forward to the gates… What could it be…? A sacrifice, a peace offering, a battering ram…?

What’s that, David? You say they’re going to leave it there? But why…?

It’s a real mystery …. (noises )

Don’t worry folks, we’ll keep you in touch every step of the way.

This is TGV in the midst of the Trojan war… and YOU ARE THERE”.

That was how each program began. In the texts which follow, I’d like you to open your mind and get into the same spirit that I had as a child, for I WAS THERE.

 “This is RB (Radio Buddha), in the midst of the Vedic tribes… and YOU ARE THERE.”

Let us begin with a question.

If you were a student in some special area, say for example, anthropology, philosophy, or psychology, and you wished to learn the truth as best as it is possible to do so about that topic, what is the first thing that you should do?

The answer is to ask who it is who is talking, and what his life and culture is like so that you can know the biases which are inevitable in the speaker’s discourse.

This is very easy to do with any contemporary master. You simply ask and can generally be satisfied with limiting the question to his life and studies.

But in the case of Buddha, the teacher who unveils the truth of being, we must look to Buddha’s antecedents. No matter how great a man or woman may be, they cannot be divorced from the culture in which they were born nor from the threads of that culture which stretch back thousands of years in time to the roots of the human creature.

Since what Buddha taught is of extreme importance to every living creature, it is thereby imperative that we look at the Aryan Culture before the time of Buddha, going back as far as we can, to see and to understand better his teachings with a clear, unfettered, open and flexible mind. Buddha was the product of all tht had gone before, like each one of us.

In Buddhism we do not wish to develop blind faith in the scriptures, but free critical enquiry that brings confidence in the words of the masters and the natural wish to know the truth by Direct Experience.

We are not then looking for data to ingest with conscious intellect; we are trying to generate a more profound understanding of the roots of Buddha’s knowledge that started with his intellect and ended with his own Direct Experiences beyond all words.

To begin our story then we shall start in Iran, which has now reverted to its original name derived from the root "Arya" o Aryan, the people who settled in that land. The Aryans of ancient Iran were Mazdayasni Zarathushtris, i.e. Worshippers of Ahura Mazda, which is the name given to “the Supreme” in Avestan, as was revealed to the prophet Zarathushtra, thousands of years before Jesus the Nazarene was born.

As we are interested in the Buddha’s lineage in India, why do we bother looking at Iran when it was those same Aryans who settled in India?

It is because the information with regard to the Indian branch of the Aryans does not speak in any detail of the lives and thoughts of the people before the settlements in the Sapta-Sindhava (the land of the seven rivers) in the Indian sub continent. But the ancient Zoroastrian scriptures of Iran do speak of an earlier homeland from where the Aryans came, the so called lost "Airyanem Vaejah" or seedland of the Aryans.

It was from Airyanem Vaejah that the Aryans emigrated to India, Iran, Russia and eventually Europe and the British Isles.

The Indian culture has lost all historical traces of those roots so the “Yashts” (Prayers to the Divine) and the "Vi-daevo-dat" (the law which fights evil), both ancient scriptures of the Zoroastrians, become the only source of information about the ancestors of Buddha.

In the first chapter (Fargad) of the "Vi-daevo-dat," it tells of the Aryans’ greatest king, "Yima Kshaeta," who, it is said, reigned over the Golden Age and banished old age and death. Paradise, which stems from the Avestan "pairidaize," thus was to be established on the earth, in the form of the Kingdom of Ahura Mazda.

The first man, Gayo Maretan, in this world that was created by Ahura Mazda, had no disease, no illness, no hunger and thirst. Then Ahriman, the evil one, attacked the world and caused disease and illness and old age; and the animals and the first man started to die.

Now note those first concerns of the Aryans: “disease, illness, old age and death.” Thus evil in the ancient faith is an external introduction, and the Zoroastrians believed that one day it will be purged and bathed with the purification of fire.

Sincerely think for a moment. Have we made advances in our way of looking at the world? We are still preoccupied with “disease, illness, old age and death,” but between that preoccupation with factors of “survival” and “deliverance” over time, we have added another factor, “pleasure.”  Survival is not now central to our thinking. We have evolved a society that is not centrally concerned with collective survival and physical salvation, but with the pleasure we can derive from life.

The sad consequence is not that we have found abundant pleasure but that we have forgotten solidarity as human creatures and have learned to value our supreme personal right to “the pursuit of happiness.”

Since Yima Kshaeta (King Yima) is the ancient king of the Aryans in the ancient homeland Airyanem Vaejah (the seedland of the Aryans) -he is also recorded in the Indian Vedas as Yama Raja (Yama King)-, we can say that this common history occurred before the establishment of an Iranian and an Indian branch of Aryans.

How far back can we reach?

We know all about the Iranian story from Zarathustra who, it is said, was sent by Ahura Mazda to reaffirm the ancient faith. He was given the "AGUSTO-VACHO," the new revelations, and became the first Iranian prophet.

Like all revelations of an original paradise and a fall from that paradise, there is also a final triumph promised for man. The Iranian idea was no different. Zarathustra was to be followed by three Saviours. The prediction stated that when the final Saviour came, the world would be purged by fire and evil destroyed in a final great battle. The mightiest words in the religion which developed are in the final words of the great prayer “Ahunavar, Kshrethamchai (Kingdom) Ahurai (God) Ayim (will come),” the Kingdom of God will come.

Now we must look very carefully at this phrase, which can be very easily passed over. It says that evil EXISTS and clearly this evil brings SUFFERING. But this phrase does not say that that INDIVIDUAL suffering will be ended. It says that the Kingdom of God will come. That is a declaration that God will take care of ALL people and the implication is that he will bring an end to the Suffering of ALL People.

Clearly this is not the same as a wish that says that you personally will do all you can to help all sentient creatures, but it does say that God will help ALL sentient creatures and that is important as an unselfish thought. If the textual idea was then conceived at some time in the past by a human mind, then it reflects the basic and natural human consideration, now blanketed by craving and clinging, which includes everyone.

But let us look more closely at "The Saga of the Aryans," which is conversation between the ancient Aryan prophet Zarathushtra, and Ahura Mazda, God of the Vi-Daevo-Dat:

Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda:

"O Ahura Mazda, righteous Creator of the corporeal world, who was the first person to whom You taught these teachings?

Then spoke Ahura Mazda:

"YIMA (Yima Kshaeta) the splendid, who watched over his subjects, O righteous Zarathushtra. I first did teach the Aryan religion to him, prior to you.

"Yima spoke to me, and said he would like to spread the religion among mankind by teaching others. It was then that I replied:

"O Yima, you are not created for this task by Me. You are not learned enough to increase the religion among mankind - you are not the Messenger of the religion.

"Yima the righteous told me then:

"O Ahura, if I am not created for the task of increasing the good religion, then I would like to advance the world, to increase it and be a righteous king and protector. I ask You this, that in my kingdom there be neither cold wind nor hot wind (neither extreme winter or summer), there be no sickness or death. That my subjects be undying and unwanting, and gloriously happy under my reign.

"I, Who am Ahura Mazda, was pleased with this. I brought Yima a weapon - a Golden plough that was dagger shaped with golden forks, to signify that his authority was divine, sanctioned by Me. He became the mightiest King (KSHAETA) the Aryans had ever known, the most righteous and most splendid Aryan man.

"When Yima's rule extended to 300 years, the Aryan land had prospered so much that the land became full of cattle, men, dogs, birds and red flaming fire (the fires were always kept burning). Place could no longer be found for cattle or men.

"I made this known to Yima, and he proceeded towards the south, towards the path of the high sun (west), increasing the land with his golden plough (conquering and cultivating the lands). The boundaries of the Aryan kingdom were thus extended in breadth, one third greater than before. The king stood as an Aryan on the mother earth, praising the country with words fit for prayer.

"When Yima's rule extended to 600 years, the state of abundance reoccurred. This led to Yima proceeding again towards the south and the west, extending the boundaries of the Aryan kingdom two thirds greater than before. Thus happened the second great migration of the Aryans.

"When Yima's rule extended to 900 years, abundance again led to Yima increasing the land with his golden plough, towards the south and west. This third great migration made the Aryan kingdom three times larger than before.

"In the first 1000 years of his rule, Yima the splendid enjoined righteous order on his Aryan subjects. He controlled invisible time itself, making it so large in size as to praise and spread the righteous law.

"That glorious age of the Aryans did not last forever, O Zarathushtra! It was time for the evil one's attack. I Who am Ahura Mazda spoke then to Yima Kshaeta:

"O splendid Yima, towards the sacred Aryan land will rush evil as a severe fatal winter; evil will rush as thick snow flakes falling in increased depth. From the three directions will wild and ferocious animals attack, arriving from the most dreadful sites.

"Before this winter, any snow that fell would melt and convey the water away. Now the snow will not melt (but will form the Polar ice cap). In this place, O Yima the corporeal world will be DAMAGED. Before in this seedland the grass was so soft the footprint of even a small animal could be observed. Now, there will be no footprints discernible at all on the packed sheets of hard ice that will form.

"So, Yima; make a mighty VARA, an enclosure as long as a riding ground, with equal four sides. Here bring the families of Aryan men and women, cattle, dogs, birds and the red flaming fire.

"Inside the Vara, make water flow in a canal, one Hathra long. Keep earth inside the Vara, to grow green vegetables as food. Make cattle pens, to house the cattle of the Aryan people.

"Let love blossom unfailing in the enclosure, among the young couples therein - make for them a residence, with rooms, pillars, long extended walls and an enclosing wall."

If the verbally transmitted history of the pre Iranian Aryans is correct, as collated by the prophet, we can forget the idea sometimes presented of invading hordes of Aryans on horseback conquering northern India around 1500 BC and see that there was a gradual diffusion of the culture which began after the final stage of the Ice Age when the ice began to melt and great floods began. We can place the time at about 15,000 years ago.

It was then that the migrations began and continued in successive waves.

Why is that so important, except from an historical point of view? Dependent origination tells us that no single cause-effect relationship exists and that there are multiple and complex causes for every event. Clearly there is a great difference in the antecedent cause that precedes Buddha -the root culture from which his ideas arose- , between a condition of forced migration under an apparent benevolent God and an expansionist invasion by Northern hordes on horseback conquering all in their path by force.

We can say almost with certainty that THERE WAS NO ARYAN INVASION.

We do not suggest that the Aryans were ancient “flower children,” for the earlier rule by merchants was eventually set aside for rule by warrior chiefs who fought each other for personal glory and gain. But this change came when survival was not a prime factor in existence.

Thus we see the form which progress took. The first concern, in which survival was important, brought unity. When survival factors were not important, then unity dissolved and individual craving and clinging entered.

Let us advance several thousand years and look at the Aryans in India after the later migrations, for there are no Indian scriptures which give us the link between their branch of the Aryan culture and the earliest Iran Aryans. Earliest Indian history is brought to us through the Vedas, a collection of sacred hymns attributed to the Aryans, and our only idea of their spiritual heritage and homeland comes from the Iranian scriptures.

The migration was, of course, slow, extending over thousands of years, so the area over which the Aryans spread is also very large.

Where was this homeland? Data of the Ice Age can give us some idea, for we can calculate its extension before the floods that arose from the melting ice caps.

The migration eventually followed a path which led South and East from South and Southwest of the Caspian Sea. The journey was clearly difficult, but they were aided by their spirit, the Gods, and their knowledge of the available metals, which allowed them to devise better weapons to ward off enemies and conquer the founts of precious water for survival.

So we can deduce that the migrations moved south and east from the Caspian starting in about 13,000 BC.

Indian history picks up the story in 4000 BC, although settlements have been discovered dating as far back as 7000 BC.

But the Aryan history focuses upon the area called Sapta-Sindhava (the land of the seven rivers), where migrations finally stopped in Eastern Afghanistan, Punjab and the fringes of western Uttar Pradesh. The land here was fertile and due to the floods, the river was up to 7 kms wide in places. It was a time of great abundance.

Warriors held the power, but the kings or warrior chiefs depended upon unregimented and unstylized priests to perform the rituals to protect their crops and cattle, and insure victory in war. These priests had little power or influence. Their job was to assist in the rituals with their knowledge of rites and ceremony and they could be consulted by anyone. Power was important, but at that time there was basically no social discrimination or consciousness of caste, nor were the professions hereditary. Young women were educated and married off at puberty and allowed to accompany their partners in making sacrifice, probably as they were an important part of the fertility of the known world.

The mode of prayer was recitation of Mantras and sacrifice, which was offered for Praja (children), Pasu (cattle) and Dhana (wealth) but, surprisingly, not generally against suffering or for spiritual upliftment. There were no fixed temples or idols and the religion stemmed and fostered nature worship.

Sacrifice took a basic form. The sacrificial altar with its specially prepared fire was placed to the right, the sacrificial tools in the centre upon a specially prepared grass mat and the person making the sacrificial petition on the left. The official who conducted the ceremony took his position in front, slightly to the left of the grass mat.

The important parts of the ceremony, as we can see from the written texts, were the chants of the priest, a hallucinogenic drink (soma), the grass mat, the fire (agni), and naturally the specific God to whom the sacrifice was made. In comparison with these five elements, the nature of the sacrificial animal played little part, except when a horse was sacrificed and offered in the fire on special occasions.

As with all ceremonies and rites, there were rigid rules, and the ceremony itself was naturally conducted by the person prepared and trained for that post. Although there are mental sets associated with the word, which should be ruptured if possible, we shall here call that person a priest.

Once the Vedas were composed, the common people sang known parts as they worked to maintain contact with the gods that protected them as they tended their flocks and as they moved in gradual migration throughout the area. They praised and sacrificed to the Gods, but the sacrifices were not as complicated as they eventually became, for they came from the heart not the mind.

The first words of the Rig Veda, written to Agni, god of the household and sacrificial fire, personified as the instrument of their spiritual contact with nature were:

Agnim ile purohitam, ‘I, Laud Agni, the chosen priest’

Yajnasya devam rtvijam ‘God (divine), minister of sacrifice’

Hotaram ratnadhatamam  ‘the hotar, lavishest of wealth. (bestower of treasure)

Lest you grasp the erroneous idea that these sacrifices were simply cold ceremonies filled with ritual and dogma and nothing else, look at these few lines sung and dedicated to Dawn, because that goddess, by her light, enabled them to continue in their life and tasks. Try to see the personal implication in the Veda as you read the following verse:

“This light is come, amid all lights the fairest; born is the brilliant, far-extending brightness.

Night, sent away for Sun’s uprising; had yielded up a birthplace for the morning.

The fair, the bright, is come with her white offspring; to her the dark one hath resigned her dwelling.”

Can you sense inside yourself how they must have felt?

They sang of all the great protecting forces of nature; of Varuna, the all-encompassing sky; the weather God that maintained world order.

They also sang of Indra, Leader of Gods, the drop-maker, the mighty hero who slew the demon of drought and brought the monsoon rains to renew the grass and vegetable life of the earth, conquering Demons.

They sang again of Vayu, the wind god, and they sang of Apas, god of the rivers or waters; and many others with whom they had real living contact.

Perhaps you can see that the strength of the Aryans was determined by its Jana (people) in relation to nature, and not Janapada (land) itself, as an object of desire and possession.

But they were tainted human creatures with their fears and impediments, so they fought between themselves and against the Dravidians, the dark-complexioned people.

They lived as unsophisticated people with a basically nomadic pastoral and travelling mercantile-based economy, interacting, perhaps more than being ruled in the beginning. The warriors were leaders who led the migrations and defended their possessions as they moved gradually towards the Sapta Sindhu region, which became the centre of Indian culture and the heartland of the Vedic texts.

There were smaller migrations out of India to Iran and other smaller migrations that continued from Iran, thus we can imagine great cultural mixing more than 7,000 years ago, which sometimes changed and sometimes reintroduced early ideas. Clearly there must also have been the transmission of new ideas, made easier by the linguistic diffusion of common language roots.

That is clearly why we see that Avestan (Iranian) mythology has also striking resemblances to Vedic mythology, although there are curious inversions. The Avestan word ahura stands for God while the Vedic ashura stands for a demonic godhead. Likewise we see that the Avestan daeva is transformed from Demon to a God (or Goddess) in the Vedic word deva.

These changes are less an accident than a transformation of basic ideas that do not alter the basic common sense. For example, in Buddhism we speak of "Asuras" as one of the groups of people with a confused personality (demons of confusion) who can eventually tread upon the Dharma path of Buddhahood as a Semi God. A deva is not a God or goddess, but one who fights evil upon the path but is not yet liberated. Thus the Indian changes have put an additional qualification on the God concepts in accordance with their ideas, rather than as an inversion.

Thus we can perhaps see in the Indian system a trend which points away from the absolute of God and Demon, to the place where Demons can in fact change upon hearing the truth. Thus there is potential salvation for everyone.

We can say then that the main influx of people into the Indian subcontinent took place probably around 7000 BC.

Apart from this, there had arisen another highly developed urban culture in the Indus Valley, a culture equal to such great civilisations as those in Egypt or Mesopotamia. Numerous agricultural settlements had developed, many of them dating before 3500 BC and also as far back as 7000 BC, and seemed to have eventually culminated around the beginning or middle of the third millennium in the formation and establishment, by indigenous people, of interconnected cities along the banks of the Indus river and its tributaries, the Punjab or Five Rivers area. Cities such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro show great sophistication in urban development. 

But what happened to the original Indus valley culture? It remains a mystery. It is most likely that the migrating Aryans just filled the spaces left by the demise of the original culture. The Harappa Aryan culture itself grew to its zenith and began its own its decline in about 4000 BC and almost completely disappeared by 1800 BC, a situation which provoked the theory of a gradual Aryan invasion and conquest at that date. But the evidence rejects completely that idea. The decline was the consequence of a devastating drought that followed the Era of Plenty.

Thus the Vedas, when they were collected, speak of events that occurred towards the end of the migrations (7000 BC) to the beginning of the environmental decline at about 3100 BC. 

It was then from that ancient Aryan culture that the Vedas arose, and it is these Vedas that are the only source of information of Indian life and beliefs for at least three or four thousand years before the Vedas were written. This information covered thousands of years of Aryan persistence against natural forces, hardship and enemies.

The first and oldest Veda is known as the Rig Veda, which is a collection of Indian mystical hymns. It was followed at great interval by the Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva-Veda.

When were they written? Astronomical references in the Vedas confirmed by modern astronomical knowledge give us a pretty good picture of the dates.

The Vedic information about the position of the equinox is particularly strong evidence without serious contradictions. If data about the precession are properly recorded, they provide the best and often the only clue to an absolute chronology for ancient events. Other references to the constellation position of the solstices or of solar and lunar positions at the beginning of the monsoon confirm this chronology. 

The Vedic and post-Vedic indications mention constellations on the equinox points which were there in about 4000 BC mentioned in the Rig-Veda (Orion)  around 3100 BC in the Sama Veda, Yajur Veda,  Atharva-Veda and the Mahabharata (Aldebaran) and between 3000 BC and  2300 BC for the Sutras and the Shatapatha Brahmana (Pleiades). We can accept those as reliable dates.

It is with these hymns that we will begin our second lesson.

EXERCISE 1

The first exercise for this unit 101 is to express in less than one page of text what you personally believe to be the most important thing that you have learned from this lesson. 

There is no correct answer. There are only answers that reflect your personal understanding. Thus your own answer is part of your own learning process.