The Vedas: A Sacred Textual Analysis

The Vedas are ancient scripts from an unknown religion in India, first recorded in about 1500 BCE. The four sacred text collections that compromise the Vedas are: Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda. The first, Rig Veda means hymn knowledge and describes how the universe was created from a being that existed before existence, and created the universe by his sacrificing himself. From this being its pieces constructed everything known, while specific pieces were used to refer to the order of social classes. The second, Yajur Veda, meaning ceremonial knowledge, was used to describe the rituals of sacrifice, as well as their purpose and instructions. The Sama Veda, meaning chant knowledge, contained sacred musical compositions that …show more content…
The first two of the these six concepts are Brahman and Atman, each of these is connotation for the divine reality, but Atman is specifies the divine reality found within oneself, while Brahman is that divine reality shared by everything in the universe. Maya is the next of the six concepts and describes the common perspective of the world as an illusion, the world, or a perspective of the world that clouds ones views of the real reality. Next is Karma, which can be easily described as the idea that good and bad are reciprocated, so is the nature of the universe. Second to last is Samsara, which simply refers to the reincarnation of life and the rebirth of the world (creation AND destruction.) Finally, Moksha, Moksha is the peace one can obtain on Earth and in the death and occurs when someone has found the divine reality in the universe and within oneself, freeing themselves from …show more content…
It describes the position in society that a person has and it is their moral obligation to fulfill their duty to society- for society and themselves- for it is believed that a person who fulfills their duty can move up in social class or even achieve Moksha. The Caste System can be quite complex as a caste can be divided into sub-caste and overall implies the separation of people of different caste, prohibiting associating and intermarriage, even being enforced by the state. People also reinforce the caste system, but in recent years a strive for change has caused the dissolution of many laws and lessening the taboo of inter-caste relations, but troubles are still present in Indian society. On the other hand it is believe that the positive implications of the caste system give people a sense of meaning because they have a duty expected of them as well as gives them hope of knowing Braham/Altman, moving up in caste, and obtain