Hinduism and Mysteris in Vedas: (1 First)

1.Defining Hinduism and authoritatively describing is very difficult. One faces many difficulties in doing this. To briefly enumerate these difficulties, firstly, unlike Christianity or Buddhism or Jainism or Islam, which are based on preachings of one person and therefore are quite consistent and devoid of much contradiction, Hinduism is not based on preachings of one person. The basic books containing essentials of Hinduism are four Vedas, about a dozen Brahmana granths (books), 13 main Upanishads, Saankhya Karika, Patanjala Yoga Sutras, Gita and 18 main Puranas and in modern times hundreds of gurus. Rig Veda alone has compositions from about 150 rishis and so all the above mentioned source books defining hinduism are work of about 250 authors. First challenge before anyone attempting to define hinduism is to read and understand these many books, many of which are quite voluminous. Second challenge one faces is that so many people describing the same thing, for example creation of universe or fate of soul or of people after death, generate many a time manifest variations about the same item which sometimes assume the nature of one statement being contradicted at another place. So, one has to frequently decide which one fits the overall scheme best. To understand what are the core concepts of hinduism one must take note that while there are one or two line assertions by some rishis that seem to be seeds of later development of saankhya and dwaita philosophy, the rigveda has asserted only adwaita philosophy involving concept of Brahman and of creation of universe in detail in about a dozen suktas . 1.Hindu religion has evolved into various philosophies and various sects but almost all of them draw upon the concept of Brahman and upon moral principles propounded in vedas and upanishads. However vedas are read by very few people. Indeed vedas are probably the least read of all religious books! Therefore the word of those who speak on the authority of vedas, and there is a surfeit of such people judging by number of gurus preaching in different parts of the country and by noting the bombardment on subject of spirituality in media, is generally accepted as statement of truth by believers .However after reading the vedas many of these preachings and assertions seem unfounded. It is therefore instructive to understand what is in vedas and what is not in vedas. 63. These illustrations show that true meaning if many Vedic verses are now not known .What rishis meant in these verses can not be now stated with confidence. Since full commentaries and translation of vedas began only three thousand years (Mahidhara and Sayana) after composition of vedas, the meaning assigned by commentators inevitably involves guess work which is plausible in many places but is doubtful in many other places .It is now impossible to know true meaning of such numerous verses in vedas! - Happy reading till next edition E mail id: ynchaturvedi@hotmail.com