Upanishad Meditation commentary in ENGLISH AND TAMIL

                From the very day human being came into existence, his desire to be happy also came into existence. He discovered many things. He invented many things. But, ‘Death’ stopped him. He is unable to conquer death.

                What happens after death? What is the position before birth? These questions haunted him like anything. Throughout the world, mankind had this very same quest.  In the west, this quest drove the mankind to search in the material world. They invented and discovered many things for upgrading the living condition. It is called science.

                In the east, the search was made inwards.  If one thing is created, the substance of the creator should necessarily be in the creation. This was the logic for the eastern thinking.

                When the whole world was in the clutches of ignorance, Eastern Seers stood up and announced, “O  Sons of Eternal Bliss, Hear us (Srunuvantu Viswa, amrutasya Putra). Only by knowing the Ultimate Energy which created this universe, shall we conquer death.”

                Here two things are to be understood.

• ‘Knowing’ means not just reading and understanding but experiencing by oneself i.e., enlightenment.

• Conquering death does not mean a prolonged life with this same physical body. It means that death will not be a subject of worry anymore.

For this knowledge, they gave out many paths. Those are called Vedas. As Vedas are given out by various seers at various time and locations, It was humanly impossible for any person to read and understand them. Hence, about 5000 years ago, VedaVyasa, a great seer, collected all those and indexed them in an order.

He divided all that was available into four, Viz, Rigveda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. To enable a reader to read and understand these works clearly and as it was told, Six tools were created. Those (Siksha – Phonetics,  Kalpa – Rituals, Vyakarna – Grammar, Nrukta –Punctuation, Santhas – Tune and Jyotish – Astronomy) were called Vedanga (meaning Organs of Veda).

              Apart from this Veda which concentrates only on knowing the Ultimate Energy, some works were done for the existence of mankind in this mother earth. They were called UpaVeda are Auxillary Veda.  They are five in number and include medicine, warfare, administration, fine arts and the like.

Even this classification was not enough. Again it was not possible for any human being to read one veda thoroughly. Hence, the Vedas were subdivided into many sakas or parts.  It was told that the Vedas were divided into 1133 Sakas. But, as of now, only a handful of Sakas are available.

The list of books for Hinduism does not stop here. It includes Two epics, Srimad Bhagwadam, Devi Mahatmyam, Works by many Enlightened Masters and a number of Dharma Shastras.

But, for understanding this religion and its core concepts, it is not necessary to read all these literature.  The essence of the Vedas are available by name ‘Upanishads’ which can be easily read and understood.

In this introduction page and its subpages  you can get scientific explanation for many aspects of this religion. Some Upanishads are translated and you can find them in ‘Upanishads’ page.

Besides this theoretical approach of the ‘Ultimate Energy’, practical ways are also shown by our seers. They are called ‘Meditation’ . In this meditation page,   meditation techniques are explained.

              Everything is totally free. Because Knowledge is free in India. Please tell me your views or suggestions.

                                                                                                                                --Sri Sri Vedananda