Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 8

The Sixth Sukta

The theme of this sukta is to awaken the power of Indra with the help of his followers, the Maruts. Who are the Maruts? We find in the Puranas that Vayu (the Wind-God) in the womb of Diti (the consciousness of duality) had been divided into forty-nine parts by the Lord Indra. As a result, the Maruts, sub-divisions or various forms of Wind, came into existence. We also know that Vayu is the life-energy and Indra is the divine mental being. Diti is the divided consciousness, the source of multiplicity. Aditi means the undivided, indivisible and infinite consciousness. When the wave of life-energy rises into the mind and expresses itself as multiple thoughts, it turns into Maruts. In the Rigveda the God Marut has always been invoked and worshipped along with Indra. That is to say, without Indra, the mental being, the Maruts, the mental faculties, have no separate existence.

1. The seat of pure mind is a chariot. The chariot signi­fies movement and it is the emblem of the spiritual progress. The spiritual adventure of the purified mind gradually rises up. The movement of the purified mind is at- once free and vast. Division and littleness are not to be found there. It is fully illumined by the light of knowledge. The purified mind is replete with thought-powers, in other words, the Maruts. And it is the Maruts who help the mind in its march towards the Goal.

2. Spiritual progress takes place by the conjoint force of two powers. They are nothing but the twin horses that carry farther the power of Indra. Of the two horses one is the symbol of knowledge, the other is that of power. The more the knowledge and the power of the aspirant increase, the more awakes in him the divine mental being in all its virtues. And the pure thought-powers or the Maruts turn the flow of knowledge and power towards an inner spiritual discipline.

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3. It is the power of pure-thoughts that manifests the light of knowledge in the darkness of Ignorance. With the gradual development of such thoughts the true mental being takes birth in the aspirant, i.e., it becomes vivid and real to the aspirant.

4. The true nature of the pure thought-power is to reveal the mental being by degrees. It is in the true mental being that the real existence and nature of a creature abide. The mental being becomes more and more manifest by fresh flowerings of the pure thought-power. The pure thought­ power, being manifest, shapes a form of the mental being. Then it plunges into the heart of the aspirant and emerges from there with a new form and truth. Thus the pure thought-power, supported by the presiding divine Deity of sacrifice, of spiritual progress, manifests further truths. A 'name' is the manifest power of truth, called 'numen' in Latin. The stream of sadhana does not proceed in a constant flow but in a sequence of absorption and manifestation – it withdraws within itself and emerges again with new truths from the secret regions of consciousness. The Vedic seers used to express- this idea thus: Dawn follows Night, Night follows Dawn, Dawn manifesting itself again and again in a never-ending series revealing infinite truths. ­

5. In the innermost recesses of consciousness, in the depth of the Night, in inert matter lie hidden the Light of know­ledge. The divine mental being, in search of that kine of Light, delivers them by breaking down those firm, secret and dark recesses. It is he indeed who brings into the waking consciousness the dawn of knowledge.

6. What does actually happen when Indra reveals the Light of knowledge dissipating the darkness of ignorance? There echo in the occult hearing the concrete messages of the vast truth. And of what type are those divine messages? They are the divine existences, they follow the divine na­ture. They infuse the aspirant with a clear and pointed intellect which can discern the quintessence of truth.

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7. The true mental being and his pure thought-powers, Indra and Maruts, are reflected in that pure divine mind.

8. Indra is the being of knowledge and delight and Marut is his power of divine play. On one side is the pure mental existence, on the other there rise and spread the pure thoughts from that mental existence. With their united help the spiritual Sacrifice of the aspirant becomes a receptacle of luminous fulfilment.

9. Then the truth and riches of all the levels and worlds of consciousness make their appearance in the aspirant, the truth that comes from beyond the fourth world or Mahas - called in the Upanishad as the asau lokah - the truth that subsequently takes form in the pure mental world.

10. The process does not end here. The truth contained in the material earth which "is illumined by the mental light as well as the truth of the vital world filled with pure enjoy­ment and inspiration are concretely apprehended by the aspirant. Earth, mid-region, sky and svar, that is the body, life, mind and the vast Truth beyond mind become manifest in their divine essence in the human aspirant inhabited by the mental being. Indra is the divine mental being and Indra is the power of revealing the truth.

NOTE

The remaining suktas of Madhuchchhandar Mantramala also deal with Indra. So there is hardly any necessity of commen­taries. The commentaries given from the fourth sukta to the present one will serve as an aid to make the subsequent suktas comprehensible.

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