The Magic of 'the Veda'

   The Veda is what the Veda does! The sounds of Veda mantra when heard with full focused rapt  attention will work magic on the brain cells. The Veda mantra should be heard early in the morning. The Gayatri Sadan in Haridwar has a laboratory where these mantra are tested using advanced machines and find how the brain cells react to the sounds. They give a helmet to wear and then play the mantra. The red cells that are excited, that cause tension, anxiety, stress are calmed down by the sound of mantra and become blue! The magic of the Vedic sound is such that which can never be explained and it can, at best, be experienced as 'totally blissful'. What is that which makes it 'Blissful"? Hundreds of Sages (almost Four Hundred" that include about Forty Women Saints) have visualized and tried to explain these to their disciples as separate branches of Upanishads (almost 108)! Thus, we have abundant volumes of Texts of Vedic literature. But, so far not even one scholar could properly explain even one mantra like the Gayatri Mantra' that involves Twelve Vaidiki and Twelve Tantriki devi, or could not explain even one sukta like the 'nadi sukta' or the 'asya vamiya sukta', so far! Every  word of the Veda has almost a hundred meaning and at least, twenty of them are very important. There is a dummy word inserted in the mantra to mislead the mischievous who want to take advantage of these mantra to trouble others or use them for selfish ends especially the mantra from Atharva Veda! Some words have double meaning leading to confusion. Some words give wrong meaning (apartha) and some give opposite meanings! It is left to the scholars to identify them!. So one should be extremely careful while dealing with these sacred Texts!       

  'The Veda' is said to belong to the category of 'shruti' vakya. We hesitate to call it 'scripture' since it was not written down anywhere! In fact, it was forbidden to write down for fear of being misspelt, wrongly written and, and mispronounced. The Veda is traditionally taught in Veda Pathashala by learned Samskruta vidwan (scholars) to their selected disciples, preferably their children! The method was one of singing loud in chorus early in the morning with total attention on phonetic perfection. Attention was paid to proper rhythmic pronunciation and punctuation,  Western scholars like Max Mueller and William Monier Williams and others who had no instructions in Yogic practices culminating in asamprajnyata samadhi (TM) have just given commentaries leading to much misunderstanding! The Veda is not something that can be easily understood by people who have no rigorous training in traditional gurukula system or at least, veda pathashala.

   There are wo outstanding works on the Veda, one is that of Sri Aurobindo (Secret of the Veda) and the other is that of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Heaven on earth). Sri Aurobindo, an ICS from England, has written almost Forty-five volumes and his writings are very terse and difficult to understand. His works are extremely delightful and give us an insight into the Veda. Mahesh Yogi, a scientist, has established four Vedic Universities in India (Jabalpur) and abroad (USA and Russia). He has explained the Vedic Verse "Agnimeelay purohitam yajnyasya devam Rutvijam hotaram ratnadhatamam" from different perspectives such as mathematical, physical, genetic, and biotechnology. The secrets involved in the Veda are thus brought out vividly! However, the earlier works that of Sayana and his brother Maddhava who edited the Text of the Veda. gives us the basis. 

    Now, it is very important here to note that the Veda is not just the Rk, Saman, Yajus, and the Atharva. It is also not something that we just know as the traditional ones. The Veda is ultimately the Realization of the self, Atmasakshatkara, leading to the doctrine of "tatvamasi"! Ultimately, the Veda is nothing but the I (the Atman) that is covered by the physical and mental, intellectual and the egoistic i, me, and mine! Atmai vedgm sarvam ! Maharshi Maheshi Yogi gives the entire list of the Veda, the Vedanga, the Veda Upanga, the Veda pratishakhyas, total of Forty Branches of Knowledge. These branches of the Veda rotate and revolve around each other, taking and giving each other, until they bring out all that covers the secrets of creation, sustenance, dissolution!

     The Veda has come to be known as 'apourusheya' since these are the mantra heard by the great sages in their state of samadhi, in deep atindriya dhyana (TM). These sages came to be known as 'Rishi' or visionaries, 'drishtara'  and they in turn, transmitted this mantra to their earnest trusted disciples. Thus, we should not treat this sacred knowledge lightly. It is better to take a mantra and contemplate on it till one attains the ultimate state of total bliss, param ananda, and the highest seat- 'param pada,m'!