Essence of the vedas The Srimad Bhagavatam! Part 1

What are the vedas? What is the Purpose of the Vedas? How did they come about? When you think of Vedas do you think of only the 4 vedas and upanishads? What about the Puranas? All these questions and more will be answered in the following series of videos which will give the key understanding of what the vedas are and How the Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavad Purana) is the essence of the vedas as concluded by Vyasadev the compilor of the vedas which will be presented in this Video in a series of parts entitled The Essence of the Vedas, the Srimad Bhagavatam.

That the Vedas are eternal and apauruseya is a fact that all sampradayas, including the school of Sankara, unanimously agree with. They constitute the means of receiving knowledge about the Absolute Truth. However, there are certain factors that make it practically impossible to study the Vedas in this age:

After Srila Vyasadeva divided the Vedas into four books (Rg, Yajur, Sama and Atharva), his disciples further divided them into 1,130 divisions. This is stated in the Kurma Purana (52.19-20):
eka-vimsati-bhedena rg-vedam krtavan pura
sakhanam satenaiva yajur-vedam athakarot

sama-vedam sahasrena sakhanam prabibheda sah
atharvanam atho vedam bibedha navakena tu

Previously the Rg Veda was divided into 21 sections, the Yajur Veda into 100 sections, the Sama Veda into 1,000 sections and the Atharva Veda into 9 divisions.

Each division has 4 minor divisions, namely the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas
Thus altogether the 4 Vedas contain 1,130 Samhitas, 1,130 Brahmanas, 1,130 Aranyakas, and 1,130 Upanisads. This makes a total of 4,520 divisions.

At present, most of these texts have disappeared due to the influence of time. We can only find 11 Samhitas, 18 Brahmanas, 7 Aranyakas and 220 Upanisads which constitutes a mere 6% of the entire Vedic canon!

Even if the Vedas were complete in there entirety, in order to understand them one must first study the Vedangas which includes Siksa (the science of phonetics), Vyakarana (grammatical rules), Kalpa (ritualistic rules), Nirukta (obscure word meanings), Chanda (Metres for chanting Vedic hymns), and Jyotisa (astrology and astronomy).
Since the language of the Vedas is enshrouded in mysterious meanings, one must also be willing to sacrifice years of study in order to learn Vaidika (classical) Sanskrit. This entails primarily learning the basic grammar (which generally takes 12 years or so) and then memorising extra vocabulary in order to decipher the mystical language of the Vedas. 1
Apart from that, it is practically impossible for those born in the age of Kali (who are generally mandah sumanda-matayo) to memorise even the slightest thing. What to speak of the entire Vedas or even the 6% that still survives today! At present, amongst the brahmana communities in India, it is generally observed that vedadhyayana simply consists of memorising the text of one of the four Vedas parrot-fashion, but as we can see from above, there is much more to it than thatTherefore, we may conclude that although the Vedas are perfect sabda-pramana, it is impractical to become thoroughly conversant with the Vedas in this day and age in order to understand the Supreme. Hence the solution lies in the Puranas and the Itihasas. This is explained in the following verse -


bharata-vyapadesena hyamnayarthah pradarsitah
vedah pratisthah sarve sarve purane natra samsayah

"On the pretext of writing the Mahabharata, Vyasa explained the meaning of the Vedas. Certainly all the topics of the Vedas have been established in the Puranas." (Visnu Purana)

Furthermore, it is explained in the Mahabharata (Adi Parva 1.267) and Manu Samhita

itihasa puranabhyam vedam samupabrmhayet

" One must complement ones study of the Vedas with the Itihasas and the Puranas."

In the Prabhasa-khanda of the Skanda Purana (5.3.121-124) it is said

veda-van niscalam manye puranartham dvijottamah
vedah pratisthitah sarve purane natra samsayah

bibhety-alpa-srutad vedo mam ayam calayisyati
itihasa-puranais tu niscaloyam krtah purah

yan na drstam hi vedesu tad drstam smrtisu dvijah
ubhayor yan na drstam hi tat puranah pragiyate
yo veda caturo vedan sangopanisado dvijah
puranam naiva janati na ca sa syad vicaksana


" O best of the brahmanas, the meaning of the Puranas is unchanging just like that of the Vedas. The Vedas are all sheltered within the Puranas without a doubt. The Veda has a fear that unqualified people will read her and then distort her meaning. Thus, the significance of the Veda was fixed in the Puranas and Itihasas. That which is not found in the Vedas is found in the Smrti. That which is not found in the Smrti is to be found in the Puranas. Those who know even the Vedas and Upanisads are not learned if they do not know the Puranas."

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[gg06287]

I appreciate being educated :)

[haridham]

@gg06287 I appreciate you being appreciated. Please check out the rest of this series and the rest of my videos. Please share my videos if possible.

Hare Krsna

[tenthousandyearsgoon]

Govinda

[haridham]

@tenthousandyearsgoon Jaya Jaya!!

[wellhard11]

haridham thanks for the reply i will watch the videos when i have conquered my laziness that is stopping me from moving forward in life lol. Could i ask you what would be the difference between allah, christ, krisna would they all be the same but with different names? is there one creater of the universe or are there numerous ?

[haridham]

@wellhard11 God has unlimited names. Krishna is one of his many names. Allah is Arabic and is the name of the same God. Just like in english the big yellow ball in the sky is called the sun, in hindi its called suraj, in arabic its called something else, however its all pointing to the same thing. The sun is not english, arabic or indian etc. So God has unlimted names. Christ is considered to the sun of God according to many in the Christian faith. There is only one creator

[haridham]

@wellhard11 The paint on my nose and forehead is called Tilak. It is a marking for those who are practicing the Gaudiya Vaisnava Siddhanta and reminds them that they are eternally servants of Lord Krsna. If you watch the whole series of videos then your second set of questions are answered. The vedas from the theological point of view are eternal and come from the Lord. Vyasadev put them in written form and he is an incarnation of the Lord.

[haridham]

@ANDROID697 Sorry for the belated reply. Yes I am in Iskcon

[haridham]

@ritesh1447 Thank you ritesh for the kind words. I glad you appreciate the effort. Yes I have been asked to present this in Hindi and other languages. I am not expert in them but I know others that are. I will do my best. sorry for the late reply.

[haridham]

@mateogalandesoto The ultimate Truth is Lord Krsna. Krsna is the source of all the vedas and the purpose. So yes most of the vedas are missing etc, the essence still remains. The essence is the Bhagavad Gita and the conclusion of the Vedas which is the Srimad Bhagavatam. If you read the Bhagavatam it includes the essential points of all other vedic literature and more. So dont be sad, you are fortunate