Vedas and liberal Indian views
Vedic texts shows a people who were very liberal in their outlooks and also extremely open to new ideas, thoughts and gods. I would like in this post to celebrate this plurality of views and acceptance of various cultures, gods, religions etc. To start with they were open to multiplicity of world views or theistic paths each leading to same goal. This in no way means it was devoid of contentious issues around equality and patriarchal leanings that is in conflict with today's liberal world view.
The oft quoted Poem of the Primeval Man, Purusha Sukta (RV-Rig Veda, 10.90) which many thinkers believe laid down the seeds of the class system in India, is one such controversial one. Right wing thinkers in India though believe it puts down roots of varna and not "jati" or caste, which they often attribute to latter British rules. (NB: I prefer not to comment on it since its difficult to prove one way or the other; suffice to say I find the right wing view less palatable; I do believe though that Mandalas 1 and 10 were added later to RV)
Focus for me is to provide few examples of plurality of thoughts in Vedas rather than establishing that everything written in Veda is gospel and is beyond criticism.
Note : Garutman is a celestial bird, sometimes conflated with Sun or even Garuda (appearing in post Vedic texts as celestial bird, possibly the vehicle of Vishnu). This is the only vedic verse that I've seen where "she" is put at an equal footing with major gods.
More importantly the vedas themselves famously were curious about existence of God. India had the only stone age civilization that had atheist / agnostic views about a supreme power and was open to asking the deep questions of existence and even doubting if "God", if she existed, was indeed omniscient. (Some might say they even had prescience of a big bang at the start of creation ;)!)
RV 10.129 (Famously known as the nasadiya sukta, Hymn of creation)
But even at the Samhita level (the earliest of compositions) Indian thought was pluralistic in nature and made leeway for respecting counter cultures, thoughts and ideas of (or even lack of) god.
Vedic texts shows a people who were very liberal in their outlooks and also extremely open to new ideas, thoughts and gods. I would like in this post to celebrate this plurality of views and acceptance of various cultures, gods, religions etc. To start with they were open to multiplicity of world views or theistic paths each leading to same goal. This in no way means it was devoid of contentious issues around equality and patriarchal leanings that is in conflict with today's liberal world view.
The oft quoted Poem of the Primeval Man, Purusha Sukta (RV-Rig Veda, 10.90) which many thinkers believe laid down the seeds of the class system in India, is one such controversial one. Right wing thinkers in India though believe it puts down roots of varna and not "jati" or caste, which they often attribute to latter British rules. (NB: I prefer not to comment on it since its difficult to prove one way or the other; suffice to say I find the right wing view less palatable; I do believe though that Mandalas 1 and 10 were added later to RV)
Focus for me is to provide few examples of plurality of thoughts in Vedas rather than establishing that everything written in Veda is gospel and is beyond criticism.
RV 1.164
They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, and he is heavenly noble-winged Garutman.
To what is One, sages give many a title - they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan. Note : Garutman is a celestial bird, sometimes conflated with Sun or even Garuda (appearing in post Vedic texts as celestial bird, possibly the vehicle of Vishnu). This is the only vedic verse that I've seen where "she" is put at an equal footing with major gods.
More importantly the vedas themselves famously were curious about existence of God. India had the only stone age civilization that had atheist / agnostic views about a supreme power and was open to asking the deep questions of existence and even doubting if "God", if she existed, was indeed omniscient. (Some might say they even had prescience of a big bang at the start of creation ;)!)
RV 10.129 (Famously known as the nasadiya sukta, Hymn of creation)
Then was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this, All, was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.
As we move down to Aranyaks, especially Upanishads, it becomes all the more clearer - where every one is in every one else and all are linked to the same universal truth. Upanishad, which many (me included) believe is the "throbbing heart" of Hinduism, pictures a universe where all religions, race etc live in harmony with feeling of oneness and mutual respect for each other's "Paths", including agnosticism or atheism.What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this, All, was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.
But even at the Samhita level (the earliest of compositions) Indian thought was pluralistic in nature and made leeway for respecting counter cultures, thoughts and ideas of (or even lack of) god.
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