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Vach (Vak)

Vach or Vak is Hindu goddess of speech, and the

most prominent and important goddess in the

VEDAS. In later times she becomes identified with

SARASVATI, the goddess of learning, and loses her

separate character, except in linguistic philosophy.

In Vedic tradition the words of SANSKRIT have a

divine character. Words are not arbitrary or mere

names, but are the essential truth of the object

they represent. The sounds of the word tree, for

instance, form the essence of a tree. All of reality

can be seen as mere congealed speech.

Vedantic theory sees four levels of speech:

(1) the transcendent level, where speech is the

divine silence out of which emerges the mani-

fest universe; (2) speech as it becomes incipient

thought looking toward manifestation; (3) speech

expressed as thought, but before external expres-

sion; and (4) speech as uttered words.

Further reading: Alfred Hillebrandt, Vedic Mythology, 2

vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990); Andre Padoux,

Vac: The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras.

Translated by Jacques Gontier (Albany: State University

of New York Press, 1990).

vaikuntha See HEAVEN.

vairagya

Vairagya, freedom from any attachment, or renun-

ciation, has been a central theme in Hinduism

throughout the centuries. It was understood that

attachment to worldly desires and ends can result

only in continued rebirth, a continued circuit on

the wheel of SAMSARA or worldly life.

The period from the eighth to the sixth cen-

turies B.C.E., when JAINISM and Buddhism first

emerged along with the UPANISHAD era within

the VEDIC tradition, saw a great expansion in

mendicancy and ascetic orders and a flowering of

traditions of renunciation. The Vedas themselves,

in their ancient MANTRA sections, upheld a very

different, world-affirming point of view.

Ever since in India, it has been those who left

the ordinary world behind and abandoned worldly

concerns who have been credited with the greatest

spiritual accomplishments. Vairagya in one form

can mean simple avoidance of worldly externals,

but in its most difficult form it might mean bodily

mortification. In either case it is a central feature

of Hindu religious life.

Further reading: Robert Lewis Gross, The Sadhus

of India: A Study of Hindu Asceticism (Jaipur: Rawat,

1992); Patrick Olivelle, “Contributions to the Semantic

V