Hinduism: Vedas

         

           Globally, Hindus make up the third largest religious group, with 1billion people, or 15% of the world’s population. Almost 99% of the total Hindu population lives in South Asia and India along consist of 90% of Hindu followers. The interesting fact about Hinduism is that there is no founder of this religion.

        Veda is one of the many holy books of Hindu religion. It has all the collected Hindu prayers and chants, hymns and mantras. The book is said to have defined the real meaning of the eternal God. There are four types of Vedas in Hinduism and are divided as per the historical occurrences of the books. They are: Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. The Hindu Vedas were written in text, somewhere between 100 B.C. and 500 B.C. and very old form of literature mostly written in Sanskrit language.

The Vedas are a collection of hymns and other religious texts composed in India between about 1500 and 1000 BCE. It includes elements such as liturgical material as well as mythological accounts, poems, prayers, and formulas considered to be sacred by the Vedic religion.

The basic Vedic texts are the Samhita “Collections” of the four Vedas:

1.     Rig-Veda “Knowledge of the Hymns of Praise”, for recitation.

2.     Sama-Veda “Knowledge of the Melodies”, for chanting.

3.     Yajur-Veda “Knowledge of the Sacrificial formulas”, for liturgy.

4.     Atharva-Veda “Knowledge of the Magic formulas”, named after a kind of group of priests.

       In general, the Vedas have a strong priestly bias, as the priestly class had the monopoly in the edition and transmission of these texts. Here are some of the key beliefs shared among Hindus according to Upanishads and Vedas:

·         Truth is eternal.

Hindus pursue knowledge and understanding of the Truth: the very essence of the universe and the only Reality. According to the Vedas, Truth is One, but the wise express it in a variety of ways.

·         Brahman is Truth and Reality.

Hindus believe in Brahman as the one true God who is formless, limitless, all-inclusive, and eternal. Brahman is not an abstract concept; it is a real entity that encompasses everything (seen and unseen) in the universe.

·         The Vedas are the ultimate authority.

The Vedas are Hindu scriptures that contain revelations received by ancient saints and sages. Hindus believe that the Vedas are without beginning and without end; when everything else in the universe is destroyed (at the end of a cycle of time), the Vedas remain.

·         Everyone should strive to achieve dharma.

Understanding the concept of dharma helps you understand the Hindu faith. Unfortunately, no single English word adequately covers its meaning. Dharma can be described as right conduct, righteousness, moral law, and duty. Anyone who makes dharma central to one’s life strives to do the right thing, according to one’s duty and abilities, at all times.

·         Individual souls are immortal.

A Hindu believes that the individual soul (atman) is neither created nor destroyed; it has been, it is, and it will be. Actions of the soul while residing in a body require that it reap the consequences of those actions in the next life — the same soul in a different body.

The process of movement of the atman from one body to another is known as transmigration. The kind of body the soul inhabits next is determined by karma (actions accumulated in previous lives). Learn more about Hindu funeral customs.

·         The goal of the individual soul is moksha.

Moksha is liberation: the soul’s release from the cycle of death and rebirth. It occurs when the soul unites with Brahman by realizing its true nature. Several paths can lead to this realization and unity: the path of duty, the path of knowledge, and the path of devotion (unconditional surrender to God).