Wisdom from the Ages: Selections from Hindu Scriptures

1. THE VEDAS

The word Veda signifies knowledge. The Vedas, the divinely revealed, most highly revered Hindu Scriptures, are books of wisdom, both material and spiritual. A Scripture is meant primarily for the liberation of the soul from bondage of rebirth and secondarily for teaching the art of success in material life. Sages who are able with divine intuition to read not the surface meanings, but the true essence of Vedic thought, declare these Scriptures a timeless source of knowledge touching on all secular as well as religious arts and sciences.

The word Hindu has become as an appellation of our race and our religion. This word requires a little explanation. The word Hindu was the name that the ancient Persians used to apply to the river Sindhu. Whenever in Sanskrit there is an s, in ancient Persian it changes into h, so that Sindhu became Hindu; the Greeks found it hard to pronounce h and dropped it altogether, so that we became known as Indians.

There are four Vedas – Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva. Of these, the Rig Veda is the oldest, or the original text. It is considered to be the highest and the most spiritual of the Vedas. Its philosophy and prescriptions show an evolution from worship of the forces of Nature to the recognition of One Supreme Spirit – Brahman – and correspondingly, evolution from dependence on the favors of gods to Self-mastery. The Yajur Veda and Sama Veda are considered generally to be derived from the Rig Veda. The Yajur Veda is a special arrangement of rituals – a handbook for priests who conduct the ceremonial rites. The Sama Veda contains selected chants and delivers their proper melodic intonation as applicable to the Vedic rituals. The Atharva Veda is of a later origin, and is primarily incantations and magical formulas designed to appease negative forces and gain mundane favors. Among its practical prescriptions are those that have been called the beginning of Indian medical science.

Great Yogis give a spiritual interpretation of the Vedas and their injunctions. The Vedas are divided mainly in two portions: the Karma Kanda and the Jnana Kanda – the work-portion and the knowledge-portion. The Karma Kanda (exoteric) division of the Vedas is that which deals with rituals. It includes various sacrifices and ceremonials, of which the larger part has fallen into disuse in the present age. To this portion belong the famous hymns and the rituals of the Brahmanas. The Jnana Kanda (esoteric) portion deals with knowledge. It embodies the spiritual teachings of the Vedas known as the Upanishads and the Vedanta. The Jnana Kanda portion has always been cited as the highest authority by all our teachers, philosophers, and writers. Whatever be his philosophy or sect, everyone in India has to find his authority in the Upanishads. Therefore, the one name which would designate every Hindu would be Vedantist. The word Vedantism and Vedanta are also used in this sense. Apart from the Vedas, there are also other Scriptures – the Smritis and Puranas – subsequent writings which illustrate the doctrines of the Vedas. These of course do not have the same weight as the Vedas.

Many Vedic Scriptures also possess external significance as rites and rituals for merely worldly purposes. Some Vedic verses are concerned with methods for developing the Rajasic or activating qualities of man for definite results, such as victory in battle over one’s enemies, or making mundane life healthful or profitable or progressive. Other Vedic verses tell of the development of tamasic qualities, powers and acquisitions that feed man’s vanity and base nature. Still others deal with the culture of Sattvic qualities, those that sweeten and ennoble a man. The ordinary devotee, who blindly follows the literal instruction of the Vedas, is unaware of the truth that any man who concerns himself primarily with the phenomenal world of the three qualities (Gunas) is thereby subject to reincarnation through the strength of associated desires. The Vedas praise and worship the activating forces of Nature that spume her many forms from the roil of the threefold qualities (Gunas).Therefore, a devotee must concentrate his attention not on matter but on Spirit, and thus free himself from emotional involvement in Nature’s dream pictures of Sattva (good), Rajas (active), and Tamas (evil).

Vedanta

Vedanta is derived from two words – Veda, which is knowledge, and Anta, which means the end. Vedanta thus is the end of all knowledge. Does it naturally follow, then, that to reach the end, you have to start from the beginning, which is page one of the Rig Veda, and work your way through Yajur, Sama, and Atharva Vedas to get the final knowledge? We are so wrapped up in material life, so that we don’t have the time to delve into our ancient wisdom. The Vedanta also has another technical name with the commentators – the Shritis. The term Shriti– meaning that which is heard– though including the whole of the Vedic literature, is chiefly applied to the Upanishads. There are other Upanishads which form portions of the Brahmanas or ritualistic writings. The Upanishads are said to be one hundred and eight in number. Their dates cannot be fixed with certainty – only it is certain that they are older than the Buddhistic movement.

The Vedanta then practically forms the Scriptures of the Hindus, and all systems of philosophy that are orthodox have to take it as their foundation. In India, three systems of philosophy and sects have arisen: a) the dualistic or Dvaita; b) the qualified non-dualistic, or Vasishtadvaita; and c) the non-dualistic, or Advaita. Of these, the dualistic and the qualified non-dualistic include the largest number of Indian people. The non-dualistic are comparatively few in number. These different Vedanta systems have one common psychology, and that is, the psychology of the Sankhya System. According to the Advaita theory, all we see around us, and the whole universe in fact, is the evolution of that One Absolute. This is called in Sanskrit, Brahman. By its very definition, the Absolute is unchangeable.

We will now take up the beliefs about mind, soul, and God. According to the universally accepted Sankhya psychology, in perception, there are the instruments of vision or Indriya. Further, for perception, there is the mind or Manas and intellect or Buddhi. All the ideas of the mind must be gathered and projected on something that is stationary – relatively to the body and mind – that is, on what is called the Soul or Purusha or Atman.

The Sankhya philosophy concerns of a certain state which is called Avyakta or unmanifested, where even the manifestation of the mind is not present, but only the causes exist. It is also called Prakriti, and eternally separate from it, is the Purusha, the soul of the Sankhya which is without attributes, and omnipresent. The Pususha is not the doer but the witness. The Vedanta believes that there is the One Soul, which appears as many.

The Vedanta as a religion is intensely practical. We must be able to carry it out in every part of our lives. Vedanta teaches us oneness, one life throughout.

The Bhagavad Gita is, perhaps, the best commentary we have on the Vedanta philosophy. Curiously enough, the scene is laid on the battlefield, where Shri Krishna teaches the philosophy to Arjuna; the doctrine which stands out luminously in every page of the Bhagavad Gita is intense activity, but in the midst of it, eternal calmness. This is the secret of work, to attain which is the goal of the Vedanta. Inactivity, as we understand it in the sense of passivity, certainly cannot be the goal. Real activity, which is the goal of Vedanta, is combined with eternal calmness, the calmness which cannot be ruffled, the balance of mind which is never disturbed, whatever happens. That is the best attitude of work. The calmer we are, the better for us, and the more amount of work we can