Antiquity of the Vedas

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I am sending herewith an article

entitled “Study of Religion-Verdict of Supreme Court”

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P.Govindarajan

 

 

STUDY OF RELIGION-VERDICT OF SUPREME COURT

 

The Supreme Court of India has recently upheld the

Indian Government’s move to revise the school

curriculum stating that the teaching of religions is

not the same as religious instruction or

indoctrination. The future citizens of India have the

fundamental right to possess a factually accurate and

historically correct account of ancient India free of

western bias. Many think that religion has done more

harm to humanity than good and since the ancient ideas

of primitive minds have outlived their utility, they

should not find any place in the scientifically

progressive modern society. Some, however, believe

that without morality and spirituality, man will be no

better than beast and will lead a purposeless life of

sheer bodily existence. The greatest problem of

modern man is to know how to live well in accordance

with the law of his being.

The fundamental truths concerning the purpose of

existence and goal of life are eternally and

universally the same and they cannot undergo any

change according to the needs of time or the

conditions of life. Religion begins with revelations

of Creator disclosing His plan and purpose for

creation. The very first paragraph of Gospel of

St.John says: “In the beginning was the word and the

word was with God and the word was God.” Explaining

the purport of this passage Rev. Voysey says: “If God

had made man, if He takes interest in His creature, if

He has endowed him with a conscience which tells him

he ought to serve God and if men have now existed on

this earth many thousands of years, it does not seem

probable that the work of forming a religion to teach

man how they have to serve God, should have to be

undertaken by some private individual of the present

day. It seems far more probable that in creating him,

God must have made provision of some kind for this

great need of man. Reason seems to say that religion

in some shape, there must have been from the

beginning.”

Common sense informs that the Creator in His love for

man must have revealed to the first-born, His

objective for the creation of the world and living

beings. No finite intellect can ever know the

infinite mind of Creator and the eternally valid and

universally relevant truths of life cannot be the

innovation of any fallible human being. At the

beginning of time, man must have been equipped with

necessary knowledge of the purpose of life. The first

verse of one of the ten principal Upanishads declares

that Brahma the first-born taught to his eldest son

the knowledge imparted by Creator, which is the

foundation of all knowledge.

At its infancy, humanity was without any script for

writing and the original message of Creator orally

communicated for generations by ancestors to their

successors was carefully preserved for posterity in

human memory. The Vedas are considered as the earliest

extant literature available to mankind. Regarding

their antiquity Max Muller says: “ Whether the Vedic

hymns were composed 1000 or 1500 or 2000 or 3000 B.C.

no power on earth will ever determine.” Muller’s

absolute certainty about the indeterminacy of the age

of Vedas springs from the fact that neither carbon 14

nor thermo-luminescence or dendro-chronological

methods adopted by archaeologists for dating artefacts

can be of any use in the determination of the

antiquity of the orally communicated Vedas preserved

from the beginning of time in human memory.

India and Indus Valley are inseparably connected, as

Indian history begins with Indus civilisation. In

ancient times, foreigners knew India by its river

Sindhu, which the Persians pronounced as Hindu and

Greeks as Indos. The name India, which stands for

Hindustan, is of alien origin. The religion of

Hinduism, which is based on Vedas, seems to have been

practised in the pre-historic Indus Valley. Attempts

made by experts to decipher the Indus seals have not

yielded any results so far. Before script was

invented, pictorial symbols seem to have been used

widely to communicate what was committed to memory

from time immemorial. The pictures on Indus seals are

the earliest available evidence about the life and

time of Indus people.

The reconstruction of history of ancient India should

begin with Indus pictorials that provide

archaeological support to the orally transmitted

Vedas, whose age is still in dispute. Among the

nearly 3500 seals, a few are considered as the most

important, as they provide conclusive evidence to

prove the fact that Indus people knew Vedanta, the end

portion of Vedas that summarise their final

conclusions. These seals relate to the depiction of

yogis in meditation, a standing four-armed deity of

Vedic pantheon and pictures of Peepul tree (ficus

religiosa). Yogic meditation finds no place in

ritualistic portion of Vedas and is first mentioned in

Upanishads and elaborated in Bhagawad Gita. Reference

to four-armed deity occurs in the most popular

Kathopanishad and this form is vividly portrayed in

Gita. Peepul tree, which is considered as the most

sacred tree of Life and Divine Knowledge, finds

mention in both Kathopanishad and Gita.

Archaeologists place Indus civilisation around 3100

B.C. According to Indian tradition, Mahabharatha war

in which Gita was delivered was fought in 3102 B.C.

An inscription belonging to seventh century A.D

confirms this fact. Indian astronomical tradition

says that the Dark Age Called Kali Yuga commenced on

18th February 3102 B.C. The Great War, which is an

actual historical event, is reported to have taken

place before this date, towards the close of previous

age. Based on astronomical and archaeological

evidence and keeping in view the literary evidence

available in Upanishads and Gita, it can safely be

concluded that Indus people practised the Vedic way of

life. Vedas have served as the base for all

subsequent philosophical and scientific works

embracing astronomy, evolution, grammar, law,

mathematics, medicine, music and almost every branch

of intellectual activity.

Mankind cannot afford to remain ignorant of the

profound wisdom contained in Vedas, as their message

is the common heritage of entire humanity. They

provide clear-cut and definite answers to the

fundamental imponderables of life and are the earliest

spiritual literature of the world. Vedas are,

however, couched in symbolic language rendering the

understanding of their highly important message

difficult. In fact superficial study of Vedas can

result in misinterpretation of their profound wisdom.

A core spiritual theme runs as a common thread

throughout the seemingly incoherent passages. The

correct meaning of archaic Sanskrit words and proper

insight into the spiritual significance of the images

and symbols used in hymns can enable one to know the

inner truths of the highly sacred Vedas. Once the

esoteric purport of verses is rightly understood, the

coherency of final conclusions of Vedas will become

apparent. The physically distressed and

psychologically emaciated modern generation can draw

immense inspiration and solace from Vedas and lead

life rightly and purposefully, provided sincere

efforts are made to understand the perennial

philosophy of Vedanta.

 

 

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