Decoding the Rig Veda: 'We Tell What We See' (An Exciting, New Approach to the Vedas, The Riddle of Asya Vamasya Sukta, 1.164, Solved- Rig Veda, 1.164)

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This new and exciting interpretation of the Vedas, with special reference to Asya Vamasya Sukta, Rig Veda, 1.164, opens up a wholly novel approach to the understanding of the Vedic verses.

The goal is to decode the richas and to find the true meaning, nature and significance of the texts.

The Vedic richas form a code which when properly interpreted reveals a knowledge that may baffle the modern mind. It is hoped that more and more scholars will embark on this journey in the near future that will give a boost to Vedic studies by coming out of the web of Western translations and find the true meaning of the Vedas.

SUSHIL SONI, b. 1956, did his MA English, from Hindu College, Delhi University, New Delhi, in 1979. Starting his career as a Sub-Editor/Reporter with United News of India (UNI), he represented both the UNI and Indian Express newspaper as Foreign Correspondent at London. He graduated from active journalism to magazine publications, joining Media Transasia Group at Bangkok, as Editor of inflight magazines like Namaskaar and Royal Wings. He returned to India to edit and launch magazines like DASH, Eternal Solutions and Hi-Flyers.

His first book of verses, Serving the Columns, was published in 1996. Since then, he has written several books, including Perceptions, Sushilsultram Other Writings, Resolving the Myths, and Enlightenment, Uninterrupted!

He lives with his wife, Poonam, and children, Sonam and Rohan, in New Delhi.

The British colonial scholars translated the word Shudra as "servants." But as we find it in the above verse, the real meaning of the word Shudra is not servant but "intrinsic talent." Yet, most of the present-day scholars, especially those trained in the British education system, simply pick up these colonial missionary translations as the final word, without even attempting to question the validity or correctness of the translation.

This is the basic problem with the present-day scholarship, especially of the Rig Veda in particular and of the ancient Sanskrit texts in general. Like their predecessors, these scholars are of the opinion that since the Vedas are "deliberately obscure" - some even have gone to the extent of describing the richas as meaningless, bizarre and riddled with primitive rituals - therefore, they are indeed indecipherable.

Then some historians have written meaningless, false and unscholarly statements like this one from John Keay, in his book "India: A History" (HarperCollins, New Delhi): "A mistranslated word from one of the many voluminous, difficult and defective texts wherein, long after composition, the Vedic verses were eventually written down, can create havoc." How can a person who has no command over the Sanskrit language, especially the Vedic Sanskrit, even term such texts "defective"? And on what basis is the writer concluding that the Vedic texts were written "long after composition," when no such evidence exists to prove such a conclusion?

It is to be regretted that we Hindus have derived our knowledge of the Vedas from such Western scholars, and other likeminded authors, whose viewpoints are based entirely on the narratives of Christian missionaries with narrow agendas. While it may be a matter of pride that some European scholars may have, indeed, studied Sanskrit literature in a scientific spirit - free from the cobwebs of superstition - but the fact remains that the conclusions arrived at by them are largely based on their own prejudices, influenced primarily, by a confining, narrow Christian outlook.

The interpretations, and in particular, translations of ancient texts, have had their own peculiar, yet inherent, whims and hiccups. For the 19th century European scholars, understanding of the Rig Veda richas was a particularly frustrating endeavour not only because the native tradition may have been misleading but also that the Hindu priestly class (Brahmin) was often diffident at interpreting the richas any further than what their ancestors had assumed them to be. As India faced brutal invasions by the barbarians from the West, one after another, all these various historical events pushed this priestly class into a self-imposed isolation, if not self-exile, in the land of their own birth and ancestors, forcing them to safeguard their sacred knowledge and texts in the face of the Islamic onslaught, especially on their places of knowledge and worship like the universities and the temples, where the original texts or copies of them, had been preserved and were now being set to fire.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages