THE UPANISHAD STORY OF THE VEDAS

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PRIYA BHAGAVAT BANDHVULLARA,

PRIYA BHAGAVAT BANDUVULLARA!,

 

The Upanishad Story of Vedas

 

At the outset, let us understand the voluminous nature of

Vedas before venturing to gauge even an iota of the Mercy of the

Almighty.

 

All the Vedas put together contain 1134 sakhaas (Chapters or

Parts) and it takes about 8 years to fully assimilate one saakha by

heart. So, you can imagine the time taken by Great Rishis to convey

Veda Saakhas to their wards, what is called Guru-Shishya Parampara.

The Great Rishis used to convey by voice only, with swara.

 

By passage of time, we lost Vedaadhyana and so many of the

Saakhas. Knowing this the Almighty has given us Omkara, which is

the essence of Vedas.

 

There is an interesting Upanishad story. The Rishi

Bharadwaj wanted to study all the four Vedas and so he started

Vedaadhyana and continued it for many years, when he realized that

his life may end, he prayed for Indra. Indra appeared before him

and wanted know his wish. Rishi Bharadwaj asked for one hundred

years of more longevity. Indra before granting the wish wanted to

know what the Rishi would do with one hundred years of Ayush. The

Rishi replied that he would pursue Vedaadhyana. Indra disappeared

and Rishi continued with his Vedaadhyana and finally could realize

that even extra one hundred years were also coming to an end. So,

he prayed for Indra. Indra again appeared and the Rishi again

wished for one more hundred years of longevity. Indra again wanted

to know what the Rishi would do with one more hundred years of

Ayush. The Rishi replied that his Vedaadhyana was incomplete and so

would pursue the Vedaadhyana and Indra again granted one more

hundred years of Ayush to the Rishi. Like this Rishi Bharadwaj

continued Vedaadhyana for three hundred years. But yet the Rishi

was not content with Vedaadhyana and was unhappy. Indra appeared

before him without praying and enquired why the Rishi was unhappy,

even after 300 years of Vedaadhyana. The Rishi informed Indra, he

could not complete Vedaadhyana, despite deeply studying them. Then

Indra created three great mountains in front of him and enquired

whether the Rishi knew anything about them. The Rishi pleaded his

ignorance. Then Indra told him that they are the symbolic

representation of knowledge contained in three Vedas. Indra took one

fistful of sand from each one of the mountains and explained to the

Rishi that after three hundred years of strenuous efforts the Rishi

could attain only fistful of knowledge out of great mountains of

Knowledge from Vedas. Then Rishi Bharadwaj realized that it was

totally impossible to completely study the Vedas and assimilate them.

 

For a Rishi like Bharadwaj after three hundred years of

strenuous efforts, he could attain only very little of knowledge,

then what of common man.

 

The Almighty is full of mercy, so he started reciting

the Vedas for trillions and trillions of times. Then out of his

Avruttas, (Repetitions), three Matras viz., OM BHUVUH, OM BHUVAH, OM

SUVAH, have come out. The Lord directed the humans to recite them

to acquire the supreme knowledge from Vedas. We were ingnorant to

accept them from the Lord. So again the Almighty has done Avruttas

trillions and trillions of times, and then AA, VU, MA has come out

of His Avruttas. Still we were reluctant to accept the Lord's

directions, he combined them AA+VU+MA into one Matra making it OM.

Thus Omkara is the gist of all Vedas. The Upanishad story concludes

by giving us a direction to recite Omkara in every moment of our

life, so as to attain the supreme knowledge.

 

It is not one's own capacity to recite the Vedas from out

of memory, but it is his conduct of life according to the directions

of Vedas, which tells whether he is a scholar / Dharamata or not.