examples of such Gnanis are Ramana Maharshi of Tiruvannamalai and Sri Aurobindo of Pondicherry. There may be others who are not so well-known. Achieving such a state is extremely difficult because for attaining this, one has to stop all thought processes and concentrate the mind in a relaxed manner on the Supreme Being. Ramana Maharshi calls this Mano Nigraham or 'killing of the mind' because when all thought processes stop, the mind ceases to exist. Ordinary mortals will find it difficult to stop the mind from thinking even for five minutes.

The Gods in the Epics and Puranas are the Gods whom the Hindus worship today. These include Siva and Vishnu, Parvathi in various forms , Mahalakshmi, Ganapathi and Subramania (who are the sons of Lord Siva), Krishna and Rama who are the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, Hanuman, Saraswathi and certain other deities. The Navagrahas or nine planets are worshipped as Gods. The Navagrahas are there in the Vedas as astrology is a part of the Vedas. Saraswathi is the Goddess of knowledge and also an imaginary river who is mentioned in several Sukthams in the Vedas. In the very beginning of the Rig Veda , in Suktham No.3 of Mandalam 1, reference is made to Saraswathi as the Goddess of knowledge and as a river. However temples for Saraswathi are very few in number. To put things briefly, the main Gods today are Siva and His family and Vishnu and His family because the other Gods are in some way related to these main Gods. Rudra and Vishnu, who are unimportant Gods in the Vedas are the main Gods in the Puranas.

ORIGIN OF THE VEDAS

The Aryans are said to have composed the Rig Veda around the 10th Century B.C. when they settled in the area west of the Sindhu River, that is, present day Pakistan. It is said to have been compiled around the 6th Century B.C. It is generally believed that the other Vedas were composed after the Rig Veda. The Vedas are in the form of groups of hymns. Each group is called a Suktham. Each Suktham is addressed to one God or, in some cases, to a few Gods. Each Suktham has been composed by a Rishi. In Vedic parlance, a Rishi is a priest who is capable of composing hymns in Sanskrit to suit the particular context. Vedic rites were conducted by kings or such people. The person on whose behalf the rite was performed was called 'Yajamanan' or master. The objective of the ceremony was to get the blessing of the Gods so that the master could get wealth or conquer his foes or achieve any other objective of his choice. At the time of the Rig Veda, the Aryans seem to have been fighting a lot of battles. The majority of Suthams mention enemies and wars and request the Gods to favour them with victory. The Rishi composed the hymns addressed to some specific God like Indra, Agni or Varuna to suit the context and performed the Vedic Rite on behalf of the master. During the Yajnam the hymns were repeated hundreds or thousands of times and each time the 'haviz' (offering) in the form of ghee or some such substance was poured into the sacred fire. The Agni (Fire) was supposed to carry the offering to the specific God. For example, in a Mrityunjaya Homam ( a rite conducted for long life ) the chant ' please protect the master from death and give him long life' is repeated 1008 times and each time an offering of ghee is poured into the fire. In a Maha Rudra Yajnam the 'Rudram' is chanted 1331 times and offerings made to the presiding deity 'Rudra'.