By Victor M Fontane
As part of the expanding process of spiritual teachings beyond the traditional institutional religions in the western world, the concept of the Hindu spiritual traditions started a new discussion on their Holy Books or Vedas. However, because of the lack of many qualified teachers there is a lot of misunderstanding about its origin, contents and meaning. The Vedas are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.
There are four Vedas: the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Saama Veda and the Atharva Veda. The term Veda means “knowledge” as they are thought to contain the fundamental knowledge relating to the underlying cause of function and personal response to existence. They are considered among the oldest, if not the oldest, religious works in the world. They are commonly referred to as “scripture”, which is accurate as ,they can be defined as holy writing concerning the nature of the Divine. Unlike the scriptures of other religions, however, the Vedas are not thought to have been revealed to a certain person or persons at a specific historical moment; they are believed to have always existed and were apprehended by Rishis (sages) in deep meditative states at some point prior to c. 1500 BCE but precisely when, is unknown. The Vedas existed in oral form and were passed down from master to student for generations until they were committed to writing between c. 1500 - c. 500 BCE (the so-called Vedic Period) in India. They were carefully preserved orally as masters would have students memorize them forwards and backwards with emphasis on exact pronunciation in order to keep what was originally heard intact. So, rediscovering these ancient teachings we are including a general and simple description of the four Hindu Vedas.
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