THE RIG VEDA

THE ORIGINS OF SACRED SPEECH FROM THE RIG VEDA

For those not in the know, The Rig Veda is the believed to be one of the oldest books known to humanity. It was in a verbal form for millenniums, memorized by Rishis (some estimate for more than 35,000 years) until it was written down anywhere between 3,207 and 2,907 years ago.

To say the least it is ancient, profound and highly mysterious in nature and within all of that resides a deep truth that needs much unraveling. Read the following and contemplate it carefully. -- Manoj Sharma

"When they (The Seers) set in motion the first beginning of speech, giving names, their most pure and perfectly guarded secret was revealed through love.

When the wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve, then friends recognized their friendships. A good sign was placed on their speech.

Through the sacrifice they traced the path of speech and found it inside the sages. They held it and portioned it out to many; together the seven singers praised it.

One who looked did not see speech, and another who listened did not hear it. It reveals itself to someone as a loving wife, beautifully dressed, reveals her body to her husband.

One person, they said, has grown awkward and heavy in their friendship; they no longer urge him forward in the contests. He lives with falsehood like a milkless cow, for the speech that he has heard has no fruit to flower.

A man that abandons a friend who has learned with him no longer has a share in speech. What he does hear, he hears in vain, for he does not know the path of good action.

Friends have eyes and ears, but their flashes of insight are not equal. Some are like ponds that reach only to the mouth or shoulders; others are like ponds that one could bath in.

When the intuitions of the mind are shaped in the heart, when Brahmins perform sacrifices together as friends, some are left behind for lack of knowledge, while others surpass them with the power to praise.

Those who move neither near nor far, who are not real Brahmins, not pressers of the Soma; using speech in a bad way, they weave on a weft of rags, without understanding.

All his friends rejoice in the friend who emerges with fame and victory in the contest. He saves them from error and gives them food. He is worthy to be pushed forward to win the prize.

One sits bringing to blossom the flower of the verses. Another sings a song in the Sakvari metre. One, the Brahmin, proclaims the knowledge of the ancient way. Another lays out the measure of the sacrifice."