April 17, 2010: The Subject Matter of the Veda

It can be said that human life is a series of sādhya, or goals, and the means or sādhana used to accomplish them. The pursuit of knowledge is the attempt to find the best means for the goals we desire. In a general sense, the veda is an exposition of certain sādhya-sādhana: various means for several ends pursued by humans. These can be categorized as follows:

1. Unknown means for known ends: Progeny is a goal understood and sought by humans. The means are also known. But when all known means fail to produce the desired result, the veda puts forth another possibility that would otherwise be unknown. For example, the ritual putra-kāmeṣṭi is supposed to accomplish the birth of a child.
2. Known means for unknown ends: We all know that right actions are good and wrong actions are bad, but we don't know what ends they actually accomplish. The veda tells us that they create puṇya and pāpa, which determine our future experiences.
3. Unknown means for unknown ends: Without the veda, we would not know of the existence of fields of experience like svarga. Even after knowing about them, the veda alone has to tell us how we can attain them. It says, for example, that a person desiring to experience svarga should perform the jyotiṣṭhoma ritual.

There is a fourth and final subject matter of the veda. It entails an end that is known to each of us, but not completely. It is the end we are really looking for in all of our pursuits, but we fail to acknowledge it. As a result, the means we apply to try and achieve this end is not appropriate or adequate. Vedānta deals with this final sādhya, and logically determines the correct sādhana to accomplish it.