Hinduism Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for followers of the Hindu religion and those interested in learning more about Hinduism. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
SAVITAR fixed the earth with bands to bind it, and made heaven stedfast where no prop supported. Savitar milked, as ’twere a restless courser, air, sea bound fast to what no foot had trodden.
Critics of Hinduism often claim that this mantra says earth is fixed according to Vedas. What is the real meaning/context of this mantra?
Savitar is one of the name of hindu diety 'Surya'(sun).The mantra as every vedic mantras do explains science like Electromagnetic induction etc.The science in this mantra is that the sun holds the earth and all planents continuosly and rotates which is known as revolution with the perfection.Savitar or sun fixed it's axis to all the planents like a rope tied to horse and savitor looks for perfect revolution of all the planets with exactly same distance from planets even though revolving or rotating.The centre of our solar system is sometimes exactly at the sun and sometime just a distance nearby.So here earth is fixed but in accordance with sun.
Do Vedas say Earth is static? vedas Lets see some Vedic quotes which says earth is static.
Oh Man ! He who made the trembling earth static is Indra. (Rig Ved 2/12/12) The God who made the earth stable (Yajur Ved 32/6) Indra protects the wide earth which is immovable and has many forms (Atarv Ved 12/1/11) Let us walk on the Wide and Static earth (Atharv Ved 12/1/17)
Even sanskrit scholars are not able to correctly read it how can translate correctly to english. One suggestion :- read puranas first as one who knows whats written in veda understands it and one who do so becomes epic like ravana and many others.To understand veda don't read any vedas just read puranas and create your yoga techniques which relaxes u as very few saints know this others don't.Meditate and meditate u will ultimately understand vedas like vishwamitra.If vedas was such easy to understand than why only very rare ones are titled as veda knower.Instead meditate on universe if u so u will ultimately be a veda knower
स॒वि॒ता । य॒न्त्रैः । पृ॒थि॒वीम् । अ॒र॒म्णा॒त् । अ॒स्क॒म्भ॒ने । >स॒वि॒ता । द्याम् । अ॒दृं॒ह॒त् । अश्व॑म्ऽइव । अ॒धु॒क्ष॒त् । धुनि॑म् । >अ॒न्तरि॑क्षम् । अ॒तूर्ते॑ । ब॒द्धम् । स॒वि॒ता । स॒मु॒द्रम् ॥ सविता । यन्त्रैः । पृथिवीम् । अरम्णात् । अस्कम्भने । >सविता । द्याम् । अदृंहत् । अश्वम्इव । अधुक्षत् । धुनिम् । >अन्तरिक्षम् । अतूर्ते । बद्धम् । सविता । समुद्रम् ॥
Here Griffith translated the word yantraiḥ as fixed. But it can also be translated as tied, stable etc. The word Savita is one of the ephitet used for Surya or Sun.
The following are the twelve general names:—Āditya, Savitā, Sūrya, Mihira, Arka, Prabhākara, Mārtaṇḍa, Bhāskara, Bhānu, Citrabhānu, Divākara and Ravi. The Sun-god is known by these twelve general names. [ Brahma Purana Chapter 29]
Commentary by Sāyaṇa: Ṛgveda-bhāṣya Sūrya 5:81:4: Savitā is the sun before rising; Sūrya is the sun in genitive ral
The sun is known as Savitar also. [Nirukta 10:33]
So now if we say that earth is tied with Surya (Savita), it is not scientifically wrong because we know that Sun's gravity holds the earth and other planets. If we translate it as stable, again it is not wrong because earth is stable in it's orbit.
