by Satsvarūpa dāsa Adhikārī (ISKCON-Boston)

The original source of knowledge is the Vedas. From the Vedas emanate all the spiritual or scriptural writings known to this planet, and all material knowledge also has been passed down by exponents of the original Vedas. The original Vedas were known by the aural tradition, or simply by hearing. The knowledge contained in the Vedas actually has no origin in history; the Vedas are so ancient as to be untraceable, but we have it from authority that they were set into writing 5000 years ago, when they were compiled by a great sage, Srila Krsna Dvaipayana Vyasadeva. Vyasadeva put this aural tradition into writing because, as a liberated sage able to see the future, he foresaw that in the coming age, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, people would be interested only in that which is temporary and would lose their ability to retain the Vedic knowledge by memory. The people of the Age of Kali, which is the present age in modern civilization, are characterized by a short duration of life, diminished memory, distraction from the spiritual path, and lack of seriousness in searching out the ultimate goal of life.

It is told in the Vedic literature Srimad-Bhagavatam that Vyasadeva was fully equipped in knowledge and could see by his transcendental vision that all the good qualities of people in the future would gradually deteriorate, up to the point where 99% of the population would be thoroughly atheistic. A sage like Vyasadeva who is a devotee of the Supreme Lord is factually far more a friend of the people in general than the so-called public leaders who cannot even know what will happen five minutes ahead. Thus 5000 years ago this great philanthropist, Vyasa, foreseeing the need to edit the Vedas and put them into writing, divided the Vedas and expanded them into histories and narrations so that the less intelligent people, who are interested only in hearing stories, could understand the purport of the scriptures and thus be delivered back to the eternal joyful home, back to Godhead.

When the scriptures are heard from a bona fide spiritual master, their real meaning comes alive. There is no special educational qualification for understanding God.

By the mercy of Vyasadeva the Vedic literature is readily understandable when handed down by a bona fide spiritual master who has realized the truth of the scriptures. Vyasadeva was therefore a great spiritual master for all people, and he is known to be a literary incarnation of Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vyasadeva and Lord Krsna are on the same transcendental platform, and they collaborated in a plan to benedict the fallen souls of this age by presenting scripture in the form of stories and histories, such as the Mahabharata (in which appears the Bhagavad-gita, which is the gist of the entire Vedic philosophical literature).