Vyasa— a literary giant

 

Vyasa was the son of Parashar and Satyavati.

He is also known as Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, Vyasa Deva or Veda Vyasa. There are reasons why this highly revered personality earns deep respect. Vyasa has more than one name.

It is said that Vyasa is called Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa because he was the incarnation of Shri Krishna.  Under this incarnation, he undertook a massive literary project. He worked on putting the Vedas in written form which till then was preserved and circulated in Shruti form (oral tradition.  As the supreme godhead he must have foresaw that the Shruti Parampara would not continue for long and hence the Vedas would not be available for future generations). He also subdivided the Vedas in four categories.

This is also the reason why he is called as Veda Vyasa.

He was born in an island (dvipa). This is why he is named as Dvaipayana Vyasa.

 

In fact, Vyasa was on a mission.  He undertook a big literary mission. His first priority was to spread the wisdom of the Vedas to the people at large in a reasonably understandable mode.

 

As a sage, he could easily foresee that the human society would need strong spiritual tools to face the difficult times of Kali Yuga. Since the time of Kali would be dominated by numerous vices such as hypocrisy, selfishness, deceit, greed, hatred, enmity and the like, people would need spiritual scriptures to save them. This inspired him to spread the wisdom through spiritual literature.

Apart from editing the Vedas, he authored the Mahabharata, a huge book on ancient Indian history, all the eighteen Puranas (another big feat since each of the Puranas comprise tens of thousands of Shlokas), Vedanta Sutra and all the ten principal Upanishads.  

 

There is another version available on this story of Vyasa. According to this, Vyasa was the chief editor of the literary works he undertook.  

Vyasa Deva deputed five of his chief disciples to edit the Vedas into four sections. The Rig-Veda was given to Paila, Yajur to Vaisampayana, Sama to Jaimini and Atharva to Angira.  

 

Puranas and Itihasas were considered as the fifth Veda. Sage Romaharshana was given the responsibility of the Purannas.  

Yes, about the authorship of the Mahabharata, there is no second opinion. It was the work of Vyasa Deva.

So also the big project of Shrimad Bhagavatam, based on the life and activities of Shri Krishna. This is the outcome of Vyasa’s discussion with his guru Sage Narada. This might have been the last literary work of Veda Vyasa.  

 

It is rightly said that ‘Vyasocchistam jagat sarvam’, which literally means that ‘there is nothing on earth which Vyasa did not have authority upon’. 

 

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