Apaurusheya (अपौरुषेयम्)
 |
This is a short stub article. Needs Expansion. |
The Vedas are eternal truth revealed to the Rishis of Bharat. The word Rishi means a seer. The word is derived from Dris - to see. The Rishi is the Mantra-Drashta, a seer of Mantra or thought. The thought was not his own. The Rishis saw the truths or heard them. Therefore, the Vedas are what are heard (Sruti)[1].
The Rishi did not write. He did not create the Vedas out of his mind. He was the seer of thought which already existed. He was only the adhyatmik discoverer of the thought. He is not the inventor of the Veda.[1] The Rishis disseminated the knowledge. The Vedic Rishis were great realised persons who had direct intuitive perception of Brahman or the Truth.[1]
The Vedas have been preserved intact through a beginning-less period by being handed down from teacher to pupil with scrupulous care. This belief is based on the circumstances that tradition has throughout been silent regarding authorship of the Vedas, while in case of every other ancient work, a mention is made of some author or the other.[2]
The Vedas are eternal. They are without beginning and end. An ignorant man may say how a book can be without beginning or end. By the Vedas, no books are meant. Vedas are the words of Brahman. The Vedas are not the utterances of persons. They are not compositions of any human mind. They were never written, never created. They are eternal and impersonal.[1]
Difference with Abrahamic Religions
The Vedas represent the adhyatmik experiences of the Rishis. The Rishi is only a medium or an agent to transmit to people the intuitional experiences which he received. The Abrahamic religions claim their authority as being delivered by special messengers of God to certain persons, but the Vedas do not owe their authority to any one. They are themselves the authority as they are eternal.[1]