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The ancient world contained many spiritual wonders, magnificent temples, great pyramids, secret knowledge and
enlightened sages. It was not the primitive era that our history books proclaim but reflected a profound culture connected to a higher consciousness. Though the ancients may not have achieved as much as modern culture in terms of technology, they possessed a greater awareness of the sacred nature of existence. Their
cultures were imbued with religion as a quest for meaning and
integration with all life.
My study of the Vedas in the
original Sanskrit revealed that Vedic culture was advanced and
sophisticated, as much as ancient Egypt or Sumeria. It was a
maritime culture that traveled, traded and colonized by sea.
It was an urban culture with numerous towns and small kingdoms
like classical India. It had a sophistication of arts and
crafts, agriculture, science and language. It had a great
mythos, a profound ritual and time-honored customs.
The Rig Veda was a synthetic
text produced by a number of different groups over a long period of
time and covering a large region of geography. It was the
record of a great civilization that found a spiritual unity among
the diverse cultures, ethnic and linguistic groups of a vast
subcontinent. This is revealed by the many Vedic Gods and
Goddesses that each can represent the All as the Supreme Deity
as well as having its own unique characteristics. I found the
existent history book account of the Aryan Invasion, which portrayed
the Vedic people as primitive nomads, to be quite erroneous,
if not absurd. It had little to do with the Vedic texts and required
ignoring or distorting them to fit in with its preconceptions.
Author - David Frawley
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