On Veda
THEME/S
RIGVEDA
Mandala I: Sukta 84
(I)
O INDRA, the delightful wine (Soma) has been pressed out for thee, most powerful art thou and the smiter of foes. May this Indra-Power fill thee even as the sun fills the firmament with its rays.
(2)
The twin bright carriers bring near unto us lndra of indomitable might and also the Hymns of the seers and the sacrifices of men.
(3)
Take thy seat in the chariot, O slayer of Vritra the Coverer, the twin bright steeds have been yoked by the Supreme Word; may the stones, pressing out the wine of Delight by their perfect utterances, turn thy happy mind downward here.
(4)
O lndra, drink of this pressed Soma, the ecstasy supreme and immortal. Towards thee flow the streams of pure light in the Home of Truth.
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(5)
For Indra now raise the luminous chant, utter the expressive Word; the flowing streams delight the Supreme; bow down to this great Power.
(6)
O Indra, thou yokest the twin bright ones; none other charioteer is swifter than thee. None other is near unto thee in strength, none other can find a mightier rider than thee.
(7)
He alone is the one who can bring wealth to the mortal donor. Indeed Indra is the unrivalled Supreme Master.
(8)
When will he with his footfall make the joyless mortal bloom like a mushroom? When indeed will Indra listen to our words?
(9)
Out of the many, whoever releases springs of delight and dwells in Indra, to him indeed Indra sends forth a mighty force.
(10)
Thus the white kine drink of the sweet wine that has been. pressed out, they in the company of the Male Indra rejoice, they dwell gloriously as in their own domain.
(11)
Desiring his touch, the dappled cows distill the Soma drink.
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The herd of cows dear to Indra hurl arrows of thunder; they full of riches, move as to their own domain.
(12)
They, the enlightened ones, by their obeisance, serve his might. They adhere to his many deeds for acquiring foreknowledge: full of riches they move as to their own domain.
(13)
Indra, the inviolable, with the help of the bones of Dadhichi (strong formations of settled intelligence) slew the ninety-nine Vritras, the Coverers.
(14)
He sought the head of the Horse that lay sheltered in the hills and found it in the lake growing reeds (honeyed delight).
(15)
Indeed here he recognised the bright Name of the Fashioner thus hidden away in the home of the Moon.
(16)
Who yokes today the radiant herds of Truth? They are the workers blazing, violent and wrathful, their mouths hurling arrows, herds flaming, creators of bliss. He alone lives who serves (fosters) their growth.
(17)
Who impels? Who hastens? Who is there to be afraid of? And who is it that knows? Who has Indra beside him?
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Who is for our sons and who for our followers? Who is for our welfare? And who shall speak for our progeny and who for our people?
(18)
Who worships Agni with offering and libation and oblation? Who sacrifices through the fixed sessions? To whom the gods carry forthwith the call? Who is it that knows the one who has received the call and attained godhead?
(19)
You are indeed a most potent god; you find the perfect self-expression for the mortal. O holder of riches, O Indra, none other than thee can bring the ecstasy. To you I utter these words.
(20)
Never thy riches, never thy safeties (safeguarding) O Master of riches, do thou withhold from us. O human (as a human) do thou measure out and bring to us, who have the sight (seeing men) all your riches.
Chhandas:
1 – 6 Anushtubh 7 – 9 Ushniha 10 – 12 Pankti
13 – 15 Gayatri I 16 – 18 Trishtubh 19 – 20 Brihati.
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Mandala I: Sukta 89
MAY the happy (blissful) Sacrifices come to us from everywhere, indomitable, invincible, upsoaring. May the Gods be there for our increase, may they never abandon us, may they protect us day after day.
May the perfect, the happy Mind of the Gods who move in the straight path, and their gifts be turned towards us. May we share the friendship of the Gods. May they carry forward our span of life.
With the ancient mantra we invoke them all – Bhaga and Mitra and Aditi and the unstumbling Daksha, Aryaman too, and Varuna and the twin Aswins. May Saraswati, Mother of bliss, create happiness for us.
That healing draught, creative of Delight, may the Wind blow over to us; may Earth the mother and Heaven the
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father and also the Grinding Stones that press out soma-juice and create delight blow over the same to us. O Aswins, Masters of knowledge, listen to us, both of you.
Him, the Supreme Master, Lord of the moving and the unmoving, approachable through the understanding, we call for protection. May the Fosterer be there too to increase our realms of knowledge. May he be there for our welfare, the inviolable guardian and saviour.
May lndra of the full-grown hearing bring to us the Supreme Welfare. May the all-knowing Fosterer also bring to us the Supreme Welfare. And the Fashioner whose chariot wheels move on unhurt, may he too bring to us the Supreme Welfare. And the same Supreme Welfare may Brihaspati establish in us.
Dappled steeds are the Storm-Gods and their Mothers are of dappled hue. Happy is their journey and they move from knowledge to knowledge. They have tongues of fire, thinking beings are they, sun-eyed, may all these Gods come to us for guarding us.
Happy be the hearing to our ears, happy be the seeing to our eyes. O Gods, Lords of the Sacrifice, we invoke them with all our limbs firm and steady; may we enjoy that span of life established in the Gods.
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Beside us stretch a hundred autumns. They bring age to our bodies there, therein the sons become fathers. In this fleeting life-span do not be hostile to us, O Gods.
The One Mother is the heaven and the mid-space. She is the mother and the father and the son. All the Gods are Herself, Herself are the Five Peoples. The One Mother is the creature (created being) and the creatrix.
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Mandala I: Sukta 92
Lo! These Dawns bringing forth knowledge (consciousness): in the eastern hemisphere they spread out light; like assailants with sharpened weapons, the gleaming Mothers move forward.
Easily they rise up, the glowing rays; they yoke the luminous herds and yoke them perfectly. As of yore the Dawns give forms to the perception, the bright rays merge in. the blazing Sun.
As toilers giving the lead, with their illuminations equally yoked, they shine from beyond. They bring all impulsion and all daylight to the sacrificer who is a perfect doer of the work, a perfect donor and a perfect distiller of wine (divine drink).
As a dancer decorates her limbs, as a cow displays her milk-heavy udder, Dawn creates for the world the Light and opens out the darkness, even as a herd does its shelter-stall.
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Lo, her shining flame is before us: it is there spreading wide, holding back the mass of darkness. The Daughter of Heaven displays in our knowings the solar rays as though her own limbs and then merges in the glory of the Sun.
We have crossed over to the other shore of this Darkness. Dawn breaks out and creates all manifested form. She smiles as with the beauty of poetic rhythm. She shines out with her perfect face. She unveils herself and brings to us a happy mind.
Luminous she leads forth the blissful truths. Daughter of Heaven she is hymned by the most enlightened: O Dawn, bestow upon us all the plenitudes of progeny and the hero-power and the lifeforce-consciousness and the herd with the front of light.
O Dawn, may I enjoy that wealth full of glory and perfect hero-strength and the great host of servitors and the wakeful vital force. Thou bringest forth the plenitude, O Goddess of perfect enjoyment; thou shinest with the hearing perfect in action. Vast is that wealth of thine.
The Goddess looks forward to all the worlds and backward too her eye shines widely. She awakens all creatures and makes them move forward. And for all minds she has found their utterance.
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She takes birth again and again and shines with the same beauty of hue as of old. She, the Goddess, like a cutter slays the morrow of creatures and diminishes the life-span of aging mortals.
Widely disclosing the ends of heaven She awakes and sends her sister far away from her. She shortens the human cycles - woman-like she shines wide with the eye of her Beloved.
Lo! The luminous Goddess of Delight spreading out like a herd of kine! Like a river She extends herself wide over low lands. She never impairs the Divine Works, she awakes and becomes visible with the rays of the Sun.
Bearing the plenitudes, O Dawn, bring to us that brilliant richness by which we shall sustain (found) our begetting and our progeny.
O Dawn, break forth for us here today with thy light and energy and lustre and joy and the blissful Truth.
O Dawn, Goddess of Plenitude, yoke the luminous life-forces and bring to us all the felicities (perfect enjoyings).
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O Aswins, you are luminous workers, of golden hue and of one mind. Turn your moving chariots downward towards our habitations.
Thus have you together created this lustrous hymn from heaven for the people. O Aswins, do you both bring to us the vital energy.
May the wakers in the Dawn bring here for drinking the soma-wine the twin-gods who create delight, who do the work and follow the golden path.
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Mandala X: Sukta 57
LET us not turn away from the Path nor from the Sacrifice, O Indra, nor from those who pressed the wine of Immortality. Let not our enemies stand in between.
That weft which fulfils the Sacrifice extends towards the Gods. That we call, to That we move.
The Mind we now call by the Soma (immortal) drink that voices the Godhead, and by the thought-powers of the Fathers.
May the Mind come back to you again for the right Will, for the right Knowledge, for the right living and for the uninterrupted vision of the Sun.
May the Fathers give back to us again, may the Divine
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People do the same; may we cling to the Life with its complex (of divine work).
NOTES: Vratah = sangha (Sayana), group multitude.
May we, O Immortal Delight, install the Mind in our bodily formation; may we, enriched in our progeny, cling to your Divine Work.
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Mandala X: Sukta 58
(1)
THAT Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the solar world of Divine Law —
We bring back to you; so may you dwell here in life.
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the Heaven, to the Earth —
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to a realm whose four sides have crumbled down —
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the great four quarters —
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That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the flooding ocean —
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the flowing splendour —
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the Waters, to the healing plants —
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the Sun, to the Dawn —
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the Vast mountains —
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to all this entire moving world, (creation) —
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That Mind of yours which has gone afar, to the farther than the farthest —
That Mind of yours which has gone afar, even to the past and to the future —
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(The Mother of Rivers)
Mandala X: Sukta 75
[These Rivers, named after the well-known ancient rivers of the Punjab, are here symbolic of the streamings, the forces of consciousness. They are, as it is said, solar powers, the radiant energies of the Sun – the Supreme Light, their seat and source. They are encompassing and flooding the whole universe including the three domains, the Earth, the Heaven and the mid-region. The foremost among them is the Sindhu; all the others are its branches and tributaries. Indeed, they represent the Supreme Power (Parashakti) and her emanations and manifestations and personalities.]
O WATERS, the Poet-Creator proclaims your supreme greatness in the House of the Sun.
The Waters move out in seven streams in each of three channels. Sindhu surpasses all hastening streams in her stupendous urge.
God Varuna dug out the path for your going when, O Sindhu, you rushed to meet the Plenitudes.
You surge over the fields and up along the plateaus when
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you move in front of these moving streams as their Master and Ruler.
To the Heaven the echo perseveres. And on the Earth the Sindhu by her lustre impels upward the sweep of Infinity.
It is as though from the clouds pour out floods of rain. Indeed as she flows down, the Sindhu comes roaring like a mighty bull.
Towards you, O Sindhu, as towards their child the Mothers bellowing rush forth, heavy with milk they are.
Like a warrior king you take lead in the outpouring when you drive forward all these streamings.
O Ganga and Yamuna and Saraswati! O Shutudri with thy companion Parushni! Cling to this hymn to you.
O Marutbridha with thy companion Asikni, O Arjikiya with thy companion Vitasta and Sushoma lend your ears to me.
The first on your way you joined with is Trishtama and then with Susartu and Rasa and Shwetya.
O Sindhu, with Kubha you joined Gomati, and Krumu with Mehatnu: with all of them you move forward in one single movement.
Driving straight, bright and gleaming in her greatness, she overflows the wide spaces of speeding realms.
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Sindhu, inviolate, the greatest worker among workers, she is like a marvellous-hued steed, beautiful like the body of a woman.
Sindhu rides the perfect steed, drives a perfect chariot, wonderfully robed, golden-hued, great deeds she does, full of the plenitudes is she.
Youthful she is, rich in fine fleece, rich in fibrous reeds, she glides over honey-bearing growths, she brings perfect delight (enjoyment).
Sindhu has yoked horses to her happy-going chariot. With that help she wins the plenitude in this sacrifice.
Great is its greatness that is at work. It is inviolate, shines in its own glory, exuberant in its strength.
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Mandala X: Sukta 109
OF the stain in Brahman the first to speak were: God Varuna the Vast (shoreless), the Wind-God Matarishvan, Vayu, who blows away even a stronghold,
The violent God, Agni, the Goddess Water (Apah), mother of Delight: these are the first-born by their power of Truth.
King Soma was the first to lead out Brahman's bride once again, – he had no hesitation.
Varuna and Mitra followed suit. And Agni as the supreme priest took her hand and led on.
“You can seize her body by the hand, she is the bride of Brahman”, they said:
"She was not meant for the missioned messenger; ever she is protected even like the kingdom of a king."
Of this the ancients spoke, the seven seers engaged in tapas.
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The mighty bride stood by the side of the Brahmana, He who has the divine Word: she takes up and places the densest material into the highest heaven.
One who lives and moves in Brahman enters into all the domains and becomes one limbed with all the Gods.
The Master of the Word followed in that way and found the Supreme bride led by the God Soma, even as the Gods found and possessed the oblation.
Once again the Gods gave away and men also
And royal beings also who create the Truth gave back to Brahman his bride.
The bride of Brahman is given back to him, made stainless by the Gods.
It is for the mighty fulfilment of earth that they have taken their seat near unto the vast-ranging Divine-Sun.
NOTE
It is the story of Redemption of Maya, the Lower Nature (Apara Prakriti), its purification or uplifting into the higher Divine Nature (Para Prakriti). The question is always asked how did Maya enter into and possess Brahman, how did darkness envelope and eclipse Light? It was the result of a separation, a rift between Brahman and his Shakti. Originally it was one unique indivisible Reality. But this rift came and the Supreme Prakriti was thrown down into
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the ignorance of densest matter (and the Supreme Brahman went off into mere Sat or Asat, Shunyam).
The Rishi says here that this fall and eclipse was for a greater Rising, this eclipse was for a supreme Revelation. It is for a sovereign Fulfilment, a mighty Enjoyment (urjam prthivya bhaktvaya) of earth, upon earth. The Rishi speaks of how the ignorant dark material nature is raised, transmuted step by step into the supreme nature and unified with the Supreme Reality, Brahman. The agents, the powers that help and operate the process are the high Gods who belong to the Super-nature, God's own pure nature. The principal Gods mentioned here are Varuna which means Infinite Consciousness, Mitra, Supreme Harmony and Love, Agni, the Fiery Force of ascension or Tapas, Soma, the supreme Delight and Vayu, the Lord of the vital who breaks down all barriers and difficulties and forges on. Now the process of redemption is a sacrificial journey, the image of the progressive forward and upward march of the consciousness profusely described in the Vedas and so dear to the Rishis. The process here described is also a process of re-marriage. Brahman's dark bride is the fallen dark Nature: She is being taken back to him led by the Gods, each bringing his own gift and pouring into and securing the ascent and Redemption. In secular marriage seven steps are spoken of which the couple has to take and go forward towards the complete union. Here the bride is made to take three major steps, and at each step she is married to a higher and diviner mode of being. The first transformation is done when she is united with Brahmana.
Brahmana is Brahman as the Divine Word, the expression or embodiment of the soul-truth. In the ordinary normal path of sadhana, it is the stage when one has got the mantra and inner initiation, and starts on the journey. The Divine Bride has now the firm stand and reveals herself as the mighty traveller on the path; even the basest material she can handle and turn into the divine stuff.
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Thenceforth one is living and moving in Brahman – is Brahmachari in active life: it is the Brahman-consciousness that expresses itself in all movements. That is the stage where the Shakti arrives: she is now one with all the Gods and she enters into all their domains and movements, she becomes universalised. Finally the Divine aspirant is not only the possessor but the master of the Word, Brahmanaspati or Brihaspati, the embodiment of the vast dynamic Truth. Now on there is no shade of darkness or eclipse here in the being or consciousness; the Bride is one with the Brahman and regains her original unity and identity with the Supreme.
This separation and division is a play through which a higher union is effected – a panorama of gradual manifestation of the infinite riches that Brahman enshrines in his bosom. The creation of inconscient earth and material nature has to be accepted so that nature is purified and recreated and a divine race of beings is established upon earth for a richer and a glorious fulfilment here below.
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Mandala X: Sukta 146
FOREST-Range! Range of Forest!
Ever forward you seem to move!
Wherefore do you not enquire
for a village? Are you not afraid?
Here bellows the bull, there in answer
chirps a grasshopper –
A musical chord, as it were, playing
the glory of the woodland!
These seem to be cattle grazing
and those are huts for habitation;
and at eve-tide there seem to file
out of the forest a caravan of carts.
A call, as though, it is for a straying calf
or perhaps a tree is being cut down,
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Or even as we are in the woodland
now at night-fall do we hear a moan trailing?
But the forest slays none indeed;
unless there comes an intruder from outside.
Here you regale yourself with sweet fruits
and wander about as you like.
Sweet-scented, loaded with natural yields,
the Mother of animalkind,
To Her I raise this hymn of praise!
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(Skambha)
ATHARVAVEDA
Kanda X: Sukta 7
[The ritualistic or the naturalistic symbolism. of the Veda is at its minimum in this hymn of the Atharvaveda, translated almost literally. The Pillar, it is explicitly said, is the Brahman, the Supreme Reality. It is sarvadhara, the container of all, the total or integral existence. It upholds the creation, it has entered into the creation and it has become the creation. It is the tree, the Aswattha tree as the Upanishad also describes, with its branches spreading out, i.e. all the multiple aspects of the creation. Even the gods, all of them, find shelter here in one form or other. All gods it is: Agni the Divine Force, Indra the Divine Mind, Soma the Divine Delight. It is Tapas, the upward urge in the Universe, it is Satyam the Truth and Ritam the Truth-action, Vak the Truth-word.
Day and Night also are its dual aspects, Light and Darkness - evolution and involution, expression and withdrawal, Being and Non-Being, Knowledge and Ignorance. The image of twin sisters (rivers) refers also to this double movement of consciousness, everywhere in Nature: ascent and descent, inward and outward, the two wings of the Cosmic Bird flying through eternity and infinity. To mark the progress of Time or in Time, cycles of duration (months, half months, seasons etc.) are also noted here as limbs of this Supreme total Reality. To this double movement there is to be added a third movement: if the double movement means
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thesis and antithesis, there is a movement of synthesis also. To the movement sideways there is to be a movement beyond. We know of this threefold movement in the mystery of the Kundalini Force: the two currents ida and pingala on either side of the spinal cord and in between the mounts the susumna heading towards the beyond, to the Crown of the head. The Beyond is of course the Transcendent, the supreme status of Brahman, the All Container.
The conclusion of this Hymn gives succinctly another image of this triplicity of Energy at work in the universal loom of Nature – the warp, the woof and the resultant weft stretching endlessly – to the Beyond.]
IN which limb of That does Tapas¹ lie? In which limb is Ritam² deposited? Wherein lies the Work? Wherein the Faith? In which limb is the Truth established?
From which limb does Agni³ blaze forth? And from which limb does Matarisvan4 blow? On which limb does the Moon repose as it moves out measuring the limb of the mighty Pillar?
On which limb of That does the Earth dwell and on which limb does the Mid-sphere dwell and in which limb is the heaven placed and has its dwelling and in which limb reposes the higher heaven?
1 Energy, Energisation, Will, Divine Energy-will often identified with Agni.
2 Truth in action.
3 Divine Force or Will.
4 Life-force, 'Mother Breath'.
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Whither does Agni yearn to reach and blaze up and whither does the Mother-Breath yearn to reach and blow forward? There where they yearn to reach and round which they circuit, speak of that Pillar – which one indeed is it?
Whither do the half-months go? And whither the months in consonance with the whole year? Where the seasons go and the seasonals, speak of that Pillar – which one indeed is it?
Whither impelled are they, the twin damsels of different hue, Day and Night, there they rush moving in consonance with each other. There they go impelled, the waters; speak of that Pillar – which one indeed is it?
Wherein the Lord of creatures upholds all these worlds firmly lodged, of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it?
That is the highest, that is the lowest, that is the midmost, that is the world-figure the Lord of creatures has created. How much the Pillar has entered therein? How much it did not enter – and how much it has become that?
How much did the Pillar enter into the past? How much into the future? How much of the future stretched into that?
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Its single limb it has made thousandfold, therein how much did the Pillar enter?
There the worlds are and there cells and the waters and Brahman, so the people have known: Where there is the Non-Being and also the Being, of that Pillar speak - which one indeed is That?
Tapas is there in its overwhelming force upholding the Higher Law, Truth-in-action is there and Faith and the Waters and the Brahman firmly established. Of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is That?
Therein the Earth, the Heaven and the Mid-sphere are settled, there the fire, the moon, the sun and the winds dwell as offerings. Of that Pillar speak - which one indeed is it?
In whose lap the three and thirty-three Gods, all of them, are established - of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it?
Wherein there are the first born Seers and the Riks and the Samas and the Great Goddess. In that is reposed the Sun, sole Seer. Of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it?
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(I5)
Thereupon the Person is laid, Immortality and Death also; upon the Person the sea also is placed as nerves and sinews of the Pillar; of That speak – which one indeed is it?
There lay the four Quarters and the prime nerves and sinews, therein the sacrifice moves inviolate; of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it?
The Man who knows Brahman knows also the very Supreme and he who knows the Supreme knows also the Waters and the peoples. They who know Brahman, the most ancient One, have always been knowing the Pillar.
The Universal fire is its head, the flames of the fire are its eyes, the sorcerer spirits are its limbs; of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it?
Brahman is its mouth, they say, a very scourge of sweetness is its tongue and they say, the Vast¹ is its breast; of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it?
Out of that they carved out the Riks, out of that they fashioned the Yajur: the Samas are its hair. The line of the
¹ Stainless.
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Atharvas and the line of the Angirasa are its mouth. Of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it?
(21)
Men established the line of Non-Being and knew it the Supreme. Others, on the contrary, recognise the Being and follow that line of theirs.
(22)
There all the Adityas¹, all the Rudras² and all those born of Indra³ are lodged. There what was, what will be and all the worlds are established. Of the Great Pillar speak which one indeed is it?
(23)
It is one whose wealth is always guarded by the three and thirty Gods – who knows today of this wealth protected all around by the Gods?
(24)
There where the Gods who know of the Brahman; worship the Brahman the most Ancient. He who knows them through direct sight' becomes indeed the Knower, Brahman itself.
(25)
Great is the Name of the Gods5 who are born upon the Non
1 Children of the sun.
2 Children of the Violent One, the Lord of Might.
3 The Lord of Mind or the Divine Mind.
4 Who has thus the immediate vision of all these gods.
5 Great indeed are the Gods.
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Being; that become one limb of the Pillar, thus said the the ancient peoples.
(26)
There the Pillar gave birth to the ancient One and turned it round1; that is one ancient limb of the Pillar. This they have been knowing always,
(27)
From the body of That the thirty-three gods cut out each his respective limb – a few only who know of the Brahman know of the thirty-three gods.
(28)
People knew of Hiranyagarbha² as the Supreme, the Insuperable³ but the Pillar was there existent before and sprayed the gold into the bosom of the creation.
(29)
In the Pillar lie the worlds, in the Pillar lies Tapas, in the Pillar lies Ritam firmly held; the Pillar thou knowest directly. In Indra all is firmly established.
(30)
In Indra lie the worlds, in Indra the Divine Energy, in Indra lies the Truth-in-action firmly held. Indra thou knowest by direct sight; in the Pillar all is firmly established.
1 Rolled it out.
2 The Golden Womb.
3 Unsurpassable.
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(31)
He calls the Name by the Name in front of the Sun, in front of the Dawn when the Unborn first came into being; indeed he moved into self-empire than1 which no other supreme exists, none existent.
(32)
The Vast Earth measures out That, the mid realm is its great belly, the heaven it created as its head. We bow to the most Ancient, the Brahman.
(33)
The Sun and the ever-renewing Moon are the eyes of That. Agni is its mouth. We bow to this most Ancient, the Brahman.
(34)
The Winds are its higher and lower breath, the Angiras² became its eyes, That created the directions as openings to knowledge. To That the most Ancient, the Brahman we bow down.
(35)
The Pillar upholds here both Earth and Heaven. The Pillar upholds the vast Mid-Sphere, the Pillar upholds the six quarters; thus the Pillar has entered this wide creation.
(36)
That is born from Labour, That is born from the Supreme Energy. All the worlds it has encompassed. It created
1 Beyond.
2 Fire-adept Rishis.
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Soma,¹ the sole reality.. To That the most Ancient, Brahman I bow.
(37)
How is it that the wind does not move? How is it that the mind does not take delight? How is it that the waters impelled towards the Truth move no more?
(38)
A mighty Spirit within the creation, upon the waters is engaged in tapas – in That the gods, one and all, take refuge as the branches assemble around the trunk of the tree.
(39)
To That through the hands and feet, through speech and hearing and sight, all the gods make their offering, to That, the Measureless in the measured. Of this Pillar speak which one indeed is it?
(40)
The darkness slipped from him, He turns round from Evil, all Lights are in Him; threefold³ are they in the Lord of Creation.
(41)
He knows the golden reed lying in the waters. He is the secret Lord of Creation.
(42)
Two young maids, of different hue, weave assiduously a
1 Divine Delight.
2 Has lost taste.
3 Sat-Chit-Ananda, body-life-mind.
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six-pronged web: One draws out the thread, the other holds it. They do not stop nor do they go to the end.
(43)
They are dancing about me, as it were, and I do not know which one belongs to the beyond.
(44)
A human it is who weaves, and also one who receives, a human it is who carries towards the other world. These radiances held firm the Heaven, created the Sarna Songs for realising their extensions.
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Kanda XII: Sukta 1
[This is a selection from the original Hymn which is somewhat longer. There is here a double series of numbering of the slokas, put side by side – except those that have the same number in the original as well as the selection; the first one gives the order of the slokas as selected: the other one refers to the number as in the original text.]
THE vast Truth, the Mighty Law, the Consecration, the austere Will, the Word, the Sacrifice – these uphold the Earth. She is the guardian of our past and of our future. May she create for us the wide Realm.
Man offers no barrier: many are the hills and dales and plains (ups and downs and levels) there; of multiple varieties are the plants she nourishes. May the Earth spread wide for us; on us may she bestow the plenitudes.
In her are the oceans and rivers and all the waters – In her, aliments have grown and the people as well, in her all
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this lives, breathes and moves; may the wide Earth give us her very first yield to drink.
Fourfold are the expanses to which this Earth turns; in her have grown the food and the human workers: she nourishes in various ways, she breathes, she moves. May the wide Earth establish us in Light and in the Matter.
Here in ancient days our ancient fathers did their deeds. Here the Gods routed the Asuras. This is the home of kine and horses and birds. May the Earth bestow upon us enjoyments and splendours.
She contains all things. She holds the very Substance. She is the Foundation. Gold-breasted, she harbours the World. She harbours the whole world. The vast Earth carries in her Agni, the all-power. May she under the protection of lndra establish us in his riches.
Her the unsleeping Gods give protection eternally; the Vast Earth, the unfailing giver of all things, may she pour out for us the milk, the sweet delight, the honey, and sprinkle us with the lustre.
In the beginning she was as water on the bosom of the ocean; men of intelligence with their creative formations
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followed her in her wake. The heart of Earth lay immortal, robed with Truth, in the highest spaces; may the wide Earth establish for us strength and a flaming energy in the supreme kingdom.
There the waters move all around equally night and day and flow unerringly.
That wide material earth opulent in her streams yields water like milk, may she pour upon us a shower of lustres.
The twin Aswins have measured her out; upon her Vishnu strode wide. Indra, the Lord of the Lights, for his own sake, has freed her of enemies.
That wide material earth of ours as a mother to her son pours out her sweet drink for us.
May the hills, the snowy ranges, the forests bring happiness to thee, O Earth.
Brown or black or red, in all forms upon this wide secure Earth that is protected by Indra (the Divine Mind), I stand firm and conquer, unslain, unhurt.
O Earth, that which is thy middle, that which is thy navel, and those lofty formations of thine, establish them in us. Flow towards us, O Mother Earth; I am the son of the Earth, the God Rain (Parjanya) is my father, may he bring fulfilment to us.
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There on a high ground the universal workers stand encircling the altar, there they conduct the sacrifice; there the stakes are planted straight and luminous before the offering is made; may the wide Earth herself grow and make us grow.
They that hate us, O Earth, they that war with us, they that obstruct us by their thought or by their missile (weapon), may our land forestall them and subdue them.
Born of thee, the mortals move in thee. Thou nourishest the twin-seats and the fourfold seats. Thine are these five human races for whose sake, for these mortals, the sun rises and spreads with his rays the immortal Light.
May this whole world of creatures give us their yield (the sweet drink). O Earth, establish in me the sweetness of speech (the Word).
S4e begets all things, the Mother of healing plants, the firm, the wide Earth, upheld by the Divine Law, full of bliss, full of happiness: upon this earth may we live and move ever and ever.
A mighty abode thou hast become mightiness itself: a great, speed and vibration and energy are thine. The great Indra
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protects thee unfailingly, O wideness, illumine us with that perfect sight as of gold. May none bring hurt to us.
Upon the earth they offered to the Gods the sacrifice and the oblation perfectly prepared. Upon earth men, mortals, live by their own inner nature and outer need (self-nature and food). May that wide earth establish in us the vital force and a long span of life. May Earth grace me with a ripe old age.
The aroma, O Earth, that rises out of thee, that which the healing plants and that which the waters carry, that which delights the heavenly beings and the celestial nymphs, with that make me sweet-scented, O Earth, may none bring harm to us.
That expanse which is to thy east and that which is to thy north and that, O wide Earth, that which is below and that too which is behind, may all bring bliss to me who am moving here, may there be no stumbling for me, a dweller upon this wide Earth.
O Earth, that which I am digging out of thee, may it grow forthwith; O Purifier, let me not disturb thy heart nor thy soul.
The Earth carries multiple riches in her cavern, may she yield to me jewel and gold. Giver of wealth may the Goddess
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bestow upon us wealth; in her delight, in a happy mind may she establish them in us.
Whatever villages and forests are there, whatever gatherings and meetings, to all, for your sake, may we speak beautiful words.
O vast Mother, firmly established I am, implant in me the supreme good; O seer, in conscious union with the heaven, establish upon the wide Earth the supreme beauty.
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(Sam yoh)
YAJURVEDA
Chapter 36
I SEEK the Grace of Rik, the Word. I seek the Grace of Yajur, the Mind. I seek the Grace of Sam a, the Life-Force. I seek the Grace of the Eye and the Ear; may the energy that is Speech, the Energy that is Power and the Life-Force, both the higher and the lower, there be ever in me.
Whatever rift is there in my vision, in my heart, in my mind, or whatever there is torn, may the Master of the Word heal it; may the Master of the Universe be all Peace and Grace to us.
Lo, the Earth, the Mid-region, the Heaven! I contemplate upon that Supreme (Sovereign) Light of the Sun who impels to us all intelligence.
O the manifold Delight, what is that vastness by which thou becomest our ever-increasing comrade and what is that Supreme Flaming Lustre which surrounds thee?
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What is that Mightiest of Drinks, full of truth which gives you the ecstasy of the divine Soma-juice and breaks open even a stronghold?
All around us with thy vastnesses thou becomest hundredfold, the protector of thy comrades and adorers.
Oh, the Mighty, what is that vastness with which thou delightest us? And how is it that thou bringest gifts to thy adorers?
lndra with his lustres rules all the worlds. May there be Peace and Grace for us in the twofold status as well in the fourfold status.
May Mitra be Peace and Grace to us. May Varuna be Peace and Grace to us. May Aryaman be Peace and Grace to us. May lndra be Peace and Grace to us. May Brihaspati be Peace and Grace to us. May the vast-ranging Vishnu be Peace and Grace to us.
May the Wind blow to us the Peace and the Grace, may the Sun bring to us the warmth of the Peace and the Grace, may the Rain-God roar and thunder and pour shower to us of the Peace and Grace.
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May the days be Peace to us, may the nights be Peace and upbear us; may Indra and Agni with their protection be Peace to us, may Indra and Varuna pour their oblations and give Peace to us, may Indra and Pushan who conquer the plenitudes be Peace to us, may Indra and Soma be Peace to us for our perfect journey. May Peace and Power be there for us.
May the Goddesses, the Waters, bring to us the Peace and the Grace so that we may have the right impulsions and drink of the Perfect Delight. May Peace and Power flow towards us in a stream.
O Earth, be delightful to us and a thornless habitation; bestow upon us the all-round welfare.
O Divine Waters, you are there indeed, creators of delight, uphold us so that we may attain to the Might, the great Delight and the Perfect Sight.
With that pure Delight which is full of your utmost blessedness, do you nourish us here, like a loving mother.
May we approach Him towards whose dwelling you move; O Waters, increase too our progeny.
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Peace be the Heavens, Peace the Mid-region, Peace the Earth, Peace the Waters. May the Healing Plants be Peace, the great Trees be Peace; may the all-Gods be Peace, may Brahma, the Supreme, be Peace, may all be Peace: may Peace be Peace, may that Peace come to us.
Firm thou art, make me firm. For me may they with the eye of Mitra look at all beings. May I with the eye of Mitra look at all beings. May we with the eye of Mitra look at all beings.
Firm thou art, make me firm! Constantly may I dwell in thy happy sight.
Obeisance to Thee, O wrath, O Flame, obeisance to Thee, O Radiance. They who are other than us, them do thou afflict with thy weapons (missiles). For us do thou be the Purifier and the Benign Lord.
Obeisance to Thee, the Lightning, obeisance to Thee, the Thunderer, obeisance to Thee, the Supreme Lord, whence thou impellest the Sun-world.
From wheresoever Thou willest us away, may we have no fear thence. May our progeny have thy Grace and our livestock thy protection.
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Perfect friends may to us be the waters and the plants; unfriendly let those be who discard us and whom we discard.
May we see that bright "Eye" founded on the Divine arise in front of us for a hundred autumns. May we live a hundred autumns, may we continue to hear for a hundred autumns, may we continue to speak for a hundred autumns, may we be without want for a hundred autumns, a hundred autumns over again, indeed beyond a hundred autumns.
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OTHER HYMNS AND PRAYERS
SWEET are his lips, sweet his mouth,
his eyes are sweet, sweet his smile,
Sweet is his heart, sweet his gait,
of the lord of sweetness all is sweet.
Sweet are his words, sweet his manners,
his robes are sweet, sweet the folds (curves) of
his body
Sweet as he moves, sweet as he wanders,
Sweet is his flute, sweet the dust,
his hands are sweet, sweet his feet,
Sweet is his dance, sweet his friendship,
Sweet as he sings, sweet as he drinks,
sweet as he eats, sweet as he sleeps,
Sweet is his form, sweet the sandal-mark on his brow,
Sweet is his deed, sweet his rescue,
his escape is sweet, sweet his dalliance,
Sweet is his conquest, sweet his appeasement,
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Sweet are the creepers, sweet the garlands,
Yamuna is sweet, sweet its surges,
Sweet is the water, sweet the lotus,
Sweet are the Gopis, sweet the play,
bondage is sweet, sweet is freedom,
Sweet his look, sweet his ways,
Sweet are the cowherds, sweet the herds,
his baton is sweet, sweet the creation –
Sweet is his destruction, sweet his fulfilment,
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SHE is anointed with camphor and sandal
And He with ashes of the funeral pyre;
She wears true ear-rings
And He rings of swaying snakes;
I bow to Her, I bow to Him.
She is decorated with garlands of Mandara
And He with garlands of human skulls;
She is girt with heavenly robes
And He with the vacant spaces;
Her anklets stir and jingle
And His, the serpent-hoods, gleam and swing;
Her limbs are decked with gold
And His with the heads of hissing vipers;
Her eye is as the tremulous blue lotus
And His the red lotus blooming;
Her globes of vision are a triplet
And His too have the same number uneven;
She is seated at ease on the back of Her devoted minion
And He in His deadly dance destroys the worlds;
She it was who created Kama, the god of love,
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And He destroyed him;
Her half of the body is golden like champa flower,
His half is as white as camphor-dust;
Hers are the flowing tresses
And His the matted hair;
Indeed, dark like clouds are Her massive hair
And His the twisted locks and a body smeared with ashes;
O, the Mother of the worlds! O, the Father!
I bow to Ishwari (Shiva) and I bow to Ishwara (Shiv).
Ever She embellishes the good,
Ever He embellishes the evil;
She is one with Ishwara (Shiv)
And He is one with Ishwari (Shiva);
I bow down to Ishwari (Shiva), I bow down to Ishwara (Shiv).
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NOR father nor mother, nor friends nor brothers,
Nor son nor daughter, nor servants nor master,
Nor bride nor learning nor profession have I:
Thou art the refuge, thou the sole refuge, O Bhavani!
In this world, this shoreless ocean brimming with its dread
suffering,
I lie prostrate, full of desire, full of greed, full of delusion;
For ever entangled I am in the meshes of Wrong movements:
I know neither benefaction nor meditation nor yoga,
Nor do I know secret practices nor charms nor chants occult;
I know not rites of worship, nor the process of renouncing:
I know not virtue, I know not pilgrimage,
I know not liberation nor any annihilation either,
I know not devotion nor even ascetic discipline, O Mother;
I am a wrong-doer, wrong company, wrong-witted, wrong servant,
I have abandoned all customs of ancestors and I have embraced all wrong customs;
To see wrong, to speak wrong I am always prone:
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Lord of the people, Lord of the Divine Mother,
the great Lord Himself, the Lord of the Gods,
Lord of the day, Lord of the night,
I know none else among the Gods for everlasting shelter;
In strife and gloom, in error, in other lands,
In water and fire, in the mountains and among enemies,
In forest-ranges I seek my shelter, protect me always:
I have no protector, I am destitute, I am stricken with age
and ailings,
Wholly dispossessed, lowliest, ever reduced to an inert figure;
I have entered into calamity, thoroughly undone:
GLOWING like the red passion-flower,
born of the Supreme Light,
lo, the Mighty Splendour!
He dispels darkness, he slays
all ills, I bow to the
creator of the Day.
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WHITE-hued — white as the Kunda flower or the moon
or the snow-range, robed in white
She bears in her arms the marvellous vina, seated on
the lotus.
She is ever adored by Brahma and Vishnu and Shiva
and all the Gods.
May Saraswati save us, the Goddess, may she wipe out
all our slothness unto the last.
Oh Saraswati, thou art the great destiny, the supreme
Knowledge, oh Beauty with lotus-eyes!
The universe is thy form, thy gaze ranges wide,
Oh Goddess, give us the Knowledge,
I bow to thee.
May she dwell on our tongue—she holds the Vina and
the Book,
The consort of the Supreme, the Mother Divine,
gleaming white, O Saraswati!
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WHO seeks holy places Gaya and Ganga and Prabhas and
Kashi and Kanchi and all,
If I can tell to the end the countless count of the name of
Kali?
What need has one of rituals, if all the three holy hours
one utters the name of Kali?
The rituals pursue him in vain and find him not.
Neither charity nor benevolence nor rites have any room
in his consciousness.
He has done the sacrifice of the passions at the golden
feet of the Divine Mother.
Who can know the infinite power of the name, Kali?
The God of gods, the great God, Mahadeva himself sings
multiple-tongued praises to her.
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ON THE VEDA
WHAT is it that we call Veda? It is already known to us that the Vedas are the perennial fount of Indian culture and education, the foundation of Hinduism and the basis of the Aryan civilisation. He who defies Veda is an atheist, a non-Hindu, an untouchable and a non-Aryan. All the various religious systems and scriptures of the Hindus look upon the Veda as the sole authority. What is inconsistent with the Vedas is false and unacceptable. It is no hyperbole to say that all our scriptures are but elaborate commentaries on the Veda. Even men of revolutionary ideas who want to preach some new doctrines have not the courage to stand against the Vedas face to face. They try to find out passages in support of their views or interpret the Vedas in their own light or at least declare that the Vedas neither refute nor confirm their views.
Hinduism is the most catholic of all the religions. It is the most complex and diverse. It has housed peacefully a good many different creeds. And for all these esoteric mysteries the Vedas are solely to be credited. The message of the Vedic Rishi Dirghatamas has inspired the Hindus and the heart of India through aeons. That message is still as familiar and living as ever. Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti (The one Truth has been expressed differently by different seers.) The Gayatri Mantra which has become as natural as the air we breathe in and breathe out was first sung by the immortal sage Viswamitra of the Veda. Even in the
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20th century we follow the injunctions of the Vedic seers in conducting the ten principal functions of our social life right from our birth to death.
Therefore, according to us, the Veda is as immutable and sempiternal as the supreme Brahman. The root meaning of the term "Brahman" is the Word, the Word inspired. Hence the Veda is eternally true from the birth of the creation to the present age. Nobody has created the Vedas, nor could anybody do it, not even the Rishis. The seers simply heard them with a supernatural faculty of hearing and saw them written before their mental vision; whereafter they arranged them in a systematic manner. That is why the Veda is no human creation. The staunch Hindus subscribe to this view.
Can we look upon the Vedas as the Christians look upon the Bible and the Mohammedans the Koran? All the epithets that we apply to the Vedas are equally applied by the Christians and the Mohammedans to their respective holy scriptures. And it is no wonder that every nation should extol its -own scripture to the skies. But it behoves us to ascertain the value of the Vedas impartially. We must discover whether it is true that they deserve to be called an infallible and supernatural creation.
It is a need of the hour to investigate the contents of the Vedas. The Europeans are to be credited with having started this bold enquiry. Such enquiry has been termed 'Higher Criticism' in Europe. It applies not only to the Vedas, but to their own scriptures as well. It is the inherent characteristic of the Europeans not to accept anything without putting it to a severe test at every step. They are not prepared to accept anything on the ground that it has been handed down from generation to generation. Needless to say that the value of such a habit is incalculable. And to our misfortune we lost this habit long ago. In the present age we take pride in the mere mention of the Vedas without caring to know about their contents. We should remain
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beholden to the Europeans that a new wave from the West has awakened us to a true spirit of enquiry.
It is quite surprising that very few people in India have any acquaintance with the Vedas. Most have not been fortunate enough even to have a glimpse of this mighty work. But the fate of the Bible has been otherwise in Europe. The common run of people in India were satisfied with the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas. And the learned few concerned themselves with the Upanishads and the six systems of philosophy. Even Rammohan Roy who infused the Hindus with a new spirit and light could not go beyond the domain of the Upanishads. Besides, the few who engaged themselves in a discussion of the Vedas confined themselves more to the commentaries on the Vedas than the Vedas proper. The grammar of Panini, Nirukta, the science of derivation of meanings from the roots, Mimamsa, the commentaries on the Vedas and, above all, the commentaries made by Sayana Acharya made it so difficult to understand the text of the Vedas that it looked like the peak of a mountain that could hardly be reached through deep and intricate forests. Whenever we heard the name of the Veda, we used to give wide berth to it with reverential awe. Our object here is not to discuss who or what is responsible for such a pass but simply to make a plain statement of the bare fact.
Europe made bold to launch an assault on this inaccessible fortress. There is no reason why the Europeans should have the same feeling of reverence as is aroused in our hearts at the mere mention of the Vedas. To them the Veda is but an ancient human product. They did not approach it to derive any cultural benefit from it. All that they wanted was to make themselves acquainted with the Aryan Hindus. The nebulous veil that existed round the Vedas was rent and set aside by them and they replaced it with the daylight of modern thought. We shall later on deal with what followed their rash attempt, but it must be admitted at the very
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outset that, inspired by their example, the Hindus mustered courage to delve into the Vedas. And what did the European scholars, freed from bias, discover? They found that the unusual reverence of the Hindus for these scriptures was simply due to the traditional superstition devoid of any rational cause. According to them, the Vedas are the first attempt of man at literature. They are a mere collection of pastoral songs comparable to the lispings of a baby. Man in his uncultured and innocent state used to feel every object infused with life and imagined spirits behind the forces Nature. Therefore he prayed to Indra and Varuna for rain, to the Sun for its rays of light. Frightened by the hurricane and storm he would implore the Maruts for safety, and harmed by the soothing beauty of Dawn he would sing her eulogy.
The gods and demons imagined by the naive and simple mind possessed miraculous powers — prompted by such notions men used to convey their salutations to those mighty Beings, ask them for their daily necessities, material prosperity, and welfare in the other world after death. Cow and horses were the chief means of their livelihood. So they prayed for cows yielding abundant milk and horses possessing dynamic strength and energy. They used to fight among themselves — one clan against another — and specially against the robbers who were the Dravidians of ancient; India, while they were the Aryans who had come from abroad. Hence they needed arms and weapons and they naturally wanted to defeat the enemy. And that is why they sought the help of the gods for victory.
They used to perform some special rites known as a sacrifice, in which they would arrange on an altar some dried sticks of holy trees in a particular formation and kindle a fire in which to pour oblations of clarified butter and many other good things. They offered wine (the juice of soma) to the gods and partook of it themselves. It seems, fire was to them a new discovery. That is why they appreciated
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its value so much. Moreover, they lived in a frigid snowy region. Hence they looked upon the fire as the chief Deity of their worship.
So far we have dealt with the Western approach to the Veda. Now let us turn our attention to the Indian view of the Veda. Acharya Sayana is the foremost scholar to whom the current Indian view owes its origin. He made a commentary on the whole of the Rigveda. But for his commentary it is doubtful if the European scholars would have succeeded in deriving any meaning from the abstruse, old and unfamiliar language of this scripture. As a matter of fact, the commentaries made by the Western scholars are principally based on his commentary. However, he did not consider the Vedic seers to be mere children or men at their primitive stage. Nor did he lay any stress on the explanation based on the sights and scenes of physical Nature. He observed and understood the Veda from the standpoint of sacrificial rites. He endeavoured to discover from the Veda the nature of sacrifice and a full account of the ceremonies to be performed in a sacrifice. The performance of sacrifice is a part of the spiritual life and its aim is to bring about soul progress and welfare here and hereafter. The gods dwell in a world known as Heaven. The forces of Nature are backed by their powers. A particular god presides over a particular force of Nature. All the gods are combined in the Universal God, and all the gods are only the different manifestations of the same Universal God. It is the power of the gods which endows men with power, and men too on their part propitiate the gods through their sacrifices offered to them. The gods are satisfied with and nourished by men's humble obeisance and their offering of Soma Rasa, while men in their turn attain to prosperity in this world and secure a better status in the other world.
Indians, who have received modern education, have been trying to synthesise the commentaries of the Western and Eastern scholars on the Veda. Their object is to portray
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the picture of a society not quite primitive but somewhat primary, by uniting the interpretations based on natural phenomena and sacrificial rites.
If this view was considered as giving the real nature of the Veda, the question would arise: how could the Veda be regarded as the foundation of the Aryan genius and the fount of the civilisation and culture of Hindu India? If the Veda were nothing save nursery rhymes and the like, then how could it exert a lasting influence on our minds and life through centuries? The Bible and the Koran contain some eternal truths beneficial to the life and conduct of men for all time. But according to the naturalistic interpretation of the Western scholars and the sacrificial explanation offered by our orthodox scholars, there is no such elevating or lasting truth in the Veda. Are we then to suppose that our reverence for the Veda owes its origin merely to a blind acceptance of a tradition down the sweep of centuries? Our present culture and civilisation differs widely from that of our forefathers. How is it that we have still a profound admiration for the Veda? Is it precisely because the Veda serves as the root of our cultural tree adorned with a myriad branches, with foliage, flowers and fruits? No, the supreme authority of the Veda has not been recognised out of mere courtesy. The Shruti has been the sheet-anchor of our guidance at every step and in every activity of our day-to-day life.
Here arises the second question. The Western and modern scholars are prone to make a difference between the Veda and the Shruti. According to them, the term Shruti is synonymous with the Upanishad and not with the Veda proper. But what is it that we actually find in the Upanishad that is considered by all scholars, oriental and occidental, as the repository of knowledge of the highest order? The Upanishad has been studied much more than the Veda in India and abroad. The reason is this that the ideas and language of the Upanishad are simpler than
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those of the Veda, and also more familiar to modern thought. The Upanishad is free from all the intricacies of sacrificial rites, ceremonies and obscure mantras, etc. It deals precisely with the clear realised truths that form the basis of the philosophical doctrines. That is why the Europeans hold that the Upanishad comes in as a reaction and protest against the Veda. Towards the end of the Vedic era the Aryan Hindus bade farewell to their cult of Nature-worship and sacrifices and turned towards the quest of God and metaphysical truths and thus a new era was ushered in. Now, on what ground do the European scholars make such an assertion as regards the historical development of Indian thought? As a matter of fact, we do notice that every teacher of Philosophy whenever he has cited anything from the Upanishad has also tried to corroborate it with a similar quotation from the Veda for its justification. There is no iota of proof that the Upanishad held any view contrary to that of the Veda or ever contradicted it. The Upanishad is the culmination of or a complement to the Veda. Since the advent of the dialectic philosopher Hegel it has become a fashion among Western scholars to find an antithesis in every field of historical truth. From their own history they come to learn that Christianity arose as a revolt against the idolatry of the Romans, again Martin Luther and Protestantism stood out against the Roman Catholic Church. Likewise they are, as it were, eager to discover a revolt in the religious history of India. It is not that such a spirit of antithesis is altogether absent in the history of Indian religions, but it is utterly meaningless to say that this antithesis exists as between the Veda and the Upanishad as well. In fact, the Upanishad has always approached the Veda most reverentially and hardly failed to mention: "This we heard from the ancient sages who had explained it to us."
Besides, in the current commentaries on the Veda we come across explanations which are at places self-contradictory, inconsistent, lacking in clarity, fanciful and arbitrary. The
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same word has been used at different places to convey different meanings without any justification, and also at times the commentators have been constrained to keep silent or to confess that they could make neither head nor tail of a passage, a sentence or a word. For instance, the word ghrta (clarified butter) has been explained as jala (water) and the word water has been used for antariksa (ether) and the word vyoman (ether) has been interpreted as prthivi (earth). That is why in the interpretations of Sayana or Ramesh Dutta, in spite of their supplying synonyms of words, a passage taken as a whole appears to be quite odd, confusing and utterly meaningless. One is at a loss to know whether one should indulge in laughter or shed tears over such a performance. It may be argued that the Veda was written in a remote antiquity, hence much of its archaic language is not likely to be understood by men of the present age. It is enough on our part to be able to form a general idea of it. But when one has to resort to a makeshift hocus-pocus even for gathering this general idea, then it becomes quite clear that there must have been some serious blunder somewhere. If it were possible to get the general idea of the Veda quite easily, then all the interpreters would necessarily have pursued it. But unfortunately in the present age we find that besides the sacrificial and naturalistic interpretations there are historical (by Abinash Chandra Das), geographical (by Umesh Chandra Vidyaratna), astronomical (by Tilak), scientific (by Paramasiva Aiyar) and even an interpretation based on Chemistry (by Narayan Gaur) and so on and so forth. Many minds, many ways: nowhere else may this oft-quoted adage be so aptly applied as in the case of the multifarious interpretations of the Veda. A few portions of the Veda that had appealed to an interpreter most in accordance with his own bent of mind gave him the impetus to endeavour to interpret the whole of the Veda in that light. The result has been that the same sloka has been interpreted in ever so many ways. But none of these
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interpreters has even attempted interpreting the whole or the major portion of the Veda. From this we can dare conclude that the key to the proper interpretation of the Vedic mysteries has not hitherto been found. All are but groping in the dark.
What is then the proper way to be followed for the right understanding of the Vedas? We have, in this respect, to adopt the same principle which forms the key to all ancient literatures. We needs must be acquainted with the texts of the Vedas proper with an unbiased mind empty of all preconceived notions. The commentators, the annotators, the grammarians, the rhetoricians join, as it were, to create a world of confusion. Far from getting an access to the sanctum we get lost in wandering mazes. That is why we have been deprived of getting a first-hand knowledge of the Vedas. The commentators may be at most helpers. But if we attach too much importance to their commentaries, it will inevitably turn them into an obstacle. First, it is of paramount importance to know the central idea of the Vedas, the viewpoint of the, Rishis. The help of the commentators and the annotators may be necessary later on when we go into details. Needless to say that if we get into the bitter controversies of commentators, we are sure to be deadly confused. So at the very outset we have to be acquainted with the bare texts of the Vedas. This method is applicable to all literatures. We must read poetry in the original in order to appreciate its true spirit, leaving aside all criticisms on it. For, men endowed with the power of true appreciation of poetry are rarely found in the present generation. We are more familiar with the commentaries on the works of Shakespeare and Kalidasa than with their originals.
However, to be at home in the central theme of the Vedas, the method that we should follow is: to proceed from the
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known to the unknown. In the Vedic texts we often come across some important words that admit of no ambiguity. With the help of the obvious meanings of these words we have to find out the implications of the words partly obscure or totally obscure. In the Vedas there are such mantras (incantations), sentences and words in abundance which reflect modern ideas and appear quite familiar to the present-day intellect. It is at once advisable and reasonable to accept such self-evident meanings. It is of no avail to leave aside such clear meanings and seek out roundabout abstruse meanings on the ground that what we are dealing with are the Vedas, the writings of hoary antiquity. Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti (The one Truth is expressed differently by the men of knowledge) or, tat Visno param padam...diviva cakuratatam (That is the supreme Status of Vishnu, as if an Eye wide open in the heavens) or, Brhaspatih prathamam jayama mano jyotisah parame Vyoman (Brihaspati being born first as a great Light in the supreme Heaven)-the meanings of these words are by no means obscure or ambiguous. The meanings as well as the ideas with which these words are infused are quite plain and clear enough. These expressions convey no indication of the lisping of the babe or an aborigine or an uncultured mind or even a ritualistic mind. Here we find expressions of a mature mind enlightened with knowledge flowing from a profound realisation of Truth. Neither the befitting rhythm nor rhyme is missing. Further,
Codayitri sunrtanam cetanti sumatinam
yajñam dadhe sarasvati.
Maho arnah sarasvati pra cetayati ketuna
dhiyo visva vi rajati. (1.3.11,12)
"She, the impeller to happy truths, the awakener in consciousness to right mentalisings, Saraswati, upholds the sacrifice.
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"Saraswati, by the perception awakens in consciousness the great flood (the vast movement of the rtam) and illumines entirely all the thoughts." (Translated by Sri Aurobindo).
In this instance too the fundamental idea is not something very abstruse. It is commonsense that the theme is related to the experience of Truth, the spiritual realisation and psychological concept. Acharya Sayana was at sea to interpret these few slokas in the light of natural phenomena and sacrificial ceremonies, so much so that he provokes our laughter as well as a sense of pity. We know Saraswati as the Deity of knowledge. So it is natural that the words dhiyavasuh (one whose wealth consists of pure intellect), dhiyo visvah (universal intellect), or words like sumati (right movements of thought) should be applicable to Saraswati. The word dhi (pure intellect) is well-known. But such an obvious meaning does not serve Sayana's purpose. So he used karma (action), i.e. the action of showering as a synonym for dhi. In another place concerning Mitra and Varuna it has been said that these two gods made up such dhi, as is ghrtacim, literally "besmeared with ghrta" (dhiyam ghrtacim sadhanta - 1.2.7). But according to the interpreter Sayana, the phrase dhiyarh ghrtacim means the rain that pours water! In some other context (1.14.6) Sayana himself says that the root ghr may also mean "to make something shine"; so the plain meaning of dhiyarh ghrtacim is the “enlightened intellect.” But Sayana preferred to interpret the word ghrta (lit. clarified butter) as water and rains. If we refer to the context where Sayana explains ghrta as “effulgence” it will be clearer to us that this effulgence is not even the physical external light; it refers to the inner illumination. There (1.14.6) Agni (fire) has been called (one with a blazing front; along with this adjective another adjective, namely manoyujah has also been used; it means that Agni has to be brought under control with the help of the mind. This very truth has been expressed elsewhere by the sage Vishwamitra:
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"Kindling the Vaishwanara fire with the aid of the mind." Agni is kavi-kratu. Sayana himself has explained the word kratu as making or action. We would like to call it the power of action – the Greek kratos. So kavi-kratu would mean one endowed with the power of action, the creative genius. It is well known that the Kavi, the poet, is a creator. The Veda has applied the epithet kavi to all the gods as well as to a man who has, attained or realised the divine knowledge. Agni kavikratuh means the dynamic power of vision. But this plain meaning amounts to a profound spiritual concept and ceases to be the fire with which we are familiar; that is why Sayana explains 'Kavi' as 'Kranta' – and 'Kavi-kratu' as the one who performs the action of sacrifice. We cite another instance. It is known to us all – I speak of the Gayatri Mantra: Tat saviturvarenyam Bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayat (Let our intelligence dwell on the beloved light of that. creative godhead, the Sun who is the Creator, so that he may endow us with the right intelligence.)¹ It is clearly stated in the Upanishad: "Savitre satyaprasavaya (the Sun is the origin of truth). Further, the sun of knowledge and the light of knowledge are not expressions unfamiliar to us. We always make use of such comparisons and allegories. If ever the Vedic sages made use of such a comparison, then has it to be regarded as something describing mere natural phenomena? Finally we cannot resist the temptation of quoting another instance. This will serve as a typical example as to what extent quite a simple idea can be twisted. And it will enable us to appreciate what a terrible injustice the Veda has to suffer at the hands of the commentators. The phrase amrtasya vani that is found in the Veda should convey to all the essence of the Veda. But do you know what meaning Sayana has ascribed to it? He has translated amrtasya vani (the message of immortality) as the current of water. Can we be at one with him? In fact, what we want to say is that the Veda is the expression of
¹ Rigveda 111.62.10.
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Yogic realisations, spiritual experiences, the knowledge of the ultimate Truth; It is thus that we can discover the fundamental concept and the esoteric mystery of the Veda. If we follow this course we shall find how easily and consistently the meaning of the whole Veda unfolds itself and becomes crystal-clear. No doubt, at places if we want to delve into the minutest detail, there will be occasions for uncertainty and confusion. But it will not prove an obstacle to the apprehension of the fundamental truths of the Veda provided we can rightly focus the attention of our intelligence on it. Can we not have any access to the Mahabharata because of Vyasakutas¹ (the knotty expressions devised by Vyasa)? Besides, if we admit the esoteric basis of the Veda, we will get a reasonable clue to the fact as to why the Veda is held in such high esteem in the culture and education of the Hindus.
The moment we enter into the Vedas we are confronted with a medley of confusions. Spirituality, philosophical ideas, mystic words, magic sentences, colourful phrases, physical images are scattered all around. Expressions of what appears to us as spiritual truths are housed there side by side with ceremonial, natural, historical, geographical, social, even chemical and other ideas. Now the question may arise as to which ideas are fundamental and which secondary, which are the roots, which the branches. The Western scholars are not at all prepared to countenance spiritual and philosophical implications in the Vedas, for they are afraid lest thereby their pet theories should be reduced to dust. They say that it is no wonder if in the course of Nature-worship when the Rishis were making prayers to the presiding Deities of Nature some expressions of philosophical
¹When the sage Vyasa made a request to Ganesh to record his version of the Mahabharata, the latter agreed to do so on condition that he must not be made to stop his writing. The sage agreed provided Ganesh would not only write but understand his words. It is said that in order to gain time for composition the sage would use some knotty expressions so that Ganesh might take time to understand them.
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ideas sprang from their lips. These scholars are of the opinion that the Rishis did not mean what they said. If we with our modern mind try to discover abstract and philosophical truths therein, then it will amount to an imposition of modern ideas on those of the Rishis of yore. However, they have not succeeded in giving a connected, systematic and plausible interpretation of the whole of the Veda. The great Max Müller is a striking example of the failure of this method. He had translated the word 'Paramahansa,' by "the great goose"! It is quite inevitable that such a word-for-word literal translation of the Veda would bring about no solution.
Sayana has given a ceremonial interpretation of the Veda. Nevertheless, he has not forbidden any other different interpretation. He has clearly admitted that a spiritual interpretation is quite possible. Not only that; at good many places he has appended alternative spiritual interpretations. Even at places where any other interpretation did not appear at all plausible, he has resorted solely to the spiritual interpretation¹. Be that as it may, Sayana was committed to the ceremonial interpretation. He made it a rule to bring in this interpretation in order to show how a particular sacrifice was to be performed; he has recourse to the Veda only to establish sacrificial ceremonies in society. In fact, he had a particular end in view in accordance with which he went along his way. Not only in Sayana, but also in the ancient book on Grammar, Nirukta, we come across traces of spiritual interpretation. Let us cite here only one instance: sarira-madhyavarti... (Indra designated as the Knower of the field (nature), as Life that resides in the body). This is one of the interpretations of the word 'Indra' given by the author of Nirukta.
But as a matter of fact, the Vedas are not merely literary works; they are aphorisms for spiritual practice. And he who is devoid of spiritual experiences has no right to meddle
¹E.g., 1.16.4.
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with the Vedas. What is imperatively necessary is the purification of .the heart. We want to determine the meaning of the Vedic language through discussion and hair-splitting arguments, but we do not know, nor do we try to get at, the esoteric meaning of which the language is but the outer expression. We have long lost the spiritual practice on which the secrets of the Vedas are founded. So it is no wonder that this faculty of argument should lead us astray. This truth has already been declared by the Upanishad: naisa tarkena matiraPaneya ("This wisdom cannot be gained by reasoning".)
In fact, first we must have an access to the Upanishads, then only can we hope to understand the esoteric truths of the Vedas. It is the Upanishads that can claim to be the first exposition of and commentary on the living ideas of the Vedas. The Upanishad is spiritual realisation, supraphysical experience, mystic perception and inner vision. The Katha Upanishad has clearly indicated: sarve veda yatpadamamananti...¹ ("The seat or goal that all the Vedas glorify and which austerities declare, for the desire of which men practise holy living, of That will I tell thee in brief compass. OM is that goal, OM Nachiketas."²)
We have already said that the seers of the Upanishads have time and again cited the Vedic mantras while expounding their own philosophical truths. So it is quite reasonable if we place the Veda on the same footing with their spiritual philosophy and do not consider the former as something exclusively dealing with Nature and ceremonies. For example, dva suparna... ("Two birds, beautiful of wing, close companions, cling to one common tree: of the two one eats the sweet fruit of the tree, the other eats not but
¹ Shankara has explained the words sarve vedah as "a portion of the Vedas", that is to say, the Upanishads. But how can sarve ("the whole") become a portion? Shankara considered the Vedas as something ceremonial, ritual and sacrificial. Hence he had to give a distorted explanation.
² Translated by Sri Aurobindo.
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watches his fellow."¹) This sloka of the Mundaka Upanishad is bodily taken out of the mantras (1.164.20) of Dirghatamas, the Rishi of the Rigveda. Or take agne naya supatha... ("O god Agni, knowing all things that are manifested, lead us by the good path to the felicity; remove from us the devious attraction of sin. To thee completest speech of submission we would dispose."²) This last utterance of the Isha Upanishad derives from a mantra in the Rigveda. Rishi Agastya begins his Agni Sukta (Hymns to the Mystic Fire) (1.189) with this mantra. Thus the Upanishads have made liberal use of innumerable Vedic mantras. No doubt, the Upanishads do not always exactly repeat the Vedic mantras. But even there the words and ideas are so similar that we find no difficulty in saying that they possess the same vision of-the inner Self.
Vedaham etam purusam... ("I know this Purusha, Supreme, of the Light of the Sun, beyond the darkness.") We all know that this is a famous utterance of the Upanishad. But do we know that it is a mere ocho of the Vedic mantra udvayam tamasaspari... (1.50.10) ("We have seen the supreme Light beyond the darkness, we have attained the God amongst the gods, the Sun, the Supreme Light.")? Or, hdra manasa...3 "in the heart and the mind and the supermind He is seated"). A similar truth we find in the Veda also: hrdi pratisya 4... ("The seers discerning Him in the heart by the, supramental Intelligence"). Or, Indraya manasa manisa pratnaya... 5 ("The thinkers purify their intellect by the mind for their Lord, the ancient Indra"). Have not the Vedas expounded the psychological personality of Indra in these few words?
Further, the few words of Vishwamitra that we have
¹ Translated by Sri Aurobindo.
² ibid.
³Katha Upanishad.
4 Rigveda X. 129.4.
5 Ibid. I. 61.2.
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already cited about Agni: vaisvanaram manasagnim nicayya... ("discerning' Fire, the universal Godhead, by the mind") have been explained by the Upanishad: svargyamagnim naciketah prajanan... ("Hearken to me and understand, O Nachiketas; I declare to thee that heavenly Flame, for I know it. Know this to be the possession of infinite existence and the foundation and the thing hidden in the secret cave of ourbeing."¹)
There are innumerable words common to the Vedas and the Upanishads that convey implications of such recondite profound ideas: satyam (Truth), ream (Right), amrtam (Immortality), brhat (Vastness), dhi (Knowledge) and jyoti {Light). The spiritual meanings of such, words that the Upanishads have discovered are not likely to have been degraded in their application in the Vedas. To hold that the Vedas have used these in an ordinary sense must be a wrong view. To say that the Upanishads have taken only the words from the Vedas and not their significance and have used materialistic words with spiritual meanings is in our view nothing but prejudice. The Upanishads are packed with the words of the Vedas, and they have repeatedly made use of them so aptly that it is doubtful if the Upanishads could have used them in that way had there been no such meaning already attached to them. The vibration of truth-realisation with which every word, every mantra of the Vedas is resonant could not be caught by the ears of the grammarians of our country or those of the European scholars.
Not to speak of the Upanishads, even in the Puranas, the Mahabharata and such other scriptures we come across many peculiarities worth noticing. If we just carefully study these religious books of ours, we do learn that there are many names, places, stories and legends which are but outer garments or transfigurations of some truth-principles. One or two instances will serve our purpose. According
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to the Puranas the name of Surya's wife samjña – "consciousness". If we accept the Vedic meaning of Surra as the source of truth, then it does not become difficult for us to understand the significance of this word. Again, let us take the word "Goloka". Goloka is the dwelling-place of Vishnu. If we take the word "go" for light, the light of supernal knowledge, then devanamuparistacca gavah prativasanti vai ("The Ray-Cows dwell even above the gods") of the Mahabharata can no longer remain abstruse or ambiguous to us.
Now the legend of Savitri-Satyavan arrests our attention. The very names Savitri and Satyavan are immediately inspiring truths. In the Vedas the Truth-Sun is synonymous with Savitr. As Purusha he is Satyavan, and Savitri is his Shakti. Every aspirant is aware of the fact that it is the Truth's own faith and power that can free the Truth from the grip of Matter, Ignorance and Death. However, one may not believe that whatsoever the Puranas say must be based on some truth or other. Nevertheless, we do not hesitate to assert that at the core of the teaching of the Puranas there lies a truth-secret - a Vedic or Upanishadic realisation. The Puranas too have an esoteric meaning based on the truth of the Vedic and Upanishadic realizations which have been colourfully related in the form of stories and legends for the easy comprehension of the masses.
To be sure, the Puranas cannot be accepted as commentaries on the Vedas. No, not even the Upanishads can dare claim to be so. The Vedas alone are the proper commentaries on the Vedas. And to understand the Vedas no other book can be our guide save the Vedas. No doubt, the Upanishads stand quite close to them, and they abundantly possess the Vedic ideas. But at the same time we must know that the dissimilarities too are not negligible. The concept of Matter in the Vedas and the concept of Spirit in the Upanishads - even if we fail to find a connecting link between the two, still we can be sure that the Vedas and the Upanishads
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are the two principles of one spirituality. To repeat it once again, we should first endeavour to understand the easy and clear portions of the Vedas and then try to discover their more abstruse and obscure truths. And we have sought to explain to our readers that the interpretation attempted here, the spiritual interpretation, means an interpretation of the basic principle of the Veda.¹ But for that there is the need of the right attitude for looking at things and their right understanding. Those who will approach the Vedas with an ordinary intellect for the mere satisfaction of an intellectual curiosity will hardly be able to grasp the true significance of the Vedas. What does the Veda itself say about the Rishis? rtasapa asantsakam...² (Guardians of the Truth, they are with the gods, speaking the Truths with them.) They were knowers of the true nature of truth and they used to commune with the gods through the interchange of truth-principles. Therefore the study of the Vedas on the part of those who have no seeking or aspiration for the attainment of the truth is bound to prove futile – a casting of seeds in the desert.
The angle of vision from which the Europeans look at the Vedas has to be traced to its starting-point in the modern theory of evolution. Europe has been a victim to this theory. It has coloured the entire outlook of Europe. Evolution
¹ Our interpretation of the Vedas, strictly speaking, is not to be called a spiritual interpretation. It is rather the interpretation of the essential principles of creation. The spiritual naturally implies the doctrine of Brahman expounded in the Upanishads. The Vedas do not exactly deal with the doctrine of Brahman. They speak of the essential principles ranging from gross to subtle and subtler ones, present in the macrocosm and microcosm (somewhat like the 24 principles of the Sankhya Philosophy). The Vedas describe the nature, function and mutual relation of these basic principles and initiate us into a discipline whereby the lesser principles can be transmuted into the higher ones.
² Rigveda 1.179.2.
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means gradual progression. Man and human society are undergoing a change for the better. In antiquity man was just a little remote from the animal. His intelligence gradually developed. His conduct has become polished. Thus he has grown into what he is today. The more we cast our glance into the past, the more shall we come across man's original, primitive and immature nature. As the Vedas owe their origin to a hoary past, it is a axiomatic that there can be no solid philosophical truth and spiritual experience in them. It is vain to seek for something in the Vedas that can satisfy the modern scientific mind. Hence any such attempt will end in utter failure.
In modern times those very scientists are confronted with an anomalous phenomenon supported by irrefutable evidence. Many scientific theories are going to be upset by the new discoveries. Archaeological excavation has been furnishing more and more evidence of ancient culture and education. These discoveries go to prove that the ancients were not immature in the least in their mental faculties, education and culture. On the contrary, we find in them signs of superior qualities and endeavours. Strangely enough, these archaeological finds are found in the places which were so long considered by us to be inhabited by barbarians. The wonderful artistic works and remnants of scientific achievements that we meet with among the discoveries made in the dense forests of America, in the archipelago of the Pacific, beneath the desert of Central Asia have hardly any parallel in this much vaunted scientific age. The Egyptians and the Babylonians have created a tradition. But the hoary past of their source is just being revealed. Greece was considered to be the mainspring of European culture and civilisation. But that a still more civilised race had inhabited the neighbouring island of Crete can by no means be denied now. The older civilisations of Atlantis, Sumeria, Akad, Aztec, Maya and Toltec no longer appear to be mere poetical imaginations. We are wonder-struck by such amazing
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prehistoric achievements. We can hardly assert that we possess a culture and civilisation superior to theirs. According to the Biblical statement the world came into existence only four thousand years ago. This statement had left its stamp unawares on the mind of the European savants. At present, not to speak of the age of the world or of the advent of man, the age of civilised man can itself be put at about a lakh of years.
As there is evolution in Nature, it is quite natural that there should be evolution in man as well. But the notion of the scientists that evolution proceeds in a straight line and is discernible within a short period has crumbled .to dust. We have now begun to understand that evolution proceeds in a zigzag spiral movement, through rises and falls, in progressions and retrogressions. And the extent of that slow movement can, hardly be conceived. We are going to recognise in effect the Indian conception of time, namely, ages, cycles presided over by some great creators (Manus). As a result, we have been discovering things not commensurate with the undeveloped, immature and ancient minds of our conception. So some scientists and philosophers are of the opinion that the ancients we know of were on the downward curve of a higher civilisation of the past unknown to us,
If we consider man to be a sufficiently old creature on earth and that his evolution runs in a spiral movement, then the statement that the Aryans of the Vedic age were not highly advanced cannot be regarded as an axiomatic truth. Of course, there is no hard and fast rule that the education, culture and realisation of the Vedic age should have been similar to those of modern times. But their widely differing outlook and activities need not be inferior to ours. True, Valmiki and Rabindranath are not peers of the same grain. On that account we cannot definitely assign a higher status to Rabindranath. To consider the Vedic seers inferior to the modern scientists simply because they do not resemble there is nothing but a stark superstition.
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As a matter of fact, here lies the greatest folly of the moderns. We fail to arrive at the angle of vision of the ancients. We fail to comprehend that there was a time when this ancient culture was as living as that of today. As the Europeans used to take us for rustics because of our bare body and eating with hands and. such other habits, even so we conclude from the words go (cow), asva (horse), somarasa (wine) and devas (gods) etc., that the Vedic seers were no better than primitives. For in our conception the men of knowledge speak of no such material subjects. They would rather deal with metaphysical discourses and scientific researches. We want to measure the ferment in the brain of the ancients by that of our own. We forget the very fact that they had a culture of their own which need not tally with ours. In fact, the truth attained by the ancients was not the outcome of an intellect given to mundane things. Rather the criticism may be applied to our present-day intellect.
The process of syllogistic reasoning with which we usually try to get to the truth was not their method. They had a direct perception of truth. They used to live the truth they realised. Besides this rational faculty, man has other faculties which are at once subtler, deeper and wider. To develop these superior faculties so that one may realise and live the ultimate Truth was the sole ideal of the Vedic Rishis. The principal instrument, of their knowledge was neither the senses nor even the mind or intellect but the subtle concentrated insight and perception of the inner Being. In its introspection for discovering this fundamental power of knowledge the Kena Upanishad says, "By whom missioned falls the mind shot to its mark?.. That which is hearing behind the hearing, mind of the mind, the word behind the speech, that too is life of the life-breath, sight behind the sight."¹
The faculty of knowledge of the Rishis was based on this
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subtle realisation. And this subtle realisation has its different levels, classifications and variations which the Vedic seers have termed Ila, Saraswati, Sarama and Dakshina. These four names have been plausibly interpreted as sruti (Revelation), smrti (Inspiration), bodhi (Intuition) and viveka (Discrimination). We are not going to probe further into the mystery. We just want to point out the difference between the outlook of the ancients and that of the moderns.
The ancient seers dealt with supraphysical truths. Modern science and philosophy deal with abstract concepts. But these concepts are born of the rational intellect. We may call them theories, well-arranged and systematised; hence nothing extraordinary. But the ancient seers realised and tried to express the transcendental Truth and its Power. There is a play of Power behind the world of phenomena which at once resolves itself into more and more subtle forms and evolves from the deepest level to the grosser manifestations. The seers of yore were wont to study the origin and nature of all the different stages. of subtle forms knitting them into a system. By virtue of their spiritual insight they discovered that the world consists of different levels of existence — sphere after sphere ranging from the gross to the subtle, peak after peak in an ascending order. One existence runs through them all. The supreme Being is there in each part. The Power of the self-same Being works in each and every part, differing in form and function in different levels of manifestation. Nevertheless there is a symmetry due to the fact that all becomings and their dynamis proceed from one fundamental Being. Again, the truth in one level is reflected on other levels, for it is the same Power of the Supreme Being that travels from the most subtle to the most gross manifestation. So there is a parallelism in the nature of all the levels of existence.
As for instance, when the Vedic seers speak of fire, they mean something of which the gross form is fire and which itself is tejas (luminous energy) in its subtle form. In the spiritual
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world, in its subtler form it is called energising consciousness. Likewise the sun is, serially and simultaneously, light, the power of revelation and knowledge. When the Vedic seers say, idam srestham jyotisam... (This is the Light, the highest of all lights; it has come; the Supreme knowledge, beautiful and diverse, vast and all-pervading, has taken birth), they make use of the gross dawn to hint at some subtle dawn. They could visualise the entire creation in its wholeness. That is why their realisations had the stamp of wholeness which can be applied to all the levels and phases of creation. We, the modernists, look upon truth as something entirely comprehensible by the intellect. We put it syllogistically and understand it part by part separately. The ancients used to grasp the truth through the fullness of their heart, the inner being. So it could manifest as an indivisible embodiment of mundane forms and supraphysical concepts. To us the truth has three distinct forms: in the material, vital and mental worlds. Each is different from the other, having a definition of its own. But the angle of vision of the ancient seers was not of such an analytical type. Their synthetic realisation revealed such mantras as comprised the essence of all the levels.
In the process of Nature, in the material world and in its activities they did not see something mundane and material, but found in them a reflection of the supernatural. It may be asked: if, the gross forms were mere symbols, then why is the Veda so replete with them and why has so much importance been given to them? Then we have to enquire into the symbolism of the ancients. Here in this connection we want only to mention that the language of the ancients used to flow from their heart. It was not subject to any intellectual reasoning and was not analytical as that of t day. The language was simply symbol of their direct realisation. All languages originate from the perceptions of the senses and the emotions of the heart. The inner urge was kept intact in the language of the ancients. The language
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and their direct perception were not intercepted by the syllogistic reasoning. So the subtle experiences when expressed in language used to entail the corresponding gross perceptions as well. The ceremonials and the sacrifices are but symbols of inner experiences. According to the Chhandogya Upanishad, yavanva ayamakasastavanesontarhrdaya akash ... (The sky that we see in the outer space is also in our inner heart. Both the Heaven and the earth, Agni as well as Vayu — all are concentrated in our inner heart).
In the Katha Upanishad too we come across the same utterance: yadeveha tadamutra¹ (Whatever is there in the inner world is to be found here as well). In ancient times, not only in India, but in all countries of the world, symbolism was in vogue. We cannot read through those symbols. That is why we consider them black magic or rustic customs of the uncivilised. We can partly appreciate the political and artistic genius of Egypt. So at times we consider it equal or superior to ours. But we are unable to grasp her spiritual genius. Hence we do not hesitate to relegate it to the level of barbarism. We have hardly any spiritual realisation. What we understand is at best morality. We highly admire the art and literature of Greece. But in respect of Greek spirituality our knowledge is confined to Socrates. In the earlier period of Greek civilisation there was a current of deep spiritual culture, and what they used to call the Mysteries were only mysteries of spiritual yogic discipline. We fail to understand that the water-worship of Thales and the fire-worship of Heraclitus were not merely different aspects of Nature-worship. We do not like to believe that these terms "water" and "fire" can ever be the symbols of spiritual truths. We study the philosophies of Pythagoras and Plato. But we do not delve into the spiritual culture or esoteric aspect of which their philosophies are but outer expressions. Behind the mythologies of China, Japan, old-world America and Australia there lies a science of spiritual discipline which may not
¹ Katha, 11.1.10.
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be recognised by the scientists, but those practising spirituality will not find it difficult to discover it.
We find more objectivity than mere abstraction in the language and thoughts of the ancients. So they seem to be prone to materialism. But as a matter of fact, their abstract ideas were not merely based on syllogistic reasoning. Those ideas were to them as living, true, clear and manifest as a material object. They did not consider the subtle world visionary, rather they took the subtle world for the raison d'ître of the material world. So they found no difficulty in expressing the subtle concepts of their experiences through gross symbols. Even we, the moderns, at times do the same. For instance, in poetry the poet has to resort to images and allegories in order to express the deep and intense inspiration of his own heart. Has not the Vaishnava literature tried to give expressions to supra physical realisations through the symbols of earthly experiences?
"A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts." – Solomon
The Christians do not hesitate in the least to give some abstract meaning to those words of Solomon. What mystery of Transubstantiation do they now ascribe to the ceremony of the Eucharist! Then why should ritual expressions in the Veda be looked upon as signs of gross practices of rustics?
Anecdotes, stories, and analogies have been used in all times and climes for the expression of subtle truths. In modern times we have managed to banish this practice from the spiritual field, but have not as yet completely succeeded in the realm of poetry.
The Vedas have a spiritual mystery of their own. We do not say that it is we who have discovered that spiritual mystery for the first time. As regards this we have already referred to Sayana and the Nirukta. Even in this modern age there are some who have endeavoured to present a spiritual interpretation of the Vedas. Perhaps Dayananda Saraswati is the pioneer among them. Pundit Durgadas Lahiri
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and Dwijadas Dutt have paid much attention to this aspect of the Vedas. But our spiritual interpretation widely differs from theirs. In fact, we would rather call our interpretation metaphysical and not spiritual. Dayananda's spiritual interpretation was based on the ctrine of Ishwara, Dwijadas's on that of the Brahman, and Durgadas's on the devotional religious feeling. No doubt, the Vedas have all these. But these scholars have shown only in brief the general form of spirituality in the Vedas. The mysteries of the Vedas are far more deep and subtle. The Veda is a Yogic science, a system of science and kowledgeacquired through Yoga.
The very name Veda is self-explanatory. The Veda signifies knowledge. It is derived from the root "vid" (to know). The Veda particularly refers to the embodiment of that knowledge which is the soul and basis of the culture, education and civilisation of the Hindus, the Indians, the whole Aryan race. This knowledge was realised by a body of aspirants called Rishis - where and when it is difficult to trace with certainty. And it is the succession of the Rishis, the realised ones, that has kept up, multiplied and systematised this knowledge. The Veda is otherwise called Shruti, for it is said that from generation to generation the disciples used to receive the Vedic mantras from their preceptors by hearing and store them up in their memory. But this is only a secondary human interpretation. The real reason why the Veda is called Shruti is that the Seers received, by an occult hearing, these mantras pregnant with knowledge. At times they could see the mantras during their meditation. Hence they are called the Seers of mantras and the knowledge acquired by them goes by the name Shruti (things heard). And this gives us the clue to the reason why the Veda is supposed to have no human origin, neither a beginning nor an end. The Divine Knowledge is not a human creation. It comprises the principles of truth inherent in creation. And it will endure for all time, The Seers are merely the instruments for its manifestation.
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The Veda as we see it today is not in its original form. A whole book entitled Veda was not composed at any definite time or at any particular place. The mantras of the Veda were revealed to the different Seers at different times and places. They were scattered all around without being systematised. It was later that they were collected and systematised. Some, nay, the major part of the mantras failed to see the light of day. And it happened also that mantras of later origin got mixed up with the earlier ones.
The systematic collection, no doubt, could not be achieved all at once. A great speciality of the spiritual discipline of the ancient Seers is this that they carried on their spiritual discipline in a body. It was their practice to use the plural terms like we, you all, friends, etc. In this way different groups of spiritual seekers followed different types of discipline. These collectivities consisted of the Masters and their disciples or an ancestor and his descendants. Thus the Veda grew up into innumerable branches, sub-branches and their offshoots. The present Veda comprises only a limited portion of those branches. The major portion of the Veda is buried in oblivion. So it is no wonder that the Veda got automatically divided into branches according to the lineage and succession of the Masters and their disciples.
However, later on, all the available Vedic mantras were principally divided into three groups, known as trayi (a group of three) - Rik, Sama and Yajur. Rik consists of verses or poems; Sama of songs; Yajur of prose works. Miscellaneous things were collected in the Atharva. Thus the Veda developed into four parts.
According to the Puranas the Seers who collected these Vedic mantras are named Vedavyasas. They are as many as twenty-eight successive Vedavyasas whose successive efforts gave the Veda its present form. The last Vedavyasa who divided the Veda into four parts is Krishnadwaipayana Vedavyasa, the author of the Mahabharata. And it is said that in future there will come up another Vyasa of the
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name of Draunivyasa to rearrange the Veda once more.
There are indications to suppose that the mantras of the Rigveda were meant for the fire-worshippers, and the mantras of the Samaveda for the worshippers of the Sun, and those of Yajurveda for the worshippers of Vayu, the life-principle. However, we refrain at present from going into the details of the matter. In the concluding paragraphs we shall observe whether or not the classification of the Vedas has been in any way regulated by the different methods of spiritual discipline.
There are four Vedas and each Veda consists of several parts. The principal parts of each Veda are known as the Samhitas and the Brahmanas. The Samhitas are the collection of the mantras, the Veda proper. The Brahmanas are the commentaries, interpretations or new suggestions. Again the Brahmanas are divided into the Brahmanas proper, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads. The Samhitas comprise the general Vedic experiences and the mantras necessary for the propitiation and manifestation of the gods. And the Brahmanas provide all the details connected with the ceremonies, sacrificial rites, etc. The Upanishads are the repository of the knowledge of the supreme Being divested of ceremonies and allegories. The Samhitas have laid stress on the forms of religious culture, while the Upanishads on the spirit of it. In a way, the Aranyakas combined in themselves both the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. To sum up, the first and foremost part of the Vedas are the Samhitas which are immediately followed by the Brahmanas culminating in the Aranyakas which in their turn terminate in the Upanishads. But there are exceptions. For example, the Aitareya Aranyaka introduces the Rigveda Samhita, while the Brihadaranyaka itself is an Upanishad.
These four divisions of the Veda are said to correspond to the four stages of human life. In the first stage, the foremost duty of a Brahmachari (a student practising celibacy) is to recite the mantras of the Samhitas which contain the quintessence
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of the ideal of life. In the next stage, on entering upon household life one has to practise ceremonies and sacrificial rites and thus the stress is laid on the Brahmanas. In the third stage of life, when one renounces the household life and retires into the forest one has to practise all those sacrificial rites and ceremonies symbolically as a part of one's spiritual discipline following the teachings of the Aranyakas. In the fourth and final stage, one gives up all one's earlier practices and in conformity with the guidance of the Upanishads one takes to the contemplation of the supreme Truth which cannot be attained by reasonings and discussions (naisa tarkena matiraPaneya). ow we may say that the Samhitas, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads indicate changes in the practice of the Vedic truth undergone with the march of time. The spiritual discipline of the Samhitas has for its aim the attainment of Godhood which is an aspect of the cosmic manifestation of the transcendental triune principle, Existence-Consciousness. Bliss. The discipline of the Brahmanas tries to manifest the spirit of the former through external practice. And the spiritual discipline of the Upanishads does not concern itself so much with the manifestation of the gods as it does with getting absorbed in the ultimate Source from whence the gods originated. In other words, the aim of the Upanishadic truth is to indicate how the light of consciousness dwelling in the heart of everyone like a steady flame of the size of the thumb can be merged into the boundless ocean of the transcendental consciousness.
Strictly speaking, the stages of the Samhitas, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads cannot be regarded successive stages. For there are many Upanishads which appeared earlier than many Brahmanas and some portions of the Samhitas. As we understand it, first there were the earlier mantras of the Samhitas from which there arose the two branches, Brahmanas and the Upanishads. The Brahmanas laid stress on the exoteric portions of the Samhitas, and the
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Upanishads on the esoteric side related to the knowledge of the ultimate Truth.
In the subsequent ages people were attracted more to the exoteric side dealing with ceremonies and sacrificial rites as a means of temporal happiness, and it is the Brahmanas that professed to explain the Vedas. On the other hand, the Upanishads tried to maintain the spirit of the ultimate realisation suggested in the Vedas. That is why the Upanishads have been looked upon as the system of knowledge, while the Brahmanas as that of work.
The Rigveda is the oldest of all the parts of the Vedas, and its Samhita part marks the hoariest antiquity. The tenth chapter may be, as the European scholars have concluded, of a later origin. Besides, many of the mantras of the Rigveda with slight alterations are to be found in other parts of the Vedas. In this respect the Samaveda owes the greatest debt to the Rigveda. It will be no exaggeration to hold that the Samaveda is only a novel brand of the Rigveda. On that strength, curiously enough, attempts have been made to prove the Samaveda to be the oldest of all the Vedas.
The Rigveda Samhita also has been suitably divided and arranged in different chapters. Two different methods have been adopted in this arrangement. Firstly, the whole of the Samhita has been divided into ten books, and each book is called a mandala and each Mandala is composed of different series of mantras; each series is called a sukta, each mantra is called a rk. Each Mandala or book is generally attributed to a Rishi. For instance, the second Mandala has been the contribution of the Rishi Gritsamada and his descendants. The authorship of the third Mandala goes to the Rishi Vishwamitra. The fourth Mandala is attributed to Vamadeva, while the fifth, the sixth, the seventh are respectively attributed to Atri, Bharadwaja and Vasishtha. The whole of the ninth Mandala has been exclusively devoted to the god Soma. The first and the tenth have been the contributions of many Rishis. Each sukta of these two
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books contains mantras offered to a particular god or several gods related to that very god. Besides, there is another method by which the whole of the Samhita has been divided into eight parts and each part is called an astaka (a group of eight). Again each astaka is divided into adhyayas (chapters), sub-chapters and a series of cognate mantras. But the principle followed in this kind of division is hard to determine.
Be that as it may, we are not so much concerned with the external forms of the Veda as with its inner significance. For long the Veda has been solely the subject of archaeological researches. To be sure, the Veda has a living spirit. The true significance of the Veda lies in the fact that it points out to man the true goal and the means to the attainment of a higher and nobler life. In spite of his ignorance, lack of power and want of bliss, the dream that man has dreamt, the ideal that he has pursued through all the vicissitudes of his life has been: "What shall I do with that which can not bring me Immortality?" This quest for Immortality of the human soul finds its absolute fulfilment in the Veda which is truly a vast ocean of boundless delight. The true purpose of one's studying the Veda is served only when its mantras arouse in oneself the aspiration for the divine Delight.
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THE FIRST SUKTA
COSMIC creation is a great and sublime sacrifice. Sarvagatam Bramha...¹ (The all-pervading Brahman is established in the sacrifice), says the Gita. Each and every object offers itself into this sacrificial fire. Why? Sacrifice indicates movement, that is to say, an ever-proceeding course towards the greater and still greater fulfilment of evolution. Sacrifice is being performed; creation has become dynamic and presses forward with the self-sacrifice of the objects inherent in it. By self sacrifice one creates another form and gets in it one's larger self. The plant has evolved from Matter; the animal after the plant; man from the animal, and God wants now to manifest Himself through man by virtue of this process of self-sacrifice. Sacrificing itself, the cloud comes down as rain. Parents sacrifice flesh and blood to give birth to their offspring. All these are but different forms of this sublime sacrifice. We may quote the Gita again: sahayajnah prajah;..² (With sacrifice the Lord of creatures of old created creatures and said: By this shall you bring forth (fruits or offspring), let this be your milker of desires.)
It is the gods who are the primal powers holding and controlling this sacrifice and the cosmic creation. By his self offering man fulfils the nature of the gods.
What is externally the sacrifice of physical elements
¹ Gita, III.15
²Gita, II.10
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represents aYoga of union in the inner-consciousness. The discipline of human life is also a sacrifice. What is the aim of such a sacrifice? Evolution, ascension, from the little to the vast, from suffering, weakness and ignorance to delight, strength and knowledge. How is it possible? By the same self-sacrifice, self-offering, dedication and prostration. The lower levels and the lower dharmas in us have to be quietened and surrendered to the higher and higher levels and dharmas. The Katha Upanishad declares:
Yacchedvammanasi prajñastadyacchejjñana atmani,
Jñamatmani mahati niyacchettadyacchecchanta atmani.¹
"Let the wise man restrain speech in his mind and mind in Self, and knowledge in the Great-Self, and that again let him restrain in the Self that is at peace." (Translated by Sri Aurobindo)
The Gita too says:
Sarvanindriyakarmani pranakarmani capare
Atmasamyamayogagnau juhvati jnanadipite. ²
"And others offer all the actions of the sense and all the actions of the vital force into the fire of Yoga of self-control kindled by knowledge."
The innermost and the uppermost "commune" of the divine energies is known as the gods. The aspirant will offer heart and soul and carry their prostration to the "commune" of the gods. Then alone will the gods descend in him with all their divine plenitude. The truth-seeker gives birth to the gods in his being. Likewise the gods draw him towards them. With regard to the mystery of this sacrifice Lord Sri Krishna proclaims:
¹ Katha, I.3.13.
² Gita, IV.27.
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Devan bhavayatanena te deva bhavayantu vah
Paraspararm bhavayantah sreyah paramavapsyatha.¹
"Foster by this the gods and let the gods foster you; fostering each other, you shall attain to the supreme good."
This mutual exchange of sacrifice between man and the divine forces leading to progression, to evolution of life, is guarded by Fire, the light and heat that signify the power born of spiritual discipline. It is this energy that enables the practicant to go forward on his way of sacrifice. The aspirant offers as an oblation every limb of his being into this energy of spiritual practice which in its turn carries the self offering of the aspirant to his divinity, and continues to work for its establishment; that is why Fire is the offerer. Fire is also called the carrier, for he brings down the divine powers into the aspirant and carries him up into their region. This work Fire has undertaken to perform without the least violation of the rhythm of Truth day after day through the evolutionary process. Hence he is called the priest. The priest is he who knows the proper time for the performance of the seasonal sacrifices. The energy born of spiritual practice too has the spontaneous tendency to determine the spiritual course of the practicant. The Fire of spiritual discipline burns up all the dross contained in the receptacle of the aspirant making him more capable and bringing down into him the divine power, knowledge and bliss - complete success. The power of Fire is no other than the dynamis of the Divine vision, the activity born of direct realisation (kavikratu); therefore Fire is called the protecting power of Truth (gopam rtasya). That which is the foundation of Truth, the Right, the Vast, the fourth world, is indeed svarloka, the own home (sva dama) of Agni and all the other gods. It is here that the gods reign supreme in their own real form, in their true nature. But, then, every god has his assigned field of activity here on earth through some suitable subtle
¹ Gita, III.11.
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embodiment. The seat of Fire, his field of action, is the earth, the gross sheath. The Energy of spiritual discipline first possesses the practicant in his body, the body-con- sciousness; and gradually with the help of the other gods this Fire-god leads him to the vital region and then to the sphere of the mind, thence to the Supermind, the fourth heaven. Each god represents the divine embodiment of the special virtue of a particular region or level. But Fire is the foremost God, and the aspirant who wants to have an access to the secrets of spiritual practice and is eager to progress must become a worshipper of Fire (angiras).
This sukta (the word literally means "well spoken", the faultless speech, the infallible words of the seasoned seer of Truth) can be divided into three parts each containing three riks in accordance with the special differences in the current of thoughts. The first three riks deal with the theme: Who is Fire, what are his particulars, name and form? The second three deal with the subject: What is Fire, what his virtues, nature and innate tendencies? The third group describes the relationship between Fire and the aspirant in the matter of spiritual practice, the holy sacrifice. The mantras are composed in the metre called Gayatri, which too has three feet. Thus every rik too has three metrical divisions.
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The upward spirit, the conscious energising power, the aspiration-fire that resides at the root of all spiritual disciplines as their fount and primal inspiration has been invoked in the first sukta. The present sukta throws light upon the different steps and rungs of that upward spiritual discipline.
The Vedic spiritual discipline aims at Truth, the Right and the Vast. The ordinary life consists of body, life and mind. The trivial work, the insignificant inspiration
and enjoyment of life, the limited knowledge of the mind - man is aware of nothing beyond. But there is something above the body, life and mind. When one reaches that higher plane, one becomes full of truth-consciousness, that is to say, one owns the nature and the law of conduct of, the Gods. Body, life and mind stand in the way of the aspirant to the realm of the Gods. However, for that we are not to deny the existence of or do away with body, life and mind. What is actually needed is the purification and transformation of these three instruments. There are three stages of purification and transformation; accordingly the present sukta has been divided into three parts each containing three riks.
The first three riks deal with the purification and transformation of life-energy. Vayu is the presiding Deity of life-energy. Vayuh pranah (Vayu is life), says the Mundaka Upanishad. In the Rigveda too there is a clear indication of it. It says, pratnat vayurajayata (Vayu came into existence from the Supreme as Life). This Vayu or life energy is the raison d’être of all the activities of the ordinary human life. Life abounds with desires and enjoyments of earthly objects. The ordinary life is blind and ignorant. It hankers after the satisfaction of desires. It gets satisfaction even in fleeting pleasures. But what an aspirant needs in life is to taste the pure and unalloyed nectar which is the perpetual divine delight inherent in each object.
The Somarasa is the transcendental Delight, and this Delight is nothing rather than Immortality. It is also an immensely conscious and luminous exhilaration of the divine existence of the Gods. Truth must be revealed with the rhythm and words of direct knowledge, and the delight of the realised truth must be made manifest in life. Those who have done it are called "Aharvida". It means they have now the light of the day. No more do they crave for trivial enjoyments. All the parts of their being are vibrant, conscious and filled with the immortal delight.
Luminous delight in profusion must be established inlife.
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And for that the mind must first be purified and made perfect. Indra is the presiding Deity of pure and perfect mind. Indra gives pure intelligence and with that pure intelligence the aspirant establishes a pure enjoyment of the quintessence of truth, rich delight and fulfilment in life. Therefore in the second three riks Indra and Vayu are in- voked together.
The last three riks deal with the full realisation and the goal of the aspirant. When life is purified, when mind is purified, the aspirant will be established in that vast and luminous Heaven. Varuna is the presiding Deity of vastness. The harmony and the union that came into existence from the infinite expanse of Varuna are the gifts of Mitra. Lord Varuna removes the limitation, isolation and disunion of our ordinary knowledge. He tears away the hostile force that compels us to remain narrow and small. Hence -he is called Risadasam. And Mitra is our divine Guide. With his clear vision he unites all the objects together in perfect harmony. When an aspirant attains to the level of indivisible harmony in the infinite, in the limitless, he arrives at the fundamental Truth and his action then becomes the infallible manifestation of that Truth. Indra possesses pure intelligence. Behind him stand the two powers of the Infinite Varuna and Mitra. It is they who have made intelligence full or Knowledge and Energy. They are also called poets, i.e., the seers of Truth. It is because of their infinite expanse, eternal rhythm, and inborn power of truth that the aspirant is able to draw the stupendous inspiration of energising power and an unobstructed pure genuine capacity to carry on all his activities in life.
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Life needs pure, calm and effectuating delight. It is through delight that knowledge, work and truth at revealed. The
more the inspiration of life-energy becomes divinely blissful and lasting, the more the aspirant is endowed with the pure intelligence, divine power and fulfilment, and at last he manifests in the waking consciousness the streams of the Vast, of direct sight and creation beyond mind and intelligence.
In the present sukta there are four groups of three riks each, graded according to the spiritual progression.
The first group begins with the invocation of the twin Riders. Who are these Riders? According to the narration of the Puranas, the Aswinikumaras are generally known as the twin heavenly physicians. It means, they drive away disease, decay and incapacity from the being and make the life-energy pure, sound and indomitable. In other words, they are the gods of immortality. Their work is to found immortality and an eternal youth of divinity in life. Pranavayu, which is the conveyance of the divine power, has been symbolically expressed as the horses. It may be asked why they have the twin forms. Perhaps it is because the one gives knowledge, the other the energy for work. Both are the presiding deities of immortality and both of them embody the most benevolent delight. Hence they are called Subhaspati. Also they are called Purubhuja, for they bring into life the divine enjoyment in. profusion. However, the one gives much importance to the energy of work, the other to the powerful pure intelligence. Whatever may be the difference in their outlook, they are the twin faces of one and the same God. The two horsemen open the fount of that very divine exhilaration in life by which there awakes and ascends an upward flame in the being of the aspirant. As the aspirant has been the possessor of an intense diversified delight, he is now able to proceed farther and farther, higher and higher by sacrificing his lower aspiration to the higher one. It is an immortalised life-energy that makes all the realisation effective, real and beautiful. It infuses spirit and power into the intelligence. The aspirant
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is endowed with an occult power of hearing and is initiate with the power of mantras which expresses and manifest the Truth. That is why the twin gods are called Nasatya (the Guides on the path). They are the leaders in our spiritual adventure. They lead us speedily through the different levels of consciousness to the vast ocean of the higher truth
The second group of riks: The spiritual delight and to immortal power of life will found themselves in a calm, pill and firmly rooted basis of the entire being. And this immortal delight will lead the spiritual practicant to the Divine Mind, to the pure Intelligence, to the realm of Indra. An ordinary man is unable to have a glimpse of the higher mind, the pure Intelligence because he is confined to the narrow limits of the lower material world and his life abounds wit restless, impure and hurtful desires. It is not by a gross inert inspiration but by a subtle inward power that the enjoyment of life must be purified and divinised. Then only the slot of the mind will be replaced by the divine Intelligence. With the divine Intelligence of Indra the aspirant enjoys a pure delight in life. It is Indra who fills the different aspects each object with a luminous truth. The inspiration surcharged with the effulgent knowledge of Indra will bring down and manifest in the aspirant the delightful truth of the Self which is the main support of the divine in the aspirant.
The third group: After this the aspirant rises into the realm of Truth, the Right and the Vast where his being will embody all the gods. The universal Godhead is the collective power of all the gods. Each god has a different aspect and a particular truth to stress. They at once carry out their own work and help one another in performing their work. Thus in their combined efforts they give shape t diversified expressions of the one great and vast Truth When the power of these gods is established in the aspirant his aspiration rises higher and higher unfalteringly an, infallibly. The body, life and mind which are the different levels of the being are each a stream of truth and these areimagined as river or water.
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The fourth group: Saraswati, the wealth of the fulles inspiration of the complete Truth, signifies speedy and rhythmic truth. She is the divine hearing. No doubt, we see and meet the Truth with our divine vision, but to make, the Truth active and dynamic and fill the creation with the power of Truth we needs must take the help of divine hearing. As the truth possesses a form, even so it has a name. It is precisely because of form and name that the truth becomes concrete. The form of truth is Visible in the divine vision, the name of truth in the divine hearing. Saraswati gives the divine name and Ila gives the divine form to the truth. Under the inspiration of Saraswati the truth casts aside all untruths. Hence she is called Pavaka (the Purifier). Above the mind there abides the vast ocean of Truth. We have neither any knowledge nor any experience of it. In a sense, we are quite unconscious of it. Saraswati raises the intelligence into the vast ocean of Truth and purifies it Afterwards she brings it down to our understanding. She manifests the complete knowledge in all its facets and make them living.
In the Vedic literature, very often we get the reference to vak (Word). So it will be no exaggeration on our par to hold that the aim of the Vedic spiritual discipline is to get the significant sound aspect of the truth. And for this the Vedic seers of truth are called the seers of mantras 0 the creators of mantras. Vak is the living image of truth There lies a rhythm in the being of truth and the movement of this rhythm produces a note which was later on called nada (the unsounded sound) or Shabda Brahman (the Brahman manifested as Sound). When the rhythm of this note is found in out intelligence and mind, it takes the form of a sentence and this very thing is called a true mantra. The more a language can express intimately and direct the primal form and rhythm of truth, the more the mantra becomes living. Therefore the aspirant who has acquired
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this mantra has also acquired truth and the power of truth. The Vedic seers have placed the name of truth in different categories, e.g., Rk, Stoma, Uktha, Brahman, etc. At the beginning of the present sukta too, in the spiritual practice of truth gih, the vak or name that reveals the truth clearly in the consciousness of the aspirant has been invoked with the help of the twin equestrians. Then with Indra's help the Brahman, that is to say, the true message of the inner Self was invoked. When man gets a purified mind and purified intelligence, he discovers the real Being within and another name of this Being is Brahmanaspati (the Lord of the inner Self). Finally comes in Sarasvati who is the power of the Infinite Truth in which the multiple aspects of the truth of the universal God are manifest.
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THE FOURTH SUKTA
The gradual progression of the spiritual discipline takes place by virtue of the bliss-power in the pure mind. It is with that power that a spiritual seeker overcomes all the obstacles and the downward pull of ignorance symbolised by Vritra and creates beautiful forms full of knowledge in the fullness of the Vast.
In the first three riks the nectar-emitting light and pure thought-power of Indra have been invoked. Indra is a milch cow, that is to say, the inexhaustible source from which a seeker draws the nectar of immortality.
But why? Because it is thus that a spiritual seeker can see the manifestation of the All-Blissful, in the Vast. In our normal life-activities we have a partial consciousness and our mind remains narrow, degraded and twisted. So whatever we do turns out to be imperfect. And if we want to make our creations beautiful, blissful and perfect, we must break the barriers of this division, pettiness and poverty and rise into the everlasting poise and pure existence of
the Vast. We are satisfied with a little, for our happiness and delight and enjoyment are confined to this material world alone. And from this sense-pleasure which is the outer form of the Somarasa we shall have to squeeze out true delight and immortality. This is possible only after one has invoked Indra, the Lord the senses and the presiding deity of the pure intellect. When the mind has become pure, when the Divine Being Within it has awakened, the aspirant’s delight gets satisfaction no longer in the little imperfect pleasures of the material world. The ecstasy of the divinised mind is surcharged with the divine light. One who has achieved this delight has also achieved the all the well-ordained rhythmic play of Truth inherent in the pure mind. It is there that an aspirant must pay particular attention to one thing. If all on a sudden truth and power descend from above into the aspirant’s mind in an excessive manner, then there is every possibility of his mental balance; even if it is not so, the manifestation of this truth and power takes place in a very distorted way. That is why the aspirant has been asked to pray in this fashion:
“O Indra, do Thou manifest thyself before me to the extent of my receptivity and, I pray, exceed not the limit.”
The aspirant has to purify first his lower nature before invoking the truth and power in a large measure. Otherwise a reaction may at once take place. The subsequent riks deal with this matter. The second group of the three riks indicates the process of the gradual ascension of the aspirant. Spirituality is, as it were, a long upward march and the aspirant has to fight and toil faithfully all the way in order to go ahead. It will not do for an aspirant to make an effort to pull the power from above, himself remaining below. He has to raise himself. He has to look upon the Divine Being that resides in Indra, the deity of knowledge, in the pure mind, and according to the inspiration and guidance of the Being the aspirant has to proceed. When we shall be fully Prepared for the realization of the Godhead of Indra, the obscure and
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impure forces of ignorance cannot keep us enchained in the lower regions. They themselves will then open the new vistas for a higher journey and declare, "You have conquered us. Now go up, march onward, conquer all the forces that are challenging you from the higher regions." Even obstacles are necessary and useful. We become stronger when we meet with oppositions in our life. The foundation gets firm only after it has weathered some storms. When we are established in the quiet foundation of Indra, the powers that help the aspirant - the vigour behind his spiritual endeavour and power of action - will be able to make us the possessors of the highest good and perfect bliss.
In the three successive riks of the third group the forces by which all obstacles in our journey are removed have been described. Vritra is only a name for the obstacles in one's spiritual practice. Vritra means the coverer (derived from the root vr) who keeps an aspirant in darkness. These blind forces of the lower plane do not allow the liglit of knowledge to dawn on the aspirant. Drinking the nectar of soma (delight) Indra kills Vritra, i.e., the forces of pure intelligence become fiery, as well as acute and sharp, with the pure and intense Ananda by which is expelled the darkness of ignorance. The aspirant gets strength to fight against the attraction of the unregenerated nature and to climb up and move in the higher regions. His conscious being gets intoxicated with the nectar of delight, armoured with a hundred powers. He surmounts all the obstacles of the spiritual adventure and makes the aspirant firmly established in all the accomplishments of perfection.
In the last rik the nature of the divine mental being is described: In this divine mental being the vast delight of the Infinite has descended and with the help of its inspiration the aspirant goes on safely and securely from one level to another, from one shore to another and. climbs up from the unregenerated lower nature to the divine status.
In the present hymn we can notice one speciality of Vedic
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discipline. Vedic discipline was not something personal and individual. It was essentially collective, i.e., for the community as a whole. That is why we often hear an aspirant of the Vedas calling his friends to assemble in spiritual practice and bring down the divine force with a collective effort. The collective life flourished in those days with the help of companions and helpers in sadhana. The gods too were companions and helpers in the spiritual endeavour. Hence they were addressed as friends.
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The present sukta also tells us that we are to conquer all the terrestrial powers with the help of pure delight and establish in pure mind the foundation of Truth, the concrete manifestation of Force, Knowledge and the Good, the manifold fullness and perfection of Indra.
The diversity in the creation is a profound and sublime Truth. So the sadhaka also has to manifest in his being and nature this immensely diverse play. The manifoldness of Form is revealed consciously through the mind. When the true mental being awakes, all the formations lose their divided and mortal nature and appear as immortal, cadences and expressions of the Truth. That is why the mental Purusha or Indra is called Purutamam Purunam. No other god has so many diversified forms as Indra. It is because he is at the root of all manifold diversities. Indra comes with plenitude; he conquers for the sadhaka sahasrinam vajam (a thousandfold plenitude). Vajam is the fullness-which is indivisible; it is the vessel of a thousandfold movement of creation; Indra is the eldest of all, because the primal form of the external manifestation appears first in the heart of the mental being. Later on it becomes manifest in the outward nature. After his very birth Indra wants to be the eldest of all, i.e., as soon as the pure mental being awakes
in the aspirant, it becomes the master and guide of his sadhana and his new spiritual creation. For this reason Indra is called Isana (Lord) and Sukratu (the all-accomplishing Power of action). It is in him that all the masculine powers of God are manifest. In accordance with the Will of the Purusha all the forms of Prakriti take shape. The vessel and foundation which Indra is shaping anew in the aspirant is firmly established on Truth and Knowledge.
Pure mental being is endowed with knowledge which makes an object stand revealed to the knower. This knowledge of Indra is many-sided. The real function of Indra is to harmonise the hidden truth of all objects and movements. Hence he is called Purarmdhih or Purudhi, i.e., a city made of comprehensive intelligence as it were. Indra does not want dissolution in the One Existent, but he wants a diverse and many-sided manifestation. In unfolding or blossoming alone is his joy. He seeks for a vibrant cadence of the Truth. The Bliss of Indra is founded on Truth. That is why this Bliss is pure and tranquil and yet dynamic. The joy of sensuous pleasure of an ordinary man is emotional and fleeting, Man cannot hold it and an aspirant cannot build anything on it. That joy flows out and man spills it away in trying to hold it. That is the reason why this joy of the senses has to be purified and made noble with the light of pure mind, intellect and knowledge. Then alone that joy will be beneficial, capable of doing works and yielding fruit. When the pure mental being, immortal in this Bliss and supported by the pure vital energy, marches forward driving his two luminous horses of knowledge and power to the battlefield to advance in spirituality, the dumb material forces of Ignorance fail to oppose them. Cutting asunder all limitations of the earthly consciousness and the powers of Death, Indra founds a full-fledged bliss of immortality in the aspirant. He enables the creative genius of the aspirant to blossom in the untrammelled expanse of the infinite consciousness.
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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.
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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ON UPANISHADIC THOUGHT
(Katha Upanishad)
VAJASRAVAS desired that he would give away all he had. He had a son named Nachiketas.
As the boy saw the gifts being given, his heart was filled with respect and devotion, and he pondered:
"The realm of undelight is his portion who makes a gift offering of kine that have drunk their last drop of water and eaten the last herb, have been sucked to the last drop of milk and have worn out their organs."
So the boy said to his father, "To whom are you going to give me, father?"
The father did not give an answer to the senseless question of his ignorant son. But the boy was insistent. . He asked the same question again, and a third time. Finally, the father gave an angry reply, "I shall give thee to Death!"
In the simplicity of his heart, the boy argued to himself thus: "Among many I occupy the first place, with others I come second, so I am not wholly worthless. Hence, what my father said must have a meaning, I must have some work to do with Yama, the Lord of Death."
The boy went on musing on the subject of death, "Look, what has happened to those who were there before, and to those also who came after. Mortal beings ripen like the grains in the field and are shed, they come to birth again like those grains."
This indeed is a mystery, a mystery to which the God Yama alone has a clue. That is why Nachiketas left for the abode of Yama and came and sat on the latter's doorstep.
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There he lay in wait for three whole nights in the hope of getting a chance to meet Yama.
Even as the boys Dhruva and Prahlada had had a vision of God through their simple faith, so did the simple but stout-hearted Nachiketas too reach the abode of Yama and meet him.
The minions of Yam a went and told him, "There has been a Brahmin lad waiting at our doorstep for three days in order to see you - a Brahmin and on top of that a guest; this is like playing with fire. You should go and greet him with all due ceremony. A Brahmin, as you know, arriving at somebody's house and left to starve, means the waning of all one's virtue and a grave risk to one's worldly state."
We should take the word "Brahmin" here in the sense given to it by the Gita: a Brahmin is one who is devoted to brahman, the Highest Reality; he is a seeker of the Spirit and serves It. A particular duty laid on the society of that age was to support and give due respect to this topmost class; for the true prestige and worth of a society depend not on its visible power or prosperity but on the richness of its inner growth.
Yama thereupon appeared, as if in a bit of a flurry. Or, perhaps he was putting Nachiketas' sincerity to a little test. He offered Nachiketas a seat with all deference and, as if to atone for his earlier neglect, addressed him thus in a humble tone:
"You have been made to wait here for three days without food, a Brahmin and a guest. Accept my salutations, may all be well with me." This meant, in modern language, "Do be kind enough to pardon me." Yama meant to suggest through this eminently human attitude that he was, in spite of being Death, no uncultivated boor! He continued, "N achiketas, since you have been waiting here for three nights, you should demand three boons from me." Nachiketas too accepted the apology with courtesy without an. other word, and asked for the first boon thus:
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"My dear father must be getting anxious on account of my disappearance, thinking that I have been gripped by death and would not return. You please give him peace of mind, remove the feeling of displeasure he has about me, and grant that when I return from your abode a free man, may he recognise me and receive me with joy. This, then, O Yama, will be the first boon I desire."
Yama said in reply, "It will be certainly as you say. You will get back from here, your father Auddalaka Aruni will be able to see you as before, he will have his peace of mind on seeing you freed from the jaws of death, his annoyance will go, he will have good sleep at night."
Nachiketas went on, "It is said: there is no fear in heaven, you too are not there, nor is there the dread of old age, people live in great joy when, after crossing beyond both hunger and thirst and passing to the other shore of sorrow, they come to heaven. O Death, you know about that heavenly Fire, speak to me about It, I am listening with faith. The dwellers in heaven have gained immortality. Please tell me about this mystery. This is the second boon I desire."
The Lord of Death said in reply, "Nachiketas, listen then to the mystery of this Fire. I have knowledge of this Fire. The Fire takes one to the world of Infinity. The Fire is the basis of this universe. He is abiding in a cave, hidden within our secret being."
Yama explained to Nachiketas further, "The Fire is the beginning of creation." He also revealed the secret knowledge about the method of kindling this Fire, the number of bricks and their types needed in piling the altar. Nachiketas listened to all this with great attention, and repeated to the Lord of Death what he had thus learned.
Death was pleased and said to him again, "Nachiketas, I am much pleased with you, so I grant you another boon, namely, that the mystery of the Fire which I have revealed to you will be named after you; henceforth people will call it the Fire of Nachiketas. I also give this garland of
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many forms, take it." What this garland stood for was explained a little by Death, in the same language of symbols which he had used in revealing the mystery of the Fire. He said, "One who lights the three Fires is united with the Three, and goes on performing the three Works, passes beyond life and death. He then comes to know that adorable Deity who is born of the Supreme; knowing him he attains to the supreme Peace."
Yama went on dwelling on the same mystery, perhaps making it still more mysterious.
. "One who has gained the three Fires of Nachiketas, one who has gained knowledge of the Three, one who has thus seen and known and mastered the Fire of Nachiketas has pushed away from in front all the bonds of death, passed beyond all sorrow, has enjoyed the bliss of heaven. This then is that heavenly Fire of Nachiketas which you chose as the second of your boons. Henceforth, all people will say, this is verily your Fire. Nachiketas, now you are free to choose your third boon."
Nachiketas answered, "Well, there rises a doubt as to the beings who depart from hence: some say they continue to exist, others say they do not. I want to know the truth of this matter, you please give me this knowledge. This is the third boon I ask."
This seemed to create a little difficulty for Yama. He said, "You see, this debate has been going on even among the gods from times sempiternal. This is a very subtle point, this knowledge is not easy to get, nor easy to grasp. You had better ask for some other boon, do not press me further on this point, give up this quest."
But, as we have no doubt seen by now, Nachiketas was not to be put off like that; He exclaimed, "But this is strange! Even the gods find it a matter for debate, you too are saying it is not easily grasped. But I am not going to have another like you to speak to me about this matter. And do not consider any other boon worth having, as compared to this."
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Death too on his part tried to cajole the boy into forgetting about it, perhaps taking him to be a mere child. He said, "Nachiketas, choose sons and grandsons living to a hundred years, choose an abundance of cattle, horses and elephants, gold and jewels. Take as your portion vast stretches of land, live [or as many years as you please. If, in addition, you consider any other boon equally worth having, ask for it; choose as much wealth as you like and life eternal. Or else, if you desire a whole kingdom, I shall fulfil your wish for all these desirable things."
Yama went on adding to the list of desirable things, in the hope that perhaps in the end the boy could be won over. "All the desirable things that are hard to get on this mortal earth, you can demand exactly as you please. Charming damsels with their chariots and song and dance, than whom there is nothing more acceptable to men - all this I shall give you for your enjoyment at will. But do not ask any more about death."
But Nachiketas was no mere boy or unripe youth. His reply was immediate, "All that you have named, O Destroyer, lasts only till the morrow. There is no organ or sense that does not get blunt in course of time. And even if it lasts, a whole life-time, that too is but little. Let yours, O Yama, be all those chariots and the damsels, yours the song and the dance. Man is not satisfied by riches, O Death. And here will be no dearth of wealth when I have looked upon you in person. I shall live as long as you like, but my choice is for that boon alone. You might yourself consider this. Once a mortal being dwelling here below in the grip of physical matter has felt the presence of the unaging Immortals, gained the true knowledge, has realised the true nature of beauty and passion and pleasure, what joy can he have in this transient life? Tell me, O Death, more about this endless debate on what is or is not after the great annihilation. The deep secret of the beyond, it is this that I want to understand. Nachiketas demands no other boon of you."
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Yama did not find it possible to put him off any more. He went on expounding his secret knowledge to Nachiketas. He began with that secret Word which Nachiketas had already received and grasped all by himself.
Man has open before him two doors leading to two different paths: one is that of the good, the other of what is pleasant. The two lead in opposite directions; Nachiketas had renounced the pleasant and had chosen the good. On the basis of this choice depend, in the beginning and throughout at each step, the progress and upward evolution of man. He alone who can recognise and choose the good gains the Highest, the supreme Reality. Nachiketas too had made these gains; he had become foremost among spiritual men, brahmistha.
There is in this story an unsolved problem which in its turn might give rise to a "debate". I am going to take that as my theme in what follows.
Yama taught Nachiketas about the mystery of the Fire as the second boon. The fruit of this knowledge, the gain it brings has been described. It is the winning of the heavenly world where one enjoys immortality; it is a world of delight where death itself is not, nor old age and fear and sorrow, nor hunger and thirst.
And what is this Fire? Fire is the Origin of the worlds, the realms of Infinity; in Its very nature Fire is the Beginning and the Infinite, Immortality and Delight. And where does It dwell? It lies hidden as in a cave. What cave this is will be discussed later. For the present, it will be well to remember that the Fire is a doer of the Triple Work, and It has knowledge of Him or of what is born of the Supreme. The problem is: does not all this amount to what the Gita describes as "a mixed word"? Nachiketas desired to know, as his third boon, which of the two opinions concerning the state of the embodied being on his departure from here after death, namely, that he continues to exist or ceases to be, is
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the real truth of the matter. But has not the mystery of what lies beyond death been already revealed by what has been said, in connection with the second question or boon, about attaining the heavenly world, enjoyment of immortality, the companionship of the gods and so on? Where then is the point in asking the same question again?
As an initial clue to the problem, we must keep in mind that the heavenly world can be attained even without the death of the body, "by pushing away from in front the bonds of death", as the text says, or as in the usual interpretation, before succumbing to death. Nachiketas himself had achieved this feat. The heavenly world has been conceived as just another neighbourhood or abode, a world of delight where there is no old age, death, or sorrow and suffering. But it does not imply any victory gained in a battle with death, any mastery obtained over death. All that seems to happen here is that death has been pushed aside, or evaded perhaps. There is merely an absence of death here, it has not been brought under control. Death may not be present in this abode, but he is sitting in his lair and is free to go where he wills, even if it be within some limits. There has been no annihilation of death.
In his third boon, Nachiketas wants to know if there is beyond the physical death any surpassing of death. Granted that heaven is attained, but what happens after that, beyond the heavenly world? For, this too is sometimes said that the enjoyment of heaven is only for a time, no matter how long that time be; after the term is over, one has to come back to earth, death has to be encountered over again. In this view, if the soul of man be immortal, the immortality does not go beyond heaven, it is nothing more than the enjoyment of heaven.
In fact, the Upanishads speak of two kinds of immortality. One is temporal immortality, that is, living for ever, the other is beyond time, in the ultimate Reality or the supreme- Truth; one is cosmic, the other transcendental.
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There are likewise two kinds of eternity and infinity. One is in relation to time, with time as its basis and inseparable from the progress of time, what in the ordinary view is described as "lasting as long as the sun and the moon". The other is beyond all creation or manifestation, poised above it in the supreme Status.
What Nachiketas desired to know was this. The gods are temporal beings. However big and mighty they may be, they who endure for ever with a life eternal and have no death, cannot know the secret of death. They may live beyond the pale of death and death is foreign to them. But they are ignorant of the Truth that is beyond time, that has to be reached through death and by passing to the other shore of death. That is why Yama says that the gods are full of doubts and puzzled about this matter. But Yama himself is in possession of this knowledge, he is aware of the Truth that lies beyond him, on the other shore. Nachiketas says to Yama, "Since I have been able to find you, I am sure of gaining this knowledge; there is none other so wise who can speak about it." The reason is that Yama has been called Vaivasvata, he is born of Vivasvan, the Sun-god, Surya Savitri.
Surya Savitri stands for the highest Knowledge, He is the Supreme Consciousness from which comes the creation of the universe. Yama is the Life-Force, the Ordainer of the worlds with their rhythms of life. He is here in this manifestation of the play of life the representative of Savitri, and Fire is his vehicle, instrument or symbol. Just as Surra is Vivasvan, the Supreme Effulgent One, Yama is likewise the Cosmic Being, all cosmic power and universal forces are his. Surya is supra-cosmic, belongs to the Beyond. Fire is cosmic, belongs to our worlds. Or, to put it more exactly, Surya is the point of transition from the Beyond to these worlds; Fire is such a point from the worlds to the Beyond.
The mystery of the Fire that was revealed to Nachiketas by Yama would give him the mundane realisation, namely,
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the conquest over time past, present and future, the attainment of temporal immortality or heaven. The mastery thus obtained consists of a set of trios: it has three lines of fulfilment, it acts in three ways, in the three worlds, throughout the three divisions of time. The three worlds as we know them are mind, life and body; all endeavour and attainment here on earth are concerned with this trio. The altar of the Fire here is provided by man's inner and outer frame; the bricks of this altar are his body, life and mind with all their activities; the multiform garland spoken of by Yama is this lower nature with its multiple forms. Fire is the symbol of the conscious power and energy lying concealed within the innermost depths of the mortal frame, it is the inner being's power of askesis. .
By following the path of the triple Work; Nachiketas could achieve the temporal realisation. What he needed now was the realisation beyond time, this is what he demanded as his third boon: after the knowledge of the worlds the Knowledge of the Supreme, the transcendental realisation after the cosmic.
Fire has been described as the Origin of the worlds, He is the Beginning of the worlds, their Source. He is also the primeval World, for the earth-principle, this earth of ours, this physical universe is the place of Agni, His own abode and field of action. Underlying the gross physical is the Subconscient, and within the Subconscient, this Fire or power of askesis and conscious force keeps HimseIf concealed. It is under that secret Impulse that the creation moves. It is this Fire that gives Nachiketas his ultimate realisation. We may say, in the words of the Isha Upanishad, that first, by virtue of the second boon, he crosses beyond death by the knowledge of the Ignorance; next, by his third boon, he wins Immortality on mastering the supreme Knowledge. This is the fruit promised to him in the end.
Nachiketas gained this knowledge, the entire method of the Yoga as revealed to him in person by the Lord of Death.
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Freed from all impurity and the possibility of death, he attained the supreme state. Anyone else who would follow his path would likewise obtain this realisation of the Self, even as Nachiketas did.
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I THINK I told you once of the story in the Upanishada bout a seeker of spiritual knowledge who had been given by his teacher as a first assignment the task of looking after his kine. This was meant to serve both as an initiation and a training; it was to be his work and also his test. But the student had had to pass through another, perhaps somewhat minor, ordeal of a preliminary nature. Tagore has a well-known poem based on this episode. I begin my story with that narrative, giving it almost verbatim as it appears in the Upanishad (Chhandogya, IV.4).
Jabala Satyakama, says the Upanishad, approached his mother, Jabala, and put to her the question, "What, O my mother, is the name of my caste and family, for I desire to become a student of sacred lore?" To this Jabala replied, "I do not know about that, my darling; but I obtained you when I was young and was serving maid to a number of different men. That is why I do not know what is the name of your caste and family. But my name is Jabala and yours is Satyakama. So you may say that you are Satyakama, the son of Jabala."
Satyakama now went to Gautama, the son of Haridruman, and said, "I come to you with the desire to stay as a student of sacred lore." Gautama asked him, "What is the name of your caste and family, my child?" Satyakama answered, "I do not know what my caste or the name of my family is. But when I asked my mother, she said, 'I obtained
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you when I was young and was serving maid to a number of different men. So I do not know who your father was. But my name is Jabala, and yours is Satyakama. You should therefore say you are Jabala Satyakama.' This is the whole story." Thereupon Gautama answered, "No one but a Brahmin could have spoken thus. Bring in the fuel, my dear; I shall take you as a disciple, for you have not swerved from the truth."
Thus was Satyakama given admission to the Ashrama of Gautama. Now for his initiation and training and the tests. Gautama sent for him and said, "Satyakama, I shall now I invest you with the sacred thread." This investiture is a sacred rite which "sets one on the path" - what the Buddhists call in Pali "sompatti" (srotapatti in Sanskrit), that is, "getting into the stream" or starting on the way. He added, "You bring in the fuel from the neighbouring wood." Satyakama did as he was told and the ceremony of initiation was duly performed.
The teacher now sent for him again and said, "Satyakama, I possess some four hundred kine. But they are all puny and weak. You should look after them." This meant that he was to take them out to pasture. Satyakama replied, "Very well, sir, it will be as you desire. I am leaving with the four hundred kine and I do not return till they are a thousand." Gautama sent him off with his blessings.
Satyakama went along with his herd of kine. He looked after them as they roamed over the meadows and fields, through the forests and village settlements. Months passed, and years went by - many years. The kine had by now all gained in bulk and had a well-fed look; their numbers too had reached the thousand mark. One day, all on a sudden, a Bull from out of the herd appeared before Satyakama and addressed him in the voice of a man. "Satyakama!"
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he said. Satyakama took it as nothing unusual and answered in a polite tone, "Yes my Lord." The Bull went on, "Satyakama, now let us turn homeward. We have reached the thousand mark and all of us are fit and strong." Then the Bull added something more. "Meanwhile, Satyakama," he said, "let me tell you something about the knowledge of Reality, brahma-vidya - the very first lessons. Brahman has to be known in his four aspects; of these I shall tell you about the first just now. Of this first phase or aspect there are again four limbs. North, south, east and west, these four quarters are the four limbs of the first aspect of Brahman out of the four. Through the four quarters Brahman appears as the manifest One, prakasavan. And he who realises this manifest aspect of the Brahman becomes himself manifest and wins all the manifest worlds. This is the first of the four aspects of Brahman. Now, Agni is going to tell you about the second."
The next day, Satyakama resumed his march with the kine. As evening came, he gathered his herd together and penned the kine. Then he collected the fuel and lighted the sacrificial fire, and sat facing the east with Agni in front. Now Agni called to him, "Satyakama!" And Satyakama gave reply with his usual humility, "Yes, my Lord?" Agni continued, "Let me now, speak to you about the second aspect of Brahman. This too has four limbs; these are earth, mid-air, the heavens and the ocean. This second aspect of Brahman that is constituted by these four is the Infinity of Brahman. He who gains it lives in Infinity even on this earth and wins all the worlds of Infinity."
Again the homeward march began, and again the Bull came and informed Satyakama thus, "Now it will be the Swan who will come and tell you about the Brahman." When it was eventide, Satyakama gathered his herd again, penned them in, and lighted his sacrificial fire. Again he sat in front of the fire facing the east. Then the Swan appeared as promised by the Bull and called in a human voice,
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"Satyakama!" And Satyakama made answer, "Yes, my Lord?" The Swan continued, "I shall speak to you about another aspect of Brahman." "Tell me, my Lord." "This the third aspect of Brahman consists of Fire, the Sun, the Moon and Lightning. Through this quartet of the third aspect Brahman appears as the Effulgent One. He who realises this aspect of Brahman becomes himself effulgent and wins all the worlds of effulgence even while on this earth."
Satyakama started on his march again, and once again the Bull came and informed him that this time a Flamingo would come and tell him about the fourth aspect of Brahman. As' evening came, Satyakama gathered his herd together and penned them as usual. He lighted the sacrificial fire and sat in front facing the east, and waited. The Bird flew in and called, "Satyakama!" Satyakama replied, "Yes, my Lord?" The Bird went on, "I shall give you the knowledge of the fourth aspect of the fourfold Brahman." Satyakama replied in all humility, "Tell me, my Lord." The Bird said, "The four limbs of this aspect are the Life-force, the Eyes, the Ears and Mind. These four combined make Brahman the All-Form. He who knows this becomes the All-Form and wins here itself the All-Form."
By now Satyakama arrived at his master's home, accompanied by his herd of a thousand well-fed kine in place of the original four hundred weaklings. As he came to his master, Gautama gave him a look and came out with these words, "Satyakama, I see your face shining with the light of Brahman. Who has given you the knowledge of the Brahman?" Satyakama told him about the four strange encounters. But he added, "My master, you are my sale teacher, and my knowledge will remain incomplete until I receive the knowledge directly from you." Gautama then repeated to him the same things that he had heard about the four aspects of Brahman, thus confirming what Satyakama had already experienced and realised; it was now
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sanctified with Gautama's blessings.
Thus did Satyakama become a knower of Brahman and foremost among Brahmins. In course of time he himself took the place of a Guru.
I intend to tell you on another occasion the story of his dealings with his own disciples. That story too appears in the Upanishad. Let me in the meantime add some explanations of the knowledge given to Satyakama.
The knowledge and realisation that he had gained from his life of a wandering cowherd are the basic truth of the world, the supreme secret of creation. He realised that Brahman is the ultimate Truth, the one and only Reality. The signs or qualities of this ultimate Truth or Reality are four. Brahman may be described as if in a group of four aphorisms, like the first four aphorisms of the Brahmasutra, the basic compendium of Vedantic thought, which Shankara has commented on in-very clear terms. If you know his commentary on these four aphorisms, you get to know practically the entire philosophy of the Vedanta as interpreted by Shankara.
The first of the aphorisms taught to Satyakama implies that Brahman has made himself manifest, for He is selfmanifest. Another Upanishad has said the same thing: tameva bhantam anubhati sarvam, "His is the Light that illumines all." Of this self-luminous form of Brahman or God the four limbs are the four quarters. He is manifest on all sides, above and below, in every direction, and he is not only thus manifest; there is also no end or limit to his manifestation. Hence, as a second step in our knowledge, we learn that God or Brahman is the Infinite. This Infinity too has four limbs or lines: (1) earth, or the physical and material extension, (2) mid-air, or the expanse of the vital worlds, (3) the vast expanses of mind, and (4) the oceanic reaches of the higher
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worlds that stand above the mind. The third attribute or quality of God is Luminosity, He is the Bright, the Effulgent One - He is the supreme light. Of His Brightness or Effulgence the symbols are four, the four that serve as the medium or base: these are fire, the sun, the moon and the stars. Fire is enkindled on the solid earth of matter; the sun burns in the mid-regions of life; the moon illumines with its cooling rays the regions of the quiet and happy mind; and the stars give us the brilliance of the world beyond mind. It is needless to add that the Seer is not speaking here in terms of astronomy. He has been expressing his meaning through the help of significant symbols or metaphors. And finally, the Reality or God is made up of Form: that is to say, He has put Himself forth variously through a multitude of forms, rupam rupam pratirupo babhuva. And the functions or instrumentalities through which Form has taken shape are the four main powers of sense-consciousness. These are: (I) the power of sensitivity, the capacity of living contact and intimate or close experience, of which the sense of touch represents to us the external form or activity, for through it we get a sense of reality as living existence; (2) the power of vision or sight, for through the eyes we get a sense of form and definite shape; (3) the power of hearing, for the organ of hearing gives us a sense of rhythm, of sound, the form of articulate speech; and (4) the power of mind which, being the centre of thinking, gives us a sense of meaning, builds the forms of thought.
These then are the four aspects of Brahman, the fourfold quartet through which we get a glimpse of the wholeness of Brahman, Purnabrahman.
This story of Satyakama brings out a picture that tells us something about the lines or circumstances of ancient Indian education.
We know that the Upanishads are classed with the Aranyaka literature; the Brihadaranyaka is a well-known name. The forest life of the recluse was in those days intimately associated with education and learning, and especially with the spiritual disciplines. The injunction for the seeker of truth was, "Repair to the forest," vanarm vrajet. The seers, the Rishis, had their hermitages in the forests alone. That of course was an age when the forest reigned upon earth. The greater part of the globe was still a virgin forest. Cities and townships were not so common; there were only a scattered few that glimmered like torches amid vast stretches of night. There is also the point that the free and easy association of day to day with Nature brings about a natural heightening and widening of the consciousness. The English poet Wordsworth, as I told you the other day, had some experience of this to which he gave voice in lines like these:
And beauty born of murmuring sound
Shall pass into her face.
The quiet beauty and rhythm of Nature permeate the limbs if one lives in close proximity to Nature. We in our country had, no doubt, the advantage of forests. But even in other countries like Arabia or Egypt which had no forests but only desert tracts with their wide stretches of bare sand, the same method was followed. There the seekers and the saints and mystics lived in the heart of the desert and drew from that source its rhythm and harmony and inspiration.
But in the modern world, under the circumstances of today, we no longer follow the ancient method either physically or even perhaps psychologically. Man does not now depend on external props or surroundings, nor does his consciousness either. Man's consciousness has grown to be in large measure free and self-reliant. It would rather bring external Nature under its own control than be guided by its
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influence. As in our outer so in our inner spiritual life, we are becoming city-dwellers in place of the old forest recluses. Even when we repair to the forest we try to make it as far as possible akin to the city. But this need not give rise to a quarrel or conflict between the forest and the city; it is possible to reconcile the two – the rural and the urban – even as it is necessary to effect a reconciliation between the inner and the outer life, between the consciousness within and the conditions of life without.
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SATYAKAMA was now a Rishi, a brahmarsi, a sage and seer who had realised the Truth. He was himself a teacher now, had his own Ashrama where the seekers and aspirants came to receive his instruction and guidance. Today I shall tell you something of the aim and method of Satyakama's work as teacher.
Upakoshala Kamalayana, the son of Kamala, resided with Satyakama as a student of sacred lore for twelve years, tending his fires. What this tending of the fires really meant we shall learn as we proceed. There were other resident pupils along with Upakoshala; and after they had finished their twelve-year course, they were permitted to return home, samavartana, with the final words of instruction and blessings from the master. But Satyakama would not let Upakoshala leave.
On behalf of the pupil a representation was made to the teacher by Satyakama's wife - how and when Satyakama had obtained a wife and what she was called I have not been able to discover. The wife said, "My lord, the pupil has been at pains to perform his austerities, he has been tending the fires with diligence and care. Lest the fires should place the blame on you, he should now be permitted to leave for his home with your blessings." But the teacher kept quiet and left on a journey without saying a word on the point.
In the grief of his heart Upakoshala undertook a fast. It seems that even in those days ordinary people and aspirants
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too were apt to fast unto death to get their wishes fulfilled. The good lady did her best to make the boy understand. "Why don't you eat, my dear child?" she said, "Do take something, at least for my sake." Upakoshala explained that his fast was not from any anger with the master, but with himself and his own shortcomings. Here was then a difference between the olden times and now! He said, "My lady, this body of mine is filled with disease. Therefore I shall not eat."
Thereupon the three household Fires had consultations among themselves. "See how diligently this boy has been attending on us", they said, "Come, let us instruct him ourselves."
We might recall here that Satyakama too had attained the knowledge of Brahman in this manner. The teacher had left him free to wander at will and knowledge had flashed upon him spontaneously. He was now trying the same method with his own disciple. Words gleaned from an external source and received from the mouth of another do not give the full knowledge. Knowledge implanted from without does not enter one who is not inwardly clarified and ready; for knowledge blossoms forth from within. The teacher is there to give an occult help, but there is needed a capacity to receive the teacher's help. That is how Upakoshala could hear in his wakened consciousness the conversation of the Fires.
They were saying, "Life-force verily is the Reality. Ka is the Reality, kha is, the Reality." And Upakoshala asked, "There is proof that life-force is the Reality. But what is ka and what kha?"
The Fires replied, "What is ka is kha, what is kha is ka."
Both are terms that express the ether pervading life. Ka is the ether of the inner consciousness, kha the ether pervading physical space. Space represents the extension of the life-force. Fire is power, the power that achieves by force of austerity; and life-energy is the expression of that power
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as force of action. That explains the Fire's emphasis on 1ife-force.
The Fires are three in number. The Katha Upanishad also speaks of Nachiketa learning the method of worshipping the three Fires; he thereby conquers death and comes to possess the three worlds, trilokamaptim. Here too it is the same story.
The first of the three Fires is Lord' of the House, garhapatya. He manifested Himself to. Upakoshala and said, "Behold this earth and the fire, food and the yonder sun. The Supreme Person you see in the sun, that Person is myself and no other. He who knows That, the Supreme Reality, in this wise and worships It thus, of him all sinful acts are destroyed, in all the worlds he finds his station, he reaches the full span of life, becomes immortal. His progeny is not cut short; we enjoy him (take our delight in him), in this world and in that, him who knows and worships the Reality thus."
Next appeared the second of the three Fires, the Fire of the Right, daksinagni. He said, “Upakoshala, behold the waters, the four quarters, the stars and the moon. He who knows them and worships them finds all his sins destroyed. He becomes possessed of all the worlds, he has the full span of life, becomes immortal. His progeny' decays not. We enjoy him, in this world and in that, him who knows It thus and worships."
And last there came the Fire of the Call, ahavaniya. He said, "Behold my body which is the life-breath, the sky and heaven and the lightning. The Person that is seen within the lightning is none other than myself, verily it is me. He who abides in Brahman firm in this thought finds all his evil acts dispelled. He becomes a dweller in all the worlds. He gains the full span of his life, becomes immortal."
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Perhaps it is necessary to add a word of explanation here about the four locations given to each of the three Fires. But these, have been described through the medium of symbols, and symbols always leave a certain amount of mystery.
The Fire that is Lord of the House, grhapati, has for its seat this material earth, that is, it burns within our physical frame. It has steadiness for its quality, its flame shoots upwards, it aims at the sun - for the light that illumines earth is no other than the sun. Its form is that of the burning flame and its field of action is gross matter. Similarly, the Fire of the Right, dasinagni has for its dwelling the waters, which imply movement. Its form is spread out in every direction; its field is the region of the starry sky; its goal the moon of Delight, soma. Likewise, the Fire of the Call, ahavaniyagni, has for its seat the life-breath, which gives the power to work. Its form is of the nature of extension; its field the heavenly regions of mind, the light which it seeks is like the self-luminous lightning.
After thus imparting the knowledge of the Reality, the Fires said to Upakoshala, "Upakoshala, we have given you what knowledge of the Self we possess. Your teacher when he comes will explain to you what the aim is of this knowledge, the goal to which it leads."
And now the teacher, Satyakama, was back home. And he had a look at Upakoshala, and he broke out in words identical with those which his own teacher had used in greeting when he brought back the kine from their wanderings. He said, "Your face shines like one who has realised the Truth. Who has given you the instruction?" Upakoshala felt a little embarrassed at this question. He sought to hide the true answer and said, "Who else could have taught me?" Perhaps he thought the teacher would get annoyed on learning that he had been receiving instruction from others. However, he gave a slight hint, saying, "But these Fires that you see here are of a rather unusual nature." The teacher then said to him, "So, it is these Fires who have
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taught you. What have they taught?" Then Upakoshala had to explain everything in full.
Satyakama gave reply, "The Fires have told you about the different worlds, I shall now tell you about the transcendent truths. Earth, mid-air and heaven are truths that comprise the universal aspects of Reality. But one must know the fourth or transcendent aspect of the Truth. Once you know That, you will roam at will all over the worlds, even as a drop of water on the surface of a lotus leaf, padmapatramivambhasa.”
The Fires are three. The first has its seat in the body; it is the power of the body's upward endeavour. It is as if a coiled-up force, kundalini. When this coiled-up force opens itself out and moves upward in a spiral curve, it goes on opening the body consciousness wider and wider in a clockwise or right-handed motion: that is the Fire of the Right, the fire of aspiration, in the inner consciousness of which mid-air is the symbol here. It is a right-handed motion because the movement is full of knowledge, instinct with the power of right discrimination, daksa, daksnna, between the truth and the falsehood, it is of the substance of knowledge. It merges up on high with the Fire of the Call, ahavaniya, once it gets purified and gross into a spotless Flame. This Fire of the Call is the power of austerity that has to be called down from on high by an invocation. The tongue of this Flame lies hidden in the heavenly worlds of pure mind.
The Fires spoke of the form or extension of Brahman, its manifested cosmic expansion, in time and space, inner and outer Satyakama completes the picture by revealing the supracosmic reality of Brahman, its transcendent essence beyond manifestation. That essence, Satyakama says in our first approach to it, appears as a twofold reality - it is a thing of light, Bhamani, and it is a thing of delight, Vamani, it is luminous, it is delightful. We get here an early version of the later well-known formula - Sachchidananda - sat is cit and ananda.
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However, in this Vedantic formula we miss one element of the supreme reality; Sat or Brahman is not only light and delight, it is also power, force, energy - tapas. Agni dwells not only on the three cosmic planes, the god has his own home in the supreme status. Sat, Being or Reality is Consciousness or Light; Consciousness is Delight; it is also Power, not only potential but dynamic Power, Energy. Sri Aurobindo therefore speaks of Chit-tapas.
The omission, at least in the present context, could it be the shadow of the coming Mayavada? For, Mayavada declares that Power, Shakti is Maya, Illusion.
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YAJNAVALKYA was one of the great Brahmins and a supreme master of the Knowledge of Reality during the Upanishadic age. But it was not that he was only a man of Knowledge, deep and serious; he was also a fine humorist. That is, he combined his Knowledge with a keen sense of irony and fun. Here are some stories about him.
King Janaka was his contemporary. That would seem to place his story in the Upanishads about the time of the Ramayana although Rama or Sita does not figure anywhere there. King Janaka too was a man of Knowledge, a sage king, rajarsi. But he had not taken any disciples. The seekers would come to him for the solution of their problems, and he used to hold the seat of umpire at the sessions of Rishis and men of knowledge.
As he sat in his royal court at one such session, and numerous were the seekers and men of knowledge who had assembled there to see him, Rishi Yajnavalkya suddenly made his appearance. The king greeted the mighty sage with due ceremony and respect, and asked him, "Yajnavalkya, what is the object that brings you here? Is it the acquisition of Knowledge or of kine?" Yajnavalkya said, "Both, my king, - ubhayameva samrat!" with a smile.
There was a previous history to this "both", to which the king had been referring. It happened like this.
King Janaka had been celebrating a sacrifice, and had arranged for the gifts to be on a generous scale. The lure of
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the gifts had brought together a number of Brahmins from the surrounding country too. The measure of the gifts he had announced, that is to say, the first prize, like the gold medal offered by our Academies, consisted of a thousand kine; and not only that, for each of these thousand cows was to have, tied to each horn, a ten pada weight, equal to about three tolas of our measure, of purest gold, kasita kañcana, not the fourteen-carat variety. A thousand cows meant two thousand horns; so you can figure out how much gold that would be. King Janaka had it announced that the Brahmin men of learning and knowledge who had assembled there were all invited to participate: the prize would go to him who proved to be most proficient in the Vedic lore. The best among these Brahmins was called upon to come up and lead those kine home. But none among the learned Brahmins had the courage to declare himself the best; they all sat in silence. Then Yajnavalkya stood up, and called upon his band of disciples to take the herd of kine to his home. This created a sensation among the Brahmin crowd. What was this Yajnavalkya doing? How very insolent of him! One of them came up - he was a priest of King Janaka's, Asvala by name. He called out to Yajnavalkya, "Yajnavalkya, do you then happen to be the best among us Brahmins?" Yajnavalkya replied with folded hands, "Salutations to the best of Brahmins! We have taken the cows because I need them. I am a seeker of kine, not that I have the most Knowledge."
But Asvala was insistent. He said, "You have taken the cows, now you have to prove that you are the best. I am putting you some questions, let us see what answers you can give… All you see here is subject to Death. Then how does the sacrificer, yajamana, manage to escape from the clutches of Death?" Yajnavalkya gave answer, "Sacrifice implies the four: the priest of the offering and the priest of the call Fire and the Word, rtvika, hota, agni, vak. It is by virtue of these that the sacrificer escapes from Death.
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But Fire alone is the Priest of the Call, he is the One who makes the Offering, the Word is no other than He. Fire means freedom, not ordinary freedom but the supreme Liberation. Fire is the Conscious-Force, the Power of Austerity." But there was no end to Asvala's questionings; he went on asking and Yajnavalkya gave due reply. This dialogue – between Yajnavalkya and Asvala forms a chapter in the Upanishadic Science of Reality.
After Asvala had finished, another got up. This was the Rishi Artabhaga of the family of Jaratkaru. The dialogue that ensued between him and Yajnavalkya forms another chapter of the Upanishadic lore. Then arose Rishi Bhujyu of the Lahya family. He began with a rather amusing story. "Yajnavalkya," he said, "when in my student days I was travelling round the country, I happened to be in the Madra region once. 1 was the guest of a householder whose name was Patanjala. Patanjala had a daughter who was possessed by an evil spirit. We were familiar with this particular one - it was a Gandharva. I asked him, 'Who are you?' The Gandharva replied, 'I am Sudhanvan born of the family of Angiras.' From this Gandharva, we had learnt a few things about the other worlds. That is why I am going to ask you, Yajnavalkya, a few questions about those other worlds. If your answers tally with those of the Gandharva, then I shall admit that you really know." Yajnavalkya repeated exactly what the Gandharva had said. After Bhujyu it was the turn of Ushasti Chakrayana, who was followed by Kahola Kaushitakeya.
And now there arose Gargi, the daughter of Vachaknu. Gargi began with the question, "Yajnavalkya, all this here is permeated by the waters. What then permeates the waters?"
"The waters are permeated by air," said Yajnavalkya. "And what contains the air?"
"The heavens."
"And where are the heavens contained?"
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"In the world of the Gandharvas."
"And the world of the Gandharvas?"
"In the regions of the Sun;"
"And the solar regions?"
"In the worlds of the Moon."
"And the lunar worlds?"
"In the regions of the stars."
Gargi went on thus with her seemingly endless questions, but Yajnavalkya had to cry halt when he came to the world of Brahman. Yet Gargi asked him again, "And what contains this world of Brahman?" Thereupon Yajnavalkya exclaimed, "Your questions are now going beyond the limit, Gargi. You have been asking too much, and if you ask more, your head will fall off."
But she was going to make one last attempt. She told the learned assembly that she was going to put her last questions to Yajnavalkya, and this would be his final test. She then called out to Yajnavalkya, "Yajnavalkya, I am going to put two more questions to you. They are like couple of arrows. When the king of Videha goes to war, he pulls the bowstrings and shoots his arrows. In like manner, I am aiming these arrow-like questions at you. Let us see how you will ward them off with the appropriate answers." Yajnavalkya said, "Very well, try." Then Gargi said, "Can you tell me what is above the sky and what is below the earth, and what is in between the earth and sky?" To this Yajnavalkya replied, "That is called sutratman, He binds all from within as by a thread and puts everything on as it were; He is Brahman." This satisfied Gargi and she repeated her question to Yajnavalkya, - the very same question again; and Yajnavalkya gave the self-same reply.
Now Gargi turned to the learned men and addressed them thus, "You had better bow down to Yajnavalkya and take your leave. No one among you has the power to get the better of him in the matter of learning or wisdom."
What Yajnavalkya had really sought to convey in his
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final reply to Gargi was this. Brahman is the supreme Seer, though He be invisible. He is beyond all hearing and yet is Himself the Hearer. He is beyond the ken of mind, but is Himself the supreme Thinker. He is Unknowable, but is the supreme Knower. There is none other than He who sees, hears, thinks and knows.
In that very assembly, during all this discussion and deliberation there took place an incident that was rather sad, and of a lugubrious nature. It looks so unseemly to us, but perhaps to the seekers of the Truth in that distant age the whole thing might have appeared quite natural.
I think I have already mentioned the name of Sakalya. He was very fond of argument and his series of questions one after another made Yajnavalkya almost lose his patience. Finally, Yajnavalkya had to warn him, "You are s raying from the path of logic and are arguing beside the point.
Since you have been asking so many questions, let me put to you now one single question. If you can give answer, so much the better. But if you can't, then your head will fall off." You may recall this manner of warning in connection with the Gargi episode. Perhaps this was the natural consequence of arguing beside the point; perhaps it is so even today, though not in such a gross form but in a subtler way.
Yajnavalkya continued, "You have been raising so many points of inquiry in connection with the Science of Reality. Now, can you tell me this: what is this Reality in its essence?" Sakalya merely said that he did not know and held his peace. And immediately his head fell off. His retinue of disciples got up in a flurry and carried off the truncated corpse of their teacher, - ostensibly for the funeral rites, but actually in the hope of bringing it back to life by joining the head on. But here too they had ill luck.
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As they carried the dead body along a deserted road beyond the limits of their hermitage, a gang of robbers made their appearance. The robbers thought they must be carrying some precious treasure. So they attacked and carried off the corpse as booty. Thus did Sakalya meet his end. The moral of the story, as the Upanishad itself has pointed out, is that not by argument can this Knowledge be had, naisa tarkena matirapaneya.
YAJNAVALKYA AND MAITREYI
The next story belongs to an earlier stage in the life of Yajnavalkya. He had not yet become a prince among sages, the foremost of Brahmins, although there is evidence that he was even then a seeker of the Truth and had some knowledge of the Reality.
By this "earlier" stage I mean his life as householder. The story relates to the last phase of this life. He was now, wanting to give up the householder's state and live the life of a forest recluse. He had been a family man, had two wives in fact, and some property as well. The wives were Katyayani and Maitreyi. Of the two, it was Katyayani who cared most for her position as wife, striprajña; Maitreyi's interests were in spiritual things, brahmavadini.¹
So, one day he called Maitreyi in and said to her, "Maitreyi, I am forsaking all and leaving home. If you so desire, I can make separate provisions for Katyayani and yourself.". To these words of Yajnavalkya, Maitreyi gave answer, "If all my possessions were to fill the whole earth, would they
¹ One may recall here the story of the two women devotees who followed the Christ, the two sisters Martha and Mary. Christ had noted in Martha this womanly concern of which the Upanishad makes mention, and said to her one day, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful, and Mary has shown that good part which shall not be taken away from her." (St. Luke, X. 41-42).
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bring me immortality, my lord?" Yajnavalkya had to reply, "No, that could never be, that would be impossible. But you could thereby have a life of enjoyments, like all other people who have wealth. But of immortality there would be no hope." Thereupon Maitreyi exclaimed, "What then am I to do with that which does not make me immortal?" On hearing this reply of Maitreyi's, Yajnavalkya said, "You have been always dear to me, Maitreyi; today you become still more dear. Let me tell you more, in fuller detail. Listen to my words with care."
And Yajnavalkya began, " Not for the sake of the husband does the husband become dear, O Maitreyi; the husband becomes dear for the sake of the Self. It is not because of the wife that she is held dear; it is for the sake of the Self. The son is held dear, not for the sake of the son, but for the sake of the Self. Wealth is dear, cattle are dear, not because of the cattle or wealth, but because of the Self. Spiritual power, military power, are held dear not for their own sakes, but for the sake of the Self. The other worlds are held dear not for their sakes but for the sake of the Self. The gods too are held dear not because they are gods, but because of the Self. The Vedas are dear all created things are dear, not because of themselves, but because of the Self. Whatever else there be that is held to be dear is so because of the Self. It is this Self that has to be seen, heard about, thought of, meditated upon. The Self being seen, heard of, thought about, meditated upon, all else will be known, O Maitreyi.
"Let me illustrate. You see this lump of salt. It is of one piece both within and without, has one pervading taste, the taste of salt. In exactly the same way, the Self is of one pervading quality or taste; it is a solid mass of Knowledge. If this Self were to depart from created things, then they would vanish into nothingness. It will then leave no form or name. That is the state of release or liberation."
On hearing these words of Yajnavalkya, Maitreyi had to say, "What you say, my lord, about this Knowledge-Self
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leaving no form or name behind makes me perplexed." To this Yajnavalkya made answer, "There is nothing here to be perplexed about, Maitreyi. The Self is an entity that knows no change or destruction, it is left untouched by any kind of change, nor does it ever disappear."
Yajnavalkya had given his answer, but Maitreyi's problem remained unsolved. The world is bound to be reduced to nothingness on attaining Self-knowledge, form must disappear on gaining the true status – these statements of Yajnavalkya, however impartial he might try to be, ‘ubhayameva’ mantravadi, seem to be; wholly in favour of the illusionist view. Maitreyi has hinted at another possible solution.
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(Chhandogya Upanishad)
RISHI Sanatkumara was once approached by Narada (evidently not yet become a Rishi), who said, "Lord, I desire to be taught by you. Please teach me." The Rishi replied, "Very well, but first tell me how much you know; then I shall tell you if you need more." Narada thereupon made out an inventory of his learning; it was a formidable list. "My Lord, this is what I have learnt: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, the Fifth Veda comprising History and Mythology; next, Grammar, Mathematics, Logic and Politics, the Science of Computing Time, Theology, Fine Arts and the Ritual Lore; Demonology, Astrology, and the Art of Predicting Fate; the Knowledge of Ancestors and of Serpents. I know all this, my Lord, and very well. This has made me master of the Word, but has not given me knowledge of the Self. I have heard that only by the knowledge of the Self can one pass beyond sorrow and pain. I am immersed in sorrow and pain, please reach me to the other shore."
Sanatkumara said, "All that you have studied and learnt is nothing but 'Name', no more than words. You have reached as far as 'Name' can take you, giving you as fruit the power to roam at will, that is, you can go unimpeded where you will. But that is about all." Then Narada asked, "Is there anything superior to Name?" "Of course, there is," replied Sanatkumara. "Then tell me about it." "Superior to Name is Speech, that is, Name with form and meaning." Thus he went on replying to the series of Narada's questions.
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Speech, Mind, Will, Thought, Meditation, Knowledge – these are the ascending grades, each higher than the one preceding. And each carries with it the power to move at will. The goal of this ascending series is, to use our own terminology, a widening of the consciousness. As we rise from grade to higher grade, our consciousness gains in width and depth and intensity.
But after Meditation comes Power. It seems that marks the end of one series and the beginning of another. The first seven of the earlier series represent the line of our externalised consciousness already manifest. But these powers or functions cannot get their full play by remaining confined to the field of our inner being. In order to make them active and fruitful and effective in practice, Power is needed, the power of work. Hence, under this category of Power, are grouped the fourfold series that constitute in essence the material world in its forms of solids, liquids, energy and air - the fifth or ethereal element is omitted for it is not relevant here. The solids form the body's material substance, the liquids give it life and mobility, energy is stamina and prowess, air gives it the sense of width and expansion. What sustains them all as their basic support has been termed Power, which ordinarily conveys the sense of capacity and strength.
But beyond this second series there is a fresh turn which takes us round to the third. Here we get to the realm of the subliminal, with its silent movements behind our ordinary consciousness. This series consists of Memory, Hope, Life - force and Truth. In our language, Memory is constant remembrance, Hope is aspiration, Life-force is energy at work, and Truth means the rejection of falsehood and the unreal and the acceptance of what is real and true. Beyond this there is yet another series, the ascent to which lies in taking a further turn from behind. The first step on this path is Knowledge, that is, knowledge of the Vast and the Particular. The second step is Contemplation, implying a
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concentrated one-pointedness. The third is Faith, an unwavering trust. Faith implies steadfastness and, to make the latter effective, there is need of action, its application in life, making it concrete. Finally, action, leads to joy, it is indeed the mainspring of action. We know that joy alone is the essence of creation, joy is its source, joy the ultimate end. But the Rishi says, this joy is no ordinary pleasure; its other name is the Vastness – the Vast verily is the Delight, there is no joy in the smallness, says the Text.
Starting from "Name", outermost expression and most concrete figure of gross physical substance, we have risen by stages to another Name of substance, to the Supreme Name, into the Highest Consciousness, from the uttermost division of the individualised ego to the endless infinity of Being. This progress or ascent of the consciousness or being has not been in a simple straight line, it has taken a zigzag serpentine path. First to develop were, as I have said, the parts of the externalised or manifest being; this is the stage of the waking mentality. On this level, the highest attainment is Knowledge. From Name or gross physical Word as our starting-point, we arrive in the end at its culmination as the knowledge of particulars, what we call the power of discrimination. But the, growth and cultivation of the mind alone is not enough. For its sufficient development and capacity there is needed a physical capacity that has the body as its base. That is why, in the second stage of our progress, there is a turning back from the mind down to a lower level, for the cultivation of this physical base, in order to attain mastery there. Once the base got firmly established, the consciousness had to take another turn and enter upon a new stage of its progress. This was in the realm of the inner being. In this stage, there was gained the acquaintance and control of the functions and powers that work from behind the physical mind. From here there is the ascent to the fourth step while still keeping behind the veil, on to the gates of the spiritual consciousness, crossing beyond the
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limits of our ordinary state. Already, as we reached the level of the life-force, the Rishi had something new to say: one who gained entry into the inner or universal life became "extraordinary", in that he had passsed the limits of his ordinary consciousness, crossed over to the other side. And one who got firmly established in the integral Truth of the final stage attained the state of superconscience.
According to our present-day Science there is no such thing as motion in a straight line, all movement has to take a zigzag serpentine path. The reason is that the created universe is actually spherical in shape, all lines on it must be curves. And because of the gravitational pull, all motions in it must be wave-motions. All progress or forward movement in the consciousness of man or in the lines of creation must likewise be a spiral movement. In the course of an ascent or forward movement, one can notice one thing, namely, that one has to pass again through the same place or condition which one has-already crossed once. In actual fact one does not return to precisely the same place or condition, but certainly to an analogous place or situation: it is as if a replica of the earlier state appearing once again in the next higher stage or forward position.
We know that the same process applies to our spiritual endeavour or even in ordinary training, when a particular quality or state has to be made more firmly and fully estab- lished. If, for example, peace is established in the first state of mind, in its physical functioning, the same state of peace has to be established over and over again in the depths of the inner being and on its ascending peaks. A somewhat similar method or process of working is noticeable in the path shown here by Rishi Sanatkumara to Narada. At the beginning of the series is the physical mind, at the end is the spiritual mind. The physical mind is the slave of sense) the spiritual mind is to become centred in God. The first series ends with Knowledge, Knowledge again begins the last series. It seems that the first is the knowledge of particulars,
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the last is that of the Vastness.
Narada started on the march of consciousness with "Name". He has passed from stage to stage, from level to higher level, till at last he has crossed beyond the material "Name" to the Supreme Name, Brahman. Thus surpassing the state of mortal man, he has at last attained the status of Rishi.
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Indra - Virochana and Prajapati
PRAJAPATI, the Lord and Creator, once declared himself thus:
"The Self is the sinless, ageless and deathless One; it has no sorrow nor hunger and thirst. The goal of all its desire is the Truth, Truth is the one thing worthy of its resolve. It is this Self that has to be sought after, it alone one should seek to know. And one who seeks after the Self and knows it, gains possession of all the worlds, wins all that is desirable."
The message of the Lord reached both the gods and the demons. They discussed it among themselves. "If the Self is such a thing as can win all the worlds and every object of desire, then, come, let us go and seek it." The gods sent Indra as their representative, the Asuras chose Virochana. The two of them came to Prajapati separately and unknown to each other, carrying fuel in their hands in token of their offering. Both lived as disciples taking the vow of chastity, for a period of thirty-two years. This was their first period of trial.
At the end of this period, Prajapati said to them both, "You have stayed here for thirty-two years, but what has been your aim?" Both gave the same reply: "We have heard this message of the Lord, that the Self is sinless, ageless, and immortal; it has no sorrow nor hunger and thirst; its aim is the Truth, Truth is the one thing worthy of its resolve; that it is this Self that has to be sought after and known, one who seeks and knows this Self gains all the worlds, wins everything desirable.
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To know this Self has been the sole object of our stay here."
Thereupon the Creator made reply, "Behold, the Self dwells in the eye, one can see it there. That verily is the Self that is immortal and fearless, and that is the ultimate Reality." Both of them asked the same question: "Who is that person whom the eye sees reflected in water, within a mirror?" To this the Creator replied, "In all this the Self has been manifested."
The language here used by Prajapati nearly borders on a riddle; it is the language of symbol or metaphor. What He means to say is that the Self (God or Supreme Reality) dwells in the eye because That can be seen by the eye, though not by this physical eye but by another kind of vision. But both Indra and Virochana gathered from this that because the Self dwells in the eye, in one's own eye, and one cannot see one's own eye, the reference here must be to the reflected image. They thought they were being very clever and had got the sense of Prajapati's words very well. But Prajapati added to the riddle and said, "Verily, this Self dwells in all"
"You look at yourself," He continued, "in a vessel full of water. Then if there is anything you do not understand about the Self, come and ask me." They saw their own image in the water and approched Him once again. Prajapati asked, "What is it you saw?" Both came out simultaneously with an eager reply, "Lord, we saw the whole of the Self, from the top of the hair to the tip of the toes. We saw the true form of the Self." Then Prajapati said, "Very well. Now you look into the water again after getting yourselves beautifully adorned and dressed." They acted accordingly: they tidied themselves up, adorned their bodies with fine ornaments and dresses and looked at their forms in the water. Prajapati asked them, "What did you see now?" Both gave answer in the same enthusiastic way, "We saw the Self, but this time we found him beautifully adorned and
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dressed." Prajapati seemed satisfied. He said, "Very well, it is just as you say. You have seen no other than the Self that is Immortality, Fearlessness, the Supreme Reality."
When the two had taken leave and departed, Prajapati said to Himself, "O the unfortunate ones! They left without a knowledge of the Self. If either of them should imagine that the body is the supreme reality, that this is the sacred lore, the knowledge of the Truth, then he is doomed to perdition."
Virochana did in fact return to his people, happy and satisfied. He imparted to the Asuras this teaching as supreme secret, "This body that you see, this alone is the Self. You should glorify this body as the true form of Self, you should serve this body alone. By glorifying the body which is the Self, by serving it well, both the worlds are won, this world and the world beyond."
That is the reason why those of little faith, who make no gifts, do no sacrifice, are described as Asuras. This is the Asuras' gospel, that the body has to be pampered by luxurious living, adorned with fine ornaments and cloth thus can the worlds be conquered; this is what the Asuras imagine.
Indra on the other ha d as he was going back home beg to ponder. "By making the body beautiful, its reflected image too grows beautiful; by adorning it the other also gets adorned; by cleaning the one the other too looks clean. But if it becomes blind, its reflection too will look blind; this becomes lame, the other also will limp; if it loses" limb, that also will lose the same limb. Whatever happens to the body, the same is reflected in its image. If that be so, then I do not see where is the gain."
So he came back again, with fuel in his hands. On seeing it him back, Prajapati inquired, "You departed along with Virochana, seemingly happy and contented. What no brings you back?" Indra replied, "Lord, I have perceived
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indeed that on adorning this body, its image reflects the adornment; on dressing it up, the other looks dressed..
Not only that, but when the one becomes blind the other too looks blind, when it becomes lame, the other also limps, when it loses a limb the same happens to the other. I do not see any advantage in all this."
Prajapati said, "It is as you say. But I shall explain to you more fully again. You live with me for another thirty-two years." Indra stayed with Prajapati for the next thirty-two years and then approached Him once again. Prajapati gave a fuller explanation this time. "I have already told you," He said, "about the waking self. But the person that moves about in the dream-state is the one to be glorified. He is the Self, He is the Immortal, the Fearless, the Supreme Reality."
Indra was satisfied and he started going back again, his doubts set at rest. But a fresh doubt arose as he was wending his way. "Granted," he thought, "any harm done in the waking state to the physical body does no hurt indeed to the dream-self, it does not reflect any flaws of the other. But one does feel during sleep, in the dream-state as if someone is coming to attack, one does feel that one is being pursued. If the dream-self too feels sorrow and affliction, then where is the gain, what makes it worth while?"
Indra went back to Prajapati, related to Him his experience. And once again Prajapati said, "What you say is right. I shall speak about it in more detail, if you can wait for another thirty-two years." At the end of the thirty-two years, Prajapati spoke again about still more fundamental things. Beyond dream is the state of dreamless sleep, in which the entire consciousness becomes calm and still, where there is no sense of movement, The Person in this state of dreamless sleep is the Self, the Immortal, the Fearless, the Supreme Reality.
Indra now left for home, satisfied as before. But again a doubt arose in his mind. He began to think, "In this state of sleep there is no consciousness or thought, there is no sense
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of I-ness. Even if the I remains, the world does not exist, nothing exists, all becomes non-existent. I do not see the utility of this kind of experience."
Again he came back to Prajapati, and as on the previous occasions, Prajapati said once again, "What you feel is true. But if you stay with me for another five years, I shall give you my final instructions and you will have the realisation." Indra spent another five years with Prajapati, making in all a stay of thrice thirty-two plus five, that is a hundred and one years.
Thereafter, Indra was initiated by Prajapati into the last secret, he was told about the All-Conscious Self or Reality that stands as on a peak above the states of waking, dream or deep sleep. This fourth or supreme status of the Self is the Reality that abides beyond all Ignorance, on the other shore of Darkness; for our waking, dream and deep sleep are no other than states of Ignorance and Darkness. It is this state of superconscient Being that is the true Immortality and Fearlessness.
The Asura had remained contented with the first steps of the true Knowledge. Their strength is the strength of the body, to them the strength of arms is the one source of strength. Quick is their gain and early their victory. The effort of the gods is long. Their desire is for the true Truth, the integral Truth, not any half-truths or anything that masquerades as the Truth. Their victory is in the end, they have to wait for it long. What they have to acquire is not the mere strength of body, but the power of the Self in its integrity. And why this insistence on a hundred and one years? A hundred denotes perfection; one added to it makes the perfection perfect. The mystery of the other figures remains still a mystery.
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THIS is the story of Ushasti Chakrayana, Ushasti the son of Chakra. But could it be that the name means one who drives a wheel, like Shakatayana,the driver of sakata, the bullockcart? Or is it something similar to Kamalayana, one who tends or enjoys a kamala, the lotus, lotus-eater? The Chakra or wheel here might be the potter's wheel, or it might as well be the spinner's wheel or Charkha. Does the name then mean something like one who owns or plies a Charkha, just as we term Kamliwalla an ascetic with a Kambal or blanket? However that may be, here is the story.
The Kuru country where Ushasti had his abode was hit by a natural calamity. Homeless, he wandered about with his young wife in search of food. On reaching the village of Ibhya, he found someone belonging to the village busy eating mouthfuls of beans. Goaded by acute hunger he begged a few grains of this man. The man said, "Some leavings still sticking to my pot are all that I have." Ushasti said in reply, "I will be happy to have even that little", and he took what the villager offered him. After he had finished eating, Ushasti was asked, "Would you have some water?" To this he replied, "But that would mean drinking your leavings." The villager said, "But you have already eaten the beans, they too were my leavings." Ushasti answered, "Those I took for the sake, of my life, or else I would have starved to death. The water is another matter, one can do without it yet."
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Ushasti had not eaten up all the beans. He had kept some and with these he returned to his wife and handed them to her. The wife was more clever or perhaps more lucky. She too had in the meantime been out begging and obtained a few things. To these she added what the husband gave and kept them all away.
Next morning, on getting up from bed, Ushasti said to his wife, "I am feeling awfully hungry. If there was something to eat, I would get some strength, and then I could present myself before the king. He is celebrating a sacrifice and might perhaps get me a place among the chanters of the hymns." The wife was not a person to be confounded, she said with a smile, "Well, here is some food for you, eat it up." Thanks to his wife, Ushasti had a good bite and, feeling hale and hearty, set off for the place of sacrifice. There he sat among the chanting priests, listened to them for a little while in silence, then he called the Prastota, the priest who chanted the introductory hymns, and said, "O Prastota, if one chants these introductory hymns without knowing the divinity that presides over the hymns, the head falls off." The same words he repeated to the Udgata, who recited the udgitha or hymns of the middle: "O Udgata, if one recites the udgitha hymns without knowing the divinity who presides over those hymns, he too loses his head." Finally, he called the Pratiharta as well, the one who uttered the pratihara or conluding hymns, and said, "O Pratiharta, one who utters the pratihara hymns without knowing their presiding divinity loses his head in like manner." All the priests accepted with bowed heads in due reverence these words of Ushasti.
The performer of the sacrifice, on whose behalf the sacrifice had been arranged, was struck by the wisdom of Ushasti, and he said, "Lord, who are you? I want to know about you." Ushasti replied, "I am Ushasti Chakrayana." The sacrificer now exclaimed, "Then it is you I have been looking for! These men had to be engaged because I could not find
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your whereabouts. Now be pleased to take charge of the chanting." Ushasti said, "Very well, it will be as you say. Let them now chant the hymns according to my directions." In this way, Ushasti agreed to take charge of the chanting, but he added this proviso, "Now that I have taken charge of your work, you would not forget about my fees I hope. You may give me whatever amount you would have given to these priests, I do not want more." The sacrificer gladly accepted this proposition. .
Then the first of the chanting priests, the Prastota, came up to Dshasti and asked him, "Lord, you said that one who recited the introductory hymns without knowing their deity would lose his head. What then is that deity?" Ushasti replied, "That deity is Prana – the Life-force. Life is the origin of all, in it they all dissolve. Life is the godhead of the introductory hymns; if one does not know what Life is, and utters these hymns, his head is bound to fall off." Next the Udgata came to him and put him his question: "Lord, you said that one who recites the udgitha hymns without knowing their presiding deity loses his head. Tell me, O Lord, who is that divinity?" "Aditya, the Sun is that deity. The whole creation raises a paean to Him as he ascends the skies. This Aditya is the godhead of the udgitha. If you sing the udgitha without knowing Aditya, then, as I have warned you, your head will surely fall off." Finally, the Pratiharta priest came to him and said, "Lord, you said that if I performed the concluding rites without knowing the divinity who presides over them, then my head was certain to fall off. Lord, I want to know who is that deity?" Ushasti replied, "Anna – Matter – Food is that deity. All these creatures find their sustenance by gathering food. Hence Food is the presiding deity of the concluding rites. If you recite the concluding hymns without knowing what Food is, your head will certainly fall off."
In this manner Ushasti gave the teaching about the Triple Principle, the Trinity represented by Life, Mind and
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Body; Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svar, that is, Earth, Sky and Heaven. He gave an indication of these three levels of manifested being, the triple world of this universe, spoke of the divinity that presides over this Triplicity. First of all comes the God of Life. This is the deity that is invoked at the outset, has to be so invoked in every act, in all ceremonial function, even in the effort at an inner perfection. He is the Creator, all that is manifested has Him for its driving power, sarvam ejati nihsrtam. Creation begins with a vibration of this Life - Force. The first thing necessary is to infuse Life into things. When we worship a divine image, we begin the rites with an invocation to this Life-force to enter the image; what was just an idol is awakened to life by the infusion of this Force. Life and Life-Force, this comes first. Next comes consciousness, knowledge, light, that is, the Sun-God, Aditya, and ordinarily, mind is His field. But by itself force is not enough, knowledge is not enough; this force and this light have to be embodied and given a form, they have to take physical shape with matter as the basis; they have to become an integral part of this earth of matter. Force and Light and Being are the three cosmic Principles, and. they have three Deities presiding over them. In establishing them in their unity in his awakened being man finds his entire and all round fulfilment.
You may notice here one thing. Many of these Rishis in the Upanishads are found sometimes using a threat that if anything or anyone deviated from the truth or the accepted norm, "the head would fall off". It seems to mean this. If one commits an error or there is a fault in the course of one's spiritual effort and if one continues on the wrong path without acknowledging the error or shortcoming, then it implies a movement, a gesture against the Truth and the Right, and this default carries in itself the possibility of a derangement of the head. The actual physical calamity befell an ancient seeker, Shakalya; we already know that story. In this age we do not perhaps come across an actual physical
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instance of such a mishap; but we are certainly familiar with something analogous, a derangement of the brain instead of the physical falling off of the head. As the Mother has said, the spiritual force is a kind of fire, to play with this fire without an inner devotion and sincerity invites dangers of this sort.
Let me here draw your attention to another – a rather interesting – aspect of this story; it is both amusing and instructive. Ushasti is the example of a man who, though a Rishi with a true knowledge of the Reality and a powerful realisation, is in other respects, in normal life, a perfectly incapable and helpless man; his capacity for an inner life seems to be matched by his incapacity in the outer. He had to bring himself down to the level of an abject beggar in his ordinary life; at every step he had to depend on his wife's assistance, without her co-operation he found it an unmanageable affair to procure even a grain of rice for the maintenance of life. It would not of course be logical or proper to conclude from this that the Rishis had need of their wives for this as the sole or primary purpose: the word "life partner" used for the spouse does imply a help-mate or means for the sustenance of life, but it carries no derogatory sense.
In those days there was in many cases an indifference towards the things of worldly life. This led to a certain weakness and poverty in this respect. Perhaps it was due to the necessity of an exclusive preoccupation with and concentration on the inner life. Only one or two Rishis like Yajnavalkya for instance had demanded an equal fullness and power. in the outer as in the inner life. Yajnavalkya's great dictum that he had need for both, ubhayam eva, was indeed uttered in no uncertain terms and without hesitation in the presence of all. The first and foremost aim of the Rishis was to acquire an inner mastery, what they called the realisation of self-rule, svaraya-siddhi. But a certain fullness of the outer life as well was not entirely beyond their ken;
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this they called the realisation of outer empire, samrajya siddhi. These two, the rule over self and the domination of the outer life, svarajya and samrajya, would constitute the integral realisation of the integral man.
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BENGALI ESSAYS AND POEMS OF
SRI AUROBINDO
Asceticism and Renunciation
THE Discipline (Dharma) spoken of in the Gita can be followed by everyone; it is open to all. And yet the supreme status in this Discipline is not a whit less than that of any other. The Discipline of the Gita is the Discipline of desireless works. In this country with the resurgence of Aryan Discipline a flood of asceticism has spread everywhere. A man seeking Rajayoga cannot rest content with the life or the work of a householder. For the practice of his yoga he needs to make tremendously laborious efforts to be able to meditate and concentrate. A slight mental disturbance or contact with the outside upsets the poise of meditation or completely destroys it. Difficulties of this kind one meets abundantly in home-life. Therefore it is quite natural for those who are born with an urge for yoga, derived from past lives, to turn towards asceticism. When such souls with an inborn yogic urge begin to increase in number and by contagion to spread among the youthful generation a strong movement to asceticism, the doors are opened indeed for the good of the country, in one sense; but also along with the good there arise causes for apprehension. It is said that the ascetic discipline is the very best, but very few are competent to follow it. The incompetent who enter the path go a certain distance and then in the midway stop short through a kind of satisfaction arising from lethargy and inertia. One can in this way pass one's life upon earth in ease, but then one does no good to the world and also it becomes very difficult for such it one to rise to the higher reaches of the world.
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The time and the circumstances in which we are at present demand that we awaken the qualities of dynamic energy (Rajas) and luminous poise (Sattwa), that is to say, activity and knowledge, discarding the qualities of inertia and devote ourselves to the service of the country and the world so that we may rejuvenate the moral and spiritual strength of our land. This is our foremost duty today. We have to recreate an Aryan people rich with knowledge and power and wide catholicity, from out of the womb of this people weak and worn out, weighed down with inertia, narrowed into selfish bounds. It is for this reason that so many souls, full of strength and yogic power, are being born in Bengal. If such people attracted by the charm of asceticism abandon their true law of life and their God-given work, then with the destruction of their true law the nation too will perish. The younger generation seems to imagine that the stage of the student (Brahmacharya) is the time fixed for the acquisition of education and character. The next stage as fixed is that of the householder. And when one has assured the preservation of the family and the future building of the Aryan race and thus freed oneself from the debts to the ancestors and also when one has paid off one's debts to society by the acquisition of wealth and by useful service and when one has paid off one's debts to the world by spreading knowledge and beneficence and love and strength and finally when one has been able to satisfy the Mother of the worlds by one's un stinted labour and high service for the good of Mother India, then it will not be amiss to retire from the world into the forest (Vanaprastha), and take to the ascetic life. Otherwise there arises confusion of social values and growing dominance of the wrong law. I do not speak of young ascetics who have been freed from all debts in a previous life; but it would be wrong for one who has not made himself ready for asceticism to take to it. Great and magnanimous Buddhism has done no doubt immense good to the country, yet no less harm, because of asceticism spreading
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everywhere and the warrior class (Kshatriya) renouncing their appointed function; and in the end, itself was banished from the country. In the new age the new dispensation must not admit this error.
In the Gita, Sri Krishna has time and again directed Arjuna not to follow asceticism. Why? He admits the virtue of Sannyasa and yet, in spite of the repeated questionings of Arjuna overwhelmed as he was with the spirit of asceticism, abnegation and altruism, Sri Krishna never withdrew his injunctions with regard to the path of action. Arjuna asked, "If desireless Intelligence, founded in Yoga, is greater than karma, then why do you engage me in this terrible work of slaying my elders?" Many have repeated the question of Arjuna, some even have not hesitated to call him the worst Teacher, one who shows the wrong way. In answer, Sri Krishna has explained that renunciation is greater than asceticism, to remember God and do one's appointed work without desire is far greater than freedom to do as one likes. Renunciation means renunciation of desire, renunciation of selfishness. And to learn that renunciation one need not take refuge in solitude. That lesson has to be learnt through work in the field of work; work is the means to climb upon the path of yoga. This world of varied play has been created for the purpose .of bringing delight to its creatures. It is not God's purpose that this game of delight should cease. He wants the creatures to become his comrades and playmates, to flood the world with delight. We are in the darkness of ignorance; that is because, for the sake of the play the Lord has kept himself aloof and thus surrounded himself with obscurity. Many are the ways fixed by him which, if followed would take one out of the darkness, bring him into God's company. If anyone is not interested in the play and desires rest, God will fulfil his desire. But if one follows His way for His sake, then God chooses him, in this world or elsewhere as His fit playmate. Arjuna was Krishna's dearest comrade and playmate, therefore he received the
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teaching of the Gita's supreme secret. What that supreme secret is I tried to explain in a previous context. The Divine said to Arjuna, "It is harmful to the world to give up work, to give up work is the spirit of asceticism. And an asceticism without renunciation is meaningless. What one gains by asceticism one gains also by renunciation, that is to say, the freedom from Ignorance, equanimity, power, delight, union with Sri Krishna. Whatever the man worshipped by all does, people take that as the ideal and follow it. Therefore, if you give up work through asceticism, all will follow that path and bring about the confusion of social values, and the reign of the wrong law. If you give up the desire for the fruit of action and pursue man's normal law of life, inspire men to follow each his own line of activity, then you will unite with my Law of life and become my intimate friend." Sri Krishna explains furthermore that the rule is to follow the right path through works and finally at the end of the path attain quietude, that is to say, renounce all sense of being the doer. But this is not renunciation of work through asceticism, this is to give up all vital urge to action involving immense labour and effort through the rejection of egoism and through union with the Divine - and transcending all gun as, to do works as an instrument impelled by His force. In that state it is the permanent consciousness of the soul that he is not the doer, he is the witness, part of the Divine; it is the Divine Power that works through his body created for action by his own inner law of being. The soul is the witness and enjoyer, Nature is the doer, the Divine is the giver of sanction. The being so illumined does not seek to help or hinder any work that the Divine Power undertakes. Submitted to the Shakti, the body and mind and intellect engage themselves in the work appointed by God. Even a terrible massacre like that of Kurukshetra cannot stain a soul with sin if it is sanctioned by God, if it occurs in the course of the fulfilment of one's own dharma (Inner Law), but only a few can attain to this knowledge and this
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goal. It cannot be the law of life for the common man. What then is the duty for the common wayfarers? Even for them the knowledge that He is the Lord, I am the instrument is to a certain extent within their reach. Through this knowledge to remember always the Divine and follow one's inner law of life is the direction that has been given.
"Better is one's own law of works, swadharma, though in itself faulty, than an alien law well wrought out; death in one's own law of being is better, perilous is it to follow an alien law."¹
One's own law of life (swadharma) means the work governed by one's own nature (swabhava); one's own nature evolves and develops in the course of time. In the process of Time man develops a general nature of his own; the works determined by this formulation of nature embody the law of that age. In the process of a nation's life-movement the nation's own nature is built up and the works determined by that nature are the nation's law of life. And in the course of the life-movement of an individual, the special nature he develops, determines the work that becomes the individual's law of life. These various laws of life are united together, organised in a com on ideal which is that of the Eternal Law. This law is one's own law for all who seek to follow the true law. As a spiritual student (brahmachari) one follows this law to gather knowledge and strength. As a householder also one follows this law. And when one has completely fulfilled this law, then one becomes eligible for the final stages, Vanaprastha or Sannyasa. Such is the eternal movement of the eternal law.
¹ Gita, III.35.
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THE seeker, the seeking and the sought are the three limbs that go to the making of the Quarternary – the Four Norms or Objects of life – the Right Law, Interest, Desire and Liberation (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha). Seekers have different natures; therefore different ways of seeking have been prescribed, and the goal sought is also different for each. But even if the outer view sees many goals, the inner vision understands that the goal sought is one and the same for all seekers: it is self-fulfilment. In the Upanishad Yajnavalkya explains to his wife that all is for the self. The wife is for the self, wealth is for the self, love is for the self, happiness is for the self, suffering is for the self, life is for the self, and death too is for the self. Therefore the importance and necessity of this question as to, what the self is.
Many wise and learned people ask what is the use of worrying over the problem of self-knowledge. To waste one's time in such abstruse discussion is madness, better to engage oneself in the more important subjects of worldly life and try to do good to the world. But the problem as to what are the things important in worldly life and in what way good will come to humanity, needs for its solution a knowledge of the self. As is one's knowledge so is one's goal. If one considers one's body as the self, then one will sacrifice all other reasonings and considerations for its sole satisfaction and thus become a selfish demon in human form. If one considers one's wife as the self, loves her as one's self then one becomes a slave to her, ready to die to please her, inflict
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pain upon others for the sake of her happiness, do harm to others in order to satisfy her desire. And if one considers one's country as the self then he may become a mighty patriot, perhaps leave behind- an immortal name and fame in history, but then one may reject all other ideas and ideals, injure and rob and enslave other countries. Again, if you consider God as your self and love Him as your self, then too it would be the same thing. For love means supreme vision: if I am a yogi, full of love for the Divine, if I am a man of action acting desirelessly, then I shall be able to possess a power, a knowledge or joy beyond the reach of the common man. And finally, if I consider the indefinable Supreme Reality (Brahman) as the self then I may attain the sovereign peace and dissolution. As is one's faith, so one becomes — yo yat sraddha sa eva sah. Mankind has all along been pursuing a development: it started with a small objective in view, then through comparatively greater ones it realised the highest transcendent reality. Finally it is now entering its goal, the supreme status of the Divine. There was an age when mankind was solely preoccupied with the body; the cultivation of the body was the law of the age. That was the way to Good in that age even if it meant depreciating all other laws. Otherwise the body, as it is the means and the foundation for the fulfilment of the law of the being (dharma); would not achieve the required development. Similarly there was another age in which the family and yet another in which the clan became the object of development as in modern times it is the nation that is the objective. However, the highest, the transcendent objective is the Supreme Lord or the Divine. The Divine is the real, the supreme self of all, therefore the real, the supreme objective. So the Gita says, "abandon all laws, remember me alone." All laws are harmonised in God. If you follow Him, He takes charge of you, makes you His instrument and works for the sovereign welfare and happiness of your family, your clan, your nation and the whole of humanity.
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Even if the objective be the same, different seekers having different natures, the way also differs in each case. One important way for realising the Divine is through prayers and hymns. But this is not suitable for everybody. One who follows the path of knowledge takes to meditation and concentration. For the worker, dedication of works is the best way. Prayers and hymns form a limb of devotion; even 'then it is not the highest limb; for unqualified love is the highest perfection of devotion. That love can realise God's true self through hymns and prayers and then, transcending their necessity, merges itself in God's self-enjoyment. And yet there is hardly a man of devotion who can do without hymns and prayers. When there is no need of the process and practice (sadhana) even then the heart wells out in hymns and prayers. Only one has to remember that the way is not the objective and my way may not be another's. Many men of devotion have this notion that one who does not take to hymns and prayers, who does not take delight in them, is not a spiritual man (one following the true law). This is a sign of error and narrowness. Buddha did not indulge in hymns and prayers but who would declare that Buddha is unspiritual? Hymns and prayers have developed for the practice of devotion.
Men of devotion are also of many kinds and hymns and prayers are used in different ways. A man becoming a devotee because of distress takes to hymns and prayers in order to cry out to God, to pray for His help in the hope of getting relief. One who is a devotee with a purpose takes to hymns and prayers in the hope of the fulfilment of his purpose, with the intention of securing wealth, fame, happiness, prosperity, victory, welfare, enjoyment, liberation, etc. Devotees of this category at times even try to tempt God and
propitiate Him;, some failing to achieve their objective get terribly indignant with God and abuse Him calling Him names such as that He is cruel, He is a cheat, declaring they would never more worship God, never see His face, never
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accept Him. Many again in despair turn atheists and arrive at the conclusion that this world is a domain of suffering, a kingdom of torture, that there is no God. These two categories of devotion are an ignorant devotion; even so it is not to be despised; for from the lesser one rises to the greater. The discipline of ignorance is the first step to the discipline of knowledge. The child is ignorant; but there is a charm in the ignorance of a child. The child too comes weeping to its mother, demands redress from suffering, rushes to her for the sake of some satisfaction and self-interest, laments, pleads and when refused gets enraged, creates trouble. Even so, the Mother of the worlds bears with a smiling face all the claims and clamours of the ignorant devotees.
Now, a devotee in quest of knowledge does not take I to hymns and prayers for the sake of securing a desired object or for pleasing God. For him, hymns and prayers are only a way to realising God's self-being and developing his own consciousness. But for the devotee who has already the knowledge, that necessity too disappears; because he has realised his self-being, his consciousness has become firm and well established: hymns and prayers are needed only for the outpouring of the fullness of the heart. The Gita says, these four categories of devotees are all large-hearted, none negligible, all are dear to God, but of them the devotee who has the kowledge ranks highest; for one who has the knowledge and God are the same in being, For a devotee God is the objective, that is to say, He is to be known and realised as the self; the devotee who has the knowledge and God are related to each other as the self and the Supreme Self. The self and the Supreme Self are united together through this triple bond, knowledge and love and work. Work is there but the work is given by God, there is no necessity of it, no self-interest in it, there is nothing to desire here. There is love, but that love is free from conflicts and quarrels; it is selfless, stainless, pure. Knowledge is there but that knowledge is not something dry and devoid
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of feeling, it is full of a deep and intense joy and love. The objective may be the same, but the way differs according to the aspirant. For different aspirants even the same way admits of different applications.
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EVER in the heart's core rings a faint strain,
The ringing of His hidden flute:
Its dumb utterance evokes a sweet pain,
The ardent desire of a burning love.
In the moonlight haze, in the love-game, steps around me
Brush past to avoid eyes meeting:
Half-seen the body, foot-fall muffled,
The soul is ever athirst.
In the dark a flickering smile, glimmering limbs,
Some one unseen spinning around:
Love binds my soul as if trapped in a prison,
I am in search of the body, the golden mine of love.
Lip to lip, hand in hand anon,
A vain moment's thrill:
Failure increases the greed, hopelessness sweetens the regret,
Sorrowful am I in my happiness.
O! when woulds't thou come into my arms with thy smile
divine
Pouring out all the treasure of thy heart?
A mere touch is a world of delight, Beauty universal
incarnate ―
Revealed in one body!
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WHO art Thou, in the, vast Finite,
Thou flowest, Great Time, from the
Beginningless towards the Endless? ¹
I have seized your intent,² mighty Spirit of Time!
Now the sky, irridescent in the cataract of sun-rays
Created the magic city of limpid Eve-tide;
I wandered along river banks seeking to attune my heart-strings
To the murmur and music of life voiced by her rippling waves:
Night infinite descended with silent steps
Casting the shadow of her coronet
Upon the wide sky, flinging the hem of her robe,
Laying down the soft darkness upon earth's expanse.
Her eyes lost in thought,
In this vast Night, plunged in the contemplation of the supreme Void
The dark Mother of the world in her stark ascetic mood lies in utter trance:
She draws deep into her bosom all creatures stilled in peace,
She plays her role of goddess Sleep,
Comes and silences the Life's noise in an unending quiet.
Now is the honeyed Banquet of stillness,
¹ Or
Who art Thou, O Great Time, carrying in Thy flow the vast Finite
From the Beginningless towards the Endless?
² Alternative: 'soul'.
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The crowded stars, like bees glowing, have flown out to feast and gathered in the heavens: ¹
The luminous amphora of cool ecstasy,
The moon floats up in the night bejewelled with stars.
In this moonlit darkness, this gleaming Night²
The immensity of that mood of mine³
I have drowned into this infinite Life
And have heard the music of Silence.
A vibrant sweetness rang in the soul,
The trance of the still world 4 broke,
Someone awoke at the touch of the luminous robe,
Some footfalls from far echoed into the heart.
Piercing the satiation and the massiveness of the Void
Dawn rises and colours the firmament with her smile: Even as a bewitching maid, delightfully radiant
Dances about in her joyous heart with frolicsome steps
Free in the mansions of her father.
Sweet and gentle their call
The birds communicate with each other ceaselessly
In their delightful tune,
The innumerable wild branches, robed in green,
The woodland dances in the Feast of Light:
Veiled behind the festive illumination
The hymn of delight I listened in the core of my heart
That vedic Rishis chanted drunk with the heavenly Soma
I realized the deep rapture that has bloomed
Into the Lotus-universe in the flow of the Infinte.
Mid-day was asleep laying his head upon the blue sky
Alone in the world's chamber:
¹ In the shorter version of this poem the following line is added after this:
'To smear with the rays of light the hearts of creatures.'
² In the shorter version the line reads like this:
'In this darkness illumined by dream-moonlight'.
³ In the shorter version the line reads as follows:
'The little human soul of mine'.
4 Alternative: 'Yogini'.
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There sounded in my heart the tremendous voice of tripleeternity
The great Mantra of the world-soul.
The soul satisfied, unifying unnumbered moods
Some high Creator, eternally calm, contemplates:
The Eternal Poet is pleased with his epic
The global rhythm of creation, Filled with felicity
He carries the Finite as the wonder form of the Infinite
And the endless universe circles towards the feet of its Lord.
His austerities fulfilled, the strong rays far flung,
In his heroic majesty, the sun is descending
From heaven's height, guided by the Law.
At the setting I have gathered in my heart the fulness of Peace,
I have drunk the honey of Life and emptied the goblet
The great Song of the Supernal has satiated my ears.
Such is the unstinted revel of each day,
A single day capturing the eternity of time,
O Life-Artist, Creator of forms,
Pouring All into a little it is your own figure you draw.
O Seer, in ever new souls you enjoy in various ways.
Under Thy control, in Thy mood the dancing Earth,
Its mind stilled, spreads its ecstasy:
What termless tameless dancing,
What unending rapture!
What a world-wide outburst, a tremendous explosion!
Carrying in the life-force days and nights and seasons and years
I have realised your mood, I have seen your body.
But which is Thy Self? What is that Fate
Compelling you to spin, O Mighty One, and to make the whole world spin!
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I KNOW not
Where had I wandered about and then reached afar this dreamland:
I found myself standing on the brink of a fluent river.
Above, the vast empty pale azure
Firm and high up. Here upon our globe
Twin comrades Earth and Heaven ever
Play their love-game intimate together.
Green earth only looks upward
Towards her lover's face, shivers in intense delight
In the thousand tremblings of the leaves, among the cool grasses.
The blue sky holds in embrace
The whole body of his Beloved enveloping it with delight,
Lifts up his high head, spreads aloft his laughter of love.
This is the play here. In our ealm here
Exists no cruel separation. But there
Earth is dying as though in grief, in fear,
Left alone in an empty universe. Swallowed in that Infinite,
Frightened by the heights, surrounded by nightmare,
Lies the little human life. Limitless expanse of land
Silent vast empty pale grey
Extends the unbroken wideness of the lifelessness
Of the great Void. No tree is there,
No grass, no stone, nor any human habitation
Could one see. The eyes move ever forward, move ever,
No end is there; yet though tired
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I am unable to return! A cruel landscape in its cruel pull
Carries away a prisoner as though to an enemy-land
Afar, afar into a bourneless world
In the stilled infinity.
I forced my eyes to return
Towards the other shore. It is hard stone
A fierce strength has moulded together, a long labour,
As though the artifact of a titan. During the wild rains
On the banks abroad spreading its body allover the skies
In rude delight the titan has laboured,
Happy at Nature's cruel game.
Fancy dawned in him to make it still more cruel.
Line after line it has carved smilingly on the stone.
Like a huge skeleton lies the wet shore of the river,
The mere bones as it were, bereft of flesh, of dead earth:
It lies immemorially with no solace of last rites done for
At that solitary end of things on that river-verge. I
No bend is in view, no grass nor flower. Erect, proud,
Firm, solid, despising, all softness
Goes down into the water the lifeless heartless stone.
Beyond afar, the desert land has moved lazily
To unite with the stone. No softness,
No love is there in the union, it is matter's love,
Stone's kiss.
I looked towards the stream.
It flows in silent speed - the stream of dreamland;
Asleep, mighty, calm, as though the violent life-force
Is imprisoned in Nature's arms on the crest of the Himalayas
Away lies the exit, the way out. Where the meadow
Meets the stone, a narrow space, as though
The throat of hungry death, there
In the land's perilous life-line, Death himself
Lay asleep like a python with his stone-figure
Possessing the universe. With slow wide-moving speed
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Proud of its long strides advances the dream-river.
In its winding, the miraculous vedic steed Dadhikra,
God incarnate as life-force, bridled in his breast and face,
Lifting his proud neck rushes on taking man
On heaven's path to the world of Truth. But on that way
Is this the cataract of Life's river flowing down?
Is this the true consummation?
It hurtles down like a sinner in an unmeasurable speed
Towards a crueller country. The wailing
Of the river adown comes into my ears as though from a
thousand sufferers!
I looked about, my mind full of sadness,
And thought, "Oh, the dead land! the still world!
In the noise what a silence, in the speed what an immobility!
Will ever man come to live in this inert country?
Pour his own life-force and make it living?
Is there no purusa for this prakriti?"
Rejected, as if through fear, thought returns
Into her own dwelling. Motionless is the earth-life as ever.
All on a sudden I woke up and looked within myself.
With a startle I saw the inert realm alive,
Alive the waters, alive the cruel
Endless wasteland, even the sky up above
Conscious, alive the stretched neck of death,
The stone-figure has assumed the shape of a sleeping python.
And the sound of the waterfalls carries afar
The mourning of a living soul.
I understood why it is there Erect and proud the stone with no softness
No pity no happiness in it. I understood the hope
The river nourishes in its bosom, flowing towards its vast end
Beyond sight, as if the mighty life-force is in trance
Filled with its own force of speed. And I knew here
None speaks of any other person, they know not each other
They want not each other. Each is engrossed in trifles,
Each is bound to himself, muses all alone,
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Each is confined to his own act and own mood.
But when they stumble upon each other, they tremble within,
The body, stunned and bound, thinks, "Lo, this is another I
That falls upon my body, this touch is full of joy!"
That is the end of it. There does not bloom the secret
Yearning
Neither in speech nor in movement nor in thought.
In my hopelessness
I see as though the whole world is a prison.
All on a sudden a sweet voice sounded within me:
"Look back, understand the hope of Prakriti,
Understand the dead prison-house is a mother's heart,
The hidden significance understand that is in this game."
I lifted my burning eyes, I saw afar
In the wasteland human figures. A boy and a girl
Embracing each other in mad delight in this expanse of
matter,
In this inert dreamland two living beings are there free
With no fetters, rapt in trance in each other's delight.
They disappeared from the sight. And that living matter
With no hope in it, is bound in its own mood as always.
But my mind freed out of the matter's touch,
I recognised the intent of the veiled conscious Being,
I captured in my spirit Nature's hidden desire.
My eyes capturing the whole landscape, consoled I returned
To earthly sphere.
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TITANS, assembled here, the race supreme on this earthly globe!
A city supreme bejewelled in this sea-girt isle
On a stony crest they shall set up in their own might,
Fearless defying the King of the gods, in disregard of the world.
But listen! What is this rumour
All along the walls surrounding the city of Lanka,
What is this tumult unprecedented in this land?
Is this the roar of a puny army in laughter and jeer,
Dancing over the head of the Mother of rakshasas, reveling
in pride and victory?
But whom do I fear? Why am I confined, a prisoner in my
own city?
Mute I look at their mad dance, hear their loud boast?
Protected by Varuna in this sea one .can never cross,
We warriors enjoyed the wide universe.
A little island has proudly trampled over the whole mankind,
And is the master of it, possessed as its own
The wide earth with her million habitants.
The haughty King of the gods, who names himself
The imperial majesty of the triple worlds,
Is himself imprisoned and works as a slave here today in our Lanka
It is through the might of your arms.
Here are we the same Titans. Here is our city, Lanka.
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Is that might of the arms turned limp?
Say, Titans, has that pride lost its brilliance?
Has that power evaporated unnoticed
As we lay courting sleep at night without care?
Who has stolen your blazing might?
Is it Krishna or Mahadeva or any other bold enough
In the still night trembling to enter Lanka while she lay asleep?
Oh! the irony of Fate! the unconquerable race
Is conquered at last in a petty skirmish!
Petty man is victorious in Titan's land!
I could understand, if Rudra with his trident rushed in,
His Cosmic might teeming with demi-gods and demons
And for days and nights and centuries battled and battered
and broke through
And at last, Providence aiding, ravaged and destroyed the
city of Lanka.
I could also understand if the great Vishnu spread
His net of duplicity, cast his spell of darkness
Upon the intelligence of the Rakshasas and stole away
The Fair Royal Deity of Lanka.
But we are conquered by the arms of Rama,
Men have trampled upon the city of Ravana!
Smile happily, O vanquished gods now in heaven,
There is no fear of punishment for you any more.
Smile, O Indra, in happiness, the lord of the gods is now
free from slavery.
I do not blame you, if you take pride in this victory
That should be a shame for you.
Luminous is the city of Heaven, eternal Spring is there,
Enjoy the garden of Paradise there through the mortal's
grace.
Ravana, enemy of the gods, is vanquished at the hands of
a human being.
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Vanquished! Listen! O listen! on the mighty rock afar,
The fierce echo hears and laughs at the word:
It is the daughter of the Mountain in this Isle of Lanka and
her thundering voice.
Vanquished! It rends the mind and heart to utter the word.
A Titan's tongue cannot speak it out.
A proud Rakshasa clad in iron-strength, with iron weapons,
Not content with earthly victories I roamed in all the three
heavens,
Not content, I assailed the very crest of the triple world.
You say that race is vanquished! A mirage is this truth,
False is this history.
Brothers, friends and sons are killed; in my vast bejeweled
halls,
Crowded with slaves and servants I wander all alone
In search of friendly faces but in vain.
The women's quarters are crowded too; there with a dry
and desert heart
I look upon mothers who have lost their sons.
In the Assembly Hall, in the battlefield,
In the joyless taverns, in the insipid playfield
My eyes in vain look-for the glories of Lanka.
Silent is the lion roar. Into these ears used to be poured
A torrent of delight, the trumpet call of victory,
The wild war-cry, the leonine yell of my brother
Kumbhakarna.
But O Aksha, O Indrajit, why are you silent at this hour
of peril!
Why does not your ever victorious voice delight our ears
anymore!
O my children, is the embrace of Death so fast, so sweet!
Pardon me, Titans, for the first time today the earth
Under Ravana's power is wet with Ravana's tears.
But nay, let them be slain, I am yet there.
Shall history write in its pages in iron letters as truth
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That the world conquerors at last were conquered by Rama,
the little feeble man!
This dark infamy shall never be written down in the history
Of the Rakshasas.
Let the world hear of the past history and wonder
And declare that the son of Dasharath enjoyed a momentary
victory
Because of the negligence of the Rakshasas.
Now, the wonderful news will spread, unique on earth,
A thing to madden a hero's heart, that sons killed,
Friends killed, killed all the great heroes,
Yet Ravana, the Rakshasa, rises again with a roar,
Leaps mad into battle, and a few of Lanka's men
Kill countless enemies in a few days,
With little effort enthrall again the whole rebel world.
Arise once more, wipe away the memory of grief,
Wipe off from your heart all shadow of sorrows,
Kindle fire of wrath in your blinded eyes.
Forget pity, forget weariness, O heaven-conquering race.
In an iron body, an iron mind and heart befits the race of Rakshasas.
Once more we shall slaughter all and each.
We shall cross the seas and depopulate
The land of birth of the son of Wind-god.
With myriads of prisoners, slaves unnumbered
We shall repopulate to overflowing the isle of Lanka,
Beget in the wombs of the enemy womanhood a new race of children.
But what has gone, let it go―
We shall build again, we shall destroy again.
We are not puny human hearts,
Ravana's thirst is not quenched with scanty blood!
The flaming grief dies not in this vast heart
Satisfied with a feeble revenge.
A little enjoyment does not enfeeble the ardour of these senses.
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I am a Rakshasa, once more I shall conquer
All the world and enjoy the Infinite itself.
Otherwise rest content, O jackals of Shiva's consort,
Rest content, O you host of vultures
A deathbed for me shall I build up like a hill
With thousands and thousands of human and ape heads.
Or I shall throw into devouring fire, like faggots,
All the rich treasures, things of beauty and art of ancient Lanka
I shall throw down all this peerless grandeur:
This entire great city I shall light up into a titanic funeral
pyre.
The three heavens with Earth I have won in battle,
I imprisoned all the gods, I enjoyed fame incomparable;
I am as though the all-enveloping world-eye of the Sun,
I burn at noon of mid-summer; afflicted by its heat
The world adores the scorching Fire.
I shine over the universe, displaying my effulgence.
As the sun reddens the blue of the firmament with its
own blood
And goes down at setting in all its glory,
So shall I sink into the sea of Death.
I was at dawn, during my sway, head uplifted,
Fierce and radiant.
And at the setting I will be there still,
In death and destruction unconquerable, a fierce lustre and
a mighty blaze.
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FRIEND! you received the mystic touch of love and your
gentle heart fell into error!
A high desire caught you in the meshes of Sannyasa!
A mighty effort is Krishna, the eternal Emanation:
Dharma is fallen in the whirl of adharma in this age of Kali!
Vainly you find fault with the Path and blame it.
You cannot understand my violent purpose:
A slave of ignorance, of sattva (Light) mixed with tamas
Or else even in this violent act you could recognise your dearest friend,
Recognise Krishna. You .understand Radha,
Him you did not understand. Whenever he sees the Earth
besieged by the Asura,
He always comes down shaking the unshakeable;
He turns round his spear and hurls it head foremost into the
hidden bottom of the ocean.
You understand the Flute, you understand Vrindavan,
You have not understood the killing of Kamsa, you have not
understood the war of Kurukshetra.
You are a perfect Vaishnava, you chant hymns to Buddha.
But Vishnu and Rudra are one body, they are only different limbs ―
Have you forgotten it? Have you forgotten that the very fount of kindness
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And the cruel slayer Kalki are one and the same Incarnation?
Kanu withdraws the violent Kalki-mood within his bosom
And kneels down at the feet of Radha.
The plenitude of kindness is kept imprisoned within the Mother's heart,―
Demoness, Titaness, Ogress - all their brood run riot in wild strife.
This Buddhist cult was created in illusion and delusion
Forbearance has made the spirit sluggish, compassion filled it with affliction —
It has no ardent yearning for the good of the world,
It wields no sword of knowledge to cut down ignorance,
Its humbleness makes it void of energy and its laziness empty of substance,
Proud of its shaven pate and an inflated belly
This is not Buddha's spirit. He is free from illusion,
He is calm and tranquil, he is a supreme ascetic of iron will, he is a mighty hero;
Trampling friendship and riches on his path, he is whollygiven to his mission,
He never turns aside,-he goes on, his eyes fixed on his journey.
This Vaishnava path, its heart melting in pity,
Full of slothful compassion, feeble and withdrawn from life,
The body always lolling lazily, the mind stricken with kindness, —
Drunk with the wine of spiritual lust, this unheroic Dharma
Declares that it worships the world-hero Krishna
And in act and word tramples upon his Word
and his Dharma,
Speaks always of kindness and love,
Has emptied real Kindness and Love of its burning truth―
Nor is it Chaitanya's path. He is mighty and steadfast:
Intense love, intense forbearance, free from tamas, heroic,
He is the Fair-Body (Gauranga), child of the Effulgence
(Sachi).
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Have you not seen the ocean?
The Supreme God himself in hiding as though: layer
after layer a mass
Immobile, bottomless, still, stretching beyond sight,
The blue immeasurable dancing upon it.
The ripples laugh and weep, - the huge waves
Fall at the feet of the Earth and kiss in playful moods.
But that delightful play of the ocean
Could never be if a deep foundation
Unmoved, unplumbed, secreted, is not held firm
By the great Ocean, conscious within, the expanse incommensurable,
In its self-luminous darkness, silent and alone.
In this mighty stillness the dance-drama goes on.
And again, hast thou not seen when lashed by the gale
Fierce unbridled it springs up miles after miles?
Roars the wild ocean, relentless, bourneless.
Endless cruelty embodied, expanse of wrath
Laughs covering the sky. Deafened with roars,
Scattering raucous cry and lion-growls lie the heartless Ocean ―
Boats sink, men sink. Does it hear the weepings,
Maddened with the relentless play in the embrace of the wind?
This is another game, another dance, another note,
This kiss is other - still is the same ocean.
WouId you say then, some demon
Laughs this terrible laughter, hurls this cry and call?
Who is this titan? Whose this imperious tyranny
In the guise of a play? Whose this ruthless embrace?
You know well this Rakshasa. Look well again,
The maids of Vraja recognise in Vraja His flute.
In vain you say the evil is man's creation;
In vain you say cruelty is titan's fancy.
This violent cruel play is His
Whom you call the God of Kindness, the God of Love.
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Why does he do so, why does he revel in this violent battle, ―
Freedom from maya is the price you have to pay to know Keshava.
When we see good in evil in the creation,
In cruelty kindness, then there is liberation.
All feelings break down, all sins die,
Free dweller in infinity moves the soul.
None belongs to none, everyone is His,
In the flow of life and death the world play moves on ceaseless.
The master of the play, the master of Energy,
the Supreme God in the Universe
He is one with the infinite Consciousness,
vibrating with Delight.
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MODERN BENGALI POEMS
WILL the sun rise tomorrow?
It is here now evening. Darkness spreads
into every nook and corner,
And in a blind rage drives onward a desperate cry.
Night comes down the sky:
Will the spell of darkness dissolve?
New-moon Night is black.
There is no mistaking;
And the full moon even at stand-still
With all its witchcraft cannot turn black.
Oh, where is the heart kind to the poor?
And where the generous soul?
The honey-bee has ceased to hum and buzz:
Only the chains jingle,
fettering the honesty of the honest.
Now it is time
to journey back to you:
Shall your eye ever turn
to a helpless yearning gaze?
Shall the sun rise tomorrow?
Shall the sun rise ever?
JYOTIRMOY MUKHOPADHYAY
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BE there where you have always been
Fate is firm in its resolve, the will unbending.
Nor far, nor near, always within sight, but beyond reach
altogether;
Without activity yet keeping interest.
The flame is out, still neither hot nor cold.
A luminous darkness, doors closed yet the breeze moving
free:
A river with no currents yet a silent tide moving up ...
Field harvested, stacks of straw strewn over - the only
comfort;
Out of the watery tomb of the goddess floats up her
cardboard coronet.
Nothing is here yet something remains. An empty envelope
With only the address written in the dear familiar hand.—
A trifle, still invaluable!
After the wild passion's play the fatigued floor lies with the
covering carpet of memory—
Not a magic carpet— it will take you nowhere!
You shall remain just there, where you have been forever.
HENA HALDER
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I BRING no magic herbs,
I bring only the blood of my veins—
O, wake up from vain slumber!
If I am struck blind,
If these eyes see no more your face,
If the whole earth is locked out utterly,
Well, let it be so —
If you only open wide your fiery eyes.
If I turn deaf, let it be so:
In the molten fire of your voice
If I cannot bake the ribs of my breast,
Well, let it be so -. .
O, only keep open your sharp ears.
If I am silenced forever
And struck dumb,
If all the gathered words of my life remain
Entombed, coursing within the sands of my bosom,
If you only unveil your effulgent face.
If you but cast a glance,
This earth is youthful once again. ...
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If you but lend your ear,
The air and the wind will voice their mind ...
If you speak,
The rivers and hills will be all ears!
If I am sunk in sleep, stilled to the core
And the whole earth slips out through the fingers,
As though a half-eaten fruit,
Well, let it be so
If you only woke up from the vain slumber.
I bring no magic herbs, I bring only the blood of my veins:
The earth is yours, wake up
And hold it in your conquering hands!
NABANITA DEBSEN
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IF thou must give something
Give me the undying lamp,
the lamp of thy Love:
And silently shalll bow down
and quietly depart.
Give to my beggar heart the touch of thy Light,
May it bloom like a morning flower on my bosom!
O Mother, thy seat bounded by the moon and the stars
is spread in the vast stilled spaces!
And yet afar from there, oh, touch the earth's heart
and pour down thy Grace!
Let my soul, drowned here in loud noises,
listen to the music,
The music of silence filling my whole being:
May the world with eyes wide open see
Peace come down unending:
O pour out the delight that shall enliven my journey,
The light of thy Grace shining like the
pole star in the sky:
In darkness, unmoving, alone, uncompanioned
May it flare like a torch and illumine the path
carrying the infinite Love.
I ask for nothing - only this that thy Love
bring down upon the worn out bosom of this earth
the endless flow of Immortality.
That I ask for, grant it, O Mother!
BHASKAR GUPTA
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A P P E N D I X - I
EVEN before that date for some time past, Sri Aurobindo had been more and more withdrawing into himself and retiring within. An external sign of this became visible to us as his lunch hour shifted gradually towards the afternoon. We used to have our meal together and the Mother too ate with us, at the Library House, in the room now used by Ravindra as the fruit-room. There used to be about eight or ten of us. On the previous day, Sri Aurobindo came down to lunch when it was past four. We would naturally wait till he came.
Then the great day arrived. In the afternoon, it was in fact already getting dark, all of us had gone out as usual. I was on the sea-front. Suddenly, someone came running at full speed and aid to me, "Go, get back at once; the Mother is calling everybody." I had not the least idea as to what might be the reason. I came back running and went straight up, to, the verandah facing the Prosperity room. Sri Aurobindo used to take his seat there in the evening for his talks with us or rather for answering our questions. As I came up, a strange scene met my eyes. Sri Aurobindo was seated in his chair, the Mother sat at his feet, both of them with their faces turned towards us. I looked round to see, if all were present. Satyen was missing and I said, "Satyen has not come. Shall I call him in?" The Mother spoke out, "Yes, all, all." All were called in, everybody was now present. We took our seats before Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, both of whom were facing us. The whole
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scene and atmosphere had a heavenly halo.
Sri Aurobindo held his left hand above the Mother's head and his right hand was extended to us in benediction. Everything was silent and still, grave and expectant. We stood up one by one and went and bowed at the feet of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. After a while, both of them went inside. And then, Datta who had been among us, suddenly exclaimed at the top of her voice, as though an inspired Prophetess of the old mysteries, "The Lord has descended. He has conquered death and sorrow. He has brought down immortality."
From this time onwards, Sri. Aurobindo went into retirement, that is to say, did not come out any more for his evening talks. The Mother made her appearance and it was with the Mother that we started our contacts.
The Mother would now sit down daily for her meditations with all of us together, in the evening after nightfall. That was the beginning of collective meditation. She made a special arrangement for our seating. To her right would sit one group and to her left another, both arranged in rows. The right side of the Mother represented Light, on the left was Power. Each of us found a seat to her right or left according to the turn of our nature of the inner being. I was to her right, Amrita sat on her left.
A strange thing used to happen every day at these meditations. Purushottam was one of our number in those days. He used to sit directly in front of the Mother, a little apart from the rest of us. As soon as the meditation began, he would begin to sway his body and even move about with his eyes closed while still meditating. He would come and get hold of some of us, give them a thorough kneading and would not even hesitate to tear at the hair on their head or face. In those days, almost all of us sported a beard and a moustache and wore our hair long. He used to say that this was his allotted work, this work of purification and helping in the purification. Not only did anyone ever
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raise an objection to this kind of molestation, it was accepted by all with perfect equanimity, with joy almost; it was considered to be a necessity, a sign of the Mother's Grace. But these attentions were reserved only for two or three people. During this process, the Mother of course remained silent and engrossed in meditation. All was done, no doubt, under her control and guidance, but from an inner poise. One day, Purushottam proclaimed to the Mother in a loud voice, "Mother, I do not mean it as a boast, I mention this to you in utter humility: Mother, just as you are the highest Force of the Supreme, even so I am the lowest force of this earth-nature. You have given me the privilege of being a collaborator in your Work." He used to say that Sesha-naga, the primal energy that sustains the material world, had manifested in him, that he was Sesha-naga itself. He was the spirit of Inconscience, of the Force in the nether world; his task was to work in that darkness, sweep it clean and make room for the Light, the Higher Forces of the Mother. This manner of working continued for some time; then it came to a halt, and we had only meditations.
The Mother's endeavour at that time was for a new creation, the creation here of a new inner world of the Divine Consciousness. She had brought down the Higher Forces, the Gods, into the earth atmosphere, into our inner being and consciousness. A central feature of that endeavour was that she had placed each of us in touch with his inner godhead. Every individual has what may be described as his line of spiritual descent and also ascent; for into each individual consciousness has come down from the supreme Maha Shakti an individual divine being, a particular godhead following a particular line of manifestation of divine power, vibhuti. To bear inwardly the touch of this divinity and found it securely within oneself, to concentrate on it and become one with it, to go on manifesting it in one's outer life, this was the aim of the sadhana at the time. This was a period of extreme concentration and one-pointedness,
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a "tortoise phase" of the sadhana one might call it. Like the tortoise one had to gather oneself in, limbs and all, and hide as in a shell by cutting oneself off from all outward touches. This was a temporary necessity in order to maintain the consciousness of the individual and the collectivity always at a high level and keep it unsullied and unchanged. Our give and take with the outside world was very little indeed and it was carried on under the strictest vigilance. All around us there had been fixed a cordon, an iron curtain almost. Even among ourselves, personal contacts like meeting one another or the paying of visits had been reduced to the barest minimum. To use the poetic language of Tagore, we seemed to be blossoming forth
Like a flower in the air, stemless
And sufficient unto itself...
But after following out this line for some distance, the Mother could see that the new creation, even if it came about, would be something narrow and confined to a limited circle, and for the most part effective only for an inner action. But that has not been her aim. The new creation must embrace the entire human race, a new race of men must be created and not merely a small select group. And in that new creation must be included not only the inner being of man but also his vital and physical life. In other words, we have to come down to the lower levels and work for the purification there, in order to raise them beyond themselves by the infusion of the higher consciousness and make them fit instruments for the higher things. We are still continuing with that work, through the "ups and downs of an uneven path".
Let me just illustrate, from my own experience, to what extent we had become self-gathered and indrawn. One day, for some reason or other, I happened to have come out of the Ashram precincts and away from its atmosphere;
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that is to say, I was going about the town and through the market area. Suddenly I began to feel rather queer, as if I were not walking on the ground. There was no weight in my legs, I floated on air through a mist as in a dream and there was no solid ground or a settled path. I felt terribly uneasy, almost like a fish out of water. I hurried my steps back and it was not till I had reached the Ashram precincts that I could heave a sigh of relief.
We have left that stage far enough behind us now. We have in. fact reached the opposite end perhaps. We have taken a plunge outwards, identified ourselves with the outer being - a tendency against which the Upanishad has used a word of warning: parañci khani vyatrant, our senses have a natural pull towards the outer things. But this too was necessary and still is. We form part of the world, we are united with it and inseparable. We are an image of the entire world, its symbol and representative. We have to share in its work and suffer its deeds. Even Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have not spared themselves this, but that is another matter. Whatever changes we succeed in effectuating in ourselves here will initiate similar changes all the world over. Therefore, not to become wholly externalised, – a tendency which is uppermost here in our collective life today, – but to keep the path open for the inner sadhana, this should be our endeavour. We have to harmonise the two extremes, for not to disjoin but to unite, that is Yoga.
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Excuse me if I sit like this with my feet in the air. That's my way of making myself at home: I feel at home. ... So, you expect me to speak to you something?
Well, I have talked a lot in my rather long life, have I not? I have talked a good deal, written much more. All that forms now my Collected Works: eight volumes in English and as many volumes in Bengali. ...
All of you are leaving our Centre of Education, a Centre where you have been for so many years. To complete your Course and come out of the Centre, it's all right; but to go where? It seems you have already come to a decision, there are many amongst you who have made their choice. That's good, for it means choosing one's life. .
I wanted to tell you only one thing: you are going out but wherever you go, you carry something within you, something that is permanent and eternal since the beginning of the world. I have sometimes spoken of the golden chain of the Mother; I have said too that Mother had two chains, one of gold and the other of iron. These two chains are your eternal companions; wherever you may go, you will carry these two with you. You are bound to the Mother forever - forever, be sure of that. It's the prop of your life, it's your aspiration. These are not chains of bondage but of freedom and entire satisfaction. You may ask: what are these chains of gold and of iron? The golden chain is in
* A Talk to the outgoing students of the International Centre of Education (SriAurobindo Ashram) on 25-10-1978.
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your soul and the iron one is in your body. The body, your body, is also bound to the Mother, to her Presence and Influence. Body means not only the material body, but the physical body, the inner body. Now, the imprint of the Mother's Presence, you carry that in this physical body. You may not be always aware of that, but this makes no difference, nothing at all. Here I may refer to something pertinent…One day someone went to see the Mother on his birthday; it was our Prithwi Singh. Now, Prithwi Singh plaintively said to the Mother: "Mother, here I am, so near to you; it's my birthday, a day so nice and precious to me, but I cannot see you, for I am blind in both of my eyes." Then the Mother answered: "What does that matter? You cannot see me but I am seeing you."
And this is always so. You cannot see with your physical eyes but the Mother's look is always upon you, her look of love and protection: be sure and certain of that. You carry that within you for all time and wherever you go, wherever in the entire world. You carry in you a portion, a spark of her Love; and that will save you from many difficulties, from much danger. If you can keep that in your active memory, it will be still more beneficial. That's all.
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APPENDIX - II
Original Texts of Translations
Vedic Hymns
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