Do our religious books contain impurities? Why should we believe that there are no impurities in Vedaas?
Some of our religious books contain impurities. Mainly, those books of ours contain impurities, thoughts of which lie at the base of our culture. Books like ‘मनुस्मृति’. ‘रामायण’ and ‘महाभारत’ are full of impurities. It is written at many places that originally ‘महाभारत’ had ten thousand श्लोक, that is, verses but today ‘महाभारत’ contains more than one lac verses. Knowing this fact, it will be wrong to say that the ‘भगवद्गीता’, which is a part of ‘महाभारत’ contains no impurities. The main reason of these impurities had been to give hollow thoughts of the then religious teachers the support of these renowned scriptures. Some scholars have tried to bring out the original thoughts of the writers of these scriptures by separating the impurities but efforts of such scholars have failed to deliver the desired result. The reason for failure of the sincere efforts of such scholars is twofold. First, it is very very difficult to sort out the portions of these scripture, which are not of the original writer. Second, the effect of these impure scriptures on the minds of the peoples is so strong that the people are not ready to think in a different way. In three ways we are able to recognize the impurities in verses of the scriptures.
- Every writer has a style of its own, which is somewhat unique. Some writers write the end portion of a subject or the conclusion in the beginning and then gradually reach the starting part. Some writers blend in one श्लोक question and answer both. To understand the style of a writer, very deep and analytical study is needed. The portion which does not tally with the style of the writer is taken as impure one.
- If, there are inclusion of verses, which do not tally with the running context, those verses are taken as not belonging to the writer.
- In the writings, spirit of the writer is embedded. The verses which do not tally with spirit of the writer are considered as unauthorized inclusions by others. For example, if in a book, at one place it is mentioned that injustice should not be done and at another place it is mentioned that justice should not be done, then one of these two thoughts is definitely impure. And that thought is impure which is against the spirit of the writer.
Mankind is really fortunate that no impurity has found a place in Vedaas. There are two reasons because of which impurities have not crept into Vedaas.
- To add impurities in Vedaas, great knowledge, which man cannot have, is required.
- In order to keep Vedaas free from impurities, ब्राह्मण वर्ग had learnt the Vedaas by heart by applying different methods, which made inclusion or removal of even a single letter impossible.