Vedas: are the
scriptures known as ‘Srutis’ considered to be directly received from God by
ancient Rishis through transcendental meditation rather than by inference or
derivation. The origin of the Vedas is said to be hundreds of thousands of
years old when great seers experienced God as the supreme consciousness and
recited the hymns that were revealed to them during their meditation. Since
very ancient times these Vedas have been chanted orally and passed on from one
generation to the next in this way although it is said that many thousands of
hymns got lost too from the original single compilation of Vedas that had grown
out of the revelations heard and passed on by sages by word of mouth.
A few thousand years ago the Vedas are said to have been
arranged into four namely Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda by
Sage Ved Vyasa. Their content relates to praising ancient Vedic practices,
informing sacrifices and rituals, detailing poetically the ancient practices
and specifying magical spells for healing and correcting errors during the
rituals of prayer respectively. Each of the Vedas contain three portions that
is the mantras or ‘Samhitas’, the ritualistic portions or ‘Brahmanas’ and the philosophical portions called
‘Aranyakas’ also known as ‘Jnana Kanda’. Samhitas and Brahmanas together are called the
‘Karma Kanda’
Upanishads: The Upanishads mainly occur within the
Aranyakas or reflective portions of the Vedas.
There are said to be 21 Upanishads in the Rig Veda, 108 in Yajur Veda,
1000 in the Sama Veda and 50 in the Atharva Veda totalling up to 1179.
Traditionally 108 of these are considered most important of which the twelve or
so principal Upanishads that Acharya Adi Shankara has written commentaries on
are called Chandogya, Kena, Aitareya, Kaushitaki, Katha, Mundaka, Taitriyaka,
Brihadaranyaka, Svetasvatara, Isa, Prasna, Mandukya and also Maha-Narayana.
The Upanishads contain the most profound complex details of the Sanaatan
thought promoting virtues, wisdom and a quest for emancipation through understanding
the one single reality of God.
Vedanta: is the
philosophical meaning derived from the Upanishads. Vedanta literally means the
end of the Vedas i.e. a summary or the essence of the Vedas. Thus Vedanta is a summation of all the
contemplative knowledge from the Upanishads but also from the rest of the
Vedas.
In order to understand Vedanta, that is to encapsulate the
fundamental philosophy of the Sanaatan Dharma, the study of three canonical
texts is recommended. These three sources (or ‘three starting points’ called
‘Prasthanatrayi’ in Sanskrit) are the Upanishads (‘Sruti Prasthana’ or the
revealed knowledge as the starting point), the Brahma Sutras (‘Nyaya/Yukti
Prasthana’ or logical reasoning as a starting point) and the Bhagwad Gita
(‘Smriti/Sadhana Prasthana’ or traditional practical knowledge given by Lord
Krishna in the epic ‘Mahabharata’)
The ‘Brahma Sutras’
provide a systematic logical approach for us humans to understand Vedanta
perhaps by classifying, contextualising and ordering the philosophical
knowledge of the Vedas (mainly in the Upanishads parts) as well as the more
detailed practical elucidation of this knowledge in the Bhagwad Gita. The Brahma Sutras are said to consist of 555 aphorisms
composed by Sage Veda Vyasa although
some attribute the Brahma Sutras to Sage Badarayana.
Bhagwad Gita: (Song
of ‘Bhagwan’) is Lord Krishna’s advice to prince Arjuna in response to his
doubts. The importance of doing one’s duty without attachment or expectation
with the knowledge and faith in the supreme God is emphasised in the context of
the Great War in Mahabharata. Lord Krishna expounds upon the paths of ‘Bhakti
Yoga’ (devotion), ‘Karma Yoga’ (selfless action) and ‘Jnana Yoga’ (Knowledge)
to understand God and describes three stages of self-realization of the divine.
These are the supreme ‘Brahman’ as universal energy, ‘Paramatma’ the divine
soul omnipresent within every person and ‘Bhagwan’ the God’s incarnation with a
transcendental form.
