Ten Greatest Poets – Vyāsa, Compiler of the Vedas

VYĀSA, COMPILER OF THE VEDAS

Hinduism is one of the four major world religions by population—six, if you include Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Hinduism is the third most populous religion, with over one billion adherents worldwide or over 15% of the world population. Ninety-five percent of Hindus reside in India, where they comprise about 80% of the population. Over 98% of Hindus are located in South Asia, although substantial populations also exist in Southeast Asia, North America, Western Europe, and Southern Africa.

Hinduism is the origin of another major world religion, Buddhism, which counts about half a billion followers or over 9% of the world population.

The remote origins of Hinduism, the world’s oldest religion, reach far back into prehistory, to the Indo-Aryans, a very ancient migrant pastoral population that includes, besides Indians of the Aryan migration into the Indus Valley, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, and Iranian peoples.

Hinduism as a distinct religion began to develop around 1500 to 500 BCE, during which defining Hindu beliefs and practices were established and passed on through oral transmission. Although Hinduism today consists of diverse religious groups, they all still share the same worldview—a common metaphysics—as well as similar religious practices, including sacred rituals and pilgrimage sites, and they all invoke practically the same sacred texts.

Hindu sacred texts include mainly the Vedas, of which there are four. The most influential, the Upanishads, sets forth fundamental Hindu philosophy. Two primordial Hindu epics, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana, are venerated as major vehicles of Hindu philosophy, especially the Bhagavad Gītā, the part of the Mahābhārata considered the most imperative and doctrinal. Also counted among the sacred texts are the Purānas, a collection of legends and folklore, and the Yoga Sūtras of Patanjali or Yoga Sūtras for short, teachings about yoga.

The Vedas were first set to writing around 500 BCE, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana afterwards. The Mahabarata in final form, written, has been dated to about 400 BCE. Although as many as three hundred versions of the Rāmāyana exist today in various languages, the earliest versions of the oral epic, traditionally attributed to Vālmīki, are set forth in Sanskrit and dated to approximately 700 to 400 BCE. Dating precisely the original inscription of the two epics is not possible, of course, because manuscripts from that time no longer exist. The Purānas was inscribed around 300 BCE, while the Yoga Sūtras was compiled between 500 and 300 BCE.

The two great epics of Indian civilization, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana, contribute in an essential way to the development of Hinduism. Both transmit Hindu prayers and rituals, and fundamental Hindu philosophy, thereby defining the manner in which the religion is professed and practiced today. This influence is not merely literary but religious.

Therefore, the effects of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana on the third largest religion by population are considerable. This influence extends to Buddhism, which originates in Hinduism.

Consequently, we choose Vyāsa, the mythical author of the longer and more influential Mahābhārata, for inclusion in our list of the ten greatest poets.

Vyāsa is also called Veda Vyāsa, literally, “Compiler of the Vedas,” because he is believed to be one of 28 avatār or reincarnations of the god Vishnu who accomplished this sacred activity. This title is therefore shared.

Strictly speaking, Vyāsa is not a single person but multiple authors. Originating around 800 or 900 BCE, the Mahābhārata was orally transmitted by charioteer bards until it was set to writing about 400 BCE. During this process of oral transmission, it was adapted, developed, and finally canonized.

Vyāsa is both a character and a narrator in the Mahābhārata. He is the father of Pāndu and Dhritārashtra, the patriarchs of two warring clans. At beginning of the Mahābhārata, Vyāsa dictates the text to the Hindu god Ganesha. Subsequently, Vyāsa appears infrequently throughout.

The Mahābhārata is the longest epic in the world. It consists of over 100,000 couplets or 200,000 verses, or about 1.8 million words. It is ten times the length of the Iliad plus the Odyssey, four times the length of the Rāmāyana, and over three times the length of the Bible.

The Mahābhārata is principally about the saga of two sets of cousins, the Pāndavas and Kauravas, who are the children, respectively, of two brothers, Pāndu and Dhritārashtra. The parties clash over the right to rule the kingdom of Hastināpura during an 18-day battle at the plains of Kurukshetra in which the Kauravas are decisively defeated. Eldest brother of the Pāndavas is Yudhishthira, who ascends the throne. When the epic ends, Yudhishthira journeys to the afterlife and encounters his brothers and cousins, who, to his surprise, inhabit planes of heavenly existence in which each ātman or soul stays for a fixed time according to the law of karma, the inexorable justice governing all moral activity. The afterlife includes several levels of hell.

Only about one-third to one-fourth of the Mahābhārata is directly connected to the central story. The rest of it includes various elements like legends, folktales, wisdom literature, laws or quasi-legal codes of social mores, religious teachings, spiritual counsels, or metaphysical treatises.

As far as epic literature goes, the Mahābhārata is most similar to the Bible, that is, a collection of books consisting of different genres, unified by a religious worldview. The unifying motif of the Mahābhārata is the Hindu worldview, especially the place of human beings in it.

Just like the parvas or books of the Mahābhārata, only some books of the Bible, for example, the historical books, are epic narratives.

With mythic accounts of anthropomorphic gods, warrior valor, and pitched battles, the Mahābhārata resembles epics like Homer’s Iliad or the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf. However, the Mahābhārata is not distinguished by the narrative unity we find in the epics of the West. Moreover, the Mahābhārata engages in deep metaphysical speculation, unlike classic Western epics.

One way of appreciating the Mahābhārata is by looking at how metaphysical concepts in Hinduism are expounded in the text, especially in the Bhagavad Gītā, the only portion of the Mahābhārata included among the Vedas. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Krishna, the avatār of the god Vishnu, instructs Arjuna, the leading warrior among the five brothers, about dharma or right conduct, and other metaphysical concepts.

Basic metaphysical concepts in Hinduism include dharma, artha, kāma, moksha—purushārthas or the four aims of human life—karma, samsāra, yoga, ātman, Brahman, Devas, avatār, and ahimsā.

Following is a sampler of the religious and philosophical teachings found in the Bhagavad Gītā.

“It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another. Nothing is ever lost in following one’s own dharma, but competition in another’s dharma breeds fear and insecurity.”

Here Krishna admonishes Arjuna to observe the fundamental, encompassing goal of all human life: fulfillment of individual dharma. This basic Hindu teaching is expressed in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, “Nothing is higher than dharma.”

Roughly, dharma translates as “righteousness” or “ethics.” Dharma is individual but related to and based on social mores. Using a Western philosophical framework, we might say that Hindu ethics is a type of deontology.

Fulfilling your dharma accumulates good karma, that is, good consequences for your actions. All living creatures are subject to the process by which bad karma is offset and good karma is accumulated—samsāra, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

Ultimately, the goal of observing your dharma is moksha, liberation from samsāra.

“Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do. You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction.”

Detachment from worldly desires, especially from compulsions arising from evil passions—lust, anger, or greed, for example—is considered essential to attaining moksha.

“With a drop of my energy I enter the earth and support all creatures. Through the moon, the vessel of life-giving fluid, I nourish all plants. I enter breathing creatures and dwell within as the life-giving breath. I am the fire in the stomach which digests all food.”

According to pantheistic schools of Hinduism, Brahman or the Ultimate Reality exists in the individual souls or ātman of all living creatures. All ātman are interconnected through Brahman.

Moksha entails realization of union between ātman and Brahman.

See, for the textual sources of the above verses:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/hindu2/2014/10/100-great-bhagavad-gita-quotes-from-krishna/ 

—Sunil Daman, “100 Great Bhagavad Gita Quotes From Krishna,” Hindu 2.0, October 14, 2014

It is an interesting question why Hinduism has not spread very far beyond South Asia or attracted very many converts outside South Asian populations. Although geography is evidently a reason, the weakness of this argument is that Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism have also been limited by geography, but they undertook missionary activity that extended their respective populations far beyond their local origins. Hinduism, religiously inclusive, appears to lack this missionary imperative.

Furthermore, the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, vis-à-vis Hinduism, profess fundamentally different metaphysics.

The monistic deity, God, of the Abrahamic religions is an omnipotent spirit who personally relates to human beings, especially if we are speaking about the God of Judaism or Christianity. Yahweh, the God of Israel, proclaims himself in the Bible to be the husband of Israel, the unfaithful spouse, for example, while Jesus Christ reveals himself as the man-God, the Second Person of the Trinitarian God of Christianity, who dies to save humanity. The Allah of Islam, in contrast, is more remote. He is merciful but also inscrutable, in this respect possibly even capricious.

Moreover, the created universe according to the Abrahamic religions is not identical with God. Any suggestion of pantheism, including related doctrines, is considered heresy.

The Brahman of Hinduism, on the other hand, has a strongly impersonal character, while the sacred texts of Hinduism point to pantheism.

Given this primordial and antique divergence in metaphysics, besides many other important differences in religious belief and practice, it is not surprising that the Abrahamic religions have resisted any sort of major doctrinal influence from Hinduism.

Concededly, Hinduism has influenced the world in significant ways—for example, yoga is ubiquitous, karma belongs to the vocabulary of popular culture, and avatars roam electronic media. However, Hindu influence on the populations of the Abrahamic religions as a rule does not penetrate down to the level of altering fundamental religious doctrines.

Li Po, China’s Greatest Poet—Not:

https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/06/ten-greatest-poets-li-po.html

Vyāsa, mythical author of the Mahābhārata