A short note on the word Veda, which literally means knowledge. Anywhere the truth exists, then that is a form of Veda, even if it is not labelled an original Vedic text. If a piece of spoken information or something you read in a book is true then it is technically ‘Veda’. All of us have experienced beliefs that are temporary and change over time, yet ‘truths’ are eternal. In fact, our bodies and this material world are also temporary, whereas the soul is eternal.
The ancient Vedic ‘Scriptures’ are more specific and describe the sanatan dharma (the eternal religion open to, and for all souls, regardless of manmade institutional religious structure). The Vedic scriptures are regarded by proponents of Vedic Vaishnavism as the word of God, or the instructions of God. For example, the ancient Bhagavad Gita, literally means ‘song of God’.
Each of us has only a tiny drop of God’s knowledge. There was more that Jesus wanted to tell us apparently (John 16:12) “I have much more to say to you, but right now it would be more than you could understand.” The knowledge path is one of the pathways toward God, yet, there is only so much ‘knowledge’ we can handle in a short lifetime. Therefore the prescription, solution, (or recipe) recommended in the Vedic scripture for these modern times is devotion to God. The highest stage of perfection is unmotivated ‘love of God’, and a loving surrender to God. An intelligent soul recognises that he or she is not the controller; and that developing a spiritual practice and love of God and surrendering to God in this lifetime is the real opportunity, and that at the time the material body wears out (death of the body), the soul lives on and will be subject to karma (the results of our past deeds and actions).
[Aside: The Gnostic teachings of Jesus (omitted from the modern Bible) refer to the Christ within, the ‘spirit of truth’. There is a similarity with the Vedic scripture, which describes that each of us is a soul, and that a spark of God also exists in each of our hearts (as the supersoul of God within to guide us). There is a chapter on the Gnostic teachings of Jesus in the book Original Christianity Beyond Institutional Dogma. As well as an exploration of the years of Jesus missing from the modern Bible.]
