Discoveries of the Vedic Seers
The best way to understand the history of the Vedic age is to view it not as a series of events but as a series of inspired intuitions of the Vedic seers which expressed itself spontaneously in the social organisation. There was no deliberate and systematic imposition of a social theory or intellectual idea on life. Society evolved organically, like life itself, under a basic framework and the guiding vision provided by the Vedic Seers. The main spiritual intuitions which form the Vedic vision of life are as follows:
- The intuition of supra-physical realities behind the physical universe. This gave birth to the idea that all terrestrial phenomena and events are symbols of some supra-terrestrial powers and the tendency to make everything in society a sacrament.
- The vision of ekam tat sat, “The Reality is one which the sages call it variously,” and the gods are the different cosmic powers or ‘aspects’ of the one Reality.
- Man and the cosmos are equal powers of the one divine Reality; the individual and the collectivity are equal self-expressions of the one Divine; the human society is conceived as a direct expression of the cosmic Powers.
- The concept of mystic sacrifice of the Divine Being; the entire universe is conceived as a result of sacrifice performed by the gods; the order of the universe is supposed to be maintained by sacrifices. For the Vedic mystics the whole process of the universe is in its very nature a sacrifice, voluntary or involuntary; it is the outer symbol of an inner interchange between the gods and men, man giving what he has, the gods giving in return, the horses of power, asva, the herds of the light, go, the heroes of might, vira, winning for him victory in his battle with the host of darkness, dasyus. But for the layman this became the ritualistic religion of outer sacrifice. For the Vedic Rishis and the initiates the outer ritual is only a symbol of the inner sacrifice of the human being to the gods who are outwardly symbolized as forces of Nature and inwardly as subjective powers of consciousness.
- The Vision of rta, the cosmic Rhythm and Harmony which is conceived as the source of all Law and Order – spiritual, moral, social and physical – in the life of Man and the Universe. From this Vedic idea of rta is derived the latter ideas of Dharma and the Law of Karma which are the basis of all moral and social values of the ancient Indian civilization.
- The ultimate aim or goal of the Vedic sacrifice is the ascent of the mortal earth-bound soul to the eternal worlds of Light and the descent and formation of the gods in the human being.
