Vedas

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Following lines are from a soon to be published book

on Vedas:

 

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"Samhitäs of RgVeda, YajurVeda and SämaVeda are most

original, most authentic and most ancient in the whole

Vedic literature. It is most authentic because the

Mantras of the Samhitäs are considered to be derived

from the Supreme space of consciousness. Those which

are supposed to be derived from supreme space of

consciousness are considered as more authentic than

those of human authorship."

 

According to the RgVeda samhitä it’s Mantras are

considered to be derived from supreme space of

consciousness. In the RgVeda samhitä, there is

mention of YajurVeda samhitä and SämaVeda samhitä

also.

 

Thus they are also considered to be most authentic

and evidential. Therefore the samhitäs of RgVeda,

YajurVeda and SämaVeda are considered as the

impersonal wisdom (apaurusheya).

 

Samhitäs are the collection of Mantras. These Mantras

neither narrate stories nor prescribe rituals. Their

subject matter is the description of concepts. The

Samhitä speaks of the subtle concepts of cognition

which are very much useful in the mundane and

spiritual life.

 

Brämhaëas are the texts composed in later ages,

compared to Samhitäs, to explain the application of

the samhitäs in rituals and day to day culture. To

simplify the samhitäs, composers of Brämhaëas

adopted several techniques. The composers of Brämhaëas

of the Vedic literature tried to simplify the

Samhitäs, by prescribing various rites, narrating

myths and describing values.

 

The scriptural evidence of impersonality of Brämhaëa

texts is neither found in samhitä nor in Brämhaëa

texts and yet it is a matter of belief in the

tradition. Thus Samhitäs of RgVeda, YajurVeda and

SämaVeda are the most authentic among all Hindu

scriptures as they are considered to be the impersonal

wisdom. Therefore these Samhitäs are the main Vedas

for which Brämhaëas become ancillaries.

 

Subject matter of the Vedas:

Subject matter of the Vedas is the description of

Devas. Almost all chapters of the Vedas contain

different types of hymns about Devas. It is very

important to know Devas from Vedic point of view.

Devas are not mere persons in the Vedas. Devas are

natural elements around us without which we cannot

live. This is the preliminary understanding about

Devas. Eg: Vayu is the blowing wind; Agni is the fire;

Varuna is the power in water; Sarasvati, Ganga and

Sindhu are rivers; Indra is thunder and rain; surya is

sun and Soma is moon. In this way earth, space, stars,

planets and ocean- everything around us are considered

as Devas without which we cannot live and therefore we

are obliged to respect all of them.

 

 

Further in the Vedas these Devas are not only

perceived as natural elements but also as natural

forces that are dwelling in us without which we cannot

live. Eg: Vayu is the vital energy; Agni is the heat

and sound energy; Varuna represents the energy in all

fluids etc

 

In the deeper sense these Devas are perceived and

understood as the various concepts of cognition or

cognitive powers. This is because each and every

natural element in the external world has become the

symbolic representation or archetypal expression of

the higher and the conceptual and the cognitive world.

This concrete world is nothing but the manifestation

of the conceptual and cognitive world.

 

Eg: Vayu which is blowing wind in the concrete world

represents the core Prana of Psyche and beyond in

cognitive world. Agni which is fire in the gross

world represents the burning will of the Divine that

dwells in the cognitive realm to guide the aspirants.

Varuna which is the water in gross world, represents

the basic law of universe or the cosmic order in the

cognitive realm. Sarasvati and sindhu which are the

rivers in the gross world represent the flow of

inspiration in the cognitive realm.

 

Indra which is the rain and lightning and thunder in

the gross world, represents cognitive strength and

power which destroys all evil forces of the psyche.

Surya – the Sun in the gross world is nothing but the

Self-light or Self- wisdom itself in the inner world.

Soma – the moon in the gross world is nothing but the

aesthetic flow of Bliss and peace. In this way all

natural elements and forces remain the archetypal

expressions and symbolic manifestations of the

cognitive forces.

 

 

Objective of the Vedas:

Understanding the Self as the fundamental Truth of

the whole existence and to live the life with that

Self as the fundamental principle, is the objective of

the Vedas. The very nature of this Self is absolute

Silence, peace, bliss and harmony. The Self is pure

conscious Being which is eternal.

 

Form the ocean like silent conscious being, wave like

cognitive powers, tides like natural forces and

bubbles like gross manifestations of natural elements

occur. As tides, waves and bubbles are not different

from ocean, the Nature – both internal and external is

not different from the conscious Being.

 

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The problem of losing 99% of our Vedic litreature:

We have not lost a single letter or word of our

samhitas. They have preserved and passed on to each

generation in pristine pure form through amazing

techniques like krama, gata, ghana learning methods.

 

What we have majorly lost is the brahmana portion.

This is also mentioned by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra.

But Brahmans were later written by some sages to

simplify samhitas for common man and everyday life.

 

Though it is sad that we have lost a lot of our

brahmana portion (brahmanas, aranyaka,upanishads), we

have to remember that they were written for specific

society in specific time. May be in another hundred

years, another sage like Sri Aurobindo or Sri Ramana

Maharishi will give us a brahmana for that time.

 

THe core of Vedas, that is Samhitas have been saved

and has been passed on to generations in pristine pure

form. One person can be chanting vedas in Guwahati and

another one in Cochin, but both will chant in the same

way without any change.

 

Regarding Vyasa Maharishi, it is just a general belief

that he wrote 4 vedas, 18 puranas and some other

books. But in samhitas, it is very clearly mentioned

which Rishi or rishika (yes, female sages) got which

sukta. So totally some 500 sages (rishis and rishkas

put together) have given us this wonderfull Vedas.

 

Very Important Point: These 500 sages never had any

fights among them and all had same opinions and

spiritual practices. They never give these so called

philosophies like advaita, vishistadwaita, dwaita etc

etc. They had a very clear understanding of god,

nature and life. They had a harmonious life with each

other, with nature and with the divine itself.

 

All these philosophies were later written by people

looking at Vedas partially. The Vedic sages never said

"i am a advati and you are dwaiti, so i won't come

near you and you wont come near me" or "i am a

vishistadvatin and you are advaiti, so we should be

seperate" etc.

 

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