Vedic influence in West Asia

Human sacrifice was practiced by ancient societies throughout West Asia, Europe and South America . The Phoenicians sacrificed their children in fire to Moloch. The Phoenicians were the Vedic Panis. If we say that these ancient civilizations originated from the Vedic civilizations then, did the Vedic people practice human sacrifices as well? The Vedic texts mention the sacrifice of Purusha in the Purusha Medha sacrifice. The sacrifice of a child name Jantu is mentioned in the texts and there is an account where a boy named Sunasseppa is purchased as sacrificial victim. These sacrifices mentioned in the Vedic texts are not actual sacrifices but have hidden esoteric meaning. The ancient Vedic Brahmanas had the key to decode the texts but people who migrated away from the Vedic home land would have lost this key and hence assumed that the texts speak about actual sacrifices. The emigrants could understand only the literal meaning. My mother tongue is Tamil. The 4000 Divya Prabadhams of the Alwaar Saints are in Tamil. As languages are dynamic and change with time, I am unable to understand the Tamil verses which are in an ancient form of Tamil. Even if I learnt the ancient Tamil, I would be unable to decipher the actual meaning conveyed by the poetic verses unless I refer to the many commentaries written on the Divya Prabadhams. If someone like me who is constantly in touch with the Vedic culture as well as the language is unable to decipher ancient verses, how can people who emigrated away from the Vedic language be expected to fully comprehend the Vedic teachings? The generation of emigrants would slowly lose the ability to recall the Vedic teachings. I will examine the various human sacrifices mentioned in the Vedic texts and reveal their esoteric meaning. In general Naramedha sacrifice is not human sacrifice but it is the rite performed while cremating a dead body. My next post will explain the esoteric meaning of Sunassepa’s sacrifice. We have to explore the esoteric meaning of the Vedic texts as then we can see easily that the other ancient civilizations that practiced such gruesome rites were in their infancy. The civilizations of West Asia, Europe and Meso America were infants compared to the very old Vedic civilization.

To make it easy for the reader I have copied the information on the meaning of the Purusha Medha sacrifice from my previous blog entry. Please see below for the meaning.
 The Purusha Medha Sacrifice:
The Purusha Medha is a form of sacrifice mentioned in the Vedas. The term “Purusha” came to be interpreted as “man” and people mistakenly believed that the Vedas have historical reference to human sacrifices. Just like in English there are many homonyms in Sanskrit. Unlike English the spelling for the homonyms in Sanskrit does not change. The word “Purusha” actually refers to “self”. By “self” it refers to the “paramatma” who is the soul of “jeevatama”. That is the “super soul” is the soul of all souls. Paramatma or God is our soul. The mythical being “Purusha” who is sacrificed during the “Purusha-Medha” sacrifice mentioned in the Vedas, refers to God. By sacrificing himself, God enters into the heart of every living creature. By entering into the heart of all living beings he loves them all as Himself. He sees all and loves all equally unlike the selfish man/woman who does not see oneself beyond his body. This is God’s self sacrifice. He offered the seed-state of all beings in to the fire of sacrifice along with himself. Through this action he came to reside completely in all creatures at the same time residing outside as the Universal God.  Like him we are advised to perform self-sacrifice too; by self-sacrifice it does not mean that we should jump into the fire or kill someone and offer them to God. Self-sacrifice here means that we should bring our senses under control, subdue passion and be righteous. By this way we can realize Paramatma residing in our heart. We should understand our relationship we share with him. We should understand that we belong to him and him only. We should offer our self to him wholeheartedly. This is the meaning of the “Purusha-Medha” sacrifice. The Purusha referred in the Purusha-Medha is God who is the first cause of everything