After the name of
God and the prayer to the Lord, we intend to dwell on the subject of Krishna and Bhagavada Gita - the great book of the teachings of
God, commonly assigned to Krishna.
We want you to
come with us to that eventful day in the Great Battle of Mahabharata, when the
forces of Pandava and Kauravas were face to face. Arjuna had laid down his arms
saying that he would prefer to take sanyasa (renunciation) than to fight with
his own brethren. After a long dialogue in which the God replied to Arjuna’s
queries, the latter agreed to fight and kill the opponents who had gathered to
fight Krishna.
If you are of the
view that the two armies were fighting for the control of territory, then all
notions of greatness that have been built around Krishna would fall to the
ground. After all, how can it be believed that Krishna preached something and
practiced something else? On one hand Krishna advises Arjuna to fight on the
side of righteousness and tells to Arjuna that even if he died in the pursuit,
he would gain reward for it. Throughout, Bhagavada Gita talks of disassociation from the world to
such an extent that it advises detachment from seeking the fruits of even the
most necessary actions. On the other hand, the book Mahabharata portrays
Krishna resorting to trickery and deceit, in order to win the battle – that too
for the conquest of territory and against an army that was headed by some who
were acknowledged as the most pious saints of the period.
Verses 64-66 of
the last chapter of Bhagavada Gita perfectly sums up the teachings of the book:
"Listen again to My
supreme word, the most secret of all; because you are greatly beloved of Me,
therefore I will tell you what is for your good.
Become one in mind
with Me: be devoted to Me: sacrifice to Me: bow down to Me: you shall come to
Me alone: I promise you (in) truth: you are dear to Me.
Abandoning all
duties, come to Me, the One, for refuge; I shall absolve you from all sins; do
not despair."
The concept of the
Absolute Man given in Bhagavada Gita talks about bowing down only to the One
and Absolute God. Gita says that worshipping the non-manifest is better than
worshipping the manifest form. Materialism is despised at and life on earth is
talked about as only a ticket to the eternal life after this. Is there any
scope for conquest of territories in the light of Gita’s teachings, as per
which the most secret knowledge of all is to surrender to the Supreme God?
On the other hand,
there is no denying the fact that Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandava
brothers, did loose the kingdom in a game of dice. This was a common mode of
entertainment in those days and Puranas mention several instances where kings
lost their kingdoms through this manner, accepted it gracefully and retired to
the forest. Some even came back later to win back what all they had lost, but
only through another game of dice. If you are of the view that Yudhishthira was
defeated through deceit, then you must keep in mind that there was a point when
he accepted the defeat gracefully and even ordered his wife Draupadi to be
given to Duryodhana. (Remember that he had even lost his wife in the game.) If
Duryodhana is blamed for mistreatment of Draupadi, why is it that Yudhishthira
is not blamed for putting the bet on his wife?
Even if the
kingdom had rightfully belonged to the Pandavas, it had been won over by
Duryodhana in a game whose verdict, as per Mahabharata, was acceptable to both
the parties. Moreover, this was also in accordance with the generally accepted
societal norms of the period. If the treatment given to Draupadi in the court
of Duryodhana was the reason for the fight, then you must remember that even
though Bhima (one of the five brothers) is said to have vowed to take revenge,
the Pandavas eventually accepted the verdict and retired to the forest for
several years. The fire to avenge is at its peak at the time when the injustice
has been perpetuated. It does not happen that a person accepts the injustice,
goes on to face the punishment and then comes back to take revenge after
several years
Also, that was a
time when examples were commonly given of students who gave away their thumbs
or even their lives, as guru-dakshina (return of the teacher’s
gratitude). Guru was blindly obeyed, even if he was on the wrong. Yet, the
Pandava’s came to war, as if unmindful of the presence of their teachers who
were the commanders of the opposing camp. Eventually, both the teachers
(Bhishma and Dronacharya), who were also revered as the greatest saints of the
period, were killed.
If the highest
priests of the time were fighting a war, it is most likely that there was also
an entire retinue of priests and Brahmanas aiding them. We do not know their
count, neither the number of them killed in the war. What we know with certainty
is that there was a chance for a peaceful exit from war, if Krishna had not
convinced Arjuna to fight, when the latter had thrown down his weapons. All
through Gita, it is evident that it was Krishna who was keener to fight. On one
hand Arjuna is told that it didn’t matter if he emerged victorious or died in
the conflict, while on the other, it is said that the God had already killed
Bhishma, Drona and Duryodhana and if Arjuna was to rise up to eliminate their
physical bodies, it would be better only for him. What would have been the
benefit of kingdom to Arjuna, if he had died while fighting? Be reminded that
it was such a war where all odds were against the Pandavas and there was a
greater chance of getting killed than emerging victorious.
Our attempt is to
give reasonable answers to all such questions that have troubled the minds of
scholars and thinkers for centuries. Till date nobody has been able to give
convincing answers to the questions being raised by us. Once we have understood the true teachings of Gita and Vedas, you will find
that these teachings are exactly same as the core teachings of other religions,
including Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
Our view is that
the Divine Scriptures associated with Hindus have been least understood till
date. All the four Vedas are full of the mention of Devas or Devatas yet you
ask the Hindus who they are or who they were, and they won’t be able to reveal
their identity. They keep the names of
their children on the names of the Devatas and Devi, they prey to Devatas like
Indra when there is no rain or too much of rain, Devi Saraswati is invoked before
seeking knowledge, Lakshmi is the Devi of Wealth, yet they do not know who
these Devatas or Devis are or what are they doing at the moment.
The Rig Veda says:
ओं विष्वानि देव सवितर्दुरितान् िपरासुवा यद् भंद्र तन्न् आसुव।।
“O All-creating Devata please sweep
away from us all sins, vices and miseries and grant us all that is beneficial
and auspicious.”
Sacred scriptures of the Hindus, viz.
Vedas, Upanishads and Gita are full of mention of the term Devata, who are being
invoked in the aforementioned mantra from Rig Veda to remove all our sins,
vices and miseries. We wish to point out here that Rig Veda is one of the four
most important scriptures of the Hindus, the other three being the Yajur Veda,
Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. The four Vedas almost entirely talk of the devatas
and Hindus of yore have built several myths and legends regarding the devatas
on the basis of their present understanding of the content of the Vedas.
It is clear from the aforementioned
verse that things beneficial and auspicious are granted by the Devas. It is the devatas who are being invoked to sweep away the
sins, vices and miseries, thereby indicating the important place that they
enjoy in the cosmos, as per the Vedas.
But who are the Devatas? Do Hindus or
anybody else for that matter know their identity? Are the devatas merely
certain prehistoric men who are of no relevance to the man of modern times? We
wish to remind you that the British translators, due to their missionary deal,
used to attack Hinduism with these allegations and it was because of this that
later day scholars like Rishi Dayananda Saraswati sat down to rewrite the
commentary of Vedas from which he altogether removed the presence of the
devatas and claimed that the Vedas were talking of scientific revolutions
related to material fire, air, etc.
If there are no devatas, who are Siva
and Parvati, in whose name Hindus take the seven pledges at the time of their
marriage? If there are no devatas, in whose name the Hindus travel hundreds of
miles to bring a token amount of water from the sacred rivers? If there are no
devatas, in whose name are the Chhath celebrations undertaken? If there are no
devatas, who are the people to whom several of the ancient temples of Hindus
and Buddhists devoted? If there are no devatas, who is prayed to when there is
no rain, who is it who is the devi of learning and wealth, and so on? More
importantly, if there are no devatas, who were the people Rama and Krishna were
talking about and what was the motive behind dedicating several voluminous
books, including the Vedas, to the devatas?
Devatas are truly
there but ask any Hindu and we do not know their identity. We have no idea at
all what these devatas are doing presently, where are they based, what is their
role in this cosmos, how are we related to them and how are they related to the
Absolute God that Krishna talked about all through the Gita.
We request you all
to keep the faculties of reason open. Our view is that ‘reason’ was the chief cause
for the war of Mahabharata. It is lack of application of our reasoning
faculties and our blind devotion to the so-called notions of religious beliefs,
devotion and faith that have led to all the corruption in our lives and
religion. We all call ourselves living in the scientific age and consider
ourselves enlightened. Yet, we do not put reason to optimum use, particularly
in religious matters, thereby most of us end up blindly following the religion
of our forefathers, something that has been strongly condemned in the Gita.
If you really wish
to know the True Path, we request you, we request you to first detach yourself from the
beliefs and views inherited and developed all through your life (which is not
going to be easy) and then pursue with your search, without at any moment leaving the side of
reason. And make a
commitment to yourself that you are not going to accept any of the views, if
they coincide with your reason (and not with your present notion of religious
concepts and beliefs). Our purpose is to reach the truth, to unearth those
hidden facts about Devatas and Devi and about Krishna and Rama and unveil the
shortest, easiest path that leads to God.
Religion of the
Indo-Aryans
Religion of
Indo-Aryans today is far different from the religion taught by the Vedas. Their
religious beliefs and thoughts underwent several changes till they reached us
in their present state. Hinduism may be one religion, but it is conglomeration
of a variety of beliefs, some of whom are altogether opposite of each other. No
doubt, lot of deviations and distortions have taken place over the past
3000-5000 years, so much so that the religion of today is totally different
from the religion at the time of Krishna or during the post-Vedic period. To
what extent this distortion has occurred can only be understood by initiating a
fresh study of the Vedas and Gita (the books that are said to have Divine
association); what is evident is that none can deny the fact that deviations
and distortions have taken place during the several thousand years of history.
It cannot be said
precisely when, how and under what circumstances deviations and distortions
occurred among the Indo-Aryans from true teachings of the Vedas and Gita. It
seems it was an ongoing process all through the history. Messengers and
Prophets too kept coming, in order to correct the false beliefs of the people
and lead them back to the worship of One God. Yet, man kept deviating from the
true path, time and again.
Our purpose is to
express that Messengers of God came to correct those who had deviated from the
true path and had begun to regard people or things other than God as sacred.
Krishna was the greatest champion of the teachings of the Vedas but fought
those who claimed to be the most rigid followers of Vedas. Likewise, Rama waged
a war against one who claimed to be a devotee of Siva and had worshipped Siva
exceedingly in the past. Yet, that was undoubtedly blind worship, as Ravana
failed to see that supplication to God can never be a physical exercise alone
and true suppliant has to bade farewell to false ego, lust, greed, violence,
injustice, corruption and all acts of evil forbidden by God.
Fact of the matter
is that prior to Vedas, after Vedas and prior to Krishna, in the post Krishna
period passing through Buddha and till this time, Indo-Aryans surely passed
through several hostile periods where it was not easy to remain on the true
path. There were kings who wanted their mode of religion to be adhered by the
subjects. There was a period of about 1000 years when Buddhism reigned supreme
and some of their rulers even tried forcefully to make the people follow their
path so much so a certain king is said to have conquered India thrice and
gifted it to Buddha. People were largely ignorant and hence it was easy to
circulate myths and propaganda. This was followed by a long period of rule by
those who called themselves Muslims. Later, for about 50 years or so, the British
closed all madrasas and pathshalas, when they tried to implement
their own education system. Moreover, with no state patronage during long
periods of Buddhist, Mughal and British rule, the true teachings of the Hindus
were always prone to digressions.
Devatas Used by the Kings and the
Priests for their Personal Benefits
The subject of
Devatas has since long confounded the opinions of scholars. Vedas and
Upanishads are replete with their mention. Even Krishna mentions them in Gita.
Initially, people revered them and invoked them to seek blessings from God.
With time, they started worshipping them as gods, and the entire fabric of
Vedic teachings got corrupted. As we have seen in the case of the Muslim
history, the greatest deviations happen from within. Indo-Aryans too could not
safeguard themselves from internal forces leading the core teachings astray.
A detailed reading
of the Puranas make it clear that there was a time when the sanctity and
respect attached to the name of these Devatas came to be used for strengthening
the position of the kings and the priests. In the introduction to the Vishnu
Purana, RC Hazra says: “The sages ask Suta and Magadha to extol the king but
Suta and Magadha intimidated their difficulty saying that as they knew nothing
about the merits and activities of their king who was born that very day and as
his fame did not spread out, they fail to understand what should form the basis
of their praise. The sages said in reply: “Let the king be extolled with (the
mention of) the acts this highly powerful monarch will perform and the virtues
he will attain.”
This shows how
powerful the priests had become at one point of time. They killed Vena for his
alleged anti-Vedic views and activities who did not share their view and were
now preparing to install a puppet, a day-old child, in whose name they wished
to rule. Perhaps Vena was killed in a religious ceremony itself because the
Vishnu Purana talks of extracting Soma juice on the day of Soma-pressing during
the ‘Paitamaha Yajna’. This child was labeled as ‘highly powerful monarch’, at
a time when he couldn’t utter a single word.
And then the sages asked these two poets – Suta and Magadha – to sing
praises of the future acts of the king as the king had made a promise that he
will acquire the same merits with devotion, which these two persons would
mention by way of eulogizing him. The two poets were convinced that the child,
who was not even a day old, had made a promise that he would acquire all those
virtues that Suta and Magadha would chant in their praises. This implies that
if they sang that he would become a great king, he would become great, if they
sang he would be a powerful king, he would become powerful, if they said he was
a virtuous king, he would become virtuous, if they extolled him as a just king,
he would do no injustice and so on. So Suta and Magadha, who usually sang
praises of the Devas on religious occasions, used the respect and fame they had
gained to sing the praises of the king, using all those epithets and praises that
they used for the Devas.
This is same as
you start talking of the deeds of the life of Priyanka Gandhi’s son, born on 29th August 2000, on the 30th of August, saying that he is the best of the
Prime Ministers India has seen, the most truthful of men, the one who cares for
Indians and one who spends his life in handling the affairs of his subjects.
And you do this on the grounds of a promise extracted from the day-old child
that he would acquire all those traits and virtues that the poets would sing for
him. The aforementioned incident shows the extent to which the people blindly
respected and revered the priests. Thus priests, to a large extent, were
greatly responsible for bringing about the deviations to the true religious
teachings.
See this narration
from Vishnu Purana:
“Then Suta and Magadha praised Prthu in a sweet voice by mentioning his
future acts and describing him as truthful, bounteous, modest, friendly,
forbearing, powerful and compassionate person, and as one who keeps his
promises, chastises the wicked, knows Dharma (duty), acknowledges service,
speaks pleasing words, honours the venerable, performs sacrifices, knows the
Vedas thoroughly, makes no difference between friends and foes in administering
justice, and is honoured by good men.”
‘Good men’ must
surely be the so-called sages, who must be reaping the rewards of making a
day-old child sit on the throne. This shows how the Brahmanas kept a firm grip
on the kings by keeping the propaganda machinery in their hands. The kings of
the period, only those who were patronized by Brahmanas, were extolled with
praises meant for the Devatas, despite whatever character they had and
howsoever they governed the country. Naturally, only those kings who were
patronized by the powerful priests were granted these benefits. And even the
name of the Devatas was brought to use in this propaganda drive, as we will
come to know later. It is not difficult to conjecture that once the king fell
out of favour, he had to bear the wrath of the priests, as happened in the case
of Vena. And such propaganda drives were initiated either to establish the rule
of the king of their choice or to strengthen his hold over the subjects.
If you are
thinking how could the people be so foolish that they believed all this or are
of the opinion that this cannot happen in these times anymore, we remind you of
the case of idols drinking milk not only in India, but even in far off places
like UK and the USA. Even today there are several ashrams that get richer by
thousands of liters of oil, each Saturday.
In Kautilya’s
Arthasastra (V.3.xiii.1), we find the Pauranika, Suta and Magadha, as given a
very high position in the royal court like the Kartanika (foreteller),
Naimittika (reader of omens), Mauhurtika (astrologer) and others and allowed to
draw a salary of 1000 Panas, but they are said to have been employed for
"giving wide publicity to the power of the king to be associated with
Devatas throughout his territory," and in foreign countries, for
‘spreading the news of Devatas appearing before the conqueror and of his having
received weapons and treasure from heaven." This shows clearly the amount
of faith that the people of the time had in the devatas. This also shows why
there are several myths and legends in circulation regarding the devatas.
These are not our
words, but those of Kautilya’s Arthasastra, endorsed by RC Hazra in this book.
The wordings here clearly show that the stories of arms from heaven were
created to get a psychological advantage over their enemies. Do we require any
other proof to show how the character of Devatas like Indra got maligned; so
much so that several people today believe that Indra was perhaps a man of loose
moral character? Could this have been possible, considering that Indra never
came down on earth, and when he did actually came to live on this earth, by
that time people had forgotten about him and did not even realize that he was
the Indra of the Vedas.
It is extremely
sorry that the present-day Hindus see even Kautilya’s Arthasastra as part of
their religious literature, in spite of the fact that Kautilya had nothing to
do with true religion and the most authentic books are the Vedas and Gita.
Teachings like those that talk of using all possible means, even deplorable, to
achieve one’s objectives, are oft quoted by the Hindus. They forget that
Kautilya was merely a shrewd politician who used religion to his advantage.
Otherwise, the real preachers of true Hindu teachings are the likes of Maryada
Purushottam Rama who left the palace life to live a life of hardships merely
for an apparently insignificant moral issue. Likewise, physical purity of his
wife was so dear to Rama that he forced Sita, his beloved wife for whom he had
taken on the might of a powerful king, to agni-pariksha. It is sad chapter of
Indian history that the later day scholars gave countless worldly men, like
Kautilya, who had nothing to do with spirituality or religion, the aura of
auspiciousness.
This is how all
those absurd stories about Devatas like Indra and Vayu came into circulation,
which form part of the present-day Puranas. If the priests and the kings could
go to these levels to retain their hold over power, they would have surely
tried to hide their sins once the lady who had to face their lustful deeds got
pregnant. This was particularly so because the king’s fame had been built on
righteous acts and it was not expected of them or of the maidens of their
household to have ill-gotten children. The blame was conveniently shifted on
the Devatas, whom none had seen but all revered and worshipped. This could not
have happened without support of the high priests. Therefore, we see several
such children when we read Mahabharata; a great many of them were fighting
either on the side of Krishna or against him.
Is it difficult to
comprehend that the sins of sages and kings were ascribed to the Devatas? So
much so that if a woman in forest was impregnated by somebody and if she
happened to be from an influential family, it was publicized that Indra or Sun
God or Moon God came down to commit that act of sin, thereby taking away the
blame from that woman and also hiding the identity of the person who impregnated
her. Since money was spent in this propaganda drive and the learned sages were
responsible for carrying it out, because of their firm hold on the simple and
ignorant people, it slowly became part of folklore, all of whom were later
given a place in the Puranas when they were rewritten due to certain unknown
compulsions at a later stage. Even epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana merely
talk about these myths, thereby indicating the writer of these epics was a
common man like you and me and his views cannot be seen as authentic and having
Divine sanction (We will prove in some later work that the Puranas in existence
are not in their original state and were rewritten with a lot many changes
sometime later in history). After all, if the woman said that it was the
moon-god who did this to her, and the revered sage authenticated it by saying
that the moon-god thereafter came to him to wash away the remnants, consequent
to performing the act, it was difficult by the simple people with great faith
in devatas and the priests to disbelieve it.
The sages were
even smarter. They even befooled the kings at time, so that the kings gave away
their wives to them, in order to produce children possessing god-like powers.
Vishnu Purana recounts one such incident. Similar incidents are available in
few other Puranas as well. It is common sense that the kings married the most
beautiful of women. The priests, owing to their extraordinary power over the
kings and also because of the false supremacy that they had propagated for
themselves, made these kings part away with their wives. The wives came to
sleep with these ‘revered sages’ so that children with extraordinary powers
were born to them. Thus the priests even initiated adultery, using the great
respect that people and kings had for them while the common continued to see
them as Brahmcharis (willfully celibate).
Puranas say that
even in Krishna’s time, examples of Rishis begetting children from young and
unmarried women and having illicit relationships with the wives of the
kshattriya (warrior) kings and princes abound.
Another reason why
the priests enjoyed such great supremacy over kings was because of the great
control that these pseudo-priests had over the common people. The kings feared
that the priests were in position to create a negative atmosphere about the
king, if they fell from their grace. The chief priest only had to wake up in
the morning and say that such and such Devata came in dream and said that the
king was not working as per the Vedic teachings, and people would have ousted
the king. On the contrary, if the king kept them satisfied, they narrated
positive stories to the people. Even stories of arms coming from heaven were
created to give a psychological advantage over the enemies. Thus they went out
of the way to satisfy the priest, even if it meant sending their wives to them
or showering them with gifts.
Read the entire
Matsya Purana and you will get to realize the significance of Krishna’s
statement when he said that God was nowhere to be found in the religious
sacrifices and neither were the teachings of morality, auspiciousness,
chastity, non-violence, etc. visible.
Even Indra and
Brhaspati are described as having stooped to the level of mortal sinners so
much so that they do not seem to listen to the talk of morality in front of
their lustful desires or when in love with someone else’s wife. How can this be
accepted of Indra or Brhaspati when Divine Scriptures like the Vedas are full
of praises for their chastity and righteousness? But have we understood the
Vedas truly? You will know shortly that we have not! Fact remains that Indra
and Brhaspati are the highest creation of the Absolute God and the rest of
jivas (beings) owe their creation to them. If Puranas have penned down such
thoughts about them, it shows that they contain nothing but heresy and myths,
written by someone who was himself unable to distinguish between right and
wrong.
The Vishnu Purana
mentions several instances where Rishis built huge palaces for their wives,
which were many. Rishi Saubhari made King Mandhatri marry all his 50 daughters
to him. The king did so as he was ‘dreading to incur the anger and imprecation
of the holy man.’ Such was the fear of these ‘holy men’.
“The sage took them home to his habitation, where he employed the chief
of architects, Visvakarman, equal in taste and skill to Brahma himself, to
construct separate palaces of each of his wives: he ordered him to provide each
building with elegant couches and seats and furnitures, and to attach to them
gardens and groves, with reservoirs of water, where the wild-duck and the swan
should sport amidst beds of lotus flowers.”
We read these
accounts and move ahead. Not for a moment do we realize the negative aspect of
it. All the wealth had got confined in the hands of the Rishis. Rishi Saubhari
had so much of wealth that he could afford 50 palaces for his 50 wives. Did we
ever think from where all this would have come? Even the kings were afraid of
the Rishis, so much so that a king parted with all his daughters and married
them to a old Rishi, who could not even walk straight. Naturally, the kings
bestowed generous donations on the sages so as to keep them happy and even
supplied them with women, sometimes their own wives, so as to keep them on
their side. How these Rishis could have ever endorsed Krishna’s teachings,
which talked of returning to God? They knew that Krishna emphasized on
righteousness and subjugation to none but God and accepting these teachings
would have meant bidding farewell to their lives of luxury. Who would have
liked to loose such a lifestyle where the kings too were afraid of the Rishis
and sages to a great extent? If you wish to see a proof of this, kindly see the
Upanishads related to sage Yajnavalkya, who was a contemporary of Krishna. All
through these Upanishads, you find priests sitting in the courts of kings where
these priests are showered with gifts like cow with horns bedecked in gold,
land or other goods, in return to certain questions asked by the kings. This
shows the extent of control priests had over the kings. This is the reason why
Bhishma and Drona, who surely represented an entire group of Brahmanas, stood
up to oppose Krishna, thereby leading to the battle of Mahabharata.
Preachers Against the True Path
Chapter XX of The
Vishnu Purana clearly says that there were ascetics who taught doctrine opposed
to those of the Vedas. And the other group of Brahmana felt that anyone who
uttered words of disrespect to the authority of the eternal, uncreated Veda,
was degraded and fallen from his state.
Chapter VII of
Maitri Upanishad explicitly describes to what extent degradation had taken
place and how lowly beings too were worshipped along with the Devatas. It says
that despite having a groove in front of them, they cling to low shrub (we will
show later that the word groove has been used for the Devatas). Further, it is
stated that they all are under delusion that they are worthy of heaven, but
they are not. Even the various groups of priests and sadhus, who are described
in detail, are not worthy of heavens. See the conditions of those times in the
words of Maitri Upanishad and introspect whether some of the evils described
have crept our present society or not.
VII.8 says:
“Now then, the hindrances to knowledge, O King. This is indeed the source
of the net of delusion, the association of one who is worthy of heaven with
those who are not worthy of heaven, that is it. Though it is said there is a
grove before them they cling to a low shrub. Now there are some who are always
hilarious, always abroad, always begging, always making a living by handicraft.
And others are who are beggars in town, who perform sacrifices, for the
unworthy, who are the disciples of Sudras and who, though Sudras, are learned
in the scriptures. And others there are who are wicked, who wear their hair in
a twisted knot, who are dancers, who are mercenaries, traveling mendicants,
actors, those who have been degraded in the king’s service. And others there
are who, for money, profess they can allay (the evil influences) of Yaksas
(sprites), Raksasas (ogres), ghosts, goblins, devils, serpents, imps and the
like. And others there are who, under false pretexts, wear the read rope,
earrings and skulls. And others there are who love to distract the believers in
the Veda by the jugglery of false arguments, comparisons and paralogisms, with
these one should not associate. These creature, evidently, are thieves and
unworthy of heaven. For this has it been said: The world bewildered by
doctrines that deny the self, by false comparisons and proofs does not discern
the difference between wisdom and knowledge.”
This is a very
important passage as it tells to what extent degradation had occurred. All
types of pseudo-worshippers were present who were not worthy of going to
heaven. There were some whose company itself, people were advised, not to keep.
And there was a group of evil men who were working to distract the people from
the Vedas by the jugglery of false arguments, comparisons and parallelisms.
That they are described as thieves and not worthy of heaven tells clearly the
bad times through which Hinduism had to pass through.
It is Self that is
described as the cause of all life and in which all life would finally
disappear. The times were such that a group had appeared which altogether
denied the existence of Self. They even gave false comparisons and proofs to
bewilder the people. Since the word ‘The world’ is used, it amply suggests that
this was not a group of few people but a large number of them had come to
believe so, because of the teachings of these false priests. The Upanishad
clearly states that the seekers of knowledge and the wise knew the true
identity of Self.
Verse 9 further
states the state of affairs during those times. False personalities were
created to confuse the people regarding the most revered personalities.
Religious believes were being doctored and even the good teachings were being
deliberately replaced by evil teachings. Worse still, people had begun to
accept them as true. Truly, Satan was at work with full force.
VII.9 says:
“Verily, Brhaspati (the teacher of the Devas) became Sukra (the teacher
of the demons) and for the security of Indra and for the destruction of demons
created this ignorance. By this (they) declare the inauspicious to be
auspicious and the auspicious to be inauspicious. They saw that there should be
attention to the law which is destructive of the (teachings of the Vedas) and
the other scriptures. Therefore one should not attend to this teaching. It is
false. It is like a barren woman. Mere pleasure is the fruit there of as also
of one who has fallen from the proper course. It should not be attempted. For
this has it been said: Widely opposed and divergent are these two, the one
known as ignorance, and the other as knowledge. I (Yama) think that Naciketas
is desirous of obtaining knowledge and many desires do not rend you. He who
knows at the same time knowledge and ignorance together, having crossed death
by means of ignorance he wins the immortal by knowledge. Those who are wrapped
up in the midst of ignorance, fancying themselves alone wise and learned, they
wander, hard smitten and deluded like blind men led by one who is himself
blind.”
It is clear the
conflict between good and bad was at its peak and the chief worry of the
followers of the true path was to safeguard the teachings of the Vedas. The
distinction between ignorant and wise had diminished or almost evaporated.
Those who were ignorant were considered knowledgeable and likewise, vice versa.
People doubted the revealed scriptures like Vedas and stories were circulating
regarding the identity of Devatas, who were sometimes portrayed playing
villainous roles. Some of these, like the fight between Devatas and demons were
so sporadically spread that they have even reached us as myths. It is extremely
doubtful whether they are based on truth. Yet, such was the intensity of these
narrations that the sage Yama had to take recourse to one such story to reveal
the importance of Vedas and to downgrade the value of demons. This is apparent
from the following verse.
See VII.10 of the
same Upanishad:
“Verily, the devatas and the demons, being desirous of (knowing) the self
went into the presence of Brahma. Having bowed before him they said, Revered
Sir, we are desirous of (knowing) the self, so do you tell us. Then, after
having reflected a long while, he thought in himself. Verily, these demons are
desirous of a self different (from the true one). Therefore a very different
doctrine was told to them. On that these deluded (demons) here live their life,
with intense attachment, destroying the means of salvation and praising what is
false. They see the false, as if it were true, as in jugglery. Therefore what
is set forth in the Vedas, that is the truth. On what is said in the Vedas, on
that wise men live their life. Therefore a Brahmana should not study what is
not of the Veda. This should be the purpose.”
Vedas, it is
reiterated here as well, are the supreme source of all rightful information.
And the fact that wise men lived their life waiting for the Devatas to come too
can be derived from Vedas and various Upanishads. Since the authenticity and
greatness of Devatas is maintained in all books having a Divine association
(like the Vedas and Gita), nobody can deny their role in God’s schemes related to
this Creation. However, since there is a great deal of confusion relating to
the true position of the Devatas, we decided to stick only to the Divine Books,
viz. the Vedas and Gita and to Upanishads to understand their true role in
Creation.
If the Vedas are
revealed scriptures, as they are rightly believed to be so, there must be some
very strong reason why the entire Vedas (all four of them) talk of the Devatas
and nothing else? But if Vedas are full of description of Devatas, why is it
that the present Hindu society does not give the same status to them? Why is it
that scholars like Dayanand Saraswati translated the term Devata as steam
engines, airplanes, etc. and other commentators showed that the Devatas existed
at one point of time but their role is not that important any more. Surely
there is something amiss! Does that mean that the Vedas have lost their
relevance now? Never! If this is not so then we will have to accept that that
we have not understood the Vedas and the Devatas truly till date. The Devatas
are, as have been described in various Upanishads, truly the source of all
knowledge revealed to show us the true path. Come, read with us and we will
show to you, with proofs, the real identity of Devatas and how we are related
and indebted to them in our lives.
Deviations and Steadfastness
We salute those
from amongst the Indo-Aryans, who steadfastly remained on the true path, in the
midst of all the hardships and unfavorable circumstances. The house of Pandavas
was set on fire, Draupadi was insulted and the sons of Pandavas were killed in
a night-attack. Yet the Pandavas remained on the right path – the path of
Krishna. When we read of the victory of Krishna and Rama, we forget that
several must have surely died to uphold truth and justice alongside their
leader. The Puranas too mention few accounts of torture and killing that the
adherents of the true path had to undergo. Known for their biased penchant for
writing the history of the kings, historians have not mentioned how many people
were killed holding Vedas to their heart when Ashoka went about converting
them. Neither do we know how many Prahladas sacrificed their lives at the hands
of infuriated sages or kings, because of adherance to their religious views. We
also do not know how many scholars perished in floods, earthquakes, droughts,
famines and Tsunamis. Only thing that is starkly visible is the change in
beliefs that continued to happen and the deviations and distortions that
altered the entire framework of religious thought and believes over the period
of time.
