Transcript (Not Corrected)

Hindu Scriptures: A Comprehensive Overview

Opening Prayer

ॐ सह नाववतु ।

सह नौ भुनक्तु ।

सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।

तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु ।

मा विद्विषावहै ।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ।

हरिः ॐ ।

Transliteration (IAST):

Om Saha Nāvavatu

Saha Nau Bhunaktu

Saha Vīryaṃ Karavāvahai

Tejasvi Nāvadhītamastu

Mā Vidviṣāvahai

Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ

Hariḥ Om

Translation:

Om, may Brahman protect us both.

May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of knowledge.

May we both obtain the energy to acquire knowledge.

May what we both study reveal the truth.

May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other.

Om, peace, peace, peace be unto all.

Introduction

We have been expounding and trying to understand the Hindu religion, Hinduism. In this connection, I have given a certain important summary of the main points, and in our last class, which lasted only for about 30 minutes, I briefly touched upon Hindu scriptures.

Every religion has two important things. Every religion is based upon scriptures, śāstras, and the second thing we have to understand is that, somehow, whatever may be our intelligence, we feel that old is gold, and nothing new is valuable. For example, for Hindus, the Vedas are the most important scriptures. But there have been so many saints since so many centuries—thousands of years we can say—but we do not accept them as Vedas.

Divine Revelation and Scripture

Divine revelations—scripture literally means divine revelation. So what is not a divine revelation? Every saint, whatever he experiences, when he speaks of it, is it not a divine revelation? But at some point, we draw a line and say all those things that came before are really divine revelations, and later on that came, they might be, might not be. Every religion—Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam—you take any religion, unfortunately this is the condition.

Understanding Scripture (Śāstra)

So what are the important scriptures of Hinduism? Hinduism too is based upon scripture. First of all, we have to know what is the meaning of the scripture. A word, the Sanskrit word for scriptures is śāstra.

Śāstra means to command, to counsel, to request, to teach—that which guides us in the beginning with a rod. Later on, when our capacity to understand grows, then it simply reveals the truth about life: what is the goal of life, how to attain it.

Now scripture also means the knowledge which we cannot otherwise obtain through our five sense organs. If I can see the sun rising, there is no need for any scripture to come and tell me about it. Only that knowledge which we cannot obtain by any means—however fine an instrument is, an electron microscope, the most powerful telescope—cannot reveal to us the truths about God, other worlds, or even, not to speak of God, even of ghosts.

So how do we know whether such things exist? And if we don't know such things exist, is there any harm? Yes, there is harm. If we do not know, then we will be missing a lot of things. For example, Hindu scriptures tell us, or every scripture—the scriptures of every religion tells us—that if you do not realize God, if you do not please Him, you will lose a lot.

Now we do not know that we stand to lose a lot, because no science in this world can ever reveal to us. Maybe we are very happy in this world. There are, you know, a few lucky people who are very happy people. They are quite healthy, they have all the things necessary to enjoy life. But our scriptures come and tell us it is a most miserable life—not miserable from our standpoint, but miserable from what we could really have attained if only we had known, from that point of view.

The Role of Scripture and Saints

So the scriptures alone can reveal to us. When they reveal to us, we will have a desire. So the scriptures will tell us what it is we really ought to strive for and how to strive for intelligently, because there is a right way and there is a wrong way.

But in course of time, what happens is that these very scriptures, if they are not interpreted properly—first of all, secondly, if they are not proved—then they, what you call, gather mold. They become old. They can even become dangerous. As we can see, some of the modern interpretations of certain religions produce terrific acts, all in the name of religion, scriptural commandments.

So practically every religion is alive because there are certain people whom we usually call saints who prove the statements of the scriptures. That is what generally most of the saints do. But then there comes a time when even the power of a saint will not do, because the flow of the stream, the general flow of the stream, is so strong. A superhuman power, a divine power is needed to stem that tide and turn it back.

Incarnations of God (Avatāra)

That is where practically every religion believes in—Buddhism believes in incarnation of God, incarnation of Buddha. Hinduism, of course, believes not in one incarnation but many, many—as many as necessary, as long as necessary. Christianity believes only in one incarnation of God, and the second time He comes, there will be no world. All of us will be judged and lifted up to be put into eternal hell or heaven. I am only joking; it is not true.

But Hinduism has a specialty which I will very shortly come to that point. So these incarnations, what do they do? Even Islam, which usually doesn't believe in an incarnation—it's not exactly as Hinduism believes—but they call, those whom we call incarnation, they call prophet. But even though he is a prophet, he has tremendous power. Even today his power is tremendous; their numbers are increasing. There is something in him which inspires people.

Recognizing an Incarnation

So let us quickly try to finish one important point: How do we know who is an incarnation of God? As far as spiritual knowledge is concerned, there is absolutely no difference between an incarnation of God and the most ordinary saint who had a vision of God. If you have tasted one drop of milk or somebody had drunk 10 gallons of milk, the experience is absolutely the same. The difference is in the power, not in knowledge, but in the power.

Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa used to illustrate this by way of giving an example that a small stick floating on a river can hardly float by itself. Somehow it is maintaining its floating power; it reaches the ocean. But let even a small bird sit on it, immediately it sinks. Whereas there is a huge ship—not only does it float and reach the ocean, it also carries with it thousands of people, heavy vehicles. You know, whenever you cross the channel, you take your car and then you cross the ocean.

So like that, an incarnation of God is like a huge ship which can take people across for long, long time. So the criteria to know who is an incarnation of God is this: that the power, the influence of such a person would last for many, many, many centuries, thousands of years. You know, Rāma was born thousands of years back, Kṛṣṇa was born thousands of years back, Buddha was born 2,500 years back, Christ was born 2,000 years back. But even today there are people who are awakened into spiritual life by just reading their life, their teachings. Their power not only hasn't diminished, but in fact it is increasing more and more. So that is how we know who is an incarnation of God.

Nowadays, you know, so many people are claiming to be incarnations of God. They are like meteors—just a big flash of a bulb, you know, and then after a few days you will not see them at all. It may last for a lifetime or much less in many cases, and that is the end of it. After that, the whole place will be gathering cobwebs. But an incarnation of God, year by year, century after century, the power seems to be increasing—the power of transforming a character, the power of influencing our emotions. Emotions could be made to change by any Tom, Dick, and Harry. Even a comedian can transform your emotions for five minutes. A saint can influence our character in a very small way. But an incarnation of God has a tremendous power of transformation, not merely of individuals but of entire societies for a long, long, long time. That is how we know what these incarnations are.

The Role of Incarnations

So what these incarnations do: not only do they follow the scriptures, they realize the truths that have been taught by the scriptures. They also forge new pathways for the realization of God suited to the changing times and circumstances. Not only that, they also give us the right type of ideals suited for the particular times. Every time the eternal truths will remain the same, but the way we apply them, that always changes. And then they reinterpret the scriptures in a way that we have to update.

You know, whenever you have any antivirus installed in your systems, practically you have to update your software. If you don't, you will be ridden with viruses. An incarnation, what he does, he works like a powerful antivirus, and these stupid ideas that are going through are the viruses going through in our minds. You know, nowadays so many ideas are coming.

Hindu Scriptures: An Overview

So without taking much of your time, at first I will very briefly tell you about Hindu scriptures, and then I will go into a little more detail.

First of all, these Hindu scriptures are called śāstras, or popularly they are known as Vedas. The meaning of the word Veda means knowledge, to know. Veda means to know. Vedas means knowledge. Knowledge means that knowledge which we cannot obtain through our supersensory knowledge. Is there God? Is there afterlife? And is there any way to reach there? If at all it is there, what are the means to reach that goal? What would be the obstacles? What would be the conditions? Why should we do it?

All these things are comprised of three points. What are those three points? Tattva, Puruṣārtha, Hita.

Tattva means truth. What is the truth? Not only the truth about God, but the truth also about this world.

Understanding the World (Māyā)

Why? Because we are, as Hindu scriptures tell, we are covered by māyā. Māyā means wrong understanding about ourselves, about the world. We are living in this world. We are experiencing this world, but we are unable to understand the real nature of this world.

What is the real nature of this world? One fact we all know. What is the nature of this world? It is in a flux. It is changing. Here is birth. Here is death. Here is good. Here is evil. Here is happiness. Here is unhappiness.

What is our understanding? That we are never going to die. We are not going to suffer. Is it right? Not only are we not going to die, we don't expect also whom we love not to die, but we definitely expect whom we don't like to disappear very soon. That is also not going to happen. So somehow the idea is there this is a permanent world.

In a corner of our mind we know death is going to come, but we always postpone it. When do you think you are going to die? After 10 years. So after 10 years you ask the same question: When are you going to die? After 10 years. At the age of 100 you ask, when are you going to die? I think another 5–6 years—he means another 10 years. So thus it goes on.

And also, another truth about this world is, as we said, based upon this: if you are unhappy, don't ever think that you are always going to be unhappy. It is going to change. If you are happy, don't be too happy about it. That is also going to change. That is called wisdom.

Then, if everything is changing, we have this fear of insecurity. The biggest example of this ignorance of this nature of this world—20 days before, would anyone have thought the banks are going to be bankrupt? Oh, what is this nonsense that is happening? Well, if there are banks, if there is a head, there will be a headache. If there is a bank—but we do not seem to accept that. As though it goes on increasing in its prosperity, profit. But you see, it is a very painful way of learning this lesson.

Also, you know, disease comes, old age comes, death comes. These are all everyday facts. We are seeing them every day, and yet it doesn't sink into our mind. So the scripture comes and tells us: do not be too cocksure about the stability of this world. Does it mean to say we should be morose? We should be gloomy? No. What it says is: accept it. You must be aware of the fact. After that, you do whatever you like.

The Law of Karma

Also, the law of karma. Now, specially Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism—these are the only three religions which specially emphasize the law of karma.

When we look around us, we see so much difference—good, bad, rich, poor, literate, illiterate, healthy, sick—not only individuals but nations. So what is the cause? And if you have to believe the scriptures, you have to say that we are responsible. Each one of us, as a nation, we are responsible.

Though it is not relevant to our topic today, not very relevant, a little bit relevant—somebody has remarked, you know, why America is having such terrible problems? Because it went to Iraq, declared war, and did so much damage, and all of those people prayed to Allāh, and they are telling, "See, Allāh is true. We prayed, and see the condition, what happened." Though I'm telling it in a lighter way, it is true—there must be a cause. Whether it is Iraq or something else, we don't know, but we are squarely responsible for our own happiness, unhappiness, sickness, and health—in everything, for everything in life. This is what Hinduism very strongly believes.

Buddhism—Buddha never talked about God, but he always used to emphasize the results of actions follow every man's footsteps like the wheels of a cart follow the footsteps of the oxen—the law of karma.

Where from do we get this knowledge that we are responsible for our own actions? We are what we are because of what we did in the past, because no scientist would ever be able to tell you this. You look at a baby physically disabled or mentally retarded, or you know, Siamese twins and all those horrible contortions. How do you explain that? There is no way to explain, excepting there must have been—if this is the effect, there must have been a cause.

Scripture as Direct Experience

So first of all, what is meant? Only those truths which we do not know. We don't know whether God exists. We don't know what happens to us after the fall of this body. We don't know where we go, whether there is going to be a rebirth, and what is it going to be—its effect we do not know. These are some of the truths that are revealed.

So scriptures also mean they are not imaginary guesses or at best educated guesses now. They are the direct experiences of certain people called ṛṣis. These ṛṣis have gone somehow beyond the mind, have experienced, seen these truths for themselves, and they are merely coming and then telling them to us. These came to be known as Vedas. The whole of Hindu religion is dependent upon these Vedic teachings.

Types of Hindu Scriptures

Śruti and Smṛti

So these Vedic teachings are called revelations. That is why there is a Sanskrit word; it is called apauruṣeya. Puruṣa means human being. Apauruṣeya means it is not the concoctions of a human, any human being. It's simply when the mind becomes pure, it becomes like a mirror. On it are reflected the truths—supernatural truths, supersensuous truths—and this person merely is expressing them in a particular language. This is the basis of all religions. For Hinduism, the Vedas are the basis.

Now, depending upon this, these are also called śruti. Śruti means that which is heard. Śruti doesn't mean somebody hears through the ear. There are no ears. There is only—when the pure mind experiences intuitively certain things—it is called śruti, heard. Nothing to do with external sound. Simply knowledge comes like that.

And also it is called śruti because these teachers, they passed on their knowledge from the mouth of the guru to the disciple, from the mouth of his disciple to his disciple—guru paramparā system, GPS. Hinduism is based on GPS, guru paramparā system. That is why it is called śrutis.

Now, based upon these śrutis or Vedas, a secondary type of scriptures have come. These scriptures are called smṛti. Smṛti means memory. Here memory doesn't mean memory. What it means is these teachings, they go inside the mind of the disciple, and the disciple sits down, thinks about them, puts them in a beautiful rational order, and presents them nicely to people like us. That is why they are called smṛtis.

So two types of literature: scriptures that which is divine revelation, and that which is based upon this divine revelation—human constructs. Now, even though these secondary type of scriptures called smṛtis are human constructs, they will never deviate from the main teachings of the Vedas. If they deviate, then they are simply thrown out as rubbish, because how do you convey the idea of God or other world to others when you don't know anything? You have to rely upon somebody else.

The Canonization of Vedic Knowledge

One more point is: at some particular point of time, there have been many revelations over a long period of time, since thousands of years. And according to some scholarly calculation, almost 11,000 years back this accumulation of this Vedic knowledge or Vedic revelation started, and it went on almost till two or three centuries before BC. And all that literature—they have drawn a line and said whatever has been accumulated so far alone will be called divine revelation, and whatever revelations people have after this time will not be included in them.

For example, Christ's teaching—Christ was an incarnation of God, so he must have divine revelation. He was a great ṛṣi. Rāmakṛṣṇa used to call him a great ṛṣi, and if he was a great ṛṣi, he must have had revelation. If he had revelations, they are absolutely right, but that will not be included in the Vedas. Rāmakṛṣṇa's teachings, which are all divine revelations, they will also not be included in the Vedas. So also Rāmakṛṣṇa's teaching, for example—what is Kṛṣṇa's teaching? The Bhagavad Gītā will not be included in the Vedas. It is called smṛti prasthāna, one of the most important scriptures, but a secondary human construction, it is said there.

So these are the two types of scriptures.

The Three Main Teachings of Scripture

What do these scriptures teach? The first thing is tattva. Tattva means truth—truth about what is true about this world, what is true beyond this world, about God, about afterlife, about other worlds, etc.

Are there other worlds? Yes. If there is an afterlife, you have to live somewhere. So there is another world. Not world—for Hindus, worlds. You see, that depends upon the amount of donation you give to the Vedanta Society (All laugh)—the amount of what we call puṇya or merit we acquire. You go to Indraloka, then you go to Prajāpati Loka. The highest—if you have accumulated the highest amount of merit, you will go to the highest personal world, which is called Brahmaloka, or in devotional language it is known as Vaikuṇṭha, Kailāsa, Goloka. For Rāmakṛṣṇa devotees, Rāmakṛṣṇa Loka, it is called—highest. But unless you are totally identified with the God, you will not be able to go there. Anyway, these are the truths. That is called tattva.

Puruṣārtha: The Four Supreme Values

Second is scriptures—the second part of their teaching—puruṣārtha. Puruṣārtha means what are the supreme values in a human being's life. It is called puruṣa and artha. Artha means value—human values, not animal values, because we still believe we don't know much about animals, but they do not seem to have any values like, you know, righteous living, morality, etc. Human beings alone have that capacity to sit down and say, "Let me live a life of values."

And these values, according to Hinduism, are classified into four types:

1. Dharma

The first is called dharma. Dharma means live such a life you will be happy in this world; you will also be happy in the other world. That is the foundation of happiness. Happiness is different; foundation of happiness is different.

2. Artha

Then comes artha. Artha means make the instruments for the experience of your desires, for the enjoyment of happiness. The instruments must be fit, proper instruments. Artha doesn't mean only money. There are three types of instruments:

External instruments: For example, you want to eat a sweetmeat. So a sweetmeat is an instrument.
The body: Our own body. That also must be right, healthy, proper, not tired, fully conscious, hungry. Then only you can eat. That is the second instrument.
The mind: Mind should not be worried. It should not be indolent. If you are sleeping, however healthy your body is, you can't enjoy a sweetmeat.

So these are the three instruments. How to make these three instruments in a proper way—that is the subject of the second puruṣārtha value, supreme value.

3. Kāma

Then the third is called kāma. Kāma means fulfillment of a desire. Why is it called a supreme value? Well, you can't simply say, "I have a desire; I will go and I will enjoy as much as I like." The result of enjoy as you like—you know what is the result? Why do you think all the banks are falling down now? Because you enjoyed indiscriminately. Is it right? Yeah. You know, they just took—they went on giving, "Here is credit card, do whatever you like." What is the result? They are also gone. Your money also is gone along with that. You see, now who has to suffer? Who has to pay? We have to pay.

That's why—what is kāma? Fulfillment of a desire in a balanced, righteous way. A child's dharma is different, a grown-up person's dharma is different, an old man's dharma is different, a sick man's diet is different, a child's diet is different. This is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa put so beautifully. When a mother cooks a dish, she cooks in one way to the child, cooks another way to her grown-up child, cooks another way to a sick child, to an old person. You see, the proper way, righteous way, in balance. Enjoyment righteously and in balance—that is a supreme value, and it requires a tremendous amount of self-discipline, self-control.

4. Mokṣa

But these three values are called instrumental values. An instrument is always meant for the sake of something else. A knife is an instrument. So the knife is not there for its own sake. It is there for somebody else's sake. So what are these three for? These are instruments. There is only one goal in life, supreme goal, and that is to know who we are, to realize God, to experience self-knowledge. That is called mokṣa.

Dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa—so these scriptures, these are the four values, supreme values. Only a human being can desire them, human being alone can understand them, human being alone can attain them through the proper way.

Hita: The Means to Attain the Goals

How to attain them? That is the next question. So how to attain them? First of all, the scriptures have divided human society into four castes. Many people criticize Hinduism as full of a caste-based system, etc., which is true. It also degenerated into what is called a birth-based system. But in the beginning, that was not the idea at all. It is based upon guṇa and karma. Guṇa means the capacity, the talent, the intelligence of a person, and the appropriate activities such a person does—guṇa and karma.

The Four Varṇas

So society has been divided into four categories, and interestingly, Plato also divides human society into four categories: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, and śūdra. That is to say, the highest type of mind, which wants only the highest type of value, which is liberation—they are called brāhmaṇas, upper caste. That is the ideal way of understanding the four castes.

And then there are warriors who are also very good, and they are necessary to protect the society and see that these laws, these disciplines that are given to us from the scriptures are made to apply. Wherever there is a law, there must be two people: the law-giver and the law-enforcer. What happens if there is no law enforcer? The law will become absolutely useless. The warriors are supposed to be the law enforcers, whereas the brāhmaṇas were supposed to be the law-givers.

And then there is a third class, which are even lower in quality and in action. They are less intelligent, but they are also the backbone of the society. So there must be some people to cultivate the lands and to carry goods, to supply them. These are called the merchant class.

Then there is a fourth type, which are much less intelligent. What is the fourth type? You just have to tell them every time, "Stand up," and he will stand up, and he goes on standing up. You say, "You know, I only asked you to stand up because somebody is passing. After he is passing, you can sit." Now nobody else is coming, but he won't sit unless you tell him to do it. He doesn't have the capacity to think independently. This is called the fourth caste—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, and śūdra.

Whether this caste system exists in any society in that specific obvious way or not, this system is always there in every family, in every society you will find it. You may not call it caste system; you may call it class system. Doesn't matter whatever you call it. We will discuss the details later on. These are the four human classifications.

The Four Āśramas

Then, every person's life, whether he belongs to the highest caste or the lowest caste, life is divided into four categories. These are called āśramas: student life, the married life, the retired life, and the life devoted to God or spiritual life—brahmacarya, gārhasthya, vānaprastha, saṃnyāsa āśrama.

But the purpose of dividing people into four categories and the purpose of dividing life into four different stages is only one: how to make these people learn what are the supreme values of life and how to put them into practice. So a child's way of acquiring the supreme values is totally different from a young person, from a middle-aged person, from an old person. So these are the things.

Puruṣārtha means what are the supreme values of life and how one should lead them—that is the subject matter of these scriptures. This is the second part. First, this is the goal; second, this is what you ought to do; this is how you ought to live.

The third is called hita. Hita means specific—means in details how to acquire these four supreme values. And all the discussion that we had, I can summarize now in a few sentences.

The Essence of All Scriptures

What is it? Irrespective of what a human being is, whether he is a Hindu or a Christian, 50 million years back or 1 billion years later, we all have one common goal. What is it? That I want to live forever. I want to know everything. I want to be infinitely, eternally happy. No question about it. So the scriptures only tell us how to achieve these three, or three in one. This is called God—sat, cit, ānanda. How to attain immortality, how to know everything, how to be completely happy. This is the essence of the scriptures.

Now, whether they are divine revelations or human constructs, this is the essence: how to make us happy, how to avoid unhappiness in life, how to attain to God-realization or self-knowledge, how to know who we are.

The Seven Classifications of Hindu Scriptures

Now I will give you a little more details. All the scriptures are divided into seven classifications. But before I go into that, I must also tell you, all these scriptures, they give us four important principles, points, four teachings. If you understand these four teachings, you understand the teachings of all the Hindu scriptures.

The Four Teachings of Vedānta

Swami Vivekānanda, as many of our devotees know, summarized Vedānta. Vedānta means what? The essence of the Vedas. What are those four? You know that:

Each soul is potentially divine.
The goal of life is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal.
Manifest this divinity either by karma yoga, bhakti yoga, rāja yoga, jñāna yoga—by one, more, or all of these put together—and be free.
This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, dogmas, temples, churches, books—these are all secondary details.

But from the Vedic teachings, these four that I will summarize—because if you understand it, and if you are planning not to attend my talks in future, you will get the benefit of it:

The Four Core Vedic Teachings

There is only one reality called Brahman. There is only one reality, and that is called in Sanskrit as Brahman. Brahman means the biggest. Biggest means infinite. There cannot be anything more than infinite. So that is called Brahman, bṛhat Brahman. That is the first. What is it? There is only one reality. We will expound this later on. I'm just giving you the essence.
Everything is sacred. So if everything that exists is—instead of calling Brahman, I call it God—if only God exists, what is not sacred? Therefore everything is sacred. Everything is sacred. There is nothing non-ātman, non-God, what is called non-sacred. Sacredness, sacred, is another name for God. That is the second teaching of the Vedas.
Everything is interconnected. The whole universe is interconnected, and those who understand this, their view is called holistic view, and if they don't understand, that is called partial view. W-H-O-L-E and H—holistic view. Nowadays scientists are recognizing this fact. Nothing is redundant. Everything is connected. Everything has a connection. That is why the biggest discovery in modern times is: if a butterfly flutters its wings here, there will be a tornado somewhere else, and literally it is true. Somehow these events, you know, one little event somewhere affects the whole universe. This is called holistic view. Let's say now we are waking up to the point we can't cut down the trees. We can't go on sending so much of this carbon dioxide into this. Who is going to suffer? So everything is sacred. Everything is interconnected. That is the third teaching.
Everything has a meaning. The fourth teaching, which is very, very marvelous—everything has a meaning. There is no event that is without meaning. Everything that happens, that happened, that is going to happen will have a meaning. Only it is left for us to discover.

So these are the four teachings. That's what we discussed.

The Seven Types of Scriptures

Now in details we'll see. There are seven types of scriptures, Hindu scriptures. I am not using the word Vedic scriptures, because Hinduism is not a proper name. What was the proper name? Vedic religion. But it has become popular, so I use that word.

There are seven types of scriptures. These are called:

Vedas
Sūtras
Smṛtis
Purāṇas
Itihāsas
Darśanas
Tantras

Do not be put off by the Sanskrit names. I will very shortly explain them.

1. Vedas

Vedas, as I already mentioned, Veda means knowledge. It was a mass of knowledge. That is, so many pure-minded people had a little bit of revelations of that one single truth which is called God or Brahman, and somebody had seen God in one way, another person had discovered God in another way. All these little discoveries have been put together, but that literature became so vast, so massive that it became, in course of time, impossible to manage.

There came a great soul and a genius—probably the world has never seen a like of him again. His name was Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana. He was known as Veda Vyāsa. Vyāsa means editor. He who compiled—means he did not discover them, but he gathered them together, put them together in a rational order, compiled, and then classified them into four sections so that they are much more manageable—micro-management—and then he had four disciples. To each one of them, he handed over one portion and said, "You and your disciples will be responsible for keeping up this knowledge so that it won't be lost."

So that is how we use the word Vedas, which is a misnomer, really. Veda is only one mass. So these Vedas, in course of time, have been divided into four parts. These are called:

Ṛg Veda
Yajur Veda
Sāma Veda
Atharva Veda

And all these four Vedas put together, they are not more than about 22,000 mantras—22,000 mantras as we know them right now. Because why I say that: this mass of literature has become so vast that even those disciples, they started subdividing them into smaller portions, giving them to their disciples. In course of time it became a copyright—intellectual copyright. You know what you discovered? The ancient ṛṣis have discovered it long back, and then they won't give it to anybody. But when their own children had died, along with them also disappeared that mass of knowledge. Whatever we could, whatever remained, whatever we could collect—and the thanks would go now to Professor Max Müller, who took all this trouble and he published these things. Anyway, the total number of mantras are about 22,000 in number.

Okay, first let me enumerate what are these. These are called apauruṣeya—means divine revelations, not human constructs. And all the rest, six other types of scriptures, are human constructs based upon the understanding of these teachings of the Vedas.

2. Sūtras

So the second type of scriptures are called sūtra—literally means thread. So in those days, computers were not there, calculators were not there. People, you know, they wanted to understand everything, keep it in memory. They will have a small, you know, sūtra means thread, a small aphorism. Sūtra means aphorism.

For example, Brahma Sūtra, Dharma Sūtra, Vyākaraṇa Sūtra, Kalpa Sūtra—grammar, the ethics, how to conduct oneself in the society, and they talk about God and other things. These are sūtra literature that had come. I will deal with them later. This sūtra literature, for just as an example, Brahma Sūtra, Patañjali Yoga Sūtra—you heard about Yoga Sūtra? Just one small sentence, a small line, and that's it.

Then, but they act as mnemonics. See, the people, disciples, they heard the explanations, kept them in their mind. They keep these sūtras, these thread-like sentences, only to pull out the entire thing from behind. So the system is we never believed that these will be published into books and anybody would read the books and understand them.

One thing we have to understand: even ordinary scientific discoveries cannot be understood. They are also thread-like. You know Einstein's theory of relativity—how big is it? E equals mc squared. That's all. And tell me, explain it to me. You have to have a lot of background even to be able to understand yourself, let alone explain it to others. So the sūtra is something like that.

So these are mnemonic methods—means how to keep them in human memory, which is very limited, so that they won't be lost. This is called—a vast amount of literature had come into existence. They are called sūtra literature, aphoristic literature.

3. Smṛtis

Then the third type is called smṛtis. Smṛti literally means memory, but here in this context it means, you know, how to conduct our life day-to-day. How a brāhmaṇa should behave? How kṣatriyas must behave? How the warrior class or merchant class or the servants must behave? Ethics, the rules and regulations of how to conduct oneself in a human society—these are called smṛtis.

Examples of them are Manu Smṛti, Yājñavalkya Smṛti, Parāśara Smṛti, Raghunātha Smṛti, etc. Those who do not understand Sanskrit, don't worry. They are—means a type of literature which exclusively deals with the conduct of human life in day-to-day life and to different classes, how that should be applied. A little more detail we will come later on. This is the third type of literature.

4. Purāṇas

Then there is a fourth type called purāṇas. You know, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Vāmana Purāṇa, Bhaviṣya Purāṇa, Garuḍa Purāṇa. Purāṇa means these Vedic teachings in the form of, you know, stories illustrating those teachings—like Aesop's fables, like that. There is a moral, and every story is only to illustrate a particular teaching, or Jesus Christ used parables, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa has used parables.

Purāṇas are of five types. They say who is the ruler and who are the great kings, who are the great sages, how did this creation come, etc.—in a very digestible form for common people. These are called purāṇas. There are 18 main purāṇas and 18 subsidiary purāṇas. This is another class.

5. Itihāsas

Then there are itihāsa. Itihāsa means iti-ha-āsa—thus happened, it happened, thus it happened—means something like history. But according to Hinduism, you know what is the meaning of history? His story—God's story, not your story. You would count for nothing. God's will that manifests in the form of, in course of time—that is the idea of history.

So there were two important scriptures which influenced the whole of Hindu India. Do you know what are they? Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. Rāmāyaṇa is the story of Rāma, and the Mahābhārata is the story of five Pāṇḍavas and hundred Kauravas. This is a kind of history, but as I said, is not to be taken literally as facts that happened in time in the past. No, they deserve to be taken for the sake of illustrating how we should live. These great people have set up the examples of good, great people, the examples of very bad people, and if they are bad people, what happens to them is wonderful things.

They also, in a way, fall into the category of purāṇas, but they are distinguished as itihāsas.

6. Darśanas

Then there is another class of literature. They are called darśanas. Darśana means literally philosophy—what we call in English, philosophy. You know what is philosophy in English language? Useless intellectual discussion. Yes, once two professors got into their head that they wanted to go in a balloon, have a balloon travel. So they got into it, and being philosophers, they did not know how to control it. It drifted, drifted. After some hours it was coming down in a vast field. They looked down and they saw a farmer glaring at them, and they wanted to know where they were. So one of them shouted, "Hey, where are we?"

He looked up, looked this side, that side, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes said, "You are in a balloon."

So one philosopher turned to the other philosopher and said, "This man is an even greater philosopher than us. Why? Because first of all, he is absolutely right—we are in a balloon. Secondly, the answer is perfectly useless."

That's not the idea of a philosopher. Darśana means direct realization, directly seeing God face to face. That's why when we go to meet a great saint, we call it darśana, or when we go to a temple, we call it, "I am going to have darśana of the Lord." Without any intermediary, direct face-to-face realization, experiencing—that is called darśana.

These darśanas—in the past there were for a long time six schools of philosophy that came, and now they had become redundant. All those six darśanas have become coalesced, as it were, into three schools of philosophy. All these three schools of philosophy go by the name of Vedānta. So Vedānta Centre doesn't mean that we are practicing all the three schools. We only belong to one particular school, predominantly.

These three schools are called dualism, qualified non-dualism, and non-dualism—dvaita, viśiṣṭādvaita, and advaita. They have their own merits. Briefly I will touch upon them in course of our talks. These are called darśanas.

A vast literature had sprung up trying to defend their own beliefs and trying to smash the opponent's arguments, etc. But at the present time, these are the three schools of philosophy which are very prominent. All the Hindus can be divided into which category they fall. The founders or propagators of these philosophies were known as Madhvācārya, Rāmānujācārya, and Śaṅkarācārya.

7. Tantras

Then later on, sometime from, you can say, the 6th or 7th century AD onwards, a new type of practice and literature had come which influenced certain parts of India like Bengal, Kashmir, Assam, etc. These came to be known as tantric literature—tantras. They are called tantras.

Predominantly, these people worship God as the Divine Mother. Predominantly, they are desirers of superpowers—siddhis, what we call. They established a lot of, you know, sacred societies, etc. But as a philosophy, it is the most marvelous philosophy. As practices, they are extraordinarily great practices, though people have perverted them, used them for their own perverted ends.

This tantra literature has influenced all the other systems of philosophy. Just to give an example: every day we have worship here in the temple, and this worship, 90% of it belongs to the tantra, tantric worship. 10% to the Vedas, Vedic worship. 90% belongs to tantric worship.

Summary of the Seven Types of Scriptures

So these are the seven types of scriptures. Of these seven types, one type is divine revelation, which are known as Vedas. Based upon it, six types of literature:

The aphoristic literature (sūtras)
The smṛtis
Purāṇas
Itihāsas
Darśanas or philosophies
Tantric literature

All the Hindu scriptures—the scriptures which Hindus are familiar with—can be divided into these seven categories. And I will go in my next classes a little more into detail so that the Hindus will at least know, for once in your life, because you may not again go through this unless you are very eager to go through and go through some high textbook. Most of you, I am sure, you will be only listening to these classes. I will go into a little more details, and they are most interesting. And there is something very special about these scriptures that we will discuss in our next class.

Closing Prayer

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः

Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti.

Om, peace, peace, peace be unto all.

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