Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Who Reads the Veda


Not anyone benefited from the Veda. Because the priests considered these hymns so holy, they were very careful about who was allowed access to them. Only members of the three top classes of Indian society was permitted to the four Vedas and participate in Vedic sacrifies. Over the centuries, women's access to the Vedas, even if they were high class, became increasingly limited. This is rather ironic since numbers of the Vedic hymns were composed by women.

Today the four Vedas have been translated into many different languages and just about anyone who wants to read them can. However, reading them and understanding them are two projects. Vedic knowledge remains an oral, initiatory tradition. Without a guru to lead you through the complex symbolism and hidden mystical underpinnings, frankly quite a few of the hymns don't make a lot of sense.


Still, the Vedas are so important in the Hindu tradition, even after 6,000+ years, that the word Vedic is often used as a synonym for anything Hindu, as in " Vedic literature" or " Vedic science".



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