Synopsis of Four Vedas
1. In the four Vedas, namely Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda, there are 20,379 Mantras in total as on today.
a. Rig Veda ----- 10552 Mantras
b. Yajur Veda ----- 1975 Mantras
c. Sama Veda ----- 1875 Mantras
d. Atharva Veda ----- 5977 Mantras
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20, 379 Mantras
2. Rig Veda has been arranged consisting of 10 mandals, 1028 Suktas and 10552 Mantras.
Yajur Veda has forty chapters and 1975 mantras.
In sama Veda there are 640 mantras in the PURVARCHIKA part and its UTTARARCHIKA part there are 1225 mantras where as in middle part contains only 10 mantras making 1875 in all.
In Atharva Veda there are 20 KANDAS, 731 Suktas and 5977 mantras.
3. Very very deep involvement in intense analysis and deep thinking are the mantras all about.
4. Hindu religion is called vedic religion or vice-versa. Again that which has propounded in the Vedas is Vedic religion.
5. Behind the creation of the universe, the Vedas constitute the wisdom. Vedas are the sources of the true knowledge. For all times and all climes; the pronouncements in the Vedas are valid. For the physical, spiritual and social development of the mankind the four Vedas are the store – house of knowledge. These Vedas are called Rig, Yajuh, Sama and Atharva respectively.
6. At the beginning of the every cycle of creation for the well being of the mankind the almighty God imparts the knowledge of the four Vedas.
7. The Vedas have not been authored by anybody in this universe. These are not man – made. Enabling him to attain this ultimate goal God reveals the Vedic wisdom to man as the beginning of creation. So that he can lead his life with adequate knowledge and perception. By the ancient sages in their inner hearts, the Vedas were first received which formed the primordial pure thoughts of the human kind.
8. That the Vedas emanated from God Himself there is proof in the Vedas, (Rig Veda 10,90,9) which is as follows
“Thasmat Yajnat Sarvahutah
Richah Samani Yajnire
Chhandamsi Yajnire Tasmat
Yajuh Tasmat ajayata (Rig 10,90,9)”
It means “ Listen ‘O’ mankind – I have created this beautiful mother Veda for your well being.”
In Satapatha Brahman, Sage Yajnavalkya has mentioned as follows:-
“Asya mahato bhutasya nishvasitam etad yad rigvedo yajurvedah Samavedo, Atharvaginasah (Satapatha 14,5,4,10)
It means:- As the living being breathes in one breathe out without any effort, so the supreme being revealed Rig, Yajuh, Sama and Atharva Vedas.
9. In Mahabharat, Maharshi Vedavyas has written as follows:- “ Anadi nidhana nitya vagutsrusta Svayambhreva adau vedamayi dibya yatah Satah Sarvah Pravruttayah.” (Mahabharata, S.P.232.34)
It means: - The eternal God head revealed the timeless Vedas, at the beginning of creation. All activities of mankind were inspired out of them.
10. In his annotation on Vedanta Adi Sankacharya has spoken as follows:-
“The wisdom of Vedas which has the stamp of omniscience could not have emerged from anyone but the omniscient Supreme Being Himself.”
In “Satya Prakasha” Swami Dayananda has stated clearly as follows:- “No one can imbibe knowledge unless taught by someone. If the divine had not revealed the Vedas to the seers and sages of the dawn of creation, none could have acquired any knowledge any time later on. The hymns of the Vedas choked in up-going and down-coming rhythmic voices and in various meters like Gayatri, Anustup etc. could have been emanated from only by omniscient himself.”
According to Swami Vivekanandaji Maharaj “The Vedas embody the primordial wisdom and are the divine voice. If exists in eternity past, present and future. As the creation has no beginning and no end, so has the divine voice has no beginning and no end.”
11. Four sages first received the revealed words of the four Vedas in their hearts at the state of the creation. This has become the source of all human wisdom.
As adduced in the scriptures there is ample proof for this. Rig Veda comes out through a sage by name Agni, Yajurveda through the sage Vayu, Samaveda through the sage Surya or Aditya and Atharva veda through Angira.
These sages are the extra ordinary pure powerful and superior human beings. They are all highly evolved. In body vitality, mind and intellect they are all extraordinary and in Vedic language they are called “Rishs”. Into the deepest meaning of the words in the hymns, a Rish’s insight can penetrate and Henie there is fit recipients for comprehension of the Vedic wisdom.
12. Through the four mouths, it is said, Brahma recited the four Vedas.
For the welfare of mankind, through his manifested will Brahma revealed the Vedic knowledge to the four RISHIS. This is purely a symbolical description as Brahma chanting the Vedas through his four mouths. From the four original teachers, a great soul called “ Paramesti Brahma” learnt the Vedas, after the revelation. In order to enable the mankind to extent its knowledge of the universe and fulfill that objective of creation, the holy pasemesthi Brahma extracted the knowledge of four Vedas from the four Rishis named Agni, Vayu, Aditya and Angira.
13 From the molecule to the Supreme Being, Rig Veda describes attributes of everything. For all noble activities and symbolic rituals, hymns of Yajur Veda infuse inspiration. Sama Veda contains prayers to divine in verse and Atharveda deals with various physical metaphysical sciences.
Rik means poetry, Yajuh stands for prose, Sama is chant or singing, Atharva contains all the three.
14 From the beginning of the creation, four divisions of the Vedas have been existing. No human being has done this as depicted in manypuranas.
15 There are three kinds of accents in the Vedas. They are 1. Udatta (which is a cute accents), 2. Anudatta (accentless) and the third is Svarita which is known as mixed tone.
16 In a mantra, the number of letters determines its CHHAND or Meter.
If a mantra consists of twenty four letters. It is called Gayatri chhanda or metre. If it contains thirty two letters it is named as “Anustup” chhanda and forty eight letters in a mantra is said to be the JAGATI CHHAND.
17 The revealed words of God are the Vedas. Into these revealed words or mantras, Rishi, the seer has only given the vision or insight. The sage who has first penetrated into the depth of a particular revelation of God by elaborating it for human understanding is famous as the Rishi of the mantra.
18 The subject matter that has been dealt in that mantra has been signified as the Devata of that particular mantra.
Take for example where Agni is Devata. In this case where Agni is Devata, the mantra has naturally been described subjects like the universal soul, individual Soul, the wise being the gust ruler, the pioneer, fire etc.
19 As the beginning of creation, the Vedas revealed wisdom. After the revelation of Vedas the history of mankind started. Hence the later unfolding of human history, they would not contain. The eternal words are the Vedas only. In every cycle of creation they are like the sun and the moon. On the other hand, every cycle of creation has its own kind of geography, history like different lands, rivers, sages, rulers, etc. To look for human history of geographical feature in the Vedas, therefore, it amounts to ignorance.
20 The primordial vocabulary of the Vedas had been put into use by the sages and seers and accordingly named various rivers, objects, men, mountains and activities etc. For one who attracts is the vedic word Krishna and it stands for black also. Similarly electricity means Arjun & vice-versa. Any long river is signified as Ganga and Ayodhya stands for human body. From vedic vocabulary all proper nouns have been derived as the Vedas do not contain proper nouns.
21 Before embarking of the study of Vedas, it is very essential to cultivate austere and disciplined life in order to go through the key books of vedanga.
Every human being has a right to study Vedas as every human being has a right to partake water air fire etc. created by the almighty. Words of God should be and must be understood by every human being in his life. This is equally applicable to women also.
22 Women have a right to study Vedas as men in their lives and as the Vedas are transcended words of the divine. Hence they are meant for all human beings irrespective of men and women.
There were women sages in ancient times too as well as their male counterparts. Women should have adequate knowledge of these sacred texts.
23 Gayatri mantra is distinguished as the transcendental maxim though all mantras in the Vedas are equally edifying of all the 20379 mantras is the four Vedas. Upanishads describe Gayatri as the soul of Vedas. Vedas themselves describe Gayatri as the “Bestower of every thing”.
To inspire wisdom and realization, prayers go out to the supreme in this mantra only.
24 The life-breath of all creatures is the almighty God. He is the remover of all pains and evils. He is the motivator of the universe and Bestower of all bliss. That excellent splendor of the creator is to be perceived through and through. To follow the various path the human beings are to direct their intellectual faculties to the excellent splendor of the great God.
25 Mahamrutunjaya prayer or mantra is found in Yajuh Veda (YV.111.60) which has got a very prominent role in the minds of the Vedic people.
Its meaning is really wonderful and one should know it before uttering that mantra. “We bow-down to the supreme being who governs time and the universe itself. We pray to tree us from the subservience to death and from imprisonment in illusion like a ripe, saluted, nutritious water melon – But pray do not deny us immortality and liberation.”
26 Any section of a mantra which is complete in itself is a sukti. These sukties contain priceless exhortations and deep mysticism.
27 On the Vedas, the first ever books of commentary and exposition are called books of Brahmana Authored by human beings. These are the first Vedic literature.
The famous books on this category are as follows:
a. Aitareya Brahman of Rig Veda
b. Satapatha Brahman of Yajur Veda
c. Sama Brahmana of Sama Veda
d. Gopatha Brahman of Atharva Veda
28 To elucidate the Vedas, Rishis have written some books. They are called VEdangas. There are six of them which are as follows:
a. Siksha (the rules of pronunciation and phoneties) ,
b.Kalpa (Dharma Sutra, Srcuta Sutra, Grihya Sutra, Shulva Sutra),
c. Vyakaran (Grammar),
d.Nirukta (etomology),
e.Chhanda (Prosody),
f. Jyotish (Astronomy).
29 Similarly Upangas refer to a system of philosophy. There are six such systems. They are:- Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Samkhaya, Yoga, Vedanta and Mimansa.
30. There are six profounder for these six philosophical systems:-
a. Nyaya system was formulated by the sage Goutam.
b. Sage Kapil was the formulator of Samkhya
c. Sage Kanad – Vaiseshika System
d. Patanjali – Yoga System
e. Vyas --- Vedanta System
f. Mimansa system has been formulated by Jaimini Rishi.
30 There are four upavedas which are as follows:-
a. AYur Veda
b.Dhanur Veda
c. Gandharv Veda
d.Artha Veda
1. From Rig veda, Ayurved has been derived
2. Dhanurved is from Yahur veda
3. Gandharva veda is from Sama veda
4. Arthaved is from Atharva Veda.
31 The maxim of personal and social behaviour for human beings have been laid down in Smriti Sastras. Till today we find twenty four different smrities which are in existence. The most reputed one is the Manu Smruti authored by Manu.
32 Geeta is described as the ambrosial milk of the upanishadic wisdom. The essence of Geeta is that the soul is immortal while the body is mortal. Do not give up action out give up the desire for the fruit of the action.
Bhagabat Geeta describes the teaching of the Lord Sri Krishna to Arjun before the Mahabharat war. Which is in Bhisma Parva?
33 Books written by ancient masters are called Purans, Setapatha Brahmans & Aitreya Brahmans are the exampled of this.
34 God’s own precept is Sruti or the Vedas. To literally dilute the Vedic hymns and language is not at all possible. All compositions other than Vedas are by men only. In to these later books self-seeking people have introduced biased and prejudiced ideas in course of time.
Unequivocally the Rishis have said that in case of conflict between the precept in the Vedas and that in smrutis, the Vedas have to be taken as the ultimate authority. The Vedas have enumerated only what is good for all. Also what stands of reason which is embedded in truth?
35 Vedas differ from other scriptural writings in many ways. From the absolute godhead Vedas have emanated while the other scriptures embody the teachings and precepts of great, men and saints. As the sun and the moon, Vedic tenets are immutable.
Vedas are the primordial and complete knowledge where as scriptures writing of men might have been based on the Vedas.
36 It is said to be very difficult to understand the language of the Vedas. Different people make very different interpretations of them. Hence for the ordinary people to understand Veda is a very herculian task.
On God’s creation the nature of the sun, air, fire etc has not been fully understood so far. Through the process of research scientists and seekers are trying to understand more and more about the creation.
Vedangas have been written and so have been born philosophical systems various branches of knowledge like Ayurved, Arthaved, Nyayaved, Dhanurved etc. have been written. All human efforts are rooted in Vedas. But we have not been able to master Vedas fully and completely.
The Vedic words which have multi-faceted meaning are symbolic in nature.
To a disciplined life knowledge of vedangas and practices of yoga are certainly helpful in the effort to understand the Vedic terminology.
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