Prologue continues....

The orthodoxy emphasizes the revelational nature of the Vedas and
claims that Vedic hymns have deeper, mysterious levels of meaning other
than the direct and obvious ones. There are others who are not very much
convinced by the arcane meanings assigned to them. Whatever be the truth,
it is a fact that many words and expressions used in the Vedas are obscure
and we do not know their meaning or the thought contained in them or
the amplitude and nature of experience they reflect. However, scholars
and thinkers are all agreed on one thing – the Vedic Indian followed a
simple religion.

About the Vedic religion, Rabindranath Tagore, a great poet and thinker,
says:

“A people of vigorous and unsophisticated imagination awakened
at the very dawn of civilization to a sense of the inexhaustible
mystery that is implicit in life. It was a simple faith of theirs that
attributed divinity to every element and force of nature, but it was
a brave and joyous one, in which the sense of mystery only gave
enchantment to life, without weighing it down with bafflement...”

The Rigveda, which is the oldest scripture of mankind, contains a large
number of hymns that invoke the blessings of gods like Indra, Varuna,
Vayu and Agni for plenty and prosperity as well as victory over enemies.

This recurring theme makes one think that Vedic worship had a central
focus – a long and healthy life. In the famous Surya Stotra of the Rigveda, there is a hymn that seeks protection from heart disease (hridro– gam) and
greening of the skin (harima-a–
nam). The oblation of butter and other
material in the fire to secure the gods’ blessings is relatively a simple mode
of worship. Historians have, therefore, concluded that the Vedic people
followed a simple religion.

E.J. Rapson in The Cambridge History of India (Vol. I) says:

“In the main, the religion revealed to us is, in essence, simple. The
objects of the devotion of the priests were the phenomena of nature,
conceived as alive, and usually represented in anthropomorphic
shape.”

To be continued...