MEANING
AND HISTORY
Meaning
:
In Sanskrut the word Ved means Knowledge or Truth.
The
Ved contain hymns, rituals, and mantras. There are 4 Ved's namely
Rig Ved, Sam Ved, Yajur Ved and Atharv Ved.
The
original text of the Ved is known as the Samhita. However the
Samhitas are supplemented by many commentaries and explanations,
forming the 'Shruti' as a whole.
The most developed of these commentaries, the Upanishads, engage
in philosophical speculation about the implications of the ancient
invocations and rituals recorded in the Samhitas. Thus the Veds
are structured rather like a venerated work of classic literature
supported by elaborate footnotes and introductory essays explaining
its hidden complexities.
The
veds carry not only spiritual revelation but more topically, scientific
insights that we are just discovering with sophisticated gadgetry.
The veds talk about the sun and the moon and the waters of the
earth, about evaporation and rain. It talks about many things
at an age, when language was said to be almost non-existent. So,
the point is that, the sheer depth and vividness of the veds with
a vocabulary of over 35,000 words, suggest that there was a language
prevalent at that time which could not have had an ordinary origin.
The
same cosmic revelation which made ancient Indians understand the
mysteries of space and this lonely planet, should have given birth
to the language of the veds. So, it is not a mere man-made assembly
phonetics but a medium of much higher reason. The most interesting
aspect of the veds is that it understood its audience.
There
is one aspect of the veds which gives it the name para-vidya or
mundane knowledge. In this the content is fragmented into many
branches like we have now. Physics apparently is a different subject
from botany. The truth is otherwise. More advanced minds can perceive
that forms of knowledge could be integrated into one and attributed
to one Supreme Being who comes with many names. This school of
thought is called apara vidya or the medium of the supreme.
History :
A
lot of people have heard the word Veds. Why is it so vital to
the Indian soul? How has it survived the onslaught of time? The
answer lies in the veds themselves. If you read the veds as a
guide to conduct life, you will not question it, no matter where
you are or in which time warp. Ved literally means Knowledge.
Ved means To Know. There are four veds the Rig Ved, the Yajur
Ved, the Sam Ved and the Atharv Ved. Centuries ago the veds were
referred to as trayi meaning three. It is believed that originally
there were only three veds.
The
Atharv Ved, apparently, has been added later in time. Each of
the veds is divided into two parts the Samhita and the Brahmans.
Samhita is the incantation and Brahmans is the explanation of
the incantation. It's not clear who actually composed the Veds
and when. Some say that it was composed sometime during 6000 BC
but no matter when it was composed, rest assured the veds are
timeless today.
You
will be fascinated to know that there were four layers of priest
who uttered the veds during a sacrifice of yagna. The first class
where the officiating priests or hotris who chanted the Rig Ved.
The second class was called ugadtri who changed the Sam Ved. Then
third class of priests were recites who were called adhvaryu who
recited the Yajur Ved. The fourth class was overseeing priests
who were called Brahmans. They chanted the Atharv Ved, which is
actually addition to the original three veds.
The
word trayi which is used to referred to the Rig, Yajur and Sam
veds, has a special significance in that it also means that there
are three paths to salvation knowledge, karma (action) and devotion.
The Rig ved is the path of knowledge, the Yajur Ved is that path
of karma and the Sam Ved is the path of devotion. Learned gurus
tell us that it's not always in our hands to choose the path.
The path, the say, chooses us.