Question: Who wrote Vedas?
Answer: Veda Vyasan
This was what I had understood about Veda and its author. Recently, I realized the mistake in this. Vyasa did not write Vedas. He just collected, composed and compiled the Vedic Knowledge into Vedas. It means, the contents of Vedas had existed and practiced much before Vyasa. Veda which means "knowledge" (from the root word "Vid" which means "to know") is believed to be passed from Brahma to human kind. At the same time, it is considered to be "authorless".
Here I am briefly describing the contributions of Vyasa to the humankind and how they are connected to each other.
Vedas
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Vedic knowledge which existed even before Vyasa, had been an Oral Tradition passed through generations. There are 4 yugas - Satya Yuga, Krutha Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. The moral values kept on decreasing from one yuga to the other. So, the ability and interest to orally practice and pass the Vedas to next generation, reduced. May be that was one of the reasons for Vyasa to document/compile Veda so as to preserve the Vedic Knowledge for future generations. He compiled Vedas into 4 - Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Each individual Veda is composed of 4 sections - Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), Brahmanas ( Commentaries on rituals, ceremonies etc.), Aranyakas (Philosophy behind rituals), and Upanishads (Spiritual Knowledge & Philosophy)
Upanishads
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Upanishads need a special mention since they are the most important. The first 3 parts of vedas (Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka) are mainly focused on mantras, rituals and sacrifices. The last part, based on Spiritual Knowledge is called Upanishads.
The way, the world was considered to be formed was upside down. In other words, the roots or source of the world is from "up above" (in Sanskrit "upari"). The Gods were considered to be Up Above and the Gods cannot be seen. So, pleasing the Gods was done by chanting mantras and doing rituals. While mantras were to praise the Gods, rituals were done to please the Gods by offering something materialistic to Gods. Chanting mantras is okay, but how can something be given when Gods are invisible? So, "Agni" (Fire) was depended on to deliver their offerings to these Upari Devas (Gods Up above) and things that were sacrificed in Agni was considered to be delivered to Gods.
These were done for quite a long period of time and eventually lost its significance. Some people started questioning the importance of Gods and mantras/rituals done to please the Gods. One example is, some rituals need a lot of physical strength which could be done when they were young but not when they were old. (e.g. sitting in front of fire for long time, holding heavy puja vessels etc. were not difficult when they were young, but impossible to do when they became old). Another possible example (just my thought... I don't know whether this example is correct) could be, may be there was a rain God and over many years, heavy rain and flooding might have disrupted their lives. So, some people might have started thinking "Is the rain God powerful?" or "Is the rain God, the real God?". These kind of thoughts made some people to seek the true God. Since it is not possible to do that in their society (due to too much mantra/ritual based life), they went to the forest and started meditating. As a result, enlightenment and realization happened to many and their knowledge was the Spiritual Knowledge to realize the true God. That Spiritual Knowledge are the contents of Upanishads.
Upanishads are called "Vedantha", which means "end of the Veda" or "conclusion of the veda" ("antha" means "end"). Upanishads means "sitting down near", which means it needs to be learned by sitting down near the teacher or Guru. It will be very difficult to read and understand the real essence of Upanishads. One needs to learn it from someone who has properly understood it.
Upanishads contains the cream or essence of Vedas.
Bhagavat Gita (Mahabhartham)
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Bhagavat Gita is part of the epic Mahabharatha. Arjuna who was prepared to wage war against his cousins, Guru, and great grandfather Bhishma, became mentally weak at the beginning of the war. Krishna spoke to Arjuna and made him fight by mentally uplifting him. How could he do that? What Krishna spoke to Arjuna, known as Bhagavat Gita is the "cream of all Upanishads" (Upanishads are cream of the vedas, while Bhagavat Gita is the cream of all Upanishads).
Arjuna became mentally weak due to the bondage or attachment to the world - his karma/actions, his relatives, Guru, Bhishma etc. But, Krishna could help Arjuna to attain "Moksham" (or liberation) which means "to be free from all bondage in life". (moksham does not mean the typical meaning of no rebirth. It means free from all attachments while alive). Being free from all bondages, it will be possible to realize the true God and do the Karma properly, which in this case was "war".
All of us, are like Arjuna.. facing so many issues in life due to our bondage or attachments to various things and actions. Understanding Bhagavat Gita will help us to be free from these bondages and do our Karma properly.
Bhagavatham
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After compiling Vedas and writing Mahabharatham (which contains Bhagavat Gita), Vyasa was still not fully happy. Something was missing in his life. Narada told him that, what Vyasa had done is great, but Mahabharata is the story of mortals and Bhagavat Gita even though great, is the conversation between two mortals. They do not sufficiently contain the glories of Sri Hari (Mahavishnu). In addition, Mahabharatha is full of wickedness and immoral acts and people may fail to understand the real essence of it and eventually ignoring it altogether. So, Vyasa needs to write something that directly chants the glories of Sri Hari and by reading that people could taste the sweet names of Sri Hari and will not get misguided. That's why Vyasa wrote Bhagavatham.
What is there in Bhagavatham?
King Parikshit (Son of Abhimanyu) was hunting in the forest and felt thirsty. He went to the ashram of Sage Shamika and found him to be in deep meditation. When Parikshit asked for water, Sage Shamika did not respond since he was in a deep meditative state. Parikshit got offended and in the anger, he took a dead snake and threw it around the Sage Shamika's neck. Later, seeing this, Shamika's son Shringi cursed Parikshit to die in 7 days bitten by the snake Thakshak. Parikshit was a noble king, but Kali (kali yuga) played in his head and made him to do this behavior. Later, Parkshit came to normal senses and wished for a punishment for his action. So, he was happy when he heard that Shringi had cursed him to die in 7 days. He was not afraid of death, renounced everything, went to the banks of Ganga and started meditating to prepare for his death. Sages came to pay respects to him and Vyasa's 16 year old son Shuka also came. Parikshit's mind was not calm and was full of questions like "At the time of death, what should a man hear, what should he do, what should he repeat, what should he remember, what should he avoid? How can I spend the rest of my time in the best way? How can I gain the grace of the Lord?". To these questions, Shuka answered by telling the glories of Sri Hari. At the end of 7th day Parikshit was free from all the bondage and clear of the answers to his questions and attained Moksha or liberation. After that Thakshak bit Parikshit and he died.
How was Shuka able to help Parikshit to be free from all bondages? Here also, the Upanishad principles is what Shuka told Parikshit. (similar to what Krishna told Arjuna). But, they were told in "Bhakti" mode glorifying the actions of Sri Hari.
Conclusion
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Both Bhagavad Gita & Bhagavatam contain the cream of Upanishads. Only the context is different. Bhagavat Gita happened when "a person stumbled to face a tough situation" or "to survive in this world. Meanwhile, Bhagavatham happened when "a person was going to die". So, "to live or die properly" one needs to attain "moksha" or "liberation" which is "free from all bondages in life". In other words, lacking the proper knowledge is the cause for all our bondage in the life which leads to all kinds of conflicts, violence, war etc (inside every individual or in society). By seeking and realizing that "proper knowledge", one can be free from all that bondage so as to lead a good individual life and create a good society or world.
Now, a little diversion from Vyasa's contributions. It is not just Arjuna or Parikshit who attained Moksha through Upanishads. Listed a few more here
Bhagavat Gita -- Krishna to Arjuna
Bhagavatham -- Shuka Maharshi to Parikshit
Yoga Vasishtam -- Vasistha to Rama
Bhagavatham -- Krishna to Uddhava. (Uddhav Gita)
Katopanisahd - Yama to Nachikethas
Ashtavakra Gita - Ashtavakran to Janakan (Sita's Father)
Mundakopanishad - Angirasa Maharshi to Shounaka (Shounaka was a homemaker)
Yoga Vasistham: Coming home after a long tour across the country, after seeing the reality of the world, Rama was utterly disillusioned and in a dejected state. At that time, Vasistha talked and advised Rama for 18 days, which is known as Yoga Vasistham. After this, Rama got spiritually enlightened and was completely free of all bondages in life or he achieved Moksha.
Uddhava Gita: Uddhava was Krishna's close friend. Knowing that Krishna is going to die soon, he was worried. Krishna talks to Uddhava so as to help him free from all bondages in the world. Again, Upanishad principles and it is called Uddhava Gita.
Katopanishad: Nachikethas (a little boy) asks Yama the secret of death? Yama got worried and offered Nachikethas all kinds of luxuries to take back the question. Nachikethas did not take back his question. The reason Yama was worried is that, if he explains the "secret of death", his (Yama's) role/importance will come down.. since the secret of death is that "nobody is dying". (Then what is the role of Yama?)
Ashtavakra Gita - Ashtavakra was a maharshi with 8 bends in the body. Once Ashtavakra went to Janaka's court and seeing Ashtavakra's deformed body everyone in Janaka's court laughed. Ashtavakra also laughed with them. King Janaka told Ashtavakra that he (Janaka) knows why everyone in his court laughed. Janaka asked Ashtavakra on what reason Ashtavakra himself laughed. Ashtavakra replied that he laughed thinking about the foolishness of everyone in Janaka's court since they laughed at his deformity. Ashtavakra says that shape of his body does not affect him (Atma). The conversation goes deep and Janaka gets enlightened. This is called Ashta Vakra Gita.
Mundakopanishad: Shounaka was a ritual oriented man who could not do the rituals when he was old. He went to the forest and asked Angirasa Maharshi that "tell me that, by knowing which I will know everything". Angirasa talks to Shounaka which is the contents of Mundakopanishad.
PS: In the above write up, Moksha does not mean the typical meaning of no rebirth. Here Moksha means one needs to be free from all bondage in the earth while he/she is alive.
PS: There is one more called Brahma Sutras attributed to Vyasa, which I have purposefully omitted here.
[06162020]
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