RPK: One Question is Taunting me from sereral days that the are god revealed vedas Are Preserved as it is? Mhrshi Dayanand said they are! And I am very respectful to such great soul for his work But The Question is That we call Vajasaneyi Samhita as “yajurveda” in the present era only its madhyadhina shaka And the other “katha shakha” (on which sayana wrote commentary)are present, which differ a lot ( as both have different mantras ), Rigveda is only present in khilani shakha sanhita , atharva in saunakiya and pippalapada & saam in 3 shakha’s. The confusion goes here that people says shakha is “commentary”, then if shakha is commentary we also are reading commentary and not the actual Vedas? Right? And if shakhas are not commentary, We lost lots of Vedas!
Swami Ram Swarup: I paste my article below and would advise you to study it carefully. Thereafter, you may put question regarding shakhas.
Shakha means preach. The knowledge of four Vedas emanates direct from God. Nowadays, the Vedas have been printed. Printed book is called samhita. Therefore mantra samhita is a correction of ved mantras which emanates direct from God at the beginning of the earth whereas Shakha is famous with the name of Rishis. There are 1127 shakhas. For-example— Taitireeyopnishad’s shakha is of Yajurveda which is famous in south as Krishna Yajurveda.
As I have told above, the shakha has been written by Rishis based on ved mantras. For-example— the preach of Taitiree Shakha (Taitireeyopnishad) is based on Yajurveda first mantra i.e., “EESHAY TVORJEY TVA_ _ _ _ _” , so shakhas have been written by Rishis and not by God.
If we have time, we must also study the shakhas. Eeytaryopnishad is also a shakha which is related to Rigveda etc.
So Krishna Shakha or shukla Shakha, both are authentic but its present explanation, description must be done by present learned acharya of Vedas.
Kathopnishad is also Krishna Yajurveda’s Kath shakha.
Kenopnishad comes under Samveda’s Brahmann Granth.
Ashataka recession means the calculation of Rigveda mantras. Rigveda starts from mantra — “AGNI MEEDAY PUROHITTAM _ _ _ _” and ends with “SUSAHASATI”. So first mantra to the last mantra there are Ashta Avashtkaha (Ashta recession). Each shtka contains some varg. So you can say that it is a sort of calculation of mantras. In Rigveda there are Ashtakas and each Ashtaka contain eight chapters. Therefore total number of chapters is 64 and total number of varg of eight Ashtaka is 2024. Rigveda contains 10 mandals. Total Rigveda mantras are 10589.
Every method is authentic if the pronounciation is done keeping in view Uddat, Anuddat and Swarit and Ekshruti which is a grammatical skill.
Could Vedas too have been corrupted by wrong insertions?
Actually Manusmriti, Ramayana, Geeta and Bhagwad geeta etc, were not condemned by the arrogant they tried to add false shlokas to change the real meaning only. Whereas directly or indirectly, the arrogant tried to spread a fear regarding Vedas that Vedas are difficult/hard and must not be studied. So they did not touch the Vedas.
Secondly, when the propaganda was being made against the Vedas, many learned of Vedas were alive and could oppose but the learned were not much interested to study other holy books except Vedas, as Vedas are complete knowledge.
Thirdly, the language of the Vedas was typical for them being divine Sanskrit language and not man-made. So less than a complete Yogi is not able to make any change in Vedic eternal mantras because first mantras will have to be learnt for which Sanskrit knowledge was to be gained which was a typical job for arrogant. You see, even at present no false prophet or arrogant has tried to change the idea of Ved mantras, yet they are creating fear that Vedas are not needed to be studied. However, Maxmuller and other persons still tried to change the real meaning of Ved mantras but those people did not dare to add any Ved mantra, etc.
You will see that at one place, a truth is seen in the above Manusmriti shlokas, etc., and thereafter the false shlokas added therein, contradict the truth but as far as Vedas are concerned, still the truth begins right from the beginning till end. There is no contradiction. So no false mantras are added in eternal knowledge of Vedas which emanates direct from God. In India, there are so many learned Brahmins who have the knowledge of all Ved mantras by heart and any change if made, which is even impossible, being divine Sanskrit language, they will come forward against it.
Vedas, are still originated in the heart of a Yogi as I have already stated giving the proof of Kapil muni’s Sankhya sutras 5/48 to 51 and Atharvaveda mantra 4/30/3 wherein it is clearly stated that the mantras are now also originated in the heart of a Ashtang yogi but on the contrary, Manusmriti or any other granth written by Rishi is never originated in the heart of a yogi or anybody else. So in the said holy granths comparison of false or true shlokas is mostly not possible.
As you know, at the time of final destruction of universe, all the granths including the true granths will be no more and the printed copies of the Vedas will also be destroyed. But as per the rules of the God vide Yajurveda 31/7 and Shwetashwataropnishad 6/8 eternal knowledge of the Vedas will automatically be originated in the heart of four rishis.
K S: I am extremely sorry for what i have done in previous question…this will not happen again..i was not aware of certain facts…i am hearty sorry and wish for your forgiveness. but what i asked was with pure intentions. this wont repeat again. i apologize to every member who is hurt because of me. you can all curse me for that..i will accept it with full might.
Swami Ram Swarup: My blessings to you. It is O.K., please.