Ever heard of the Vedas, oldest known books of knowledge?

Question

These books are said to be thousands of years before the bible and others, actually it is said to be the oldest.
The Vedas (4 altogether)are said to contain all the knowledge of the world and science today is supporting that fact. Whats your opinion on this?

Answer 1

Yes i have and though it was very hard I have read them. I am from India and born into a hindu family. They are perhaps the oldest books on the planet. They constitute science, social and economic information.

The Vedas are an extremely large series of writings originating in Ancient India. They are considered to be one of the integral scriptural foundations of Hinduism. Many Hindus believe that the Vedas were not written by anyone including Ishvara (the term used for God among the Hindus), but are eternally existing (apaurusheya). While many historians regard the Vedas as some of the oldest surviving texts in the world, they estimate them to have been written down between 2500 and 500 BCE.

there are 4 named as Rig, Sam, Yayur and Atharva vedas written in that order . There are actually 4 more sub vedas one of them is Ayurveda which is the oldest known book on medicine.

The Vedas are the most ancient books in the World, and they are the Foundation of Hinduism. Veda means knowledge. Any form of Knowledge acquired is considered as a Veda whereby it has no beginning or end. While it might surprise people how a book can have no beginning or end, the ancient Rishis who wrote these accepted that the complete knowledge of the Universe could never fit in any book, so there would always be new things to discover. This philosophy makes Hinduism a very tolerant religion, always ready to accept new ideas from other cultures.

Answer 2

Well, yeah, I know of the Vedas (as well as the Upanishads -- Useless Trivia Factoid: Portions of it were used as choir lyrics during the Neo/Smith battle in "The Matrix Revolutions"). :)

The Upanishads are dated to 700-800 B.C. Wikipedia gives a VERY broad range of dates for when the Vedas might have been written down (500-2500 BCE -- 2000 years is a lot of flex on that date...!)

I think the oldest books of the Bible have been guessed to be written first around 1500-1000 BCE.

Due to the oral tradition that predated writing, it's hard to tell when the "text" of any of these things began to circulate. I know the oldest OT books are written with structures that make memorization easy -- they were probably originally oral texts that were written down at some point. The Vedas also claims to have a long oral tradition.

As far as the rest goes, it's kind of hard to have an opinion on such a vague claim as "the Vedas are said to contain all the knowledge of the world and science today is supporting that fact".

What on earth is "all the knowledge of the world?" (Even the Internet doesn't have that!)

And how does "science" support that "fact"? What "science" are you referring to? From what I can tell, there isn't much science specifically included in the Vedas -- the text is very mystical in nature and focuses more on eastern-style concepts and tecniques to finding spiritual healing and such, rather than the hard, exacting, specific, concrete style of Western science.

There isn't really anything for science to "test" -- except to see if meditation has a real effect on practitioners, or to see if any of the stars referenced in the text match up with any known astronomical configurations. They're not science books, and the best science can do (I think) is test scraps of parchment to see when the information is recorded -- not whether the content was actually accurate.


Note to msE758: Jesus read the Vedas? Really? You've studied that? There's no real evidence Jesus went to Puri to study the Vedas that I know of; it's complete speculation and seems more to have simply been a way to "absorb Jesus" into the Hindi belief system, similar to how Islam absorbed Jesus into its own faith system.

Answer 3

The Vedas are the sacred Books of the Hindu Religion. Unfortunately, the Hindus themselves prefer to follow not the Vedas but the Upanishads and the Smirti texts. Manu Smirti is followed to to the letter and the cruel caste-system continues to be in vogue in India.Thus, 10% of Indian Hindus are the virtual rulers of all the rest of the Hindus, the Muslims, the Sikhs, the Christians of India. Vedas indeed are great only if they are held superior in Practical Life of the Hindu nation.

Answer 4

You are quite correct...the knowledge is mostly toward healing & healthfulness...and Jesus was very much a student of this system, just for the record.

However, they do not contain "all" the knowledge of this world, since that is a concept each individual holds for themselves...knowledge is created & learned in every single day. Sciences, although recognizing their truths in the teachings of healing, still support the powers of mainstream pharmacology, so even in their knowledge, they choose to be part of the mass consciousness that plays follow the leader...however, you must already see that even doctors of "modern medicine", as well as insurance companies are sloooowly coming to re-acknowledge "alternatives" even though they are centuries older than that which they were based on.

Thankfully, truth always comes forth...in many many ways!

Answer 5

Yes it is true these books are older than Bible and Hadis. Yes most of the things contain knowledge of the world and science today. Few things are not acceptable. Frankly writing these are not religious books but bunches of knowledge but some fanatics preach against these books even they don't try to go through them. We are not human beings we are Christians, Muslims and Hindus. We can't be human beings as most of the leaders want to spread that what they read, drink, eat and practice is good and others should follow it. The cause of conflict in middle east is because of this. Lot of western countries hate Muslims and lot of Muslim countries hate western countries. In these books mentioned about great prophet Mohamed and some Muslim scholars put lines from these books mentioning Prophets arrival.

Answer 6

I have heard of them and have attempted reading one of them (rig veda). It is commonly believed to be the 1st book amongst the aryan settlers in the Gangetic plane of India. However, I would have to disagree about them being the oldest books by man. Depending on your definition of books, Hammurabi's codes would predate them, as would egyptial heilogryphics.

And as a rationalist, I did not think that what little I read of the Rig Veda, encompassed all knowlege of the world. Essentially, i think the books outline a way of living and anyone who conforms to that is called a Hindu.

my 2 cents!

Answer 7

Veda's are the Bible of Hindus, Or You may say Quran of the Hindus. And they are not better or worst than the whole lot.

Answer 8

Sounds interesting, have you got a chance to read it yet?
I'm Muslim, but I'm always after truth, Truth is m only concern.
But I don't think any book can contain all knowledge. If all the ocean were ink and the trees were pens, that still wouldn't be enough to record all knowledge.

Answer 9

I agree with you..although I haven't read all of them in full...but yes they do provide knowledge, and immense knowledge at that, with day-to-day living. Along with Geeta, Vedas are well-spring of knowledge!

Answer 10

i read the vedas and follow watever is left of them, but i believe no religion holds all the truths of god and the world, so if u follow vedas, thas cool but always keep an open mind to everything regardless of when it was made and who made it