:salam2:
Previous reference: **Part G: **http://www.paklinks.com/gs/religion-and-scripture/583488-one-god-one-creed-part-2-the-indo-aryans.html
Early Books Of The Indo-Aryans:
We noted that the most ancient religious literature of the Indians is the Rig Veda. It contains many hymns praising the ‘gods’ and seeking desired things. These hymans are called **riks **or mantras. Several mantras constitute a sukta. The Rig Veda has 1014 suktas. Some suktas exhibit very close analogy with the opening chapter of the Qur’an, Al Fatiha. One cannot, then, rule out the possibility the Veda might be God-given in genesis.
One gathers from a particular rik that thirty-three divine names have been analogized in the Veda [1]*. Who are these’ gods’? On this point Vedic scholars have not reached any definite conclusion. There is no doubt, however, that they are beings related to the invisible world. Maybe these deities are the imperceptible beings that the Muslims call malaks and Christians, ‘angels’. Now, in the view of Western critics, these’ gods’ are only natural forces. Their opinion is that the Indo-Aryans worshiped natural forces to begin with, and later on arrived at the concept of monotheism.
But many Indian scholars have refuted this argument. It is of course you who are the best judge of your home affairs. We should therefore give greater weight to the opinion of Indian scholars.
They hold that the divine names in the Veda are really the different names of the One Deity, and therefore the Aryans worshiped the One God. Swami Dayananda Saraswat, founder of ‘Arya Samaj’, opines that the One God has a hundred such names in the Veda. He has listed them in his Vega Bashya. But then Syed Hamid Ali, in his work Hindu Mat Aur Tawhid, says that all the names of Dayanandaji has pointed out add up only to ninety-nine, since his reckoning of a hundred results from his counting the name ‘Siva’, twice. In Islam, too, Allah has ninety-nine names. [2]*
In any case, the interpretation of Dayanandaji and such others is corroborated by certain mantras of the Rig Veda. For instance a mantra in the first **mandala *says: [3]
*He is spoken of as Indra, Mitra, Varuna and Agni;, and he is Garuda that dashes straight through the sky. The wise refer variously to the same One. Vaidyutaagni, Yama, Maatariswau are all Himself.
*
This confirms that it was one and the same Being that the *Rishis called by various names. This One God acts in many capacities, and He has diverse attributes and focusing their imaginative faculty on the several of them, the poets conceived Him in various shapes. He was given a name for each of His attributes. Another Vedic mantra says: "ekam santam bahudhaa kalpayanti [4]". i.e., [Poets] imagine the essential Oneness in various ways. In short, diversity applies to names only, not to the Named. And that is what the Veda says: "yo devaanam naamadhaa eka eva [5]" i.e., The Being that bears the divine names in One and the same. In the light of these mantras it may be assumed that the ancient Aryans were neither polytheists nor idolaters. In this context, the conclusion of researchs that "the Rig Veda does not ordain the worship of any human god [6]" is noteworthy:
In the beginning there was merely The One. It was he who reigned as the Sovereign of the earth and the sky, of the whole universe. He is the Creator and Preserver of the earth and the sky and of all the rest. The Rig Veda stats in Sukta 121, Mandala 10 [7]:
Before creation only Supreme God, the hiranya garbha reigned Lord of this Universe. The God has created and sustains the entire cosmos from Prithwi (earth) to the world of light. We pay homage to that all-perfect God, and to none else. [3]***
Islam too teaches that before creation there was nothing save The One, just as the Rig Veda professes. The maasadeeya sukta runs: [8]*
Dayananda Saraswati renders these menatras thus: Before this material universe ever was, that is, before creation there was not even the empty sky. Only God, the prime cause of creation, existed, for the firmament and the rest did not function ever theoretically. So there was not even that, or the abstract with is nature, (yes) not even the quintessential cosmic cause. There was not he abiding place of this spacious universe name **wvoma **or wiraat. There was only that which was the Parabrahma’s potential as the all too subtle prime cause of everything. The smoky moisture of a winter dawn conceals not the earth. No flow occurs in the river. How then could that moisture become profound and grand? Never indeed. Just so, nothing is capable of concealing the **Brahma **for these are anything but minute. The whole of this universe is born of divine genius.
What could be deeper and grander than the Brahma? Nothing at all. So nothing at all is there that conceals that Brahma. For Brahma is infinite and the universe is finite. This Brahma engendered the universe, which is comparison with God is but little [9]*.
How close this description is to that of Qur’an needs no special mention. But then we have to bear in mind that the Rig Vedic time is thousands of years prior to the revelation of the Qur’an. A divine name eulogized in the Rig Vedas is ‘Varuna’. Of Varuna’s ability, the Atharva Veda Says: “When two persons whisper, the third, King Varuna, knows its”. [10]*
It is quite the same style that the Qur’an employe while speaking of Allah: “When three whisper together, He is the fourth; when five, He is the sixth. Less or more, He is sure to be three” Quran Chapter 58 Verse 7.
In short, the Veda has presented the world the concept of The One God, But the interpretatory exercises of priests rendered its teachings open to misconceptions. Thereby the Brahmin religion took on the form of idolatry. Such indeed has, more or less, been the case of every other religion in the world.
**
*References:
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Rig Veda, Mandala 8, Sukta 30, rik 2 says: “O gods the foe-annihilators, thus praised are the thirty-three of you, all adorable to Manu”.
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Cited in Hindu Mat Aur Tauheed (Hindu Religion and Monotheism), a short work in Urdu by Maulana Hamid Ali, P.67.
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Rig Veda Ma. 1, Su. 164, Rik 46.
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Ibid., ma. 10, Su. 114, Rik 5.
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Ibid., ma. 10, Su. 82, Rik 3,
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Through the Rig Veda by V.V.K. Valat, P.124.
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Rig Veda Ma. 10, Su. 121, Rik 1.
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Ibid., Ma. 10, Su. 129, Riks 1,2.
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Rigvedaadi Bhaashyabhoomika, by Dayananda Saraswati.
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Perspectives of the World, by Rahul Samkrityayan, P.551.*