Veda Stuti

Parīkshit asks Śuka a hard question. Brahman has no guṇas (qualities) and cannot be known by the usual means of knowing. How then can the Vedas, which work through words and guṇas, teach about Brahman? Śuka answers with an old dialogue. The Sanakādi ṛshis, the four mind-born sons of Brahmā, held a gathering in Janaloka, and Sanandana spoke the Veda Stuti, the praise that the Vedas themselves offer to Paramātmā. Nārada later received this teaching from Nārāyaṇa Ṛshi and carried it to Vyāsa.

Parīkshit’s question

Parīkshit came to Śuka with a question that goes to the heart of the Vedic tradition. He said: “O Maharshi, Brahman is nirguṇa (without guṇas) and beyond all cause and effect. It cannot be reached by any pramāṇa (means of knowing), whether sight, reasoning or the word of a teacher. How then can the Vedas, which themselves arise and work through the guṇas and through words, teach such a Brahman, or even come near it? How can what is bound by conditions point to what has none?”

The chain of transmission

Śuka replied: “This is an excellent question. I will tell you the old dialogue that makes this clear. It was a conversation between Nārada and Nārāyaṇa Ṛshi at the Nārāyaṇa Āśrama, where this same question was passed on from one generation to the next.”

The account runs as follows. Long ago, in Janaloka, the realm of Brahmā’s mind-born sons, a brahma-satra (a gathering for joint contemplation of Brahman) was held among the Sanakādi maharshis. These were the lifelong celibates Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanat-kumāra. They were equal in learning, in tapas (austerity) and in their even regard for all beings. Nārada was away on his journey to Śvetadvīpa to see Aniruddha. While he was gone, the question arose: how do the Śrutis, which work through name and form, reach and teach the nirguṇa Brahman? Of the four, Sanandana was chosen as the speaker, and the others listened.

Sanandana’s Veda Stuti

Sanandana began. At the start of each new creation, he said, the Vedas themselves first awaken the sleeping Paramātmā from yoganidrā (yogic sleep). Court poets arrive at dawn and wake a sleeping king by reciting his past glories and deeds. In the same way the Veda-devatās arrive at the beginning of each kalpa (age of creation) and begin the stuti that stirs Paramātmā into the work of creation.

The stuti spoke of the nature of Brahman in many ways.

On creation and its support. “O Deva, you made this world out of yourself. You entered it as the light of being and the power of action, and you hold it up entirely within yourself. All the powers of mahat-tattva, ahaṃkāra and the subtle elements are yours alone, for they cannot stand by themselves. The light of the moon, the brightness of fire and the sun, the steadiness of mountains, the holding power of earth, the taste and life-giving power of water: all of these are you.”

On Brahman as the only reality. “Everything that is called ‘manifest’ arises from you, is held in you and melts back into you. As clay is the truth of the pot, and gold is the truth of the ornament, you alone are the truth of all this appearance. Whatever the mind thinks and speech says has you as its paryavasāna (final meaning). Feet placed on the earth always rest in the end on the earth. In the same way all words and thoughts rest in the end in Brahman.”

On liberation through bhakti. “Those who dive again and again into the ocean of your sacred kathā (account), which removes all the pāpa (sin) of the world, are the ones who truly breathe. Without bhakti (devotion) to you, a human life is only a bag of skin moved by air. The rare bhaktas who play like swans at your lotus feet, in the company of other great bhaktas, become viraktas (people free of desire) and do not even wish for moksha (liberation).”

On the five kośas and the true self. “This body, which thinks itself the ātmā because of its link with you, is in truth only not-self. You alone are the ātmā that is ever full, ever pure, ever blissful. Those who identify with the annamaya, prāṇamaya, manomaya, vijñānamaya and ānandamaya kośas (sheaths) miss the point. You are the ānanda-brahman (Brahman of bliss), the innermost witness, to be reached by the denial (neti neti, ‘not this, not this’) of all these.”

On yoga and the mind. “The mind is the most restless horse. Even yogins who have controlled breath and senses find the mind hard to tame. Those who try without a guru only wear themselves out, like merchants who sail the ocean without a navigator.”

On enemies and gopīs. “The same goal that yogins seek for many lives by steady dhyāna (meditation) in the heart was reached by your enemies through constant hostile attention on you (dvesha-bhāvanā), and by the gopīs through their passionate love (prīti-bhāvanā). For you, O Kṛshṇa, there is no difference between friend and foe. What matters is how unbroken and strong the bhāvanā (attention) is.”

On the limit and the strength of the Vedas. “The Vedas cannot describe you directly, for you are ananta (endless), and the Vedas are your own breath, your own outbreath. Whatever the Vedas say through their various ways of speaking, whether the direct meaning or the indirect meaning, has you as its final meaning. As a person’s footsteps, wherever placed, rest in the end on the earth below, so all speech rests in the end in Brahman. The Vedas bear fruit not by reaching you directly, but by steadily denying what you are not, until only you remain.”

The stuti ended in silence.

Transmission to Nārada and Vyāsa

Nārāyaṇa Ṛshi told this discourse to Nārada at the Nārāyaṇa Āśrama. He then instructed him: “This teaching burns away all desire and its impressions. Carry it in your buddhi (understanding) and wander freely through the worlds.”

Nārada received it with reverence. He bowed to Nārāyaṇa Ṛshi and his disciples and went to Vyāsa’s āśrama (hermitage). There he told Vyāsa the whole Veda Stuti, and Vyāsa wove it into the great body of teaching.

Śuka ended by saying to Parīkshit: “This is the answer to your question. The Vedas do not describe Brahman directly. They point to it by fully denying everything that is not the self, and their final meaning is the silence of Brahman alone.”

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 87