An interesting biography

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An American discovers the Vedas

 

Author : David Frawley

Publication : First Jagtik Rhugved Parishad

Date : December 27, 1996

 

Why would an American dedicate his life to studying

the ancient

Vedas of India? And how could an American, coming

from such a

different background, find a deep affinity with the

Vedic

teachings, which most Hindus today themselves don't

even relate to?

How did such a person get started in studying the

Vedas? In the

modern world everyone, including Hindus, appears to

be trying to

adopt Western culture with its scientific and

technological

advances and economic affluence. Why would a person

go the other

direction and look to the East, particularly when it

was not a

matter of academic study, nor does it promise any

material reward?

 

As I have written many books and articles on the

Vedas and

travelled through America and India over the past few

years

promoting Vedic knowledge, I am often asked such

questions,

particularly by Indo-Americans, who usually do not

have the time

and are lacking in the motivation to examine their

own tradition.

Confronted with an American dedicated to the Vedas,

Hindus find me

not only an anomaly but also a question mark on what

they

themselves may be doing. Sometimes they find it an

inspiration to

re-examine their own roots.

 

This is a difficult query to try to answer. I will

begin by

relating something of my life. There is really

nothing in my

family or educational background that might explain

my connection

with the Vedas or even India. I was the second of a

family of ten

children, born in a small city in Wisconsin in the

Midwest in 1950.

Both my parents came from strict Catholic backgrounds

and were

raised on dairy farms. One of my uncles in fact was a

priest and

missionary to South America (which example my mother

wanted me

personally to follow).

 

My parents, education was minimal. My mother did not

even go to

high school. My father went to college only briefly,

and served in

the army for several years. Though they were both

open minded

people they never oriented me in the direction of

India or anything

mystical.

 

I myself went to Catholic school until the fifth

grade (age ten).

We were taught to look on Protestants with suspicion.

Asia was like

another world, a land of backward, primititive people

needing

conversion. After much moving about, as my father was

a realtor,

we finally settled down in Denver, Colorado. There,

owing to the

financial burden of so many children, we switched to

public school

which brought us out of the shell of Catholic

beliefs. Yet public

schools had no real mention of India either, except

as a big

country in Asia suffering from poverty and

overpopulation.

 

I had an inquisitive mind as a child and began

developing my own

studies outside of school, perhaps because my mother

encouraged me

in such things. I had an interest in geography since

seven or eight

years of age and became aware that there was much

more to the world

than America. Foreign lands of all types fascinated

me. I began

reading various books starting with science and

history, which

broadened my view of life and caused me to question

my Catholic

upbringing and its dogma. I found the ideas of modern

astronomy

with the vastness of the universe and the relativity

of time and

space to be much more intriguing than Catholic views

of creation.

 

I left the Catholic church at the age of fourteen.

This came not

only from the clash between the church and modem

science, but from

having read history and discovered that the church

often stood for

political oppression and social exploitation, not

anything truly

holy I felt that if there was a God, it was an

impersonal reality,

not a personal God with his own whims, judgements and

partialities.

Yet though I left the church, I still felt that there

was a

spiritual reality in life, which I found in nature,

particularly in

the mountains which I loved, This spiritual reality

was an inner

experience quite divorced from churches and creeds.

 

By the time of high school my own studies were of

more interest

than classes in school. I had a kind of intellectual

awakening when

about the age of sixteen which caused me to study

European

literature and philosophy, particularly symbolic

poets and

existential philosophers. I felt that American

culture was very

superficial compared to the European. Yet examining

the mystical

and poetic sides of the European mind, I also

eventually found them

to be lacking. I saw that the great intellectuals and

artists of

the West, the geniuses who were regarded as the

highest human

types, were still plagued with doubt, depression and

uncertainty.

They obviously had not found any lasting peace or

ultimate truth.

 

About the same time, as a secondary interest I began

examining the

Eastern spiritual traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism

and Taoism. Some

of this came as part of the sixties counterculture

movement, which

included a fascination with Eastern gurus and

teachings, but much

of it was the product of my own independent and

generally more

philosophical search. Between these teachings I found

a common

truth-consciousness as the supreme reality and

meditation as the

way to realize that. Yet it was among the teachings

of Yoga and

Vedanta that I found the views which most resonated

with my inner

being, particular the sense of the supreme Self

(Atman) and pure

Existence (Brahman) as the highest truth. For

example, I remember

walking home from high school one day and looking up

at the blue

sky and realizing that it was the presence of

Krishna, who

represented the cosmic power of bliss. This was

before

encountering the Hare Krishna movement and was not

produced by any

outer influences.

 

After high school I attended a local college briefly,

in which I

found little to interest me. I remember taking a

class on

Cosmology and Metaphysics, which was actually in the

graduate

studies department. I thought the class might have

something

mystical in it. Instead it was mainly a science

class, with a few

cosmological speculations thrown in, generally of a

materialistic

nature. The teacher could not even decide whether

there was any

spiritual reality or not. This caused me to feel that

the academic

world had no capacity to answer the real questions of

life. Hence

I abandoned college after less than a semester.

 

About this time I also came into contact with local

spiritual

teachers and yoga groups in Denver, through which I

learned of

various gurus and practices, including yoga and

meditation, which I

began to do on a regular basis. A couple of years

later I

travelled to California and visited many of the

spiritual groups

based in America. I had more interest in India itself

and teachings

that were more traditional. I had a serious bent of

mind and did

not feel satisfied with these groups which were

largely social

movements or cults centered around one person, in

which one's

personal relationship with the teacher generally

outweighed any

real interest in spiritual studies. I have always

distrusted mass

movements and fads of all types, including the pop

spirituality

that has developed in the West.

 

I came to learn of the teachings of great modem Hindu

gurus of

India most notably Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi,

Anandamayi Ma, and

Sri Aurobindo, Their I felt something truly solid and

real. As

several of these figures had already passed away, I

wrote to their

centres in India and developed contact with some of

their living

disciples. Most notably I corresponded with

Anandamayi Ma for

several years, who was still alive at the time. But

more so than

any particular teacher the Vedantic teaching

interested me,

particularly the Upanishads, which appeared as the

ideal

combination of spiritual philosophy and poetry. I

felt in them the

core teaching that I was looking for in all spiritual

teachings.

 

This led me to the works of Shankaracharya, the great

commentator

on the Upanishads according to the system of Advaita

Vedanta. The

Advaitic view of the pure unity of truth and the

illusory nature of

the world, agreed with my experience of life through

the political

and social turbulence of the late sixties and early

seventies. Yet

I was also drawn towards the earlier Vedas and their

Mysterious

mantras, with which most Vedantic teachers have

little concern. I

had a sense of things ancient and wanted to know the

earliest

teachings of humanity. The idea of things ancient

rishis and seers

appealed to me and I wanted to know who they were.

 

I also had a poetic bent of mind and wrote poetry of

a mystical and

symbolic type since I was sixteen. I used images of

the dawn and

the night, fire, the wind, and the sun, along with

gods and

goddesses, with the forces of nature appearing as

powers of both

the human and cosmic mind in their interplay. Later I

found that

these same images predominated in the Vedas

themselves.

 

Of the great modern yogis, Sri Aurobindo was the

greatest poet, and

so naturally his work had a certain appeal to me on

this level. The

beginning of the chapters in his book the Life Divine

contained

various Vedic quotes, particularly from the Rig Veda,

which I found

to be particularly inspiring. I noted in a list of

his books that

he had several on the Vedas themselves. This aroused

my interest

in the Vedas and I ordered these books and studied

them with great

interest, meditating carefully upon them.

 

My encounters with the Vedas through these books were

not mere

intellectual experiences. They represented a contact

with the

Divine Word, Vak or the Divine Speech, the Goddess

Sarasvati. I

felt the presence of the Vedic Dawn, like the Dawn of

humanity, the

beginning. of creation, and the building of a new

world for the

Divine. This began my study of the Vedas, which was

rooted in

poetry with a background of Vedanta.

 

Yet I was not satisfied in simply following Sri

Aurobindo's

interpretation. I wanted to know what the Vedic

rishis themselves

saw and felt. A few years later when I was

twenty-seven, having

gone through most of what was available in English on

the Vedas, I

decided to look at the Vedas and Upanishads in the

original

Sanskrit. As there were no teachers available to me,

as I was then

living in a remote town in Northern California, I

started with the

Sanskrit. texts and a Sanskrit grammar book and began

trying to

figure out the language myself, starting with the

oldest Rig Veda

itself. It was a rather unusual and haphazard way to

learn

Sanskrit, starting with the most difficult and oldest

part of the

language, but somehow it worked.

 

The Vedic language gradually unfolded its meaning

through a study

of the images, sounds and roots upon which the

language was based.

I felt an inner affinity with the teaching so that I

did not find

the texts to be difficult, though the grammar was

often cumbersome.

I soon discovered that the interpretations generally

accepted for

the older Vedas-not only those done by modern Western

scholars but

the traditional school of Sayana-as Aurobindo had

noted, were

indeed erroneous. The result of this research was

that I produced a

small volume on the Upanishads and the Vedas. It

traced back the

Vendantic teaching of the universal Self found in the

Upanishads to

an origin in an earlier and more powerful Vedic

vision. This was

opposite the way it is usually explained, which is to

view the

Upanishads as exalted philosophy developing from a

crude Vedic

ritualistic base.

 

A friend of mine, who had recently become a disciple

of M.P. Pandit

of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, recommended me to visit

him during an

upcoming trip of his to America. I knew that if

anyone would

understand what I was doing it would be him, as

Pandit had done

many books on the Vedas and Upanishads, with similar

ideas.

 

I explained my views to him that the Vedas contained

a science of

Self realization hidden in their teaching, from their

very first

mantra to the Divine Fire (Agni). He was happy to

know of my work

and told me that he would help publish it in India.

He encouraged

me to follow out my studies, which he explained was a

kind of

Divine mission given to me.

 

I told him that I was not academically trained, nor

had I yet

studied in India, and that my work was merely

personal and never

intended for publication. I said that I did not feel

qualified to

comment on the Vedas in a public way He replied that

it was good

that I Wasn't academically trained, that it gave me a

direct and

independent insight, so that I would not just merely

repeat the

same errors as other scholars. He told me to trust my

vision. If

I had such insights and had produced such work it was

for a purpose

and should not be limited to my own private study

 

Naturally this moved me to continue my Vedic work

with more effort

and dedication. I worked on the Rig Veda itself and

in four months

had produced a five hundred page book on the Vedas,

which I mailed

to Pandit and he began serializing in World Union and

other

publications of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

 

I began sending articles out to other publications in

India as

well, including to the ashram publications of Ramana

Maharshi and

Anandamayi Ma, as well as to Motilal Banarsidass, the

main

publisher of Indological books and these articles

were almost

invariably published, which additionally encouraged

me to go

further. Thus my Vedic work began spontaneously and

independently I

sort of naturally fell into it. I never had a plan to

do so. And

in retrospect it would appear to be a ludicrous thing

to attempt,

particularly by someone at my age and background

working largely on

his own.

 

After developing this foundation I gained many

contacts and much

support for my work throughout the world, though it

took over ten

years to get it recognized in a broader way. I have

since taken

many trips to India and studied and discussed the

Vedas with many

teachers, which would require separate stories to

relate. I have

worked with Ayurveda and Vedic astrology as well,

expanding the

range of my original Vedic research. But the basic

core of my

Vedic views has not changed.

 

What was it that I discovered in the Vedas? What made

the Vedas

more important to me than other spiritual or

intellectual

teachings? It was not just philosophy or poetry of an

exalted

nature. Nor was it the later portion of the Vedas

alone, the

Upanishads that drew my interest. It was the most

ancient Rig Veda

itself and its wealth of mantras and symbols. The Rig

Veda for me

is the doorway to mind of the rishis, to the cosmic

mind itself,

the heart of creation. The Vedic vision is a

universal mantric

knowledge that integrates all aspects of human

knowledge including

yoga, philosophy, poetry, psychology, mythology and

ritual. The

Vedas are like an ongoing explosion of insights, with

every sort of

color and form, merging ultimately into a pure

lightning

illumination that has no end.

 

For me the Vedas are a living teaching and the Vedic

rishis are

living teachers. There is no gap of time or culture

between us and

the Vedas. The Vedas transcend time. Nor do I see the

Vedas as

merely Indian; they are the heritage of the greater

spiritual

humanity from which we have fallen and to which we

must return.

The Vedas are part of us or, to be more accurate, we

are part of

the Vedas. They are the very fabric of the cosmic

intelligence

that works inside us and in all the universe

upholding the great

beauty and harmony of life. The Vedas exist at the

core of all

real seeking to connect with truth through the great

forces of

nature and consciousness, whether it is in the form

of Native

American, Ancient Creek, Egyptian, or even modem

scientific

approaches. In that connecting to the universal being

and its

powers lies the Vedas, and there the Vedas must

eventually be

found. The Vedas are not merely particular

books-though the Vedic

texts we do have are authentic-but are the very

vibrations of the

Divine Word, the Primal Sound, the voice of original

reality.

 

I don't find the Vedic mantras to be hard to

understand. What

could be more obvious than the dawn and the sun that

rises every

day? Yet the dawn and the sun are not outer

realities, they are

outer symbols, intimations of an inner reality of

enlightenment and

illumination that is our true home. The Vedas are the

language of

nature not as outer phenomena but as a poetry of the

spirit, which

is the real meaning and beauty of creation. To me

what is hard to

understand is not the Vedas but the modern world with

its

technology that alienates us from nature, its

commercialism that

warps our minds, its endless desires and sensations,

its artificial

dogmas and ideologies, compared to which the Vedic

world is indeed

paradise.

 

The final answer as to my connection with the Vedas

perhaps goes

back to the truth of karma and rebirth. There is

really no reason

why someone of my background would take to this Vedic

work and be

able to go anywhere with it. The only answer is the

samskaras, the

impressions from previous births. This was a

knowledge that came

with me, that I was born with, the result of a

previous life which

I have since come to remember in various aspects. For

example,

when I received my first copies the Vedas in Sanskrit

it was not

something ancient or foreign that I saw but an old

friend and

companion.

 

Nor do I approach the Vedas from an academic or even

personal

perspective. To approach the Vedas I first put my

mind into a

silent state and let the teaching unfold itself

without the

interference's of my own though there is not done

through a mental

effort, though there is the effort of concentration.

It is like

opening an irrigation channel to great river.

 

It is the great beauty of the Hindu religion that the

impressions

it creates in us remain with us life after life. It

is not a

religion limited to one life only, ps the greatest

treasure of all

humanity. Please cherish it, sustain it, practise it

and share it

with all. Whatever deficiencies may be in India or

Hindu culture

economically or politically, should not get a person

to forget the

power of the Vedas. The Vedas are like the sun. In

them is the

key to all light, life and love for all the world,

through which

all problems, individual or collective, can be

solved. Let us not

forget our Vedic heritage.and its benefit

carries through

all of our lives to the final liberation. In this

regard the

impressions of the Vedas can be found in each one of

us, if we know

how to look deeply for them. While unusual, I don't

think what I

have experienced with the Vedas is unique. I think

that many more

people, East and West, will come to it in the future.

The Vedas

are not only. our most ancient past but the key to

our global

future as well.

 

The message of my encounter with the Vedas to modem

Hindus is this:

Your spiritual tradition is perha

 

--

K. Sadananda

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