Lesson 2: Important Religious Texts.

This is the second lesson introducing the Hindu religious texts - the srutis, the smritis, the itihases and the darshanas. There is only one lesson test.

Introduction & The Vedas.

Introduction:

I have included for study in this lesson the most important scriptures in Hinduism – The Vedas, The Upanishads, The Puranas, The Two Great Epics – The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, and The Bhagavad Gita as well as a few other attendant texts like The Agamas, The Brahma Sutras and The Dharma Sastras.

According to Sanskrit authorities Hindu scriptures have four major divisions:

• Srutis – Those that were begotten from divine revelation.

• Smritis – Those that were begotten from memory, based on revelations in the Srutis.

• Ithisas – Historical texts.

• Darshanas – Philosophical writings

The Vedas:

The Vedas are the oldest scriptures not only of Hinduism but of the world. They are believed to have been created out of Brahma’s four heads, each Veda issuing forth out of each head. They are revelations perceived by Rishis. The word “Rishi” means “Seer” as the root word “Dris” means “To see”. The Rishis were great enlightened persons who had direct intuitive realization of the Brahman, The Eternal and the Ultimate Truth. The Rishis were good persons who built a simple and perfect religious system with this truth. Thus the Vedas are also commonly referred to as “Srutis” or “Those that were heard or revealed”. It is true that the Hindu claim that almost all other religions seem to have borrowed their religious principles from the Vedas is validated by the fact that these scriptures were written long before any other religious books and there is a lot of similarity of thought between these and other scriptures in other religions. There is much controversy over exactly when the Vedas were put down in writing but the tentative date is probably around 800 B.C., the time when the Aryans were consolidating their position in the Northern parts of the Subcontinent.

According to popular legends, the Vedas are supposed to have been written by Vyasa Dev, who is also credited with having composed The Mahabharata. It is firmly believed by Hindus that Vyasa Dev’s incarnation arrives in every Yuga to write down what is revealed by the Universal Spirit so that humankind can easily achieve Moksha and unite with Him.

The Vedas are deemed as eternal. They are the words of the Lord. They cannot be dated or recreated. As such they are revealed scriptures that are absolute in their authority.

There are four Vedas in all:

• The Rig Veda - “Rik” meaning “Worship”

• The Yajur Veda

• The Sama Veda

• The Atharva Veda

The Yajur Veda is divided into two parts:

• The Sukla Yajur Veda

• The Krishna Yajur Veda

The Sukla Yajur Veda is the later of the two and is a revelation to Rishi Yagnavalkya from the resplendent Sun-god Surya.

The Rig Veda, The Yajur Veda and the Sama Veda comprise “Trayi Vidya” or “Threefold Knowledge”. The Atharva Veda was added later on to complete the series of four.

The Rig Veda is divided into 21 sections, the Yajur into 109 , the Sama into 1,000 and the Atharva into 50. In all the Vedas are divided into 1,180 sections.

Each Veda consists of four parts:

• The Samhitas – Mantras or Hymns

• The Brahmanas – Explanations to the hymns and their rituals

• The Aranyakas – Philosophical interpretations to the rituals

• The Upanishads – Philosophical essence of the Vedas

The four parts of each Veda are meant to be studied by men as they progress through each of the four stages in their lives:

• The Samhita mantras are in praise of the Gods and Goddesses so that material prosperity in this world and eternal happiness in the other can be attained. They are meant to be studied by Brahmacharis - those up to 25 years of age and celibate. This is the time in a man’s life prescribed for study of the Vedas and worship.

• The Brahmana portions help to guide people in their offering of sacrifice or Yajna. They explain the Samhita mantras and are meant for the Grihastha - those between 25 to 50 years of age and living the lives of householders.

• The Aranyakas are philosophical interpretations of the sacrificial rituals. They are literally forest books meant to be studied by the Vanaprastha - those between 50 and 75 years of age being readied them to renounce the worldly life and take to Sanyash or the life or a hermit in preparation of death and exit from this world.

• The Upanishads contain the highest levels of truth in the Vedas. They interpret the individual soul and its relation with the Universal one. They are meant to be studied by the Sanyasins - those at the highest stage of understanding in life – those with maximum experience who can renounce life and live like hermits in preparation for death and exit from this world.

Of course, today, it is recommended that the Vedas should be studied all the entirety of one’s life and the knowledge of the Upanishads is available to all those who can partake of it.

The subject matter of the Vedas is divided into three Khandas (Sections):

• Karma (Action) Khanda, comprised of the Samhitas and Brahmanas dealing with various sacrifices and rituals.

• Upasana (Worship) Khanda, comprised of the Aranyakas dealing with various means of worship and meditation.

• Jnana (Knowledge) Khanda, comprised of the Upanishads which impart pure knowledge of the Nirguna (without attributes) Brahman. The Nirguna Brahman is the Ultimate Reality of the Vedas.

The Yajur Veda derives its name from “Yaj” which also means “Worship”. The hymns in the Yajur Veda are mainly to instruct in the rituals of sacrificial worship and are recited in accompaniment of such rituals by the Athvaryu priest. They are mostly in prose and supplement the hymns of the Rig Veda.

The Sama Veda owes its name to “Saman” which means “Music”. Most of the 1549 hymns of the Sama Veda are derived from the Rig Veda but have musical connotations added on. The hymns are sung in accompaniment to musical instruments at times of religious ceremonies by the Udgatri priest.

The fourth Veda, The Atharva Veda, which was added on in the later Vedic period, deals with more practical matters of human existence. It contains treatises on social conduct, marital and other relationships, healthy and profitable business practices, agricultural practices, medical treatments and preparation and application of medicines and other practical matters. It also deals in part with many philosophical aspects of human existence. Material from it is also recited by the Brahma priest to correct or cleanse mistakes made by the other three sacrificial priests.

The initial parts of the Vedas, especially that of the Rig Veda, contain hymns in praise of several Gods and Goddesses and these are the most ancient of all Hindu scriptures. The purpose of these early hymns was to invoke certain divine powers through premeditated patterns of rituals and prayers to fulfill certain earthly desires and requirements, both of the individual and of the community. In course of time the actual spiritual and symbolic significance of these hymns have been lost and today they are mostly performed by rote and have become fixed rituals that cannot be quite understood but are deemed essential for proper religious invocation.

Upanishads:

The Upanishads are the end parts of the Vedas and abound in spiritual knowledge. In Sanskrit, the language of Vedic India, Upanishad means “Placed under Truth”. While the former parts of the Vedas dealt with worship and knowledge of the Gods and Goddesses the Vedanta, of which the Upanishads are a part, deal with the knowledge of the True Brahman, the Eternal Soul of the Universe, and its relationship with the individual soul. This is the essence of the Upanishads and the Vedas.

Whosoever in India has been able to realize the truth of the Vedanta and has gathered a following by his teachings has compiled an Upanishad. Probably 350 Upanishad can be counted but only about 14, including the Bhagavad Gita, can be deemed of great value by scholars and sages. The rest have been either underscored or lost because of the obscurity of their compilers. Such great teachers as Adi Sankaracharya, Sri Rangaramanujan and Sri Madhyavacharya have all commented on the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras and each of their compiled commentaries may be said to comprise a separate Upanishad.

The most important 13 Upanishads besides the Gita are:

• Isa

• Kena

• Katha

• Prasna

• Mundaka

• Mandukya

• Aitareya

• Taittiriya

• Chhandogya

• Brihadaranyaka

• Kaushitaki

• Svetasvatara

• Maitrayani

Each Upanishad is named after the section of the Veda it is a commentary on.

Though some of the Upanishads are a few thousand years old, it is only in the last century, the 20th , that Indian and Western scholars have unearthed them from the confines of ashrams and other esoteric schools of learning in India and revealed their prime universal knowledge to the world. Prior to that it was thought that their knowledge was an esoteric one and should not be revealed to the illiterate and ignorant. It was even thought sacrosanct to do so. So the Upanishads were studied and commented on in the close confines of elitist schools that kept its contents away from the uninitiated and unqualified.

Today, the Upanishads, the more relevant ones, have been translated into many languages and are available to the common people of all lands. It is also true that they contain a philosophy that is so universal and complete that it does not require one to be a Hindu to be able to understand and utilize it.

While the first parts of the Vedas – the Samhita, the Brahmana and the Aranyaka – are period-bound and may have lost their significance and have become part of a ritualistic tradition the Upanishads are so enduring in their philosophy that they are as germane today as they had been when they were written many thousands of years ago.

Today, backed by the wonderful discoveries of science, the practical monism of the Upanishads may seem almost inevitable and its fine-tuned morality almost commonplace but, a few thousand years ago when the world was full of strange inexplicable occurrences against which there was no other recourse except certain rituals, it was a few extremely brave and adventurous persons who delved into the nature of things and came up with this pioneering philosophy. It is probably to their indomitable spirits that Hinduism owes much of its durance.

Other Attendant Scriptures to the Vedas:

The Upa-Vedas or Subsidiary Vedas:

There are four Upa-Vedas:

• The Ayurveda – It deals with the science of life and health and, in recent times, has become a wonderful source of many novel medical remedies.

• The Dhanurveda – It deals with the science of war.

• The Gandharvaveda – It deals with the science of music.

• The Arthasastra – It expounds on the science of polity.

The Vedangas or Explanatory Sequels:

There are also six explanatory sequels to the Vedas:

• The Siksha of Maharshi Panini – It deals with the science of phonetics both of the texts of the Vedas and in general.

• The Vyakarana of Maharshi Panini – It deals with the Sanskrit grammar, without which one cannot understand the Vedas. Both this and the previous Vedanga was written by Panini, an authoritative Rishi whose grammar is so enduring that it is still studied unchanged by Sanskrit scholars.

• The Chhandas of Pingalacharya – It deals with the study of prosodic metric systems to facilitate the reading of the Vedic hymns set in meter.

• The Nirukta of Yaska – It deals with the study of philosophy or etymology, inherent in the Vedas and elsewhere.

• The Jyotisha of Garga – It is primarily a study of heavenly bodies and promotes both astronomy and astrology. The early Hindu astronomers were keen observers who drew very accurate pictures of the night skies.

• The Kalpas – These are texts which enumerate steps and methods to be followed or employed to successfully conduct sacrifices. They have been compiled by numerous renowned Rishis.

1  2  3  4  5   

Print this page