Category:God and the Personified Vedas
Theme Analysis
The relationship between God and the personified Vedas reveals the ultimate conclusion of all transcendental literature. According to Śrīla Prabhupāda, the singular purpose of all Vedic knowledge is to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead and engage in His loving service. The Vedas are not merely inanimate texts; they are eternally personified as the śruti-gaṇa, who assemble around the Lord to offer prayers and glorification. These personified Vedas perfectly articulate the inconceivable nature of the Absolute Truth, explaining how the Lord, although possessing no material senses, can accept all sacrifices and run swifter than the wind. By their authoritative prayers, they establish that the Supreme Lord is the unlimited eternal, while the living entities are minute, limited eternals.
Furthermore, the personified Vedas highlight the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord. They explain that spiritual knowledge is incredibly difficult to achieve through mundane education or intellectual gymnastics. Therefore, the Lord mercifully descends in various incarnations to personally teach the science of self-realization. In their prayers, the personified Vedas also reveal the Lord's absolute equality. They point out that while mystic yogīs undergo laborious austerities to merge into the Brahman effulgence, the very same destination is automatically attained by the demons who constantly think of the Lord in an inimical mood. Ultimately, however, the highest perfection is achieved only by the pure devotees who dedicate themselves entirely to the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
- The Purpose of the Vedas: The ultimate goal of all Vedic literature is to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead and become His eternal loving servant.
- The Eternal Personifications: The Vedas exist as eternal, personified entities (śruti-gaṇa) who constantly glorify the Supreme Lord with magnificent prayers.
- The Lord's Inconceivable Potency: The prayers of the Vedas confirm that God possesses no material senses, yet He perfectly performs all actions through His spiritual potencies.
- The Supreme Equality: The personified Vedas reveal that the Lord is completely neutral, awarding spiritual perfection to devotees, yogīs, and even enemies according to their absorption in Him.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God and the Personified Vedas - The Prayers of the Śruti-gaṇa.
Pages in category "God and the Personified Vedas"
The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total.
A
- As stated in the Bhagavad-gita (BG 15.15), the whole purport of all the Vedas is to know the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus become a transcendental loving servant of the Lord
- As stated in the Vedas, He simply glanced over it (material creation), and the agitation of matter immediately began
S
- Sanandana said, "The Lord at that time remains asleep for a long, long time, and when there is again necessity of creation, the Vedas personified assemble around the Lord and begin to glorify Him"
- Sanandana said, "The personified Vedas sing, 'O Lord, we fervently pray that You kindly do so. All the living entities, being Your parts and parcels, are naturally joyful, eternal and full of knowledge'"
- Sanandana said, "The Vedic reciters, or the personified Vedas, sing thus, 'O unconquerable Lord, You are the Supreme Personality. No one is equal to You or greater than You. No one can be more glorious in his activities'"
T
- The next prayer of the personified Vedas to the Lord concerns His entering into different species of life
- The personified Vedas continued their prayers, "Dear Lord, Your impersonal feature is explained in the Vedas. You have no hands, but You can accept all sacrifices offered to You. You have no legs, but You can walk more swiftly than anyone else"
- The personified Vedas continued, "All these different persons, although concentrating their minds in different ways, achieve spiritual perfection according to their different perspectives because You, O Lord, are equal to all Your devotees"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Dear Lord, it is very difficult to achieve perfect knowledge of the Absolute Truth. Your Lordship is so kind to the fallen souls that You appear in different incarnations and execute different activities"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Even after much laborious austerity, penance and regulation, they (mystic yogis) achieve the same destination as persons inimical toward You (the Lord)"
- The personified Vedas continued, "In other words, both the yogis and the great, wise philosophical speculators ultimately attain the impersonal Brahman effulgence, which is automatically attained by the demons who are regular enemies of the Lord"
- The personified Vedas continued, "Your (the Lord's) enemies also concentrate upon You, thinking always of how to kill You, and yogis undertake great penances and austerities just to attain Your impersonal effulgence"
- The personified Vedas therefore concluded, "O Lord, You are the unlimited eternal (dhruva), and the living entities are the limited eternals"
- The personified Vedas thus worshiped the Supreme Personality of Godhead in different ways
- The sruti-gana, the personified Vedas, who glorify the Lord
- The Vedas personified, prayed to the Lord as follows, "My dear Lord, it is very difficult to understand spiritual knowledge. Your appearance here just as You are, is to explain to us this most difficult subject of knowledge of the spirit"
- This (CC Madhya 19.140) is quoted from the commentary on the portion of Srimad-Bhagavatam wherein the Vedas personified offer their obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead