THE VEDA ...

The Veda: Rediscovering the Science

of Consciousness from Ancient India

In recent years, the ancient knowledge of India from which the Transcendental Meditation technique derives has had a remarkable cultural impact in the United States. Studios teaching Yoga postures seem to be popping up on every corner (Yoga is now considered the fastest growing “sport” in the U.S.), and Ayurveda, India’s ancient system of natural medicine, has gained prominence among complementary and alternative medical practices offered and prescribed by doctors. Other aspects of Vedic knowledge—in education, agriculture, architecture, and military science—are likewise being explored and field-tested now throughout the nation.

The word Veda means “knowledge”—total experiential knowledge of ultimate reality, available to anyone on the level of his or her own pure consciousness.

But for centuries, Yoga (“union”) has been understood to mean not physical postures—a fairly recent development, beginning in the 1920s—but rather the union of individual awareness with its unbounded source in the transcendental field of life. Similarly, the preventive modalities of Ayurveda all aim at promoting ideal health, or svastha—but svastha literally translates from the original Sanskrit as “established (stha) in the Self (sva),” or Transcendental Consciousness.  All  branches and aspects of the Vedic literature had their roots in this transcendental field. To appreciate the full richness of the Vedic tradition, therefore, we need to consider the source and goal of these practical applications—and we understand and revived this ancient knowledge.

Veda and Vedic Literature

The Veda and Vedic literature are among the oldest continuing traditions of knowledge on earth. Expressed in Sanskrit and passed down for thousands of years by rigorous oral tradition, the Vedas are traditionally understood to have been directly cognized, not composed, by ancient seers, and to be nitya apaurusheya—eternal and not created by any human agency. They are said to be cognitions of the deep, primordial laws of nature governing the existence and evolution of the entire universe, which in turn are born of the self-existent, unchanging reality at the basis of creation—what physics calls the unified field, and what the Vedic literature calls pure unbounded consciousness.
In this traditional view, the Vedas cannot be constrained to any particular culture. Just as the laws of nature discovered by modern physics are self-existent, universal principles that apply everywhere throughout the cosmos, Veda in this traditional view embodies the most fundamental knowledge or creative principles in nature that underlie, pervade, and give rise to the surface diversity of life. The word Veda in fact means “knowledge”—total experiential knowledge of ultimate reality, available to anyone on the level of his or her own pure consciousness. It includes knowledge of the unchanging realm of pure Being at the basis of all life; the primordial sounds or vibrational structure of natural law within the field of Being that serves as the blueprint for the universe; and the limitless expressions of those natural laws in the play and display of the entire creation, including our human physiology.

The reality [the ancient Vedic seers] cognized, as recorded in the Veda and Vedic literature, bears remarkable similarities to the most advanced discoveries of modern science.
 

According to tradition, the ancient Vedic seers utilized highly developed subjective means of meditation to explore the depths of nature’s functioning from within their own consciousness. And the reality they cognized, as recorded in the Veda and Vedic literature, bears remarkable similarities to the most advanced discoveries of modern science. Today’s physicists, our modern seers, have explored creation using highly developed objective approaches. They too have discovered a single, universal field of intelligence at the basis of creation—the unified field—and fundamental vibrational modes of this field in superstring theory that give rise to all the elementary particles and forces in the universe. Since the Vedic cognitions are said to represent the primordial sounds or vibrations that give rise to the cosmos, these two approaches to knowledge—one subjective and ancient, the other objective and modern—have now converged to an extraordinary degree.
Over the millennia, however, the ancient, subjective “technologies of consciousness” described in the Vedic texts were largely lost to the world. With the decline of proper understanding and practice of these meditation techniques, the experience of Transcendental Consciousness—and of the primordial sounds of the Veda, the structure of natural law, cognized as the very fabric of that consciousness—ceased to be a living reality. This loss of knowledge is inevitable, as has been  pointed out, due to the gap in experience and understanding between the enlightened and their followers—a gap that widens over time and results in misinterpretations of the original teaching. The deepest knowledge embodied in the Vedic cognitions has thus been lost and again revived many times throughout history. The rigorous Vedic oral tradition maintained the original Vedic expressions across the generations, as well as time-honored Vedic performances and recitations; but in the absence of the experience of Transcendental Consciousness, the misinterpretations and reinterpretations of the Vedic texts led to a separation of the knowledge into different schools of thought and often contradictory understandings. And although the practical aspects of this knowledge still have great value for human life, the field of Vedic study in recent history has largely lost sight of the deepest reality of Veda suggested by the literature—namely, as the fabric of the living, universal nature of consciousness itself.

The Revival of Knowledge

Into this situation came Ayurveda . Knowing that the Vedic teaching was not merely theoretical but promised lasting fulfillment as the birthright of human existence, Ayurvedic scholars have mined the vast depths of the Veda and Vedic literature, under the guidance of many scholars , to try to find the missing key that would unlock the door of fulfillment for everyone. And through this process of deep exploration, the scholars  discovered (or rediscovered) a principle and practice that had been lost for millennia: the principle of effortless transcending.

Ayurveda held that the true Veda was not contained in the books and traditions—the values of Vedic knowledge that had come to dominate the field of Vedic study—but rather in the direct experience of pure consciousness itself.

At that time, the prevailing understanding throughout India was that transcendence, or samadhi, was extremely difficult to experience. Descriptions in the Vedic literature of a fourth state of pure consciousness, where awareness was awake to itself but without thought content, had largely been interpreted to mean that transcendence must require forcing all thoughts out of the mind. Consequently, meditation—the path to samadhi—was widely understood to require intense concentration or control of mind, as well as a lifelong commitment generally more appropriate for monks than for householders. Sadly, this view of meditation had greatly diminished the possibility of transcendental experience for society as a whole.
The Ayurvedic Scholars rediscovery of effortless transcending, the experience embodied in the Transcendental Meditation technique, allows anyone to gain access to his or her own core reality—pure unbounded consciousness, the transcendental unity of life—and to effortlessly track the inward path of the ancient Vedic seers and rediscover the field of Veda or pure knowledge within. By restoring the effortless experience of transcendence, whereby pure knowledge can be experienced as the nature of one’s own consciousness, the Ayurvedic Scholars  set the stage for a reawakening of the full radiance of Vedic knowledge on earth.
During meditation  practice, as the mind settles down to finer and finer levels of thought, it traverses the full range of nature’s functioning and thus the full range of expression of Veda—from the surface level of creation to the finer and finer strata of natural law to the finest, blueprint level of manifest creation to the primordial value of knowledge embedded in the transcendental value of existence. All these self-existent levels are part and parcel of our life—they are not something different from who and what we really are. But with regular transcending, we can awaken to the full range of knowledge and possibilities that our own life already contains within itself. This awakened experience is traditionally called enlightenment.
When human consciousness has developed to Unity Consciousness—the highest stage of enlightenment described by Ayurveda —then all subjective and objective values are experienced in terms of the infinity of which both are ultimately made, and we experience all forms and phenomena in creation as waves or expressions of our own unbounded Self. In this state, we fully experience that all knowledge, indeed the entire universe, is part and parcel of our own existence—our own unbounded consciousness—and then the full value of Veda, or total knowledge, is spontaneously and automatically lived in daily life.

The Ayurvedic Scholars  dedicated their  time on earth to reviving this experience of the transcendental unity of life in every phase of living—individual life, education, health care, and society as a whole. They are also deeply reconnected the various branches of the Vedic teaching to their roots in the transcendent.

Enlightenment for Every Individual and Peace
for the World

Ayurvedic Scholars dedicated his time on earth to reviving this experience of the transcendental unity of life in every phase of living—individual life, education, health care, and society as a whole. These Scholars are also deeply reconnected the various branches of the Vedic teaching to their roots in the transcendent. As they brought out and refined the practical applications of the Vedic teaching— Asanas, the Sidhi program, Consciousness-Based education,  Ayurveda healthcare, Sthapatya Veda architecture, etc.—to improve all aspects of human life, The Scholars  always insisted on the primacy of transcendental experience. In doing so he was both restoring and renewing the most profound truth recorded in the Vedic teachings for everyone on earth.
They  held that the true Veda was not contained in the books and traditions—the values of Vedic knowledge that had come to dominate the field of Vedic study—but rather in the direct experience of pure consciousness itself. By transcending during our meditation  practice, we gain access to that field of pure knowledge within ourselves that is the true home of Veda and of all the laws of nature it embodies. As a result we spontaneously begin to act more in accord with natural law and to enjoy greater success, happiness, and fulfillment. Ultimately, we begin to live the full value of enlightenment, the goal of the Vedic teaching, in the fulfillment of higher states of consciousness.
The experience of transcendence through the meditation is thus the foundation for the revival of Vedic wisdom that Ayurveda has brought forth. Thanks to this gift of transcendence, Ayurveda  has set in motion the irreversible unfoldment of enlightenment for every individual. As individuals everywhere begin to live in enlightenment, the inevitable by-product will be a fulfilled, enlightened society—a peaceful, happy, and harmonious world. In that global harmony, we find Ayurveda's vision of a bright future for humanity—the long-sought goal of Heaven on Earth.