Guest guest Posted November 25, 2007 Report Share Posted November 25, 2007 Namaste, Most Indians know the Vedas are their main books, but would fail to explain why. They say the Vedas are just ritualistic books, with the spiritual part only in the Upanishads. This impression wasnt helped by Western academicic and missionaries, who had a very poor few of Hinduism, indeed blamed Hindusim for Indias poverty. According to the Academics, the so called Aryan race was a backward tribal race, and hence couldnt produce any good literature. This mistake was first corrected by Sri Aurobind, in his book The secret of the Veda(which should be read by everyone. In recent times David Frawley has also done research on this topic- his work is easier to understand). Aurobindo saw subtle and hidden symbols in the Vedas. The Vedic Rishis didnt like clear cut logical meanings og anything- rather they chose to hide their message in deep poetry which could be interpreted at many levels. " The Gods dislike the obvious, and love that which is hidden " says the Veda. As an example of this, take the word " Gau " or cow. Hindus worship cow, is an obvious dumbing down of the Vedic message. Gau just doesnt mean cow- it means cow like, made from cow etc. Since the cow gives nourishment, and was the wealth of the Rishis, it also means anything that gives nourishment and wealth. From this it also means rays of light, since the rays are the wealth & nourishment of the sun. But Light is conciousness, knowledge, wisdom. So the cow also means Pure consciosness and wisdom. The cow is also the receptive mind, & the Vedic Rishi is the herdsmans (like Jesus said he was the good Shephard). The milk of this cow, hence is the Mantra that are " heard " by a pure mind. The root " Ga " also means to sing. So Gau is the soul that sings praise of the Divine. All words can be explained this way. Hence to translate Gau as cow is, in Frawleys words , violence to the deep meanings/subtlety of the words. ....to be continued Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.