DECONSTRUCTING THE DEEP KNOWLEDGE OF VEDAS

 

DECONSTRUCTING THE DEEP KNOWLEDGE OF VEDAS                           

                      Vedas are the words of God, revealed in the beginning of creation for the moral, spiritual and physical guidance and uplift of humanity. The traditional system of Vedic learning is a source of inexhaustible knowledge. The word Veda itself means knowledge. Vedic knowledge is beyond the knowledge received through sense organs or intuition. The teaching of Vedas is universal. According to Bhoomananda Sarasvati, the Vedic sheer is a poet and a prophet but his poetry is not imaginary and his prophecy is not a mystery.

Chapter xix, Yajurveda, asserts that the person who enjoys the company of pure learned person, is a discriminator, willingly drinks some juice out of water, purifies food with vedic knowledge.(verse 74).Vedic knowledge can be said to have formed the base of modern literary theories viz deconstruction. Transcendental Consciousness is the association between reason and enlightenment to the exclusion of intuition. Direct experience and full understanding leads to Transcendental Consciousness. Hence, through reading vedas an effort can been made to delve deep into the sea of knowledge and analyze how this learning forms the base of some modern theories.      

Vedas contain samhita, the wholeness of knowledge, along with its three fundamental component parts: Rishi, the knower; Devata., the process of knowledge; and Chhandas, the known or object of knowledge. The Rishis, who expounded the meaning of verses and commented on them and are attached to the verses, are the names of research scholars and seers. Devta is the subject matter of averse. All good men, beneficent forces of nature like air, fire, water, electricity, months, sun, moon, breathes, lightening, father, mother, teacher, preacher and soul which are beneficial to humanity are called devata.

       The Mundukopanishad describes four states of consciousness, namely waking (Jagrata), dreaming (swapna), deep sleep (susupt). There are seven states of consciousness. In addition to the three ordinary states of deep sleep (sushupti chetna),dreaming (swapna chetna), and waking (jagrat chetna) are the fourth state of pure or Transcendental Consciousness (turiya chetna or savikalpa samadhi, TranscendentalConsciousness with breaks), Cosmic Consciousness (turyateet chetna or nirvikalpasamadhi, the fourth state established permanently without breaks), God Consciousness (refinement of the level of perception), and Unity Consciousness (the highest state of development).

 Any understanding comes on the level of one’s consciousness. If consciousness is full, understanding will be complete. This fuller understanding of consciousness is frequently suggested by literature. That means it will contain all the values contained in the expression of literature. Literature aesthetically points readers towards the transcendental state. Literature may swing the awareness from the concrete to the abstract. Viewing from this point the Vedic knowledge can be said to have formed the base of modern literary theories viz deconstruction. William S. Haney (professor at Eastern Maditerranean Universiy) sees deconstruction limited to waking state of consciousness. Deconstruction rejects the self-presence of a unified consciousness in favor of the notions of difference and absence. It places language prior to consciousness. Vedic Science simultaneously fulfills the vision of deconstruction.

        Deconstruction excludes higher levels of language and consciousness and promise to  explain the full range of aesthetic experience. Although in theory deconstruction denies the existence of Transcendental Consciousness and absolute meaning (the transcendental signified), in practice deconstructive criticism impels reader’s awareness from the finite text to an infinite field of indeterminacy, from the concrete to the abstract. Literature expands readers’ awareness from temporal field to the experience of transcendental consciousness providing aesthetic pleasure. Literature can expand the reader’s awareness from the temporal field of ordinary waking consciousness toward the experience of Transcendental Consciousness. This experience is accompanied by heightened enjoyment and fulfillment. The name and the form are like the seed and the tree. The name is an impulse. The form is a more solidified structure of that impulse, and therefore, the name is the more delicate expression of the form. In Bhagwad-Gita  Chapter II, Verse 45,Krishna tells Arjuna to be free from duality. Arjuna is told of the perishable (relative existence) and imperishable (absolute being) aspects of life and he is advised to arrive at a state of pure consciousness. Literature aesthetically points the reader toward this transcendental state, glimpsed either through an innocent response, or through the activity of deconstruction.