An Outline of The Vedas
The foundational scripture of
India is the Veda, hallowed as knowledge which is an embodied form of divine
wisdom which concerns itself with the revelation of realities that are
inaccessible to the human senses and understanding. It is, therefore, apaurusheya—not written by man. The
Veda is not written; it is a body of revelations which were handed down as a
Sruti, or what is heard in a sacred manner from Guru to disciple. It is sacred,
hallowed, divine, and adored and worshipped as an embodiment of divine
knowledge.
We usually classify the Vedas
into four—the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda—the oldest being the
Rigveda Samhita. The Rigveda is the primary bible of India's culture. It is a
collection of hymns, known as mantras. There is a difference between what we
call a sloka in Sanskrit, and a mantra in religious parlance. For instance, the
Bhagavadgita, the Ramayana are in slokas or verses. The difference between a
mantra and a sloka is that a sloka can be chanted in any manner one likes, but
a mantra can be chanted only in one way—like a raga in music.
Hence, even today the Veda pathshalas, where Gurus teach the
Veda mantras to disciples, follow this scientific approach of systematically introducing
the mind of the student to the chanting of the mantra.
Shiksha is one of the six angas or limbs of the Veda, which
concerns itself with phonetics, or the intonation with which the mantras are to
be recited. Grammar, or Vyakarana, is an essential limb of the study of the
Veda because without it, its meaning cannot be known. The third limb or anga
is the Chandas, the metre. The metre is the way in which the mantra is
composed, as in a poem. The meaning or the effect produced by the chanting of
the mantra depends not merely on the words and the grammatical meaning thereof,
but also the intonation and the metre in which it is composed. Another anga or limb of the Veda is
Nirukta, etymology or what we may call the dictionary in modern language. Then
there is Jyotisha or astronomy. The foundation of the science of astronomy in
India was laid by the Vedic seers like Varahamihira, Aryabhata, who found it
necessary to understand the movement of the planets and the entire stellar
system so that they could perform oblations, prayers and sacrifices to the
deities or the gods at an opportune time which is very auspicious and conducive
to the production of the intended result of the prayer or the sacrifice—which,
of course, depends upon the conjunction of the planets.
The foremost among the Dharma
Shastras, or the Smritis that arose out of the Dharma Sutras, which lay the
foundation, is the Manava Dharma Shastra—or the Manusmriti, as it is known—and
many other Smritis arose later on.
Hence, Shiksha, Vyakarana,
Chanda, Nirukta, Jyotisha, and Kalpa are the Vedangas, the essential
ingredients or accessories to the Vedic knowledge which is embodied in the
Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads.
The Vedas are four, and each
Veda is divided into four sections—or, we can say, four books—known as the
Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads. The Samhita is a
collection of hymns or prayers—chants and the incantation of formulae addressed
to the gods and the divinities to summon them for various purposes. The
Samhitas are prayers offered to the divinities and are mainly four—Rig, Yajur
(two sections – Sukla and Krishna Yajurveda), Sama, and Atharva.
The Rigveda is the principal
Samhita. It is a metrical chant which is very systematic and scientific. The
Yajurveda Samhita is partly in poetry and partly in prose, while the Rigveda
Samhita is wholly poetry. The Samaveda is, with the exception of seventy-five
mantras, a repetition of the whole of the Rigveda, only set to music as a
chant. The Atharvaveda is a very large conglomeration of various themes which
are practical in nature, including even medical science, astronomy, etc., and
incantations, imprecations and applications of formulae, and summonings of
various types, both earthly and unearthly.
The Brahmanas are books of
prose which are lengthy narrations of the procedure to be adopted in the
application of the Samhita mantras for sacrifices and other practical uses. They
also constitute a rich literary piece containing legends and stories, laying
the foundation, as it were, of the epics and the Puranas, and they even touch
upon such subjects as astronomy. Even before the birth of Copernicus it was
already declared in the Aitareya Brahmana that the Sun does not move; the Sun
only appears to move but is actually stationary, and it is the Earth that
moves, not the Sun. Each Aranyaka, or Upanishad, is attached to a particular
Brahmana.
In the Aranyakas there is a
gradual attempt made to inwardise the externalised approach of the Brahmanas
through the sacrifices and the prayers offered to outward gods. The gods to
whom we offer our prayers through the mantras of the Veda Samhitas are not
outside us. Thus, to contact these gods, an outward ceremony is not necessary;
no material of any kind is essential. What is required is only our mind, our
thought, our consciousness, our being. This system was practiced in the
forests, while the yajnas of the
Brahmanas were performed mostly in the yajnashalas of
royal palaces and ritualistically consecrated halls especially devoted and
dedicated for the purpose.
The Upanishads are the
crowning apex of the attempts of the Aranyakas, and give the final stamp of the
possibility and practicability of communion with the powers of nature, with the
gods of the heavens, and with the Supreme Creator Himself by an adjustment of
thought within, and a surrender of personality. Thus, we have the Samhitas, the
Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads. The Vedas are four in number—Rig,
Yajur, Sama, Atharva—attached to which are the Vedangas, or the limbs, six in
number, which I already mentioned. There is also what are known as the
Upavedas, or the auxiliary Vedas, four in number—Ayurveda, Dhanurveda,
Gandharvaveda, and Artha Shastra—each one connected to a particular Veda.
Ayurveda is the science of medicine, health and long life, and is attributed to
Dhanvantari, the divine sage who is supposed to have promulgated this great
science of medicine and healing. This particular Upaveda is attached to the
Rigveda. The Gandharvaveda is the science of music, or fine arts in general, we
may say, which is connected with the Samaveda. The Dhanurveda is military
science, which is attached to the Yajurveda. And the Artha Shastra is political
science, economics, etc., which is attached to the Atharvaveda.
Thus, the body of the Veda
seems to be a vast gamut of comprehension which, though it is regarded as a
science of supernatural contact with gods and Reality, is also concerned with
empirical life such as political science, military science, economics, etc.;
and modern investigations have come to the conclusion that there are secrets in
the Veda mantras which explain the mysteries of trigonometry, geometry,
algebra, and higher mathematics. Perhaps even the science of aeronautics, the
making of rockets and so on, is hidden present in the mystical passages of the
Veda mantras, which are impossible to understand without a master who has
delved deep into them—a specimen of which we cannot find these days. We have
practically lost this great treasure of the Veda.
All this is connected with
what is known as the Sruti. The Puranas, the Itihasas, the philosophical
sciences, the Smritis, etc. are only explanations or commentaries of the basic
intentions and foundational doctrines of the Veda-rashi, which is the most
adorable body of knowledge we have in India.
Excerpts from:
An Outline Of The Vedas – Chapter 7 The Heritage
of Indian Culture by Swami KrishnanandaArchives - Blog
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