The Vedic Worldview

The concept of a Spiritual Economics as presented on this website and in our book is based on the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad-gita. Because the wisdom of the Bhagavad-gita is based on a worldview that is very different from that which we have learned from modern society there is a need to provide an overview of it. This is the Vedic worldview. It is this worldview that provides us with a unique spiritual perspective from which to analyze and understand the problems of modern society, and with which we can quickly understand the necessary solutions.

To assist visitors to this website and readers of the book in understanding this worldview we shall explain it briefly here. First we shall explain the meaning of “Veda” and “Vedic,” and then present the chief features as bulleted points. Following that each point will be explained briefly and then we offer an explanation as to why this worldview is superior to the atheistic, materialistic worldview that we are acculturated with through our schools and media.

What is meant by “Vedic?”

India has been the storehouse of a vast collection of spiritual wisdom, jointly referred to as the Vedas, for thousands of years. According to the tradition itself this knowledge was given to human society directly by the Supreme Lord as a means of understanding the world and our place in it, for our progressive spiritual understanding and development.

There a four main branches of the Vedas: The Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. These are grouped under the heading of Sruti, and besides these there is the Smriti, comprised of the great classical literatures the Mahabharata (which includes the Bhagavad-gita) and the Ramayana, as well as the Puranas (ancient works, sometimes referred to as the fifth Veda) and Itihasas (ancient histories).

To be accepted as Vedic a literature must maintain the same purpose as the original Vedic texts. The Vedic scriptures (shastras) comprise a harmonious whole with a harmonious conclusion (siddhanta). Consequently, we may accept as a bona fide Vedic writing any work that expands on the Vedic siddhanta without changing its meaning, even if the work is not one of the original scriptures. In fact, the Vedic tradition necessitates further authoritative works that convey the Vedic message according to time and place. However, to be genuine, these extensions of Vedic literature must strictly conform to the doctrines of the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Vedanta-sutra.

The Vedic scriptures are vast in scope. The Rig Veda alone contains 1,017 hymns, the Mahabharata consists of 110,000 couplets, and the eighteen chief Puranas contain hundreds of thousands of verses. The Bhagavad-gita is considered to be the introductory text to all Vedic wisdom, and in the Gita we find the essential elements of the Vedic worldview, which are:

• We are spiritual beings (jiva) living in a material body that has characteristics opposite of our own, which is why we cannot find real and lasting happiness here.
• Because of our desires to enjoy the material world, karma, we take birth here again and again. This cycle of repeated birth and death is called samsara.
• Every aspect of this material world has an influence on human consciousness. These influences are called the gunas, or qualities of material nature
• There is one supreme God (Bhagavan) who has created and controls everything that be. He also lives in the heart of every living being as the Supersoul.
• It is possible to become free from the influence of the gunas by the process of bhakti yoga, or devotional service to the Lord.
• The highest success of human life is to realize our transcendental spiritual nature by cultivating a relationship with the Supreme Lord. Having achieved this we may go to live in the spiritual world (Vaikuntha) at the end of this life.

We are Spiritual Beings Living in a Material World

Two of the energies of the Supreme Lord are the spiritual and material. The characteristics of the spiritual energy are that it is conscious, eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. We, all the living beings in this world, are that superior spiritual energy. This world is made of the material energy which has an opposite nature to spirit. It is unconscious, temporary, exists in a state of ignorance, and has no inherent happiness. Our material body is made up of dull matter and thus it is contrary to our spiritual nature. This creates an incompatible situation that causes us frustration. We want to always be happy but we cannot, we want to live forever but we cannot, and so on. However, there is a place where all our desires can be fulfilled and we can experience eternal life, unlimited happiness and love—that is the spiritual world, or vaikuntha. The spiritual world is of our own spiritual nature. We can transfer ourselves to the spiritual world by the process of yoga.

Karma Causes Us to be Reborn

While living in the material world we develop many desires related to the things of this world, and by the kindness of the Lord every one of our desires must be fulfilled. However, the desires that are not fulfilled in this lifetime force us to be born again so that they can be fulfilled. This process is called karma. Due to our karma we are caught in an endless loop of repeated birth and death.

The Gunas Influence Human Consciousness

Every aspect of the material energy influences our consciousness. These influences, called the gunas, affect the way we think, see and understand the world. These influences can lift us up or bring us down. Make us happy, or make us confused. Make us energetic or lazy. They have influenced us to become the people that we are now. The gunas are a

Lord Krishna is the controller of the 3 modes of material nature

great science of human nature and when we understand them and how they operate we can understand how this world and the people in it function. Then we can understand how to act to achieve the results that we desire. Our book “Lessons in Spiritual Economics from the Bhagavad-gita” provides an in-depth study of the gunas and their relationship to economic behavior.

Bhagavan is The Source

The Supreme Lord is more accurately described in the Vedas as Bhagavan, or the possessor of all opulences: beauty, wealth, strength, knowledge, fame and renunciation. He is the source of everything—everything emanates from Him. As the energetic source he has innumerable energies among which are us, the jivas, and the material energy. Bhagavan is the rightful possessor and enjoyer of everything since it is all His energy. Our relationship with Him is that of a servant. In that position we can find our ultimate happiness and bliss. A loving relationship with Him is where we can find that unconditional, eternal, and ever-expanding love that we all desire. Bhagavan is present everywhere in His creation—even within the atom. He also situated in the heart of every living being as the Supersoul. In that position He understands our mind, knows our every desire, inspires us and directs us in the fulfillment of our desires.

Bhakti-yoga is the Means of Liberation

By attempting to enjoy the property of God in this world we create the conditions of our own bondage here through karma. All karma can be ended by the process of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service to the Lord. Through the process of bhakti, or love, we become free from karmic reactions and eligible to attain the spiritual world of Vaikuntha. Through the process of bhakti we can become immune to the influences of the gunas, and thus be in this world but not of it. Transcending the gunas we achieve the spiritual platform free from all the dualities of this material world.

Self-realization is the Goal of Human Life

As spiritual beings we are not meant to remain in this material world that is characterized by suffering and death. We are meant to live in the spiritual realms with a direct relationship with Bhagavan. That relationship can be achieved by calling out His names in mantra meditation. Chanting and meditating on the names of the Lord is the recommended process for self-realization at this time. Specifically recommended is the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, or the great chanting for deliverance: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

The Vedic Worldview as the Best Alternative

Worldviews are meant to explain the existential questions that are asked by almost everyone: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? How does the world work, and what is my place in it? Why do we have to die? and What happens after death? Worldviews are also meant to explain the many phenomenon that we observe in our world. All of this needs to fit together in a logical picture, understanding which we understand the world, and our place in it, and we can then have a meaningful, peaceful and progressive life. However, the materialistic and atheistic worldview that is given to us by our various authorities such as government, scientists, educators and media, often fails miserably to explain the things that people know to be true by their own experience and that of others. The result is a now-failing ideology that bewilders and confuses people, to the point where some twenty percent of the population is on psychotropic medication in order to simply function from day-to-day.

It is our opinion that the Vedic worldview is far superior in explaining all of the things that we experience as well as all of the existential questions. Here are some of the reasons:

First, the breadth and scope of Vedic knowledge encompasses all phenomena of the material world in contrast to the dominant paradigm that dismisses some very real personal experiences as hallucinogenic, wild imagination, “pre-historical” myth, and so on. The Vedic knowledge explains observed and reported phenomena without resorting to deprecating remarks and ad hominem attacks. For example, “anomalous” archeological artifacts, the “myths” of ancient cultures along with their in some ways highly-advanced cultures, UFO’s and extra-terrestrial beings, the origin of life on earth, and so on. We will visit with more of these as we continue.

Secondly, it can account for the most common experiences that are far too subtle and beyond the range of our physical machines to measure: consciousness, mind-body connection, psychic phenomena, how prayer works, superpowers of the bio-mind (Ingo Swann), near-death-experiences, ghosts, and God. It also offers simple but profound explanations for concepts that baffle material scientists, such as morality and philanthropic behavior.

Thirdly, it offers a link to transcendence. Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, argues that mankind is marching out the door of one era of history and through the archway of an as yet unknown period in time that is seemingly disconnected from all previous anchors of reality. [see The Need for Transcendence in Postmodern World]. A need is therefore felt for something that can offer hope to the world as it let’s go of its past. Such a hope is to be found in the concepts of transcendence; that humankind is something more than an accident looking back upon itself. The idea of this earth planet, which is but a bit of dust in the great cosmos of space, being the pinnacle of staggering evolution, with no inherent purpose, makes a cruel mockery of anything we hold dear, rendering it valueless in the void. Transcendence offers a hope of meaning that holds out to humankind a destiny not yet realized and an objective quite worthy of all of the effort expended in the throes of life on earth. Vedic knowledge provides the true meaning of transcendence, and puts forward the science of transcendence as the goal of all existence, the culmination of, and full integration of who we are.

Fourth, the Vedic worldview has sufficient complexity to satisfy the modern mind. We know that practically nothing in this world is simple. Everywhere we look there is great complexity and the more we look the more complex things become—sciences within sciences. Therefore in order to satisfy our understanding a simple worldview will not suffice. To put it another way, in terms of information theory, the information content contained in the worldview must be orders of magnitude greater than the information content that modern man knows of. The Vedic worldview contains such sufficient information and complexity.

Fifth, it offers the best explanation for man’s behavior in this world. For over a century now psychologists, psychiatrists, analysts of all description have been attempting to understand the quizzical behavior of human beings. Unlike animals who are so ordered in their behavior, humans are simply off of the chart. What make man tick, what drives his sex impulse, what is it that moves him to generosity and altruism, how can the vast range of morality be accounted for? These questions have filled whole sciences and libraries with speculative imaginings. We have indeed learned how to indoctrinate and manipulate behavior, but understanding is something else altogether. The Bhagavad-gita offers a concise explanation that is both relatively simple, yet extremely powerful, explaining how we are beings of a dual nature—bodies made of matter and ourselves as spirit—influenced by the material energy known as the gunas.

Any contender for the dominant worldview must be capable of universal application to all of the people of the world regardless of their station or culture. The sun is a very good example of a universal principle. It rises and traverses its path every day passing over the heads of everyone. Nobody can claim: it is an American sun, or a Chinese sun, or a French sun! Such arguments are foolish. The sun is above such anthropomorphic projections. God is likewise transcendent to such limited material considerations. An effective worldview must similarly contain a universally applicable set of principles or concepts that apply equally everywhere, and in all time. The Vedic worldview is fully capable of fulfilling this requirement.

Seventh, it supports and corroborates many of the various world’s religious traditions and historical stories, i.e., the Gaia hypothesis, aboriginal “folklore,” the evidence of highly advanced ancient cultures, and evidence that other traditions dismiss from their own scripture, such as the long lives of Moses and his contemporaries. The dominant paradigms dismiss the world’s religious traditions as myth, dismisses them as stories of primitive man, regards anything ancient as “prehistory,” and so on. However, the Vedic worldview not only honors such concepts, but also establishes a philosophically sound basis for them.

Eighth, the Vedic worldview establishes a clear basis for the understanding of right and wrong, good and bad behavior. It establishes again a moral compass with which we can take our bearing and understand which direction we should go and why. The Vedic worldview destroys the alienation created by humanism.

Finally, the Vedic worldview provides a means of approaching knowledge that is beyond the  grasp of the material senses and mind. In this regard it is a most satisfying method of approaching truth. As it should, it gives us an orientation to our world rooted in an objective understanding of reality (we, the subjective are understood relative to the fixed phenomena of planets and universes, and the transcendent hierarchy), and this grounding provides us a foundation from which to function, for the benefit of all people.

For an in-depth understanding of the Vedic worldview we suggest you read “The Science of Self-realization” (read online: The-Science-of-Self-Realization, or download from here) or “The KRSNA Book” (read online: KRSNA book Volume 1, or download from here), by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. These and all of Srila Prabhupada’s books in other formats are available for free download here.