The Holy Vedas ; Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda Hardcover – Big Book, March 1, 2006

One of the best purchases I've made on Amazon

Received today, delivery extremely fastBeautifully bound book,Excellent, deserve 10 stars

The book is divided into 4 sections, each describing one Veda. The sections have very lucid, readable, modern English summary translations of the original text. There is no original Sanskrit, only English translation, and that too a summary or excerpt since the orginal Vedas are very long.I've see many translations of the Vedas, but what impressed me about this book are:(1) Translation is extremely readable/fluent, in prose-style (not in verse), not monotonous/boring and uses modern English (no thou, didst and stuff)(2) Print is good, font is big and clear, pages are good quality, binding is hardcover and feels solid(3) Translation is loyal to the original text. I've compared many sections with 4 other translations (by different authors) and this matches them (within boundaries of interpretation)Things this book could have done better:(1) There is no cross-reference to original Vedic verse. For example, when you're reading a paragraph in the Rig Veda, it doesn't tell you which mandala or verse it refers to.(2) The Rig Veda is the oldest and many of its verses are restated in the other Vedas. But they should be translated under Rig Veda since that is the original source. For example, this book has the Gayatri Mantra in the Yajur Veda, which is not incorrect, but everyone expects it in the Rig Veda since that's where it originally is from.Other than a few quirks like this, this is the only book I could find that gives a good, lucid, prose overview or flavor of the contents of all the Vedas.

Great translation

The Indian subcontinent has influenced the west to everything from food to music. As a culturally aware Shaman one needs to understand religions of the Earth even if they do not practice them because of their impact on society. The Rig Veda was written allegedly on the drug Soma which some speculate is a combination of Amanita Muscaria , Psilocybin mushrooms , Opium and Marijuana. These mystic substances have been used in a religious context for thousands of years. To anyone interested in the Mystic arts I recommend this book highly.

The Holy Vedas are the Mother of all religious scriptures. All other religious scriptures are offshoots from the great Vedas ever changing over time to suit the views and desires of the aspirants. Reading the Vedas only help in understanding whatever religion an aspirant pursues. Therefore, I can only encourage the reading of the Vedas.

Unlike most holy texts that I have come across, the pages are not very thin and the font is sized for pleasant and easy reading.

I don’t know how these excerpts were chosen but buyer beware it’s mostly descriptive of the ceremonial processes and quite repetitive…don’t get me wrong I have an immense admiration of the Vedic culture…but unless you’re curious on the specific ceremonial praises the gems of wisdom are elsewhere I suspect capitalistic sabotage…so unless you wanna read over and over of how much they loved “soma” juice and “making it” and “pouring it” and “keeping the dogs away from it…” you might wanna start your quest for knowledge elsewhere…on a side note…I was able to develop much of my oblation and ceremonial process based on what I read:..