The Vedas

The Vedas

At this point, it is fair to ask which books can be accepted as Vedas.

A first division is that there are these two types of texts, called:

– Sruti

– Smriti

The Srutis are the four original Vedas and the Smriti all the literature that comes from them.

Various scholars have divided them into various categories. I’ll propose you two of those. 

The first is divided into fifteen sections, which are:

1) Veda

2) Upaveda

3) Vedanga

4) Brahmana

5) Aranyaka

6) Sutra

7) Smriti

8) Upanga 

9) Darsana 

10) Upanisad

11) Puranas

12) Itihasa

13) Niti

14) The Vaisnava Sampradayas

15) The Parampara Gaudiya

 

We find a second classification in Chhandogya Upanisad where Narada Muni asks Sanat Kumara to teach him. Sanat Kumara responds asking Narada to tell him what he knows and whatever he misses he’ll tell him.

Sri Narada Muni said:

“Venerable Sir, I know (adhyemi)

the Rig-Veda,

the Yajur-Veda,

the Sama-Vedas,

the Atharva-Veda which is the fourth,

the epics (the Puranas) and the ancient stories (Itihasa) that are the fifth,

the Veda of the Vedas, that is the grammar,

Pitra Vidya (or Sraddha), the rules of the sacrifices to satisfy the ancestors,

Rashi Vidya, the science of numbers, that is, mathematics,

Bhuta Vidya, the science of evil portents,

Mahakala, the science of time,

Vakyo-Vakya, logic and philosophy,

Kshatra Vidya, the science of war,

Nakshatra Vidya, astronomy and astrology,

Sarpa Vidya, the science of snakes

Ekayatana, ethics and politics,

Nirukta, etymology,

Siksakalpa, ceremonial and prosody,

Fine arts, dancing, vocal and instrumental music.”

Sanat Kumara then taught him Atma-vidya, the science of self.

Narada Muni does not mention other sciences, but we find them in other texts:

Daiva Vidya, nature and environment

Nidhi Vidya, the economy

Deva Jana Vidya, sociology

Mantra Vidya, knowledge of books and

Atma Vidya, spiritual knowledge.

 

We’ll take the first classification and give some explanation. For obvious reasons, at this time we will not go into any of these in more detail.

This is a section of the book “Brilliant As the Sun”(English).

To buy the complete book, click here