Arya Samaj

Shishya · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:42 pm Post subject: The Vedas

The Vedas
from
Darshanyog Mahavidyalaya

The Vedas are the word of God, revealed in the beginning of creation of the universe for the moral, spiritual-physical guidance and uplift of humanity. This process has been going on since the beginning and will go on forever. The Vedas can be seen as the instruction manual for life. Just as we go through a manual when learning to use a new product, it is equally important that we understand the do's and don'ts of life. Today we are enjoying the priceless gift of life given to us by God, but have failed to go through its "instruction manual" - the Vedas. They are filled with the eternal truths and guidance on the various aspects of life to make a man perfect and ideal. From His (God's) infinite knowledge, adequately taught for the requirements of the soul, i.e. spiritual satisfaction, to make life successful and to attain salvation. Since God is infinite and the soul is finite, the soul cannot have the infinite knowledge of Him.

The Vedas have been regarded as the gospel and self-evident truth in complete harmony with the laws of nature for all times, ages and for all segments of humanity. The Vedas have no history in them nor any names of persons or places, nor stories of any particular event or individual; they contain only those words and truths by which knowledge is made known. The source of true happiness and prosperity of the human society lies in virtuous conduct (righteousness). Today mankind is suffering from poverty, disease, misery, pain and anxiety. Only by following the eternal laws, universal truths and principles as revealed in the Vedas, through the God's grace, can we hope to overcome the curse of these miseries & calamities.

The Vedas revealed by the God were Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva to the Rishies Agni, Vaayu Aadtiya and Angiraa respectively. These four rishies were most competent to receive God's revealation.The names of the Rishis mentioned in the mantras are annotators, those persons capable of foreseeing things and scholars who clearly explained the meanings of the verses. These rishises are not the authors of the verses. The names of the Devatas mentioned in the mantras are the subject matters of the verse - the topic taught in it.

For correct interpretation of the Vedas, the words should be taken in their derivative, analytical sense i.e., root meaning should be given to the vedic words and not the traditional, customary, conventional and generally accepted ones.

The teachings of the Vedas are universal, and all learned persons are to preach the Vedic Truth to all - the Brahmanas, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, the Shudras and the Chandals, i.e. the degraded and the wretched. Dwijas, the twice born are not alone entitled to study the Vedas. Shudras and Women are equally entitled to study the Vedas. Persons like Kavish Aylush -Shudra by birth, and women like Lopa Mudra were the seers of the meanings of the Vedic texts and their names are from times immemorial mentioned in the Vedic verses. God is not partial to one portion of mankind and opposed to the other by depriving them of their birth rights to study the Vedas. As per God all soul are equally entitled to God's gift and generosities like Air, Water, Sun and his knowledge also. As per Vedas all are religiously equal, all should cooperate and help in the prosperity and improvement of mankind.

The knowledge which is available in the Vedas includes: theosophy (brahmavidya), dharma, cosmogony (theory explaining whence the universe originated), the revolution and rotation of the earth and other planets, the laws of gravitation and attraction, the luminous and the illumined, the science of mathematics, praise, prayer and worship of God, salvation, the art of building ships and aircraft, the science of telegraphy, the medical science, rebirth, marriage, politics (duties of the ruler and the ruled), varnas like brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas, shudras and ashrams like brahmacharya, grihasth, vanaprasth, sanyas, the duties of the students, householder, dweller and sanyasies, the five great duties, and many truths which the present science has not yet been able to discover regarding vitality, electricity, energy, astronomy, geography, geology, hydrostatics, etc.

There are 20358 verses in all the Four Vedas ; Rig - 10552, Yajur - 1975, Sama - 1875 and Atharva - 5977. In ancient times learned persons memorized one or more Vedas, nowadays very few scholars do so.

The Vedas say: God is one, formless, unborn, imperishable, the creator of the universe, sat (existence), chit (infinite intelligence), anand (bliss), omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (present everywhere), omnipotent (all-powerful), almighty (the controller of the laws of karma and dispenser of perfect justice). The most sacred and sublime name of the God is AUM. The letters AUM denote his principal manifestations, i.e., creation, preservation and dissolution. There is no pardon or forgiveness for any sins or evil deeds.

The Soul (jeeva) is only sat & chit (existence and limited intelligence). It is eternal, never itself takes birth nor does it ever die. The entrance of soul into the physical body is called birth and departing from it is death. It does not die with physical body - it remains immortal. It receives a form of life/physical body in accordance with its past good and bad deeds. It is free in its actions but dependent on Almighty God in reaping the results of its action.

God the Almighty created this universe, not just for material enjoyment, but as a means of attainment of moksha (salvation). The emancipation of the soul from the pain, misery of the cycle of birth and death and the subsequent freedom in the all-pervading Divinity is called moksha (state of perfect bliss).

Those persons who possess good qualities of humanity, impart true knowledge, are charitable by nature, enlightened and are beneficient to others are called dev purushaa (divine beings). The one who is able to impart true knowledge and is worthy in conduct is acharya (teacher). The one who is noble, righteous, benevolent and conducts himself in accordance with the principles of Vedas is called arya.

The presence of myriads of tiny particles (anu: atoms) in the atmosphere constitute the Nature. This material universe is Nature's creation.

The characteristics of God, Soul and Matter are eternal, creation has no beginning and no end i.e. creation follows dissolution.

Western scholars like Griffith, Max Muller, Monier Willams, Mac Donnel, Bloomfield and Eastern scholars like Sayana, Mahidhar,Ubbat and Damodar Satavalekar have interpreted the Vedas wrongly and completely failed to understand the eternal truth, teachings of the Vedas and belittled the etymological and scientific methods employed by the Rishies.

(Source)

Prabhat · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:45 pm Post subject:

The Vedas revealed by the God were Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva to the Rishies Agni, Vaayu Aadtiya and Angiraa respectively. These four rishies were most competent to receive God's revealation.The names of the Rishis mentioned in the mantras are annotators, those persons capable of foreseeing things and scholars who clearly explained the meanings of the verses. These rishises are not the authors of the verses. The names of the Devatas mentioned in the mantras are the subject matters of the verse - the topic taught in it.

Namaste,

whats"annotators"
and what do you mean by"The names of the Devatas mentioned in the mantras are the subject matters of the verse - the topic taught in it. "and who are this devatas
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Namaste,
Prabhat

Shyena · Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:51 am Post subject:

Namaste Prabhat,
'annotator' means a commentator. The names of rshis are those who explained the meaning of the mantra.

Prabhat · Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:03 pm Post subject:

Shishya · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:59 am Post subject:

Namaste PD,

All the commentators mentioned followed Sayana in his method of interpretation.
_________________
Namaste,

Shishya
ॐ

ॐ सह नावतु । सह तौ भुनक्तु । सह वीर्यं करवावहै । तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॥
"Together may we be protected. Together may we be profited. Together may we do a hero's work. May we learn intelligently. May we never hate one another."
-Brihadaranyaka & Taittiriya Upanishads

Shyena · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:23 pm Post subject:

Namaste Prabhat,
The vedic poetry is so terse and uses polysemous words that there are many schools of interpretation of these hymns. The three most popular i know are:
Sayana, which are henotheistic/polytheistic; ritualistic and most popular
Dayananda, whose translations are scientific, purely monotheistic and non-historic
Aurobindo, whose translations are spiritual, esoteric and abstruse

I'm not much aware of the translations by Advaitins however

PS:
Namaste Shishya,
At such a case I think the article would've done better by saying 'sayana and his gang'...
_________________

Krinvanto Vishwam Aryam meditate

Namaste

Prabhat · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:04 am Post subject:

The Vedas are the word of God.

namaste

Shis, whats the proof of this
_________________
Namaste,
Prabhat

Shyena · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:36 pm Post subject:

1)They declare it themselves, and even atheists such as samkhyans held it as authority
2)Oldest scripture known to man
3)The intensity of scientific and spiritual knowledge is beyond human limits
4)The poetry is beyond comparision

All these, in a scripture of minimum 3000 BCE - back then, we were supposed to be digging ground for worms. To bear such form of knowledge back THEN - its simply impossible.
_________________

Krinvanto Vishwam Aryam meditate

Namaste

Prabhat · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:51 pm Post subject:

Prabhat · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:02 am Post subject:

Namaste,

God the Almighty created this universe, not just for material enjoyment, but as a means of attainment of moksha (salvation). The emancipation of the soul from the pain, misery of the cycle of birth and death and the subsequent freedom in the all-pervading Divinity is called moksha (state of perfect bliss).

a bit Boedha style?
_________________
Namaste,
Prabhat

Shishya · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:32 am Post subject:

Namaste Prabhat,

Prabhat · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:18 am Post subject:

did not Boedha praying for moksha, get rid of the cycle of life. and get eternal free from life on earth
_________________
Namaste,
Prabhat

Shishya · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:52 am Post subject:

Namaste Prabhat,

Ah! Buddha! (I first thought you were referring to bheda.) Well, the big difference there is God and the Soul existing after emancipation - which doesn't happen according to Buddhism.
_________________
Namaste,

Shishya
ॐ

ॐ सह नावतु । सह तौ भुनक्तु । सह वीर्यं करवावहै । तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॥
"Together may we be protected. Together may we be profited. Together may we do a hero's work. May we learn intelligently. May we never hate one another."
-Brihadaranyaka & Taittiriya Upanishads

Shyena · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:05 pm Post subject:

Buddhism is a weird thing according to me... They believe that nothing remains constant - and reject the concept of soul too. They say that 'something' transmits from one birth to another but it doesn't remain constant. And according to what they, its like moksha is 'death'(of spirit) for them.. Oh yea, they profess no belief [actually they dont care] about god.
_________________

Krinvanto Vishwam Aryam meditate

Namaste

Shishya · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:14 pm Post subject:

Namaste PD,

That's why Buddhism is sometimes referred to as the nihilistic philosophy par excellence. And to think that it once ruled over most of Asia... Rolling Eyes

_________________
Namaste,

Shishya
ॐ

ॐ सह नावतु । सह तौ भुनक्तु । सह वीर्यं करवावहै । तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॥
"Together may we be protected. Together may we be profited. Together may we do a hero's work. May we learn intelligently. May we never hate one another."
-Brihadaranyaka & Taittiriya Upanishads

Shyena · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:22 pm Post subject:

Par excellence 'compared to' other nihilistic philosophies. Otherwise I just find it to be agnostic dyspeptic vedanta... Thank ashoka for spreading it so much!
_________________

Krinvanto Vishwam Aryam meditate

Namaste

Prabhat · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:48 am Post subject:

Shishya · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:50 am Post subject:

Namaste Prabhat,

And...a Buddhist would never agree with your statement:

Prabhat · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:53 am Post subject:

Namaste Shis,

so they dont believe in God. what do they think create the world ?
_________________
Namaste,
Prabhat

Prabhat · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:39 pm Post subject:

The names of the Devatas mentioned in the mantras are the subject matters of the verse - the topic taught in it.

Namaste All,
what dos this mean.
_________________
Namaste,
Prabhat

bhavesh · Junior Member Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 69

In Veda samhita = texts, Devatas are mentioned on each chapter = sukta = group of verses. It indicates subject matter of the chapter, based on which one has to derive meaning & interpret. It provides most useful hint for understanding the meaning of the mantra = verse of the Vedas. Without that there are all chances that the meaning would not be fair. Pandit Gurudatta Vidyarthi, who was a real genious (but died only at the age of 26 years) has said that any thing which is chiefly explained in the sukta = chapter of the Vedas, is calld Devata.
= Bhavesh Merja

Prabhat · Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 6:45 am Post subject:

I see, thanks.
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Namaste,
Prabhat

Prabhat · Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:28 pm Post subject:

Namaste

The Vedas revealed by the God were Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva to the Rishies Agni, Vaayu Aadtiya and Angiraa respectively. These four rishies were most competent to receive God's revealation.The names of the Rishis mentioned in the mantras are annotators, those persons capable of foreseeing things and scholars who clearly explained the meanings of the verses. These rishises are not the authors of the verses. The names of the Devatas mentioned in the mantras are the subject matters of the verse - the topic taught in it.

can some one explain me this?
_________________
Namaste,
Prabhat

bhavesh · Junior Member Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 69

I believe that if a person reads Dayananda's main works viz. Satyarth Prakash (Light of Truth), Rigvedadi Bhashya Bhumika and Aryodeshya Ratnamala etc. with due attention, he would not raise so many questions & doubts on such fundamental issues. The things would be very clear to him. Dayananda has put things in a very clear & direct way in his works. Yes, one has to take pain of reading.
= Bhavesh Merja

Prabhat · Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:06 pm Post subject: