Friday 17 July 2009

Religion, customs and traditions???

Our journey into this world of spiritualism begins by understanding our religion, its traditions,its culture, only then we could put to rest the millions of questions that arises in us, for which we search for answers and are often led into the mysterious world of fantasy. I personally feel today's generation is often misled in various concepts and that has led to the cultural disintegration in our society.If we try to understand our roots and the rich religion from which we have originated there will little doubt in our minds about the path that we have to follow.We often tell our children to follow the path of truth and recite slokas and mantras,but when questioned on it we cut a sorry figure in front of them because we ourselves are not sure of what we are doing and we are often told not to question our elders, which is why, we are not equipped in dealing with the problems facing our society.This is the reason why we should make this journey and try to understand our religious texts before we even make a statement to the younger generation about how to lead their life and what is expected out of them.
So here we go.....
This post is on the oldest scripture THE VEDAS.
The word vedas means knowledge.It is derived from the root word vid which means to know.They are described as apaurusheya(not man made)and nitya(eternal).The vedic tradition has been preserved for several centuries through a strict system of memorization by heart.Students would memorize the hymns day after day and year after year for several years under the close supervision of a teacher till they remembered each and every word and its pronunciation by heart.They had no authority to change or amend them by mistake .Sometimes the students were made to remember the hymns without knowing their meaning,because the accuracy of the pronunciation and memory of the original hymns were more important in the order of things than their comprehension.The vedic hymns are used in performing rituals even today.
The vedas are divided into three parts:
1.The samhitas - hymns,chants and mantras
2.The Brahmanas -prose or commentaries of the vedas
3.Upanishads,the Aranyakas and Sutras.The upanishads talks about the mystic aspects of vedas and it often deals with subjects like Brahman,atma,nature of reality,the meaning of oneness ,knowledge etc.
The sutra literature is a manual of instructions for people to follow their social,religious,economic and political affairs.
Most of the hymns in the vedas do not make sense today because the old vedic traditions had to give way for the changes that came into being at the later stages in history.So we should keep this in mind when we discuss about Hinduism and its implications or its relevance in the modern world.We have to accept this fact!!!

10 comments:

  1. Very Enjoyable post. Looking forward to the future post regarding this subject. Also enjoying other post along with Q & A from everyone. I am sure number of readers are holding their questions back but rememder what they told us in school "there is no such thing as dumb questions".

    -Ramesh


    -Ramesh

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  2. Asha,
    As you mentined above the Upanishads, Vedas etc are all man made and the rules created by us. How can we tell which path is right for us to follow?

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  3. In the name of Religion, Customs and traditions people sometimes hurt each other - Why?

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  4. I totally agree with you anu,the upanishads were written 3000years ago, but we have to consider its age as well,it has stood the test of time.we must give credit to it.so, we cannot just discard it and say it is not useful, the text needs modifications to the present scenario,that is all.so the text alone cannot be taken as guidance.We are in a multicultural society, so there is a need for a divine hand to help us through this phase.

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  5. Man is so used to being stereotyped. He doesn't like changes.it is human nature.you will see as long as there is no change things are normal everywhere.there is a revolution when a change is brought in.This world is changing very drastically with science and technology and with so many religions claiming to take control of the society. so we are in this changing period of history.The old is reluctant to change thereby inflicting pain and suffering to the moderates.where as we do understand that change and we do see it coming so we are in the process of adaptations where as some people are still reluctant to change b'cos they are comfortable with it.that is the reason why the younger generation is at crossroads. they cannot see someone else being hurt b'cos of the age old customs and they are also ready for the change.what we should understand is the people who resist change are the ones to be pitied because change is the order of the day.be patient with them and understand that they will also come to terms with it.

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  6. Well said, thanks. I did realize it could be their Kurma for not able to change for good. I agree with you on the old literatures - Picking up what you need to adopt to the current society and making others happy gets a feeling of inner satisfaction and happiness within you that cannot be explained in words. :-)

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  7. Maam initially u mentioned that Vedas==knowledge/to know and then u also mentioned that down the lane students were taught to give importance to the actual recitation/pronounciation rather than comprehend wht was goin on.

    Isnt this a contradiction to the actual efforts of the vedas? In other words will reciting hymns without understanding/comprehending their nature (meaning) have any benefits?

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  8. Just a clarifiacation question. You mentioned that vedas are eternal and cannot be changed but you also mentioned some of the vedic hyms does not make sense. Since vedas are devine, I was assuming they are not written with any particular time in mind. so my question is, are certain vedic hyms unsuitable to the present time or its translation and application (religious practices).

    -Ramesh

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  9. When we look back into history we should also understand the time line and the socio economic state of the people then.1.Vedas was not written by one person and this person never sat down to write this form starting with the title, it was in the latter years that people compiled it and called it the vedas,because of the wealth of information in it.it was for them like "must know" owing to the richness of knowledge buried in it.
    2.Since there was no paper or even parchment paper people had to depend on memory that is why they memorized it.they preserved the texts for the future generation.at that time the prime importance was to preserve what they felt was given by god since it was written by rishis and the enlightened.
    3.This question gives an introductory note to my next post wherein i will be telling you why some of the verses were just memorized and not analysed.as mentioned earlier there are no commentaries for all verses because some verses could function without commentaries but some depended totally on commentaries and that is why they had the Brahmanas to explain it for them.
    The vedic hymns related to mantras are still valid because it is untouched by mankind but the interpretations and the prose needs polishing because it was suited for that period not for the present day.

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  10. Thanks for the clarification. I just didn't want the readers to get the impression that vedas and vedic hymns are not valid anymore.
    -Ramesh

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