Ideas of Vedic religion

In our last blog, we discussed how religion was born and the popular religion during the Vedic age. The stone age people followed the simplest form of religion in which nature was worshipped and complicated ideas were absent, Though stone age people also believed in after life but they believed in the flow of life. During Harappan Phase certain rituals were added (fire altars and the Great Bath of Mohanjodaro shows that water was used as a medium of purification and fire was used as a medium to perform rituals) and these rituals were also present during Vedic period. Does the presence of these common elements mean that Vedic religion is continuation of stone age and Harappan religion?

As per the Vedas, there is no beginning of Hindu religion all the knowledge of the Vedas was pre existing in the universe and it was written by the sages who can enter that spiritual world through the power of concentration and meditation for the welfare of the world. The beauty of Vedic philosophy lies in the idea that humans must attain satisfaction in all the three spheres of life that is physical, mental and spiritual. Vedas also says that the best way to satisfy these three world is to perform action and these actions must be guided with right kind of desire (Vedas give emphasis to the ideas of action whereas Upanishads gives emphasis on knowledge. Vedic philosophy is similar to the philosophy of Bhagvata Gita). Though nature was worshipped but the idea was very different from that of the stone age, force of nature like storms, rains, water etc were described as gods and many stories related to these gods are present in the Vedas.

If we talk about the relation between Harappan and Vedic religion, initially Harappan people were seen as rivals by the Aryans, Rig Veda mentions the most important god Indra as the destroyer of forts and probably these forts were the urban settlements of Harappan phase. This initial rivalry could have been for the control of natural resources. But during the later Vedic age when more resources were available for people to live settled and prosperous life  many feature of Harappan civilization were added to the Vedic religion. Pashupati Seal of Harappan period shows a person sitting in yogic posture, surrounded by animals this description is very similar to the lord Shiva of later Vedic religion, use of fire and water in sacrificial services as mentioned above. Along with this many animals that were considered pious during Harappan phase are still considered pious in Hindu religion like Elephant, Ox, tiger, deer and other animals, though Rig Veda talks only about Cow and Horse as the most important animals. These assimilation of ideas could have the result of marriage and other alliances that took place at a later phase.

We have already discussed that the aim of popular religion was not Moksha but this does not mean that the idea of Moksha was not known or practiced. As per Vedas if one can understand the relation between the Atman and Brahman he/she can liberate from the suffering of the world and this relation when explained in Upanishads it was defined as the right knowledge. So as per Vedas if your action is guided by the understanding of relation between Atman and Brahman then you can achieve salvation or Moksha.