Vedic period

The meaning of the Veda ( Veda, literally: knowledge ) is in many directions of Hinduism very large. Many Hindu scriptures refer to it, even in the form of comments. The exact delimitation which texts belong to the Veda, is debatable. Sometimes the later Hindu scriptures such as the Puranas or Agamas are called " Vedic literature ". The Veda itself is considered by wise men " heard " knowledge ( Sruti ) and enjoys the highest authority. In the Vedas (in the narrow sense) are texts that were originally transmitted orally for centuries in Sanskrit in the form of songs and recitations and recorded in writing until later from the 5th century AD. In the 19th century Indologists like Max Mueller translated them into various European languages. These translations are not without controversy among orthodox Hindus, as the Veda is considered untranslatable. Based on the available printed translations of the Veda was known among Hindus in India than was the case in earlier times ever.

In today's religious practice do not play all the parts of the Veda an equal role. In the older parts, especially in the Rigveda, many rituals or sacrifices are described, which later lost importance - such as the horse-sacrifice ( Ashvamedha ) - or the worship of the gods Varuna and Agni and the drinking and the worship of Soma. Other hymns were included in the ritual world of the Hindus where they are sung in the pujas ( prayers ) together with hymns in the local language.

Vedic religion

Instead of Hinduism today is also sometimes the term " Vedic religion " is used. This is partly as a demarcation line " Puranic Hinduism " (cf. Purana ) to see. Given that the term " Hinduism " comes from the English and thereby with the stigma of colonialism is subject, in addition to the Sanskrit term for Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma, also called " Vedic religion " used.

The Indology called " Vedic religion ", however, only the religion during the Vedic period ( 1500 BC - 600 BC). In this phase, there was neither temple nor worship of images; typical of the Hindu ideas of karma, salvation ( Moksha ), and the cycle of rebirth ( samsara ) were not yet developed.

Vedic tradition of Nambudiris

The Nambudiri Brahmins in Kerala understood by the Vedic tradition, the tradition of Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda. The Weitertradierung still takes place within the family. Later texts are not considered to Vedic tradition belonging.

Each Nambudiri family is followers of a three Vedas, but not the Atharvaveda. There are two different reviews of the Rigveda. Almost all Yajurveda families are partisan of the Black Yajurveda. The most common, however, is the Rigveda. The oral transmission of the Veda from father to son is called Adhyananam ( learning or recitation ). For a long time the written resignation of the Veda was perceived as unclean or even offensive.

During a Vedic ritual one or more priests recite the Vedic passages. A Yaga is a long and elaborate Vedic ritual that is performed by chanting of mantras and offerings to Agni. Of importance also is the Somayaga.

The spread of Buddhism, Jainism and Islam in northern India meant that the Vedic traditions have been preserved mainly in South India. Even Shankara, the great reformer of Hinduism, came from a family of Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala.

Vedic tradition of Advaita Vedanta

In the eighth century Shankara founded a Hindu order, which at four locations of India maintains the Vedic philosophy to this day and weitertradiert. Shankara is best known as the founder of Advaita Vedanta ( the end or completion of the Veda ), the main direction of Indian philosophy. Each of these four places will be occupied by an elected dignitaries, the Shankaracharya is called.

In the Vedic tradition is meant a continuous teacher-student succession ( guru parampara ), is distributed in the spiritual knowledge from generation to generation, as they are in the direct successor of the Vedic Rishis ( seers, wise ). After Aurobindo have the hymns of the Vedas besides their exoteric meaning, which refers primarily to the practice of yajna ( sacrifice ritual ), an additional esoteric meaning, which was known only to a small number of insiders, namely the direct disciples of the Rishis.

The Vedic tradition thus sees itself as a flow of knowledge ( = Veda ), which gives spiritual knowledge such as the use of mantras or the knowledge of higher states of consciousness ( samadhi ) the student. In this sense, the Veda is not perceived as a font that is static, but rather as a reservoir of knowledge that is at the origin of creation and that leads in different ages to different forms of expression. Thus, apart from the Veda - Samhitas, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads and the Puranas and Agamas ( Tantras ) as legitimate forms of expression and interpretations of the Veda viewed.

Tradition of Champions

As guarantors of the Vedic tradition, the names of the individual champion ( Rishis and Acharyas ) are considered. However, not all names are listed, but only the outstanding personalities. The order of the Master, who are called, testifies to the authenticity of knowledge and the spiritual hierarchy that oversees the correct transmission of knowledge. The sequence begins with Narayana (name for Vishnu), who was also at the same time the name of a Vedic seer. Then follows Brahma ( Padmabhuva ), is regarded as the exhalation of the Veda. The Veda as a breath of the Creator God is the seed ( bija ) of creation, the first is only in the form of sound and is considered a subtle vibration of the cosmic order.

Then the Rishis ( seers ) Vasishta, Parashara and Shakti follow. Vyasa arranged the Vedas and Puranas should all have written. His son was Shuka. So far, the tradition is carried on from father to son ( vamsharshiparampara ). Next, Shankara, whose two teachers and four secondary school students enumerated who watch simultaneously over the four headquarters of his tradition, Shankara established in the four directions of India, namely Jyotir Math in the North, Puri in the east, Dwaraka in the west, and Sringeri in the south. This is then followed mostly the name of the teacher, in the direct line of students standing. Such a hymn is called invocation ( Avahana ), followed by hymns of praise of the teacher, for example, introductions ( diksha ) used for the student body, as a result often a mantra is given. Thus the seed of knowledge is placed in the student who is to come to develop through practice such as meditation, devotion ( bhakti ), service ( seva ) and study of the scriptures. The concept of knowledge is different from the purely intellectual understanding. Similarly, the Gnosis first meaning is a knowledge that exceeds the limits of the intellect and the aspirant can be mediated only by the spiritual experience.

Neohinduismus and the new meaning of the Vedic religion

In the reform movements of the 19th century Neohinduismus the conscious return to the Vedic religion played an important role because they saw the negative aspects of Hinduism as later developments and falsifications. In this context, the attempt can be seen to agree the then Indian religiosity with European standards of value of religion. Often worn by anglicised elites with a strong socio -economic dependency of the British colonial power and its cultural environment here is trying to build a bridge between their own religious traditions and the order and value patterns of Western culture. Monotheism, the outstanding character of each revelation scriptures, imageless worship, a very limited and rationally interpreted ritualism and other things are taken as concepts from Europe and transferred to an ideal, early religion in India ( Vedic religion).

The Brahmo Samaj was founded by Ram Mohan Roy in 1828 is leading the way in this regard, even if its influence only on a tiny Anglicized elite in Calcutta ( no more than 1000 members until 1860) referred. Roy and his successors designed, inter alia, Value to a non-image worship. We saw in the Vedic religion, as mentioned, a pure monotheism realized, which had been defaced but later.

Also founded by Dayanand Saraswati Arya Samaj in 1875 referred to the Vedas in order to " purify" the Hinduism of foreign elements such as image-worship, ancestor worship, untouchability, animal sacrifices, priesthood too. The Veda was considered as the sole and comprehensive source of true knowledge. Primary duty was to read these texts, listen and weiterzuvermitteln. All unvedischen teachings were called heresies, as they distract from the actual truth of the Vedas in varying degrees. The essential criterion of judgment in this case was the " rationality " (in the sense Dayanands ) of the respective texts. Religions that included a historical act of God, miracle stories and other things (such as Islam and Christianity ) were classified as irrational, since the image of God this underlying did not meet the requirements Dayanands to perfection, omniscience, omnipresence, and general unavailability. By contrast, the Vedas stand as the sole source of all true religious knowledge, as Dayanand, on such doubts. Due to the many possible combinations of word roots in Sanskrit as the medium of the Veda is the perfect language, and the general meaning of diversity central Sanskrit terms the unique significance of the Veda is to be possible as the original revelation. Dayanand went with the rationalist interpretation of the Veda further than any of his predecessors ( and his successors ) by addition to the source of all religious wisdom was also the origin of a universal morality, social structure, political theory, and even the science here. All this was achieved in a perfect way in India in a golden Vedic age (including technological advances such as telegraphy, steam navigation, railways, aviation, and much else ). After the great war of the Mahabharata, however, were all forfeited these achievements since the previous central social position of the Vedas in the course of which had been lost and forgotten.

Vedic tradition and Transcendental Meditation ( TM)

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, refers in his speeches and publications on the Vedic tradition ( in the sense described above the Shankara tradition) and his teacher, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, the 1941-1953 Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, North India, and so that the highest dignitaries of the Vedic tradition was Shankara. The stated goal of Maharishi is to make the Vedas in daily life (again) available. Maharishi understands the Veda, in the spirit Dayananda, as the blueprint of creation, which already contains in itself all the sciences in encrypted form. Tony Nader represents in a book Human Physiology - Expression of Veda and Vedic Literature, the hypothesis of a correlation between the verses of the Veda and human physiology. The general aim was to demonstrate at each level of physiology a precise one-to -one connection between the structure and function of human physiology on the one hand and the 40 aspects of Veda and the Vedic literature on the other: which is considered here as the basic structure of the natural law. From the TM movement, this type of comparison and the symbolic link is popularized as " Vedic science". In addition, Maharishi successfully popularized the Ayurveda, which he interpreted as practically applied Veda. He also strives to publicize the Sthapatya Veda ( Vastu Vedic Architecture and Urban Planning ).

Veda in Western philosophy

The Vedas also met with some German thinkers and philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries such as Kant, Hegel, Goethe, Schopenhauer, and various linguists, for example, Jacob Grimm, with great interest. Schopenhauer writes in Parerga and Paralipomena: " The Upanishad is [ ... ] the offspring of the highest human wisdom. " And again: "It is the reward deste and raise deste reading that [ ... ] in the world is possible: it is the consolation of my life been and is being of my death. "

Quote

If the teacher receives the Brahmachari as a student, he makes him his own embryo. He gives birth to him for three days and nights in his belly, and when he was born, the gods gathered to see him - Atharva Veda - In Praise of Brahmacharin

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