Chapter 8 - The Vedic Supreme Reality

Let me submit in the very beginning that I am too small to describe the Vedic Supreme Reality -Nirguna Brahma who is non-describable Universal God. Holy Koran has clearly mentioned that not all the trees of the world if converted into pens and the entire water of all the oceans as ink, still the merciful and benevolent God cannot be described. There are many other limitations to describe the ineffable and formless Vedic God. The earth is a speck of dust in the entire universe, which itself is a microscopic atom in the infinite body of the “Whole”- the only Reality as per Baruch Spinoza. I am much smaller than a trillionth of a trillionth part of the universe, after taking into consideration all animate and inanimate things, creatures and other life. Again if the age of the earth is taken as 5000 million years based on the scientific studies of flora, fauna, strata, rocks etc., and also that the life in its rudimentary form emerged about 1500 to 2000 millions years ago, when plants which could move in search of food became animals and animals which could stand on their feet for easy search of food became human beings, then I humbly accept my further limitations to describe Vedic supreme Reality. I find still more limitations as the geologists, sociologists and historians tell that the modern thinking man existed on this earth about 12000 to 15000 years ago i.e., on a clock of 24 hours for the earth, the modern man is there hardly for less than two seconds and myself not even 0.001 second on this clock.

In spite of all our limitations, many individuals have already decided the Form, character and attributes of the God. However, based on the Vedic metaphysics whatever description of God is given, it can at best be a glimpse of His omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. The Universal God being without Form, beyond attributes (Ineffable) and Unmoved Mover, He makes Himself felt whether as Adrsta - unseen Cosmic power or Brahma -the Supreme Reality as impersonal God. Some times individuals find Him by manifesting Himself in various divinities both real and mythological, as Christ, Krishna, Rama, Ahur Mazda and many others or even as non existent to atheists like ancient Charvakas and agnostics like, Buddha, Bertrand Russell etc. It is mainly because human senses and reason cannot analyse Him.

All objects belong to one or more categories like quantity, quality, dimensions, colour etc. The Vedic God does not belong to any such category and is beyond any comparison. It is therefore, not possible to describe Him completely. Sankracharya had rightly said, “ even the words recoil before Him.” So based on a large number of hymns in the Vedas, description contained in Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and other scriptures, one can make an effort to describe the Vedic God which at best will be only a glimpse of the Supreme Reality. Even for this limited description, I shall pray for Divine Guidance for each word, idea, concept and doctrine for describing Nirguna Brahma and still like to be apologised for my weaknesses, avidya, nescience and limitations as an ordinary human being. The women folk should pardon me for describing God as HE, though God has no gender. However, an effort will be made to describe Him as That, Thou, Thy, but a few hymns in the Vedas do refer to Him as HE and many others as That.

All atheists and non-believers should excuse me, as there is every likely hood that some of them might become agnostics and a few others even theists with firm and scientific belief in God. Some of the atheists and agnostics as Kapila Rsi, Buddha, Mahavira, Bertrand Russell and others were more spiritualistic and ethical than many of the ancient and modern theists with firm belief in the philosophy of materialism, eat drink, and be merry. The atheists who follow the laws of nature and do not find Prakrti- the divine Nature as adversary to conquer and destroy but a store house of infinite knowledge and experience, lead a noble life of golden mean, moderation, truthfulness, transparency for maintaining social, physical and moral order, I am too small to suggest any thing to them. The spiritual blessings of great religions particularly Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Zoroastrians, Buddhism and others will be necessary for this humble search of God, apart from the blessings of great path finders of the past and present who did not fabricate truths but discovered through their transcendental research. The guidance of the philosophy and metaphysics of Socrates, Plato, Kant, Mencius, Ramanajum, Vallabh and others will help in my deductive approach to find Vedic God.

I have deliberately decided to utilise deductive method of metaphysics as permanent truths contained in Vedas, holy Koran, holy Bible and other scriptures along with philosophy of pure, objective and subjective idealists confirm only One God for the entire mankind. Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is one; wise men call Him by different names. The souls in all human beings are the subtle particles of the same God. Through His spirit, we all get the same energy to live. Thus, Vedas describe that we are all spiritual brothers and sisters in the entire world, being part of Him. In view of this, the concepts of noble and divine professions, Universal brotherhood, Global family and global trade are very prominent in the Vedic metaphysics.

The ancient seers and sages in pursuit of divine science of metaphysics did research with mathematical exactness with the help of their instruments of the inner worlds. They found through their spiritual discovery that God is the cause of all animate and inanimate life/things and to be a first principle. He is the only Reality; all else is Maya that is a cosmic illusion of our senses. The human sense organs even cannot see ether (akash), though it is a powerful medium of sound. Some times owing to this illusion of senses we see things differently. We very often mistake sea shells under light as silver, rope as snake in dim light and the Sun which is much bigger than the earth is seen as a small bright disc. Many such examples can be cited. It is for this reason that Vedic rsis and munnies (metaphysicists and wandering sages) avoided their outer instruments like senses, sense organs, outwards looking mind (etani) and material and intellectual knowledge in the search of God. It is a separate matter that in this pursuit they not only found God but also complete divine knowledge of soul, spirit, gunas, physical sciences and laws of social, physical and moral order.

The Vedas mention five classes in any society. Four of these classes follow noble and divine professions allotted to them through a scheme of education. The fifth is non-divine class of avarnas, vritras, rakshasas and they tend to follow ignoble professions based on their material and intellectual knowledge of senses, matter and outer world, which they invariably find as real. Therefore, they are always in blind pursuit of money, power, prestige and matter. The worship of God and a large number of major and minor deities and even gurus, cult leaders in the form of human beings and sometimes partly animal and partly human being, animals, trees, a plant is quite common in different part of the world. Amongst many Hindus this material pursuit bereft of spiritualism has created 330 millions gods/goddesses in all possible kinds of forms. Of course, the deities with human form constitute the largest number. It was perhaps during such a period of animism and pluralism that some of the Adityas, Rudrais and other lovers of wisdom used the divine instruments of their inner worlds like soul, spirit and buddhi (intellect). The divine instruments are not gross in their nature and hence these are not made of five mahabhuta (main elements) i.e. earth, fire, water, air and ether. While we obtain material, a-aposteriori and intellectual acknowledge through senses and sense organs, which are gross in their nature, but all a-priori knowledge not based on any sense experience comes through these divine instruments. What the material knowledge finds as beautiful is not always good, what the a-priori knowledge finds as good is always beautiful. This inner beauty makes the outer beauty look pale in comparison.

It is during the search of God that the lovers of wisdom, rsis and rsiks discovered that telling lies, performing magic and miracles, resorting to hatred, greed and other vices lead to chaos and hatred in society as well as in the families. Truth, harmony, love, transparency, justice and other virtues are the a-priori principles and if followed human beings soon move towards perfection. Thus to understand the Vedic supreme Reality, it is necessary to know the metaphysical concept of the existence of inner and outer worlds and also the superiority of the a-priori principles and knowledge over material theories and intellectual knowledge. The ancient, medieval and modern history of India as well as of the World has confirmed that with material knowledge based on sense experiences and intellectual reasons and arguments, any search of God had always led to fanaticism, fundamentalism, communal tension, destruction of the temples, churches, mosques and gurudwaras of the same God and even had been cause of wars between the nations. With material knowledge, same God appears different to various sections of the people.

It is for this reason that material and intellectual knowledge bereft of spiritual knowledge is described in he Vedas as Avidya- ignorance. It is also the cause of blind faith, superstitions, hallucination, lack of scientific outlook, idol worship, belief in miracles and mythology, ostentatious worship, proxy worship and meditation as temporary sleep where a person gets into utter darkness and gloom as mentioned in some of the Upanishads. Path of knowledge described as Jnan marga or Bhagavad Gita’s Sankhya yoga based on higher divine and spiritual knowledge takes a person towards the search of God through nishkam karma i.e. selfless action without any desire of its fruit and result and Vedic philosophy of Idd Nan Mmam- nothing for self all for society which is Vedic enlightened liberalism. This path thus takes you towards the supreme Reality only when you start producing wealth, corn and all kinds of crops selflessly for the members of society and not for your personal material benefits while leading a noble life of moderation of Vedas. Based on the degree of higher knowledge, enlightened liberalism and selfless action, one starts getting divine guidance and passes through different views about God.

Six schools of Indian philosophy (sad darshana) make it apparent that Vedic metaphysics freely allows a person to hold a different or contrary view/s about God so long as you follow the basic spirit of Vedic metaphysics. While all scriptures of the major religions of the world leave no doubt that there is only One formless, ineffable, merciful, compassionate and immanent God, Vedic metaphysics makes it clear that only at the stage of Turiya when a person attains supreme consciousness only this One Supreme Reality appears and the vehement effect of Maya -the cosmic illusion disappears. Before that based on the degree of consciousness one has acquired various gods, personal God (saguna Iswara), material world, matter etc., appear as real and not cosmic illusion. So before attaining Turiya, to a varying degree pursuit of matter continues. Vedas therefore, advise that pursuit of matter within moderation on the principle of enlightened liberalism is virtue and all material excesses are sins.

The supreme Reality of the Vedas though formless and nameless has been given the epithet of Brahma by the Rsis and Munnies of yore. Since the entire cosmos and universe both visible and invisible continues to expand and is described as Brahamand so the Vedic metaphysicists found an appropriate epithet for the nameless God as Brahma. They also mentioned that wise men could call Him by any other name but He remains the same God for the entire mankind as well as for all other animate and inanimate life/things. Thus, the supreme Reality of holy Koran “Allah” or “Khudda”is Rabbil alamin and not Rabbil Islam, which literally means God of the entire universe and not God of Islam only. Guru Nanak the founder of Sikh religion based on Vedas, by following the path of devotion (Bhakti Yoga) along with higher divine knowledge got the vision of supreme Reality and described the Nameless God as Ek OM Kar- the One God who is formless and beyond attributes. Even many great philosophers from the ancient periods to the present age in all parts of the world, particularly Socrates, Plato, Mencius, Sankracharya, Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant and more recently swami Dayananda, Vivekananda and others have only found One God akin to Vedic Brahma.

Thus, deductive approach to metaphysics leaves no room for another God. Through inductive approach to philosophy, one may or may not reach this conclusion, though Aristotle who had a scientific mind with mathematical exactness did find ONE universal God as an Unmoved Mover. The 2oth century eminent scientist Albert Einstein through inductive method could also find One nameless and formless God without any sex and even out side his science laboratory some learned people have observed words written as “Thou Art That”. He even tried to harmonise physical sciences with metaphysical religion but certainly not with organised religions, as they exist in many parts of the world. Any other approach not based on inductive or deductive approach to philosophy may create even hallucination that God came in one’s dream to give a particular direction. Many Indian gurus and the founders of various cults claim so and some of them have even hallucination that they are the incarnation of God/god on this earth.

Isa Upanishad describes Nirguna Brahma -the ineffable God as, “ Whole is that, whole too is this, from whole, whole cometh and take whole, yet whole remains.” The Upanishads are the fourth and last part of Vedas i.e. Ved -anta. Anta means “the end.” Hence, Vedanta school of Indian philosophy is entirely based on Vedic metaphysics or Upanishads. Out of the fourth part of Vedas, at different stages of time Vedantists have compiled 108 Upanishads. Some of the Vedantists are absolute monists; pure idealists and others are qualified monists, dualists and even pluralists. However, most of the Vedantists agree that nothing is produced out of nothing, hence God is universe and universe is God. “How can entity be produced out of non entity? Islam also mentions like Vedantists that God is Azal- has no beginning and Abid- has no end. He is Eternal.

A number of hymns in the Vedas describe God in details. A few hymns can be mentioned for proper understanding of Nirguna Brahma who is the Universal God. Rig Veda 6-15-13, 14 mentions that He is a pure illuminator, unifier, remover of all miseries, commands all to observe non-violence and other rules of righteousness, which are a-priori principles beyond any sense experiences. Rig-Veda 6-47-18 says that for each form, He is the Model. It is His Forms that are to be seen everywhere, in spiritual and material things. He exists in all animate and inanimate life/things but He is manifest in the human beings where He dwells in their hearts (Sama Veda 860). A similar description that He dwells in the human hearts is also there in Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bahgavatam and even holy Bible. Rig Veda 1-9-5, 6 mentions that He is the Lord of knowledge, infinite wisdom and material wealth. He pervades the matter and the whole space (A.V.19-20-2). All the four Vedas describe that He and His laws (Rta) are the same. Those who follow His laws and commandments can realise Him. He is unborn (ajo) and incarnation of God as a human being is not visualised (Y.V.34-53, 40-8 and A.V. 10-23-4). He lives within you and you live within Him as one of His tiny living cells. Baruch Spinoza also found a similar concept in his metaphysics.

The Vedic metaphysics contained in Upanishads tell us that He has no demand for rituals, ceremonies, material offerings, donations, blind, proxy and ostentatious worship but wants all the human beings to follow His laws to assist Him to maintain social, moral and physical order. Being omnipresent, temples, idols, icons are not His requirement. Our ignorance makes us to know Him through idols and not through His laws and Commandments. Thus all evils, corruption, bribery, naked selfishness and material desires are more rampant with people who do not follow His laws but try to find Him in idols/icons, places of pilgrimage etc. Majority of such persons even create pollution of all kinds, environmental hazards, social and economic tensions in society and thus knowingly or unwittingly go against His laws and tend to create social, moral and physical disorder. To avoid worship through idols in temples, Vedas advise open discussions on religion, ethics, morality, divinity, soul, spirit and Prakrti in an assembly where all individuals are advised to participate. This august body in the Vedas is described as Vidhata. Being ineffable, He does not want the human beings to praise Him all the time about His attributes. As Sankracharya said, “even the words recoil to describe Him”. Categories, quantity, quality, colour and words cannot explain Him. Thus Vedas give great importance that we should know and understand Him.

He is an impersonal God, impartial and Unmoved Mover but moves the universe in a wondrous design. There are a number of hymns relating to laws of God, which He observes and follows Himself sternly. He never breaks them and this results in equilibrium in the entire universe. There is a mention that even animals, birds, plants as well as all inanimate things follow these laws. The more you understand and love Him, the more you go away from worship, ritualistic meditation and blind love of money. The matter starts disappearing and you start realising that all human beings are spiritual brothers and sisters. Vedic God has only blessings and mercy for all His creation and no curse for His creatures. If an individual is leading a miserable life of stress, it is his/her own creation as the individuals are their own greatest friends and their own enemies. Nevertheless, the highest concept of divine mercy is reached that HE permits His children all things to be said about Him even if you do not believe in Him. Thus, toleration is an important teaching of Vedic metaphysics. Vedic hymns clearly mention that He is at your disposal but on His terms and not your terms. He expects you not to disturb violently His Design of the earth and the universe. However, Vedic science contained in a few hundred hymns does permit peaceful scientific research by Ashvinaus (scientists) of all matter for the welfare of mankind. For the violation of His laws and non-violent principles HE gives purifying punishment, which any mother or father gives to their children.

In view of the above description of God, creating any kind of pollution, bombarding willfully any part of God’s earth, making the soil unproductive owing to excessive use of poisonous insecticide, chemical fertiliser, creating environmental hazards are all sinful. For all these the society has to face purifying and compelling punishment like floods, earth quakes, excessive bursting of volcanoes, storms, abnormal climatic changes, wide spread diseases, slow poisoning through food produced with insecticides and other synthetic material etc. Vedas leave no scope for any doubt that for the sinful actions of some or many people, the entire society has to suffer as all the members of society have meekly consented or even joined to their evil activities for material gain and other stakes/ vested interests. It is for this reason that noble professions and activities of four divine Varnas and ignoble activities of the fifth non divine class of avarnas, vritras, yatudhani, rakshasas etc., is mentioned in a large number of hymns in the context of an ideal Vedic society. It is the rulers’ duty to ensure that people following non divine activities and professions should be properly educated and imparted Vedic education. If they continue with their evil actions, they should be punished to save the other members of society from the compelling and purifying punishment of God. There are many mantras (poetical hymns in praise of God) invoking Prakrti devas (formless forces of Nature) like Indra, Varun and others to make these vritras, avarnas to flea like a mote of dust.

All logic starts from the supreme Reality and ends in Him, as He is perfect Truth and Knowledge. He is beyond the sensual range of vision. Human senses can only see the phenomenal world Pratibhasha and find it as more real than the supreme Reality, even though the material world is phantasmagoria Maya or a cosmic illusion Mithya. Every thing belongs to Him, we use it only temporarily, whether it is food, air, water and He expects all of us not to over use these (Sama Veda 274). We should keep wealth and all material possessions only for our preservation lest we become exploiters by taking away some one else’s share. SamaVeda 274 clearly advises need-based living.

Unlike minor and major deities of theology and organised religion and gods of various cults and modern non-Vedic gurus, the Vedic God is not bothered on your eating, drinking and other habits so long as these habits do not affect the equilibrium of the visible universe and cosmos. Thus ruthless killing of animals, fishes, felling of trees, wastage of food etc., are all sinful acts. Your food habits depend not only on the climatic conditions, availability of the kind of food, but also on the predominance of particular kind of gunas in you. These gunas are the primordial subtle matter of three kind sattavic, rajasic and tamasic. Bhagavd Gita also refers to these as three modes of Prakrti. When sattavic guna of purity is predominant, the individual tends to take simple food without spices and the taste of food moves from the tongue to mind. Gandhi ji experimented with such a sattavic food even during his stay in England while pursuing his studies and found boiled spinach was good for his health and the taste of food moved to his mind. This experiment he mentioned in his autobiography My Experiment with Truth. This helped him to lead a need-based life while pursuing the goal of Independence of India from the British rule, on the noble principle of non-violence of the strong. Thus with right kind of knowledge, one can always decide the suitable kind of food.

The Vedic God is pure Energy akin to scholastic Actus Purus -activity per se. He is not so much a person as magnetic power for all animate and inanimate life / things. According to Rig Veda 10-90-13 to 17, the entire universe is His body. Sun and Moon are His eyes, Earth is His feet and Heaven is His head. Our eyes can see 1/4th of Brahamand (entire cosmos within and beyond visual range). He acts by the necessity of His nature. His decrees are eternal truths and with dedicated and transcendental research, all these truths can be found out for the welfare of self, society and mankind. Some such truths were discovered by rsis and munnies of the Vedic period and even later by rsi Yajnavalkya, rsika Gargi, maharsi Vyasa, the enlightened Buddha, pure idealist and absolute monist Sankracharya and many others in India and also abroad. While three Vedas mostly refer to Him as Brahma, in Yajur and Atharva Vedas epithets for God are mentioned as Shiva, Shankar Brahma and Shambhu. From whose head seven streams of love, mercy, compassion, knowledge, truthfulness, virtue and logic are emerging and then merging in a great river of Janan and Vijnan, which is divine and spiritual knowledge. The epithet Shambhu refers to perennial source of happiness and delight as Bliss. Shankra refers to one who provides welfare to mankind and Shiva - the most pure and auspicious who helps human beings to attain Moksha.

The eminent metaphysicists Yajnavalkya of the 8th century BC described God as neti-neti (neither this nor that). Brahma is inconceivable for He cannot be conceived. He is unchangeable for He cannot be changed. Untouched for nothing can touch Him. He cannot suffer for striking any sword for He cannot suffer any injury. We ourselves are but He, yet we know not what He is. For whatever we express, He is limited but He is limitless. He is greatest of the greatest, subtlest of the subtlest, ineffable, omniscient. Space, time and casualty cannot relate Him, as they are part of Him. Origin of Time and Space is beyond the human capacity to know. Both Time and Space live in Him and these are eternal (akshram). God is Great eternal (Mahad akshram).

Later Madhvacharya (1238-1317 A.D) of Bhakti school of Vedanta held that Brahma in association with Maya is the cause of world appearance. Mencius had mentioned this world and universe as His Shadow and the cosmic illusion makes it look real. As with material knowledge the phenomenal world, though a phantasmagoria looks real, according to Madhavacharya the supreme Reality Brahma is then perceived as Vishva Karma (supreme Architect and Designer). This concept is based on a number of hymns in the Vedas and Shatpatha Brahmana where HE is referred as Vishva Karma. Many Hindus particularly in south India celebrate Vishva Karma day when they worship even inanimate things like scissors, knives, hammer, sickle etc.; which help in designing, creation and production of various material items. They find spirit of God in these inanimate things. Though the concept of life in inanimate things is Vedic, the worship is done more as a ritual. Most of those worshippers otherwise, find all inanimate things as inert and do not find any sin in their over exploitation.

While some of the seers and Vedantists consider God as the Creator, Madhvacharya finds Him as cause of the creation of the entire universe. Since he was a devotee of lord Krishna and Vishnu as sagun Iswaras, he was much influenced by Bhagavad Gita where it is mentioned that Prakrti creates the universe and the entire material world under His Supervision (B.G IX-10). Prakrti also originate from Him through His cosmic Word OM, all animate and inanimate life/things can also be attributed as having originated from Him. However, this metaphysical explanation has a limitation as He is eternal and Prakrti undergoes Cosmic Cycle of Creation and Dissolution (Sristi and Pralaya) after millions of years. Each such Cycle is referred as Kalpa. Only the God is eternal, perfect and the only Reality and is not originated from some thing. He is self-created.

He is the intelligent source as we all see that every thing in the Nature and Universe is so orderly, in regularity, design, and intelligence, having been originated from an intelligent source. He energises the Nature with His supreme Spirit. Nature then provides her energy principle to all animate and inanimate life / things as proof of her regularity and orderliness in conformity with the Will of God. Whatever is created changeth and perishable is part of Prakrti and whatever is permanent is divine. Time and Space are not perishable, as such are part of Him. Soul in the human body that is a tiny particle of God is also immortal and permanent and hence divine. Every thing else is perishable; having been created by Prakrti gets dissolved. Therefore, all perfect knowledge and intelligence originate from Him and passes through Prakrti - the supreme Mother to all animate and inanimate life and things. The knowledge of Prakrti, universe, three subtle primordial matter, gross matter containing five maha bhuta and a large number of elements (bhuta), spirit etc., is described as Vijnan (scientific spiritual knowledge) and that of God, soul, virtue, good, truth, time and space is Jnan -divine knowledge. When individuals do not find the spirit of God in “matter” and consider it as inert, it is Ajnan -ignorance or only material knowledge.

He makes Himself felt whether as Adrsta (unseen cosmic power) or saguna Iswara (personal God) or Nirguna Brahma as impersonal Universal God. Yet He defies proof to human reason and senses. Vedas therefore, advise that we should make all sincere efforts to know and understand Him but avoid analysing Him. He is beyond human analysis. We should never forget our size, capacity, fitness, limitations and ability to examine Brahma. Since He has no Form and is Perfect, so He cannot be compared. He is beyond any category, as He cannot be explained in terms of quality, quantity, colour or dimension. He is always at rest though an Unmoved Mover and hence without any relationship. He is His own self. He is immanent and inherent. Virat rupa of God as His divine imperishable Form is described in Bhagavad Gita in chapter XI from verse 4 onwards and is a very vivid description of immanence of God for easy understanding by a common person. He is Garva Prahari as crusher of pride, cannot tolerate injustice to His people. As such, He gives a long rope where you are entangled yourself and your pride is crushed.

It is the same God who dwells in Brahmins, Kashatriyas, Vaish and Shudras - the four divine Varnas based on noble professions allotted through Vedic education system on merit, ability, capacity and aptitude and not on birth. The same God also dwells in avarnas, vritras and other non-divine people performing ignoble activities and resorting to corruption, bribery and other social and moral evils. He shows them the right path through His particle (ansh), which is the divine soul, manifested in their gross bodies. But under the vehement effect of Maya, turbulent outward looking mind and uncontrolled senses, material desires, lust and greed they ignore the right path of virtue and spread only sensate values in society. However, the fact remains that the same Universal God dwells in the hearts of all individuals on this earth, irrespective of caste, creed, sex and religion. The ignorant, non-divine and irreligious people find that He is far distant from them. It is for this reason that many Hindus look towards the sky while praying and asking some mundane favours from Him or when in great misery, pain and grief. This could also be common in other religions where the human beings find Him far distant from them. Yajur Veda 40-5 tells us that He is within the entire universe and surrounds it externally. For those who want to realise Him, they have to follow the path of moderation, righteousness and His laws, which are permanent truths and His Commandments. Kena Upanishad 2-5 mentions that God can be realised in one life. If you do not realise in one life, you are a great loser.

In the Vedic havan mantras -the poetical hymns pertaining to sacred yajna over holy fire, Brahma is described through His cosmic Word OM. The cosmic Energy created some kind of mass in the form of Hiranya garbha (cosmic Golden Egg). When this Golden Egg opened, the entire cosmos, planets, stars, earth, sky, ether, heaven and all four quarters containing animate and inanimate life / things were formed in stages, though He remained “Whole”. Thus, He became the only Lord (Pati) of the entire Brahamand. He existed even before this vast and expanding Creation (Y.V 13-4). The most beautiful description of Brahma is given in the Vedantic School of Indian philosophy, based on Upanishads. There was neither being nor not being, neither vayu (air) nor akash (ether) which is beyond...neither death nor immortality existed, no distinction was yet between day and night, darkness was first concealed in darkness and all this was indiscriminate chaos. In that stage of Shuniya (void), apart from that nothing was whatsoever. It was when desire as the perennial germ of the mind arose for the first time and the entire cosmos was born out of Hiranya garbha. The One, which was covered by Void, was manifested through the light of Tapas (spiritual fire) (R.V X-129-1 to 3).

Thus The One Lord of all that moves and that is fixed, of what walks, what flies became the Creator and Lord of all this multiform creation (R.V.III-54-8). It is quite apparent that some hymns tend to describe Him as Creator, a few others as Unmoved Mover and still some more describe Him as Supervisor who allowed Prakrti to create the gross Universe under His supervision. This is mainly Vedic hymns were compiled originally in Vedic Bhasha (language) and later translated in Prakrit language, at different periods of time by rsis and munnies having different degree of knowledge and belief in the philosophy of either agnosticism, absolute monism, dualism and even pluralism. It hardly gives any surprise that by studying same Vedas, Six different Schools of Indian philosophy emerged apart from a few minor Schools.

The cosmic sound of God when He spoke His first Word is described in the Vedas, as Shabad Brahma was O.M- pronounced as A.U.M. For a person who is not conversant with metaphysics and divine knowledge and not aware of the a-priori principles known to his/her soul, the cosmic Word OM is the gateway to reach God. It is the first sacred Word that is put in the ears of an infant on birth to create belief in the supreme Reality without any material argument. Human intelligence based on sense perception has invariably many limitations. The Upanishads tell us that a child is born with the knowledge of four Vedas stored in his/her soul, spirit and intellect (buddhi). This is mainly as God is present throughout the procreation process of an infant. The external world of phenomenon (Maya) appearing as real, human senses, sense organs and matter that put a golden lid over this knowledge. You get divine guidance by chanting this word O.M and the stirred knowledge of the Vedas starts becoming available to you.

According to Sama Veda, senses and sense organs along with outward looking mind create 99 obstacles, which become the cause of dimming the stored knowledge of Vedas. These obstacles tend to take you towards material excesses in all areas of human activities and desires. This leads to sinful life of sensual transitory and fleeting pleasures, ego, false status consciousness, aimless pursuit of money and matter, naked selfishness in serving those members of society and even foreigners who take great delight in economic, social and physical exploitation of human beings and the benign mother earth. If not controlled the senses along with these 99 obstacles become the cause of rebirth not once but a large number of times. Individual thus becomes his/her own enemy. Through the proper understanding of the significance of Shabad Brahma O.M., one can cross the vast and turbulent ocean of matter with ease and even realize God. Thus, this cosmic Word becomes the raft of knowledge. According to Yajur Veda XL-17, this word OM is Brahma Itself. “OM Khamma Brahma”- OM Thy name is Brahma. Through this Word, He not only created Prakrti and Universe but also protects the same with the divine energy coming out of Shabad Brahma. This Word OM is from the root Ava (to protect).

The Word OM appears in the Vedic hymns a few hundred times as divine, lustrous, benevolent, pure and auspicious God. Compared to the epithet Brahma, this Word OM appears many times more. Vedas tell us that God is available to human beings through this cosmic Word. Whenever free either resort to some constructive and useful work for society and mankind or spread divine energy by chanting the cosmic Word O.M Bhagavad Gita leaves no doubt that any work done for self interest is not work. All work should be done on behalf of God and dedicated to Him and should be commenced with the word OM and also it should end by chanting this word or OM Tat Sat, OM Khamma Brahma” OM Sat,Chitt,Anand”, “ O.M mahad akshram”- that great eternal Reality hidden in mystery (Y.V. 40-1 and 17, RV 1-164-39, A.V IX-10-18). It is for this reason that many hymns (mantras and riks) start and even end with the cosmic Word OM. Sometimes this Word appears in between the hymns as well.

His all Forms are supreme in design and beauty. As He pervades every where and all material objects are His manifestations, so in this phenomenal world, we can see Him through many forms like the Sun, Moon, mountains, sea and even human beings etc., but He remains Formless. Thus His forms are His creative art Maya (R.V. VI-45-16, VI-47-18. S.V. 1710 and A.V. VI- 36-3). As God’s attributes are infinite being ineffable, the hymns at best only give glimpses of His attributes. The seers and sages of yore were obviously aware that attributes are normally for devas/devis (beings of light), deities, divine sages, super human beings, angels and prophets. So there can be some gods, devas which human beings may like to worship as personal God (saakar and saguna Iswara), gods/goddesses. Rig Veda 10-63-2 says, that Devas are worthy of our homage, worthy of our praise and worthy of our worship. Since Devas are beings of light and do not have any human form, this hymn only refers to their limited attributes. With ignorance and material knowledge these Devas are given human form and their idols, icons, statues are installed in temples for ritualistic worship. Since these idols can not fulfill all the material desires of human beings, more and more gods, goddesses, deities are created by allotting them some more attributes and this has resulted in creating 330 millions deities in the organised Hindu religion.

The ignorance and material knowledge makes one feel that these mythological gods/goddesses did take human form millions of years ago. According to scriptures of Hindu religion, Lord Vishnu in the human form was in Krita or Sat Yuga (golden age) about 4.3 millions years ago. Lord Rama was in Treta Yuga (silver age) i.e. about two and a half millions years ago and almost all individuals lived over 10,000 years in that celestial period (Yuga). Lord Krishna was in Dwapar Yuga about a million years ago. Obviously deductive and inductive approach to metaphysics finds great difficulty in accepting these findings of organised Hindu religion. Any other approach/method through theology, mythology, hallucination, blind faith etc., is not part of metaphysics. However, Vedas and Bhagavad Gita recognise pluralism in the stage of ignorance (Ajnan) and is the cause of organised hierarchical religion, worship through idols, proxy and ostentatious worship for social recognition. Bhagavad Gita even says, if these gods, yakshas, deities are worshipped with all sincerity and devotion while following the path of moderation by avoiding all material excesses in thoughts, desires and actions, it is also akin to worship of God. With such dedicated worship (Bhakti), while following the path of moderation, the vehement effect of Maya starts receding. At the stage of ignorance worship, meditation, contemplation and concentration on the cosmic Word OM does help in knowing and understanding the Universal God. Thus for a common person the path to Nirguna Brahma can be through atheism, agnosticism, pluralism, dualism, qualified monism and absolute monism. The knowledge contained in Vedas can take a person through all these stages provided sincere effort is made to cross 99 hurdles and obstacles mentioned in Sama Veda. If during this movement towards Universal God, the senses remain uncontrolled and the outward looking mind gets turbulent, one gets into utter darkness. Steadily such a person is entangled in the long rope provided to each individual for reaching the supreme Father Brahma and Mother (Prakrti) as lord Krishna mentions in Bhagavad Gita.

If we approach through deductive metaphysics, we may find many prophets, great philosophers, eminent metaphysicists, pathfinders, learned people of eminence, spiritual scientists and others finding only One Universal God for the entire mankind. It is a separate matter that they assigned different names and epithets to the same supreme Reality. Jesus Christ referred to Him as Father in Heaven and Prophet Mohammed found Allah as Rabbil alamin (One god for the entire Universe). Guru Nanak called Him Ek OM Kar, Vedic rsis and munnies described Him as Brahma and some others as Vishnu and Shiva. Chinese metaphysicists described Him as Tao Chi who is Wu Chi (God who is Formless). Some learned persons described Him as HE and others as THAT or THOU being nameless. Eminent scientist Einstein like many Vedic seers described God as “Thou art That”. Amongst the eminent persons, philosophers and others who believed in ONE universal God are Socrates, Plato, Mencius, Tao- te- Ching, Sankrachrya, swami Dayanand, Vivekananda and many others. If we make an effort to know their life style including Jesus Christ, Prophet Hazarat Mohammed and Guru Nanak, it would be seen that all of them followed path of moderation, need based living and performed selfless service to society and mankind. Their traits, conduct, social attitude, behaviour more or less conformed to what is mentioned in many Vedic hymns. Some of them were more like the learned Vasu persons mentioned in Vedas i.e. Brahmachrya, Rudrais and Adityas.

Such persons acquire belief in the divine distribution of labour and work in society based on one’s merit, ability, capacity and aptitude and do not link with one’s birth and heredity. It is perhaps for this reason that both Chinese and Japanese philosophers and metaphysicists also mentioned four classes based on divine professions. Plato also refers to classes along with professions based on merit, capacity and aptitude and not on birth and even devised a comprehensive education system for allotting these professions. Rig Veda X-90-10 to 12, mentions that God Himself created four divine Varna on merit and aptitude and not on birth and the society started flourishing. Brahmins were to spread divine knowledge and seek only honour and not power and money. Kashtriyas were to seek power for protecting the other individuals belonging to three Varna and destroy the non-divine people in society. Religious tricksters, avarnas, vritras, bribe takers have been mentioned as those belonging to non divine professions who are always keen to seek honour, power, money, undeserved social recognition and also those hypocrites who claim themselves as the servants of the people. Vaish and Shudra were similarly assigned noble duties and divine professions. All the four divine Varna are equal in society with different roles to perform.

Many social reformers with belief in One Universal God have tried their best to break the existing rigidity in caste system amongst Hindus. This rigidity has now become a major social evil. But they have not succeeded, as belief in multiplicity of deities continue under the vehement effect of cosmic illusion Maya. More and more temples, ashrams and religious places are coming up where effort is being made to include the idols of 330 millions or as many as possible gods and goddesses. Hindus do not have today religious leaders of the caliber of Sankracharya, Ramanajum, Vivekananda, Dayanand Sarswati and even mahatma Gandhi. Thousands of god men, gurus, tantriks, religious tricksters are making hay in this atmosphere of rudderless drift of Hindu religion and are declaring themselves as gods/goddesses. Amongst Hindus the Arya Samajists and Brahmo Samajists, who believe only in ONE God who is formless, do not consider the Vedic institution of four Varna by birth. Some Hindus who are either atheists or agnostics also do not believe in Vedic Chatvar Varna Ashram by birth and a few others do not believe in this system at all. Thus, belief in One God or even No God like Buddha can eradicate many social evils amongst Hindus. The golden lid of Maya can only be lifted through the proper understanding of Vedic metaphysics.

Those who believe in One formless and ineffable God, invariably follow the philosophy of Vedic Idd Nan Mmam- nothing for self all for society. This can be observed in the thoughts, actions, deeds and desires of Gandhi ji, Vivekananda and mother Teresa. However, the same is not found in the conduct of many Hindu priests, swamis, gurus etc., where enlightened liberalism is very often missing. This philosophy of enlightened liberalism is also found in the metaphysics of Aristotle who believed in One God as an Unmoved Mover (primum mobile immotum). Lao -Tse in Tao te Ching had said, “God is ever inactive and yet there is nothing that it can not do. Avoid all extreme positions relating to material world as these revert back to their opposites.” All those persons who firmly believe in One formless, ineffable and impersonal God along with the philosophy of Idd Nan Mmam can never harm the society or mankind by performing evil actions or spreading evil thoughts, material knowledge, unhealthy social practice and other kind of negativity. They are always opposed to all kinds of corruption in society, state and religion. They follow the noble principle of selfless work (nishkam karma), which brings them closer to God and His children and treat all individuals as their spiritual brothers and sisters. Whenever they preside over men like Gandhi ji or king Janaka of the ancient India, they know that Divinity is presiding over them.

The believers in One God as the supreme Reality find the world as blue print of One ineffable God who is Summon Genus at the top (Plato). They find all other forms as His models, though Himself without any Form. They find discipline, regularity and divinity in the planetary system and great Design of God in subtle Prakrti and gross Universe. Such persons are normally more disciplined though they may not be highly obedient. They know that children do not belong to them, as they are trustees for the children on behalf of God and Prakrti who are supreme Father and Mother for all of us. So they teach them discipline and not blind obedience, love for the mankind and not restricted to their a few members of families, unlike those who believe in multiplicity of deities and desire only obedient children as security for their old age. They give immense selfless love to children as donation and not a loan to be returned when they grow old and become weak. Mahatma Gandhi was highly disciplined in his thoughts, actions and desires. He even started disobedience movement against the immoral and divisive laws of oppressive and exploitative British Government. Owing to belief in the multiplicity of gods, and also the vehement effect of Maya, many political leaders now want obedient bureaucracy, submissive ministers but certainly not powerful independent and disciplined followers.

Many followers of various organised religions, cults, sects, gurus etc. normally have blind faith and unscientific outlook and are always ready to fight with others who hold different views and opinions. The believers in Vedic Universal God will be tolerant, non-violent based on moral and physical strength as Vedic Prakrti and her 33 devas and devis. Through non-violent techniques and tolerance, they would fight social criminals and other non-divine people and classes who spread evils in society through jealousy, false ego, hatred, vulgar consumerism and ostentatious display of their ill-gotten money. These Prakrti devas have firm belief in the non-violence of the strong.

The religion of those who believe in One Universal God is a spiritual science, with minimum need based scientific rituals and ceremonies that are always simple and graceful, giving a feeling of humility and moderation. They shun pomp and show in their graceful social functions, and do not perform any activity, which is against the Commandments of God as Vedic Rta- cosmic laws of social, moral and physical order. They will never be found serving meals to others out of their ill-gotten money to avoid spread of evil and poison in society through food.

Those who consider religion as a spiritual science and have faith in One God are some times seen in the temples. They go there not to worship so many gods and deities but to know and understand the attributes and characteristics of the deities from their idols. Originally, idols were supposed to represent only the attributes of devas and devis mentioned in the Vedas. To them form of idols, icons, images is more like water which takes the form of vessel it is contained, but still maintains its original characteristics and remains formless. They would also go to all temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches of the same God for dedicated worship and not proxy or ostentatious worship for social recognition. They would invariably love the people of all religions, cults, sects and creed and would never aim at converting others to their particular faith or organised religion where the spirit of God is missing. They would only spread godly qualities amongst the human beings and bring them closer to the same One God.

Their living style is that of moderation as described in the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita or Middle path of Buddha and golden mean of Greek philosophers. They follow the path of simplicity by conviction while avoiding all excesses in material possessions. Such persons will be found working with the poor and destitute and not for the poor. In India, the number of people working for the poor is increasing manifold and those working with the poor are decreasing every day. People resorting to path of affluence and opulence when work for the poor to gain social recognition tend to advertise it as social service. However, it is a well-known fact that physical miseries are increasing amongst the poor people and the number of those below poverty line is increasing every year. Individuals like Gandhi ji, Vinoba Bhave, mother Teresa never advertise their working with the poor and destitute masses.

According to Sama Veda 274, people with belief in moderation keep wealth only for their preservation. Greek philosophers gave great importance to the concept of Golden Mean. Plato described the ideal and virtuous state where maximum people lead the life of moderation and when the divine guidance is maximum. To the extent income disparities go up beyond this golden rule of moderation, the state becomes less ideal and divine guidance starts receding. The society tends to become sinful and both the society and state head towards a revolution. Where extreme opulence and abject poverty exist is a perverted state. Highest and virtuous living is only possible within this rule of moderation. Mahatma Gandhi independently arrived at a limit of 1:10 for the ideal state which he described as Rama rajya akin to St Augustine’s De civitas Dei- the city of God. The present income disparities in India are beyond even 1:1000 and still going up. The country is showing clear symptoms of social tension, terrorism and impending violent revolution. The Indian democracy instead of moving towards Plato’s Aristocracy or Gandhi ji’s Ra Rama rajya is drifting fast towards mobocracy. The vested interest of political leaders, gurus, guardians of organised Hindu religion, filthy rich people and others is making it difficult to stop it.

The individuals living in permanent hallucination and believing in all kinds of material excesses as blessings of their personal Gods/gods and their modern gurus are clearly ignoring these social indicators and signals. The most opulent and non-divine section of India is now less than 1% of the total population whereas people below poverty line are over 350 millions. For most of these filthy rich persons these large number of people living in abject poverty do not exist. Thus Vedic spiritual brother hood is entirely missing amongst Hindus though they are ever keen to spread this brotherhood amongst the rich people in other parts of the world particularly developed countries like U.S.A and most of the states in Europe etc. These affluent persons ignore Vedic injunctions about moderation and holy Bible’s noble saying, ”even a camel can pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich man can not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. These affluent individuals also do not know that Vedic metaphysics is clear that to be born in a rich man’s family or to become excessively rich (beyond the noble limits of moderation) is a punishment of their past and present Karma (actions, thoughts and desires).

Hindu scriptures are full with the description of life of moderation even by mythological gods and deities, including lord Rama, Krishna and Five Pandavas etc. Only non-virtuous individuals like Kansa, Duryodhan, Kaurvas, Ravana and many rakshasas (vritras and avarnas) led both in thoughts and actions the filthy life of pomp and show, ostentation, false prestige and opulence. Belief in One God, need based living and other teachings of Vedas can save India from moving towards perverted state and society and perhaps also from the impending holocaust. The latest symptoms and signals do indicate that divine guidance is receding in spite of millions of temples, worship of 330 millions gods and deities, thousands of gurus, babas and god men and more than 1008 Hindu scriptures. There is wide spread corruption, terrorism, smuggling of arms, drugs, social tension owing to extremely wide economic disparities between the rich and poor, and many other social and religious evils. The message of Sama Veda 274 to keep wealth for your preservation based on the noble principle of moderation and beyond that should be distributed for the welfare of society is just not acceptable to opulent section of society. The holy Koran has also a similar message to convey in the noble concept of Zakarat, Fitra, Madad etc. Bhagavad Gita even refers to moderation not only in thoughts, desires and actions but also in food habits and sleep.

Since personal God/gods, gurus and various leaders of the cults amongst Hindus do not talk and prohibit convincingly and firmly the various corrupt and evil practices widely prevalent in society, so many of their followers freely resort to bribery, adulteration, exploitative profits etc. Such followers then blame the Government, social reformers and religious leaders for doing nothing to inculcate moral values and divine qualities amongst people. The double talk of hypocrisy is highly popular with many of the believers in multiplicity of gods, idol worshippers and followers of gurus. These people would invariably have smiling faces of hypocrisy; false achievement and self acquired higher false social status in society. Compare their smiles with the child like innocent smile of Gandhi ji, mother Teresa or smile of Vivekananda depicting divinity and a person can immediately know the difference between various kinds of smiles. Their lack of divine knowledge and predominance of Avidya- ignorance with material and intellectual knowledge is reflected through their smiles of hypocrisy. The non believers of One Universal God have normally a sweet tongue and many of them behave like wolves in the sheep skin and invariably pollute and corrupt the professions they take for their livelihood.

The Vedic supreme Reality can stir such self-seeking individuals into some moderation of his/her lust and greed some control over their passions by harmonising their inner and outer worlds. In professions like trade, industry, other commercial activities they would follow the path of Vedic economics based on “dharma, artha and kama”. Dharma is the path of virtuousness, a-priori principles and Rta -the laws of God. Artha is Vedic meta economics which takes into consideration the presence of spirit of God in all material goods and merchandise and any kind of adulteration, deception including exploitative profits are sinful. Kama is the path of pursuit of material pleasure harmonised with spiritual knowledge. Kama does not lead to any kind of immoral pollution in society. His believers thus know that it brings immense benefit to society and children who look towards the elders for their guidance as path makers and always watch their actions, thoughts and desires.

The Universal Vedic God unlike mythological gods/God and other deities can be easily explained to the children and others without any need to create myths, fairy tales, hallucinations and miracles. A person desirous of knowing and understanding Him does not take very long to find Him without any hallucination and soon starts understanding His laws, commandments and divine guide lines for noble and simple living. Thus, knowing Him is bliss and not knowing Him is misery. Both these states of bliss and miseries are only in this World until one escapes rebirth and moves towards Moksha and becomes one with God. Sankracharya refers to this state of merging with God as “aham Brahma asi”- I am God. Many Christians consider Jesus Christ as God even though he himself never said so. Holy Bible refers to him as Son of God. Since he reached the highest stage akin to Vedic Moksha or final liberation and became one with God, so accepting him as Son of God and God would mean the same thing. Many Buddhists accept Buddha as God even though Buddha was agnostic and did not bring God and soul in his most ethical metaphysics and teachings. Since he achieved Nirvana akin to Vedic Moksha, as per Vedic metaphysics he merged with God.

The believers of One God are invariably transparent and follow the path of truth and non-violence in thought and action. In non-transparent professions where purity of finances and accounting are suspect, the individuals will be mostly believers in many gods and deities, also in personal God and would invariably be the followers of some guru, tantrik, or cults. They will prove their honesty and integrity more by publicly exhibiting pictures, photos, icons, and statues of deities, god men and gurus. Very soon one can find them speaking in the most non transparent manner like payment of money in cash without receipts or any kind of recognised accounting norms etc., and thus they make even a good money as filthy lucre. This lucre is then used for spreading immorality in society by eroding ideational and idealistic values, bribing the officials and to attain inner peace giving liberal donations to gurus and liberal offerings in temples. Thus, many of the believers in multiplicity of gods tend to become the cause of spreading evils in society. Since they are always in search of inner peace and bliss they are easily impressed and even convinced with elementary nursery level moral teachings based on religious fables, mythologies contained in Puranas, Tantras and other didactic books. While their manifested souls yearn for divine knowledge, their senses yearn for glamour of outer world and do not allow higher divine and spiritual knowledge to pass through them and finally get into utter inner darkness. For such persons Isa Upanishad says “through meditation they move from darkness to utter darkness.”

However, the followers and believers of nirguna Brahma or merciful and benevolent Allah, formless and ineffable Ek Om Kar - the only supreme Reality do not explain philosophy behind divine, spiritual and material knowledge and activities through fables and mythology. They would rather explain the same through a simple scientific philosophy and leave to the individuals to find a way of life for themselves. They never get provoked when contrary views are given unlike those who believe in many Gods, gods, deities who tend to become fanatics, fundamentalists, conservatives and vindictive to the extent of demolishing temples, ashrams, mosques, churches and other places of worship. They will talk of humanism but their belief in Vishva Bandhutva or universal brotherhood is more hypocrisy than a scientific faith.

The people with firm belief in the divine power of shabad Brahma OM and ineffable God would normally like to have a Guru (preceptor) of the caliber of Vedic Aditya or Rudrai like Maharsi Vashishat, Yajnavalkya, Vyasa, rsika Gargi of ancient India, Socrates, Plato, Lao Tse, Mencius in other parts of the world. They would also like to have preceptors of other periods like Sankracharya, St. Augustine, St. Acquinas, Guru Nanak, Immanuel Kant, Vivekananda and others. Nevertheless, the firm believers in One God would be far away from the so-called modern Hindu gurus who at best provide mostly nursery level of spiritual knowledge. They supplement this huge gap in their knowledge with mythology, magic and imaginary fairies landing from the heaven. They even hold periodical get-together for one or the other reason, where hidden donations without receipts are collected liberally from some of those followers who generate black money in tons, which really belongs to the poor masses for their development works. These gurus, godmen and cults spread message of good, love, harmony, truth and other virtues without themselves knowing their true meaning and so supplement with mysticism, miracles, magic and mythology. They liberally quote from the scriptures of various religions and very often by distorting these. In their messages scientific spiritualism is invariably missing owing to inadequacy of their higher divine and spiritual knowledge or sometimes deliberately so that the rich donors do not leave them. The worst effect of their teachings is that many of their followers do not know evil activities are harmful for society and they feel encouraged when gurus bless them for still more material prosperity, higher false status and other mundane affairs. Thus, many socially and morally corrupt persons get hallucination that their nefarious activities have the blessings of God as many gurus; cult leaders and babas are self-claimed incarnation of God on this earth.

While the Spirit of God is found in all animate and inanimate life/things, the divine soul is only in the human beings as an immaterial part of man. Like Vedas, Dante also found man as divine animal. Because of the divinity in man, all individuals by nature tend to become religious. It is a separate matter that under the influence of senses, predominance of tamasic gunas of impurity, passivity, lust and stupor and the consequent vehement effect of Maya they even distort the true meaning of religion as a spiritual science. Since the degree of knowledge varies considerably with each individual, the definition and description of religion and its tenets also vary considerably. As soon as faith in One God becomes weak, mythology takes over and a large number of Iswaras as personal Gods/gods appear in the same religion to satisfy the religious instinct of the ordinary human beings. The mythology is the cause of spreading non-transparent ideas and concepts like, miracles, magic, superstitions, rituals and unscientific outlook in society.

In the Vedas, there is no miracle, God is Aja- not born and His incarnation as a human being is not contemplated. Also bigamy, polygamy, polyandry are not advised in the Vedas. Later scriptures do mention the prevalence of such marriages like three wives of king Dasharatha, five husbands of Daraupdi, bigamous marriage of Pandu with Kunti (she got her one son through the rays of Sun) as his one of the wives and many more such marriages. The mythology reached its peak when 60,000 princes of a king died at one time and place owing to the curse of an angry and highly annoyed sage. To provide peace to the departed souls of 60,000 princes a specific request was made to lord Shiva and from His hair locks seven streams of water gushed out and these merged to form a mighty river Ganges.

This lord Shiva is a sagun Ishwara (a personal God) with form and attributes, where as Vedic Shiva is an epithet for the Universal lord who is pure, auspicious, impersonal, ineffable and formless God. Very few Hindus know about Vedic Shiva mentioned in Yajur Veda 16-41. Mythology has given Form to the Formless. Blind faith, worship of idols, images, stones as personal gods/Ishwaras, showing the gods as fearsome to wicked characters, provider of wealth to filthy rich who keep material possessions beyond the concept of moderation, for their preservation (Sama Veda 274), who likes a large number of blind rituals and ceremonies, have now become part of organised Hindu religion.

Both Vedas and holy Bible say that God created man in His own image by providing His subtle and immaterial particle as all knowing soul (Atma) to the human beings. Since God is supreme soul (Parmatma), therefore the real self of man is the soul and not gross body. In the Upanishads, gross body is the soul holding body. In the Vedas it is mentioned when soul was provided to the man Vedas were created. Vedas were formulated about five to six thousands years ago. Holy Bible refers to birth of Adam and Eve (with human manifested soul) about 6000 years ago. Both these scriptures confirm that man became divine and social animal about 4000 B.C. Before that, he was only a social and material man. The man obviously could not take much knowledge and advantage from his immortal higher “self” and devoted all his energy to the lower body self and allowed his servants i.e. senses, senses organs and outwards looking mind to become masters. This change in the Design of God led to religions becoming organised, fanatic, ritualistic and confused.

The all merciful, benevolent and ineffable Brahma of the Vedas, by Himself dwelling in the hearts of human beings and through His ansh i.e. divine soul, continuously provide us divine guidance and the right knowledge so that we do not commit any sins and also do not become our own enemies. The sins, which our senses commit owing to 99 obstacles created in this phenomenal world of Maya, are mentioned in Sama Veda 179 and 913 and in other hymns along with the methods to keep these obstacles under control. The personal God/god of Hindu religion punishes the individuals for their sins. These sins in the organised religion are defined and interpreted by priests, swamis, gurus and custodians of the religion overlooking Bhagavad Gita’s and Vedic metaphysics description of sins. This has led to a strange and confused situation where some activities, thoughts, ideas are considered sinful for some and virtues for others.

The Social evil of Sati pratha (self immolation of widow on her husband’s cremation pyre) is not disappearing amongst some sections of Hindus, in spite of laws made by the then British government and now the present Federal government. Cases of socially and religiously forced voluntary suicides by young widows on the burning pyre of their dead husbands are still occurring owing to double standard of priests. Some of the Sati temples bring them plenty of material benefits as these widows after their burning alive get the status of deities. There is an endless list covering bribery, generating black money -which is the share of poor masses for their development works, dowry deaths, girl infanticide, exploitation of widows, rigid caste system etc., where this double standard is quite glaring and found in temples, religious places and ashrams apart from Hindu society in general. Owing to confusion created by this double standard in the organised Hindu religion, the definition of “sin” has become blurred. The “will” to eradicate social and moral evils has become lukewarm not only by Hindus but also by social reformers who have to face great hurdles from the fundamentalists, conservatives and fanatic sections of the Hindu society.

The situation has become all the more difficult with the mushroom growth of gurus, tantriks and various cults along with personal gods. They are overlooking these sins due to their material interests and false ego to spread fast through out the world to get more donations and to collect “Golaks”, offerings from rich non-resident Indians (N.R.Is) settled abroad. Golak is a kind of small sacred box where the followers of certain gurus go on adding some money every day or periodically. The trusted agents of gurus collect the same, at least once a year or the devotee/ follower bring it personally whenever he/she visits the Head Quarters of Guru. The agents collect this unaccounted money in the head quarters and blessings of guru are conveyed along with some “Prasadam”- sanctified sweets or fruits. By offering, hefty donations and material benefits to priests and gurus the personal gods overlook the sins and even bless you to continue with those sinful and corrupt practices. This self-made ritualistic procedure of the priests and others enable them to get more donations and hefty offerings to personal gods/Iswaras, which are again used by the priests, pujaris and trustees. Heavy punishments are for the poor and those belonging to lower castes. In Ramayana it is mentioned that a young son of a Brahmin died, the priestly class attributed it to studying of Vedas by a poor low caste Shudra. He was awarded the death penalty on the advice of priests. In another, case one Shudra Shambuka listened to reciting of Vedic hymns, molten lead was poured in his ears. In Mahabharta, the punishment of cutting the thumb of a low caste Ek Lavya for stealing the military education on the flimsy reason of guru dakishna (fee for the preceptor on completion of education) by a highly learned guru Dronacharya was a clear case of double standard of priests. With such examples in Ramayana and Mahabharta, priestly class now has enough religious support to continue with double standard even though it is very much against Vedic metaphysics.

The religious gods normally do not prohibit the life of material excesses in regard to sensual pleasures, material possessions, false prestige, naked selfishness, ego and pride. Even priest and trustees of temples freely resort to such excesses. The ancient, medieval and modern history tells us a number of cases that organised religion’s God, gods and other deities make individuals fanatics, irrational and fundamentalists. The metaphysical God of spiritual sciences make them love humanity and His entire creation. The violent demolition and wanton destruction of temples, mosques, churches and other places of religious gods / God and even looting of gold, silver, diamonds in such places throughout all ages and in all parts of the world is enough proof that it is high time we should know and understand the Vedic God. He is the same as holy Koran’s “Rabbil aalamin”- the universal supreme Reality and our Father in Heaven. Those who know Him also follow His laws of social, moral and physical orders and find His spirit in all human beings and move towards Vishva Bandhutva- and strive for the creation of universal brotherhood. The others who know Him as a personal God, worship Him in the form of millions of deities in all kinds of forms and shapes like “Swastika” and other geometrical shapes and figures, run after false gurus, swamis, prophets always had been the cause of communal riots in all parts of the world. The scientific belief in One ineffable, formless and nameless God who has been given some name by learned persons, help in creating peace every where- peace in the sky, peace in the atmosphere, peace on the earth, peace in plants, animals, human beings and water (Yajur Veda 36-17). Let the peace itself be peaceful. This is the most famous peace prayer to God as Shanti Path in the Vedas.

During the long historical journey of about 5000 years from the time of man’s desire to know the permanent truths and search of ineffable God and conveying to mankind in the form of Vedic hymns, riks and mantras, the concept of peace as described in Yajur Veda has been considerably diluted owing to Avidya, nescience and giving superiority to material and intellectual knowledge. Akash (ether) is no longer peaceful; all kinds of sound waves are being passed through the ether, good, lustful, spiritual and non-spiritual, virtuous and evil, making the sky highly polluted. The atmosphere is no longer peaceful as the modern man has succeeded with his material knowledge in spreading poisonous toxic gases and matter through green house effect, depletion of ozone layer and other effects. Man himself has now become the pioneer in creating all kinds of dreadful diseases in the animate life on this beautiful globe. The earth itself is not peaceful and every day getting more polluted in the name of material progress bereft of spiritual progress. The philosophies of material progress and vulgar consumerism have now become synonymous. The mother earth, which serves selflessly the animate and inanimate life/things, is now a huge quarry for exploitation. All waters whether belonging to highly sacred rivers like Ganga or other rivers including the waters of oceans presided over by Varun deva are no longer peaceful. They are now so much polluted that all kinds of life in water, fishes, dolphins, sea plants, and shells is now being endangered.

All animate life on this planet is crying for the Vedic peace “shanti” to come back. However, the material knowledge as Avidya is getting more and more specialised and primordial matter in the form of tamasic guna is becoming more predominant. This is making people with stake, who are in pursuit of tons of money for them selves and not for society to be hell bent not to allow Vedic peace to come back in the sky, water, society and all other places on this earth. They have a strange material but intellectual argument that bringing the most ancient Vedic philosophy in this modern material world is a retrograde step. They over look the hard realities that from Vedic formless universal God we have moved to millions of gods. The movement from scientific temper to unscientific outlook, from the philosophy of enlightened liberalism to absolute and naked selfishness, from the scientific Vedic rituals of Yajna with its noble and sacred word “Swaha” to the present age where we have made complete mockery of the Vedic Yajna by taking out the spirit of Swaha is quite visible.

This word “Swaha” signifies that we have under stood the meaning of the hymns, mantras and riks and we shall follow the same in our conduct, behaviour and actions. As a confirmation and our sacred promise, we throw some fragrant material (samigri) in the holy fire (Agni deva). In the Vedas Agni deva is described as the lord of vows. After taking out the spirit in sacred Yajna, only ritualistic yajna( havans ) have now become part of Hindu society. On occasions like marriages, death, birth of a son, birthdays of children etc.; these havans are performed more as a social compulsion than as faith. It is rather strange that in spite of this drift towards all kinds of negativity and deviations from their original roots in the Vedic metaphysics, Hindu intelligentsia calls it a retrograde step if any effort is made to bring back Vedic philosophy in the rudderless organised religion of the Hindus. Thy are ever prepared to honour the pioneers in these directions like Dayananda Saraswati, Vivekananda, Ramanajum. Vallabh, Sankracharya and even Max Muller, Schopenheaur and many others but not prepared to follow the noble Vedic metaphysics. Hypocrisy and lip sympathy to Vedic tenets, injunctions and laws are glaringly observable.

This road to material progress along with spiritual and divine knowledge deterioration does not end with priests, fake gurus, organised religion, spread of irreligious activities through cinema, television etc. It also passes through those scientific discoveries, inventions, luxuries etc., which make people run amuck after the pursuit of material wealth. This long journey has made people lose interest in the original divine scriptures and the noble guidelines given there in. Instead of encouraging the study of Vedas by all sections of society, many custodians of Hindu religion openly prohibit women, low caste Hindus not to read Vedas or recite Vedic hymns. They have deliberately distorted Vedic metaphysics by describing noble Chatvar Varna Ashram based on birth instead of merit, capacity and aptitude mentioned in the Vedas. The Vedic non divine class is most sought after by them and so most of the modern swamis, gurus, tantriks do not talk of five classes in society and even made the followers of non divine activities, professions, bribe takers, drug barons, speculators, lottery lords to feel they are the models and heroes of Hindus. The learned Hindus with a thinking and philosophical mind, metaphysical outlook, scientific temper is always now keen to say that he/she is not a Hindu and belongs to religion of Humanism. This has caused a wide spread split in Hindu societies, families and even human relations. Today thousands of sects say they belong to Sanatan Dharma, Arya samaj, Brahmo samaj, Ganpatias, Parnamis, Balmikis, Kabir panthis, Shivites, Vishnoites etc., and feel diffident to call themselves as Hindus and even would not like to marry their children in the families belonging to other sects. While describing themselves as Hindus many of them, find that their gods, deities, religious rituals, ceremonies, methods of worship by individuals of other sects do no agree with them. Even between Sanatan Dharmis the major constituent of Hinduism, these differences are glaring and so a very large majority of them tend to restrict the marriages of their children to very limited number of families, sub castes and “gotras.”

Very few are keen to know their supreme Father who is also the One Universal God. Rig Veda 1-XI-2 advises that we should acquire friendship with the Vedic God who is ineffable and formless Brahma and Lord of strength. Bow before Him and glorify Him who is Almighty conqueror of the universe but Himself unconquered.

It is thus quite apparent for the various sects of Hindus and also the entire mankind that movement is towards pluralism, animism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, gurudom, kingdom of priests and extreme materialism. It is for the mankind to decide to live without His divine guidance owing to the vehement effect of Maya a huge cosmic saw with sharp teeth or to pass through the gap between these teeth and seek the only One Supreme Realty and remain under His divine guidance by following His commandments and laws. All the main scriptures of major religions have confirmed based on transcendental research that He is pure love, merciful, benevolent, compassionate and supreme consciousness. Knowing Him is bliss and knowledge and not knowing and under standing Him is ignorance and misery.