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    The Sacred Scriptures

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    Roland Rodriguez
    The document discusses the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, specifically the Vedas. It states that the Vedas are the oldest and most respected Hindu scriptures, composed in Sanskrit. The Vedas can be divided into four categories of texts - Mantra, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanishads - which are roughly chronological and represent the spiritual evolution of the Aryans from hymns to deities to philosophical speculation. The Upanishads are considered the culmination and essence of the Vedas, exploring knowledge of the self and liberation.

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    The Sacred Scriptures

    Uploaded by

    Roland Rodriguez
    70 views13 pages
    The document discusses the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, specifically the Vedas. It states that the Vedas are the oldest and most respected Hindu scriptures, composed in Sanskrit. The Vedas can be divided into four categories of texts - Mantra, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanishads - which are roughly chronological and represent the spiritual evolution of the Aryans from hymns to deities to philosophical speculation. The Upanishads are considered the culmination and essence of the Vedas, exploring knowledge of the self and liberation.

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    The document discusses the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, specifically the Vedas. It states that the Vedas are the oldest and most respected Hindu scriptures, composed in Sanskrit. The Vedas can be divided into four categories of texts - Mantra, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanishads - which are roughly chronological and represent the spiritual evolution of the Aryans from hymns to deities to philosophical speculation. The Upanishads are considered the culmination and essence of the Vedas, exploring knowledge of the self and liberation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    70 views13 pages

    The Sacred Scriptures

    Uploaded by

    Roland Rodriguez
    The document discusses the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, specifically the Vedas. It states that the Vedas are the oldest and most respected Hindu scriptures, composed in Sanskrit. The Vedas can be divided into four categories of texts - Mantra, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanishads - which are roughly chronological and represent the spiritual evolution of the Aryans from hymns to deities to philosophical speculation. The Upanishads are considered the culmination and essence of the Vedas, exploring knowledge of the self and liberation.

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    The Sacred Scriptures

    (Hinduism)
    Although Hindu tradition maintains that
    the ultimate reality lies beyond all
    scriptures, it is equally convinced that the
    scriptures help people orient their minds
    and lives towards Brahman.

    This attitude has rise to a body of sacred


    literature so vast that by one calculation it
    would take 70 lifetimes of devoted study to
    read all of it.
    The four Vedas constitute the most
    important body of sacred Hindu literature,
    at least in theory. Other sacred literature,
    especially the Hindu epics, may be more
    popular with readers, but the Vedas,
    written in the ancient Sanskrit language,
    are the oldest and most respected
    scriptures.
    They are separately titled the Rig-Veda,
    Yajur-Veda, Sāma-Veda, and Atharva-
    Veda, and collectively referred to as the
    Veda
    Each of the Vedas can be divided into four
    types of texts, which are roughly
    chronological in order:

     Mantra or Samhitā
     Brāhmana
     Āranyaka
     Upanishad.
    The Mantra or Samhitā portion largely
    consists of hymns addressed to the various
    deities.

    The Brāhmana texts gather the


    authoritative utterances of brahmans (those
    with knowledge of Brahman, the ultimate
    reality) and describe the rituals, chiefly
    sacrificial offerings, in which the hymns
    are employed.
    The third section consists of Āranyakas,
    or Forest texts, presumably composed by
    sages who sought seclusion in the forests.

    The last section consists of the


    Upanishads, philosophical texts that have
    an air of mystery and secrecy about them.
    Scholars have suggested that the four types
    of texts represent four different stages in
    the spiritual evolution of the Aryans, the
    peoples of the Vedas. During the earliest
    stage in their religious life, the Aryans may
    have recited simple hymns of praise for the
    divinities they felt dwelt around them. In
    the next stage ritual evolved out of the
    early worship and become increasingly
    elaborate,
    until people were driven to ask what it was
    all about. Sages then retired to the forests
    to reflect on the meaning of sacrifice and
    the person who makes the sacrifice. This
    reflection opened the floodgates of
    philosophical speculation found in the
    Upanishads.
    Hindus traditionally have viewed the four
    types of texts as dating from the same
    period but serving different purposes. The
    first three texts deal with the realm of
    action and are concerned with dharma,
    artha, and kamā, whereas the last text
    concerns knowledge of the self and
    moksha.
    In this view, following dharma while
    experiencing the ups and downs of life
    produces a devout and mature mind that is
    then able to fully grasp what the
    Upanishads have to say.
    The Upanishads are also called Vedānta
    (meaning “end of the Vedas”) because they
    represent the final essence of the Vedas.
    The Vedānta marks the culmination as well
    as the conclusion of the Vedas, although
    the Vedic canon was never formally
    closed.
    END

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