Tracing the origins of the philosophical thought in Rig-Veda

Book Reviewed: Central Philosophy of the Rigveda, by A. Ramamurty

It has long been argued by both Indian and Western scholars that Rig-Veda is a collection of hymns that dwells in the praise of Vedic deities associated with nature. The author of this book argues that a naturalistic interpretation of the sacred hymns suffers from inadequate analysis and proper insight. The metaphysical thoughts are hidden and must be analyzed in proper context. The Vedic seers saw that life is strongly associated with nature, and they were trying to understand the world they lived, in terms of its association with matter, energy, air, water, animals, the good and the bad. The passage of Vedic period into the period of Upanishads saw a spring of metaphysical and spiritual thoughts in ancient India. Nobel physicist Erwin Schrodinger, almost 2,500 years after Upanishads came into existence, admitted that Vedanta as the true and correct description of physical reality. The teachers of Upanishads were great scholars of Vedic system and the practitioners of rituals; the philosophy did not descend into their consciousness out of the blue. It partly came from their knowledge and the understanding of the Rig-Veda. Thinkers like Sayanacarya and Aurobindo deviated from naturalistic interpretation to find the inner meaning of the Rig Veda through spiritual interpretation. The author inspired by the writings of Aurobindo, has contemplated on finding a natural path in the development of metaphysical thoughts in the Upanishads via Rig-Veda.

The basic approach of the Veda is not that it is about nature conceived in abstract terms, but to see its presence in all forms of its manifestation, and experience its ultimate source, the Creator or the God Almighty. The Vedic deities are primary and the universal manifestation of the Supreme Lord. The progression of ideas is reflected in the Upanishads which interpret of human experiences in a manifested physical reality. The attempts of Brahmanas to interpret nature divinely by the way of finding out the identities and correspondence, real or symbolic, between divine manifested as deities and the natural energies or the forces they carry. Yajna is treated as the integrating force that unifies nature with divine. For Vedic seers and other exalted individuals, the practice of yajna and penance lead to experiences that reveal divine nature. In Upanishads, the divine revelation is at the level of individual's own reality. Atman is the name given to the divine or the Brahman as it reveals itself within the being of man.

The Upanishadic understanding of Brahman as identical with the Self of a man as well as the inner controller and unity is a restatement of the Vedic concept of Brahma. When devotion transforms a devotee's vision and inspires his consciousness to see all that is a dynamic self-expression of the divine. The desire to achieve salvation and rest in the abode of God is in itself an experience of divinity. The ritualistic (yajnic) or religious approach to Vedic interpretation is to serve practical religious needs of man which was originally initiated in the Brahmanas was later developed by the Purva Mimamsa school of thought. Sayanacarya followed the method of Purva Mimamsa and interpreted certain Vedic hymns, independently of their ritualistic significance, in light of Upanishadic interpretation.

For Vedic seers, the nature is the immediate source of divine revelation to man, and they are manifestation of each other. Rig-Veda is not clear when divine nature came into existence, was it before material nature? In Rig-Veda, Agni and Indra are the principal deities and both represent energy; heat (Agni) and power (Indra) are known to exist across the cosmos. They are the primary and universal manifestations and reveal the divine within the material world. They point to an ultimate source and inner unity. The Vedic deities are of one mind and wisdom that represent the Supreme Being.