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Vedas – The Revealed Texts
The revealed Divine Truths are called the Vedas. The Sanskrit word Veda means knowledge. The Hindu sages considered these truths so sacred that for a long time they did not put them in writing. They preserved them in their memory and taught them to deserving students through oral instruction.
The sages had phenomenal memory acquired through the practice of celibacy. Celibacy is no other than conservation of energy. The sages of ancient India knew that a person who did not waste his energy through unrestrained sensual pursuits, particularly sexual activity, could greatly enhance his memory and other mental faculties. The other benefits of celibacy were greater longevity and dharana shakti – the ability to understand the deeper meaning of the scriptures. Equipped with such memory the sages were able to memorise the numerous Vedic Truths. Their students, who were also celibate, heard these Truths, memorised them, and shaped their lives accordingly. As they were learned by hearing and not by reading, the Truths came to be known as Shruti, which literally means hearing.
In the beginning the Aryans were not a unified or homogeneous nation. There were many Aryan tribes. Some of the tribes were fortunate to have sages who had experienced supersensuous Divine Truths. These sages or saints were called Rishis or Seers, because they had seen those Truths with their purified minds.
A sage or a saint, in the context of Hinduism, is one who has directly experienced God in this lifetime. A person possessing noble virtues and engaged in doing good deeds is appreciated in Hinduism, but is not necessarily considered a saint. Moreover, Hindu tradition doe not recognise sainthood through post-mortem canonisation.
In course of time a need was felt to collect and compile the Vedic Truths. A sage named Krishna Dvaipayana collected them from different sources and recorded them in a book called the Vedas. The Vedas had four parts – Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda and Atharva-Veda. The older texts of the Vedas, such as the hymns of the Rig-Veda, are written in an archaic form of Sanskrit called Vedic or, less accurately, Vedic Sanskrit.
In recognition of his monumental compilation of the Vedas, Krishna Dvaipayana was given the name Veda Vyasa. Hindus still gratefully remember this ancient sage and honour him by celebrating his birthday every year. His birthday is called Guru Purnima or Guru’s Day. The English counterpart of the Sanskrit word guru is teacher. In this particular context guru refers to the great teacher Vyasa.
The most important message of the Vedas is that everything and every being is divine. There are four very important statements in the Vedas. They are called Mahavakyas or “great sentences.” Three out of these four great sentences speak of the divinity of every soul, the fourth speaks of the nature of God:
Even though God is equally present everywhere He is not equally manifest in every being, every thing or every place. To explain, let us consider four light bulks of 100 watts each. If turned on, each one will give the same amount of light. Let us now cover the first bulb with one layer of paper, the second with two layers, the third with three layers, and leave the fourth uncovered. When we turn the bulbs on, they will not give the same amount of light. And yet, it cannot be denied that the same amount of light is present in each one. Similarly, God is equally present everywhere, but not equally manifest. His manifestation is greatest in Divine Incarnations and spiritually-illuminated souls, and least in a non-living object, such as a rock. Vedic literature asserts the inherently divine nature of man and provides means and methods to manifest this divinity.
According to the estimate of many scholars, the Vedic texts must be at least 4000 years old. There is considerable controversy, however, about when Vyasa lived, but it must have been before the 4th century B.C. The well-known Hindu grammarian, Panini, who probably lived in the 4th century B.C., mentions the epic Mahabharata in one of his works. Therefore, Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharata, most likely lived before the 4th century B.C.
Besides the Vedas, Hinduism has several other scriptures. But the Vedas, being the revealed scriptures, enjoy a special place of honour and are considered the most authentic. The validity of the Vedic texts is never questioned. Their Truths have been repeatedly validated by the experiences of Hindu saints who appeared at different periods of time.
Samhita and Brahmana
As mentioned earlier, the Vedas have four parts: Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda and Atharva-Veda. Each of these works consists of two sections: Samhita and Brahmana. The former contains hymns, and the latter explains those hymns and instructs how and when to use them.
Upanishads
The Vedas also contain some highly philosophical portions known as the Upanishads. The Upanishads are also called Vedanta – the acme or culmination of knowledge. Among the 108 Upanishads available today, the following are the most popular: Isha, Kena, Katha, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Chhandogya, Prashna, Shvetashvatara and Brihadaranyaka.
Smritis
All Hindu scriptures, except the Darshanas and the Tantras, can be placed within two categories: (1) the Vedas and (2) the Smritis. The Vedic scriptures are the final authority. The scriptures belonging to the smriti category have secondary authority only. All the scriptures, except the Vedas, fall under the smriti category.
The word smriti also has a technical meaning. It means a lawbook or a manual of codes of conduct for the Hindus. Among these ancient lawbooks, the lawbook of Manu is most well known. Yajnavalkya, Baudhayana, Apastamba, Vashishtha and Gautama are other ancient law-givers. The latest lawbook was authored by Raghunandana.
Darshanas – Schools of Hindu Religious Philosophy
Six different systems of philosophy called Darshanas, were developed by Hindu sages at different periods of time. They are “religious” philosophical systems because their foundation is in the Vedas. Also known as the Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, they are as follows:
All the authors of these religio-philosophical systems wrote original treatises using very concise aphorisms, called sutras in Sanskrit. The sutras, being very brief and terse, needed explanatory notes or commentaries, which were written later by other scholars. Vyasa’s treatise, which forms the basis of the Uttara Mimamsa system, is known as Vedanta Darshana or Brahmasutra. Several commentaries have been written on this book by famous commentators like Shankaracharya (c.700-740), Ramanujacharya (1017-1137) and Madhvacharya (1199-1278).
Puranas
The deeper truths of the scriptures of Hinduism are quite difficult and abstruse. They are beyond the scope of most people to understand. The sages of India created a special type of religious literature, called the Puranas, in order to present them in an interesting and easily understandable manner. In the Puranas the scriptural teachings are presented through stories and parables. In all eighteen Puranas are available today, among which Bhagavata Purana, Skanda Purana, Vayu Purana, Padma Purana, Markandeya Purana and Agni Purana deserve particular mention. The Chandi or Devimahatmyam, a popular book of Hinduism, is actually a part of the Markandeya Purana.
The Two Epics – The Ramayana & The Mahabharata
The Hindus can be proud of two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which were composed by the sages Valmiki and Vyasa respectively. These two epics, which are also called Itihasa, contain many scriptural teachings side by side with the stories of the various Aryan clans and dynasties. They are extremely rich in literary treasures and mythological content. The profusion of moral and spiritual teachings contained in them has raised them to the level of scripture. The Bhagavad Gita, perhaps the most popular scripture of Hinduism, is included in the Mahabharata. Both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have many exalted characters who are considered role models by religious-minded Hindus.
The Bhagavad Gita
This popular Hindu scripture forms a part of the Mahabharata. It contains a dialogue between Shri Krishna, a Divine incarnation, and an Aryan prince named Arjuna. In answering the questions of his disciple Arjuna, Shri Krishna gives many excellent spiritual teachings. These teachings are a great treasure of Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita contains most of the essential teachings of the Upanishads, giving it a status very close to that of the Upanishads.
The Tantras
Side by side with the Vedic disciplines, Hinduism has another parallel set of disciplines called the Tantras. In the disciplines of Tantra, God is looked upon as both a Male and Female principle, called Shiva and Shakti respectively.
Shakti is the creative power of Shiva. In modern scientific terms, Shiva can be compared to potential energy and Shakti to kinetic energy. When potential energy becomes active it is called kinetic energy. When Shiva becomes active, He is called Shakti. Conversely, when Shakti is inactive, She is called Shiva. It is Shakti which has created this world. The relationship between Shiva and Shakti is like the relationship between fire and its burning power. They are always inseparable and one. Shakti, however, has many other names. One of them is Parvati.
The scriptural texts of Tantra are usually in the form of dialogues between Shiva and Parvati. The dialogues where Shiva is the speaker giving spiritual teachings and Parvati is the listener are called Agama texts. Where Parvati plays the role of teacher and Shiva the listener, the texts are called Nigama.
Tantra is an all-inclusive religious system which is capable of helping man at all levels of spiritual growth. It has spiritual disciplines suitable for people from the highest cultural level to the lowest.
The Tantra literature is vast. Among the 64 most prominent texts, we can mention Mahanirvana, Kulasara, Prapanchasara, Kularnava, Rudra Yamala, Vishnu Yamala, Brahma Yamala and Tantaraja.
Shaiva Agamas and Pancharatra Samhitas
Shaiva Agamas are related to the Tantras. Of the original 28 Shaiva Agamas only 20 are available now.
Pancharatra Samhitas are the scriptures of certain Vaishnava sects of Hinduism. The number of scriptural texts pertaining to these Samhitas is 250; of them BrihadBrahma Ishvara and Jnanamritasara Samhitas are particularly noteworthy.