So we will conclude this entire discussion with a little bit of an understanding of how was this Vedic living, what were some of the things that they were actually doing. Based on whatever we have seen so far, there is a misconception. That Vedic people de-emphasize materialism and instead chose to lead a simple life with not even minimum comforts, you know, that is this mental model a lot of us have.
As though Vedic people were just going to the forest, sitting there, they needed no food, they were just, you know, speculating. on ideas, esoteric and so on. These kind of feelings are there. But if you look at the mantras, the kind of details that they are talking about, the kind of auxiliary tools that they have developed, we don't get such an impression. The mantras, the prayers and the things that they ask for, if you look at the Karmakanda of the Vedic literature, it is abundant with such examples.
We can infer that they aspire to live a life full of energy. enthusiasm, hopes, desire to explore and innovate to make their life better and comfortable. You know, in Ayurveda, there is something called Chamaka Prasna. There are 11 paragraphs of asking.
Shanchame, Mayaschame, Priyanchame, Samanchame, like that it goes. I have just uttered a little bit of it. May means to me, to me.
And 11 paragraphs of give me this, give me that. Your wish list will pale in comparison. If you undergo...
go and read Chamaka and find out what are all the things they asked for, I don't think we can even derive a list which is one-tenth of what they have derived. So the point I am making is, it's not that they just threw up everything and then went somewhere and sitting and doing nothing or just looking at the sky. Nothing like that.
This much of thinking, messages would not have come. So they wanted to live a full life. Karmakanda has all those kind of ideas.
The Vedic thinking, which is discussed in great detail in Jnana Kanda, also presents us a balanced view of life. Attainment of material riches and prosperity was considered important, but not at the cost of spiritual orientation to life. We want pravritti and nivritti. Pravritti is, you know, materialism, good, you know, working, making a lot of money, having comfortable living.
Nivritti is peace of mind, good sleep at the end of the day. So, the Jnana Kanda tells us, don't overemphasize. You know, it looks like sometime in modern thinking and the way we live now, we have just swung the pendulum to one side. It's all about how do we make more money, how is this material riches and so on.
With the result, there are a lot of diseases. There are people who don't get sleep. I think we should all get some good sleep every day. That's the biggest blessing that we can have.
So, the Jnana Kanda talks about why would you get a good sleep? You have to think through a few things and then reflect on a few things. So that is Jnana Kanda.
The inquisitiveness of the people and a desire to know and innovate enables them to develop ideas and knowledge and thought processes that address both material progress and spiritual progress. That's the sense we will get if one goes really reading all these Vedic corpus seriously and so on. This resulted in the development of the Karma Kanda, the Jnana Kanda.
aspects of the Vedic repository. As a result, the Vedic living ought to have advocated for all-round development of an individual in terms of physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual dimensions. We need all of them. Today in modern research, they say emotional quotient, intellectual quotient, SQ, spiritual quotient.
Now they are saying happiness quotient also. All that is required. And you find ideas for all of them in the Vedic literature if you carefully read it. So that must be their priorities of life. In fact, a few things I specifically want to share.
If you read the Vedic corpus, what you find is there is the primacy of Agni. Yajna was central to day-to-day living. Every activity and celebration in life was done with Yajna and Dana. Associated with Yajna is giving, gifting, Dana. That is recognized as a way of showing reverence and gratitude to the gods for making things happen the way they are.
So it is all the time thanksgiving. you know, being grateful at the same time putting the best forward and making a lot of material progress also. So Agni was the main deity and carrier of the offering. See, the idea was people make an offering to a devata, maybe Indra, Parjanya, Soma. You make an offering.
The idea at that time was the Agni will take that offering and carry it to the devata. It is like through internet you send something and then it reaches the other side. So that way you have to think actually.
So carrier of the offering to all other devatas. And no wonder the first mantra of Rig Veda, the very first mantra out of the 10,552 mantras, begins with the celebration of Agni as the priest and the giver of all riches to us. It says, Agni mi ile proheetham, Yajnasya devam rithvijam, Hotaram ratna dhatamam.
It says it is the Ratna Dattama, Hotara, it is the sacrificer, it is the Ahuti that you are giving. Agni is everything. That's how it starts. Entire Rig Veda starts with praising the Agni because he is the carrier. Yajna was conceptualized by the Vedic seers.
What they have conceptualized is much larger than what is ordinarily understood. See, the moment you say Yajna, people understand there are Prohits sitting around an altar and, you know, they... offer ghee or something something onto the altar that is not the meaning of a yajna that's one symbolic part of yajna and there was a larger meaning yajna to the vedic living is a grand principle of give and take live and let live and thereby ensure social sustainability in addition to the narrow environmental sustainability that we are currently debating and so on They were concerned about social sustainability.
So give and take, live and let live is the central idea of Yajna actually. This is one idea. The Yajna part I will come again a little later.
The second thing that you see is life was guided by Rita, Satya and Dharma. These are larger principles that shape the paradigms of good living. Rita, see there is an English word Rhythm.
That English word rhythm has originated from rita. Rita in simple terms is the cosmic order or equilibrium, which ensures that the universe functions in its natural state. So the nearest English word that one can think of is rhythm.
You say everything is in rhythm. That's what we say, right? In the Rig Veda, the term rita appears as many as 390 times.
and has been characterized as the one concept which pervades the whole of Rig Vedic thought. It's all about maintaining that kind of an equilibrium and balance. So, many life choices must be governed by that. The actions individuals and society take in their living are not supposed to disturb the Rita.
That is the idea. While Rita is an overarching concept, it's life practice. was facilitated by the concept of Satya and Dharma. And these two operational guidelines ensure that the cosmic order is not disturbed.
Now, I am not going to get into great details of what is Satya and Dharma because that will take us to a much larger debate, although there are interesting ideas, but I will defer it as an issue for us to self-reflect because there are things available for us to think about it. Now, coming back to the Yajna, essentially, The very spirit of an Ejna is giving or sharing. That is what it is, without any expectation or without any kind of return.
And there is this concept of Panchamaha Ejnas that you see being mentioned. You see it in Yajurveda, Aranyakas, in places. actually see these references there are pancha maha yajnas so the first thing is called brimma and it is the responsibility of a householder basically this pancha maha yajna a householder is supposed to do it is every householder is supposed to do it is the responsibility of a householder to provide for the sustenance of the life around him and make it a very sustainable idea that is the very thought which is formalized with Panchamaha Yajnas. So as you see here, there are Panchamaha Yajnas here. You know, you have Brimma Yajna, you have Bhuta Yajna, you have Manushya Yajna, you have Pitru Yajna, you have...
deva egna and so on. So, bhuta egna is for all created beings. By offering bhuta egna, we take care of small living beings around us, such as birds, domesticated animals, worms, insects. See, in this country, it is still a practice when they cook.
The mother, what she does is, she takes a little bit of food. It can be chapati in North India, it can be dal, or it can be some rice cooked in South India. They take a little bit of it and leave it outside. Leave it so that crows and squirrels and other animals can partake it.
Even ants can partake it and so on. So that is called Bhuta Egnya. Then you have Manushya Egnya.
By Manushya Egnya, we derive the joy of helping destitutes, orphans, unexpected guests, poor and the nearby. By offering whatever we have, we can in cash or kind or food, etc. I have seen these practices in villages.
I have in my own village, I have still. Seeing these things happening in very nice ways, very organized and structured ways and so on. By Pitra Yajna, we give away food for the sake of our ancestors and offer our respects and deep sense of gratitude to the departed souls.
After all, every one of us is because of the toiling of our parents. How can we just, just because they, you know, went out of this world, it's not a good idea to think they don't exist. I think they exist.
We are not able to see with our naked eye. But we should remember them every day and then offer them our puja. So that's Pitra Yajna.
Then you have Deva Yajna. By offering Deva Yajna, we express our thankfulness for what the gods have blessed us. Now, this word Deva, the moment I say Deva, you know, sometimes we think it is Shiva, Parvati, Vishnu. Not necessarily.
Deva in Vedic time, there were not many of these Puranic gods. These are all Puranic gods. Deva means natural forces. Actually.
Indra, Parjanya, rain, lightning, fire, air, Vayu, all these are natural forces. If you don't know how to respect them and co-live with them, you will have catastrophe of environmental degradation. So Deva Yajna is expressing our thankfulness for what the gods has blessed us in terms of rain and other bounties of nature.
That thought will make us very sustainable to live in this world. Then there is this Brahma Yajna. This is actually by reciting the Vedic hymns, Upanishads, etc., etc., and teaching them to others, we show enormous respect to the great seers and rishis who gave us this wisdom.
That's one part. But the second most important part, how can we say, I want all the good knowledge, I will not transmit it to the next generation. I don't care about the next generation.
Nobody should say that. So by Brahma Yajna, you carry, you remember, you recite, teach it to your next generation. and then they carry the torch of knowledge.
So that is this Brahma Yajna. So like this, the Vedic living has these kinds of interesting thoughts in them. I just picked a few of them just to give you a sense of what can you infer from those all mantras and those classifications and issues discussed, what it really says.
I think a life of joy, a life which respects equilibrium, a life which... believes in live and let live and give and share and all that. So that is how we can understand actually the Vedic corpus. If we dip into it very seriously, properly read it with all the Vedangas, know the right meaning and then understand it, we may get these ideas from the Vedic corpus.