Name - Rishabh Jha

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INDIAN PHILOSOPHER
VYASA
Krishna Dvaipayana (Sanskrit: कृष्णद्वै पायन, romanized: Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana), better
known as Vyasa (/ˈvjɑːsə/; Sanskrit: व्यासः, romanized: Vyāsaḥ, lit. 'compiler') or
Vedavyasa (वे दव्यासः, Veda-vyāsaḥ, "the one who classified the Vedas"), was a
legendary sage portrayed in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and regarded by Hindu-
tradition as the compiler of that work. As a Shaktyavesha Avatar (śaktyāveśa-
avatāra) of Vishnu, he is also regarded by tradition as the arranger of the mantras
of the Vedas, as well as the author of the eighteen Puranas and the Brahma
Sutras. He is one of the seven Chiranjeevis.

A painting of Vyasa sitting on a throne

LIFE HISTORY
The life history of Ved Vyas is an interesting one. The author of the great epic
Mahabharata, Ved Vyas was the first and greatest acharya of Sanatan Dharma. He
is responsible for classifying the four Vedas, wrote the 18 Puranas and recited the
great Mahabharata. In fact, the Mahabharata is often called as the fifth Veda. The
most important and the most glorified section is the Bhagwad Gita, the lesson
recited to Arjuna by Lord Krishna on the battlefield. Apart from the Mahabharata,
he also wrote the Brahmasootra, one of his shortest theologies on Hindu
philosophy. It is said that Ved Vyas is immortal and he never died. Seeing the
widespread violence in today's times, he is said to have retreated into some
remote village in Northern India. The life of Ved Vyas is an example to all in the
modern times on how to be selfless and devote oneself entirely to Lord in order
to attain Nirvana.

PERSONAL LIFE
He is also known as Krishna Dvaipayana. Around some 5000 years ago, he was
born in Damauli of Tanahi district, which is now in Nepal. The ancient cave that he
wrote Mahabharata in still exists in Nepal. His father was Parashar Rishi, a sage
and his mother was Satyavati. He taught the Vedas to his pupils with ardent
devotion and dedication. It is said that Mahabharata is the 18th Puran that was
written by Ved Vyas. He fathered four famous sons, Pandu, Dhritarashtra, Vidur
and Sukhdev. Ved Vyas received knowledge from great sages like Vasudeva and
Sanakadik. He described that the most important goal in one's life is to attain
Narayana or the Divine Supreme.

MAJOR WORK
Mahabharata: There is a cameo of Ved Vyasa himself in Mahabharata. He is
considered as a part-incarnation of Lord Vishnu. It is said that he came to the
earth in Dwaparyuga to put all the Vedic knowledge in this universe in the form of
written words and make it available to everyone. Before Ved Vyasa the Vedic
knowledge only existed in the form of spoken words. He was the grandfather to
Pandavas and Kauravas. He is called Ved Vyasa because he had split the original
version of Vedas into four parts; Ved Vyasa literally means 'the splitter of Vedas'.
It was because Ved Vyasa had split the Vedas that it became easy for people to
understand it. This is how the divine knowledge was made available to everyone.
It is still not clearly known whether Ved Vyasa had split the Vedas all by himself or
if he did with the help of a group of scholars.

In Mahabharata, Vyasa's mother marries the king of Hastinapur and gives birth to
two sons. Both the sons die and their wives are left with no children. She asks him
to impregnate both the wives. Vyasa agrees to impregnate Amba and Ambika. He
tells these girls to come in close proximity to him but alone. It was Ambika's turn
first to go close to him and out to shyness she closes her eyes. Vyasa declares that
the baby would be born blind--this child was called Dhritarashtra. Then it was
Amba's turn. Although she was instructed by Ambalika to relax and calm herself
down. But she was very nervous and her face becomes pale out of fear. Vyasa
declares that the baby born out of this will be severely anemic and will certainly
not be capable of running a kingdom--this was Pandu. This leads to the third
attempt to make a healthy child but Amba and Ambika were so scared now that
they sent a servant girl instead. This maid was confident and she gets
impregnated with a healthy child--this was Vidura. He also had another son called
Suka from sage Jabali's daughter called Pinjala. It is said that Ved Vyasa asked
Lord Ganesha himself to help him in compilation of Mahabharata. But Ganesha
had put one condition on him; he said that he will write Mahabharata for him if
only he will narrate it to him without a single pause. To supersede this condition,
Vyasa put another condition on him asking him to understand the verses even
before he has recited them. This is how Mahabharata was written, Ved Vyasa
narrated all the Upanishads and 18 Puranas continuously to Lord Ganesha.
 Ganesha writing the Mahabharat

OTHER WORKS
Puranas
Vyasa is also credited with the writing of the eighteen major Purāṇas, which are
works of Indian literature that cover an encyclopedic range of topics covering
various scriptures. He narrated the Devi-Bhagavata Purana to Parikshit's
son Janamejaya.
Yoga Bhashya
The Yoga Bhashya, a commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, is attributed to
unknown author called Vyasa, but was probably Patañjali's own work.
Brahma Sutras
The Brahma Sutras, one of the foundational texts of Vedanta, are attributed
to Badarayana. In some texts, Badarayana is also called Vyasa, which literally
means "one who arranges". Vaishnava Acharyas acknowledge Badarayana as
Vyasa. Some modern historians, though, suggest that these were two different
personalities. There may have been more than one Vyasa, or the name Vyasa may
have been used at times to give credibility to a number of ancient texts. Much
ancient Indian literature was a result of long oral tradition with wide cultural
significance rather than the result of a single author. However, Vyasa is credited
with documenting, compiling, categorizing and writing commentaries on much of
this literature.

FESTIVAL
The festival of Guru Purnima is dedicated to him. It is
also known as Vyasa Purnima, the day believed to be
both of his birth and when he divided the Vedas.
The mythological Vyasa Sarovara is located at
Vyasangar. It hosts an 11-day fair in celebration of Lord
Vyasadeva in the month of March.

In Sikhism
In Brahm Avtar, one of the compositions in Dasam
Granth, the Second Scripture of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh mentions Rishi Vyas as
an avatar of Brahma. He is considered the fifth incarnation of Brahma. Guru
Gobind Singh wrote a brief account of Rishi Vyas's compositions about great kings
— Manu, Prithu, Bharath, Jujat, Ben, Mandata, Dilip, Raghu Raj and Aj and
attributed to him the store of Vedic learning.

In Buddhism
There is also mention of Ved Vyasa in Buddhism. In the two of their Jataka tales
called Kanha-dipayana and Ghata. He appeared as a Bodhisattva in Kanha-
dipayana, which has no connection with his Hindu Vedic works and in Ghata
Jakata his role has a close relation to Mahabharata. In Ghata, the Vrishnis plays a
joke on Ved Vyasa to put his clairvoyance powers to test. They dress up a boy as a
woman by tying a pillow to his belly. Then they took him to Vyasa and asked him
if he could tell them when the baby is due. He tells then that the person in front
of him will give birth to a knot of acaria wood and will destroy Vaasudeva's race.
They kill him in the end but his divination came true.
DISCIPLES
Vyasa had a son named Shuka, who was his spiritual successor and heir.As per
Skanda Purana, Vyasa married Vatikā, alias Pinjalā, who was the daughter of a
sage named Jābāli. It is described that Vyasa's union with her produced his heir,
who repeated everything that he heard, thus receiving the name Shuka (lit.
Parrot). Other texts including the Devi Bhagavata Purana also narrate the birth of
Shuka but with drastic differences. Vyasa was desiring an heir, when an apsara
(celestial damsel) named Ghritachi flew in front of him in form of a beautiful
parrot, causing him sexual arousal. He discharges his semen, which fell on some
sticks and a son developed. This time, he was named Shuka because of the role of
the celestial parrot. Shuka appears occasionally in the story as a spiritual guide to
the young Kuru princes.
Besides his heir, Vyasa had four other disciples — Paila, Jaimini, Vaishampayana
and Sumantu. Each one of them was given the responsibility to spread one of the
four Vedas. Paila was the made the incharge of Rigveda, Jaimini of the Samaveda,
Vaishampayana of the Yajurveda and Sumantu of Atharvaveda.
Vyasa is believed to have lived on the banks of Ganga in modern-day
Uttarakhand. The site was also the ritual home of the sage Vashishta, along with
the Pandavas, the five brothers of the Mahabharata.
Also a town in India is named after him - Vyasanagar (a very famous town in
Odisha).

REFERENCE LINK
  Quotations related to Vyasa at Wikiquote
  Media related to Vyasa at Wikimedia Commons
  Works written by or about Vyasa at Wikisource
 The Mahābhārata – Ganguli translation, full text at sacred-texts.com