Weekly page from Hindu Dharma: The Vedas - the Root of All

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This week's page from Hindu Dharma (see note at bottom) is "The Vedas - the Root

of All" from "The Vedic Religion: Introductory". The original page can be found

at http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part2/chap4.htm.

 

Next week, you will be emailed "The Vedas in their Original Form" (from "The

Vedic Religion: Introductory")

 

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for kamakoti.org

 

 

Venkatesh

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The Vedas - the Root of All

from The Vedic Religion: Introductory, Hindu Dharma

 

Our religion consists of two major divisions, Saivism and Vaisnavism. The

doubt arises as to whether we are speaking here of two separate faiths or of a

single one.

 

Christianity too has two major divisions but people belonging to both conduct

worship in the name of the same God. In Buddhism we have the Hinayana and

Mahayana streams but they do not make two separate faiths since both are based

on the teachings of the same founder, the Buddha.

 

Do Saivas and Vaisnavas worship the same god? No. However it be with ordinary

Vaisnavas, their acaryas or teachers never go anywhere near a Siva temple. Their

god is Visnu, never Siva. In the opinion of the workshippers of Visnu, Siva is

also one of his (Visnu's) devotees. There are extremists among Saivas also

according to whom Visnu is not a god but a devotee of Siva. How then can the two

groups be said to belong to the same religion?

 

Are they to be regarded as belonging to the same faith by virtue of their

having a common scripture? The divisions [sects] of Christianity have one common

scripture, the Bible; so too is the Qur'an the common holy book for all

divisions of Islam. Is such the case with Saivas and Vaisnavas? Saivas have the

Tirumurai as their religious text, while Vaisnavas have the

Nalayira-Divyaprabandham as their sacred work. For Saivas and Vaisnavas thus the

deities as well as the scriptures are different. How it be claimed that both

belong to the same religion?

 

Though divided into Saivas and Vaisnavas, we have been saved by the fact that

the white man brought us together under a common name, "Hindu". But for this,

what would have been our fate? In village after village, we would have been

fragmented into separate religious groups- Saivas, Vaisnavas, Saktas,

worshippers of Muruga, Ganapati, Ayyappa, and so on. Further, in these places

followers of religions like Christianity and Islam would have predominated. Now

two regions of our subcontinent have become Pakistan, Had we not been brought

together with the label of Hindu, the entire subcontinent would have become

Pakistan. The very same men who created Pakistan through their evil design and

sowed the seeds of differences among us with their theory of two races- Aryans

and Dravidians- unwittingly did us a good turn by calling us Hindu, thereby

bringing into being a country called "India. "

 

So are we one religion or are we divided into Two faiths? The belief that

Saivas and Vaisnavas have separate deities and religious works does not

represent the truth. Though the present outlook of the two groups suggests that

they represent different faiths, the truth will be revealed if we examine their

prime scriptures. The saints who composed the Tirumurai of the Saivas and the

Nalayira-Divyaprabandham of the Vaisnavas never claimed that these works of

theirs were the prime religious texts of respective sects. Nor did they regard

themselves as founders of any religion. Vaisnavism existed before the Azhvars

and so too there was Saivism before the Nayanmars.

 

The original scripture of both sects is constituted by the Vedas. Saivas

describe Isvara thus:

 

Vedamodarangamayinanai

 

Vedanathan, Vedagitan, aranan kan

 

Similarly, the Vaisnava texts proclaim, "Vedam Tamizh seytaMaran Sathakopan.

"If we pay close attention to their utterances, we will discover that the Vedas

are the prime scripture of both sects. The Tevaram and the

Nalayaira-Divyaprabandham are of the utmost importance to them (to the Saivas

and Vaisnavas respectively); but the Vedas are the basis of both. The great

saint-poets who composed the Saiva and Vaisnava hymns sing the glories of the

Vedas throughout. Whenever they describe a temple, they go into raptures,

saying, "Here the air is filled with the sound of the Vedas and pervaded with

the smoke of the sacrificial fire. Here the six Angas of the Vedas flourish. "

In the songs of these hymnodists veneration of the Vedas finds as much place as

devotion ti the Lord.

 

The Vedas reveal the One Truth to us in the form of many deities. The worship

of each of these divine beings is like a ghat on the river called the Vedas.

Sekkizhar says the same thing: "Veda neri tazhaittonga mihu Saivatturai vilanga.

"

 

Apart from Saivism and Vaisnavism, ther are a number of sectarian systems like

Saktam, Ganapatyam, Kaumaram, and Sauram (worship of Sakti, Ganapati, Kumara or

Subrahmanya and the Sun God). The adoration of these deities is founded in the

Vedas, according to hte Texts relating to them: "Our deity is extolled in the

Vedas, " each system contains such a declaration.

 

Thus we find that there is but one scripture as the source common to the

different sects and schools of thought in the Hindu religion.

 

This source includes the Upanisads. On ten of them (Dasopanisad) the great

teachers of the Saiva, Vaisnava, and Smarta traditions have written

commentaries. The Upanisadic texts proclaim that the Brahman is the one and only

Godhead: In the Kathopanisad it is called Visnu; in the Mandukyopanisad it is

called Sivam. All the deities mentioned in the Samhitas of the Vedas- Mitra,

Varuna, Agni, Indra and so on - are diffrerent names of the same Truth. So it is

said in the Vedas: "Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti. "

 

It emerges that for all the divisions in our religion there is but one

scripture- a scripture common to all- and one Godhead which is known by many

names. The Vedas are the common scripture and the Godhead common to all is the

Brahman. Thus we can say with finality, and without any room for doubt, that all

of us belong to the same religion.

 

The Vedas that constitute the scripture common to all and which reveal the

Godhead that is common to us also teach us how to lead our life, and- this is

important- they do us the ultimate good by showing us in the end the way to

become that very Godhead ourselves. They are our refuge both here and the

hereafter and are the source and root of all our different traditions, all our

systems of thought. All sects, all schools of our religion, have their origin in

them. The root is one but the branches are many.

 

The Vedas are the source not only of various divisions of Hinduism, all the

religions of the world may be traced back to them. It is our bounden duty to

preserve them for all time to come with their glory undiminished.

 

 

 

 

 

Note:

Hindu Dharma is a translation of two volumes of the well known Tamil Book

"Deivatthin Kural", which, in turn, is a book of 6 volumes that contains talks

of His Holiness Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Mahaswamiji of Kanchipuram.

The entire book is available online at http://www.kamakoti.org/ .