There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. Each Veda has four subdivisions – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (texts discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge). Some scholars add a fifth category – the Upasanas (worship).
The Vedas have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques. The mantras, the oldest part of the Vedas, are recited in the modern age for their phonology rather than the semantics, and are considered to be "primordial rhythms of creation", preceding the forms to which they refer. By reciting them the cosmos is regenerated, "by enlivening and nourishing the forms of creation at their base." SOURCE: Wikipedia
The Vedas teach us to pursue truth, to accept nothing but the Truth, which is one, though the wise describe it in various ways: ekam sat viprāh bahudhā vadanti. That Truth or sat is synonymous with being and becoming, with life and living in all its manifestations. Rita, the opposite of untruth (anrita), is the Cosmic Law that holds the entire creation together. Any transgression of Rita is punishable by Varuna, the dispenser of Divine Justice. Above both gods and humans, it provides the basis of karma that binds one to its consequence.
The countless forms of creation manifest the Truth or Reality of God or Brahman, which is variously imagined, described and named. But beneath and beyond all the names of gods and goddesses, ‘great is the single godhood of all the devas’.
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