The Rise And Fall Of Vedic Wisdom

HariLakhera · Aug 4, 2019

kaluputti said: ↑

I would like share whatever I have come to know
vedas are words of wisdom 'heard' or realised by ancient rishis , (The word Rishi means a Seer, from dris, (दृश) to see. He is the Mantra-Drashta, seer of Mantra or thought. which was not his own. The Rishis saw the truths or heard them.)...so many and vast knowledge, handed down orally through many generations. Lord vishnu is said to have taken the avatar of sage vyasa,
(Vyasaya vishnu rupaaya vyasa roopaya vishnave-vishnu sahasranamam)
and compiled them and gruped them into four sections...as we generally know as rig,yajur,sama and atharva.They can also be grouped in a dif. way...mantra (brahmacharya), Brahmana (grahasthas), aaranya/upasana (vanaprasthas) and finally upanishads(sannyasins). Vyasacharya then wanted the common man to benefit from the scriptures, srutis and compiled Puranas and Ithihasas . In the Mahabaratha, he wanted to bring the entire gist of the upanishads and wrote Bagavad Gita.. and as glorified by the advaita philosopher Madhusudhana Saraswathi in the gita dhyana sloka.....
sarvopaniṣado gāvo "dogdhā gopālanandanaḥ |
pārtho vatsaḥ sudhirbhoktā dugdhaṁ gītāmṛtaṁ mahat ॥ 4 ॥ This is the reason all acharyas of our sanatana dharma pay their respects to Veda vyasa teacher of teachers next only to Iswara.
Vedas didnt differentiate between male and female, except initially due to transactional purpose, later when we have attained the dharma,artha, kama pursuits, upanishads talk about Atman, the genderless absolute Truth. There were Gargis, Maithreyis who were great in philosophy and brahmavadinis. Vedas are the way of life for all human beings. It recognises the needs of human life and prescribes solutions in gradual doses , we can say.
700 years of invasions and destruction as well as 300 years of occupation made all the glory disappear. Even we were all made to learn history only from the buddha period and the British saw to it that the cultural, educational systems were modified so that we could be broken..but failed.....all this is history now. Naturally we all adopted the western approach, failing to grasp something tangible, looking everything through science. That is why our scriptures advocate value given to veda pramanas.
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Thanks for this detailed update. Vedas, Upanishads, Epics are our treasures, our very identity as Hindus. Some say Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life one should follow as human. The best part is all the wisdom is an accumulation of all good and virtuous found in other traditions and cultures as a result of mingling of different cultures and traditions over a long period of time. This is the only reason all religions talk in the same voice about honesty, truthfulness, compassion.
It is true that for almost 700 years every effort was made, particularly during the British Raj to destroy this one way or the other but it has survived the test of time not because it is Indian, but because it is universal. Humans all over the world are the same-rational and kind and helpful at times and the opposite at other times when their selfish motives are challenged.
Present time still harder. For all the degradation, we cannot blame any foreign power now. We can not at the same time dwell on our past and live in the present at the same time. Some adjustments are but natural.
The bottomline is respect for each other, respect for dissenting view and making suitable changes to fit into modern thinking of gender equality, casteless/colorless society and many other issues.

Thyagarajan · Aug 4, 2019

HariLakhera said: ↑

Thanks for this detailed update. Vedas, Upanishads, Epics are our treasures, our very identity as Hindus. Some say Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life one should follow as human. The best part is all the wisdom is an accumulation of all good and virtuous found in other traditions and cultures as a result of mingling of different cultures and traditions over a long period of time. This is the only reason all religions talk in the same voice about honesty, truthfulness, compassion.
It is true that for almost 700 years every effort was made, particularly during the British Raj to destroy this one way or the other but it has survived the test of time not because it is Indian, but because it is universal. Humans all over the world are the same-rational and kind and helpful at times and the opposite at other times when their selfish motives are challenged.
Present time still harder. For all the degradation, we cannot blame any foreign power now. We can not at the same time dwell on our past and live in the present at the same time. Some adjustments are but natural.
The bottomline is respect for each other, respect for dissenting view and making suitable changes to fit into modern thinking of gender equality, casteless/colorless society and many other issues.
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Yes. I agree. You had beautifully put it and stated the distilled truth in that concluding line.
Thanks and regards.

kaluputti · Aug 4, 2019

Yes, of course Hariji...we cannot be blaming foreign forces, right. The fact is that we do believe in our traditional vedic truths only after it has been 'scientifically' proved. Fallen ones have to rise again, as it is a cyclic process. may be in the years to come, it can happen.Education, which is the only souce of knowledge about our history geography etc should have a total transformation to enable the child right from the age of 3 to learn about the glory of our country and its vedic past.

kaluputti · Aug 11, 2019

Some more thoughts on this ...Though vedic knowledge was passed on to all seeking education, irrespective of case,gender or birth, after a point, later due to unknown reasons, was restricted to particular candidates. While on the one hand anything should be given to a qualified person, and indiscriminate distribution leads to reduction or nil value, on the other , we face the bare fact of abusing this discrimination. Whatever worked in 'those days' may not, now..so what do we do? There is nothing like oral transmission from gen to gen...and it is upto us to highlight the best features of our scriptures, point out the truth of our vedic vision of Oneness to the next.

HariLakhera · Aug 12, 2019

kaluputti said: ↑

Some more thoughts on this ...Though vedic knowledge was passed on to all seeking education, irrespective of case,gender or birth, after a point, later due to unknown reasons, was restricted to particular candidates. While on the one hand anything should be given to a qualified person, and indiscriminate distribution leads to reduction or nil value, on the other , we face the bare fact of abusing this discrimination. Whatever worked in 'those days' may not, now..so what do we do? There is nothing like oral transmission from gen to gen...and it is upto us to highlight the best features of our scriptures, point out the truth of our vedic vision of Oneness to the next.
Click to expand...

I can't say for definite but it all started when the Aryans came to India some 1000 years after the collapse of Indus Valley Civilisation. No one can say for definite but it looks heavy floods in Sindh river destroyed everything and those alive sifted to south, which is called Dravidian Culture. The Aryans thought themselves to be superior and the class divide started. It also gave roots to caste system.
You are right in saying that Vedic knowledge was not the sole preserve of a certain class and was meant for all seekers. Rightly or wrongly, a certain class which called itself Brahmin somehow refused to share it with other lower castes.
In the times we are living in, even that class is moving away from this and seeking other avenues of livelihood. Any one who can is free to learn and spread the knowledge. There are still restrictions on entry to temples, though. The problem is the so called lower caste is not ready yet. If I have to get the horoscope made for my grandson, I will seek a Pandit from the known circles only.