The traditional concept of the Veda is that it is not a historical document, as sometimes modern readers of the Veda opine, but it is an indivisible presentation in the degrees in which it can be conceived but not temporally manifest, one coming after the other. That is to say, the vision of life through the Veda is a complete whole—not conceived merely chronologically in a historical fashion, one succeeding the other as an effect produced from a cause, but a sudden possibility of the manifestation of the vision of life in a manifold manner, simultaneously. It is not that we do one thing now and another thing tomorrow. We pray today, work tomorrow and achieve our goal the day after tomorrow—it is not like that.

Simultaneity is our being, simultaneity is our perception, simultaneity is our relationship with things. The world acts in a simultaneous manner. There is no chronology in natural history. Therefore we cannot even say that God created the world at some time in the past, which would be a child’s conception of the creation of the world, as if there has been a slow coming down of things in a historical fashion. It is rather a logical development—a deduction, as it were, from a premise, rather than a chronological coming like the marching of people in a queue, one following the other. There is a deduction; one follows the other in the process of creation, no doubt, but this one following the other is a logical following and not a chronological following.

All this makes the attempt to understand the Veda mantras a difficult thing. This is the reason why the Veda is not taught in the form of a lecture or a teaching in the manner in which we are accustomed today, but it is considered as a holy yajna performed by a dedicated, devoted, holy disciple, seated before a holy master. The Veda mantras are not studied in the manner we study textbooks of mathematics, physics, history, geography, etc. At the very initial stage itself there is a dedication—spirit pervades even this devoted seatedness in the vicinity of a master. There are techniques of teaching the Vedas, and there are techniques of receiving the chanting and imbibing not only the manner of recitation, but also the manner of contemplation. The Veda mantras are not merely prayers, verbally offered to gods, though that also may be one of the meanings—they are certain indications of the highest meditations possible.

The Upanishads are the extract of this visualisation of the possibility of meditation on the inner significance of the Veda mantras, and we have been saved the trouble of personally going into this big forest of the implications of the meaning of these mantras. The sages of the Upanishads have been very kind—they have done the work for us. This implication of a great variety in nature, in respect of the inner meaning of the Veda mantras, is the Upanishad. It is the tattva, the quintessence, the final word or the import of the Veda mantras. So the Veda Samhitas and the Upanishads stand, not as two different approaches, but one complementing the other, one explaining the other, one actually, vitally related to the other.

The Upanishad is the tattva, the inner intention of the Veda mantras. Because there are varieties of approaches presented by the Vedas, the Upanishad also becomes a very difficult thing to understand. It is not just philosophy, it is not theorising or argumentation, it is not logical thought—it is a direct grasp, intuitively made available in deep meditation. Both the Veda mantras and Upanishads constitute meditations proper. They are spirituality embodied in the form of these holy texts available to us today. The trio that I mentioned—the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavadgita—form a body of friendly approaches, one corresponding to the other from a different angle of vision. Each approach supplements the other and makes the other more explicit for the purpose of understanding and practise.

In a way, we may say that the Veda mantras are the highest of visions and realisations. That is why the Veda mantras are considered the most sacred texts of the religion of the country. Nothing can equal it. No philosophy can exceed the reaches of the Veda mantras in their contents. Yet, because of their manifold possibilities, human minds found it hard to extract the inner meaning in daily practise. The visualisation of the inner depth of the Veda mantras is the Upanishad proper. It is the secret meaning of Vedas—that is the meaning of word ‘upanishad’. While the word ‘upanishad’ has many other meanings, this is one of the meanings—a secret doctrine is the Upanishad. A grand visual form spiritually of the ultimate reality, in practical daily life, are the Veda mantras in their action.

The more we are taught a particular doctrine, the more we find it difficult to understand as time passes. This is due to the inability of the human mind to properly place itself in the context of the teaching, which is so comprehensive that a fractional approach of the mind, to which it is accustomed, finds it difficult to accommodate itself to this larger approach. The Bhagavadgita is the last word in the interpretation of the spiritual content of a complete vision of life, where everything is laid before us in a most intelligible manner. The perfect knowledge of the Veda and the Upanishad is perfectly presented in a most perfect manner by the great perfect master Himself. There is a verse which states that the Bhagavadgita is the milk, as it were, of the Upanishads. If the Upanishads are the milk of the Veda mantras, the Bhagavadgita is the milk of the Upanishads, the quintessential essence of spiritual teaching. The various approaches—adhibhuta, adhyatma, adhidaiva, etc.—are implied but not explicitly available in the Veda mantras or the Samhitas; but the meaning, considered only from a meditational point of view in the Upanishads, is practically presented before us as a daily instruction for our life, from morning to evening, in the greatest possible detail.

We find today that even the Bhagavadgita is difficult to understand. The numbers of commentaries that have been written on it, hundreds and hundreds in number, indicate that even this most explicit teaching of the Bhagavadgita, which is supposed to be clearer than even the intentions of the Upanishads and Veda mantras, is so hard that what the final word of the Gita is, is not known to most of us. The difficulty that we feel in our daily life is the adjustment of ourselves to the various calls of the sides of the personality, which are connected to the sides of the reality, objectively. We cannot think all aspects of our life at one stroke. Spiritual life is a total vision of life. It is the totality of its approach that makes it a very difficult thing for us to think in the mind and put into practise. We may do something in a particular way, we may think also from one angle of vision, but all aspects of the matter cannot be taken into consideration at the same time. Spirituality is the approach of the soul. It is not an activity of the mind or an argumentation of the intellect or the reason, and it is not a work that is done by our body or the limbs or organs. It is the soul rising into the level of its aspiration being fulfilled, the inner soul calling the Universal Soul.

When the soul within us summons the Soul that is above, we are in a state of spirituality. All life that is spiritual is the soul in action. If our spiritual life gets limited only to certain activities which are the work of our limbs or organs or even only mental processes, they would to that extent cease to be entirely spiritual. The spirituality of an approach is to be seen from the satisfaction that we feel by the implementation of that approach. The japa that we perform, the meditation that we conduct, or the communion that we try to establish in our depths in our spiritual practice will have to result in an experience of a greater potentiality and understanding in ourselves, a greater strength, a greater feeling of security, a feeling of betterment, both physically in the form of health and also mentally in the form of a satisfaction that was not present earlier. To rise from meditation in a dissatisfied way would not be an indication that the meditation has been conducted properly. For spiritual practice, the ancient system of preparedness, or adhikaritva, has to be emphasised even today. It is not that anyone and everyone can suddenly step into the paths of the spirit at one stroke, though everyone is eligible for it one day or the other, provided the necessary discipline is undergone. Everyone is eligible for everything, but under conditions of the required discipline that is made available in oneself.

The life that is spiritual—spiritual life, as we call it, is the highest achievement that we can expect in this birth. It is the highest point that can be reached in the evolution of the human species, beyond which there can be nothing, because the concept that is spiritual is basically non-temporal. The soul in us is not a temporal unit; it is not something that is moving in time. We ourselves, in our roots, are not temporal motions or the flux of creation. Our aspiration for eternity and an unending life is the argument of something within our own selves that is unending in itself. God speaks to us through the voice of our own spiritual aspirations. Our conscience is the voice of God. Thus these approaches, these proclamations, these revelations made available to us the through the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita are the touchstones of Reality, the treasures of mankind, our bosom friend, our vade mecum. They are not merely books—they are the visible God Himself. That is why that we feel such a holy and exalted mood in the presence of the visible form of this knowledge as the Veda, or the Upanishads, or the Bhagavadgita. They are verbally embodied forms of the highest revelations of Vedic sages, the masters of the Upanishads, and in the case of the Bhagavadgita, the great vision of Bhagavan Sri Krishna himself.

Even a study of the Veda mantras, even a mere recitation of them, is supposed to be capable of purifying us. A mantra is that which protects, supports and gives security to anyone who even thinks of it and recites it. By a contemplation of it, it is protecting us every moment. The Veda mantras are a talisman that we are carrying with us always, particularly the Gayatri, which is considered as the essence of Vedic teaching for various reasons which we need not consider here.

The spiritual vision of life, therefore, is the highest vision of life. It is highest not merely in the sense of the pinnacle of a pedestal that we ascend from the lower to the higher—it is a comprehensive outlook from all angles of vision possible. It is all content, all substance, all soul, all fulfillment; this is why we call it the very soul of all things. To be spiritual is not to be in a state of occupation. It is not just to appear in a religions manner, it is not a mood which is other-worldly, but it is a purification of the personality in such a way that it becomes a friend and collaborator—a friend, philosopher and guide—that which is one with all things in the deepest spirit. A spiritual seeker is no more an ordinary human being. If the seeking is truly spiritual and it is an emanation from the soul, it at once transforms the human into that which is superhuman. Great glory is spiritual seeking. Great achievement is spiritual seeking. Great possession is spiritual seeking, and nothing can be greater than this achievement. Health and wealth follow from a truly spiritual vision of life. Every kind of protection from all corners of the earth follows, says the Upanishad. The great soul, who is tuned up to the soul of cosmos in a spiritual vision of things, receives tribute, as it were, from every quarter of the world. As everyone wishes protection to one’s own self, everyone will wish protection to us. All creation will wish our welfare, because in our spiritual aspirations, we have ceased to be ourself—we have become everyone. Because in our spiritual aspirations we are no more ourself but we are all people, everyone wishes our welfare. We are not merely the friend of all—everyone also is our friend. Just as children cry for food, seated around their mother, so do all living beings cry, as it were, seated around this great personality who is the highest spiritual potential possible, and they wish their welfare.

The vishva who is the individual becomes the Vaishvanara who is the cosmic through the gradations of ascents—vishva, taijasa, prajna and the Atman or turiya individually, and cosmically through Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Ishvara. This great spiritual vision gets materialised in direct experience. Thus the spiritual vision of life is also the modus operandi of our daily activity in life. The spiritual vision is the actual constitution of the cosmos, and the administration of the universe is conducted from the point of view of this great vision, which is spiritual, whose inner intention and the variety of approach is available to us in these great texts mentioned—the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita.