Soma Veda: Physics, Philosophy & Poetry of the Atharva Veda

In the year 2000, Major General (Dr.) G.D. Bakshi, SM, VSM (Retd.), was posted as the Commander of 9 Sector Rashtriya Rifles, for directing intensive Counter-Terrorist Operations in the rugged Himalayan region of Kishtwar. He had to carry out many heliborne operations in the remote Marwah-Dachin forest through which flowed the ancient Marud Vridha river, a river that finds mention in the Nadi-Sukta of the Rig Veda. Coincidentally, the author was then engaged in a personal study of the Atharva Veda to unravel the secret of two most mystic plants—Soma and the Ashwata tree (Kalpa vriksha). He was astonished to learn that the Pippalad Shakha of the Atharva Veda had been composed here by the Atharvan and Angirasa rishis of the forests.

This impelled him to deepen his study of the most mystic of the four Vedas, which is also called as the Brahma Veda and as Soma Veda. It deals with the science of Brahman and avers that consciousness itself is Brahman (Pragyanam Brahma). It outlines the amazing hologramic relationship between Brahman and Atman (individual soul) and declares them as one—Ayam Atma Brahma. The Atharva Veda spells out the Physics of the Vedas as Agni-Somatmakam Jagat. The Cosmos is composed of the antagonistic yet complimentary forces of Agni (Expansion-Explosion) and Soma (Gravitation-Attraction). Like Yin-Yang, this forms the very basis of Vedic physics. Agni is the primary deity of the Vedas. It was the miracle of fire that put man on top of the food chain in this planet. The ancient rishis were sages of the forest and their knowledge of psychotropic and medicinal plants was phenomenal. The Atharva Veda foreshadows the Tantras and talks of Tantu-tatam—the grid of energies, which, like the threads of a necklace, tie the infinity of things around us on a single strand of unity.

Read Soma Veda for some amazing insights into the Vedic science of Brahman and the Vedic “Mathematics of Beauty.” The book also discusses Madhu Vidya—the Vedic science of depth ecology. The book’s value is enhanced by leading scientist Padma Shri Dr. Subhash Kak’s invaluable foreword for it.