Rig Veda and Upanishads PDF

# Excerpts taken from ## Reilly, Kevin. _Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader_. Vol 1: To 1550. Fifth Ed. Bedford/St. Martin's. Boston, 2013. ## The Rig Veda: Sacrifice as Creation, c. 1500-500 B.C.E. As McNeill discusses in the previous selection, the _Vedas_ are the writings of the ancient B...

# Excerpts taken from ## Reilly, Kevin. _Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader_. Vol 1: To 1550. Fifth Ed. Bedford/St. Martin's. Boston, 2013. ## The Rig Veda: Sacrifice as Creation, c. 1500-500 B.C.E. As McNeill discusses in the previous selection, the _Vedas_ are the writings of the ancient Brahman priests in India. They cover a wide variety of religious subjects and concerns: ritual, sacrifice, hymns, healing, incantations, allegories, philosophy, and the problems of everyday life. In general, the earliest Vedas (_like the Rig Veda_) focus more on the specifics of ritual and sacrifice, reflecting the needs and instructions of the priests more than the _Upanishads_. The last of the _Vedas_ (_like the Upanishads_) are more philosophical and speculative. This selection is from the _Rig Veda_. What happened when Purusha was sacrificed? What is the meaning of this first sacrifice? How does this story support the role of priests? ### Thinking Historically Consider how this primary source supports the division of Indian society into castes, as McNeill discusses in the previous selection. How does this story suggest that the people who wrote the _Rig Veda_ thought the division of society into four castes was pretty basic? Can you deduce from this source which of the four castes was most likely the originator of the story? Does this support anything else that McNeill said in his interpretation? Thousand-headed Purusha, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed - he, having pervaded the earth on all sides, still extends ten fingers beyond it. Purusha alone is all this - whatever has been and whatever is going to be. Further, he is the lord of immortality and also of what grows on account of food. Such is his greatness; greater, indeed, than this is Purusha. All creatures constitute but one-quarter of him, his three-quarters are the immortal in the heaven. With his three-quarters did Purusha rise up; one-quarter of him again remains here. With it did he variously spread out on all sides over what eats and what eats not. From him was Virāj born, from Virāj the evolved Purusha. He, being born, projected himself behind the earth as also before it. When the gods performed the sacrifice with Purusha as the oblation, then the spring was its clarified butter, the summer the sacrificial fuel, and the autumn the oblation. The sacrificial victim, namely, Purusha, born at the very beginning, they sprinkled with sacred water upon the sacrificial grass. With him as oblation, the gods performed the sacrifice, and also the Sadhyas [a class of semidivine beings] and the rishis [ancient seers]. From that wholly offered sacrificial oblation were born the verses [re] and the sacred chants; from it were born the meters [chandas]; the Sacrificial formula was born from it. From it horses were born and also those animals who have double frows [i.e., upper and lower] of teeth; cows were born from it, from it were born goats and sheep. When they divided Purusha, in how many different portions did they arrange him? What became of his mouth, what of his two arms? What were his two thighs and his two feet called? His mouth became the brahman; his two arms were made into the rajanya; his two thighs the vaishyas; from his two feet the shūdra was born. The moon was born from the mind, from the eye the sun was born; from the mouth Indra and Agni, from the breath [prāna] the wind [vāyu] was born. From the navel was the atmosphere created, from the head the heaven issued forth; from the two feet was born the earth and the quarters (the cardinal directions) from the ear. Thus did they fashion the worlds. ## The Upanishads: Karma and Reincarnation, c. 800-400 B.C.E. The idea of karma (cause and effect, appropriate consequences) appears in the earliest _Upanishads_. Karma meant: "As you sow, so shall you reap." Good karma would be enhanced; bad karma would lead to more bad karma. The universe was a system of complete justice in which all people got what they deserved. The idea that the soul might be reborn in another body may have been an even older idea, but in the _Upanishads_ it combined easily with the idea of karma. That a good soul was reborn in a higher life, or a bad soul in a lower, was perhaps a more material, less subtle, version of the justice of karma. The idea of reincarnation, or the transmigration of souls, united justice with caste. What effect would these ideas have on people? In what ways would these ideas aid people in gaining a sense of power over their lives? How might these ideas be tools of control? What does "morality" mean in this tradition? ### Thinking Historically How does the idea of karma presented in this primary source support McNeill's interpretation of the importance of the caste system in India? Would the idea of reincarnation make caste organization stronger or weaker? According as one acts, according as one conducts himself, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action. But people say: "A person is made not of acts, but of desires only." In reply to this I say: As is his desire, such is his resolve; as is his resolve, such the action he performs; what action (karma) he performs, that he procures for himself. On this point there is this verse: Where one's mind is attached the inner self Goes thereto with action, being attached to it alone. Obtaining the end of his action, Whatever he does in this world, He comes again from that world To this world of action. -So the man who desires. Now the man who does not desire. - He who is without desire, who is freed from desire, whose desire is satisfied, whose desire is the Soul-his breaths do not depart. Being very Brahman, he goes to Brahman. Accordingly, those who are of pleasant conduct here-the prospect is, indeed, that they will enter a pleasant womb, either the womb of a Brahman, or the womb of a Kshatriya, or the womb of a Vaishya. But those who are of stinking conduct here--the prospect is, indeed, that they will enter a stinking womb, either the womb of a dog, or the womb of a swine, or the womb of an outcaste (candala). ## The Upanishads: Brahman and Atman, c. 800-400 B.C.E. In this selection Brahman does not refer to priests or to a specific god. In the late _Vedas_, or _Upanishads_, Brahman is all divinity, and all is Brahman. Even the individual soul or atman can be one with the universal Brahman, "as the Father of Svetaketu demonstrates to his son through the examples of a banyan tree and salt water." How would ideas like these challenge the caste system? ### Thinking Historically McNeill suggests that the _Upanishads_ expressed a religious vision that challenged the power of priests, sacrifice, and caste. How does this selection from the _Upanishads_ support that interpretation? Great is the Gayatri, the most sacred verse of the Vedas; but how much greater is the Infinity of Brahman! A quarter of his being is this whole vast universe: the other three quarters are his heaven of Immortality. (3.12.5) There is a Light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the Light that shines in our heart. (3.13.7) All this universe is in the truth Brahman. He is the beginning and end and life of all. As such, in silence, give unto him adoration. Man in truth is made of faith. As his faith is in this life, so he becomes in the beyond: with faith and vision let him work. There is a Spirit that is mind and life, light and truth and vast spaces. He contains all works and desires and all perfumes and all tastes. He enfolds the whole universe, and in silence is loving to all. This is the Spirit that is in my heart, smaller than a grain of rice, of a grain of barley, or a grain of mustard-seed, or a grain of canary-seed or the kernel of a grain of canary-seed. This is the Spirit that is in my heart, greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than heaven itself, greater than all these worlds. He contains all works and desires and all perfumes and all tastes. He enfolds the whole universe and in silence is loving to all. This is the Spirit that is in my heart, this is Brahman. (3.14) "Bring me a fruit from this banyan tree." "Here it is, father."" "Break it." "It is broken, Sir." "What do you see in it?" "Very small seeds, Sir." "Break one of them, my son. "It is broken, Sir." "What do you see in it?" "Nothing at all, Sir." Then his father spoke to him: "My son, from the very essence in the seed which you cannot see comes in truth this vast banyan tree. Believe me, my son, an invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is Reality. That is Atman. THOU ART THAT." "Explain more to me, father," said Svetaketu. "So be it, my son. Place this salt in water and come to me tomorrow morning." Svetaketu did as he was commanded, and in the morning his father said to him: "Bring me the salt you put into the water last night." Svetaketu looked into the water, but could not find it, for it had dissolved. His father then said: "Taste the water from this side. How is it?". It is salt." Taste it from the middle. How is it?" "It is salt." "Taste it from that side. How is it?" "It is salt.": Look for the salt again and come again to me." The son did so, saying: "I cannot see the salt. I only see water." His father then said: "In the same way, O my son, you cannot see the Spirit. But in truth he is here. An invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is Reality. That is Truth. THOU ART THAT." (6.12-14) ## The Bhagavad Gita: Caste and Self, c. 1500 B.C.E. The _Bhagavad Gita_ is the best-known work in Hindu religious literature. It is part of a larger epic called the _Mahabharata_, a story of two feuding families that may have had its origins in India as early as 1500 B.C.E. The _Bhagavad Gita_ is a philosophical interlude that interrupts the story just before the great battle between the two families. It poses some fundamental questions about the nature of life, death, and proper religious behavior. It begins as the leader of one of the battling armies, Arjuna, asks why he should fight his friends and relatives on the other side. The answer comes from none other than the god Krishna, who has taken the form of Arjuna's charioteer. What is Krishna's answer? What will happen to the people Arjuna kills? What will happen to Arjuna? What would happen to Arjuna if