Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Cosmic Order


My blog post is in response to the Vedas. Reading about the Vedas and Upanishads was interesting to me because it was a new topic. Before, I was only aware of certain words and I vaguely remembered their meaning. For example, the atman does not just stay with the body while the person is alive. In the form of sperm, it is transferred to the woman’s body that uses it to produce a living being.

Secondly, I found it fascinating that the Vedas were illegal to record and needed to be passed down orally. What was even more fascinating was that the Vedas maintained its contents over the years, as well as its harmonious value. On the other hand, one thing that is unclear to me about the Vedas is rta, which means truth. How does that and wahrheitsverwirklichung, “cosmic order”, combined keep the world in order? Does refraining from putting the words in this sort of cosmic order take away from the intended meaning or does it prove helpful in the long run by facilitating long-term memorization? I believe it’s the latter because the correctness of the recitation seemed to be important. It was important enough that if the Vedas were said incorrectly, the speaker would risk getting their head cut off.

Additionally, I found it interesting that there were present day gods, as opposed to one god encompassing everything in the present and past. Lastly, what I appreciated the most about the Vedas is the stress put on balance. Cause and effect, as well as, gods in opposition on various levels of the universe show the stress.


1 comment:

  1. Hi Jalicha, "wahrheitsverwirklichung' is a German phrase that Witzel used to translate 'rta'; it's not a seperate concept. Both terms basically mean 'cosmic order,' but with an emphasis on something active and dynamic. Rta is truth since it's the way things are; it's the dynamic structure of the universe. One of the goals of the Vedic sacrifice is to tap into this structure.

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