The Scientific Vedas 1

Ancient India had an elaborate system of education through Gurukuls which were actually universities run by sages and learned Brahmins. Incidentally, Brahmins were the ones who had chosen teaching or priesthood as profession. While Smirits (literally the memoirs of social customs) talk about caste structure, again there are no mention of caste by birth though), Vedas mention only the Brahnmins in most places without mentioning any caste structure. However for Vedas Brahmin are the ones who have realized Brahm (God) and work for wellbeing of the society through education and research. Research word may sound a bit odd in the context of Brahmins but yes they researched in science, mathematics and medicine and added to Vedic literature, as we will see later. How and when this definition of Brahmin and caste structure got corrupted is a separate subject; however it seems to be a development of not more than last 500 years.


Coming back to our topic, the base of education in these Gurukuls was Vedic literature. When we hear Veda or Vedic literature the only thing comes in our mind is Yagna (or fire worship). We create a mental picture of small square well with fire lit in it and many bearded folks in their saffron robes chanting away Hymns. I don't know how realistic this picture is, but surely Hymns are integral part of Vedas. But Veda DO NOT deal only with chanting of Hymns. There are multiple subjects which are handled in Vedas ranging from Science to Philosophy and from tantra to medicine.

However, when one reads Veda there is hardly a well laid structure of the book and variety of subjects are spoken one after another in various parts and Suktas (divine statements). As a Shankaracharya (Chandrasekharendra Saraswati) writes, the reason for this disorganized structure is because these are revelations which came to sages and they recited these to their respective followers and the same went on as oral tradition for generations.

Later there were various efforts to put the learning from Veda into an order and Upanishads came into being. There is a group of Upanishads for each of the Vedas. These Upanishadas deal majorly in metaphysical and philosophical learning in Veda.

The science, mathematics and medicine were taken separately and researched by many sages further. Each of these streams then evolved separately as Vedangas. These are further classified into Siksha (deals in intonations, pronunciation and phonetics), Vyaakarana (Grammar), Chandas (Verse forms - deals in rules of creation of various types of verses), Niruktam (dictionary of Vedic words), Jyothisa (deals in mathematics, astronomy and astrology) and Kalpa (manual for Vedic ritual - this is probably the only place where work based caste structure is also spoken about in Vedic literature without emphasis on cast by birth).

These Vedangas are later addition to Veda. Many put 1500 BCE as the year for Vedas. Most Vedangas have come into being after 500 BCE and have been added till as late as 1500 AD (e.g. Siddhantha Shiromani, a book on Mathematics by Bhaskaracharya). Apart from these there are Upangas (sub Vedic literature) which we will talk about later.

Coming back to The Vedas, they have following three parts -

1. Samhita – Hymns
2. Brahman - Manual on how to perform various rituals and chant Hymns and written in prose structure
3. Aranyaka - Literary translated as "of forest". This deals with metaphysics and Philosophy which should be analyzed in solitude (like that of forest)

Vedas have three types of Hymns -

1. Some Hymns give explicit concepts of medicine, mathematics and astrology
2. Some are chanted to create positive energy in the atmosphere (generally used with fire rituals called Yagna)
3. Some Hymns deal with metaphysical and philosophical questions

In the next few chapters we will see some of the amazing concepts given by Atharva Veda.

The Vedas, Intelligence and Modernity

For some decades now we have seen diminished interest in study of Vedic literature. In contrast there is also increased interest in Vedic learning percolating down through various interpretations by neo-yogic and so called philosophical gurus.

The study of Veda through Sanskrit (or texts transliterated) is seen as mere religious rituals. The logic given is that we should look at only the gyaan or knowledge and leave out the rituals. There is another very opposite tendency which has been there for some centuries now. This tendency is to learn Veda / Vedangas and then leave the world and go to forest. However, these tendencies are based on various false assumptions originating from half knowledge or no knowledge of Vedic literature. While people with lot of knowledge (like B G Tilak) have followed rituals too, proponents of "Sanyasa" have done some great work for Society (like Adi Shankeracharya).

With whatever little knowledge I could gather I feel the following -

1. For people who think Vedic literature is full of funny rituals -

If we want to eat fruits we have two options, one nurture a garden and grow trees. Another option is just buy fruit from the market. The fruits from market may not be as fresh or may even be spoilt. Extending this analogy to knowledge (specially the spiritual kind of knowledge), most philosophical or spiritual writings, books on yoga etc., have their roots to Veda and other Vedangas. These interpretations may not be correct or even be misleading. Moreover it will never give anyone the first hand spiritual experience.

Veda had three bodies, Samhita, Brahamana and Aranyakas. Samhita dealt with Mantras related to Yajnas, Brahamanas contain manuals of how to perform these Yajnas and Aranyakas are more advance knowledge on metaphysics and philosophy. Upanishadas are then extracts of all these three bodies of Vedas. Making an analogy to tree, if Vedas can be said to be the trunk, Upanishadas are the leaves and Geeta / Brahmasutra are the fruits. The neo spiritual writing may at best be juice of the fruits!

If we merely keep eating fruits and drinking juice, we may not get the right spiritual experience or may even be misled. Further, if we don't grow new trees the knowledge will slowly die down and we might only have distorted learning.

2. For people who think learning Veda requires one to go to Forest leaving everything behind-

If all people who have attained supreme knowledge of Ataman (or Brahma) abandon the world and go and live in forest how will the world survive? However transient this may be, world is needed as only here the man or Atman realizes himself. If the world is not running properly, there will be misery and busy fighting against that misery the man will never be able to focus his energy to higher knowledge. Therefore it is important that Karma / actions are performed even if a person has attained the knowledge. Such person performs the Karma or action for the benefit of the world and not towards his own selfish end.