Lesson- 2-The 4 Vedas 1. Rig Veda 2. Yajur Veda 3. Sama Veda 4. Atharva Veda Many consider Mahabharata (Bhagavad Gita, is a part of It.) as the 5th Veda. Rig Veda: Hymns ( mantras or suktas) for prayers or for praising the Lord Yajurveda: Hymns for oblations ( aahuti in yajna ) Samaveda: Same prayers as in Rigveda but in meters ( raga ) for singing Atharva Veda: Describes maintenance and destruction of material world. Westerners called these vedas as aboriginal and primitive because they could not understand them. How can they be primitive when the highest truth is spoken and that too in the most advanced language - Sanskrit? Rig Veda In simple words it means Hymns of praise (Rig means to celebrate). The hymns are called mantras or suktas. The whole text of Vedas is called samhita. These samhitas are divided by two methods: a. One divides them into kandas (portions) or ashtakas (one eighths). Each one is further divided into adhayaya (chapters). b. The other method divides suktas into ten mandalas (circles) subdivided into anuvakas (sub-sections) Suktas are also divided in vargas (paragraphs) of about 5 stanzas each. All the verses have been counted and even the words and syllables have been counted. There are 1028 hymns, words are 153,826 and syllables are 432,000. Rig Veda is veda-par-excellence. The other Vedas contain chiefly extract from Rig Veda. The priests of Rig Veda are called hotris. Yajur Veda: The name comes from Yaj (sacrifice, yajna). This is divided in 2 parts: Shukla (White) and Krishna (Black). They are also called Vajasaneyi Samhita and Aitareya Samhita . Almost half of Yajurveda is taken from Rig Veda. The priests are called adhwaryus or officers. Humans are inspired to translate good thoughts into actions. Yajurveda inspires humans to walk on the path of Karma (deeds). That is why it is also referred to as Karma-Veda. The essence of the Yajurveda lies in those mantras (incantations) that inspire people to initiate action. Some of the quotes from Yajur Veda. "Everybody should practice simple and virtuous living. They should never seek recourse to manipulative tendencies." "Only a fearless person can work towards self development and can also help in social and political development. Therefore one should fearlessly perform all his duties." "Attractiveness and magnetism of man's personality is the result of his inner radiance." "Good work done with bad intentions inevitably leads to failure. That is why one should refrain from evil tendencies. " Sama Veda As explained earlier it is Rig Veda prayers re-written so that they can be sung. All the verses are having meter (raga). There are 1549 verses and all but few have been taken from Rig Veda. The priests of SamaVeda are called udgatris or chanters. Atharva Veda This describes the process for carrying out our daily lives. It talks of Karma Kanda - how to gain punya and paapa, maintenance of the material life and how it can be destroyed. It gives us remedies for illness, how to fulfill our desires, how to lead pious life and so on. Here are some the quotes from Atharva Veda. "You now become easy victims of lust, anger, malice, envy and the rest of that evil brood; the atmosphere of the heart is polluted by the ego-fumes." "The person, who causes the downfall of a noble woman... who causes loss to his friend...who despite of his superiority is ignorant; is called a fallen man." "IN every country today, men have become power-mad and they resort, without any compunction, to self praise and dry declamation. They develop hatred against others, foster envy and feed their fatal egos. They plunge the Society to which they belong into fear, anxiety and disorder. They do not know that if elevating ideals are adhered to and practiced, they could gain eternal fame; instead they are content with cheap applause and short-lived publicity." "Water is the abject necessity for any kind of life to exist." "Happiness will not come from happiness; but only from pain. We know the value of standing in shade only after roaming in the hot day sun." "IT takes time for a fruit to mature and acquire sweetness and become eatable; time is a prime factor for most good fortunes." These are just few examples to give us a glimpse of these great texts. Some of our modern subjects are directly mentioned or described in our Vedic Scriptures. They Include, Medical Science, Music (ragas), Politics (Manu Samhita), Architecture, Warfare, Art, Drama, Psychology, Agriculture, Astronomy, Astrology, Material Science, Aeronautics, Metaphysics, Moths and so on. I am just giving you the idea of what these scriptures contain. As we progress we will learn many more things which are directly connected to vedas and have been composed later to make us understand the meaning and purport of Vedas. Vedas are tough to understand and comprehend. That's why the sages and seers took pains to write commentaries and explanations for our benefit. If you are interested to listen to these Vedic sutras you may cut and paste the following link into your web search. http://www.gatewayforindia.com/vedas/samaveda.html (Next Lesson - Shrutis, Smritis, Nyaya, Vedangas etc)