What Are the Vedas?
The Vedas are the spiritual literature of the ancient Indian culture, written in the Sanskrit language. They are comprised of a huge collection of books which include material, religious as well as spiritual knowledge.
- The expression "Vedic" is derived from the Sanskrit word veda, which means 'knowledge' or 'revelation'. According to the Vedic history, they were written down thousands of years ago.
- They refer to very ancient cultures, timeless revelations and divine incarnations. They also say that the entire body of Vedic knowledge has a systematic structure and a clearly defined goal, being compiled by the great Vedic Rishis (seers and sages), headed by Vyasadeva, about five thousand years ago.
- This knowledge was then systematically put into a written form in order to prevent it from being lost during in the upcoming age.
These four Vedas are known as Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva:
- Rig means ritual, and it contains mainly hymns and prayers (Mantras) in the worship of the universal forces called the demigods.
- Yajur means ceremony, and it mainly describes how to perform the rituals.
- Sama means singing; the scriptures of these categories contain many other mantras as well as strict rules how to chant these mantras according to mystic vibrations.
- Atharva means a priest who knows the secret lore; these scriptures describe many different kinds of worship and invocations.