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In the Indian tradition coming down to us through the ages, all
the Veda Samhitās and particularly the Rigveda Samhita are
considered as repositories of the eternal spiritual knowledge. The
Veda is worshipped as a person - Veda Purusha. It antedates
all the other books of knowledge like the purāņās,
Upanishads and so on. Moreover, the important scriptures such as
the Bhāgavata Purāņa or the Mahābhārata or the
classical scriptures in the language Tamil like Tiruvāymozhi
claim that they are giving in an easy way the essentials of the
knowledge in Vedās, which is difficult to understand.
The Upanishads, the books of spiritual knowledge to the moderns,
quote many verses from the Rigveda. The oft-quoted verse from the
Shvetashvatāra Upanishad describing all human beings as the
children of immortality amŗtasya putrāh is in RV
(10.13.1). The older Upanishads, like Chāndogya and
Bŗhadāraņyaka, appeal to the Rigveda to support their own
positions by declaring “so said a Rik”.
Rigveda Samhita itself declares in many verses that it contains a
secret knowledge; see RV (4.3.16) and RV (5.62.1). Some of the
relevant phrases are: the words of secrecy ninya vāchāmsi,
apīchyam, guhyam, hidden in the Cave and so on
[2;16, Vol. 4].
In Rig vedic times, this secret knowledge was handed down
from the teacher to the chosen disciples. Most persons of these
times did not have access to this secret knowledge. The
ordinary person of these times heard these mantrās recited at the
communal rites yajňās and derived the benefit from them
depending on his faith in them.
Rigveda itself says in RV (1.64.39) and (7.61.5) that this secret
will remain sealed for most people. The secret is not of the kind
which can be told in a few words. It reveals itself only to those
who have intense aspiration for understanding it and have
undergone appropriate spiritual practices. RV declares; it will
not be revealed to one whose being is not purified by the fire of
yoga as declared in RV (9.83.1), also (1.24.12).
Still there are many verses which display their meaning in clear
terms, some of which appear in the boxes in these pages.
There is a misconception about the Rigveda Samhita that it is a
book of rituals, and is devoid of wisdom. None can point out the
details of a single rite or ritual in the Rigveda. Rigveda does
contain words connected with rituals like purohit etc. But if one
reads the Rigveda carefully one sees that the rites mentioned in
the Rigveda are symbolic and the performer of these rites is the
God Agni and not any human priest or a human patron. The
Brāhmaņa books which give the details of the rites explicitly
declare [Shatapatha Brāhmaņa, 10.5.4-16] that one should
understand the symbolic character of the rituals. Yāska, the
earliest commentator on the Rigveda, who lived much earlier than
2000 BCE declares that Rigveda can be understood at three
different levels, of which the deepest is the spiritual symbolic
interpretation. The book Bŗhaddevata, later than the
Brāhmaņa books, declares existence of the mystic school of
interpretation of Rigveda in [6.61-62]. Relation of the Upanishads
to Rigveda has already been mentioned. Mahābhārata mentions
the symbolism of Rigveda in Ashwamedha Parva (11.7-20) and
other places. The vedāntic commentator Sri Madhwachārya
(1600 CE) and his disciple, the famous Sri Rāghavendra Swami,
emphasize its spiritual character. This tradition has been
continued in modern times by Sri Aurobindo, Sri Kapāli Sāstry and
others by their detailed commentaries and explanations. Thus the
spiritual-symbolic interpretation has the support of not only the
ancient books but also that of the moderns.
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