THE MYSTICAL VEDAS

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

THE VEDAS
RUTI
(apauruseya-divine revelation or "that which is heard") 1. The four Vedas: Rig, Sma, Yajur, and Atharva 2. Samhitas 3. Brhmanas 4. ranyakas 5. Upanisads

SMRTI

(traditional elucidations, or "that which is remembered")

1. Itihsas (Two Historical "Epics") The Ramayana and the Mahabharata (which includes the Bhagavad-Gita)

2. Puranas (Histories) Maha-puranas (Eighteeen "Great Puranas") Six sttvic puranas (for persons in the mode of goodness) Bhagavata Purana (Srimad-Bhagavatam), Vishnu Purana, Naradiya Purana, Garuda Purana, Padma Purana, Varaha Purana Six rjasic puranas (for persons in the mode of passion) Brahma Purana, Brahmnda Purana, Brahma-vaivarta Purana Mrkandeya Purana, Bhavisya Purana, Vmana Purana Six tmas puranas (for persons in the mode of ignorance) Matsya Purana, Krma Purana, Linga Purana, iva Purana, Skanda Purana, Agni Purana Upapuranas (Eighteen "Lesser Puranas") Sthala puranas (Numerous "Regional Puranas") 3. Upavedas (sciences indirectly related to Vedic study) yur-veda, Gndharva-veda, Dhanur-veda, Sthpatya-veda 4. Vedngas (auxiliary sciences connected with Vedic study) iksa, Chandas, Vykrana, Nirukta, Jyotia, Kalpa

5. Sutras (philosophical aphorisms) rauta-sutra, Grha-sutra, Kalpa-sutra, Dharma-sutra, ulva-sutra, Yoga-sutra, Narada-bhakti-sutra, Vedanta-sutra 6. Parampar writings and commentaries of the great chryas throughout history such as that of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Although most, if not all major world religions revolve around a single book like the Bible or Koran (with the possible exception of the Book of Mormon, the Apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls for certain Christian denominations), the Vedic tradition, however, does not do so. Rather, they have a vast encyclopedic collection of books that contain not only spiritual knowledge, but also material knowledge as well. Material and spiritual knowledge are also sometimes referred to as mundane and transcendental or physical and metaphysical respectively. According to Vedic tradition, the Vedas originally existed as one exceedingly lengthy manuscript, but in order to make this knowledge easily accessible to the common people, Vyasadeva divided it into four distinctive volumes: the Rg Veda (the Veda of sacred sounds), the Sama Veda (the Veda of melodies), the Yajur Veda (the Veda of rituals), and the Atharva Veda (the Veda of incantations). Within the holy Vedas are four corollary sections known as Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanisads. The Samhitas consists of divine mantras for acquiring material prosperity; the Brahmanas deal with the technicalities of sacrifices; the Aranyakas are especially meant for monks who adventure off to the wilderness to fulfill vows; and the Upanisads are highly philosophical texts that essentially elucidate the nature of God and the living entities. The Vedas are divided into three Kandas: Karma-Kanda, Upasana-Kanda, and Jnana-Kanda (pronounced Gheeyan Kanda). It is generally said that the Samhitas and Brahmanas make up the Karma-Kanda division of the Vedas, the Aranyakas the Upasana-Kanda, and the Upanisads the Jnana-Kanda. The Upanisads are without a doubt the most quoted texts within the four Vedas, and it is generally said that there are 108 primary Upanisads (although subsequent research tells us that the Upanisadic literature exceeds well over 1000). Among the 108 primary Upanisads, 11 of them are considered most important which are listed as follows: Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Chandogya, Brhad-aranyaka and Svetasvatara. The Isa Upanisad (also known as the Isopanisad) is actually the briefest of the 11 important Upanisads, but in spite of its brevity, it is considered the foremost. Collectively, the four Vedas, the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanisads are known as sruti (that which is heard). Sruti refers to esoteric knowledge which was

heard through divine revelation by the saints and sages of ancient India. Sruti is often compared to a mother because we hear so much authoritative knowledge coming from our mother. For example, our mother authoritatively informs us where we were born, when we were born, what hospital we were born at, how much we weighed at birth, how tall we were at birth and ultimately who our father is. Without our mother, the unequivocal authority, telling us these things, then it is not possible to know them. Similarly, sruti refers to completely authoritative knowledge thats impossible to acquire with our insignificant speculations and experiments. The writings coming after sruti are collectively known as smrti (that which is remembered). All of the Vedas can be classified into these two categories, namely sruti and smrti. In other words, the word Vedas can be used in two senses: the generic and the specific. In the generic sense, the Vedas refers to smrti, and in the specific sense the Vedas refers to sruti. The context of a sentence generally will determine whether the word Vedas is being used in the generic or the specific sense. Since sruti literature is generally considered exceptionally intricate subject matter for ordinary persons to understand, such literature therefore requires elaboration or cliff notes so to speak, to make it easily understandable. This is the primary purpose of smrti literature. Such literature therefore includes the Itihasas (epics) and the Puranas (histories). There are two primary Itihasas in the Vedic tradition which are known as the Ramayana (The Adventures of Rama) and the Mahabharata (The Glorious History of India). Within the Mahabharata is arguably the most important book throughout the entire Vedas, namely the Bhagavad-Gita (The Holy Song of God). In regards to the Gita, Einstein wrote, When I read the Bhagavad-Gita, and reflect about how God created this universe, everything else seems so superfluous. Similarly, the great philosopher Henry David Thoreau wrote, In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial. As far as the Puranas are concerned, they are categorically divided according to the qualities and faith one has acquired from the three modes of material nature, namely goodness, passion and ignorance. In other words, there are 18 Maha-puranas (Great

Puranas): 6 puranas are meant for those in the mode of goodness, 6 for those in the mode of passion, and 6 for those in the mode of ignorance. Just as there are beginning, intermediate and advanced stages in every aspect of life to gradually raise people from the beginning stage to the advanced stage, so also the Puranas are divided in this way to gradually raise the conditioned being from the platform of ignorance to pure goodness. For example, consider the three stages of life: babyhood, childhood, and adulthood. In babyhood, we all have faith that whatever we see in sight is edible. This is known as ignorant faith. In childhood, though possessing the discrimination to distinguish between whats edible and whats inedible, we ultimately think that the consumption of candy is only necessary. This is known as passionate faith. As far as adulthood is concerned, were completely aware of the fact that a balanced diet is undoubtedly necessary. This is known as good faith. Thus, based on the psychology and materialistic motives of an individual, the Vedas categorizes ones faith as being good, passionate or completely ignorant. Indeed, just consider the faith of a child. The child may have more faith in the notion that his friends care for him more than his parents do if his friends give him candy, as oppose to if his parents do not. Similarly, ones faith is based on the materialistic motives of an individual, and therefore the purpose of the Puranas, nay, all Vedic literature, is meant to elevate ones faith from the platform of ignorance to pure goodness. However, since its not possible to thoroughly study all the Puranas in this day in age, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave a simple method to elevate ones consciousness to pure goodness: simply chant the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra. Among the Puranas, the Bhagavata Purana (The History of God and His Devotees), more commonly known as the Srimad-Bhagavatam (The Beautiful Story of the Supreme Personality of Godhead) is considered the foremost Purana. Besides the Itihasas and the Puranas, smrti literature also includes the Upapuranas (Lesser Puranas) and the Sthala Puranas (Regional Puranas). Not to mention the Upavedas (sciences indirectly related to Vedic study), the Vedangas (auxiliary sciences connected with Vedic study), and the Sutras (books of concise philosophical aphorisms). The Upavedas include Ayur-veda (holistic medicine), Gandharva-veda (music and dance), Dhanur-veda (martial science), and Sthapatya-veda (architecture). The six Vedangas are Siksa (phonetics), Chandas (poetic meter), Vyakarana (grammar), Kalpa (ritual), Nirukta (etymology and

lexicology), and Jyotisa (astronomy and astrology). Among the Sutras are the Srautasutra, Grha-sutra, Kalpasutra, Dharma-sutra, Sulva-sutra, Narada-Bhakti-sutra and many other sutras; however, the most important sutra is the Vedanta-sutra (also known as the Brahma-sutra). According to Vedic tradition, the great sage Vyasa summarized all Vedic knowledge in the aphorisms known as the Vedanta-sutra. But after personally writing the Vedanta-sutra under the instructions of his spiritual master, Narada, he became despondent and still was not satisfied, even after writing so much Vedic literature. Indeed, he felt that after compiling many Vedic literatures and even after writing the Vedanta-sutra, he had failed to truly focus on the essence of all knowledge, namely the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. His suspicion was confirmed by his spiritual master, Narada, who told him that he had indeed neglected and overlooked the central point of all knowledge and would not be satisfied unless he were to directly describe the name, fame, form paraphernalia, and pastimes of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Heeding the advice of his spiritual master, Vyasa wrote the perfect Vedanta commentary, namely the Srimad-Bhagavatam. The prefix Veda means knowledge and the suffix anta means the end; therefore Vedanta means the end of knowledge. The end of all knowledge or the conclusive truth is, according to the Vedanta-sutra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which is elaborately described in the SrimadBhagavatam. Vedanta is also synonymous with the Upanisads, not only because the Upanisads constitute the conclusion of the Vedas, but also because theyre considered the apex of the entire sruti, and for that matter, smriti. Finally, smrti literature also includes the many writings and commentaries of the great acharyas (enlightened teachers) throughout history such as that of Sankaracarya, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Visnu Swami, Nimbarka Swami, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and especially A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (also known as Srila Prabhupada). That the Vedic (Vaisnava) tradition influence has spread so far outside the jurisdiction of India and all over the world is due in large part to the arduous efforts of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, who has produced numerous volumes

of English translations of Indias greatest spiritual classics such as Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam; his work has also been printed in many other foreign languages. As far as the Vedic literature is concerned, it is much more massive than all of the aforementioned categories, but to get an idea of what the primary divisions of the Vedas are, the previous information will prove to be of much avail.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu (The Golden Avatar)