“Veda means the sum total of eternal truths.”
-Swami Vivekanand in his letter to Professor John Henry Wright, October 2, 1893
Namaste!
I was born in a very small town in the Bihar province of India. From early in life, I was exposed to the extraordinary stories from the Vedic period of ancient India, as described in the oldest yet most encompassing surviving literary work in human history. Tales from the post-Vedic or Vedantic literatures, particularly epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana – read to me as a child, were equally engrossing and instructive. Yet the enormity, profundity, and antiquity of the Vedic literature would not dawn upon me for several decades.
I wanted to become a doctor from a young age and was drawn to biological sciences. Early into medical school, it became apparent to me that, despite monumental advances and tremendous benefit to humankind, the sciences as they exist today lack a deep and fundamental element. They can not offer a framework to explain the basis of our existence, let alone the full scope of it - in deep contrast to the teachings contained in the Vedic and Vedantic literatures.
When I arrived in the United States as a fresh graduate from medical school, certain life events propelled me to pursue a career in psychiatry. Once again, I realized that the neurosciences do not have any tools to decipher the mind-body and mind-brain dichotomies. By contrast, it reminded me of the enormous emphasis the Vedic wisdom places on the pivotal role of human mind and consciousness in our overall life experience.
About 15 years ago, while faced with a crisis in my life, I felt a strong yearning to reconnect with my happiest memories. This took me back to my childhood. I had been very close to both my maternal grandparents and paternal grandfather. My paternal grandmother had passed when my father was only nine years old. It was them who, by way of storytelling, introduced me to the tales and the concepts contained within the Vedic and Vedantic manuscripts.
Both sides of my family were deeply religious. My parents and grandparents closely followed the tenets of Sanatan Dharm, popularly known as Hinduism. As I recalled my happiest days as a child and adolescent, I came to look at my family’s routines and practices with a totally new mindset. I recalled their daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly routines being closely guided by the Vedic calendar, which in turn seemed to be intricately aligned with the movements of the planets and the stars. As I looked back, it felt as though they lived lives that were connected to and were in harmony with the events in the cosmos.
Even more compelling to me was that my family considered every event described in these scriptures to be factual, without a shred of doubt. They also believed every recommendation on the ways of life, in the scriptures, had been passed down directly from the most coveted part of the cosmos according to all major faiths: the Heavens. I remembered the timelines of major events described in these scriptures were often accompanied by a description of the planetary positions and star constellations that temporally corresponded to the events.
As I ponder over the ways of life of the masses even in modern India, regardless of geographical location and social class, I realize that my family’s way of life represents a microcosm of collective consciousness of the people of the Indian subcontinent. I felt it was remarkable and unparalleled that this collective consciousness has remained largely undisturbed over millennia - despite attempts by various forces to dismantle and replace it.
For the last fifteen years I have felt compelled to explore this enduring collective consciousness of the people who, based on the most current body of scientific evidence, have been inhabiting the Indian peninsula continuously for at least the last 15,000 years - and most likely for much, much longer.
As I delved deeper into the scriptures, despite my innate skepticism arising from my scientific training as a medical student, a psychiatrist, and a clinical researcher, I was awestruck by the all-encompassing nature of the Vedic and Vedantic literature.
Two facets of these most pregnant and antiquated writings in human history seemed to be particularly remarkable. First, they spoke of every imaginable aspect of human existence. Second, they described human existence in the context of a cosmic order. Therefore, I conclude that these writings represent the most secular, eternal, and enduring truths about human existence. Hence, I have chosen to call this most remarkably unmatched body of writings The Manuals of the Cosmos™. As such they are a treasure for humanity, irrespective of faith, race, nationality, or other differences. I also decided to name this blog “The Saptarishis” after the seven sages, who are believed to have ushered in the Vedic age of each Cycle of Creative Flow, described in the Vedas as the Vaivasvat Manvantar.
Indeed, it is the secularity, universality, and timelessness of these writings that justify the Sanskrit phrase Sanatan Dharm to describe the core principles contained therein. Sanatan means “history which is without beginning or end,” while Dharm means “natural law or righteousness.” Thus, Sanatan Dharm generally translates into “the eternal and righteous way to live.” The doctrines contained in the concept of Sanatan Dharm, if and when applied to our current world, are uniquely suited to guide us in the right direction.
As this blog embarks upon this endeavor, I request and encourage you, readers, to comment and express your opinions. After all, in the end it is our collective consciousness that has the most bearing on the type of earthly world we create.
This blog will also explore the timelines of these writings and the events described therein, since any new findings will potentially provide us with valuable insights into human history. It should be noted that there is an ongoing debate about these writings and related events. The factual and psychological underpinnings of this debate will also be examined.
And, that’s all folks!
At least, for now!
Until next time …
“In the history of the world the Vedas fill a gap which no literary work in any other language could fill. I maintain that to everybody who cares for himself for his ancestors for his intellectual development a study of the Vedic literature is indeed indispensable.”
-Max Muller in his article “Ancient Sanskrit Literature,” The Edinborough Review, October, 1860
Please hit the "love button" at the bottom of the page if you enjoyed this post! ❤️
Comments