The new books that appeared afterwards were called Smriti. Smrti literature includes Itihasas (epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata), Puranas (mythological texts), Agamas (theological treatises) and Darshanas (philosophical texts). The Dharmashastras (law books) are considered by many to form part of the smrti. From time to time great law-givers (eg Manu, Yajnavalkya and Parashara) emerged, who codified existing laws and eliminated obsolete ones to ensure that the Hindu way of life was consistent with both the Vedic spirit a ...

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Hindu scripture, Hindu scripture - The Vedas, Hindu scripture - The Upanishads, Hindu scripture - Post-Vedic Hindu scriptures, Hindu scripture - The Bhagavad Gita, Hindu scripture - The Puranas, Hindu scripture - Other Hindu texts

Read more here: » Hindu scripture: Encyclopedia II - Hindu scripture - Post-Vedic Hindu scriptures

Purana

"Literally "ancient"; any one of eighteen sacred books of Hinduism, attributed to Vyasa, which elaborate and popularize the spiritual truths of the Vedas by means of illustrations from the lives of divine incarnations, saints, kings, and devotees, whether historical or mythological.

Bhagavata Purana

It is the fifth purana in length but is the most popular and influencial among the puranas. It is primarily a vaishnava text and is later to and influenced by the Visnupurana. As the name indicates, it describes some of the incarnations of Visnu and particularly that of Krsna. It is a marvellous bhakti work and includes the story of bhagavathas or devotees of the Lord.

"The metaphysical and spiritual legacy of the Vedas and the upanishads is ably synthesized with the agamic tradition of the pancaratras and embraced even non-aryan tribes in its fold."

-- G V Tagare, Ancient Indian Traditions and Mythology, Vol. 7

Devi Mahatmyam

Otherwise known as the Durgasaptasati or the Candi, this is a sacred text to the Divine Mother used for chanting.

(See also: Purana, Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

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

(See also: Vedas, Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Sanskrit literature can be classified under six orthodox heads and four secular heads. The six orthodox sections form the authoritative scriptures of the Hindus. The four secular sections embody the later developments in classical Sanskrit literature.

The six scriptures are: Srutis, Smritis, Itihasas, Puranas, Agamas and Darsanas.

The four secular writings are: Subhashitas, Kavyas, Natakas and Alankaras.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Hindu Scriptures: A full overview of the Hindu and Vedic Scriptures

The Ramayana is the story of Rama. But more significantly, the epic provides a peephole into Vedantic wisdom on the nature of existence, reality and governance.

Vasishtas sagacious discourse to prince Rama was offered at a moment of confusion and crisis in the young princes life, when he was beginning to feel a surge of vairagya at a tender age. While extolling the vairagya state of Rama, Vasishta initiates Rama into the deeper ontological questions of existence and the nature of the mind.

Read more here: » Yoga Vasishta: Vedantic Wisdom in The Yoga Vasishta

The Subhashitas are wise sayings, instructions and stories, either in poetry or in prose. Examples are Bhartriharis three centuries of verses, the Subhashita-Ratna-Bhandagara and Somadeva Bhattas Katha-Sarit-Sagara or Kshemendras Brihat-Katha-Manjari. The Panchatantra and the Hitopadesa also belong to this category.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Secular Writings: Secular Writings in the Vedic Scriptures

The Vedas 

The Vedas are the Divine scriptures of ancient India and in modern times can be traced as least as far back as 12,OOO B.C. a lthough it is generally accepted tat the Vedas appear at different times of the cosmic creation forte benefit of human society. They are considered to be the revelations of the Divine nature, and its relationship within and without us. "Mantra" is the term used to mean Divine sound vibration or the word of God. There are teachings of mantras (hymns), teachings of ritual, theology, and philosophy at the root of all the vedic sciences. The point of all is the knowledge of the soul called "atma vidya", being our real "self" and separate and distinct from the material body , and the material world which surrounds us.

Read more here: » The Vedas: Divine scriptures of ancient India - The Vedas

The Mantra-Samhitas : The Rig-Veda Samhita is the grandest book of the Hindus, the oldest and the best. It is the Great Indian Bible, which no Hindu would forget to adore from the core of his heart. Its style, the language and the tone are most beautiful and mysterious. Its immortal Mantras embody the greatest truths of existence, and it is perhaps the greatest treasure in all the scriptural literature of the world. Its priest is called the Hotri.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Mantra-Samhitas: The Mantra-Samhitas in the Hindu Scriptures

The Agamas : Another class of popular scriptures are the Agamas. The Agamas are theological treatises and practical manuals of divine worship. The Agamas include the Tantras, Mantras and Yantras. These are treatises explaining the external worship of God, in idols, temples, etc. All the Agamas treat of (i) Jnana or Knowledge, (ii) Yoga or Concentration, (iii) Kriya or Esoteric Ritual and (iv) Charya or Exoteric Worship.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Agamas: The Agamas in the Hindu Scriptures

A critical in-depth analysis of the differences and similarities between the New Age movement and the Vedic traditions by Henry Makow PhD

Read more here: » New Age Spirituality: New Age vs. Vedic tradition

In Vedic times, there were no temples as we know them today. Temples were constructed when kingdoms began to flourish. Anand Coomaraswamy observes that the rise of the temple represents the softening of the practice of yagya or sacrifice into puja.

A constructed temple is only a symbol of the original, the body. Is it wise then to chase the symbol, when you have the original?

Read more here: » Spiritual Practices: Mobile Temples of Mind and Body

Gem Therapy for the Modern Age

The history of gemstone therapy dates back for thousands of years. It is known that the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Judaic cultures utilized gems for both healing and general enhancement of life, but it was the ancient Vedic culture of India that gave us the greatest inheritance of this knowledge. The metaphysical properties and how persons can increase their own well-being on the physical, emotional, and even spiritual planes through the proper use of gemstones is a science delineated in the Vedic scriptures to a far greater degree than the texts of any other ancient culture.

Read more here: » Gemstones Crystals: Gem Therapy for the Modern Age

Sacred Geometry: YANTRAS - What is a Yantra?

All ancient cultures had sacred geometric designs representative of their Gods, which had a mantra (or sacred sound vibration) that corresponded to it. The Indians, Egyptians, Jews, Chinese, and Mayans all had systems of "planetary yantras" used to combat malefic influences. Yantra is the ultimate "symbology". In the Vedic culture we find much power and energy said to be held within sacred geometric symbols. They are to be found throughout sacred scriptures, carved in stone, hidden within paintings and in temples.

Read more here: » Sacred Geometry: YANTRAS - What is a Yantra?

J Krishnamurti departed from this world 17 Februarys ago. He was a philosopher deeply sceptical of the smokescreen that is the mind. Krishnamurtis every realisation was the out-come of a spontaneous, non-biased, non-preconceived way of living, with no mind playing the filter. In truth he had little to teach, save that knowledge is not taught but realised. But his audiences made a teaching even out of that!

Read more here: » Krishnamurti: Truth Is a Pathless Land - Krishnamurti

The Sakta Agamas: There is another group of scriptures known as the Tantras. They belong to the Sakta cult. They glorify Sakti as the World-Mother. They dwell on the Sakti (energy) aspect of God and prescribe numerous courses of ritualistic worship of the Divine Mother in various forms

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Sakta Agamas : The Sakta Agamas in the Hindu Scriptures

The Friendly Treatises and the Commanding Treatises : There are four books under this heading: The Valmiki-Ramayana, the Yogavasishtha, The Mahabharata and the Harivamsa. These embody all that is in the Vedas, but only in a simpler manner. These are called the Suhrit-Samhitas or the Friendly Treatises, while the Vedas are called the Prabhu-Samhitas or the Commanding Treatises with great authority. These works explain the great universal truths in the form of historical narratives, stories and dialogues

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Itihasas: The Itihasas in the Hindu Scriptures

The Ramayana, the Adi-Kavya or the first epic poem, relates the story of Sri Rama, the ideal man. It is the history of the family of the solar race descended from Ikshvaku, in which was born Sri Ramachandra, the Avatara of Lord Vishnu, and his three brothers. The ideal characters like Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata and Sri Hanuman that we find in Ramayana firmly establish Hindu Dharma in our minds.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Ramayana: The Ramayana in the Hindu Scriptures

The Mahabharata is the history of the Pandavas and the Pandavas. It gives a description of the great war, the Battle of Kurukshetra, which broke out between the Kauravas and the Pandavas who were cousins and descendants of the lunar race. The Mahabharata is an encyclopaedia of Hindu Dharma. It is rightly called the fifth Veda. There is really no theme in religion, philosophy, mysticism and polity which this great epic does not touch and expound.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Mahabharata: The Mahabharata in the Hindu Scriptures

The Bhagavad-Gita: The most important part of the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad-Gita. It is a marvellous dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna on the battle-field, before the commencement of the great war. Bhagavan Sri Krishna became the charioteer of Arjuna. Sri Krishna explained the essentials of Hindu religion to Arjuna. Just as the Upanishads contain the cream of the Vedas, so does the Gita contain the cream of the Upanishads.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Bhagavad-Gita: The Bhagavad-Gita in the Hindu Scriptures

The Puranas are of the same class as the Itihasas. They have five characteristics (Pancha-Lakshana) viz., history, cosmology (with various symbolical illustrations of philosophical principles), secondary creation, genealogy of kings and of Manvantaras. All the Puranas belong to the class of Suhrit-Samhitas.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Puranas: The Puranas in the Hindu Scriptures