If you type-in the word 'Vedanta' in any dictionary, say Merriam-Webster or Oxford, you get something like a Hindu system of philosophy with an added phrase of Sankara or qualified monism. May be some details pertaining to the Upanishads may be there. If you go in for the meaning of the word 'Vedanta', then you may have to split the word into two parts. 'Veda' and 'anta'. So we are now left with two questions: what is 'veda'? what is 'anta'? So, now, understanding what is meant by the word 'Veda' is basic to all further questions about Vedanta. Where to refer and whom to consult to arrive at the meaning of the word 'Veda'?
If we refer again some dictionary or some encyclopedia or some online search, surely it is going to be something like 'vedas are four', 'Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda' and something about mantras and yajnas and all that. So too many new words pop up and make things obscure and what little effort we want to take, we withdraw from anything further. Ultimately we make a package in our mind as 'Hindu religious things or books'. This is not knowing really but stop-gaps we have to roll on.
So where to refer to get at the real meaning of the word 'Veda'? Sayana, in the 14th century has written commentaries for all the four vedas. He was a great Vedic scholar and a minister of Vijayanagar Empire in one. In his commentary on Rig Veda and Yajur Veda he has dealt with this question, namely, 'what is Veda?'. If we understand the main point in what he is saying, it will give us a clear basis in understanding next what is Vedanta? Now, what does Sayana say?
Sayana takes up the nature of basic human action. What is human action? It is the effort taken by human beings, by virtue of their belonging to the human species, towards achieving something which they want or avoiding something which they do not want. All human actions are born out of this basic issue. Achieving the wanted or avoiding the unwanted. Based on this fundamental nature of human effort as such, Sayana begins to explain the meaning of the word 'Veda'.
To achieve what they want or to avoid what they do not want, human beings adopt various means. The means are natural and rational. Why natural? Because we can see them or experience the means. That is, the means are tangible in some way or other. Why rational? Because every means we adopt has a reason behind it, a purpose. Only if the means are suitable for our purposes we adopt them. So the means we employ are basically natural and rational. In our day to day worldly experience and also consulting others or consulting the records of others' experiences we are able to make sure the best means suitable for our purpose. We don't need any divine revelation or communications from the beyond to guide us in these our efforts in the world. Actually the usual methods of knowing, like perception and inference and we can add scientific knowledge in our times, are all quite sufficient and enough for our living and achieving what we want or avoiding what we do not want.
Now, sometimes in the usual run of life and experiences, transcendental questions pop up and we are faced with such issues which transcend our senses and experience and which are beyond our regular methods of knowing. For example, rather than birth what is shocking to us is death. Actually 'birth' should be also shocking to us. But it becomes an occasion of joy and celebration and our expectation being satisfied, we do not probe any further the sudden occurrence of being. But the sudden stopping of being is very rude on our regular experience and we are thrown into transcendental questions. What is after death? Who was here with us, whose form is still around, which we have been transacting with but the being inhabiting that form is gone. That being, strangely we have not perceived literally in our worldly experience. So this our worldly experience is suddenly breaking to pieces over this issue and we are left to gape at the unseen mystery.
Then we appropriate the whole predicament on to us personally and we are in the grip of a problem. To solve this the regular means of knowing, are they sufficient? May be or may not be at the present state of progress. But this transcendent issue which has broken our regular smoothness is not going to wait. And it is occurring again, again and yet again. When it is going to be our turn we do not know. But a problem without any tangible means has suddenly cropped up amidst our living experience. And any means which are otherwise regularly natural and rational are not going to answer these transcendent issues and questions. That much we know. But are there any transcendent means suitable to avoid this discomfort and to achieve the transcendental comfort? Sayana says that the knowledge which informs us about such transcendental means and giving answers for such transcendental questions, such knowledge is called Veda. And only such knowledge alone is called Veda.
Srirangam Mohanarangan
Insightful
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