What Vedas teach us? A Quote:

यादृश्मिन् धायि तमपस्यया विदत्

(ऋग्वेद/Rigveda- 5.44.)

मनुष्य जिस विषय में अपना मन लगा देता है, उसे अपने पुरुषार्थ से प्राप्त कर लेता है।

By dedicated effort one is blessed with whatever his heart is set upon .

कितना सच है यह वेदवाक्य…..

Vedas and Indian Culture

Most of us Indians hardly know what all were the subject matters of Vedas that has a legacy of thousands of years. Here is some aspects of the Vedas that makes me proud of. Think of our wise poet Rishi who wrote and sang these hymns thousands of years ago. It has been taken from a book of Dr. A C Bose, ‘The Call of the Vedas’:

The whole Indian culture is based on the fundamental values formulated in the Vedic hymns. These source-books of Indian religion and culture has provided one of highest objective to live a peaceful society and life.In addition to the spiritual and moral values the Veda thinks in terms of physical and material well-being. Perhaps for the first, our very early scripture Rigveda speak of the optimum duration of life as a hundred years.The Yajurveda adds to this Rigvedic idea by adding that there should be the efficiency of sight, hearing and speech and prosperity going with long life.The Atharva Veda adds to these knowledge and progress.

The Veda also shows tenderness for children, e.g. Vena (the loving and beloved One) is caressed as a child by the poets with their hymns:— ‘the hymns ‘the Child, the golden-hued Bird.’ The poet asks his friends to ‘decorate the Yajna (rite) as they decorate a child to make it look beautiful.’ The Rigveda says elsewhere that the sun and the moon ‘go round like two playing children around the Yajna.’ Children are the symbols of racial immortality. A sage prays : ‘May I be immortal through my children.’

The Atharva Veda sets the ideal of the joint family in fine language. It desires ‘union of hearts and minds and freedom from hate’ and wishes the members to ‘love one another as the cow loves the calf she has borne ’ and ‘through common desire have one aim, be of one mind, following one leader.’ Their food and store of water are to be common, and their unity is to be symbolised by their gathering round the domestic fire in worship like the spokes of a wheel round its nave.

The Rigveda compares an ideal house to a lotus lake and to a divine mansion. The Yajurveda (describes the home as a place ‘on which man, sojourning, contemplates, in which there is much love.’

Hospitality, according to the Veda, is an essential domestic virtue. The House of an inhospitable man is no home, says a Rigvedic sage.According to this ideal a good householder must share his food with the needy. ‘He is all sin who eats all alone.

The Vedic people think tenderly of their cattle. These are associated with the beauty of their life, as the following hymn addresses to the House shows ;

“May there come to thee in the evening

the calf and the little boy (kumdra)

and cattle streaming along.”

The loving song of prayer has been compared to the lowing of a ‘cow for her calf.’Make our house happy with your pleasant lowings’ is said in another Rigvedic hymn addressed to the cow. While wishing that the cow should have many calves, the poet also wants that she should ‘graze on good pastures and drink pure water at good drinking places. ’ He knows the high nutritive value of the milk diet : ‘ Ye Cows, you fatten the emaciated and make the unlovely look beautiful.’ He records his gratitude : ‘ The cows have brought us good fortune. To me the cows are Bhaga, they are Indra.’ Here one can find the root of the special sanctity attached to the cow in later times.

In reading the Veda one feels that the non-human creatures were not looked down upon, as they are now, as lower animals. The beauty of beasts has often been admired along with human beauty, as in the Atharva Veda :

‘the majesty and lustre in males,

in the hero and the steed,

in the wild beast and in the elephant,

and the radiance that is in the maiden.

Vedas and Harmony in family

Vedas have spoken about the HARMONY in a family,among the people of a state as well as among people’s of different states.Even today, the hymns are pretty relevant if we can learn, assimilate, and bring them in use to reduce the chaos in social life. (This is quoted from ‘Thus Spake Vedas’ published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai-4)

1. Harmony in a family: I will make you be of one heart and of one mind, free from hate.Love each other as the mother-cow loves the calf born to her. Let the son be loyal to the father and of one mind with the mother.Let the wife speak sweet and gentle words to the husband. Let not brother hate brother, nor sister hate sister. Unanimous and united in purpose, speak with each other in a friendly manner.

2. Harmony among the people of a state: Assemble, speak with each other, let your mind be united through mutual knowledge….May the aim be common, the assembly common and the thoughts of these people united. Be of one mind so that you may live happily together.

3. Harmony among peoples of different states: Let us have harmony with our own people, and harmony with foreigners. Let us share the mutual knowledge and love here.Let us have union of mind, union of purpose. Let us not fight against the divine spirit within us. Let there be no battle….