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Teachings of the Vedas (Part 1 of 3)
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To: alt-hindu@cis.ohio-state.edu
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Subject: Teachings of the Vedas (Part 1 of 3)
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From: susarla@rice.edu (H. Krishna Susarla)
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Date: 20 Jan 1995 23:03:07 GMT
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From news@larry.rice.edu Fri Jan 20 17: 50:42 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas
Teachings of the Vedas (Part 1 of 3)
>From the book "Sri Isopanisad"
By His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
(c) The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International
Used with permission
(Delivered as a lecture by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada on October 6, 1969, at Conway Hall, London, England.)
Ladies and gentlemen, today's subject matter is the teachings of the Vedas.
What are the Vedas? The Sanskrit verbal root of veda can be interpreted
variously, but the purport is finally one. Veda means knowledge. Any
knowledge you accept is veda, for the teachings of the Vedas are the
original knowledge. In the conditioned state, our knowledge is subjected to
many deficiencies. The difference between a conditioned soul and a
liberated soul is that - the conditioned soul has four kinds of defects. The
first defect is that he must commit mistakes. For example, in our country,
Mahatma Gandhi was con sidered to be a very great personality, but he
committed many mistakes. Even at the last stage `of his life, his assistant
warned, "Mahatma Gandhi, don't go to the New Delhi meeting. I have some
friends, and I have heard there is danger." But he did not - hear. He
persisted in going and was killed. Even great personalities like Mahatma
Gandhi, President Kennedy-there are so many of them - make mistakes.
To err is human. This is one defect of the conditioned soul.
Another defect: to be illusioned. Illusion means to accept something which
is not: maya. Maya means "what is not." Everyone is accepting the body as
the self. If I ask you what you are, you will say, "I am Mr. John; I am a rich
man; I am this; I am that." All these are bodily identifications. But you are
not this body. This is illusion.
The third defect is the cheating propensity. Everyone has the propensity to
cheat others. Although a person is fool number one, he poses himself as
very intelligent. Although it is already pointed out that he is in illusion and
makes mistakes, he will theorize: "I think this is this, this is this." But he
does not even know his own position. He writes books of philosophy,
although he is defective. That is his disease. T hat is cheating.
Lastly, our senses are imperfect. We are very proud of our eyes. Often,
someone will challenge, "Can you show me God?" But do you have the eyes
to see God? You will never see if you haven't the eyes. If immediately the
room becomes dark, you cannot even see your hands. So what power do
you have to see? We cannot, therefore, expect knowledge (veda) with these
imperfect senses. With all these deficiencies, in conditioned life we cannot
give perfect knowledge to anyone. Nor are we ourselves perfect. Therefore
we accept the Vedas as they are.
You may call the Vedas Hindu, but "Hindu" is a foreign name. We are not
Hindus. Our real identification is varnasrama. Varnasrama denotes the
followers of the Vedas, those who accept the human society in eight
divisions of varna and asrama. There are four divisions of society and four
divisions of spiritual life. This is called varnasrama. It is stated in the
Bhagavad-gita [4.13], "These divisions are every where because they are
created by God." The divisions of society are brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya,
sudra. Brahmana refers to the very intelligent class of men, those who
know what is Brahman. Similarly, the ksatriyas, the administrator group,
are the next intelligent class of men. Then the vaisyas, the mercantile
group. These natural classifications are found everywhere. This is the
Vedic principle, and we accept it. Vedic principles are accepted as
axiomatic truth, for there cannot be any mistake. That is acceptance. For
instance, in India cow dung is accepted as pure, and yet cow dung is the
stool of an animal. In one place you'll find the Vedic injunction that if you
touch stool, you have to take a bath immediately. But in another place it is
said that the stool of a cow is pure. If you smear cow dung in an impure
place, that place becomes pure. With our ordinary sense we can argue,
"This is contradictory." Actually, it is contradictory from the ordinary point
of view, but it is not false. It is fact. In Calcutta, a very prominent scientist
and doctor analyzed cow dung and found that it contains all antiseptic
properties.
In India if one person tells another, "You must do this," the other party
may say, "What do you mean? Is this a Vedic injunction, that I have to
follow you without any argument?" Vedic injunctions cannot be
interpreted. But ultimately, if you carefully study why these injunctions
are there, you will find that they are all correct.
The Vedas are not compilations of human knowledge. Vedic knowledge
comes from the spiritual world, from Lord Krsna Another name for the
Vedas is sruti. Sruti refers to that knowledge which is acquired by hearing.
It is not experimental knowledge. Sruti is considered to be like a mother.
We take so much knowledge from our mother. For example, if you want to
know who your father is, who can answer you? Your mother. If the mother
says, "Here is your father," you have to accept it. It is not possible to
experiment to find out whether he is your father. Similarly, if you want to
know something beyond your experience, beyond your experimental
knowledge, beyond the activities of the senses, then you have to accept
the Vedas. There is no question of experimenting. It has already been
experimented. It is already settled. The version of the mother, for instance,
has to be accepted as truth. There is no other way.
(continued)
