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Connections: Ancient Vedic World

In India I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth,
but not adhering to it. Inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them,
Possessing everything but possessed by nothing.

-Apollonius Tyanaeus, Greek thinker and traveller, 1st century AD

More about Apollonius of Tyana, Western brahmana, can be found at:

Vedic culture originates in the spiritual world and in prehistory it was spread practically all over this planet (and others). Later these locations were gradually cut off and developed, or rather degraded, independently. Thus in the present world there are many differences on the basis religion. This leads to divisions, conversions, fanaticism, suppression and even terrorism. Many people wonder how to stop and reverse this trend. Some say that by completely eliminating the religion Those attempts failed because human beings are by nature spiritual beings. Replacing religion with secularism as was done in the West is also no solution in a long run because such society without higher rules (dharma) quickly degrades and is opposed by hardline religions like Islam. We suggest that it can be done only by the knowledge of origin of all spirituality - the One and Only God who revealed His laws to various people in various places, times and circumstances. This accounts for some differences but the ultimate goal of life in all religious traditions is the same - to reconnect to God by following His laws.

When we search through various archeological, literary, astronomical and other ancient records with knowledge of Vedic culture, we find that ancient world looked a lot different than present history books suggest. Great civilizations and spiritual traditions around the world had more in common than generally known and the common denominator was the Vedic influence.

If one looks at various spiritual traditions, practically all have an external and an internal, devotional form. When one compares those devotional forms, esp. by looking at the lives of saints following them, it becomes clear that they are identical. The differences then remain on the outside for ignorant people to fight about...

"Whatever is read as declared in the Vedas and in other scriptures is regarded as authority. The authority of the Vedas and other scriptures not inconsistent with the Vedas is eternal.
"That person who bears in his understanding merely the texts of the Vedas and other scriptures without being conversant with the true sense or meaning of those texts, bears them fruitlessly. Indeed, one who holds the contents of a work in memory without comprehending their meaning is said to bear an useless burden." (King Janaka, Mahabharata, Santi Parva 306)

"Vaisnavism, Catholic Christianity, Pure Land Buddhism and sattvic theistic Saivism are not four different salvific devotional traditions with four different competing savior-gods invented by different races or cultures. They are four different regional developments of the same tradition with one trinitarian Godhead, and one savior, Lord Baladeva, worshiped in a variety of Visnu (Baal-Yahu, Lokesvara) and Siva forms. They are four forms of worship of the first person of the Godhead, through, with, in, and by the same second person. They are four traditions which are all inspired by the same Holy Spirit." (Bhakti Ananda Goswami, February 26, 2002)

Majority of spiritual and cultural connections presented in this section was discovered by HH Bhakti Ananda Goswami. This table shows connections considered for the last 3000+ years as different and divergent. It is based on 30 years of multidisciplinary research.

Maharaja experienced both verbal and physical attacks from fanatics of all sorts for revealing this information. I have assembled the table based on my understanding of Bhakti Ananda Maharaja's research. It should encourage your personal exploration of his research. It is a preliminary draft. Maharaja appreciates this effort and looks forward to help make additions and adjustments to perfect it. He also plans to have a website dedicated solely to this topic. Sift it thoroughly, verify it as much as you can and if you understand its importance and potential, spread it further by any means without change.

More of Maharaja's writings:

Significant part of material in this section comes from Vrin Parker's former site Vedica and current Vedic Empire, previous version: http://vedicempire.vhs-net.com). We are using them with permission and gratefulness.

More links

Books on Connections:

If you know of any material (articles, pictures, books, links) suitable for this topic, please let us know. Thank you very much.

© 2001- VEDA - Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Krishna.com, authors and Jan Mares