Mother's Chronicles - Book Four

6

The Veda

OM BHŪR BHUVAH SWAH

TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM

BHARGO DEVASYA DHĪMAHI

DHIYO YO NAH PRACHODAYĀT

Thus runs the Gayatri mantra,¹ the chosen formula of the ancient Vedic search. It is addressed to Surya, the Sun, "as a God of revelatory knowledge by whose action we can arrive at the highest truth." This "sacred Vedic formula, of the Gayatri," observes Sri Aurobindo, "was for thousands of years repeated by every Brahmin in his daily meditation; and we

1. A translation: "O Lord, who pervades the earth, the intermediate world and the world of light, we meditate on the supreme light of the illumining Sun-god, that he may impel our mind."

To my father's queries Sri Aurobindo gave the definitions of the following planes (10 Sept. 1937): bhurloka= material world; bhuvarloka = vital world; dyoloka = mind-world; swarloka = highest region of mind-world. The Rishis preferred a concrete language to an abstract one. Bhu, to them, meant the physical consciousness, and not just the earth.

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may note that this formula is a verse from the Rig-veda, from a hymn of the Rishi Vishvamitra."

Ages ago, in the mid-twenties, Sri Aurobindo once asked a would-be disciple, "Do you know the meaning of the Gayatri Mantra ?"

The man replied, "It is a great power, but I do not know the meaning."

Sri Aurobindo explained. "It means: 'We choose the Supreme Light of the divine Sun; we aspire that it may impel our minds.'

"The Sun is the symbol of the divine Light that is coming down and Gayatri gives expression to the aspiration asking that divine Light to come down and give impulsion to all the activities of the mind.

"In this Yoga also, we want to bring down that divine Sun to govern not only the mind but the vital and the physical being also. It is a very difficult effort. All cannot bear the Light of the Sun when it comes down. Gayatri chooses the Divine Light of the Truth asking it to come down and govern the mind. It is the capacity to bear the Light that constitutes the fitness for the Yoga."

Again, according to Sri Aurobindo, SWAR, the solar world beyond heaven and earth, is the world of the divine Truth and Bliss; "the fourth world, the supramental,"¹ after mind, life and body.

1. The quotations in this chapter are from Sri Aurobindo's The Secret of the Veda.

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Swar is the world of Yama, the guardian of the law of the Truth, the guardian of immortality. It is the world of immortality where is the indestructible Light. "Yama and the ancient Fathers discovered the path to that world which is a pasture of the Cows whence the enemy cannot bear away the radiant herds."

There are four Vedas: the Rig, the Sama, the Yajur and the Atharva. The Rig-veda is known to be the most ancient of these ancient scriptures. "From the historical point of view," writes Sri Aurobindo, "the Rig-veda may be regarded as a record of a great advance made by humanity by special means at a certain period of its collective progress."¹ Indeed, the symbolism of the Veda depends upon the image of the life of man as a sacrifice, a journey and a battle. This scripture is "the spirit's hymn of battle and victory as it discovers and climbs to planes of thought and experience inaccessible to natural or animal man, man's praise of the divine Light, Power and Grace at work in the mortal." Unlike latter-day saints who rejected material life to swoon into some rarefied air, the Vedic Rishis were very much concerned with the life of the living being. The Veda speaks of two oceans; one is the ocean of the subconscient, dark and inexpressive, the other is

1. Regarding the antiquity of the Vedas, archaeologists are increasingly veering round to the views held by Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, and others.

As to the theory of Aryan invasion, which imposes a very recent date on the Vedas, it's really all rubish! The interested Reader may turn to the Appendix at the end of the book to find a few arguments demolishing that nonsensical theory.

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the ocean of the superconscient, luminous and eternal expression but beyond the human mind. The upper sea or "the superconscient, the sea of the subconscient, the life of the living being between the two —this is the Vedic idea of existence."

Although the hymns are the experiences of different Rishis, the Rig-veda presents itself as one in all its parts. "The Rishis differ in temperament and personality. . . . But these differences of manner take nothing from the unity of spiritual experiences."

The Rishi is the Seer and the Hearer of Truth. For seer-hood brings with it not only the far vision but the far hearing. As the eyes of the sage are opened to the light, so is his ear unsealed to receive the vibrations of the Infinite; from all the regions of the Truth there comes thrilling into him its Word which becomes the form of his thoughts.

Vedic Sanskrit represents a very early stratum in the development of language. "The word for the Vedic Rishis is still a living thing, a thing of power, creative, formative. It is not yet a conventional symbol for an idea, but itself the parent and former of ideas."

Thus the Rishi could, by the use of a single word, convey one thing to the profane mind and quite another to the initiate. In the Vedic texts words like cow, horse, wolf, etc. recur constantly. But what do they really mean? Of course, the Vedic hymns have both inner and outer interpretations. And the veil is elaborately woven by the Vedic mystics but vanishes like a dissolving mist before our eyes if we choose not to be blind.

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The goal of the Rishis is Swar, the solar world of the divine Truth and Bliss. The Truth is spoken of in the Veda as a path leading to felicity, leading to immortality. The Rishis yearn to emerge from untruth to Truth, from darkness to Light, emerge from a state of death to a state of immortality. But the achievement of Truth is an arduous task. "In the Vedic idea of the revelation, there is no suggestion of the miraculous or the supernatural . . . Knowledge itself was a travelling and a reaching, or a finding and a winning; the revelation came only at the end, the light was the prize of a final victory."

The journey to the Truth is no easy march. The Rishi has to wage a fierce and relentless battle. He has "to labour and to fight and conquer, he must be a tireless toiler and traveller and a stern warrior, he must force open and storm and sack city after city, win kingdom after kingdom, overthrow and tread down ruthlessly enemy after enemy. His whole progress is a warring of Gods and Titans, Gods and Giants, Indra and the Python, Aryan and Dasyus." Old friends and helpers "turn into enemies, the kings of Aryan states he would conquer and overpass join themselves to the Dasyus and are leagued against him in supreme battle to prevent his free and utter passing on."

The Vedic deities are "names, powers, personalities of the universal Godhead and they represent each some essential puissance of the Divine Being. . . . Children of Light, Sons of the Infinite, they call man to a divine companionship and alliance; they attract and uplift him to their luminous fraternity,

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invite his aid and offer theirs against the Sons of Darkness and Division." Man responds. In their upward march, he is a close ally of the Gods from level to level of the great hill of being. This is the birth and ascent of Agni. "Agni, the Immortal in mortals."

Many are the Sons of Darkness. They are the dividers, plunderers, harmful powers. "There are Eaters and Devourers, Wolves and Tearers; there are hurters and haters; there are dualisers; there are confiners or censurers."

Among the Sons of Darkness is Vritra the Python, the grand Adversary, "for he obstructs with his coils of darkness all possibility of divine existence and divine action." Vritra the Besieger prevents the sevenfold Waters of Truth from flowing down upon the earth-consciousness in which we mortals live. These streams of Truth do not flow upon earth, but in heaven. The Serpent coiled itself across the fountains of the seven rivers and sealed up their outflow. Then came Indra of the richly-various lustres; "he comes impelled by the thought, driven forward by the illumined thinker within; he comes with the speed and force of the illumined-mind power, in possession of his brilliant horses."¹ Indra, the God-mind, smites the Coverer with his flashing lightnings. Indra's thunderbolt, made from the bones of Rishi Dadhichi, slays Vritra. At the same time a passage is cloven out on the mountain and all the seven rivers are released together and sent flowing down upon the earth.

1. Ashwa: Force, especially symbolic of life-energy and nervous force. The Vedic Rishis always insist on two requisites, Light and Power, the Light (cow) of the Truth working in the knowledge, the Power (horse) of the Truth working in the effective and enlightened Will.

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Thus the King of the Gods cuts out a passage on the summit of the earth-consciousness down which the waters of the Truth and the Bliss can flow. From the supreme ocean flow the sevenfold Waters and pour out on our life the honeyed wave. The seekers of Bliss and Immortality can now drink the Soma-wine from the uncovered well of honey, for they are now able to see Swar.

But hidden in the waters, released by Indra from the hold of Vritra, the gods find visible the divine Power, Agni. Agni, the child of the earth's growths, called the child of the earth and heaven, with his companion gods and the sevenfold Waters, enters into the superconscient. "In that entire meeting of these great ones Agni moves in all things; the rays of his vision are perfectly straight, no longer affected by the lower crookedness." There, in the unobstructed Vast where Truth is born, the shore less infinite, Agni's own natural seat in which he now takes up his home, there he finds the source of the honeyed plenty of the Father of things and pours them out on our life. Agni, the builder of form, is the son of Heaven by the body of the Earth.

"The whole Rig-veda is a triumph-chant of the powers of Light, and their ascent by the force and vision of the Truth to its possession in the source and seat where it is free from the attack of the falsehood."

But the Rishis spoke not only of an 'ascent' but also of a descent. This is our problem.

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The symbols and parables of the Veda are connected. But says Sri Aurobindo, "the conception of the Dawn and the legend of the Angirasas are at the very heart of the Vedic cult and may almost be considered as the key to the secret of the significance of Veda." That is the legend of the lost Sun and the lost cows and their recovery by our human Fathers.¹

The cows are the herds of the Sun. The lost cows are the lost rays of the Sun, their recovery is the forerunner of the recovery of the lost Sun.

Usha, the Dawn, was disconsolate. Where were her children, the cows, the shining herds of the Sun? And where was the Sun himself? When she went to take the cattle out to pasture, there was no trace of any of them. The steeds were gone too! Usha, the daughter of Heaven, the Mother of radiance, heaven-gold her hue, the sweet-spoken Usha, is beloved of all. The whole clan of gods rallied round her in her moment of distress. Sarama, the Intuition, the Hound of Heaven was there. So was Agni, the Seer-Will. Indra, dark as the rain-clouds, came armed with his thunderbolt; the Maruts, his forty-nine brothers, closed ranks with him. The Ash wins, the Riders of the Steed, were not late in coming; they are physicians, they bring back youth to the old, health to the sick, wholeness to the maimed. Soma, the God of Bliss, could not be left behind! Many were Usha's kingods, and now they came in battle array to combat the

1. This legend is an old one and widespread. We find it not only among the Vedic people, but among the Mayas of America where too the Sun concealed for many months in the darkness is recovered by the hymns and prayers of the wise men.

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creatures of darkness. But the gods were still not sure of being able to vanquish unaided the untold number of their foes. So they called upon their allies, the Rishis; the seven Angirasa Rishis, our human Fathers who were the first founders of knowledge.

Thus assembled the hosts of heaven set out. They knew, of course, who the cow-stealers were: the Dasyus. But the road to their country was beset with peril. For this home of the Dasyus, which they themselves describe as the world of falsehood beyond the bound of things, is the stronghold of the Panis, the lair of Vala, the Titan. Who among the god kind is capable of guiding the others to the secret places of the confiners? Sarama. For she is the Intuition who "leads in the search for the radiant herds." On the way she meets the Night which gives place to her for fear of her overleaping it. The Night is Usha's elder sister, she is "a darkness carrying morning in its breast." The gods follow their guide. Agni at the forefront, close to the guide, "Agni leading, Indra following, the other gods succeeding." Usha would not be left behind, she is with her brothers, her vision of all-round seeing restored by now. The Angirasa Rishis, led by their eldest Brihaspati, are very much the companions-in-arms of the gods. And with them all is Soma, to keep up their spirits.

The advance resumes under the cover of darkness. All night, stumbling and groping through wide defiles and rugged valleys, they follow the guidance of Sarama. Sarama, the fair-footed, who speeds in front of all towards the voice of the vanished herds of Light. The hosts of heaven find themselves in a black ravine with bare crags rising sheer all round them. Sarama

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has led the gods to the place where the hill, so firmly formed and impervious in appearance, is broken and can admit the seekers. When what she seeks is found, Sarama only gives the message to the seers and their divine helpers. Her task is completed with the finding of the home of the robbers. Now it is up to the Allies to rescue the lost kine. They must wrest possession of the wealth that rightly belongs to them, "the much wealth hidden within in the rock behind the fortress gates of the Panis."

A fierce battle ensues. The Angirasas and their divine comrades fall on the enemy with their full battle-cry. Brihaspati, the Master of the Creative Word, the chief of the Angirasas, "with his cry broke the hills," the stronghold of the Panis, the stealers, who had hidden the cows of Usha in the dark cavern-pens. The Panis who make the knot of the crookedness. Who have not the will to works, spoilers of speech —"Thou hast crushed with thy stroke the mouth less Dividers who mar our self-expression, thou hast cloven them asunder in the gated city." Misers that they are, they make no use of the coveted wealth, "preferring to slumber." Their fortress breached, their slumber broken, the impious hosts rush behind their chief, Vala, who comes out raging from his hole in the mountain. Brihaspati breaks Vala into pieces with his triumphant cry. Agni burns. Indra smashes up the strong places of the hill. Many thousand companies of the robbers of the Deep are crushed in their inaccessible dwelling. The Ashwins open the doors of the strong pens that hold the kine. The Rishis and the Gods enter the cave-pen of the Panis and drive upward the liberated herds of Usha. Under the alert eyes of the Ashwins the shining cows are driven back to their

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own wide field: the great, manifold and blissful Field, Swar.

Our human Fathers, the Angirasas Rishis, pursue farther the enemy. They come to the darkest cave yet. The darkness within was engulfed in the darkness. They enter the cave on their hands and knees. And in that heart of darkness they discover Martanda, who had been concealed there by the Titans. The eighth son of Aditi —the all-creating infinite Mother —was seated there immense and alone. He is the black or dark, the lost, the hidden sun. The Sun hidden in Matter.

The treasure was found of a supernal Day.

In the deep subconscient glowed her jewel-lamp;

Lifted, it showed the riches of the Cave

Where, by the miser traffickers of sense

Unused, guarded beneath Night's dragon paws,

In folds of velvet darkness draped they sleep

Whose priceless value could have saved the world.

Savitri, I, III, 41-42

The Vedic Rishis, Sri Aurobindo said, "may not have yoked the lightning to their chariots, nor weighed sun and star, nor materialised all the destructive forces in Nature to aid them in massacre and domination, but they had measured and fathomed all the heavens and earths within us, they had cast their plummet into the Inconscient and the subconscient and the superconscient; they had read the riddle of death and found the secret of immortality. ..."

The hymns of the Veda are the triumph songs of the soul's battle in Matter, and its victory.

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