Experience Godhead with
faith in the Vedas
One fact has to be noted here. Just
because people have this knowledge of the immanence of the Divine, and even of
its transcendence, they cannot be honored as people of wisdom (jnanis), for the knowledge has to be
digested through actual experience. This is the crucial test. It is not enough
if the intellect nods approval and is able to prove that Godhead is all. The
belief must penetrate and prompt every moment of living and every act of the
believer.
Wisdom should not be merely a bundle of
thoughts or a packet of neatly constructed principles. Faith must enliven and
enthuse every thought, word, and deed. The self must be soaked in the nectar of
the spiritual wisdom.
The intellect is a poor instrument, for
what the intellect approves as correct today is rejected tomorrow by the same
intellect on second thought! Intellect cannot judge things finally and for all
time. Therefore, seek the experience. Once that is won, the Atma can be understood “as all this”.
That is the yoga of wisdom (jnana-yoga).
The Vedas were not spoken by humans or composed by men and women. They were heard and recorded by sages and transmitted by guru to pupil for generations by word of mouth. The guru recited, and the pupil listened and recited just as the guru did, with the same care and correctitude. Thus, the Vedas have been handed down for centuries. No one can determine the exact dates when the Vedas were first heard or recited. Therefore, they are taken as eternal (sanathana).
Vedas: the voice of God in eternity
At this point, we have to keep in mind
another important truth. All other religions prevalent in the world hold as
authoritative communications made to some holy persons by God Himself in His
corporate Form, or through some superhuman personalities or embodiments of
parts or portions of Divinity. Indians do not follow this line. They declare
that the Vedas are based on no human authority; they do not depend on any
person for their validity. They are emanations direct from God; they are
primeval; they are their own authority and validity. They were not written down
or composed, constructed, or put together.
The cosmos or creation is limitless,
eternal, with no beginning or end. So too, the voice of God, namely the Vedas,
have no limit; they are eternal; they have no beginning nor end. Vid, the root
from which the word Veda is derived, means “to know”. When knowledge began, the
Vedas manifested. Sages (rishis)
visualized and announced them. They are the “see-ers of mantras”.
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The Vedas have two major sections: the Karma-kanda and the Jnana-kanda.
In the Karma-kanda, a number of different sacrifices are mentioned, in
which oblations are offered in the sanctified fire. Most of them have been
given up by Indians in recent times, since it has become difficult to perform
them with the exactitude the Vedic rules prescribe. Some still continue in a
very attenuated form. In the Karma-kanda,
moral codes are insisted upon very much. The moral rules and restrictions
regulating life and conduct refer to the student (brahmachari), house- holder (grihastha),
recluse (vanaprastha), and monastic (sanyasa) stages. Also, the Karma-kanda declares what is right and
wrong for people following various professions and occupying different
statuses. These are being followed here and there, in some thin form, by people
in India.
The Jnana-kanda is called the end of the Vedas (Vedanta), the goal, the finale. It is enshrined in the Upanishads. Adherents of the dualistic, qualified non-dualistic, and non-dualistic (dwaitha, visishta-adwaitha, and adwaitha) schools of philosophical thought, worshipers of Siva, Vishnu, Sakthi, Surya, and Ganapathi —all accept the supreme authority of the Vedas. They may interpret the Upanishads and other texts according to their own predilections and intellectual calibre, but no one dare question the authority of the Veda or Vedanta. So, it is possible to use the words Hindu, Indian (Bharathiya), and Vedanthin for the same person.
Currently, the various schools of philosophical thought may appear difficult to comprehend or as derived from unripe understanding. But when the matter is thought over in quiet, or the texts are studied in silence or investigated without prejudice, it will become clear that they have all relied on the points raised and the conclusions arrived at in the Upanishads. The Upanishads are being symbolized and worshiped in image form in temples and in private shrines, as a tribute to this universal appeal. They have entwined themselves, inseparably, in our lives.
“The Vedas are endless (Anantho vai Vedaah).” But they were
reduced into four collations, and their essence was preserved in them. For
promoting peace and prosperity in the world, the four were taught and
propagated. They are the Rig-, Sama-, Yajur-, and Atharvana-Vedas.
They uphold righteousness (dharma),
proclaim the reality, and promote peace and harmony by developing among people
the attitudes of worship, music, and adoration and also by cultivating skill in
weaponry and war. They present the ideal before people and exhort them to
follow it.
Whether the Indian is aware of it or
not, invariably, every right act of the Indian will have some Vedic injunction
or prohibition behind it as the regulator or the illuminator. From marriage
rites to funeral rites and even rites for the propitiation of the ancestral
spirits, the Vedas are the guides. A true Indian should never forget the Vedas
or be ungrateful to them. The dualists, qualified monists, monists — all direct
their lives according to lines laid down in the past by sages. But they do not
now know the origin and the purpose of these guidelines. If only they did, the
fruit would be much more plentiful and permanent."
Today's post, taken from SS Vahini, is self-explanatory and
readers should be able to understand on reading the post sincerely.
Love.
