Sadhaka: Swami ! Prathamaja is another name you mentioned. What does that word mean?

Sai: The Three (Thrayee), that is to say, the Veda, is extolled as Prathamaja in the veda; "Upasthaaya Prathamajaam"; - this statement reveals the belief that Vidya (higher learning) could be attained by the upasthaa (revered study) of Prathamaja or the Primal-born. Unless one studies with humility the sacred Veda-vaak (Word of the Veda), one cannot master knowledge of Brahman (Brahma Vidya) - This requires, not the verbal recitation of the Veda, but the constant 'service', the conscious worship, of the Veda with full awareness of what the word means and commands. This has been made plain in that statement.

Sadhaka: In which Veda, Swami, does the name, Prathamaja occur?

Sai: In the Rg Veda. Understand that Prathamaja and another similar expression, Poorvaja indicate the impossibility of discovering when the Veda was first revealed. It is beginningless. It is for this reason that Sage Valmiki has praised this Word (Vaak) as the First imperceptible mysterious Word (Agra Vaak). The first concretisation of the Cosmic Will was the Cosmos or the Cosmic Womb (the Hiranyagarbha); that too is Prathamaja. Knowledge of the Impersonal and its projection as Personal (Brahma Vidya) is also Prathamaja, the Primal Awareness, according to the Veda. Both Brahman and Hiranyagarbha are sometimes referred to as Prathamaja.

Sadhaka: Of these two, which is really Prathama, that is to say, the First?

Sai: Brahman is the very first. It always is and has been. From it, Hiranyagarbha was born. And, the Veda too emanated from it. The appellation Prathamaja is very apt, for the Vedas. Since the Rshis heard and pronounced the Veda, it is also named Aarsha, that is, related to the Rshis.

Veda is the source of Dharma, moral life, righteous behaviour. Those who observe the norms relating to duties and taboos as laid down in the Veda and as interpreted by the Mimamsa rule deserve the name Dharma-adherents. Those who interpret them as their own desires direct are A-dharma-adherents. This is the Artha.