Vedas and Veda Angas

To start with let me begin with the following, kindly try to understand this and figure it out.

#
sqlplus –s /NOLOG < /tmp cleanup_dina.log 2>&1
connect / as sysdba
set head off
…….
select q’#execute dbms_sqltune.drop_sql_profile(‘#’ || name || q’#’)
…..
from user advisor tasks
where CREATED > SYSDATE – (1/24);
….
spool off
@/tmp/drop_dyn.sql

The above is a extract from Oracle programming which seems to look like English but still could not able to figure it out what exactly it says. For a lay man it is nonsense with alphabets and numbers but it is actually a part of a program that really makes wonders. The problem of understanding or just rubbing it as nonsense will be because of the following three reasons

1. Lack of fundamental knowledge of Oracle

2. To work with oracle it is always preferred to have the knowledge of SQL Quires as a most important and basic requirement. Again for an non IT guy who lacks knowledge of programming or DB the question comes what is SQL and DB? So one should have fundamental knowledge before learning higher subjects.

3. Finally in the above sequence of programming instead of giving the program fully I picked few lines and skipped few lines in between and also written the program without any description regarding what it actually does.

In the same way we can find a lot of people who are trying to interpret the Vedas without knowing the basic requirements to understand the Vedas and picking it out of context and with bad English translations made by the Non-Hindus who are mostly Europeans who involve in translating the Hindu scriptures in a most possible bad light so that they can establish Christianity in India.

To understand Vedas in the right way we emphasis on Chaturdasha-Vidya , the 14 disciplines which consist of

The Basic Scriptures - The 4 Vedas

The Supplementary Scriptures - The 6 Veda Angas

The Complementary Scriptures - The 4 Upangas

The Six Veda Angas are as follows

Shiksha - Phonetics

Vyakarana - Grammar

Chandas - Prosody

Nirukta - Etymology

Jyotisha - Astronomy & Astrology

Kalpa - Rules for rituals

Only then one can understand the real meanings of Vedic verses or he will be catching down some thing which the Vedas never meant actually. This is the reason the Hindus never prefer to translate Vedas in other languages. It is in Sanskrit and to understand it one should learn Sanskrit.

Let us discuss why so much stress on Phonetic, Grammar, Etymology, Astronomy etc? When scriptures of other religions do not insist on this why only with Vedas? The answer is simple, as the Vedas descended from God and it speaks of literally every thing from a smallest things to the vast universe are very much complex and complicated naturally these documents are highly classified in nature.

For example from the root word “Jru” or “Jaru” derived the Sanskrit word Jara which actually meant Affection. In due course of time people started using this word Affection to mean illicit love. But there is a verse in the Vedas in praise of Agni Deva which runs as follows.

||Jaraha kaneenaam patir janeenaam||

As per the translation of an European scholar “The illicit lover of younger sister happens to be the husband of the mother”. But as per the Nirukta (Etymology) the word Kanee means the smallest or the lowest so the younger brother or sister is called Kanistaha or Kanishtaa. Like wise as per the Nirukta the meaning of the word Janee means production so a mother who is also a producer of children is called Jananee. The word Pati is understood as husband in normal life but it also means owner as in Rashtrapati etc.

Now let us look into the actual meaning of the verse. “He is kind towards the lowest people; and he is the owner of the entire production”

Saindavam means salt in Sanskrit. It also means horse. So if one says that there should be saindavam in food it means that there should be salt in food but not the horse in the food.

If we take another example “Prajapati created Nisha and he loved that daughter and both gave birth to a son”. It looks awkward but here we should understand that this verse does not talk about any persons in particular.

As per Nirukta Prajapati means Sun and Nisha means dusk. So the meaning will be Sun created dusk and loved her and gave birth to dawn.

Like wise it is equally important to have basic knowledge of other Veda Angas like Shiksha, Chandas, Jyothisham, Vyakaranam etc., before giving a comment on the Vedic scripture.

The Following verse from Yajur Veda, Taittiriya samhita, Kandah 3, Prapatakah 4, Anuvakah 10, Mantra 34.

||Mitro daadhara prutivimutadhayam| mitraha krushteehi||

“The sun holds the earth and all other celestial planets in the region. The sun is the attracting power”

Imaging how a person will understand the same verse with out any good knowledge about Astronomy, but as our science ascertains this as the gravitational force of the sun which sustains our earth and other planets from flaying away from our solar family we can understand the concept now clearly.

Similarly while chanting the verse we have to join the first two words Mitro & daadhara and chant it as Mitrodaadhara with the help of Nirukta and Vyakarana. Chandas makes it clear where to raise or lower the voice while chanting the Vedic Mantras.

If we observe carefully we can find it out that all of sudden a lot of westerns that too Christian Missionaries started translating Hindu scriptures only after the First War of Independence in 1857 with a intention of making English educated Hindus feel bad of their own religion and nation.