Vedic Doctrines

Vedic Prayer:

    We invoke him, the Lord of what moves and what moves not, the inspirer of our thoughts. May he come to our aid! May this our divine Protector and Guard, the unfailing one, cause our wealth to increase, that we may long flourish! [Rk Veda I, 89, 5]

 Give us a share in the Sun by your wisdom and favor. Make us perfect. [Rk Veda IX, 4, 5].

Vedic Doctrines:

   “The Seer, our father, once offered all these worlds in oblation, assuming a priestly role, and sought to gain riches by the power of prayer; he himself entered later creations, while shrouding in mystery the first creative moment.

    What was the primal matter, what the substance? How could it be discerned, how was it made? From which the Designer of all things, beholding all, fashioned the Earth and shaped the glory of the Heavens?

   A myriad eyes are his, a myriad faces, a myriad arms and feet, turning each way! When he, sole God, creates the Earth and Heavens, he welds them together with whirring of arms and wings.

     What was the timber and what the tree from which the Heavens and also the Earth were chiseled forth? Ponder, O wise Men. Question in your hearts. On what did he rely when he formed these worlds? “The haunts where you dwell, O Designer ever true to your laws, on high, in the depths, and in every region between, disclose to your friends at the hour of oblation. Willingly offer your body in sacrifice, thus enhancing its vigour.” [Rk Veda X, 81, 1-5].

  “With all the pleasing skill we may; the birth of Gods we now proclaim in chanted hymns, that Men to come may know the truth of what befell. The Lord of the Holy Word, like a smith, blasted and smelted them together. In erstwhile ages of the Gods from nonexistence existence came.” [Rk Veda X, 72, 1-2].

 “The visible form of fire, while it lies latent in its source, the fire-wood, is not perceived; yet there is no destruction of its subtle form. That very fire can be brought out again by means of persistent rubbing of the wood, its source. In like manner, Atman, which exists in two states, like fire, can be grasped in this very body by means of ‘Om’. By making the body the lower piece of wood and Om the upper piece and through the practice of the friction of meditation, one perceives the luminous Self, hidden like the fire in the wood. As oil exists in sesame seeds, butter in milk, water in riverbeds and fire in wood, so the Self is realized as existing within the self, when a man looks for It by means of truthfulness and austerity-when he looks for the Self, which pervades all things as butter pervades milk and whose roots are Self-Knowledge and austerity. That is the Brahman taught by the Upanishad; yea, that is the Brahman taught by the Upanishads.” [Yajur Veda, Shvet. Upa. Part I, Chapter 1, 13-16].

   “May the sun, at the commencement of yoga, join our minds and other organs to the Supreme Self so that we may attain the Self (‘Knowledge of True Nature of Existential Reality’)? May He, also, support the body, the highest material entity, through the powers of the deities who control the senses. Having received the blessings of the divine Sun and with minds joined to the Supreme Self, we exert ourselves, to the best of our power, toward meditation, by which we shall attain Heaven (Brahman).” [Yajur Veda, Shvet. Upa, Part I, Chapter II, 1-2].

  “The wise man should hold his body steady, with the three upper parts erect, turn his senses, with the help of the mind, toward the heart and by means of the raft of Brahman cross the fearful torrents of the world. The yogi of well- regulated endeavors should control the pranas; when they are quieted he should breathe out through the nostrils. Then let him undistractedly restrain his mind, as a charioteer restrains his vicious horses. Let yoga be practiced within a cave protected from the high wind, or in a place which is level, pure and free from pebbles, gravel and fire, undisturbed by the noise of water or of market-booths and which is delightful to the mind and not offensive to the eye. When yoga is practiced, the forms which appear first and which gradually manifest Brahman are those or snow-flakes, smoke, sun, wind, fire, fire-flies, lightning, crystal and the moon.” [Yajurveda, Shvet. Upa, Part I, Chapter II, 8-11].

  “And when the yogi beholds the real nature of Brahman, through the Knowledge of the Self, radiant as a lamp, then, having known the unborn and immutable Lord, who is untouched by ignorance and its effects, he is freed from all fetters. He indeed, the Lord, who pervades all regions, was the first to be born and it is He who dwells in the womb of the universe. It is He, again, who is born as a child and He will be born in the future, He stands behind all persons and His face is everywhere. The Self-luminous Lord, who is fire, who is in water, who has entered into the whole world, who is in plants, who is in trees-to that Lord let there be adoration! Yea, let there be adoration!” [Yajurveda, Shvet. Upa.,, Part I, Chapter II, 15-17]. 

[Courtsey: These daily verses are drawn from the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas, Hinduism's revealed scriptures, which are 6,000 to 8,000 years old. Many of the verses are from the book The Vedic Experience, by Raimundo Panikkar, available at our Minimela online store.]