A glimpse of Vedic Civilization - Part 1

आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः  (rig veda)
(May good thoughts come from everywhere, from all the world)

 I have always been fond of civilizations and history or more so itihasa ( iti + ha + āsa - 'so indeed it was'). Although i am no expert in the field, it is curiosity towards the subject which has made me read about it. I think it is a deep injustice to call the vedic civilization as mere hindusim, As Vedic civilization is more of a ideology on how best to live than mere set of mindless traditions( Although i won't say we don't need traditions at all, my views are here). It hurts even more to see  that the contributions of vedic civilization is trivialized and tabooed in the name of secularism.

I have always wondered when we have archaeological evidence of stone inscriptions/scriptures to know about the earlier civilization, what would happen if our generation of silicon driven would go to dust, It would literally be sand with no trace of what we have achieved, may be it had happened earlier too.

If you have followed my earlier posts, you would have noted that I quote a lot of gita/ Indus scriptures, based on which there were quite a few who wanted to understand the vedic culture and were asking my source for what i quote on, as the list was exhaustive thought of writing a blog about it.

1. If you want to know more about the civilization itself there are quite lot of books, few of my favourites are  sarasvati-river-and-the-vedic-civilization by NS rajaram, or this interesting video by David Frawley. You can search for several books by these authors to know more about the civilization itself.

2. One of the biggest contributions of the civilization has been the vedas when it appears gibberish in the outset it has deeper philosophical meaning, Given the fact that The vedas, especially rig veda which is written in about 4000 BC is one of the oldest known written scripture available in the world makes it even more interesting. Most of the vedas and upanishad text are available here. 
Aurobindo's hold on the vedas according to me is unquestionable, You can find most of his books here, Including the secret of the vedas. 
Kannada audio discourses by shatavadhani R Ganesh here : 
Vedamantra-Parichaya-Vol-1 and Vedamantra-Parichaya-Vol-2
There are a lot of published books on upanishads especially by Ramakrishna Math.

3. For a novice like me,  Interpretations of vedas and upanishads are quite loaded  and thus it makes sense to start with Gita/ Mahabharahta.
It is not for neigh that it is written in Mahabharatha that which is not found here cannot be found anywhere , Because it goes in depth in dealing with the Dharma sukhmas ( Although Dharma loosely translates to religion, it is not correct, It just means What is right situationally, One should note that what is right at a particular situation may not hold always, perception of right is always contextual more about it later, On a side note regarding this topic of sample space and contextual there is a book Fooled by Randomness by Taleb!). 
Best books on Baghavad gita (Part of Mahabharatha ) I have come across are : 
a) Gita Rahasya by lokamanya Tilak 
b) Search for historical krishna  by NS Rajaram
c) Essays on the Gita by Aurobindo.
d) Audio discourses on Bhagavat Gita by Shatavadhani R Ganesh :
                                          Sri-Krishnana-Baduku-Mattu-Bhagavadgeete 
                                          Shrimadbhagavadgeethe
                                           Mahabharatha-Upakhyana-1
                                           Mahabharatha-Upakhyana-2
Also the list is not complete without the teachings of Vivekananda, You can find the link to his book here. If interested there are also quite a lot of books in sanskrit converted here.
I guess I have given quite a bit of books related to spirituality and philosophy, I would like to cover more on the science/material aspects of in coming posts. Also I would like to write on misunderstood concepts of take on vedic culture on women, caste etc of whatever little I come to learn over a period of time.

Om Tat Sat
Note: Most of the links that are provided for books are free to download books, All the links to audio discourses are free as well. Also they are available in pdf format, you could convert it to any ereader format using calibre.