Deva – A divine being, luminary, worthy of worship derived from the root Div meaning – to illuminate, light etc. Diva means day. Divya means divine and so on.
Veda – means knowledge, that which is to be known, derived from the root Vid to know. Vidya – knowledge, Vidwan – knowledgeable person. Brahma-Vid – One who knows Brahman and so on
One of Yaska’s rules of etymyology is about reversal – eg pasyaka (seer) becomes kasyapa, himsa – violence, becomes simha – lion, arasu (king) becomes asura (mighty).
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Deva becomes Veda and vice versa. Given that all the Vedas are about Devas.
Knowledge is about the luminaries and to illuminate, or throw light on something is to increase our knowledge about it.
In the article Devas: Human or Divine?, I have presented many ways of looking at the Devas, as heroes, as elements of nature, as luminaries, as imaginary and so on. There are as many ways of understanding the Devas as there are of interpreting the puranas.
The more we know, the more layers we understand. As a little example. Sukracharya’s wife is Usha. But Sukracharya is Venus and Usha is dawn and Venus is seen at dawn and dusk. So at one level we know of Sukracharya, the grandfather of Yadu as an ancestor of Sri Krishna and at the same time, we see him as the graha, that can be observed at dawn and dusk.
When it comes to the Veda Mantras, they have also been interpreted variously, from a fire, nature, ocean point of view to a spiritual perspective and an energy, light sun perspective.
But think of Veda and Deva as One not as just about each other but as the same thing. And see where that thought takes you.
You can find my attempts at understanding the vedas here : http://satyaveda.wordpress.com
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