In English
Four stages to achieve oneness with the Divine
Next come the . Although these contain primarily the from the , they contain also poetic and prose passages. As these were intended to be studied by those who gave up family life and entered on the as a recluce and lived in forests, they came to be known as . In ancient times, used to live in the forests and devoted themselves to the continuous recitation of relating to God. Hence, these came to be known as . The and belong to the Aranyaka group. The third group consists of the . The full life of a human being is indicated by one conforming to the four goals (): , , and . Education is of two kinds - one is worldly knowledge () and the other is knowledge of the Eternal (). The , and relate to the . These are helpful for the understanding of the four . The may help one to understand the divine nature of the , but they cannot lead one to the . In the realisation of the divine, there are four stages - (seeing the divine), (enjoying the form of the divine), (nearness to the divine) and (merging in the divine). When one reaches the stage of nearness (), the stage of merging () is not far off. Just as the , when it reaches the sea, will not turn back, similarly one who has experienced nearness to God will not turn back. The four enable one to approach the divine, but it is the that enable one to achieve oneness with the divine. The embody the experiences and ecstatic realisations of who perceived the Reality and enjoyed it. The also lay down the manner in which they should be recited. It is only when they are recited with due regard to the sound and the meter will they yield the desired results.