VEDA - THE
REVEALED WISDOM
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| The Srutis are
called the Vedas, or the Amnaya. The Hindus have received
their religion through revelation, the Vedas. These are direct intuitional
revelations and are held to be Apaurusheya or entirely
superhuman, without any author in particular. The Veda is the glorious pride of
the Hindus, nay, of the whole world.
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| The term Veda comes from the root
'Vid', to know. The word Veda means
knowledge. When it is applied to scripture, it signifies a book of knowledge.
The Vedas are the foundational scriptures of the Hindus. The Veda is the source
of the other five sets of scriptures, why, even of the secular and the
materialistic. The Veda is the storehouse of Indian wisdom and is a memorable
glory which man can never forget till eternity.
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| The Vedas are the eternal truths
revealed by God to the great ancient Rishis of India. The word Rishi
means a Seer, from dris, to see. He is the Mantra-Drashta,
seer of Mantra or thought. The thought was not his own. The Rishis saw the
truths or heard them. Therefore, the Vedas are what are heard (Sruti). The
Rishi did not write. He did not create it out of his mind. He was the seer of
thought which existed already. He was only the spiritual discoverer of the
thought. He is not the inventor of the Veda.
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THE UNIQUE GLORY OF
THE VEDAS
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| The Vedas represent the spiritual
experiences of the Rishis of yore. The Rishi is only a medium or an agent to
transmit to people the intuitional experiences which he received. The truths of
the Vedas are revelations. All the other religions of the world claim their
authority as being delivered by special messengers of God to certain persons,
but the Vedas do not owe their authority to any one. They are themselves the
authority as they are eternal, as they are the Knowledge of the Lord.
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| Lord Brahma, the Creator, imparted
the divine knowledge to the Rishis or Seers. The Rishis disseminated the
knowledge. The Vedic Rishis were great realised persons who had direct
intuitive perception of Brahman or the Truth. They were inspired writers. They
built a simple, grand and perfect system of religion and philosophy from which
the founders and teachers of all other religions have drawn their inspiration.
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| The Vedas are the oldest books in
the library of man. The truths contained in all religions are derived from the
Vedas and are ultimately traceable to the Vedas. The Vedas are the
fountain-head of religion. The Vedas are the ultimate source to which all
religious knowledge can be traced. Religion is of divine origin. It was
revealed by God to man in the earliest times. It is embodied in the Vedas.
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| The Vedas are eternal. They are
without beginning and end. An ignorant man, may say how a book can be without
beginning or end. By the Vedas, no books are meant. Vedas came out of the
breath of the Lord. They are not the composition of any human mind. They were
never written, never created. They are eternal and impersonal. The date of the
Vedas has never been fixed. It can never be fixed. Vedas are eternal spiritual
truths. Vedas are an embodiment of divine knowledge. The books may be
destroyed, but the knowledge cannot be destroyed. Knowledge is eternal. In that
sense, the Vedas are eternal.
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DIVISIONS OF
VEDAS
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| The Veda is divided into four
great books: the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda and the Atharva-Veda.
The Yajur-Veda is again divided into two parts, the Sukla and the Krishna. The
Krishna or the Taittiriya is the older book and the Sukla or the Vajasaneya is
a later revelation to sage Yajnavalkya from the resplendent Sun-God.
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| The Rig-Veda is divided into
twenty-one sections, the Yajur-Veda into one hundred and nine sections, the
Sama-Veda into one thousand sections and the Atharva-Veda into fifty sections.
In all, the whole Veda is thus divided into one thousand one hundred and eighty
recensions.
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| Each Veda consists of four parts:
the Mantra-Samhitas or hymns, the Brahmanas
or explanations of Mantras or rituals, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads.
The division of the Vedas into four parts is to suit the four stages in a man's
life.
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| The Mantra-Samhitas are hymns in
praise of the Vedic God for attaining material prosperity here and happiness
hereafter. They are metrical poems comprising prayers, hymns and incantations
addressed to various deities, both subjective and objective. The Mantra portion
of the Vedas is useful for the Brahmacharins.
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| The Rig-Veda Samhita
is the grandest book of the Hindus, the oldest and the best. It is the Great
Indian Bible, which no Hindu would forget to adore from the core of his heart.
Its style, the language and the tone are most beautiful and mysterious. Its
immortal Mantras embody the greatest truths of existence, and it is perhaps the
greatest treasure in all the scriptural literature of the world. Its priest is
called the Hotri.
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| The Yajur-Veda Samhita
is mostly in prose and is meant to be used by the Adhvaryu, the
Yajur-Vedic priest, for superfluous explanations of the rites in sacrifices,
supplementing the Rig-Vedic Mantras.
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| The Sama-Veda Samhita
is mostly borrowed from the Rig-Vedic Samhita, and is meant to be sung by the Udgatri,
the Sama Vedic priest, in sacrifices.
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| The Atharva-Veda Samhita
is meant to be used by the Brahma, the Atharva-Vedic priest, to correct
the mispronunciations and wrong performances that may accidentally be committed
by the other three priests of the sacrifice.
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| The Brahmana portions guide people
to perform sacrificial rites. They are prose explanations of the method of
using the Mantras in the Yajna or the sacrifice. The Brahmana portion is
suitable for the householders.
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| There are two Brahmanas to the
Rig-Veda-the Aitareya and the Sankhayana. "The Rig-Veda", says
Max Muller, "is the most ancient book of the world. The sacred hymns of the
Brahmanas stand unparalleled in the literature of the whole world; and their
preservation might well be called miraculous." |
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| The Satapatha Brahmana belongs to
the Sukla-Yajur-Veda. The Krishna-Yajur-Veda has the Taittiriya and the
Maitrayana Brahmanas. The Tandya or Panchavimsa, the Shadvimsa, the Chhandogya,
the Adbhuta, the Arsheya and the Upanishad Brahmanas belong to the Sama-Veda.
The Brahmana of the Atharva-Veda is called the Gopatha. Each of the Brahmanas
has got an Aranyaka.
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| The Aranyakas are the forest
books, the mystical sylvan texts which give philosophical interpretations of
the rituals. The Aranyakas are intended for the Vanaprasthas or hermits who
prepare themselves for taking Sannyasa.
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| The Upanishads are the most
important portion of the Vedas. The Upanishads contain the essence or the
knowledge portion of the Vedas. The philosophy of the Upanishads is sublime,
profound, lofty and soul-stirring. The Upanishads speak of the identity of the
individual soul and the Supreme Soul. They reveal the most subtle and deep
spiritual truths. The Upanishads are useful for the Sannyasins.
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THE ESSENCE OF
VEDAS
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| Live in the spirit of the
teachings of the Vedas. Learn to discriminate between the permanent and the
impermanent. Behold the Self in all beings, in all objects. Names and forms are
illusory. Therefore sublate them. Feel that there is nothing but the Self.
Share what you have,-physical, mental, moral or spiritual,-with all. Serve the
Self in all. Feel when you serve others, that you are serving your own Self.
Love thy neighbour as thyself. Melt all illusory differences. Remove all
barriers that separate man from man. Mix with all. Embrace all. Destroy the
sex-idea and body-idea by constantly thinking of the Self or the sexless,
bodiless Atman. Fix the mind on the Self when you work. This is the essence of
the teachings of the Vedas and sages of yore. This is real, eternal life in
Atman. Put these things in practice in the daily battle of life. You will shine
as a dynamic Yogi or a Jivanmukta. There is no doubt of this.
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