A common question that is frequently asked by many people is:

What is the essence of Vedas and what do they really teach us?

Jagadguru Kanchi MahaPeriva (the 68th Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam) has answered this question in very simple terms. I am sharing the gist of it.

“The principle on which the Vedic religion is founded,” observes the Sage of Kanchi, “is that a man must not live for himself alone but serve all mankind.”

MahaPeriva goes on to say: “All Vedas have one common goal though there are differences among their adherents. What is the goal? It is the well-being of the entire world and all creatures living in it, and the uplift of the Self of each one of us and its everlasting union with the Ultimate Reality.

We may take pride in the Vedas for another reason also. They do not point to a single way and proclaim, “This alone is the path” nor do they affirm, “This is the only God” with reference to their own view of the Supreme Being. Instead, they declare that, if one adheres to any path with faith or worships any deity with devotion, one will be led towards the Truth. The scripture of no other religion speaks thus of the many paths to liberation. On the contrary, each of them insists that the way shown by it alone will lead to liberation. The Vedas alone give expression to the exalted view that different people may take different paths to discover the one and only Truth. The Vedas reveal the One Truth to us in the form of many deities. Vedas form the one scripture as the source common to the different sects and schools of thought in the Hindu religion.”

“The Vedas hold out,” declares the MahaPeriva, “the ideal of liberation here itself. That is their glory. Other religions hold before people the ideal of salvation after a man’s departure for another world.”

To repeat, the ultimate teaching of the Vedic religion is liberation here and now. After all, what is the purpose of any religion? Our Acharya answers this question too: “If an individual owing allegiance to a religion does not become a jnanin (knowledgeable one) with inward experience of the truth of the Supreme Being, what does it matter whether that religion does exist or does not?”

The Vedas that constitute the scripture common to all and which reveal the Godhead that is common to us also teach us how to lead our life, and- this is important- they do us the ultimate good by showing us in the end the way to become that very Godhead ourselves. They are our refuge both here and the hereafter and are the source and root of all our different traditions, all our systems of thought. All sects, all schools of our religion, have their origin in them. The root is one but the branches are many.

The Vedas are the source not only of various divisions of Hinduism, all the religions of the world may be traced back to them. It is our bounden duty to preserve them for all time to come with their glory undiminished.

Critics call this Dharma ritual-ridden without realizing that the rituals have a higher purpose, that of disciplining you, cleansing your consciousness, and preparing you for the inward journey. In a word, chitta – suddhi is the means to a higher end. From work we must go to worklessness.