Email excerpt from Venkata Sriram

Writing on the 'yanthra' found in Ankhor Vat Venkata Sriram says:

".. I remember, this was telecasted in Discovery Channel once. But the yantra was not shown. Angor Wat has most beautiful temple architecture pertaining to Vishnu. Which implies that Hinduism was spread far and wide in the world. A couple of years back, a wonderful siva linga was excavated in Vatican city which is kept in Italian Museum.

The worship of Siva can be traced back to Atharva Veda. The worship of the Siva Lingam originated from the famous hymn in the "Atharva Veda Samhita", sung in praise of the Yupastambha, the sacrificial post which gave place in time to the Siva Lingam and was deified as Lord Siva. This Yupastambha is described as without begin and end. This Yupastambha represents the Vedic concept of the brightness of Siva's body, akasa as his hair, sacrificial fumes as his blue throat etc.

In Tantra, the bull has become Nada in Dahara Akasa, Yoni (the base / peeta of linga) is the Chit and Linga is the Agni in Dahara Akasa. He is the Chit Agni that shines in Dahara Akasa with Nada Brahma. The secret “Panchakshari Vidya” is encoded in Yajur Veda Shatarudriya viz., “Namah Somaya Cha, Rudraya cha…….Namah Shambhave cha, mayobhave cha, namah Sivaya Cha…..”

In Purana, the same Agni has become Siva, Chit has become Uma and Nada has become Nandi.

The Upasana is to correlate the Puranic view with Tantric and Vedic views and to be established in the Nada Brahma."

With regards,
sriram