Written by London Swaminathan
Date: 22 July 2017
Time uploaded in London- 17-24
Post No. 4105
Pictures shown here are taken from various sources such as Facebook friends, Books, Google and newspapers; thanks.
The Hindu sacred books are called the Vedas. They are divided into four books: Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas. Hindus believe that Veda Vyasa classified them into four around 3100 BCE. They existed even before him. But he was the one who arranged them into four and gave to four of his best students the responsibility of spreading them (through the word of mouth to generations to come). Now it is considered the Literary Wonder of the World.
Many of the seven wonders of the world disappeared. But the Vedas which came even before the Seven Wonders of the World are still alive. It is recited in one hundred thousand temples in India. It is recited by millions of Hindus every day. As a Brahmin I recite the names of Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Yama, Surya, Vayu every day. They are in the Bogazkoy inscription of Turkey dated 1350 BCE.
Vedic Gods are the oldest Gods documented by an archaeological inscription. Other Gods have gone into museums.
There are beautiful descriptions about the origin of Vedas. For foreigners and Non-Hindus they may appear contradictory, but Hindus don’t find any contradiction in it. Foreigners selected some passages and looked at them superficially and misinterpreted them. But the authors of great Hindu epics Vyasa and Valmiki did not see any contradiction or confusion.
Vedas are not composed by poets. They are heard like radio frequencies. They will be in the air after every deluge. They are eternal truths in sound form. When the world is recreated, another Brahma will appear and reveal it through his four heads/mouths. Enlightened souls can hear them and pass it to others.
The Vedic mantras are in Sanskrit language. Some of the passages are considered amazing revelations. Lot of scientific information, higher thoughts are reflected in the hymns. Whatever we find in the UNO charter such as world peace, brotherhood of human beings are there in the tenth mandala of the Rig Veda. The literary level is so high that no ancient language in the world has reached that level. They talk lot about prosody, grammar, hidden meaning, double entendre etc.
Youngsters were taught linguistics, astronomy, grammar etc along with the Vedic hymns when they were only seven years old! It is a literary marvel.
Tamils of Sangam Age praised them sky high. When one of their poets composed Tirukkural with 1330 couplets five contemporary poets praised it as Tamil Veda. Another Tamil poet said that all over the world kings get up after hearing cock a- doodle-doo but Pandyan Kings get up by listening to the Vedas. Kalidasa who lived in the first century BCE said in his Raghuvamsa that Pandyan Kings always looked like they are coming out of Vedic sacred bath (Avabrta Snanam done during fire sacrifices)
Let us look at some of the Hymns:
1.The Vedas sprung from the mystical sacrifice of the Purusha
The hymn Pursuha Sukta of the Rig Veda (10-90) says the following:-
Tasmaad yajnaat sarvahutah rchah saamaani jagniree
chandaamsi jagniree tasmaad yajus tasmaad ajaayata
“From that universal sacrifice sprung the Rich and Saman verses; the metres sprung from it; from it the yajush arose”.
2.The Vedas were cut or scraped off from Skambha as being his hair and his mouth
The Atharva Veda (10-7-20) says,
Yasmaad rcho apatakshan yajur yasmaad apaakashan
saamaani yasya lomaani atharvaangiraso mukham
skambha tam bruuhi iktatamah svida eva sah
“Declare who is that Skamnbha (the Supporting Principle) from who they cut off the Rich verses; from whom they scraped off the Yajush, of whom eth Sama verses are the hairs, and the verses of the Atharva and Angiras the mouth.”
- The Vedas sprung from Indra and he sprung from them (AV 13-4-38) says,
sa vai rgbhyo ajaayata thasmaad rcho ajaayanta
“Indra sprung from the Rich verses; the Rich verses sprung from him”.
4.The Vedas sprung from Time (AV 19-54-3)
Kaalad rchah sambhavan yajuh kaalaad ajaayata
“From Time the Rich verses sprung; the Yajush sprung from Time
5,The Vedas sprung from the leavings of Sacrifice (AV 11-7-24)
Rchah samaani chandaamsi puraanam yajushaa saha
uchchshtaaj jajniree sarve divi devaah divi sritaah
“From the leavings of the sacrifice sprung the Rich and the Saman verses, the metres, the Purana with the Yajush, and all the gods who dwell in the sky”
My comments:
This is a very interesting verse. The Puranam is mentioned in the Atharva Veda. In any culture mythology is the oldest part. So even before the Vedas the Puranas were there. But they were constantly updated with the names of the latest kings. Like they write the names of the Winners of Wimbledon Title every year under the previous winners, newer materials were constantly added. Foreigners took the latest reference and interpreted them as modern. Same with the Mahabharat. Vyasa added all that available to it at his time.
Another interesting point is that we believed Vyasa ‘divided’ the Vedas into four. Then how come there is reference about all the four Vedas in some hymns? Is it not contradicting what we believe?
No contradiction. Rich Yajush, Saman,Atarva are parts of the Vedas. Vyasa arranged them in a particular order and since it is humanly impossible to learn and pass them to future generations. He selected four of his most intelligent students and allocated some portions of it to each one. The very name Vyas means one who arranges, organises, essay writer. His actual name was Krishna Dvaipayana= Black Islander. He was black and was born in an island.
If you take the meaning literally you will be as confused as a foreigner.
The simple equation so far is
Vedas = God/Indra= sacrifice = Time
- The Vedas were Produced from Agni, Vayu, Surya- says the Chandogya Upanishad
“Prajapatir lookaan abhyatapat………………. iti saamabhyah”
“Prajapati infused warmth into the worlds, and from them so heated he drew forth their essences, viz, the Agni from the earth
Vayu from the air
and Surya from the sky.
He infused warmth into these three deities
and from them so heated he drew forth their essences—
from Agni the Rich verses
from Vayu the the Yajush verses
and from Surya the Saman verses.
He then infused heat into this triple science from it, so heated he drew forth its essences—
from Rich verses the syllable Bhuh
from Yajush verses, Bhuvah
and from Saman verses Svar”
Heat = tapas
- The Vedas are the breathing of the Great being – Satapata Brahmana (14-5-4-10)
“sa yathaa aardredhaagrer abhyaahitaan………………nisvasitaani”
“As from a fire made of moist wood various modifications of smoke proceed, so is the breathing of this great being the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama veda, the Athrvangirases,the Ithihasas, Puranas, science, the Upanishads, slokas, aphorisms, comments of different kinds – all these his breathings”
My comments
This is another proof for the existence of Puranas, Ithihasas (Mytology and Epics), Upanishads, Sutras, Slokas, Science (Vidhyaa) – by the time of Satapata Brahmana. Even the jaundice eyed, biased foreigners date this SB to 850 BCE. But we knew that it existed from the Vedic days i.e, several thousand years ago. Even if we go by foreigner’s dating one must admit that we had History (Ithihas/epics), mythology etc. by that time.
Poor foreign ignoramuses say ‘this portion of Vedas is later, this portion is older, this portion of Mahabharat is added to Jaya, the original epic. All these are absurdities because till this day no one is able to show what is added ‘later’, and ‘when’ it is added!!
And the foreigners try to cramp the largest volume of ancient literature into 400 year period! Not even the modern society can achieve such intellectual growth within that short period! If they are right they must show us another ancient culture that achieved so many things within 400 years!
When we compare the Vedic literature with other religious literature, they are like mosquitoes and the Vedic literature is like the Himalayas. No one is able to study all these in one life time. Even Max Muller studied it for over fifty years! And yet he could not attain full maturity! He did not even get the maturity of a Vedic school boy! His bookish knowledge in Vedas was great, but his wisdom- just pass mark!
Any one who reads his comments on Vedic hymns, would agree with me.
- The Vedas were dug by the gods out of the Mind Ocean (SB 7-5-2-52)
“Mind is the ocean; from the mind ocean, with speech for a shovel, the gods dug out the triple Vedas; may the brilliant deity today know where they placed that offering which the gods dug out with sharp shovels. Mind is the ocean; speech is the sharp shovel—Satapata Brahmana”
This shows Vedas were received by the Rishis after deep meditation. What a beautiful way of describing the Vedas! Poetic in description!
- Vedas are the hair of Prajapati’s beard (Taittiriya Brahmana 3-39-1)
(it means it is recited by Brahma)
- Vach is called the Mother of the Vedas (TB 2-8-85);
(it means the word is god)
“Vach (word) is an imperishable thing and the first born of the ceremonial, the mother of the Vedas, and the centre point of immortality”
My Comments
Some foreigners used to bluff that Hindus don’t know about immortality, rebirth etc. during the Vedic time. They draw their own line in the Vedic literature, they fix their own dating for each and every section and bluff this way; and even in that bluffing, fifty foreigners say fifty different things! In the book about Asuras written by a foreigner he listed over 40 different definitions or interpretations on the word Asura!
(I will give the quotations on Vedas from the Puranas and Mahabharata, in another article.)
–Subham–
Tamil and Vedas 