A Comparative Study on the Nature of the Revelation in the Holy Quran and the Ākāśavāṇī in the Hindu Scriptures

Believe in receiving the heavenly words (revelation) by certain people and emphasis on the guiding function of these words for humankind are the common doctrines of the numerous religions including Islam and Hinduism. According to the Hindu teachings, some of the Hindu sacred texts called Śruti and supposed to be taken from inspiration, revelation, and supersensible heavenly words are named as Ākāśavāṇī. In fact, inspiration in these texts does not mean that voices have come down and the selected prophets have heard them; but it is believed that with their spiritual conducts and soul sincerity, the clear-sighted wise and mystics called Ṛṣi could see the heavenly words which is manifested from the divine origin as reflections of the light of the Truth (God) in the mirror of their souls and then they could transfer these words to others through rendering them into divine Sanskrit language. Despite the similarity between the concepts of revelation and Ākāśavāṇī, the latter is closer to mystical intuition (rather than the Semitic revelation), due to lack of the doctrine prophethood and prophecy in Hinduism, as there is in the Semitic religions.