Vedas: Vedic Hindu Scriptures Dictionary on Vedas

Vedas

Veda is a generic name for the most ancient Indian sacred literature, i.e. the Rg-veda, Yajur-veda, Sama-veda and Atharva-veda. Each of these books is divided into two portions, mantra and brahmana. The term Veda is generally reserved for the mantras or metrical hymns, especially those of the Rg-veda. Sri Aurobindo has translated and/or commented on many of the Vedic hymns. Most of his writings related to the Vedas have been collected in Volumes 10 and 11of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library(SABCL), The Secret of the Veda, and Hymns to the Mystic Fire.

"I propose...that the Rig-Veda is itself the one considerable document that remains to us from the early period of human thought of which the historic Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries were the failing remnants, when the spiritual and psychological knowledge of the race was concealed, for reasons now difficult to determine, in a veil of concrete and material figures and symbols which protected the sense from the profane and revealed it to the initiated. One of the leading principles of the mystics was the sacredness and secrecy of self-knowledge and the true knowledge of the Gods.

The Veda...is an inspired knowledge as yet insufficiently equipped with intellectual and philosophical terms. We find a language of poets and illuminates to whom all experience is real, vivid, sensible, even concrete, not yet of thinkers and sytematisers to whom the realities of the mind and soul have become abstractions.

The Vedic Rishis believed that their Mantras were inspired from higher planes of consciousness and contained this secret knowledge. The words of the Veda could only be known in their true meaning by one who was himself a seer or mystic; from others the verses withheld their hidden knowledge.

Many of the lines, many whole hymns even of the Veda bear on their face a mystic meaning; they are evidently an occult form of speech, have an inner meaning.

Under pressure of the necessity to mask their meaning with symbols and symbolic words...the Rishis resorted to fix double meanings, a device easily manageable in the Sanskrit language where one word often bears several different meanings, but not easy to render in an English translation and very often impossible....The Rishis, it must be remembered, were seers as well as sages, they were men of vision who saw things in their meditation in images, often symbolic images which might precede or accompany an experience and put it in a concrete form, might predict or give an occult body to it. ...The mystics were and normally are symbolists, they can even see all physical things and happenings as symbols of inner truths and realities, even their outer selves, the outer happenings of their life and all around them."

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, SABCL Vol. 10

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For more articles on Vedas , see: Vedas , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul

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The definition and meaning of Vedas is extracted from the home page of The Integral Yoga Web Site.

" Welcome to the Web site of information on Integral Yoga, a spiritual path founded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

 This site includes introductions to the yoga and to the people and centers who aspire to its golden promise -- including the revolutionary experiments in south India known as the Ashram and Auroville.

 The people whose lives are being transformed by this path comprise a diverse group which spans every continent. We speak many languages and come from all walks of life. And we aspire to an integrated spirituality inclusive of all aspects of life.

 Since the early part of the century, when Sri Aurobindo and the Mother began publishing articles and books, to the present day, as journals and books continue to appear, a large body of literature has grown up related to this yoga. Our web site will contain excerpts, reviews, and texts so you can begin exploring for yourself.

 We will also include news of current meetings, artistic events, cultural exchanges, and conferences around the world.

 The major sections of this site are identified by icons which appear in all the pages of the corresponding sections. These icons are linked to the main page of each section. Within a section, the left and right arrow buttons can be used to move to the documents logically adjacent to the current page. Also provided is a search button to search only the documents in the current section.

Please visit http://www.miraura.org for more information.

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