When religions like Buddhism are non-Vedic, how can Veda be the source of all knowledge?

From: Praveen Nayak

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna question from Praveen Nayak Prabhu how can we understand that the word Veda means all knowledge when there are religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Charvakism which reject the authority of the Vedas and are atheistic so if their knowledge is not a part of the Vedas then how are the Vedas to be considered having all knowledge answer words do not have only one meaning the word Veda can have three different meanings, of course many meanings but in our discussion we can say three different meanings one is a narrow meaning one is a moderate meaning and one is a broad meaning so at a broad level of meaning the word Veda means knowledge it’s cognate it means knowledge itself so in that sense all knowledge will be the will refer to Veda now if we go to the other extreme then we say the Veda refers to a particular body of knowledge or a particular set of literature that is the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yudha Veda, Atharva Veda and of course they have their associated Upanishads, Brahmanas Aranyakas, Upanishads Samhitas that is part of the Veda so at one extreme Veda can mean all knowledge at another extreme Veda can refer to these these literature now at a moderate level Veda refers to not only these literature but also other literature which continue and explain that Vedic message so many times when Prabhupada says the Vedas say this we find that that’s not actually said in the Vedas in the literal sense of the four Vedas but it comes in the broad body of Vedic wisdom so that is how Prabhupada uses that word and that is how it is commonly used within the Christian consciousness movement that the Vedas are it includes the Puranas also now if you look at the commentaries of Jigo Swami and Baldevidya Moksha where they are say writing technical treatises then often they will differentiate this is said in the Vedas, this is not said in the Vedas but it is said in the Puranas so in that sense they are also differentiating this is in the Vedas, this is not in the Vedas like that but from the point of view of generic continuity of the same stream of revelation we understand that the Vedas and the Puranas are part of the same body of knowledge and that’s why we also use the word while talking about second offense, literature in pursuance of the Vedic version now when we talk about the word Veda meaning all knowledge that is a broad understanding of the word Veda now we could say that in the past you know the Vedas were an exhaustive body of knowledge, now by Vedas we don’t just mean the four Vedas, we also mean their commentaries, the supplementary literature the Vedangas and all that there is a vast body of knowledge and much of it is not available today because over generations it has been lost so the Vedas are themselves are now available primarily through Sampradayas whatever the books are available and secondarily they are available through other sources also so in a generic sense the Vedas are the source of all knowledge and yes at that time when the Vedas were available in their full form then we could say that at that time all knowledge was contained in the Vedas, that is an argument and expression that some people give, some devotees give and sometimes our sceptical mind may find it difficult to accept that, so when we say Vedaistha Sarvairahamevavidyo Krishna says, this word can be understood in both ways, yes by all the Vedas the ultimate conclusion is that Krishna has to be known and yes that Krishna also says that earlier, this is 15.15 earlier, now it is what I discussed 7.19 so and in the Upanishads it is Sarvaveda Mamamanti that it is that one person, absolute truth who is being invoked, who is being worshipped, who is being adored by all the Vedas, so that is also mentioned in the Vedas now going beyond all this, we also see the point that we can use the word Veda in a generic sense and say the goal of all knowledge is to know God, Krishna so whichever branch of knowledge one is studying Prabhupada quotes 1.5.22 in the Bhagavatam he says that whichever that whichever branch of knowledge one is studying and Prabhupada quotes in science over there it should be used to glorify God so by all the branches of knowledge I am to be known, so we shouldn’t conflate, conflate means mistake the two to be one at one level at a broad liberal level the word Veda means all knowledge and all knowledge also points towards Krishna, all knowledge ultimately has also come from Krishna even if it has come from some people’s heart, ultimately it is Krishna who has given them that knowledge even the scientific knowledge which has come recently that has also come from the from the super soul in the scientist’s heart, so in that broad sense we could say even the Buddhist knowledge which is non-Vedic in the sense that it is not in the stream of the Vedas, that has come from Buddha who is also incarnation of Vishnu and even others, Charvaka, he might be a materialist but even in his heart a super soul is there, now if a conditioned soul wants to conditioned soul wants to disbelieve in God and defy God and come up with a thought system that will rationalize the disbelief that one wants to cultivate, then the super soul will reciprocate and give that disbelief also so when we say that the word Veda means all knowledge, that would mean that whatever knowledge anybody is getting that is ultimately coming from Krishna so we shouldn’t confuse the different meanings of the words when we are trying to understand the word Veda as general source of all knowledge and as the specific source of knowledge given in the Vedic literature or in the Vedic literature and the supplementary body of literature that continues and explains the Vedic wisdom Thank you.