Vedic and Philological Studies

The Colloquy of Agastya and Indra

[word] - Word(s) omitted by the author or lost through damage to themanuscript that are required by grammar or sense, and that could be supplied by the editors.

But we are not limited to the evidence [of] isolated passages or collected inferences for the symbolic, spiritual and psychological character of the Vedic sacrifice. There are entire hymns in which this character is brought out with a remarkable consistency & vividness.We will take first the brief & striking colloquy between the Rishi Agastya and the great god Indra which forms the five verses of Hymn 170 in the first Mandala. It opens with a verse spoken, it would seem, by Indra, one of the most remarkable riks in the whole Veda. “It is not now nor tomorrow; who knoweth that which is utterly wonderful? its movement has for its field the knowledge of another, but when it is approached, it disappears.” To this allocution which might have come straight out of the deepest passages of the Upanishads Agastya replies by a complaint, “Why, O Indra, wouldst thou slay us; the Maruts are thy brothers,—with them do thou work for our perfection; smite us not in our struggle.” Indra defends himself, justifies the blows he has struck: “Wherefore, O my brother Agastya, dost thou, though our comrade, think beyond us; verily we know of thee how to us thou willest not to give the offering of thy mind. Let them make the altar ready; let them kindle utterly Agni in front;—there is the awakening to immortality; let us two extend thy sacrifice.” Agastya yields & consents: “Thou art the master, O lord of substance among the Vasus, thou utterly disposest, O lord of love among theMitras. Indra, do thou hold talk with the Maruts, taste in the truth the offerings.” It seems to me that the sense of this little hymn, so beautiful, simple & profound in its expression & substance, is perfectly straightforward, perfectly lucid & only a preconceived theory or a perverse ingenuity can lead us astray. That which is neither now nor tomorrow, but beyond all Time, the wonderful thing which no man can know, that which reveals itself by its activity in the consciousness of

Page 20

another, in ourselves, in Indra, in the Maruts, in every living being or active force, but if we seek to approach, study & seize it vanishes from our ken, is the Brahman. No other conception of Indian thought fits this profound & subtle description. What sublime & numerous echoes wake in our memory as we repeat this mantra. There comes to us the solemn stanza of the Gita, Ascharyavat pashyati kaschid enam...; there come the words of the Mandukya Upanishad, yachchanyat trikalatitam; the solemn assertion of the Kena, na tatra vag gacchati no manah; its subtle distinction avijnatam vijanatam vijnatam avijanatam; vividly there comes the great fable of the mighty Yaksha who stood before the gods, the advance of this very Indra to know him, the vanishing of the Brahman as soon as approached, utadhitam vi nashyati. The whole of Vedanta might be described as one vast commentary on the four words, anyasya chittam abhi sancharenyam.

But why does Indra cast this assertion of the unknowability of Brahman at Agastya in their quarrel? His self-justification in the third rik explains the motive. Agastya has been seeking to go beyond Indra in his thought consciousness; he has been seeking to exceed mind & arrive straight at Brahman, to place his mind and its activities not on the altar of the Lord of Mind, but on the altar of the unknown God.Vidma hi te yatha mano asmabhyam na ditsasi. Not so, says Indra, shalt thou attain. Through me, through the mind, through thy mental consciousness, thou shalt aspire to That which is wonderful; for all its actions & movements are not in its pure self-being but in the field of another’s consciousness, there it must be sought; approached directly it vanishes. Agastya seeks to pacify Indra. He perceives that through the hostility of Indra his mind refuses to work towards perfection, towards siddhi in the Yoga; in his strenuous struggling upward, samarane, it no longer helps but resists him; there is a divorce between his mental energies presided over by the Maruts & their great presiding and fulfilling devata; confusion, failure of thought, error, backsliding is the result. “Why wouldst thou slay me,” he cries, “I am but moving towards my goal; the Maruts are thy brothers, why art thou in disagreement

Page 21

with them? Rather with them as thy allies & helpers do thy work of thinking in me in a way effective of my perfection (kalpasva sadhuya) and strike me not down in the difficult & arduous struggle of my ascent.” The sense of Indra’s reply is perfectly clear, “We are brothers, O Agastya, sons of the same Immortal Being; we are friends & comrades, we have fought together the great Aryan battle against the fiends & giants & Titans, the battle of the soul struggling towards immortality; but now you regard us as too little for you & seek to shoot beyond us. We have seen how you are no longer willing to give the offering of your mind & its activities to us as of old, asmabhyam id, you are directing them elsewhere. This cannot be. You must not become the adashush & cease from the sacrifice decreed. Make ready the altar of the body & mind; kindle the fire of the divine force upon it in front of you, let Agni stand as your purohita. This is the way decreed; in the sacrifice to the right devatas & not otherwise the soul of man awakens out of this death into that immortality. Seek not to stand apart from me, take my aid & let us two together extend thy increasing sacrifice to its last fulfilment and culmination. Through mind fulfilled, go beyond mind to Brahman.” Agastya, taught by experience, sees his error; he accepts the law of the sacrifice. “Yea,” he cries, “I seek widened being, thou among the lords of being art the chief master; thou art master to give or deny; I seek infinite joy & love, thou among the masters of love & joy art its most potent & liberal disposer. Come then into agreement with the Maruts & create the harmony of my thoughts and take thy joy of my activities according to the law of the ideal of Truth of things, exalting mind into supermind.” The hymn throws a flood of light on the persistent tales of the Purana & Itihasa in which Indra appears as the enemy of the Yogin, fearing to be overpassed, seeking to keep him by any means from conquering Swar and becoming too mighty for Indra himself. It is the Powers of mind that seek to preserve their activity in the human being, & do not wish him, stilling these activities, to pass into the silent Brahman. In the Vedic ideal Indra does not need to be an enemy, he is the best friend of the seeker, because the ideal of the Vedic Rishi

Page 22

is fulfilment & not cessation; but still a time comes when the average Vedic Yogin seeks to shoot by a short cut beyond, to dispense with tapasya & sacrifice & leap straight to the heights where all things are still. He is in danger of using the wrong means, following the wrong ideal. It is such a moment in his soul experience that Agastya records; the attempt, the resistance of Indra, the strife, the salutary failure, the perception of failure, the reconciliation, submission & recovered harmony.

Page 23