Compiled by London Swaminathan
Post no.— 985; Dated 17th April 2014.

Hindus’ Views on Vedas

It has become a fashion among Indian scholars to quote what foreigners said about our Vedas in English or German. Half of them are negative remarks. Even when they praised it was divided on racial basis such as Aryan, Dravidian and Munda. They have even gone to the extent of dividing Hindu Gods into Aryan and Dravidian without any rhyme or reason. In most of the places they remark the meaning is obscure or not clear. Sometimes they make fanciful suggestions. They don’t agree with our dating. We have had enough of Max Mullers and Griffiths. Since we have no mention of any racial differences in our Hindu scriptures, whether it is Tamil or Sanskrit, one must first listen to native scholars who are well versed in the Vedas. One must trust their father and mother or an elder in the community for the opinion on the Vedas. Then we must study what foreigners say about us and counter it or appreciate it.

Here are some of the quotes from Hindu saints or Hindu scholars:–

“It is not possible to tell the age of the Vedas. If we say that an object is ‘anadi’( without beginning) it means nothing existed before it. When we chant the Vedas in the manner prescribed by sastras, we mention name of the seer connected with each sukta (hymn), its metre and the deity invoked. Since there are many mantras associated with various seers we think that they were composed by them. Vedas are ‘apauresheya’(not man made); it means not the work of any man. When we say Columbus discovered America we do not mean he created that continent; we mean that he merely made the continent known to the world. In the same way the laws attributed to Newton, Einstein and so on were not created by them. Scientists like Newton perceived the laws of nature and revealed them to the world. Similarly the seers discovered the mantras and made a gift of them to the world.
Kanchi Paramacharya Swami (1894-1994)
Page 138 of Hindu Dharma, B V Bhavan, Bombay, 1995

“Modern Indologists are of the view that the Rig Veda came first, that the Yajur Veda came later and so on. But, according to our sastras, all Vedas are eternal. In the Rig-Veda itself, the Yajur Veda and the Sama Veda are mentioned in a number of passages. In the Purusasukta occurring in the Rig Veda (10-90) there is a reference to the other Vedas” — Kanchi Paramacharya (1894-1994)

Better than National Anthems!
The Rig Veda has 10,170 rks and 1028 suktas (hymns). It is divided into ten mandalas (chapters/ divisions) or eight ashtakas (Chapters). It begins with a sukta to Agni and concludes with a sukta to the same deity. For this reason some believe that the Vedas must be described as the scripture of fire (Agni) worship, a view with which we would be in agreement, if Agni were believed to be the light of the Atman (the light of knowledge of the Reality). The concluding sukta of the Rig Veda contains a hymn that should be regarded having a higher significance than the national anthem of any country: it is a prayer for amity among all nations, a true international anthem “may mankind be of one mind”, it goes. “May it have a common goal”. May all hearts be united in love and with the mind and the goal being one may all of us live in happiness”.
Kanchi Paramacharya, Page 193 of Hindu Dharma, B V Bhavan, Bombay, 1995

Don’t you like Kushmanda Lehya?
“ There are mantras that are specially valuable for their sound but or otherwise meaningless. Similarly, there are works pregnant with meaning but with no special mantrik power. The glory of the Vedas is that they are a collection of mantras that are at once notable as much for the energising character of their sound as for the lofty truths they proclaim, a medicine, though bitter does the body good, while some types of food, though delicious, do harm. Are we not delighted to have something like Kushmanda Lehya (an Ayurvedic preparation consisting of ash gourd, jiggery and other ingredients) which is sweet to taste and is at the same time nourishing to the body? Similarly, the Vedas serve a two fold purpose; while they have the mantrik power to do immense good to each one of us and to the world, they also contain teachings embodying great metaphysical truths” — Kanchi Paramacharya Swamiji

Page 168 of Hindu Dharma, B V Bhavan, Bombay, 1995

Veda enlightens one on the knowledge of super sensible matters which lie beyond the domain of perception and inference.
Yajnavalkya

The Veda is the repository or fountain head of all religious sects and duties.
Manu, the Hindu Law – Giver

The process of God making in the factory of man’s mind cannot be seen so clearly anywhere else as in the Rig-Veda.
Dr S Radhakrishnan (Ex President of India and Philosopher)

Vedic sages are positive in their acceptance of life and death and life’s struggles and imperfections; positive too, in their acceptance of the ultimate vales of truth, goodness, beauty and of eternal law and the Ultimate Reality.
Abinash Chandra Bose, 1954

One may clearly discern the rational and scientific spirit in the hymns of the Rig-Veda, the earliest written record of ancient Indian culture, and probably the oldest literary work of some dimension that humanity has bequeathed us.
R S Majumdar, 1954

The four Vedas are the richest, brightest ,most magnificent heritage of the Hindus. They embody all their wisdom, poetry, metaphysics and mysticism. Sri Aurobindo is of the opinion that the Vedas are replete with the suggestion of secret doctrines and mystic philosophies. He looks upon the gods of the hymns as symbols of psychological functions.
P. Nagaraja Rao, 1971

The Vedic texts exist in appearance only, because the real thread of the sense is to be found in an inner meaning. The thread found, the hymns appear as logical and organic wholes and the expression, though alien in type to our modern ways of thinking and speaking, becomes, in its own style, just and precise and shines rather by economy of phrases than by excess, by over-pregnancy rather than by poverty of sense. The Veda ceases to be merely an interesting remnant of barbarism and takes rank among the most important of the world’s early scriptures.
Sri Aurobindo, 1956

Veda is the creation of an age anterior to our intellectual philosophies.
Sri Aurobindo, 1956

The Vedas are the basic scriptures of Hinduism. Among the four Vedas rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and atharva Veda, the first one is considered the most ancient work dating back to about 8000 years ago.
Rig Veda is a collection of prayer hymns. Yajur Veda deals with sacrificial rites and rituals. The Sama Veda has set to music a selected number of hymns from rig Veda, prescribing their chanting at appropriate stages in certain sacrifices. The atharva Veda is mostly a compendium of ethical principles as also some branches of science like Ayurveda.
Swami Vivekananda 1885

Even today we can meet in the streets of indian cities the walking treasure house of Vedic learning.
Dr S Radhakrishnan, 1923

The Vedas were handed down from mouth to mouth from a period of unknown antiquity. It is generally believed that they were never composed by men. It was therefore generally supposed that eithy were taught by god to the sages or that they were of themselves revealed to the sages who were the seers of the hymns.
Surendranath Das Guptas, 1922

The Treasury of Hinduism by Harischandra Lal Singh, Robin Books, 2002

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