1.2.2 Origin of the Vedas

The Yamadūtas explain that dharma (religious principles) means following what Vedas prescribes. The opposite of that is irreligion. The Vedas are directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, and are self-born. They confirm that this understanding is coming in aural reception from Yamarāja.

Nārāyaṇaḥ paraḥ avyaktāt anasambhavaḥ. Avyakta means the whole material energy in its unmanifested state. When it manifests, it is called vyakta. A house is a manifestation of the five elements: earth, water, air, fire. The elements are there already, but we don’t see any structure. Once combined, we see them become a house, a big skyscraper building. This difference is called vyakta and avyakta.  

Is it written by some scholar or some learned person?

Nārāyaṇaḥ paraḥ means Nārāyaṇa is transcendental. Nārāyaṇa is the creator implying He exists before the creation. And Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. So, Veda is also non-different from Nārāyaṇa. It is also paraḥ or present before the material world comes into existence.

If some person, a great philosopher of this material world, thinks, he says, “I believe,” and he writes something that is nonsense. That is not Veda because he is a created being, and as a created being, he has got four defects. His senses are imperfect.

So how can he say that by so-called mental speculation, whatever he creates is perfect knowledge? Perfect knowledge is there, Veda because Vedas existed before the creation. And whatever we make with our scholarship, they’re imperfect. 

Therefore Vedas also are called apauruṣeya. Apauruṣeya means any mundane person does not write it. Tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi kavaye. Kṛṣṇa instructs Brahmā. So Vedas means coming from directly Nārāyaṇa or Kṛṣṇa, not that Brahmā has created. Brahmā has Vedas in his hand, but he has received them from Nārāyaṇa. That is the information we get.

Brahmā instructed his disciple Nārad Muni who in turn taught Vyasa deva. In this way, Vedic knowledge is coming. Therefore it is called paramparā, disciplic succession. We don’t manufacture. We receive the perfect knowledge, by disciplic succession, beginning from Nārāyaṇa. 

So whatever we are getting from the śāstra in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, it is not manufactured by man. It is not man-made knowledge. The knowledge is imparted or instructed by Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa.