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The Vedas
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Short Description: As mentioned before, there are four Vedas: the Rg Veda, the Yajur Veda, the ... The Rg Veda contains about a 1000 hymns and is divided into 10 books ...
Content Inside: Chapter 2 The Vedas As mentioned before, there are four Vedas: the Rg Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda. Each of the Vedas contains four parts: the hymnal portion (mantras), the ritual portion (brahmanas), the forest teachings (aranyakas) and the philosophical portion (upanishads). It is generally believed that the composition of the Vedas dates back to around 1500 B.C. No one person can be said to have composed them. They are to be viewed as some form of encyclopedic account of the highest thoughts current at that time. This explains the diversity of thought contained in them. The Rg Veda contains about a 1000 hymns and is divided into 10 books (or mandalas). These hymns embody a remarkable poetic tradition and reveal a development of thought which is both instructive and inspiring to trace out. One can see at this early period, a worship of personified natural forces, both dynamic and silent. In many early translations, scholars have used the word ‘god’ to describe these forces. The Sanskrit word is deva which translates as “shining one” or “luminous force”. For example, Indra is the god of thunder and rain, Mitra is the god who regulates the movement of the sun, Varuna is the god of moral order, Agni is the god of fire, Usha the goddess of dawn and Prithvi is the goddess of earth. Whether these hymns represent a worship of natural forces or they indicate a deeper impulse is not clear. There is substantial evidence, as we shall see below, in the writings themselves that it is the latter, as first suggested by Aurobindo. Viewed from this perspective then, they represent the preliminary thought and the stage for the philosophic inquiry of the Upanishads. The opening verse (1.1.1) of the Rg Veda is worth looking at in some detail. Agnimile purohitam yajnasya devam rtvijam hotaram ratna dhatamam. A faithful and literal translation of this verse is:
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