The Hindu religion as we know today is entirely on the opposite pole to that of the Vedic. In this religion we have temples, gods, both ancient and regional, many newly created and images. Offerings made in the Puja are of entirely different kinds. Only one priest (and not seventeen) performs the Puja, aided by assistants who prepare and make arrangements, ring bells, beat cymbals and blow conch-shells when required. The same image would do for both community as well as regular or occasional pumas - like for goddess Kali or Durga Puja celebrations: again the image can as well figure as the domestic and worshipped daily in the privacy of the family's Puja-room. The Vedas Do not make any mention of worshipping Kali, Durga or Narayana, nor is there any reference to such commercial worshipping as Sakta, Vaishnava, Saura, Saiva or Ganapatya. Even the concept of a family or housegod was absent. The Vedic religion has two main parts - Shrauta and Grihya. Yajnas like the, Asvanedha Vajapeya, Rajasuya, Agnichayana, Soma, Darsapurnamasu, Chaturmasya etc. performed to ensure the well being of the entire community were large-scale affairs. Among the Grihyayagas, the main ones are : Garbhadhana (for conception) Pumsavana, (for a male child) Simantooayana (on duties of a women pregnant for three or four months), Jatakarma (in connection with the birth of a child), Namakarana, (for the naming ceremony), Karnabedha (on the ear-piercing ceremony), Chudakarana, (tonsure) (head-shaving) Annaprasana, Vivaha (marriage), Antesti (last rites), and Sraddha, Most of these form the "Dasakarma" rituals of today, though the procedures and the related prayers are different. The religious practices and the rituals followed in those ancient days were believed to bring cure to the problems of the people of those days. Today many such problems of the society do not any longer exist - thanks to the progress of science and the advancement of learning. Vedic texts convinced people of the time that the so called planet 'Rahu' brought about the solar eclipse - today people know that satellites even today, turn to their 'housegods' for solutions to some of their problems. In Vedic times, however, the notion of a housegod as either a family or personal god was unknown. In Vedic rituals, the priest's fee would be a thousand times more than what he could expect from even a big community Puja today. The amounts spent for the welfare of the community would reach royal heights. Vedic rituals used to be performed in far and distant places whereas community pumas are celebrated in every other locality today.

Again, now-a-days the family man would turn to his housegod not only for wealth, long life, fame, social status, victory over enemies and good health, - he also prays to his god for 'moksha' or redemption from the coils of mortal life. In Vedic texts, the notion of moksha or 'redemption' was not conceived of at all. To live a long life, longer if that can be attained, and live happily for ages was consumption devoutly wished for. The Vedas say : "Paseysma Saradah Satam" (I desire to see a hundred autumns, live through a hundred autumns, and be happy for a hundred autumns"). And also : "Jyok paseyama Suryam uchharantam" (I desire to witness the rising sun for many years). In other words, to live was living happily. Not unexpectedly the Vedas are replete with prayers for long life. However, a time came when wealth became scarce, class differences began to surface, a handful of people began exploiting and oppressing the larger segments of the society, ruthless punishment for debts unredeemed, or threat to life for failure punishment for debts unredeemed, or threat to life for failure to pay levies became the order of the day. Even to ensure a daily livelihood became a matter of unbearable rigour for the common man. From this arose man's first dream of an after-life : the happinesses denied this life would avail man in the next life. The idea, therefore, of the existence of an 'after-life' had to be thought up. Sometime late, around sixth century B.C. came the notion of Karma, that is, the notion that the fruits or rewards of one's Karma in this life would be available to one in some other life hereafter, and conversely, the miseries and joys of today are the consequences of one's karma in the life before. The notion of the 'after-life' appears in the later parts of the Vedas - in the Upanisads, followed soon after by the nation of karma. Within a short time we see man praying not for long life, but for Moksha, redemption, to be rid of the cycle of life and death, not live to see a hundred autumns but to server, once and for all, this ineluctable chain of life and death. What accounts for this change was that for the majority of the people life became such a long grind of misery, uncertainty and humiliation that their only prayer is to escape from a repetition of this miserable existence into an after-life. In all the six major Indian Philosophies, in addition to Jainism and Buddhism, "moksha" or redemption has been presented as the most ardent desire of man, the most serious aspect of his life. Thus, what in Vedic literature, constituted life's ultimate goal - earthly happiness and peace, wealth, long life etc. - underwent a major change in Puja-dominated puranic religion. In the latter, there can still be found prayers for the happiness in life here and now, but the highest, the most desirable goal is moksha or the complete cessation of the cycle of life Herein lies the main contradiction between Hindu and the Vedic way of life.

The pillars of faith on which Hinduism stands today are : the notion of after-life, karma, the concept of the eternal soul, and the caste division. In the Vedic religion, until before its last phase, the notion of an after-life, not to speak of the notion of karma, was unknown; there was but a vague perception of an after-life and there was no class distinction as it is understood today, but caste differentiation. The gods worshipped in Vedic times were different, religions rites and rituals were different, the practice of worshipping one's own housegod, now a firmly established domestic religions habit was unknown. These apart, the offerings in the yajna (homa) and to the gods were different, the number of priests, and rites and procedures for the yajnas were also different as were the nature and character of the prayers. The principal goal of redemption or moksha, in addition to worldly pleasures, was relatively a recent addition to societal aspirations, and this aspiration was the very opposite of the Vedas' principal prayer for long life.

A big pother was recently raised over the invocation to and worship of goddess Saraswati, and the very crude (barbaric) insistence to make it mandatory for all and sundry regardless of class, caste, and religion. In the Vedas, Sarawati is the name given to a river, which is worshipped as the chief among three Vedic goddesses - Ila, Bharati and Saraswati. Ila means a part of yajna oblation, Bharati is speech and because the later part of Vedas Sanmitas and the Brahmanas were supposed to have been written in the land between these two rivers, Saraswati and Drsadvari two rivers, that is, this land being the birth place of the Vedic aryan culture, the river Saraswati is not yet a goddess revered individually and seperately as a goddess as such. In the Puranic pantheon where the goddesses form the majority, goddesses Kali, Durga, Chandi etc. rank in importance higher than goddess Saraswati. As the goddess of learning Saraswati, worship is a Puranic Hindu practice, not Vedic. In the patriarchal Vedic age, goddesses numbered far less than gods whose number was a legion. Today, the exact opposite is true.