He is Bramha without four heads, he is Vishnu with just two hands,
He is Shiv without the third eye. He is Lord Badrinarayan himself.

Introduction

अचतुर्वदनो ब्रह्मा द्विबाहुरपरो हरिः ।
अभाललोचनः शम्भुर्भगवान् बादरायणः।।
He is Bramha without four heads, he is Vishnu with just two hands,
He is Shiv without the third eye. He is Lord Badrinarayan himself.

Where can one find such great, intelligent, talented person?

He has studied vedas and has done lot of research on it. He is referred as “विव्यास वेदान”
Lord Krishna has said in the Shrimad Bhagvad Gita -Vibhuti Yog that know me as Vyas in sages “मुनीनामप्यहं व्यास”

Early Life

Birth History of Ved Vyas

Once Maharishi Parashara, the author of first ever Puran - The Vishnu Puran, was travelling near the river Yamuna. A beautiful young girl from the family of fisherman named Satyawati also known as Matsyagandha(due to the fishy smell that came from her) was helping the travellers to cross the river in her wooden boat.

Attracted towards Satyawati, the great rishi went to her and asked her to take him across the river. On the way, in the mid of the river, the sage held the girl’s hand expressed his feelings for her and asked her to make love.

Hesitating initially, with constant request of the sage, Satyawati agreed with some conditions. First condition said whenever they approach the bank and get involved, no one shall see them. Parashara immediately agreed and using his powers, prepared an island with fog around.

Then Satyawati asked the sage to convert the fishy smell from her body to an everlasting fragrance. And also her virginity shall be maintained even after their relation. Reciting some mantras, Maharishi Parashara immediately satisfied the condition.

As the third condition, Satyavati asked for a boon from Maharishi Parashara. According to that, her son shall be knowledgeable and learned and a big sage himself and not a fisherman. Happily accepting the condition, Maharishi said ‘TATHASTU’.

With all the accepted conditions and boons, the two made love on the foggy island and Maharishi left. Devi Satyawati gave birth to a baby boy on the same day.

The boy of Maharishi Parashara and Devi Satyavati was dark in complexion, hence named as Krishna and was born on an island(dwip) hence named as Dvaipayana.

The boy was Vyasa, so the full name was Krishna Dvaipayana Ved Vyasa. Later known as Ved Vyas. He went in search for the purpose of life setting a condition that, whenever his mother would remember him or call him, he shall report.

So with the boon of Maharishi Parashara, such great, chivalric, talented Rishi was born who was believed to be a part of Lord Vishnu himself. The Rishi because of whom Mahabharata exist, the one who could convince Shree Ganesha to write The Mahabharata and give us the privilege of knowing and learning from Pandavas, Kauravas, Guru Dronacharya and Bhishma pitama.

Disciples

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.

Veda Vyasa divided the Vedic hymns into four parts and entrusted the work to four of his disciples. He asked them to teach propagate it by oral transmission:

Rig Veda – Paila

• The Rigveda or Rig Veda is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is one of the … Vyasa then taught the Rigveda samhita to Paila, who started the oral tradition. An alternate version states that Shakala compiled the Rigveda

Yajur Veda – Vaisampayana

• Vaishampayana was the traditional narrator of the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of India. He was an ancient Indian sage who was the original teacher of the Krishna Yajur-Veda.
• The Asvalayana Grihya Sutra mentions him as Mahabharat Acharya. He is also mentioned in the Taittiriya Aranyaka and the Ashtadhyayi of Pāṇini.
• He was a pupil of Vyasa, from whom he learned the Jaya, the original 8,800 verses of the Mahabharata.
• He later expanded the Jaya to 24,000 verses under the name Bharata, which he recited to King Janamejaya at his sarpa satra (snake sacrifice).
• The Harivamsa is also said to have been recited by him. The full 100,000 verses of the Mahabharata was not complete until several centuries later.

Sama Veda – Jaimini

• Jaimini was an ancient Indian scholar who founded the Mīmāṃsā school of Hindu philosophy. He was a disciple of sage Veda Vyasa, the son of Parashara
• Traditionally attributed to be the author of the Mimamsa Sutras and Jaimini Sutras, he is estimated to have lived around the 4th-century BCE.His school is considered non-theistic,but one that emphasized rituals parts of the Vedas as essential to Dharma
• Jaimini’s guru was Badarayana,the latter founded the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, emphasizing the knowledge parts of the Vedas, and credited with authoring Brahma Sutras
• Both Badarayana and Jaimini quoted each other as they analyzed each other’s theories, Badarayana emphasizing knowledge while Jaimini emphasizes rituals, sometimes agreeing with each other, sometimes disagreeing, often anti-thesis of the other
• Jaimini’s contributions to textual analysis and exegesis influenced other schools of Indian philosophies, and the most studied bhasya (reviews and commentaries) on Jaimini’s texts were by scholars named Shabara, Kumarila and Prabhakara

Atharva Veda – Sumantu

• According to traditionIn the Late Vedic Gopatha Brahmana, it is attributed to the Bhrigu and Angirasa. Additionally, tradition ascribes parts to ot, the Atharva Veda was mainly composed by two groups of rishis known as the Atharvanas and the Angirasa, hence its oldest name is Ātharvāṅgirasa
• her rishis, such as Kauśika, Vasiṣṭha and Kaśyapa
• There are two surviving recensions (śākhās), known as Śaunakīya (AVS) and Paippalāda (AVP)

Rig Veda - 10,000 slokas
Yajur Veda – 6,000 Mantras
Sama Veda - 10,000 slokas
Atharva Veda - 6,000 mantras

Work - Ved

Ved Vyas has 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 said that we should first save Vedas and he divided vedas into four parts :

• Yajur Ved
• Rig Ved
• Sam Ved
• Atharva Ved

Rig Ved
It is a large collection of hymn in praise of the gods, which are chanted in various rituals.It has a collection of 1,028 hymn(suktas) grouped into 10 “circles” (mandalas). The suktas are used in the marriages and religious ceremony.There are some suktas that helps to remove illness and other form of negativity

Yajur Ved
The name is derived from the Sanskrit roots, yajus, meaning “worship” or “sacrifice” and veda, meaning “knowledge”. Yajur Veda is sometimes translated as “Knowledge of the Sacrifice”. It has 1,875 verses which have been composed between 1200 and 900 BCE. It is divided into two parts - the white or “pure” Yajur Veda known as Shukla, and the black or “dark” Yajur Veda known as Krishna."

Sama Ved
The Samaveda is shortest of all the four Vedas. It was It is closely connected with the Rigveda.It is a collection of melodies and chants, and is also called the “Book of Song”, “Veda of Chants” or even “Yoga of Song”. “Sama Veda” should not be read or recited, but sung. It contains about 1,900 verses, almost all of them taken from the “Rig Veda”. It represents the force of spiritual knowledge and the power of devotion.

Atharva Ved
Atharva Ved is the knowledge about health and happy life.It is a collection of 730 hymns containing 5987 Mantras, divided into 20 books (Kandas). It contains knowledge about herbs for medical purpose and different procedure for surgical treatment.

He is also authored different granth(books) such as Yoga Bhasya,Vyas Smruti,Vendata Sutra and Uttar Mimamsa for the betterment of mankind.

Work - Mahabharata

Ved Vyas was an great historian and presented us with “Mahabharata” which is one of the greatest epic in the history of Indian culture.In Mahabharata, he has exhibited different situations and how each character provides it’s response to it. The beauty of his writing is that he has shown positive and negative shade of each person. For e.g. He has shown great commitment of Bhishma Pitamaha toward's Hastinapur kingdom and great warrior who can win any war but at the same time he has been shown helpless and have supported Duryodhana who was on the “Adharma"(unrighteous) side due to his oath that he will serve the kingdom. He has shown us the pitfall which can lead to downfall of our own life,families,society and country.

“Mahabharata” has more than 1,00,000 verses with 18 parva which contains the sacred scripture “Shrimad Bhagvad Gita” in the Bhisma Parva. He has asked Lord Ganesha 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.

In Mahabharata, he was the grandfather to Pandavas and Kauravas and played vital role in the victory of Pandavas during the Kurushetra war.

He has visited Pandavas during their exile period and has asked Arjun to perform penance(tapah) at Indrakil mountain to acquire Pashupatastra (the divine weapon) from Lord Shiva.This divine weapon has proved instrumental to win the war.

Work - Puran

Puran are the stories to understand the existence of universe and helps to create attraction and love for the creator.

Work - Bhramasutra

Ved Vyasa has started writing Brahma Sutras after completing Puranas. It consist of 555 sutras, in four chapters with each chapter divided into four parts. Each part is further subdivided into sections called Adhikaraņas with sutras.

It provides knowledge about Brahman(the supreme being) and means to attain it as it is the creator,maintainer and destroyer of the world.

Lord Krishna has also referred to Brahma Sutra in Bhagvat Gita

ऋषिभिर्बहुधा गीतं छन्दोभिर्विविधै: पृथक् |
ब्रह्मसूत्रपदैश्चैव हेतुमद्भिर्विनिश्चितै: ||

Teaching and values

• Thoughts about big or small, your or mine should be kept out.

• Money mind can not meditate.

• Desires come and go.

• We did not bring anything to this world, neither are we going to take anything.

• Progress and development are the rules of this universe.

• Whatever happened was good, whatever is happening is good and what all will happen in the future will be good.

• World is perishable and whoever comes to this world surely has to go one day.

• Soul is immortal and our body is perishable Our soul never dies.

• We should do our work without worrying about it`s result.

  केचिद् वदन्ति धनहीन जनो जघन्यः।
  केचिद् वदन्ति गुणहीन जनो जघन्यः॥
  व्यासो बदत्यखिलवेदपुराणविज्ञो।
  नारायणस्मरणहीनजनो जघन्य:॥ \

• Many people say that the moneyless is of inferior quality, many say that the virtuous is of inferior quality, but Vyasji, who knows everyone, says that the one who does not remember God is the inferior category

Relevance in Today`s World

Guru Purnima

On Guru Purnima or Vyas Purnima we remember the great sage, the foremost Acharya, Shri Ved Vyas . Guru Purnima falls in the month of Ashadh ( July—August) On this day, we worship the Acharyas. An Acharya lives and teaches by his own example. We have received the knowledge of the Absolute due to the grace and compassion of these Acharyas. Among the Acharyas, Sri Veda Vyas stands as foremost and on Vyas Purnima—a particular and important day in the Hindu calendar. , Vyas, an incarnation of the Lord Vishnu Himself, began to write his Brahma Sutras.

VyasPeeth

The place or platform from where a self-realized spiritual guru gives spiritual discourse is even today known as VyasPeeth. It stands as a place of complete truthfulness. The spirit of VyasPeeth has to remain high keeping qualities and greatness of Vyas in the mind of speaker and listeners.

Prasthanatrayi

It literally means three sources (or axioms), refers to the three canonical texts of theology having epistemic authority, especially of the Vedanta schools. It consists of: Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. Vyas has worked on all three sources. One of the eligibility of Acharya is the one who has put forth the commentary on all three.