[sesame]

Veda

Many thousands of years ago, the Vedas were in undifferentiated form. And it was verbally propagated from Master to Disciple. The master uttered it and the disciple memorised it. No written manuscripts were there. Everything was retained in memory, generation after generation. So vedas were also called Sruti= to listen.

Even earlier, it was not even uttered. The Guru directed the disciple to go through rigorous austerities and mental exercises. The student became aware of the Truth within himself. Truth is self evident!

In each veda, there were 4 parts: Samhita (for esoteric rituals), Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishad. The Knowledge part became the Upanishads. As the memory and retention power of human beings became poorer in later ages, Philosophers couldnt remember all of the veda. So, Sage Vyasa divided Veda into 4 parts. Rik, Sama, Yajuh and Atharva. The Atharva part was not counted among the Vedas by some of the Philosophers. So some called Veda as Tri-Vidya = Three Knowledges. Its interesting to note that Ayurveda and early Tantra originated from this neglected Atharva Veda. Yoga was always there in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Seer Patanjali, himself a Yoga Adept, organised and compiled it. He also left very insightful hints in it about Alchemy, Surya-siddhanta (Solar science) and molecular evolution. The time of Patanjali is exactly 1000 years before Adi Shankaracharya (805 AD).

Seer Vyasa cut out the 4 vedas, clearly compiled the Upanishads, wrote the epic Mahabharata and the historic-storyline-volumes called Puranas, packed with philosophy hidden behind stories. Vyasa came many thousands of years ago. Its very interesting to note, that Vyasa is one of the six immortal Yogis in Hindu philosophy. He was the grand master or most knowledgable sage of the Dvapara age. He is still alive, so they say! :D