THE VEDAS
The Vedas are the very first literary documents in the history of humankind that still exist as transcripts as well as in living traditions of India, from which the whole of Indian culture derived and diversified. The oldest Vedic scriptures mention specific astronomical configurations that Vedic culture might have existed as early as 6000 to 7000 B.C.
The Vedas contain the collective wisdom and experiences of approximately 400 Ṛṣis, of whom around 25 were women, visionaries who transcended ordinary human states of mind, and whose knowledge was acquired through intense meditation, contemplation, and study. Vedic knowledge was handed down over millennia through the oral tradition of recitation, and, finally, written down in four major books - the Rig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva Veda. In general, these scriptures contain prayers, hymns, and mantras in the form of mystical poetry in Vedic Sanskrit. Recent archaeological discoveries in India date the Rig Veda before 2000 BCE to perhaps as early as 4000 BCE. The Rig Veda alone has 10,552 mantras.
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Himalayan rishis were able to understand the nature of existence in a close relationship between science and spirituality.
"All that is called knowledge is in the Vedas. Every word is sacred and eternal, eternal as the soul, without beginning and without end"
Swami Vivekananda
The Vedas are the source texts for several different sciences or disciplines, such as Vedanta (Vedic philosophy), Āyurveda (the science of healing), Vedic Astrology (the science of time), Vastu (the Vedic directional science) and Tantra (the science of mantras, yantras, and sacred myths).
The ancient seers sought to solve the problem of human suffering by providing knowledge, which assists humans’ pursuit for happiness and fulfilment. If this entire system of Vedic knowledge is combined, it provides brilliant resources for personal and collective transformation.
Since the 1980s, the experience of thousands of years of great Yogis, seers and sages of India has been brought to the West by many notable spiritual teachers such as Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda and his guru, Sri Yukteswar, who was a Vedic Astrologer himself.
In recent decades, Vedic Astrology has expanded globally, along with Yoga, Vedanta and Āyurveda.