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The Rig Veda
: Sourcebook of Mantras
The Rig Veda is the
oldest of the Vedas. All the other Vedas are based
upon it and consist to a large degree of various hymns from it.
It consists of a thousand such hymns of different seers, each
hymn averaging around ten verses. The Rig Veda is the
oldest book in Sanskrit or any Indo-European language. Its date
is debatable. Many great Yogis and scholars who have understood
the astronomical references in the hymns, date the Rig Veda
as before 4000 B.C., perhaps as early as 12,000. Modern western
scholars tend to date it around 1500 B.C., though recent
archeological finds in India (like Dwaraka) now appear to require
a much earlier date. While the term Vedic is often given
to any layer of the Vedic teachings including the Bhagavad
Gita, technically it applies primarily to the Rig Veda.
The Rig Veda is the
book of Mantra. It contains the oldest form of all the Sanskrit
mantras. It is built around a science of sound which comprehends
the meaning and power of each letter. Most aspects of Vedic
science like the practice of yoga, meditation, mantra and Ayurveda
can be found in the Rig Veda and still use many terms that
come from it. While originally several different versions or
rescensions of the Rig Veda were said to exist, only one
remains. Its form has been structured in several different ways
to guarantee its authenticity and proper preservation through
time.
The Rig Veda consists
of the hymns to various aspects of the Divine as seen by various
seers, called the "rishis". There are seven
primary seers, identified not only in India but also in Persia
and China with the seven stars of the Big Dipper. Their names are
Atri, Kanwa, Vasishta, Vishwamitra, Jamadagni,
Gotama and Bharadvaja, but they appear even in the
hymns of these sages and may refer to an earlier group. They
relate to the guiding lights of the seven chakras.
The main family of the seers
was called the Angirasas (a term related to the Greek
Angelos and our English word angel). The seven seers are all Angirasas
and their families or lineages are a diversification of this one
original line. The foremost of the Angirasas was Brihaspati,
identified with the planet Jupiter. Other important seer families
were the Bhrigus (associated with Venus) and the Ribhus.
Some Vedic Gods may have also been families of the seers,
including the Maruts, the Adityas and the Ashwins.
Each of the seven seer families still has many descendants in
India and elsewhere. They were said to be the progenitors of the
human race. The head of each of the seer families was like a Tulku
and took many births or passed on his teaching to many successors
who bore his name. Hence Vedic and Puranic
literature is filled with many Vasishtas, Vishwamitras,
etc.
The Rig Veda is
composed of ten books (called mandalas in Sanskrit). Seven
of the books each relate primarily to one great seer and the
family he belongs to; the second book belongs to Gritsamada
and his family, the Bhrigus; the third relates to Vishwamitra
and his family; the fourth to Vamadeva and the Gotama
family; the fifth to Atri and his family; the sixth to
Bharadvaja and his family; the seventh to Vasishta and his
family; and the eighth to the Kanwas. The first book is a
collection of hymns from seers of different families, mainly
earlier ones. The tenth book is a collection of various earlier
and later hymns. The ninth book is the collection of Soma hymns
mainly from the Bhrigus and Angirasas. It is
largely outside of and earlier than the family books. Hence the
Soma book is the oldest of them all.
Each hymn is given to a
certain deity (devata). The main deities are Indra,
Agni, Soma and Surya. The Vedic Gods have
many different levels of meaning. They represent an intuitive
symbology which transcends the limited constructs of the
intellectual mind. Indra is the God of Prana or the
awakened life-force. He represents the perceiver or the
consciousness of the seer. He is the young warrior wielding the
thunderbolt or vajra, which destroys the demons or powers
of falsehood. Agni is the God of consciousness, awareness
and mindfulness. His symbol is the sacred fire. The offerings to
him outwardly symbolize our inward giving to the higher awareness
within us. Soma is the mystic plant that yields the nectar of
immortality. He is also the Moon and the lord of the waters. He
symbolizes bliss, Ananda. Surya is the Sun which is
the visible face and presence of the Deity. He symbolizes the
enlightened mind and creative intelligence. He is the Divine
creator and transformer.
Other important deities are Varuna,
the lord of the cosmic ocean and the Divine judge; Mitra the
Divine friend and lord of compassion and Savitar, the Sun
God of creative intelligence. Goddesses are Usha, the
Goddess of the Dawn or spiritual aspiration; Saraswati,
the Goddess of the Divine Word, of wisdom and inspiration; Aditi
the Goddess of Infinite Oneness and Wholeness; and Apas,
the Cosmic Waters. Moreover each of the Gods has his consort,
like Indra and Indrani, Varuna and Varunani.
Collective deities exist like the Adityas, the solar deities, the
Maruts or Rudras, Gods of the storm, the Ribhus
or Divine craftsmen and the Vishvedevas, literally the
universal Gods who symbolize the unity of all the Gods.
The trinity of later
Hinduism, Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer and Shiva the
destroyer is present in the Rig Veda but behind the
scenes. Brahma is Brihaspati, also called Brahmanaspati,
the priest of the Gods. Vishnu is an important form of the Sun
God and later all forms of the Sun God were merged into him.
Shiva is present as Rudra, the seldom invoked but very
much respected and feared father of all the Gods.
Each God or Goddess
represents certain Divine qualities. They are present as the
guiding forces both in nature and in the human psyche. Hence they
are largely a personification of ideas, of the truth perceptions,
the great archetypes of the Divine Mind. For example, the God Mitra,
whose name literally means friend, stands for friendship and its
importance in life as a divine or spiritual quality.
Each God or Goddess can be
any or all the Gods. The concepts of monotheism, polytheism,
pantheism and monism are all woven together in the Vedic
vision of totality. The Divine is seen as both One and Many
without contraction. The Divine is all the universe and all the
cosmic powers which rule it but it also transcends the world.
Such a wholistic view of the world was quite confusing to the
scholars who first translated the Vedas, but perhaps today
we can appreciate in better in light of our larger view of the
world and the psyche.
Under Rigveda e-texts you can access Rigveda in devanagari
script as browseable HTML pages using Sanskrit 1.2 true-type fonts
(for Windows) and as printer-ready postscript files which can be viewed and printed using GSview or can be copied directly to a
postscript printer. ITRANS format files created by Avinash Sathaye & Shashi Sathaye, which are based on Harvard Oriental Series volume 50
by van Nooten and Gary Holland are also linked from there.
Rigveda Links will take you to
Rigveda translation in english and other related information.
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