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WISDOM OF THE
VEDAS
1
Contents p
1. What is Dharma ? 2
2. The Vedas 7
2.1 Rig Veda 9
2.2 Yajur Veda 14
2.3 Sama Veda 28
2.4 Atharva Veda 34
Upanishads 43
Puranas 47
Conclusion 56
3. WHAT IS DHARMA ?
2
I’m doing something; it’s I who can do it.’ All right? So God said:
‘Let’s see. Let’s see their little courage, and let them decide.’
So the plans were changed. One had to think now that we should get
incarnations on this earth to help these people, to guide them, to put
them into balance, to put them into proper understanding of dharma, so
they keep to that balance. But every time this ‘I’ refused to accept the
balance. And this ‘I’ goes very far from reality. Today also, when we
come to Sahaja Yoga, I see people, they don’t grow very fast. Because
of this ‘I’ they have questions, they have doubts, they have problems.
Because of this original sin people cannot grow very fast. That, ‘I am
the one, I am free. Why that? Why this?’ Who are you to ask
questions? Who has made you? Have you made yourself? What did you
do to become a human being? Why this kind of egoistical behaviour
towards God? Why God has made us? Why this thing?”
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi : Shri Durga Puja, Vienna, Austria, 26.11.1982.
3
life in nature, society, family, as well as the individual
level. Dharma encompasses ideas such as duty, rights,
character, vocation, religion, customs and all behaviour
considered appropriate, correct or morally upright. (...) In
common parlance, adharma means that which is against
nature, immoral, unethical, wrong or unlawful. (...)
Manusmriti, written by the ancient sage Manu, prescribes
10 essential rules for the observance of dharma: Patience
(dhriti), forgiveness (kshama), piety or self control (dama),
honesty (asteya), sanctity (shauch), control of senses
(indraiya-nigrah), reason (dhi), knowledge or learning
(vidya), truthfulness (satya) and absence of anger (krodha).
Manu further writes, "Non-violence, truth, non-coveting,
purity of body and mind, control of senses are the essence
of dharma". Therefore dharmic laws govern not only the
individual but all in society.” (Wikipedia)
4
“In Hinduism, dharma is the religious and moral law
governing individual conduct and is one of the four ends of
life. In addition to the dharma that applies to everyone
5
(sadharana dharma)—consisting of truthfulness, non-injury,
and generosity, among other virtues—there is also a
specific dharma (svadharma) to be followed according to
one’s class, status, and station in life. Dharma constitutes
the subject matter of the Dharma-sutras, religious manuals
that are the earliest source of Hindu law.” ( The Editors of
Encyclopædia Britannica)
6
4. THE VEDAS
8
literature. The whole of Rigveda and most of Atharvaveda
are in the form of poetry, or hymns to the deities and the
elements.
Samaveda is in verses that are to be sung and Yajurveda is
largely in short prose passages
10
The hymns include an expression of monotheism,
for example:.
“They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, and he is
heavenly nobly-winged Garutman.
To what is One, sages give many a title they call it
Agni, Yama, Matarisvan.”
Rigveda 1.164.46,
11
RIG VEDA
Hymns to Indra
4 To him, to Indra sing your song.
5 Nigh to the Soma-drinker come, for his enjoyment, these pure drops,
The Somas mingled with the curd.
6 Thou, grown at once to perfect strength, wast born to drink the Soma juice,
Strong Indra, for preeminence.
7 O Indra, lover of the song, may these quick Somas enter thee:
Pray they bring bliss to thee the Sage. (hymn V)
5 Mighty is Indra, yea supreme; greatness be his, the Thunderer:
Wide as the heaven extends his power. (hymn VII)
5 Lord of the thunder, thou didst burst the cave of Vala rich in cows.
The Gods came pressing to thy side, and free from terror aided thee,
6 I, Hero, through thy bounties am come to the flood addressing thee.
Song-lover, here the singers stand and testify to thee thereof. (hymn XI)
6 Here are the drops of Soma juice expressed on sacred grass: thereof
Drink, Indra, to increase thy might.
12
7 Welcome to thee be this our hymn, reaching thy heart, most excellent:
Then drink the Soma juice expressed.
8 To every draught of pressed-out juice Indra, the Vrtra-slayer, comes,
To drink the Soma for delight. (hymn XVI)
Hymns to Agni
Hymns to Varuna
9 He knows the pathway of the wind, the spreading, high, and mighty wind
He knows the Gods who dwell above. (hymn XXV)
Hymns to Mitra-Varuna
Come to us, Kings who reach to heaven, approach us, coming hitherward.
These milky drops are yours, Mitra and Varuna, bright Soma juices blent with milk. (hymn
CXXXVII)
Hymns to Rudra
4 To Rudra Lord of sacrifice, of hymns and balmy medicines,
We pray for joy and health and strength.
5 He shines in splendour like the Sun, refulgent as bright gold is he,
The good, the best among the Gods.
13
Hymns to Surya
4 Swift and all beautiful art thou, O Surya, maker of the light,
Illuming all the radiant realm. (hymn L)
14
rain making veda mantra
15
the universe originates through the evolution of an
impersonal force, manifested as male and female
principles. Other hymns describe a personal creator,
Prajapati, the Lord of creatures, from whom came the
heavens and the earth and all the other Gods. One hymn
describes the universe as emerging from the sacrifice of a
cosmic man (Purusha) who was the source of all things.
Within the vedic accounts of the origin of things, there is a
tension between visions of the highest reality as an
impersonal force, or as a creator God, or as a group of
Gods with different jobs to do in the universe. Much of
Hinduism tends to accept all these visions simultaneously,
claiming that they are all valid as different facets of a
single truth, or ranks them as explanations with different
levels of sophistication. It is possible, however, to follow
only one of these explanations, such as believing in a
single personal God while rejecting all others, and still
claim to be following the Vedas. In sum, Hinduism does
not exist as a single belief system with one textual
explanation of the origin of the universe or the nature of
God, and a wide range of philosophies and practices can
trace their beginnings somewhere in the hymns of the
Vedas. (For more information see: Wikipedia)
16
Yajna means "sacrifice, devotion, worship, offering", and
refers in Hinduism to any ritual done in front of a sacred
fire, often with mantras.
17
For instance:
Samhitas
The Vajasaneyi Samhita has forty chapters or adhyayas,
containing the formulas used with the following rituals:
Chapters of the White Yajurveda
Chapte
r Day
Ritual Name Nature of Ritual
s
No.
18
Cup of Victory.
Inauguration of a
Vajapeya and Rajas King. Offering of
9-10
uy butter and Sura (a
kind of beer or wine)
to fire.
Offerings
of Masara (rice-
barley liquor plus
boiled millet) to fire.
Expiate evil
indulgences in
19-21 Sautramani [
soma-drinking. For
dethroned king, for
soldiers going to
war for victory, for
regulars to acquire
cattle and wealth.
19
soldiers, wherein
anyone who stops or
harms the
wandering horse is
declared enemy of
state. The horse is
returned to the
capital and is
ceremoniously
slaughtered by the
soldiers. Eulogy to
the departed horse.
Prayers to deities.
Supplementary
26-29 formulas for above
sacrifices.
Symbolic sacrifice
of Purusha (Cosmic
Man). Nominal
victim played the
part, but released
uninjured after the
30-31 Purushamedha ceremony.
A substitute
for Ashvamedha (hor
se sacrifice). The
ritual plays out the
cosmic creation.
20
This ritual is a
sacrifice for
Universal Success
and Prosperity.
Ritual for one to be
wished well, or [45
32-34 Sarvamedha 10 someone leaving the ]
home, particularly
for solitude
and moksha, who is
offered "curd and
ghee (clarified
butter)".
Ritual funeral-
related formulas
for cremation.
35 Pitriyajna
Sacrifice to the
Fathers and
Ancestors.
21
This chapter is not
an external sacrifice
ritual-related. It
is Isha Upanishad, a
philosophical
treatise about inner
Self (Atman, Soul).
The verse 40.6
40 states, "The man
who in his Self
beholds all
creatures and all
things that be, and
in all beings sees
his Self, then he
doubts no longer,
ponders not.
22
“(...) but mainly what they did before Rama was the Yagnyas, the Vedas, with
which they prayed to different elements. Elements have made our chakras, and
they tried to evoke the deities of the Elements. (...)
Now these Yagnyas were created to evoke the deities within the spinal column
actually. And for these Yagnyas they used to sit down and do all these havanas
the way we do it. But at that time the Rakshasas would come and try to spoil
the Yagnya. Because Yagnyas are to be done with a pure heart and with
cleanliness and with purity. It should not be insulted. There is a protocol about
it. While they thought that if we insult the deities there then the deities will
disappear and their Yagnyas will be spoiled.”
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi: Ram Navami, Chelsham Road, London, UK,
02.04.1982
“First harnessing the mind, Savita; creating thoughts and perceiving light, brought Agni
from the earth.
Harnessing the gods with mind; they who go with thought to the sky, to heaven, Savita
23
instigates those who will make great light.
With the mind harnessed, we are instigated by god Savita, for strength to go to heaven.
Whose journey the other gods follow, praising the power of the god, who measured the
radiant regions of the earth, he is the great god Savita.
God Savita, impel the ritual, impel for good fortune the lord of ritual !
Divine Gandharva, purifier of thought, purify our thoughts ! May the lord of speech make
our words sweet !
24
of dharma, karma and moksha (liberation from sorrow,
freedom, emancipation, self-realization).
“But when he [Self] fancies that he is, as it were, a god,
or that he is, as it were, a king,
or "I am this altogether," that is his highest world,
This indeed is his (true) form, free from desires, free from evil, free from fear.
25
26
Kanda IV
27
Vyasa writing the Vedas some 5,000 years ago
28
the six schools of Hindu philosophy, particularly
the Vedanta school. The classical Indian music and dance
tradition considers the chants and melodies in Samaveda
as one of its roots.
The Samaveda is called a "storehouse of knowledge of
chants"; it contains notated melodies, and these are
probably the world's oldest surviving ones.
29
Tapas (austerity, meditation) is the second, while dwelling as
a Brahmacharya for education in the house of a teacher is third.
All three achieve the blessed worlds. But the Brahmasamstha – one who is
firmly grounded in Brahman – alone achieves immortality.”
Chandogya Upanishad 2.23.1
30
31
32
The 7000 year old Sama Veda is always sung with
a scientific exactness and in accordance with nada
yoga sadhana.
33
2.4 Atharva Veda
Above rock inscription is from the Indian Emperor Asoka, from 258 BC, and found in Afghanistan. The
inscription renders the word Dharma in Sanskrit as Eusebeia in Greek, suggesting Dharma in ancient
India meant: spiritual maturity, devotion, piety, duty towards and reverence for human community
34
Vedas contain all things knowable by man. They deal with
mundane necessities as well as spiritual realization.
Above and beyond all knowledge, there are specific
directions for spiritual realization. Knowledge involves a
gradual raising of a human to a more spiritual life through
varna (brahmana – intellectual), ksatriya (ruler), vaisya
(merchant), sudra (worker) and asrama (brahmacharya,
student), grhastha (family), vanaprastha (retired),
sannyasa (mendicant).
35
There are three different sources of vedic knowledge, called
prasthana-traya. The Upanisads are known as sruti-prasthana, the
scriptures following the principles of vedic knowledge (Vedangas) as
well as Mahabharata, Bhagavad-gita, and Puranas are known as smrti-
prasthana and Vedanta-sutras which present the vedic knowledge on
the basis of logic and arguments is known as nyaya-prasthana. All
scientific knowledge of transcendence must be supported by sruti,
smrti and a sound logical basis (nyaya ). Smrti and nyaya always
confirm that which is said in the sruti.
36
From the point of view of common human
activities sense gratification is the basis of
material life. To cater to this aim, there are
three paths mentioned in the Vedas:
37
The Atharvaveda (from atharvānas and veda meaning
"knowledge") is the "knowledge storehouse of atharvānas,
the procedures for everyday life". The Atharvaveda is a
collection of 730 hymns with about 6,000 mantras, divided
into 20 books. About a sixth of the Atharvaveda text
adapts verses from the Rigveda, and except for Books 15
and 16, the text is in poem.
he Atharvaveda is sometimes called the "Veda of magical
formulas”. The Samhita layer of the text represents a 2nd
millennium BCE tradition of magico-religious rites to
address anxiety, spells to remove maladies believed to be
caused by demons, and herbs- and nature-derived potions
as medicine. Many books of the Atharvaveda Samhita are
dedicated to rituals without magic.
38
It’s most ancient layer.
Some examples
“Let marrow be put together with marrow, and joint together with joint,
together what of the flesh fallen apart, together sinew and together your bone.
Let marrow come together with marrow, let bone grow over together with bone.
We put together your sinew with sinew, let skin grow with skin.”
Atharvaveda 4.15
39
Harms against fever, jaundice and diseases
Numerous hymns of the Atharvaveda are prayers and
incantations wishing a child or loved one to get over some
sickness and become healthy again. The Vedic era
assumption was that diseases are caused by evil spirits,
external beings or demonic forces who enter the body of a
victim to cause sickness.
Hymn 5.21 of the Paippalāda edition of the text, for
example, states:
“Heaven our father, and Earth our mother, Agni the men-watcher,
let them send the ten days fever far away from us.
O fever, these snowy mountains with Soma on their back have made the wind,
the messenger, the healer for us,
Disappear from here to the Maratas.
Neither the women desire you, nor the men whosoever,
Neither a small one, nor a grown-up weeps here from desire of fever.
Do not harm our grown-up men, do not harm our grown-up women,
Do not harm our boys, do not harm our girls.
You who simultaneously discharge the balasa, cough, udraja, terrible are your
missiles,
O fever, avoid us with them.”
Atharvaveda 5. 21
Remedy from medicinal herbs
“The tawny coloured, and the pale, the variegated and the red,
the dusky tinted, and the black – all Plants we summon hitherward.
I speak to Healing Herbs spreading, and bushy, to creepers, and to those whose
sheath is single,
I call for thee the fibrous, and the reed like, and branching plants, dear to
Vishwa Devas, powerful, giving life to men.
The conquering strength, the power and might, which ye, victorious plants
possess,
Therewith deliver this man here from this consumption, O ye Plants: so I prepare
the remedy.”
Atharvaveda 8.7
40
Prayer for peace
“Give us agreement with our own; with strangers give us unity.
Do ye, O Asvins, in this place join us in sympathy and love.
May we agree in mind, agree in purpose; let us not fight against the heavenly
spirit.
Around us rise no din of frequent slaughter, nor Indra's arrow fly, for day is
present !”
Atharvaveda 7.52
More posiobilities
Charm against cough.
Charm with the plant agasringi to drive out Rakshas, Apsaras and Gandharvas.
The pearl and its shell as an amulet bestowing long life and prosperity.
41
“We have conditionings of our families, of our religion, of our country. These
conditionings, as far as possible, are to be seen clearly that we have got it
through our family. If you are born a Christian you'll always be more attached to
Christ. Christ you have not seen, you don't know whether he existed or not,
whether this bible is true or not, but you'll be more attached to bible. Now if you
are a Hindu, you'll be more attached to Gita or to Vedas or something. This
creates imbalance because we must have the same attitude towards all the
religions, towards all the scriptures, that's the sign of a saint. So this
conditioning has to go.”
42
Upanishads (Vedanta and six systems of philosophy)
43
In the Upanishads the description is more or less negation
of the material conception of everything, up to the
Supreme Lord. It is very important to note that there is no
denial of the spiritual, absolute, transcendental
conception in the Upanishads. The purpose of the
Upanishads is to philosophically establish the personal
feature of the Absolute Truth as transcendental to
material names, forms, qualities and actions.
44
There are 108 Upanishads
45
The impersonalist Uttara (brahma) mimamsa philosophers
say that everything is an illusion.
46
Puranas
All men are not equal. There are men who are conducted
by the mode of goodness, others who are under the mode
of passion and others who are under the mode of
ignorance.
47
Dharma according to Patanjali Yoga
48
“In the beginning, there was desire, which
was the first seed of mind...”
Hymn of Creation, Rig Veda
49
Karma and dharma
50
In order to achieve good karma it is important to live
according to dharma: what is right. This involves doing
what is right for the individual, the family, the class or
caste and also for the universe itself. Dharma is like a
cosmic norm and if one goes against the norm, it can
result in bad karma. So, dharma affects the future
according to the karma accumulated. Therefore one's
dharmic path in the next life is the one necessary to bring
to fruition all the results of past karma.
51
“For the holy Gods Savitar first created immortality, the highest
portion. Then as a bondage for mortals he unfolded successive lives
(anucina jivita).”
Rig Veda IV.54.2
Indra
“The singers of Gayatri celebrate you, Indra, lord of song and joy, with the
hymns of Sama Veda.”
52
“1. HOLD fast your Godlike sway, O Soma-Rudra: let these our sacrifices
quickly reach you. Placing in every house your seven great treasures, bring
blessing to our quadrupeds and bipeds. 2 Soma and Rudra, chase to every quarter
the sickness that hath visited our dwelling. Drive Nirrti away into the distance,
and give us excellent and happy glories. 3 Provide, O Soma-Rudra, for our bodies
all needful medicines to heal and cure us. Set free and draw away the sin
committed which we have still inherent in our persons. 4 Armed with keen
shafts and weapons, kind and loving, be gracious unto us, Soma and Rudra.
53
Release us from the noose of Varuna; keep us from sorrow, in your tender loving-
kindness.”
getting destroyed.”
54
+
55
By means of conclusion
56
57
58
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