Vedic culture (Books)

Expressions researched:
"vedic culture" |"culture was vedic"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 2.26, Purport: If there were no rebirth for the soul, Arjuna had no reason to be afraid of being affected by sinful reactions due to his killing his grandfather and teacher. But at the same time, Kṛṣṇa sarcastically addressed Arjuna as mahā-bāhu, mighty-armed, because He, at least, did not accept the theory of the vaibhāṣikas, which leaves aside the Vedic wisdom. As a kṣatriya, Arjuna belonged to the Vedic culture, and it behooved him to continue to follow its principles.

BG 2.46, Purport: It is not possible for the common man in this age to follow all the rules and regulations of the Vedic rituals, nor is it possible to study all of the Vedānta and the Upaniṣads thoroughly. It requires much time, energy, knowledge and resources to execute the purposes of the Vedas. This is hardly possible in this age. The best purpose of Vedic culture is served, however, by chanting the holy name of the Lord, as recommended by Lord Caitanya, the deliverer of all fallen souls.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.9.6-7, Purport: Once Trita Muni fell into a well. He was an organizing worker of many sacrifices, and as one of the great sages he also came to show respect to Bhīṣmajī at his deathbed. He was one of the seven sages in the Varuṇaloka. He hailed from the Western countries of the world. As such, most probably he belonged to the European countries. At that time the whole world was under one Vedic culture.

SB 1.11.15, Purport: Without distribution of food, no function is complete, and that is the way of Vedic culture.

SB 1.18.32, Purport: Because the age of Kali was seeking an opportunity to spoil the cultural heritage of the four orders of life, the inexperienced boy gave a chance for the age of Kali to enter into the field of Vedic culture.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.3.28, Purport: The Yadus or any enlightened family in Vedic culture are trained for attainment of human perfection by total cooperation of service between the different divisions of social orders.

SB 3.23.33, Purport: According to Vedic culture, white teeth are very much appreciated. Devahūti's white teeth increased the beauty of her face and made it look like a lotus flower. When a face looks very attractive, the eyes are generally compared to lotus petals and the face to a lotus flower.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.13.21, Purport: Therefore according to Vedic culture one has to take leave of his family members just after his fiftieth year so that the balance of his life may be completely devoted in search of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

SB 4.16.20, Purport: According to Vedic culture, the king is honored as the Supreme Personality of Godhead because he represents Nārāyaṇa, who also gives protection to the citizens.

SB 4.25.13, Purport: Vedic culture is full of knowledge, and a person born in India can fully take advantage of Vedic cultural knowledge and the cultural system known as varṇāśrama-dharma.

SB 4.25.39, Purport: According to Vedic culture, sex is enjoyed under Vedic instructions.

SB Canto 5

SB 5.4.17, Purport: From childhood, people should be trained in Vedic culture, especially in devotional service. In this way, one can perfect one's life.

SB 5.26.36, Purport: According to the Vedic culture, brāhmaṇas do not possess anything, whereas kṣatriyas possess riches, but only for performing sacrifices and other noble activities as prescribed in the Vedic injunctions.

SB Canto 6

SB 6.1.24, Purport: According to Vedic culture, one should leave home as soon as he has reached fifty years of age; one should not live at home and go on producing children.

SB 6.5.25, Purport: According to the Vedic culture, one should be trained in spiritual understanding as a brahmacārī before entering household life to beget children. This is the Vedic system.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.2.13, Purport: The demoniac persons who want to kill the Vedic culture are extremely envious of the feeble citizens, and they act in such a way that ultimately their discoveries will be inauspicious for everyone (jagato 'hitāḥ). The Sixteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā fully explains how the demons engage in sinful activities for the destruction of the populace.

SB 7.2.16, Purport: Thus disturbed again and again by the unnatural occurrences caused by the followers of Hiraṇyakaśipu, all the people had to cease the activities of Vedic culture. Not receiving the results of yajña, the demigods also became disturbed.

SB 7.3.13, Purport: In Vedic culture, the welfare of the cows and the welfare of the brāhmaṇas are essential.

SB 7.14.3-4, Purport: One must find some time for hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. This is Vedic culture

SB Canto 8

SB 8.16.55, Purport: The Māyāvāda philosophy of accepting a poor man as Nārāyaṇa is the most envious and atheistic movement in Vedic culture.

SB 8.19.21, Purport: Therefore the Vedic culture or brahminical culture teaches one how to be satisfied with possessing the minimum necessities in life.

SB Canto 9

SB 9.3.20, Purport: This shows the values of Vedic culture. According to the circumstances, Sukanyā had been given a husband who was too old to be compatible with her. Because Cyavana Muni was diseased and very old, he was certainly unfit for the beautiful daughter of King Śaryāti.

SB 9.3.20, Purport: According to Vedic culture, even if a young woman is given an old husband, she must respectfully serve him. This is chastity. It is not that because she dislikes her husband she may give him up and accept another. This is against Vedic culture. According to Vedic culture, a woman must accept the husband given to her by her parents and remain chaste and faithful to him.

SB 9.3.21, Purport: It is quite clear that according to Vedic culture a woman who accepts a paramour or second husband in the presence of the husband she has married is certainly responsible for the degradation of her father's family and the family of her husband. The rules of Vedic culture in this regard are strictly observed in the respectable families of brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas and vaiśyas even today; only the śūdras are degraded in this matter.

SB 9.3.21, Purport: For a woman of the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya or vaiśya class to accept another husband in the presence of the husband she has married, or to file for divorce or accept a boyfriend or paramour, is unacceptable in the Vedic culture.

SB 9.9.31, Purport: According to Vedic culture, destroying the undeveloped embryo of the soul in the womb is as sinful as killing a cow or a brāhmaṇa.

SB 9.9.32, Purport: In the Vedic culture there is a system known as satī or saha-maraṇa, in which a woman dies with her husband. According to this system, if the husband dies, the wife will voluntarily die by falling in the blazing funeral pyre of her husband.

SB 9.9.32, Purport: Therefore according to Vedic culture a girl must be married. This is the responsibility of her father. A girl may be given in charity, and a husband may have more than one wife, but a girl must be married. This is Vedic culture. A woman is supposed to be always dependent—in her childhood she is dependent on her father, in youth on her husband, and in old age on her elderly sons.

SB 9.16.33, Translation: When requested by their father to accept Śunaḥśepha as the eldest son, the elder fifty of the Madhucchandās, the sons of Viśvāmitra, did not agree. Therefore Viśvāmitra, being angry, cursed them. "May all of you bad sons become mlecchas," he said, "being opposed to the principles of Vedic culture."

SB 9.20.15, Purport: Mahārāja Duṣmanta's acceptance of Śakuntalā as his wife was sanctioned by Vedic culture. How the marriage took place is described in the next verse.

SB 9.20.16, Purport: The word vidhinā means, "according to religious principles." The association of men and women according to religious principles is allowed in the Vedic culture.

SB 9.20.37, Purport: According to Vedic culture, a wife is considered the property of her husband, and a son born by illicit sex is called dvāja.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.1.48, Purport: Because death is a punishment imposed in the condemned life of material existence, the Vedic culture is based on avoiding death (tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti [Bg. 4.9]).

SB 10.2.21, Purport: According to Vedic principles, a woman, a brāhmaṇa, an old man, a child and a cow should never be killed. It appears that Kaṁsa, although a great enemy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, was aware of the Vedic culture and conscious of the fact that the soul transmigrates from one body to another and that one suffers in the next life according to the karmas of this life.

SB 10.10.15, Purport: A saintly person voluntarily accepts a state of poverty just to become free from material false prestige. Many great kings left their princely standard of living and went to the forest to practice austerity according to Vedic culture, just to become purified.

SB 10.11.18, Purport: It is a custom of Vedic culture that whenever there is any auspicious ceremony, one should give valuable cows in charity to the brāhmaṇas.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 11.16.22, Translation: Among priests I am Vasiṣṭha Muni, and among those highly situated in Vedic culture I am Bṛhaspati. I am Kārtikeya among great military leaders, and among those advancing in superior ways of life I am the great personality Lord Brahmā.

SB 11.25.21, Translation: Learned persons dedicated to Vedic culture are elevated by the mode of goodness to higher and higher positions.

SB 12.7.14, Translation: In each age, the infallible Lord appears in this world among the animals, human beings, sages and demigods. By His activities in these incarnations He protects the universe and kills the enemies of Vedic culture.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 7.108, Purport: Scholars take pride in explaining everything in their own way, and they declare that one can understand the Vedic scriptures in any way he likes. This “any way you like” method is foolishness, and it has created havoc in the Vedic culture.

CC Adi 10.89, Purport: Although it is not only in western India that people were contaminated by association with Muslims, it is a fact that the farther west one goes in India the more he will find the people to be fallen from the Vedic culture.

CC Adi 10.89, Purport: Until five thousand years ago, when the entire planet was under the control of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the Vedic culture was current everywhere. Gradually, however, people were influenced by non-Vedic culture, and they lost sight of how to behave in connection with devotional service.

CC Adi 12.35, Purport: The Māyāvādī philosophers, engaged in the missionary work of spoiling the Vedic culture by preaching that everyone is God, describe a poverty-stricken man as daridra-nārāyaṇa, or “poor Nārāyaṇa.”

CC Adi 12.73, Purport: Although posing as great scholars, ascetics, householders and svāmīs, the so-called followers of the Hindu religion are all useless, dried-up branches of the Vedic religion. They are impotent; they cannot do anything to spread the Vedic culture for the benefit of human society. The essence of the Vedic culture is the message of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

CC Adi 13.65, Translation: In all the revealed scriptures of Vedic culture, devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa is explained throughout.

CC Adi 14.55, Purport: According to the Vedic culture, one is rich if he possesses a large stock of food grain and a very large number of animals.

CC Adi 16.25, Purport: It is stated in the Bhakti-ratnākara that Keśava Kāśmīrī was a favorite devotee of mother Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning. By her grace he was an extremely influential scholar, and he was the greatest champion among all the scholars in the four corners of the country. Therefore he got the title dig-vijayī, which means “one who has conquered everyone in all directions.” He belonged to a very respectable brāhmaṇa family of Kashmir. Later, by the order of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he gave up the profession of winning championships and became a great devotee. He joined the Nimbārka-sampradāya, one of the Vaiṣṇava communities of the Vedic culture.

CC Adi 17.1, Purport: The members of the present Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement were not born in India, nor do they belong to the Vedic culture, but within the short time of four or five years they have become such wonderful devotees simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra that even in India they are well received as perfectly well behaved Vaiṣṇavas wherever they go.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 1.63, Purport: It is still the practice at the Jagannātha temple not to allow those to enter who do not strictly follow the Vedic culture known as Hinduism.

CC Madhya 1.197, Purport: A mleccha is a meat-eater, and a yavana is one who has deviated from Vedic culture.

CC Madhya 4.106, Purport: Although the Vedic culture was once prevalent in Malaysia, now all the inhabitants are Muslims. The Vedic culture is now lost in Malaysia, Java and Indonesia.

CC Madhya 6.168, Purport: Vedāśraya nāstikya-vāda means “agnosticism under the shelter of Vedic culture” and refers to the monistic philosophy of the Māyāvādīs.

CC Madhya 11.192, Purport: By following the Vedic culture, by performing great sacrifices and by becoming a strict follower of the Vedic instructions, one may become a brāhmaṇa, a sannyāsī or an Āryan.

CC Madhya 12.61, Purport: Even though Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He placed Himself in the position of a gopī. He also accepted the King’s son directly as the son of Mahārāja Nanda, Vrajendra-nandana Hari. This is perfect vision according to the direction of the Vedic culture, as confirmed in Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ [Bg. 5.18]. Such acceptance of the Absolute Truth according to Vaiṣṇava philosophy is explained in both the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (3.2.3) and the Kaṭha Upaniṣad (1.2.23)

CC Madhya 24.272, Purport: According to Nārada Muni and Vedic culture, animal-killers are not even gentlemen, to say nothing of being religious men.

CC Madhya 25.193, Purport: From early histories it appears that the entire earth was under one culture, Vedic culture, but gradually, due to religious and cultural divisions, the rule fragmented into many subdivisions.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 3: The Glories of Srila Haridasa Thakura, Purport: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu once inquired from Haridāsa Ṭhākura, who was known as Brahma Haridāsa, how the yavanas, or persons bereft of Vedic culture, would be delivered in Kali-yuga. Haridāsa Ṭhākura replied that their deliverance would be possible if they very loudly chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, for hearing the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra chanted loudly, even with but little realization, would help them.

CC Antya 3.50, Translation: “My dear Ṭhākura Haridāsa, in this Age of Kali most people are bereft of Vedic culture, and therefore they are called yavanas. They are concerned only with killing cows and brahminical culture. In this way they all engage in sinful acts.

CC Antya 3.50, Purport: As soon as human civilization turns against brahminical culture and allows unrestricted killing of cows, we should understand that men are no longer under the control of the Vedic culture but are all yavanas and mlecchas.