World Peace - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

Tam evam vidvan amritamiha bhavati
Nanyah panta ayanaya vidyate
One becomes immortal only by knowing Him, there is
no other way for attaining Him.
It is the Agama cult, which developed into the Bhakti
cult later on, that was taken up by Chaitanya and Sri
Ramkrishna. It is therefore possible to see how the
agama cult developed. The Vedic rituals were aimed
at attaining some material gain, which is not recommended
by Manu, though yagnas and other rituals
performed for the public good were recommended by
him. While Vedanta was within the reach of a few,
agama rituals were there for everyone. Since the objective
was knowledge of the infinite, the bhakti yoga
offered a simple method to all people aspiring for God
knowledge. This is probably why the vaidika rites of
five oblations declined from common use and the
agama or Bhakti rituals gained in importance. Devotion
to a personal God and meditating upon him prepared
the aspirant for uninterrupted meditation on
Him, ‘Ananya Chinta.’
The agama texts consist of the means of worship of
Shiva and Krishna (Ist and 2nd book), yoga in the
third book, and jnana in the fourth. The Jnana of the
Agamas is different from the Upanishads. The Upanishads
speak of one reality behind the universe while
the Agamas have the ‘tatva trayam’ or the three fold
reality i.e. Iswara, the individual and matter. Hence it
can be said that the Agamas are the Scriptures for
the Bhakti Marga and the Upanishads the scriptures
for the Jnana Marga. Jnana Marga is meant for the
few as it is difficult while the Bhakti Marga is available
to all. Even a low caste man can attain moksha
by Bhakti Marga whereas the Jnana Marga is open
mainly to the Brahmins. The Tamil Alwars and
Sivanadiars attained enlightenment even though
many of them were of low caste. It looks however
that the Bhagwad Gita was the precursor to the
Agama cults as it showed the different ways and concluded
that Bhakti yoga was the easiest and is available
to everyone. The agamas became really very
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universal and did not recognize the caste system or
Varna dharma. The Bhagawad Gita contains both
Agama and Vedic teaching, it is essentially an appeal
for the Agama system. The Mahabharata war left a
lasting impact on the peoples of India and it is known
that the Dasyus of the South, including the Pandya,
and other kings participated in the war on the side of
Pandavas.
The Upanishads were evolved out of the Karma
Kanda of the Vedas and this fact is reflected in references
in the Chandogya and Brahadaranyaka Upanishads.
The majority of the people, however, cannot
fathom the depth of the Upanishadic teachings but
being deeply religious, sought some way to attain
moksha. The Dasyus of the South had a number of
Agamic methods of worship like the worship of Murugan,
Ganesa and so on. With the free mixing of the
Aryans from the north, essentially brahmins, and the
Tamils from the South, newer methods were found
which led to the agamic Bhakti cult evolving subsequently.
It was thus that the Vedic fire rites yielded
place to fire-less rites and worship. 28 Saiva Agamas,
108 Vaisnava agamas and 77 Sakti Agamas were compiled
in later years and Panini refers to Siva and Krishna
worships during his time itself.
A slow process of integration of the Vedanta with the
Agama school took place over the centuries. They existed
separately in the puranas, and even
sankaracharya (VII century AD) kept these two systems
separate. His Prapanca Hradaya is a pure Agama
work. However the essence of both systems as also
their objectives remained the same viz: Self-realization
or enlightenment. The Agama rites, evolved from
pre Aryan Indian cults, subjugated the minds of South
India after the 5th century AD, and blended with
Vedanta, it trickled back to North India and eventually
became what is known as Hinduism during the last
1000 years.
We can conclude, therefore, that the Vedic Tradition
encompasses the entire range of literature starting
with the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Itihasas, Agamas
and others. They contain methods or paths for every
type of man to attain enlightenment. True knowledge
leads to enlightenment or self-realization or self-knowledge.
While fire worship and fire rites are the oldest
forms of worship known to humanity all over the
world, this gradually yielded place to worship of personal
Gods without fire rites as it was easier for everyone
to follow this method of worship. This however
does not reduce the importance of the Upanishads as
they constitute one complete analysis of thought, and
contains practically every aspect of Logic, Psychology
and Philosophy. It is as relevant today as it was in
those days. But as we have said often, the result or objective
is important and the form is not.