The Vedas in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa speaks of the Vedas in many places: how they came forth from Brahmā and were divided, how Śrī Hari rescued and kept them, what the Veda is, what its intent is, and what becomes of it in the Kali age. Each is given in short on Vedās.
How the Vedas came forth and were divided
Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura that as Brahmā thought how to create the worlds as well ordered as before, the four Vedas came forth from his four faces, with the work of the four ṛtvijas, the full extent of yajña, the four upavedas (Āyurveda, Dhanurveda, Gāndharvaveda and Sthāpatyaveda), nītiśāstra, the four feet of dharma and the four āśramas; from all his faces together he created the fifth Veda, the Itihāsas and Purāṇas. Sūta tells Śaunaka the deeper account: in Brahmā’s one-pointed mind nāda (sound) arose in the space of the heart; from it came the Oṃkāra of three mātrās, the name of Parabrahman and the root of all mantras, the Upanishads and the Vedas, whose letters a, u and ma hold up the three guṇas, the three Vedas Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma, the three lokas Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ and Suvaḥ, and the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep. Brahmā taught the Vedas to Marīci and his other sons, they to their sons, Kaśyapa and the others, and the line kept them through the four yugas. When the brahmarshis saw that life and strength had declined and minds had grown dull, they divided the Vedas, moved by Śrī Hari in their hearts. In this Vaivasvata manvantara, at the prayer of Brahmā, Śiva, Indra and the other guardians of the worlds, Śrī Hari descended through Parāśara Maharshi in Satyavatī as Vyāsa, gathered the mantras into four saṃhitās like separate heaps of gems, and taught one to each of his four disciples; the Itihāsas and Purāṇas he gave to Romaharshaṇa, Sūta’s father. Vyāsa, his disciples and their disciples set the śākhās of the Veda going.
The Vedas rescued and kept
Brahmā tells Nārada that when Śrī Hari appeared as Hayagrīva at his satra-yāga, the speech of the Vedas came forth from Hayagrīva’s breath, and that as Matsya he brought back the Vedas that had slipped from Brahmā’s mouth. Śuka tells Parīkshit that when Brahmā slept at the pralaya, the mighty asura Hayagrīva stole the Vedas that came from his mouth; Śrī Hari in the form of the fish slew him and gave the Vedas back to Brahmā when he woke. Prahlāda praises the Hayagrīva avatāra that slew the rākshasas Madhu and Kaiṭabha, who were harming the Vedas, and returned the hosts of the Vedas to Brahmā; in Bhadrāśva varsha, Bhadraśravas praises the form of man and horse that brought back the Vedas the rākshasas had hidden in Pātāla. In the Tāmasa manvantara the devas called Vaidhṛtis protected the Vedas lost through the power of time. At the end of every mahāyuga time swallows the Vedas, and the maharshis by the power of their tapas see them again exactly as they were; it is the Vedas that uphold the sanātana dharma. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the teaching named the Veda vanished in the pralaya, that he taught it again to Brahmā at the beginning of creation, its dharma being to fix the mind on him, and that it passed from father to son to the devatās, dānavas, yakshas, siddhas, gandharvas, vidyādharas, cāraṇas, kinnaras, nāgas, rākshasas, kiṃpurushas and pitṛ-devatās, each expounding it according to his own nature. When Pṛthu milked the earth, the maharshis made Bṛhaspati the calf and drew the sacred Vedas as milk into the vessels of mind, speech and ear.
What the Veda is
The Yamadūtas say that what the Veda enjoins is dharma and what it forbids is adharma, that the Veda is self-established and apaurusheya, and that it is the very form of Nārāyaṇa. Pṛthu teaches that the Veda has no place for faults such as rāga and dvesha, that it arose from Īśvara and is beginningless, and that in it the purushārthas are seen as clearly as a face in a mirror. The Vedas are the breath and the very form of Varāha; the ṛtvijas call Śrī Hari the one whose body is the three Vedas; the Ṛg, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva Vedas are the four horns of Yajña-Hari; the three-fold Veda is Garuḍa, carrying the Purushottama, and the Veda is his pītāmbara. Dharmarāja and his friends praise Śrī Kṛshṇa as the one who took form by Yogamāyā to protect the Vedas lost through time; the Veda is his speech, which with his fame and the Gaṅgā purifies the world, his pure heart, and, in Bali‘s words, his body. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that his parā vāk spreads out as the Veda, as fire hidden in wood is churned out, grows with the wind and blazes with havis, and that the Veda is Brahman in the form of sound, deep as the ocean, without end or boundary. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Śrutadeva that the brāhmaṇa is the form of all the Vedas. The Vedas, Upavedas, Itihāsas and Purāṇas dwell in bodily form in Satyaloka, and in the loka Śrī Kṛshṇa showed them, Nanda and the cowherds saw even the Vedas praising him.
The intent of the Veda
Sūta teaches that the Vedas have Vāsudeva alone as their highest purport, and Brahmā, examining the Veda three times, found that whatever gives love for Śrī Hari is the highest dharma. The yogīśvara Āvirhotra tells King Nimi that karma, non-action and forbidden action are known only from the Veda, which keeps the truth hidden: as a child is given medicine with a sweet, the Veda awakens a liking for fruits and prescribes karmas whose purport is naishkarmya, freedom from karma, not the fruit; and the Veda points to the Parabrahman as what remains when it has said “not this”. Uddhava calls the Veda the best eye of the pitṛs, the devatās and men. Śrī Kṛshṇa answers that the Veda sets up varṇa and āśrama so that the jīvas may gain the purushārthas, and lays down guṇa and dosha only to restrain man’s activity; the deluded take the flower for the fruit and call the charming phalaśruti the final aim; the karma-kāṇḍa, the devatā-kāṇḍa and the jñāna-kāṇḍa all intend the non-difference of Brahman and the ātmā, and no one but Śrī Kṛshṇa knows what the Veda enjoins, reveals and denies. Bhagavān Kapila tells Devahūti that among brāhmaṇas the knower of the Veda is high, the knower of its meaning higher, the one who resolves its doubts higher still, then the one who keeps his svadharma as the Veda enjoins, and highest the one who does so without desire or attachment. Yet neither study of the Veda nor Vedic karma brings Śrī Kṛshṇa under one’s control as satsaṅga and bhakti do, and Prahlāda says that a devotee who has given Bhagavān Vishṇu mind, speech, action, wealth and life, even a butcher, is greater than a Veda-knower without bhakti.
The Veda in the Kali age
The Purāṇa foretells that in the Kali age those entitled to the upanayana will revile the Veda, that śāstras opposed to it will spread like fireflies at dusk while the stars are hidden, and that the followers of the pākhaṇḍa will abandon Vedic commands and revile the Vedas, the brāhmaṇas and Śrī Hari. Whoever hates the devas, the Vedas, the cows, the Veda-knowers, the good, dharma and Śrī Hari surely perishes. If the Veda is not recited constantly its mantras fall into doubt and are lost, as paths no one repairs are covered by grass.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 1–4; Skandha 2, Chapters 2, 7; Skandha 3, Chapters 12–13, 29; Skandha 4, Chapters 7, 18, 21; Skandha 5, Chapters 6, 18; Skandha 6, Chapter 1; Skandha 7, Chapters 4, 9; Skandha 8, Chapters 1, 14, 16, 21, 24; Skandha 10, Chapters 20, 28, 82–86; Skandha 11, Chapters 3, 12, 14, 20–21; Skandha 12, Chapters 6–7, 11