The Vedas English
The Vedas are the four holiest books of the Hindu religion (but the word 'Hindu religion not religious book. Literal meaning of the word Veda is 'Knowledge' or Gyan). Literal meaning of the word Veda is 'Knowledge' or Gyan). Definition of Veda from the Collins English Dictionary Declarative, interrogative, and imperative statements Each sentence in English provides some type of information.
“Killing a bunch of Jihadis may be morally justified, to save humanity from their wrath, but it won't terminate Jihad for long. Jihad or Holy war would keep festering one way or another, until religious fundamentalism is eradicated from the human society. Until the whole humanity learns to scrutinize its most revered scriptures with the sharp tool of reasoning, Jihad will keep on striking over the world. If one does not have the basic conscientious capacity to refute the primitive textual verses of the scriptures that demand one to kill or torture another being for holding a different belief system than one's own, then that entity is no being of the civilized human society, it is merely a pest from the stone-age. No Quran, no Bible, no Gita, no Cow, is greater than the human self.
There shall be hope for harmony and peace in the world, only when fundamentalism is destroyed forever. Harmony is not a luxury, it is an existential necessity of the species. And to achieve it, if a hundred Bibles have to be sacrificed, then be it. But for no Bible, Quran or Gita, can harmony be compromised.” ― Abhijit Naskar.
The Vedas English Pinterest
The word Veda means knowledge, derived from the root 'vid' from which four meanings can be described 'knowledge', 'existing', 'beneficial' and 'thought'. They were revealed to four Rishis (Rsis) named 'Agni', 'Vaayu', 'Aaditya' and 'Angiraa' by the God at the onset of the God's best creation - the Mankind. Patanjali, the author of Yoga-Darshana declares that God is the original teacher for the mankind - 'sa purvesamapi guruh kalenanavacchedat'. Badarayana says 'tattu samanvayat'; that is to say, Vedas must be God's revelations because all they contain tally well with the creation.
Vedas are also called Shruti or Samhita. The Vedas are composed of Mantras.
The mantra, composed in a metre, bears a concept and teaching worth contemplation and adoption. It contains true knowledge, and inspires noble thought and action.
There is nothing in the Vedas that is contrary to what is seen in nature. Over and beyond what we know today, the Vedas may contain many more revelations that we might not be even aware of today.
Vedas contain knowledge about both matter and spirit. The knowledge about matter is in seed form leaving ample room for man to discover further and create his own body of literature. On the other hand, the knowledge pertaining to spirit is at its pinnacle that man will never be able to add anything to that body of knowledge. Till about more than 5000 years ago, Sanskrit was the most prominent language. Learned people like Lord Krishna and Ved Vyaas contributed to literature that contained the essense of the Vedas. However, the downfall of the Brahmin (faculty) community had already started then. With the war of Mahabharat and other events, Lord Krishna was able to unite India and uplift the Khstriya (administration) community which lasted well for next 3000 years; till whence India saw its first invasion with Alexander.
But for 3000 years the downfall of the Brahmin community continued to impact all other communities, viz; Khstriya (administration), Vaishya (commerce) and Sudra (service). Sanskrit started to become the propriety of the Brahmins. The communities started to become by birth and not by action which they follow. The brahmins had started to undermean the Vedas for there personal benefits and supremacy and in the process the true essence of the Vedas was lost. Sanskrit started being replaced with local languages like Tamil, Pali, Prakrit, etc.
To compete with the advent / invasion of various faiths there after like Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Sufism, etc; the Brahmins in the last 2000 years further worked out various literature like Puranas, Bhaagvat (not Bhagvat Gita), etc on containing stories on things that looked great and out of the world but were opposed to the natural and spiritual sciences. The meaning of Vedas were further lost to these scriptures. Then, everything in Sanskrit became as sacred as the Vedas and anything said by the brahmin became as sacred as Vedas even if the Brahmin knew absolutely nothing of the Vedas. In the last 1000 years, Muslims killed the learned people, burnt the sacred books and plundered the places of learnings and temples. The Missionary propaganists in their zeal for conversion, in their anxiety to show the superiority of the Christian Bible, condemned the Vedas in the most positive language at their command. For this purpose they even transgressed the rules of fair honest controversy by quoting the conclusions of Euorpean Scholars on Vedic Religion and Vedic Culture without accompanying qualifications, and without giving th reader any idea of the unsatisfactory character of the translations on which these conclusions were based, though well known to and acknowledged by themselves. The Vedas were revealed to the earliest noble rishis and traditionally handed down to posterity.