Lights on the Veda

Lights on the Veda is a summarised version in English of the author's Rig Bhashya Bhumika - Introduction to the commentary on the Rik-Samhita in Sanskrit along the lines of Sri Aurobindo's symbolic interpretation of the Riks.

LIGHTS ON THE VEDA

I

AN eminent Indian refuses to accept Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation of the Veda and the doctrine of the mystics chiefly on the ground that it is opposed to the verdict of European scholars as well as to the Indian tradition as propagated by the Mimamsakas. To have a picture of the possible objections before us is, doubtless, an advantage, for that will help us to follow intelligently and with caution and discerning appreciation the lines of thought chalked out in the writings of Sri Aurobindo on the Veda. We shall therefore, start with a succinct statement of the reasons largely in the critic’s own words and then proceed to examine the position, make clear to ourselves and show how far our view is in consonance with the religious and spiritual traditions of India, supported by textual evidence from the Rik Samhita down to the Puranas that are the scriptures of popular religions of our own times. The writer is an Indian of wide renown, a competent exponent of Indian thought and culture, and if we attach value to his objections, it is not because he is an authority in the field of Vedic learning-nor does he claim to be one, and it is not necessary for one to be a specialist to share the views of reputed authors—but because his views are representative of current conceptions about the Vedas among most Indians of modern education. Let us first state the opinions of authors on whom he relies for his ideas of the Rig Veda.

Twofold Objection

“Competent scholars who have made these scriptures their life-study hold these views: they speak of the primeval childlike naive prayer of the Rig Veda and maintain that the Aryans of the Rig Veda possessed a Monotheism however primitive it might be. Roth and Dayananda Saraswati agree with this view. Ram Mohan Roy considers the Vedic gods to be the allegorical representations of the attributes of the supreme deity. According to others, Bloomfield among them, the hymns of Rig Veda are sacrificial compositions of a primitive race which attached a great importance to ceremonial rites. Bergaigne holds that they are all allegorical. Sayana, the famous Indian commentator, adopts the naturalistic interpretations of the Gods of the hymns, which is supported by modern European scholarship. Sayana sometimes interprets the hymns in the spirit of the later Brahmanic religion. These varying opinions need not be looked upon as antagonistic to one another, for the only point to the heterogeneous nature of the Rig Vedic collection.” Equipped with the opinions of these eminent men, our writer drives at a summary rejection of Sri Aurobindo’s view of the Rig Veda. The famous author quotes a passage from “The Secret of the Veda ” in the Arya and recommends the dismissal of the same with an air of hesitancy that adds to the poise of scholarly reserve, at the same time heightening the tone of a persuasive appeal. To " the great Indian scholar-mystic (Sri Aurobindo) ... the Veda ... is a mystery-religion corresponding to the Orphic and Eleusinian creeds of ancient Greece ... when we find this view is opposed not only to the modern views of European scholars but also to the traditional interpretations of Sayana and the system of Purva-Mimamsa, the authority on Vedic interpretation, we must hesitate to follow the lead of Mr. Aravinda Ghose, however ingenious his point of view may be”.

Criticism Examined

The chief point in the objection raised against Sri Aurobindo’s views may be summed up in the words of the same scholar. “It is not likely that the whole progress of Indian thought has been a steady falling away from the highest spiritual truths of the Vedic hymns. It is more in accordance with what is known as the general nature of human development, and easier to concede that the later religions and philosophies rose out of the crude suggestions and elementary moral ideas and spiritual aspirations of the early mind, than that they were a degradation of an original perfection.”

This is how the modern Indian mind at its best has assimilated the historic spirit of Europe, developed the rationalistic outlook of the nineteenth century and grown into a strong, almost stubborn, self-complacent attitude that precludes from its purview the admission of any fresh or neglected fact, new evidence or other view that is likely to unsettle its notions of man’s past history and the course of his psychological and spiritual development. The error in the conception lies in the supposition that man began to develop an inner and spiritual life in a comparatively developed stage of culture and civilisation, at any rate, long after he left behind the fears and fancies of a relatively remote period of primitive life. But Sri Aurobindo has nowhere stated that there was an original perfection of which the later stages were a degradation. To say that the seers of the Rig Veda were mystics who had developed an inner life and self-culture of a high order is not the same thing as to assert that the men of Rig Vedic times had obtained an all-comprehensive perfection, spiritual, moral and intellectual, which was followed by a long course of degradation across the centuries. When we come to state the bases of Sri Aurobindo’s reinterpretation of the Rig Veda these misconceptions will lose their grounds or their semblance to stand on; but it is necessary to point out here that the Vedic age is not at all presumed to be an age of Reason and intellectual development and what we call exact sciences as we know them, but it was undoubtedly one of Intuition, an age of the mystics who had developed certain lines of self-development and culture of the Spirit and had their own technique of the Yogic art, and methodised their system of building the inner life. This does not mean that all men of the Vedic age were mystics and seers or that the latter shared with the populace their profound knowledge of the laws and processes of the workings of the Inner Nature, or of the truths and secrets of the Godhead they communed with. We can take up an illustration from our own times. Ours is an age of high intellectual advancement, an age of Science that daily and hourly continues unravelling the mysteries of Physical Nature and her revelations are pinnacles of wonder. But how many are intellectual in this age of intellectual supremacy? Very few, indeed. How many again among the small proportion of intellectuals are competent to follow the strides of Science and intelligently appreciate her progress? Again, how many are among them qualified and initiates for entry into the secret world of the laws and processes that release vast dimensions of energy lying hidden in the womb of the Atom? Few, few and less than few. But whatever the dominating principle of power be, whether it is spiritual wisdom and occult knowledge, or scientific culture, aesthetic sense and refinement and intellectual ardour, or sheer political skill and military strength, or production and distribution of necessaries or luxuries of life, of wealth answering to the material and vital needs of human groups, always it works itself out through just a few human centres amidst masses of men who receive and benefit and prosper or resist and reject and perish or tolerate and bear with the consequences of the concentrated expressions of a few, by far numerically the inferior few.

The question of perfection in any age or stage of human development in any field does not arise at all. In India, the intellectual philosophies are not a degradation of an original perfection of the Vedic age, but a certain line of development practically cut off from the different lines of spiritual thought and occult knowledge and life developed to a high degree by the mystics of the Vedic age an age far remote and removed from the days of the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Besides, it is a mistaken conception that spiritual experience, intuitive insight, occult knowledge, inspiration and similar non-rational acquisitions of some of the so-called primitive races are either fancies and therefore not valid, or if valid they belong to a later period when man advanced in general knowledge of himself and his environment and lived in a better civilised state with the comparative comforts of life that economic improvement brings. But some of the ancient prehistoric peoples have had profound knowledge of Nature in certain spheres which our learned critic himself admits in these words: “ The most ancient fancies sometimes startle us by their strikingly modern character, for insight does not depend upon modernity.”

It may be asked: If there had been a great spiritual progress made by the Vedic seers, how did it then come to a close without leaving its impress upon the ages that followed? Whether it left its influence or not and in what way if it did at all forms part of the subject proper to which we shall turn in course. But the language and mentality of the Vedic age certainly underwent a great change; but it is almost a miracle that something of the Vedic tradition was preserved, attempted to be preserved in the Brahmanas and Upanishads in spite of the gulf between the two periods. Somehow the age of the Vedic Mystics came to an end. Nobody could question why; its period was over in India as the age of Mysteries in ancient Greece and Egypt and elsewhere. But on that account we shall not deny that there was an age of the Rishis who had developed a sublime type of spiritual culture whatever the state of civilisation and economic development according to our standards they may have reached. Supposing that our present civilisation practically perishes for the most part, as a consequence of some catastrophe in Nature, or by a cataclysm brought about by Nature’s stupendous work in the monstrous brain of man producing a reasonable number of atom bombs, would it be right for future generations to deny altogether the actual fact of the scientific culture, the intellectual advancement and general progress of civilisation of our times ?

The crux of the whole question of human progress lies in a proper appreciation of the history of human psychology itself from the very beginnings as far as is and can be known to us. The position, as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo, of the Vedic age and its spiritual culture can be summed up in a few lines. “In the age of Veda or in Egypt, the spiritual achievement or the occult knowledge was confined to a few, it was not spread in the whole mass of humanity. The mass of humanity evolves slowly, containing in itself all stages of evolution from the material and the vital man to the mental man. A small minority pushed beyond the barriers, opening the doors to occult and spiritual knowledge and preparing the ascent of the evolution beyond mental man into spiritual and supramental being.” Now let us follow him in the brief survey he takes of the spiritual history of India; it will be clear that it is not at all a matter of degradation of an original perfection but, of a downward curve with a purpose. “Here in India the reign of Intuition came first. Intellectual mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and science. ... The Vedic age was followed by a great outburst of intellect and philosophy which yet took spiritual truth as its basis and tried to reach it anew, not through a direct Intuition or occult process as did the Vedic seers, but by the power of the mind’s reflective, speculative, logical thought; at the same time processes of Yoga were developed which used the thinking mind as a means of arriving at spiritual realisation, spiritualising this mind itself at the same time. Then followed an era of the development of philosophies and Yoga processes which more and more used the emotional and aesthetic being as the means of spiritual realisation and spiritualised the emotional level in man through the heart and feeling.” Then he continues to show how this was followed by the Tantric and other processes that took up the will in the mind and life and sensations and used them as instruments and fields of spiritualisation. Even the Hatha Yoga later attempts a divinisation of the body; here also is an endeavour to arrive at the same achievement with regard to living matter though this still “ awaits the discovery of the true characteristic method of Spirit in the body.” This is the spiritual history of India from the Vedic age down to recent times always reaching the height, then followed by an attempt to take up “ each lower degree of the already evolved consciousness and link it to the spiritual at the summit”.

It will be thus seen quite reasonable to dismiss the first objection based on the wrong supposition that the Vedic hymns are sheer primitive babblings and poetical fancies of the Aryan peoples just emerging from an original ignorance. We can explain the drawbacks of European Vedic scholarship of the last century if we remember that it started at a time when the materials available to it were scanty, and it tried to theorise upon the religion, history, civilisation, society, and many other things connected with the Aryans of the Vedic age with what little knowledge it then had of the history of other earlier races. Besides, in spite of the scrupulous care associated with all scholarly labours that Europe brought to bear upon its Vedic studies it could not escape the limitations of its temperamental mould which is in fact diametrically opposed to the Indian spirit. It surmounted the difficulties in understanding the texts by partly drawing upon conjectures and partly on certain inexact sciences, very often conjectual — comparative philology, comparative mythology or comparative religion. Today, times, along with them conditions, have changed; fresh facts stare us in the face; new evidences accumulate; modern sociologists revise the old-world opinions of past generations of scholars in regard to human origins, the history, polity, psychology, religion and life in general of at least some of the early races and peoples whom we call primitive. In addition to these, materials available for Vedic studies are much more today than a century ago. It will be thus seen that a thorough revision of opinions among scholars about the Vedic culture and Vedic worship is a desideratum.

Indian students and seekers of knowledge of the Vedas especially in the last century followed the lines of European scholarship and swallowed as gospel truth European opinion because it had gained in prestige by its association in their minds with European science and culture which is a different matter altogether, estimable indeed, based on different, firmer grounds. But today there is no reason whatever to follow the same track which was an unconscious but necessary error in the beginning when the Indian mind had to find and see the light of modern critical methods of scholarship from Europe. Now there is no dearth of critical study or scientific outlook in India and there is plenty of it as evidenced in the fields of science, literature, philosophy and many branches of ancient or modern learning. But, can the same be said about Indian Vedic scholarship? Here it is the same song of the nineteenth-century Europe that is being relayed and sung by Indian writers on the Vedas; though there may be a certain improvement, some alterations in details, some minor discoveries of facts, the fundamental position has remained fixed, well-fashioned and established, not shaken at all. The primitive peoples, nature-worshipping semi-civilised races, poets of childish fancies, simple-minded enough to be wonder-struck daily at the appearance of dawn, fear-ridden at the thought of night — these are still there at the bottom of all their labours in the field of what they call Vedic research. We can take the example of the Vedic Dawn to show the nonsense that is still indulged in seriously by these our Indian admirers of Vedic poetry. It has become a respectable convention with the writers on Veda to follow in the footsteps of their European teachers to extol the Vedic poets of the Dawn, and admiringly quote the same hymn or hymns. But when we hear eulogistic plaudits showered upon these primitive poets for singing the glory of the Dawn and look into the sense of the hymns addressed to Usha as given by them, of course with their own improvement made upon the meaning given by Sayana, we find ourselves face to face with queer people who composed these poems, and indeed we are at a loss to decide who are queer — whether those Rishis or these scholars. Look at the grotesque situation when we follow the scholars who make a convenient use of Sayana to the extent necessary for their theories and explanations. When the Rishi gives vent to his gratitude in a joyous cry "We have crossed over to the other shore of this darkness”, we are called upon to assume that he means literally darkness and that no figure is meant and that he refers to the normal awakening, to the daily sunrise which he hymned with so much ardour. Again these people, the Rishis, sat down to the sacrifice at dawn and prayed for light when it had already come! The height of absurdity and irrationality is reached when these Rishis believed — or more truly, when we are asked to believe —that it was only “by their prayers that the Sun rose in the heavens and the Dawn emerged from the embrace of her sister Night”. But such a belief can certainly be ascribed to the Rishis only on the gratuitous assumption that they were savages overpowered by a “terror of darkness which they peopled with goblins, ignorant of the natural law of succession of day and night". But even here, the difficulty is that that they seem to know it, for they speak of “the undeviating rule of the action of the gods and of dawn following always the path of the eternal law of truths”. So far, for irrational assumptions and uncritical acceptance by most Indian scholars of the imported theories of Vedic origins.

The moment critical acumen is applied to the study of the Vedic hymns in the original with some respect for the most ancient of all traditions concerning the mantras, the Riks and Rishis, at once the Vedic verses cease to be fanciful poetry, and the Vedic seers gradually uncover themselves as seers of Truth. And if we accept what Sri Aurobindo for the purposes of reasoning and intellectual appeal calls his hypothesis, but what in fact is just an intelligible statement of his knowledge born of clear perception of the truths about the Vedic seers, the Vedic hymns and the Vedic gods, the result is a twofold gain. For negatively, most of the incongruities attributed to the Rishis vanish, many dilemmas in the understanding of the Riks in many places are got rid of; and positively, we gain in our knowledge of the spiritual stature of the Seers, of the mystic Wisdom embedded in the hymns, of the true character of the Vedic gods, and many unintelligible portions of the Upanishads become clear as daylight; and last we find justification, satisfactory explanation for the claims of the Agamas (Tantras) of various schools and the later day Puranas and minor scriptures that the Vedas are the repository of spiritual wisdom and Divine knowledge and that they themselves are attempts to represent something of that knowledge in their own way for people of a later age.

Traditional Interpretation

Before we proceed to note briefly the special features of Sri Aurobindo’s exposition of the hymns of the Rig Veda and point out how he unveils the true and inner sense of the Mystics and refer also to the authentic evidence he shows as emerging from the Vedic texts themselves, we shall first dispose of the other objection mentioned earlier that his views on the Vedic hymns could not be accepted because they are opposed to the traditional interpretations of Sayana and the system of Purva-Mimamsa, the authority on Vedic interpretation". Here again is a misconception or an ambiguity concerning what is called the traditional interpretation of Sayana. What is the tradition that was handed down to Sayana which he maintains in his interpretation of the Rig Vedic hymns? Or, is it meant by the term the tradition that he himself started and that has been handed down to us through his commentary on the Riks? Such a question arises because when we go through his Rigbhashya we find him maintaining a variety of traditions coming down from different schools of learning. He maintains mostly the ritualistic tradition that the Mantras are meant for sacrificial purposes, with great zeal, very often at the cost of a straight rendering of the text. But the Brahmanas, the original ritualistic scriptures themselves do not claim to be treated as the Vedas in the main of which the Mantras are a part having their place in the rituals. In scores of places Sayana in his commentary maintains the Vedantic tradition, the Puranic tradition and other Shastraic traditions without making any serious attempt to take notice of the discrepancies in his writings, much less to reconcile them at all. An instance may be cited to show that Sayana while endeavouring to expound the Riks in consonance with the tenets of the ritualist clean forgets that according to the latter there can be no mention of any actual historic occurrence in any portion of the Vedas, since they are eternal — every sentence, every word, every syllable. Again, when Sayana finds certain hymns clearly symbolic or containing allegorical allusions, he explains them in a quite simple way making references to the minutiae of certain rites that are meant and ought to be so understood and avoids to mention any other possible significances of the Riks in question. He was quite aware of the fact that the ritualists were just one of the three main interpreters of the Vedas and this is clear when he occasionally quotes Yaska making references to a threefold interpretation of the hymns of the Rig Veda. When he gives us alternative meanings of words or verses, which he quite often does, it is obvious he does so as a scholar, with a certain indifference to the acceptance of the alternative meaning if it does not fit in with a sacrificial context. What then is the tradition he himself received or he has left behind ? It is a jumble of traditions that we find registered in his commentary, as has been stated already, though of course he started his work with the avowed object of demonstrating that the Riks are ancillary and indispensable to the ceremonial rites of Vedic sacrifice. Certainly he did not follow a particular tradition in interpreting the Riks; for there has been no tradition as such recorded and available in the shape of a commentary on the whole of the Samhita. Sayana himself does not make mention of any commentary on the Rik Samhita as having existed before him. Had there been one or had he even heard of one as having existed and lost, he would certainly have stated it. Does he not refer to Yaska frequently whenever the latter explains the Riks? But he made his choice and sided with the ritualist supporting not fully, but to some extent, the Mimamsakas and wrote the commentary. The ritualistic tradition of Vedic religion was there long before him and he imbibed its spirit. That is not the same as to say — and it will be a travesty of truth — that that was also the tradition in regard to the interpretation of the Riks. If there was any tradition, it was the threefold interpretation of the Riks to which Yaska draws our attention¹

It is not necessary here to make mention of the helpfulness of Sayana, the merits are great, but we can state this much that his commentary represents one phase of the Vedic worship, the external religion, namely, the Vedic sacrifice. Ages intervened between him and the Vedic Rishis. We may draw the reader’s attention to the intelligent guess, to the sensible remarks of Professor Benfey: “Everyone who has carefully studied the Indian interpretations is aware that absolutely no continuous tradition extending from the composition of the Veda to their explanation by Indian scholars can be assumed; that, on the contrary, between the genuine poetic remains of Vedic antiquity and their interpretations a long continued break and tradition must have intervened, out of which, at most, the comprehension of some particulars may have been rescued and handed down to later times by means of liturgical usages and words, formulae, and perhaps also poems connected therewith.” This last work of rescue is exactly what Sayana’s commentary represents. But these scholars lament, and along with them their loyal pupils of India, that Sayana is usually rational but is often deceived by the Brahmanas and misled by Yaska for whom he had a misplaced reverence. This is because though Sayana’s interpretation gives them sufficient material for their rationalistic theories of Vedic gods, Vedic religion and Vedic poetry, it contains many other things, his theological beliefs, his irrational reverence for the gods which are after all none but Nature-Powers, his acceptance and exposition of spiritual ideas — though occasionally — that the Riks conveyed to him which could not be true according to them, considering the remote times of those primitive peoples and therefore adversely affected some of their suppositions and conclusions.

But whatever they may have thought erroneously, all that is but natural and such are always the imperfections that attend the labours of all pioneers in any field. In the galaxy of vanguards in the realm of Vedic studies Max Muller will always shine among those of the first magnitude, if only for his excellent edition of the Rik Samhita with Sayana Bhashya. Whatever notions he may have entertained earlier or later in the progress of his Vedic studies, he had one warning to give to his colleagues of the West; we can take it as a caution to every one who takes to the study of Rig Veda in India also. “What we must guard against in all these studies is rejecting as absurd whatever we cannot understand at once, or what to us seems fanciful or irrational. I know from my own experience how often what seemed to me for a long time unmeaning, nay, absurd, disclosed after a time a far deeper meaning than I should ever have expected”.

The Central Truths

Now let us proceed with the proposition that the Rig Veda, its true and inner meaning, is spiritual and mystic; that is the esoteric aspect of the Vedic worship. And this is the implication that we do not reject Sayana because his interpretation represents the exoteric side, the outer worship of the gods of Vedic pantheons. It may be that he may not be always correct in giving the meaning of verses even for his purpose, the meaning needed for ritualism. It may also be that the meanings he gives to words are not always consistent or always purposeful, but this is a matter to which reference will be made when necessity arises. But all this does not affect our position holding as we do that he represents one phase of the Vedic religion as understood and preserved to some extent by the Hindus of his times. In this connection it will be interesting to note the words of a Western savant, in his prefatory lines to one of the volumes of Wilson’s translations of the Rig Veda. Referring to the work he says, " This work does not pretend to give a complete translation of the Rig Veda, but only a faithful image of that particular phase of its interpretation which the mediaeval Hindus, as represented by Sayana, have preserved. This view is in itself interesting and of a historical value; but far wider and deeper study is needed to pierce to the real meaning of these old hymns. Sayana’s commentary will always retain a value of its own— even its mistakes are interesting – but his explanations must not for a moment bar the progress of scholarship.” We appreciate the balanced and judicial statement of this Western scholar, now a century ago, for uttering these words of caution and wisdom, in taking Sayana’s commentary for a faithful picture of a particular phase of Vedic interpretation. We subscribe to every word of the passage of Professor Cowell quoted above; for, that, indeed, sums up the position of Sayana in relation to Vedic interpretation.

Now let us proceed with a bare statement of the central thought that governs our approach to the study of this most ancient sacred Scripture of India and later see how far we are supported by evidence emerging from the Rig Veda and other scriptures of later times. The Rig Veda represents and embodies the remnants of the Wisdom of ancient seers of a remote age at its close, far anterior to the times of the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. It constitutes the gospel of the Mystics, garbed in a symbolic vesture. The hymns that make the collection called Samhita are not the kind of poetical compositions we are familiar with, but are words of inspiration that reveal the truth-perceptions of the seer, the Rishi. They are called Mantras and carry with them an occult and spiritual power appropriate to their sense and sound and found effective for special purposes by the seer, for himself and for others. They have a double meaning; one is the inner, the true meaning of the Veda Mantra which is psychological and spiritual. This secret is known to the Rishis, to their disciples, in fact, only to the Initiates who have turned to build the inner life, learned to perform the inner sacrifice, offer what they have and what they are to the Gods, and receive from them what in return are bestowed upon them and thus progress towards the attainment of spiritual and Divine Felicity. The other meaning is external, meant for the common men of the times, useful for those who performed the outer sacrifice by which they propitiated the gods and which was the common exoteric religion of the Vedic age. The device of double meanings was a necessity for the preservation of the occult knowledge and spiritual wisdom, confined naturally to the competent few that were the initiates, while it averted the dangers that the common man was usually exposed to through ignorance and abuse, for the ordinary people are unprepared for the reception of uncommon inner truths, unripe for aspiration for higher life, feeble in soul for a stronger resolve and will for a life of the Spirit, for the activity of a godly life.

The device was indeed deliberate, but not laboured, not artificial; it was spontaneous and natural. This may seem a contradiction in terms; it is not so if we remember the real character of the language as it was then in the times of the Vedas; it was not sheer convention as it has come to be with us. Human speech, the word, the voice, Vāk was at once an impelling subtle force and a propelled expression of thought or feeling or sensation in terms of the nervous being in man. It was often a nervous response to the phenomena that from within or without incite the feelings and ideas and sensations. The language of those remote ages was anything but conventional; it was a natural expression of the human organism in terms of vocal sound, reproducing and acting to the stimuli from the environment, the objective universe or as in the case of the Rishi from the Universe within of the higher Powers, of the Spirit, of God. Language was a living growth, a live force. Besides, words of the Vedic age retain their derivative significance, so that when a word is uttered, it not only denotes the object intended, but signifies its characteristic aspect. Even as many words denote a single object to indicate its nature in different particulars, a single word also denotes different things in different contexts and in association with other words. All rhetorical works in Sanskrit language devote a section to this question of significance and suggestion of words in association with others. This literary tradition of the Sanskrit classicist can be traced to the hymns of the Rig Veda where words carry with them their meanings with the special significances proper to them, and in the context. Language then was not a rigid instrument of expression but in a fluidic state; at the same time the meaning of a word was always definite, not vague. Therefore we can say in the language of the Sanskritist that words in the Veda always retained their derivative significance, paugika, while their denotation was fixed and definite and in that sense a certain convention also was established, yogarudha. For instance, Angiras is definitely the name of a Rishi, or an epithet of Agni when it does not mean the Rishi of that name; but it does not lose its significance as a flame-power as illustrated in Angirastama, the most lustrous of flame-powers. Thus the device of double values was easy in the Vedic age and there is nothing artificial, laboured or unnatural there, as it would be in our age when language is conventional.

The thought content of the Riks was set in a system of parallelism through double values of the symbolic language employed to bring out the exoteric meaning which corresponded to its esoteric counterpart. If the gross and the outer meaning referred to mundane objects and things of physical Nature, the inner meaning running parallel to the same was psychological and spiritual and pointed to things of inner and higher Nature. The outer was looked upon as a symbol of the Inner and the elements and the objects of Nature in the outer Universe were seen and felt as symbolic of the truths and principles of the subtle Nature in the Inner existence. As a strong symbolic mentality governed the Vedic peoples—as is always the case with human societies in their earlier Dawns—in their thoughts and customs and social and religious institutions, the Sacrifice, Yajna, the central fact of Vedic worship was arranged as a symbol of the great act of one’s own offering of what one has and is to the gods, — the higher powers of universal Nature both within and without us — within as the psychological and spiritual, without as the forces of physical Nature. If the sacrifice as a whole is symbolic, all its elements, the objects used in the rites, are also symbolic of the elements, the principles and truths of the inner sacrifice which is the true one by which man calls upon the gods to come down to accept his offerings and by their help ascends to their Home, the Heaven, the Swar. Let us first make mention by citing instances of the symbolic value of certain chief features of the sacrifice before we take up the question of the system of the worlds in the Vedic Symbolism and the character and function of the Vedic gods and the ultimate purpose of the Vedic sacrifice.

These are the main features of the Yajna: the sacrificer Yajamana, the persons who help him in the sacrifice, the officiating priests, called Ritwiks, the offerings themselves and the fruits of the offering. The Yajamana is the soul, the human personality that offers the sacrifice; the Ritwiks are those who officiate at the sacrifice, take their part in the right place at the right time; the two parts of the word (rtu and ij from yaj) suggest the function that they perform as their part in the sacrifice in the right season. There are four main orders of the Ritwiks; each one has three assistants and altogether they total sixteen in a Soma sacrifice: these details are not important enough to be taken up here, but it must be noted that the names of these Ritwiks generally signify their functions in the sacrifice and unmistakably in the inner sense. The first in the four orders is the Hota, the summoner, whose part in the officiating priesthood is to call the other priests and he leads the chanting calling upon the gods to be present; he recites the Riks, voices out the revealed Word. In the inner sense he symbolises the God, the first-born in man who calls upon the other gods to come down and be present and accept the offering. He is the messenger of the gods, the Immortal in the mortal. Adhwaryu is the second in order of the officiating priests: he is the active agent, the chief functionary; he takes his stand upon the Yajus; the active part of the Yajna represented by Yajus falls to his lot; he gives directions to other priests; he is, we may say, the executive head of the Adhwara which means sacrifice, but in the inner sense the two parts of the word (adhwa and ra) give the meaning “ taking to or accepting the path”, i.e., pilgrim. For the image of the sacrifice in the Veda is at times journey or voyage. Therefore the Adhwaryu also is a God who is actively engaged in helping the human personality to complete the journey and lead him to the goal of sacrifice. Udgata comes next in the order; he sings, he chants the Saman that delights the gods. In the esoteric meaning, he is the God of the rhythms that heal the imperfections and avert the failures and dangers on the path of the sacrifice and lift up by the music of the gods the human personality, the sacrificer, to the supreme felicity — Truth, Light, Immortality. Last comes the order of the officiating priest, called Brahma; he witnesses, gives his sanction at every stage in the ceremonials of sacrifice; when a crucial step is reached or some mistake is committed in the performance of the rites, he points it out; always he is silent, does not move from his seat, but from his position he gives his approval of the details at every stage and sanctions the procedure by uttering the sacred syllable Om, culminating in the successful close of the Vedic rite. The inner sense is too obvious, the symbol is transparent, and that is the God presiding over the Word, the Causal Material of all Mantra. Just as the names of the officiating priests are symbolic and signify the gods or Higher Powers within, so the offerings of substances in the sacrifice are also symbolic. Ghrta, clarified butter symbolises warm brilliance or clarity of thought; payas or gavya, yield of the Cow of light, hava, calling forth, havis, offering, are a few instances to the point. A closer examination of these and similar symbolic words would confirm the fact of a systematic arrangement of double values devised by the seers of the Vedic hymns. Similarly the fruits of the offering of which cows and horses (go and aśwa) are frequently mentioned and prayed for according to the exoteric interpretation are the results of the inner sacrifice, the occult and spiritual journey undertaken by the soul. Go, cow, is the symbol of Light and illumination of the mind; aśwa, horse, symbolises vital force and all life-energies. If the former represents the power of knowledge Jnāna-śakti, the latter is the power of activity, kriya-śakti, on the lower levels of existence. This much is sufficient for the present to indicate the symbolic character of the sacrifice and point to the direction in which the symbolic sense of its details is to be understood, helped, if not confirmed by the philological significances of these words of the Vedic hymns.

But there are other words which apparently are psychological terms, not easily or consistently applicable in the exoteric interpretation; yet the esoteric sense is the true sense consistently applicable in all contexts. That is so because the exoteric was unimportant with the Rishis as that was intended as an outer cover for guarding the secret knowledge.

Another important aspect of the Vedic Symbolism is the Gods and the system of the worlds. There are three worlds denoted by the three sacred words, called the three vyährtis, Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah — the Earth, the Middle region (Antariksha), Heaven (Dyauh); a fourth vährti points to a vaster World of Light, Mahas, and still higher there are the eternal three worlds signified by the higher triple vyährti, called Jana, Tapas and Satya. Though the Veda frequently refers to the seven principles of Cosmic Existence, of Cosmic Energy, or Creative Force and Consciousness or Knowledge and Will, using the symbolic seven rivers, seven sisters, seven rays, seven seers, etc., it mostly and more frequently deals with the first three worlds and their gods as it is the lower triple world that immediately matters to us, constituted as our being is at present. That is the reason why more hymns are devoted to Agni, the god presiding over the Earth and most to Indra, the Lord of the gods of this triple world, while the Sun, Surya, undoubtedly the Supreme God of the Veda, above all the gods of the triple world, has received a lesser number of hymns — the Surya, the sublime Light of the Solar World for the winning of which all tapasya was undertaken by the Rishi, all sacrifice was meant to be offered. The three worlds are the three Cosmic divisions of the Vedic Rishis of which the Earth represents and symbolises the Physical consciousness, the Heaven, Dyauh, symbolises the consciousness in the Pure Mind; in between, the middle region symbolises the forces of Life and consciousness as constituted in the cosmic principle of being that links Heaven and Earth, the Mental and the Physical.

The Vedic gods are the Powers of the universal Nature both in the outer and the inner existence. On the exoteric side they are identified with the Nature-powers—Indra the God of Rain, Maruts the Storm-Gods, Surya the Sun, Usha the Dawn, Agni the Fire and other Gods dubiously identified, such as Mitra and Varuna as Day and Night. But on the esoteric side their character and function in the inner worlds are psychological and spiritual and emerge as such from the epithets applied to them. Their activities, the symbolic or allegorical meaning of the legends connected with them, reveal their identities as not merely the many names for different functionings and powers but distinct personalities of the Godhead. Agni, Fire, may mean for the ignorant mind or ordinary worshipper the third element or at best the principle of heat and light in Physical Nature, or it may mean the sacrificial Fire as a superhuman personage, one of the benefactors of the sacrificer, giver of wealth,—cows and horses, gold, offspring, women, food, fame. But the name Agni to the Initiate carries with it at first the philological significance of force and brilliance. But his personality comes to the surface from his activities that the hymns describe. He is the first God to be awakened in man; he is placed in the front, purohita, that he may lead us; the messenger of the Gods, he is often mentioned as their face, mukham, their mouth, asyam. He is in man the flaming force of the Divine Will with wisdom that helps the human personality to offer the elements of its being, its various parts and powers to their Universal correspondences, represented by the Cosmic Powers, the God-personalities of the sole Supreme Godhead. These are Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Soma, Maruts, Ribhus and others, each of whom has his own special Name, specific function, distinct personality. It is enough for our purpose to notice a few important names of the Gods with the principles and powers they embody in carrying out the Cosmic activity of the creative Godhead, the Lord of Truth.

If Agni here is the seven-tongued (saptajihva) power of Divine Will with wisdom, the immortal guest in our mortal being, and his activity is directed towards mediating between Earth and Heaven and therefore he ascends, Indra there above is the great power manifested as the Pure, the Luminous Divine Mind, who descends with his lightnings, showers (Vrishan) the life-giving rains, destroys, as the Hero, all the covering, obscuring and obstructionist forces, makes possible the discovery of illumined truths, and perception and attainment of the Sun of Truth. Surya is the Sun, the Lord of the supreme Truth, the Creator, Savita, of things. Soma represents the Beatitude, the Delight of existence; he is the Lord of Bliss and Immortality. The Gods are immortals because they live by the essential delight of all created existence. In man the immortalising juices (rasa) are hidden and when by tapasyā, disci-pline, and with the help of the higher Powers, chiefly beginning with Agni, the Divine child born to man, these are extracted and offered to the Gods they get the needed nourishment in him, "they increase him by themselves increasing in him”. Again, there is Varuna the God of Vast Purity destructive of all crookedness and sin; Mitra, luminous Power of love harmonising all thoughts and feelings and acts and impulses. There are goddesses also; each god has his Female Energy and is mentioned occasionally and also hymned, such as Indrani, Varunani, Agnayi. Besides there are Devatas who are in their own right Female Powers of whom Aditi the Infinite is the foremost, the Mother of the Gods, Adityas; Mahi or Bharati," the vast word that brings us all things out of the Divine source ", Ila“ the strong primal word of the Truth who gives us its active vision”. “Sarama, the Intuition” and a few other names with their functions are mentioned in “The Doctrine of the Mystics”. The distinction between the Male and Female energies, it must be noted, lies in the fact that the former are “activsing souls” while the latter "passively executive and methodising energies”.

What we have so far stated is just a sketch of the Vedic Symbolism as applied to the sacrifice, the system of the worlds, the Gods and some of the main features connected with them. But this cannot be complete even as a short sketch without stating in clear terms the central teaching of the Mystics as revealed in the hymns of the Rig Veda. We cannot do it better than by registering here the authentic words of Sri Aurobindo, the discoverer of Vedic Symbolism, the teacher who has recovered for us the lost light to illumine the passages of the Veda for intelligent grasp and perception of the truths couched in the hymnal texts of the mystics.

Here are the categorical statements summed up in his words:

This is the first and central teaching: the thought around which all is centred is the seeking after Truth, Light, Immortality. There is a Truth higher and deeper than the truth of outward existence, a Light greater and higher than the light of human understanding which comes by revelation and inspiration, an immortality towards which the soul has to rise. We have to find our way out to that, to get into touch with this Truth and Immortality, sapanta rtam amrtam, to be born into the Truth, to grow in it, to ascend in spirit into the world of Truth and to live in it. To do so is to unite ourselves with the Godhead and to pass from mortality into immortality.

Here is the second mystic doctrine:

There is an inferior truth here of this world mixed as it is with much falsehood and error, anritasya bhureh, and there is a world or home of Truth, sadanam ſtasya, the Truth, the Right, the Vast, satyam įtam brhat, where all is Truth-conscious, Țita-cit. There are many worlds ... but this is the world of the highest Light ... the world of the Sun of Truth, Swar, or the Great Heaven. We have to find the path to this Great Heaven.

And this is the third:

Our life is a battle between the powers of Light and Truth, the Gods who are the Immortals and the powers of Darkness. These are spoken of under various names as Vritra or Vritras, Vala and the Panis, the Dasyus and their kings. We have to call in the aid of the Gods to destroy the opposition of these powers of Darkness who conceal the Light ... we have to invoke the Gods by the inner sacrifice and by the Word call them into us — that is the specific power of the Mantra — to offer to them the gifts of the sacrifice and by that giving secure their gifts so that by this process we may build the way of our ascent to the goal.

Finally, as the summit of the teaching of the Vedic mystics comes the secret of the One Reality, ekam sat, tad ekam which became the central word of the Upanishads.

This is the brief outline of the central thought of the Veda in its esoteric sense. It is given here as expounded in the system of interpretation that Sri Aurobindo has methodised for the use of those who choose to follow the line. It is an invaluable guide to those who are not reasonably satisfied with the meanings of Riks hazarded by European scholars with the help of Sayana to a necessarily limited extent and accepted generally by educated Indians of modern times. It will be at least a finger-post for those who could read the original hymns with the help of Sayana’s commentary and would turn to the road that leads to the riches of occult and spiritual truths treasured, hidden by the coverings of symbolic imagery devised for double values by the ancient mystics of the Rig Veda.

II

Now that we have made an initial statement of the chief features that characterise this re-interpretation of the Riks, we shall proceed to examine our position in the light of indigenous scholarship from the early times beginning with the hymns of the Rig Veda themselves covering the Brahmanas and Upanishads, Nirukta, Brihad Devata, standard works of the Dharma Mimam-sakas, and other texts that have bearing on the subject. Let us at the outset state the questions that arise in regard to the likely objec-tions or possible misconceptions — objections to the basis upon which our enquiry proceeds, and misconceptions of what the symbolic interpretation of Vedic hymns aims at.

How is it that the Rig Veda alone of the four Vedas that have come down to us is taken up for enquiry? Does it imply that the Rig Veda is the only true Veda, as it is indeed so esteemed by the European scholars? If not, how not? Is the whole basis of the Dharma-Mimamsa wrong? How are we to account for the appearance and stronghold of this creed? Is the tradition about the sacredness of the Mantras due to their hoary antiquity alone? Or what precisely is the character of the sacrednesss? What is the subject matter of the Riks? Surely there are many classes of Mantras according to ancient authorities, such as the Nirukta or Brihad Devata; if so, how can it be affirmed that the whole body of the hymnal texts is spiritual and occult in its import? If it is maintained that by piercing the veil of the symbols the so-called heterogeneous character of the hymns proves itself to be a deceptive appearance and disappears, what then are the grounds for resorting to such a line of approach? Is there warrant for such assumptions justified by the language of the Riks themselves ? Rig Vedic hymns apart, is there anywhere else in the Vedic literature in general or other branches of learning subsequent to it the idea of symbolic sense attached to Vedic worship, Vedic hymns or Vedic sacrifice? What is the real character of the gods, the religion and philosophy of the Vedic Rishis stated in terms of modern thought? Are we to dismiss as futile the labours of Indian scholars of recent times who have made a profound study of the Vedas and made researches along Western lines? Between the Vedic Rishis of a dateless past and ourselves today, has there been none who made any attempt to get at the real meaning of the Vedas as we hold it to be, especially of the hymns of the Rik Samhita ? These are the main questions we propose to discuss in order to clarify the position we have taken up in this study.

Rig Veda, the only true Veda?

The Vedas are certainly four in the sense that they are four different collections called Samhitas. But the Veda from imme-morial times has been threefold, and called Trayi. If the former classification is based upon the collections, the latter upon the form and mode of the Veda Mantra. The Mantra in the metrical form is called Rik, that in prose, Yajus and that set to musical chant, Saman; it will be thus clear that the collection of the Riks is the Rig Veda Samhita, that of Yajus, Yajurveda Samhita and that of the Saman, Samaveda Samhita. The fourth set of compila-tion called Atharva Samhita contains Riks most of which form part of the Rik Samhita with a few variants in the readings and also prose Mantras. Whatever be the reasons for making a separate collection of these Mantras which are mostly Riks and some Yajus, it is an undoubted and admitted fact that they too are Mantras and there-fore form part of the Vedas proper. But those Mantras of the Atharva Veda which are not to be found in the Rig Veda or Yajur Veda are not meant for sacrificial purposes which are the spheres of the Trayi collections for application. They are meant for other purposes, it is said, occult and medicinal. There are also, certain hymns in the Atharva Veda which are not in the Rik Samhita but which are sublime, highly advanced in spiritual ideas and occult knowledge. Since the Atharva Samhita is chiefly made up of Rik and Yajus, if we enquire into and grasp the central thought of the Trayi, an enquiry into the meaning of the Atharva Veda will be superfluous and can be dispensed with. Nor is there need to take up Sama Veda for enquiry. For it is just a selection of a thousand Riks and a little more taken from the Rik Samhita, set to chanting regulated by certain musical modes. There are a small number of Riks in the Sama Veda which are not traceable to the Rik Samhita as we have it. Since the language is sufficiently antique and the thought substance is on the same level with the rest, it is quite possible that at the time of the collection of the Saman-Riks they may have been in use by the Saman chanters but not in currency among the reciters of the Riks. Therefore a study of the Rik Samhita includes that of the Sama Veda. But what about Yajur Veda? The Yajur Veda is also a Veda, if we do not take it up for consider-ation, it is not because it is considered inferior to the Rig Veda, but because the Yajur Veda as we have it has an uncertain value for our purpose, which is the purpose of unveiling the Vedic symbolism in order to get the spiritual thought of the Rishis, the inner meaning of the Mantra, the real character of the gods, and the goal of man as envisaged by our forefathers of the race. For the language of the Riks affords a better field of enquiry, it is more systematic and intelligible in its symbolism than Yajus. Besides the difficulty with the Yajur Veda is that the Taittiriya school maintains in the body of its Samhita both the Mantras and Brahmanas as forming the Veda. Our enquiry is related to the Mantras alone and not to the Brahmanas with or without the Upanishads. The Taittiriya Samhita, called Krishna (Black) Yajur Veda contains the Yajur Mantras along with their ritualistic explanations, called Brahmanas. If a Samhita means a collection of Mantras as indeed it does in the case of the three other Samhitas, it is certainly questionable to call this collection of the Taittiriyas as a Veda Samhita. There is a story related of Yajnavalkya in connection with the Black Yajus. For some fault of his as a Vedic pupil of Vaishampayana, when the Guru ordered him to do an appropriate penance he promptly did it and also returned the Veda he learnt from him. How did he return it? It is said the Veda came out of him in the shape of tittiri birds and flew away; that is why the Black Yajus is called Taittiriya. The purport of the story is that the militant Yajna-valkya revolted against the inclusion of the Brahmanas in the body of the Yajus Samhita as is clear from the consequential step he took; for as the fruit of the tapasyā he went through, Aditya in the form of a Horse (Vaji) appeared and revealed to him the Shukla (White) Yajur Veda containing only the Mantras without their ritualistic explanation, the Brahmanas. Therefore the White Yajus is called Vajasaneyi Samhita for which Yajnavalkya is responsible and its crowning chapter is the precious short Ishavasya Upanishad of eighteen verses. If the Taittiriya Samhita includes in it the Brahmana, the Vajasaneyi Samhita, as if in reply to the former, incorporates the Upanishad—the only Upanishad of a Veda Samhita. This shows that Yajnavalkya, himself a Vedist, did not approve of the inclusion of ritualistic doctrines in any collection of the Veda Mantras.

But the fact must be made clear that we do not deny the Yajur Veda, even the Black one, its place and honour as a Veda, because we do not object to the explanation attempted in the Brahmanas for the purposes of the Sacrifice. But the symbols they freely use in their interpretation of the various elements of the sacrifice are often obscure and leave us in confusion, not always the same as those of the Rig Veda. Besides, the very fact that the White Yajus is a later recantation of the Yajur Mantras as revealed in the story of Yajnavalkya is enough for us to treat it as not useful for our purpose. Even the Black Yajus, the Mantra portion of it, will not in any way help us; that a great Vedist of Yajnavalkya’s stature flung it at the face of the teacher — for in effect it comes to that — shows not his disregard of the Veda Mantra, but certainly points to his aversion for the absolutely gross interpretation of the Mantras indulged in by the ritualist in spite of the frequent symbolic explanation that dubiously refers to higher ideals or points to spiritual gains. The ritualistic interpretation of the Mantras and the sacrifice finding place in the body of a Veda Samhita, as is found in the Black Yajus, has had a far-reaching consequence on the religio-philosophic thought and theology in later day India. For therein is to be found the seed of the later theory and practice that it is the only possible sense of all Veda and therefore the Veda itself is part of the Karma Kanda. If the Yajur Veda is thus given such a treatment, whatever the reason be, is it not questionable that we practically do not take it into account as a Veda at all and in this respect the modern scholars and ourselves are in agreement? That we recognise Yajus as Mantra in prose and the Samhita as we have it is of no avail for our purpose is definitely true; but on that account we do not consider the Yajur Veda, even the Black one, as no Veda at all. On the other hand we recognise the sacred character of the Yajur Mantras, as did the Agamikas before us, who incor-porated in their system the famous five-syllabled (Panchakshara) Shiva Mantra which occurs in the Rudra Adhyaya of the Black Yajus. This is just a famous instance out of a very large number of Mantras used for recital and prayer and for other purposes from the Yajus.

Therefore if we take into consideration the importance of the Rig Veda for the object we have in view, it is not so on the baseless assumption of the scholars that it is the only true Veda; we value it for our enquiry because we aim at a knowledge of the significance of the antique language, of the systematic symbolism employed by the Rishis, of their spiritual stature, of the character of the gods; and all this can be got only from the Rig Veda according to the Vedas themselves. For the Yajus is the Veda for the act of sacrifice, Adhwaryu-shakha, and it is admitted on all hands that even in the case of sacrifice “What is done by the Rik, that alone is firm, strong—yad rca tad dhrdham. Whatever is achieved by Yajus or Saman is loose.” This is what the Taittiriya Samhita itself says. We may note in passing that Yajus and Saman always existed side by side with the Rik. The Trayi is always inseparable; and in the outer sacrifice each has its use, and no Yajna can be performed without all the three. In the inner sense the Triad has its place. There are many hymns in the Rik Samhita making mention of the Yajus and Saman and that is clear evidence for discarding the theory that Yajus came after Rik in point of time; the question of Saman does not arise at all as it is a body of select hymns as already stated. The Nivids are all Yajus, i.e., in prose, they are very ancient, judged by the form of the language. Some modern scholars think they are the prototype of the Yajur Mantras of the Samhita as we have it now; but it is enough for us to note that the Triad — Rik, Yajus and Saman—has been there all along from the beginning. The pre-eminence of the Rig Veda for investigation into the secrets of the sacrifice or the gods or of the goal aimed at by the sacrificer is not only admitted by the Yajur Veda but mentioned reverently by the Brahmanas, Gopatha, Shatapatha, Taittiriya, not to talk of the Upanishads; everywhere we find the same phrase "it is so affirmed by the Rik” (tad rcă abhyuktam).

But the Triad of the Vedas is used as a symbol of the triple power of the three gods Agni, Vayu and Aditya who are said to produce Rik, Yajus and Saman on the three world-planes of the Vedic order, according to the Shatapatha (XI. 5.8) and Aitireya Brahmanas (V. 32.34) and among the Upanishads, notably, the Brihadaranyaka speaks of them as the outbreathing of the Supreme Being. To come to the significance: Agni is the Vicar, whose voice goes forth to the gods. He is the Divine officiating priest, Hota: he is the Lord of Riks, of the Vak; all Rik is the Voice that describes the glory of the gods and unfolds their truths, flames up to them and reaches the abode of Heaven, Swar. Surya is the Lord of Swar, he is the producer of the Saman, the Creator who by the sweet harmonies of the music lulls the soul, the sacrificer amidst the gods into rhythmic ecstasy of the bliss of truth — he is the Udgata. In between the Earth with Agni and Swar with Aditya lies the Mid-region where functions Vayu the Universal Life, the Master of all activity and executive head of all energies needed for the fulfilment of the sacrifice, of the journey, he is the Lord of the Yajus which represents the most active principle of the sacrifice — therefore he is the Adhwaryu priest. We could thus see why the Yajus is considered the most important of all the Vedas for Yajna. If by the Riks, worship by conscious voice (arcana) is effected, and if by Saman, worship by devotional ecstasy (the gāna udgitha) the music of the soul is aimed at, then it is by Yajus, worship by action (yajna) is carried out. These are the three gods, Agni, Vayu and Aditya who are the divine priests officiating at the sacrifice as Hota, Adhwaryu and Udgata active in their re-spective spheres, of Rik, Yajus and Saman for their respective instrumentation in the sacrifice; and that is the true sacrifice which is the inner one whose values are portrayed in the symbols of the exoteric worship by the common and the uninitiated, by the laity.

Dharma Mimamsa

In the earlier section we have stated the symbolic character of the sacrifice including some of its chief elements. Here we have referred to the inner sense of the Vedic Trayi as understood by the Vedists in general and by the Brahmanas in particular. But there is a school of thought represented by the Dharma Mimam-sakas who investigate into the meaning of the Vedas by which term they mean both Mantras and the Brahmanas. They come to certain conclusions which are as unintelligible as their starting assumptions and are diametrically opposed to the basic principles that govern our enquiry into the secret of the Veda. For we carry on our investigation into the inner sense and true spirit of the Veda with special reference to the Rik Samhita. But their labours are directed towards fixing the rules for interpreting the Vedic texts, chiefly the Brahmanas. It is necessary here to state their stand-point and explain it in the light of what we have already stated concerning the Adhwaryu Veda. We are concerned only with the fundamental principle with which they start, that all Veda is the basis of Dharma; for that is also a principle which we accept without reserve, but only in our sense of the term. When they say that the source of Dharma is the Veda, what is meant is that knowledge of Dharma can be got only from the Veda. Now the question is: what is the nature of Dharma that the Veda teaches? It is admitted on all hands that Yajna, sacrifice, is the supreme Vedic Dharma and that consists in offering to the Gods part of one’s possessions and even all that one has, as is done in the viswajit Yaga. The sacrificer reaps the fruit of his Vedic karma; it falls to him spontaneously in the proper time by virtue of an unseen power called apūrva, that the work carries with it. We need not proceed further, nor is it our purpose to deal with their doctrines, their conception of heaven, of the gods, the nature of the Mantras, the eternality of the Veda, the logical necessity of positing a soul in the body, the absence of any necessity for God, the downright and absolute realism of the world as a matter of fact, etc., etc.

Now what precisely is this Dharma, knowledge of which the Veda alone is said to give? If it is the ceremonial sacrifice, Yajna, that is really the truth of Dharma that all Veda reveals, then, it was never applied to all peoples and in all ages, but was confined to a corner of the globe peopled necessarily by a portion of mankind and even then, only by certain sections alone of the community that could perform the sacrifice, follow the Dharma. It is obvious, then, that such a Dharma is not universal, nor is it eternal either. But this much must be said that it is the ritualists of a latter day—the Dharma Sutrakaras — who, drawing upon the Brahmanas for their support for their congregational sessions and community of religious fellowship, systematised the ways and means of guarding the Dharma of their conception and called them the command of the Veda, the vidhi. This conception of yajna as srauta dharma gave rise to many dharmas called smärta, which served the purpose of a standing constitution for social polity, social religion, statecraft and all branches of human activity. All this may have had its utility, but the original error was neither recognised nor rectified and that error lies in that the ritualistic explanation and use of the Mantra was the main purpose of the Veda or the main Veda itself.

We could now clearly see how the inclusion of the Brahmanas in the Krishna Yajus Samhita has gradually ended in eclipsing the true and inner meaning of Yajna which is the real srauta dharma. It has left a legacy, certainly not favourable to later Hindu thought. For all great leaders of spiritual and philosophical thought in later times had to reckon with the conception current in their times as an established fact, that “ the name Veda applies to Mantra and Brahmana” (mantra-brāhmanayor vedanā madheyam, says Apastamba).

But once we look into the inner meaning of Yajna, keeping separately the outer sacrifice as symbolic, then its universal character becomes plain and the fact becomes patent that that is the truth of the Eternal Creative Spirit, the Law of Sacrifice, Yajna-dharma by which the Purusha offered the substance of his own Being for the world-creation. For what else is the meaning of the famous Purusha-sukta? Nor is this a solitary instance in the Rig Veda which gives us the idea of creation by the Purusha-sacrifice, though the language is comparatively easier and the Vedic imagery is still maintained in some form therein. Everywhere in the hymns when the Rishi calls upon the gods to accept his offering, he knows that he is leaving behind the human, the mortal in him to that extent, for that is taken up and displaced by the gods accepting him and his offering. If by the sacrifice the mortal becomes the immortal, the gods of the Veda, the Cosmic Powers also take their second birth in man, dwi-janma. This is the law of interchange, the secret of Yajna, by which the Creation and every part of it subsists. There is everywhere a subtle transaction of give and take. But it is a spiritual commerce that is the essence of the Vedic Yajna known to the Vedic Rishi who is often face to face with the gods, addresses them as his friends and enters into intimate relation with them. It is this true but lost sense of the Yajna that the Gita recovers for us and expresses it in its characteristic way. It will be a perversion of truth to say that the Vedas do not reveal such ideas concerning the sacrifice, but that it is the Gita that develops these ideas and reads this meaning into the Vedic Yajna. It is true that it is a Vedantic scripture that aims at reconciling many systems of spiritual and philosophical thought; and this requires, as the Gita reveals, great wisdom and deep thought and firm grasp of the truth and adherence to it, absolutely free from the questionable tendency of foisting its own or new ideas upon old texts — and that will be either falsehood or wrong understanding from both of which we can claim freedom for the Gita, this world-scripture. We must note that the Gita does not compromise on principles. When it condemns the Vedists who say that there is nothing else than the sacrifice, i.e., the Vedic ceremonials, it boldly condemns ritualism for its claim to be the sole meaning and the true spirit of the Veda (II. 42). Even then, it does not condemn the Karma, the Vedic rites as such, if those who adhere to their religious custom perform it with faith. People to whom knowledge is dangerous shall not be disturbed in their ignorance, it says (III. 26). When it mentions the Veda reverently, it does so for the obvious reason that the Mantras are sacred, revelations of Truth, treasures of spiritual wisdom, of God-knowledge (XV. 15). We may remark in passing that even in the later Dharma Shastras the idea of a symbolic meaning of the Vedic rituals, and of a spiritual sense attached to the sacrifice is not altogether lost. There is an interesting verse in Manu Smriti (XII. 87) which mentioning the rites that one should perform says that all these rites are included and implied totally in the Vedic Karma Yoga. The text calls the Vedic rituals a Karma Yoga in the Gita style. Thus the tradition that the Vedic sacrifice has an inner meaning can be found recorded frequently in the Mahabharata and the Puranas though its origins are to be traced to the Brahmanas themselves. It is only when those who came later claimed for the Brahmanas a supreme place in the Veda and as the Veda, and that the exoteric meaning of the sacrifice was the sole Dharma, the high religion of the Veda, a complete, almost effective departure from the original path of Vedic wisdom was made and the Mantra became a handmaid of the Brahmanas for the purposes of unthinking priestcraft.

We have shown how the Dharma Mimamsa was developed out of the idea that the Vedas are the source of knowledge of Dharma which in its pristine form for the outward mind was nothing but the performance of the sacrifice. As the Veda was understood to mean Brahmanas including the Mantra, the supremacy of Yajna as the sole creed of the Vedas was established in the minds of the people of the age in general and the priests in particular. It was thus that ritualism came to be represented by the Mimamsakas in later times beginning with Jaimini. The Vedic sacrifice was established as the sole Vedic creed, at any rate in theory and in dialectical warfare. “In theory” we have to say because even reputed Mimamsakas did not, because they could not, stick to their position in practice as the ritualistic creed of sacrifice could not satisfy the hunger of the soul for spiritual uplift. So they were Mimamsakas for dialectical professions, but Vedantins in faith, with the apology that Karma (that is Vedic rite) is to be performed without attachment for purposes of one’s own purification as that makes way for competency to enter the path of knowledge. But this is a later reconcilement, or an excuse for it. The orthodox Mimamsaka will not tolerate the idea that there is any knowledge possible or worthy of a Vedist other than that of Dharma which lies in the knowledge of how to perform the sacrifice. Whatever may be the extraordinarily unreasonable position they take up as regards this their creed of ritualism, they are skilled debaters, matter-of-fact realists, ingenious in explaining inconvenient texts for the purpose of maintaining their stand that the Vedas are self-existent, uncreated—every word and syllable. An instance may be cited here before proceeding to the next question. For it is interesting and has a kindred bearing upon our approach to the study of the Veda. When they say that the Vedas are eternal, naturally one would expect that according to them there can be no proper names of persons and places or mention of any actual incidents anywhere in the Vedas. Shabaraswamin, the commentator on Jaimini takes up the question, cites the name Babara Pravahani, son of Pravahana. He says it is not the name of any person at all, it is a common name, a chance coincidence that it resembles a proper name. Babara, he says, is an onomatopoeic word²

The Mantra

The Riks therefore are the Mantras in metrical form to which we look up for a knowledge of what the Rishis thought and lived for and left behind for others prepared to know and follow them. They are certainly poetical compositions, if one would choose to call them so, but it must be clearly understood that they are not literary compositions of the kind we are familiar with, nor are these poets composers such as are quite common everywhere in the world or in our own age. It is not only the age-old tradition that affirms but the hymns themselves proclaim that they are Mantras packed with thoughts related to subtle laws and truths of an inner existence, of the worlds of a different order, larger and wider, governed by the Cosmic godhead to which man could have access if he chooses to enter the path. These Mantras are called seeings, mantra-drsti and he who sees is the seer. Rishi, mantra-drasta. And he not only sees but finds the right word to express his truth-perceptions. Then, he is not merely a Kavi, seer of what transcends the normal understanding, kranta-darsi but hears the revealed word of inspiration; therefore is a satya-śrut. This seeing and hearing of the Rishi are not of the ordinary kind, but of a special order far above and superior to that which is possible for a poet of the highest intellectual mind, or of the intensest emotional vigour and passionate appeal and highly refined aesthetic sense and skill. For this reason it is improper to class the Vedic hymns with the poetry of a literary kind of latter times. Another reason for the high value attached to the Vedic hymn is its mantra character. For it has a power all its own, even when the idea it conveys is in our judgement not too high or the language not highly poetical or deep in feeling and strikingly rhythmic in its diction. It is this faith in the power of the Mantra that has left its impress on and taken deep roots in the soul of the race from the Vedic times to our own days, so strongly that all the teachers of later days and their followers and all systems of philosophy also preserved and revered the tradition of the Mantra-power even to the extent of holding that there was no necessity of enquiring into the meaning of the Mantra for realising its power. For, from the ancient times the Mantra was regarded as an extraordinary means of achieving worldly ends also, not merely the other-worldly or spiritual and inner results. Some of the Vaidiks, Sayana included among them, say that the Veda is an uncommon means of realising what is desired and warding off what is undesirable (ista-prāptianista-pariharayor alaukika upayah vedah). This is because the Vedic mystics who were mainly interested in things spiritual “ were also what we would call occultists, men who believed that by inner means outer as well as inner results could be produced, that thought and word could be so used as to bring about realisations of every kind”. That is why while most of the hymns are used—and according to the Yajnikas all are meant — for sacrificial purposes, there are many which have no place in the sacrifice at all. Thus it is that the Mantras are sacred not because of their mere antiquity but of their intrinsic merit; they are precious for their purifying strength, the potential efficacy and the sublime spirit of the thoughts that they embody — according to some and in a certain sense —for their being the sound-substance and body of the gods they proclaim—Mantramayi Devata. But the real greatness, the secret of the Mantra lies in the fact that the thought substance, the rhythm and sound-body are not created by the human mind, they are there in the supreme akaśa, Space or Ether (paramam vyoma) where dwell the gods (I. 164.31). The Vedic Kavi, the seer-poet catches it, as we may say, and by means of his heart and mind acting in unison carves and fashions it; his effort lies in diving deep into the oceanic being within (antaḥsamudra), and from there, effortless, see and hear and hold the Mantra, bring it out new shaped, made audible to the physical hearing, finding for the superhuman word and rhythm a fuller expression in the form of this human speech. According to the ancient mystics the human speech which is the last and the physical stage here in the downward course taken by the Voice, Vák (I. 164.45) passes through three stations or planes, starting from the parama vyoma before it finds its destination here in the outer human instrument. This is the thought we must note, for we find many references to the Rishis seeing and hearing, composing and carving the Mantras; at the same time we find the Riks mentioned as abiding in a high region along with the gods. This is also the meaning of the traditional belief that the Vedas are not made, but seen by the Rishis who are seers and not authors. And because the paramam vyoma is not a creation of anyone, but was there before the appearance and disappearance of the Rishis, the Veda itself came to be understood as eternal, self-existent. In fact, there is only one Rik of the seer Virupa in the whole of the Rik Samhita which refers to the Vák meaning Mantra as eternal, nitya (VIII. 64.6). It is, indeed, so spoken of in the sense explained above. But it is ludicrous that this single Rik is quoted by the later day ritualist (not the Brahmanas) to show that every word and syllable of the Brahmanas and Mantras is eternal. We may here note in passing the view about the eternality of the Vedas held by the author of the Mahabhashya. Patanjali could not be accused of unorthodoxy, his reverence for the Vedas cannot be questioned as is evident from the first Ahnika of his literary monument. In explaining the sutra (IV. 3.101) he raises an argument and answers that the order of the letters, words and sentences are not at all uncreated or eternal, but that they are made by the Rishis. In effect, he ascribes to the Rishi the authorship of the arrangement of the words etc., while the truth and the ideas referring to them are not created, but seen by the Rishi. That the Rik, i.e., the Mantra is not an ordinary literary composition is evidenced by the hymns of Dirghatamas and Virupa referred to above, and there are other instances which can be multiplied. The meaning of the Rik cannot be perceived by the ordinary mind and this is clearly mentioned by Yaska (II. 11; XIII. 13); he says that the Mantra, called "Brahman” in the Veda presented itself before the Rishi in tapasya and that whoever is not a Rishi cannot understand the meaning of the Rik. The Brihad Devata, a little latter than, almost contemporaneous with, Yaska’s Nirukta tells us the same thing in quite a characteristic way; it sums up in a few verses the power and extraordinary nature of the Mantra, the distinctive insight and mystic knowledge of the Rishi, the special purpose of the Vedic triad, Rik, Yajus and Saman, and the power and the efficacy of the rituals properly performed. As it is interesting and puts briefly all that is necessary for us to know about what the later sages like Shaunaka, to whom the authorship of Brihad Devata is ascribed, say, we shall give the substance of these verses here. These are the dicta:

"The Mantra is not perceptible to one who is not a Rishi" [as it is a known fact that he is a Rishi who sees the Mantra, what is meant here is that only a Rishi can know the real sense or the hidden meaning of the Mantra, cf., Rig Veda, V. 81, 1).

"He knows the gods who knows the Riks. They are to be approached through Yoga with self-control and skill, understanding, general knowledge and above all tapasyā.

"He knows the sacrifice who knows the Yajus."

"He knows the essential truths who knows the Samans."

"The deity does not accept (literally, long for) the libation offered in ignorance.”

"He is like a god worthy of praise in heaven even by the gods who is pure and studies the Veda with knowledge of the gods and Mantra."

"Desiring the attainment of the objects, the Rishis of yore hied towards the deities with the Mantras (Chhandas), so say the great seers themselves in the Veda."⁴

We must now reiterate the fact that though the true sacredness and power of the Veda lies in its inner and spiritual meaning of the revealed word, of the inspired voice of the seer, it has lent itself for other uses which are other than sacrificial. And this fact is the basis of the tradition that common objects in life can be achieved by uncommon means; and this is also the meaning of fairly ancient works dealing with the uses that can be made of the hymns, such as the Rig-vidhana ascribed to Shaunaka. Indeed, even in the earlier times, as Yaska states, the Mantras were not considered to be uniform in their objects. Understood in the exoteric interpretation the Mantras contain ideas which are uneven, high and low (uccavaca), and meant for diverse purposes. This is confirmed by the Brihad Devata. “The Rishi addresses the gods directly in some hymns, refers to them indirectly in others. There is censure, praise, swearing, curse, benediction. There are certain hymns which are clearly spiritual”—so says Yaska and cites instances of Riks to illustrate the same. So does the Brihad Devata also. But all this is true when the outer garb alone is looked at and the inner sense is not known or is ignored. This is also the reason why there has been talk about the heterogeneous character of the Vedic hymns. But once we accept the inner sense and the secret speech, the whole body of the hymns presents a sublime picture, spiritual and mystic in its import and homogeneous in the thought-spirit and the mystic principle that governs methodically the Rishi’s utterance.

The Secret — Internal Evidence

Now we come to what is called the secret speech of the Rishi in which is concealed the thought content of the Mantra. We shall later see that quite often the secret lies in the thought so covered with an image or symbol that to a superficial mind the truth that is symbolised does not rouse the suspicion of its very presence, while the symbols generally make some sense applicable to the sacrifice or to the gross existence around, the working of the forces of Physical Nature; or at best to an extremely ignorant and crude intelligence, the sense conveyed may refer to some invisible Superhuman person or persons who just appear to the mortals in the guise of Fire, Wind, Waters or Ocean, Storm, Lightning, Rains, Sun and other objects he sees around in the physical Universe. Let us see if the Rishis had any secret speech; and when we find sufficient grounds to declare that the seers of the Rig Veda themselves referred to a secret speech used in their inner transaction with the gods, then we can readily turn to the symbols with which they covered the secret.

When we come across words in the Rig Veda which are used to denote whatever is hidden or secret or mysterious, we find a number of instances where what is secret or hidden and therefore not visible happens to be a hostile power or a god, a place, a world or worlds; also quite often the word, the Name, the voice of appeal invoking the presence or favour of a god is spoken of. as secret, concealed or inwardly kept, placed, guarded in the secret cave, guha, the heart, hrt. Ninyam is one of the half a dozen words given by Yaska as synonyms to what is secret or inwardly kept or closed and invisible, antarhitam. We shall take up the word and see the contexts in which it is used and show that the Rishis openly used this word to denote that there was a secret in their speech that was concealed from the outward minds ordinary or profane. Fortunately for us Sayana is unusually consistent in giving the same meaning "lost to appearance" (antarhitam) to the word ninyan wherever it occurs, though whenever possible or necessary he makes out a different sense of the passage in question. It may or may not be warranted even for the purpose of ritualistic interpretation. In one place he has given a different meaning without giving any authority which he usually does for support either from the Nirukta for the word meaning or from the Brahmanas for legends. It will be interesting to note why he gives the meaning "nameless" to the word ninyam in a solitary instance. The seer Hiranyastupa in his hymns to Indra makes mention of Indra’s foe (Vritra) smitten by Indra; as a result Vritra’s body fell, cast to a long sleep-that body of tamas, darkness; it could not be seen, it went deep down and the ceaseless waters flowed over it (I. 32.10). Now, here even if Sayana says "disappeared” it would be enough for the legendary or naturalistic interpretation. For when the clouds received the terriblc stroke from Indra’s thunderbolt, the waters were released, the body of the coverer fell dead, going deep down while the waters were llowing over it. We do not understand why ninyain is interpreted as "nameless” and not as the usual “concealed" or "lost to siglit”. Sayana says that Vritra was so thoroughly dead that his very name as an entity was lost or forgotten and therefore he — no, his body—is nameless. He seems to make a concession to Yaska who says with reference to this Rik (Nirukta, 11.16) ninyam nirnāmam; but the pity is that he left the explanation of the nirnāmam to his commentator Durga who says that it refers to a place where no inore “bending low” was possible (nam to bow or bend low); and the Vritra’s body went so deep down beneath the waters that there was no room for him to go still lower. Sayana thought the nirnāmam of Yaska was the same as nir-nămadheyam and found an explanation for the body to become nameless since it fell dead and the name is known to none. We can clearly see that this far-fetched explanation is unnecessary even for his purpose, but such instances are numerous in Sayana’s cxplanations of the Riks. Ninyam is clearly antarhitam, concealed, not visible, secret. But in Kutsa’s hymn to Agni, Sayana explains the word as secret. There the Rishi asks, “Who among you knows this secret one? The Child by the law of his own being brought forth the Mothers”.5 It is not only when the Asura Vritra’s body sinks down and disappears that ninyam is used to denote the place of secrecy, it is also applied to the God Agni who lives secret in the waters and the forests. A place or world also is described as hidden or secret. Kashyapa addresses the God Soma, "All the gods, the thricc-cleven are lodged in thy secret abode." The soul also is described as kept a secret from the out-going mind. Thus says Dirghatamas, “I know not if I am this (what really I am); a mystery am I, and bound, I move about, with the mind.”? In the hymns of the Vasishthas, the intuitions of the heart or direct perceptions arc mentioned as the means by which one walks towards the Secret which spreads in a thousand branches. In another hymn Vasishtha says, referring to the Maruts, their forms and activities, "Only a seer knows these secrets."⁵

6. IX. 92.4 तव त्वे सोम पवमान निण्य विश्वे देवा अधि सानौ ।।
7. I. 164.37 न विजानामि यदि वेदमस्मि निण्यः सन्नद्धो मनसा चरामि।"
8. VII. 33.9 त इनिण्यं हृदयस्य प्रकेतैः सहस्रवलशमभिसं चरन्ति ।
9. VII. 56.4. "एतानि धीरो निण्या चिकेत पृश्निर्यदूधो मही जभार॥"
10. VII. 61,5 “ अमूरा विश्वा वृषणाविमा वा. . . निण्यानिअचिते अभूवन् ।”
    (सायण:--निण्यानि रहस्यानि स्तोत्राणि)
    11, IV. 3.16 "एता विश्वा विदुषे वेधो नीथानि अग्ने निण्या वचांसि।"
11. IV 16.3 " कविन निण्यं विदथानि साधन् ।"
12. II 35-11 तदस्यानीकं उत चारु नाम अपीच्यं
13. VIII. 41 5 “यो धर्ता भुवनानां . . . अपीच्या वेद नामानि गुह्या।"
14. IX. 75.2 “ऋतस्य जिह्वा पवते . . दधाति पुःत्र पित्रो रपीच्यनाम...
15. VIII 11.5 " मा अमर्त्यस्य ते भूरि नाम मनामहे ।
    विप्रसो जातवेदसः ।।" In addressing Mitra and Varuna he says "Oh, Showerers (of benefits) undeluded are you, and all-pervading, these words of praisc arc for you, there is nothing wondrous in them, nor even worship (the outward sacrifice, yakśam); but the untruthful praises of men serve as offences (or follow and serve the hurters). But our secret words of praise reach your knowledge (i.e., they cannot be concealed from your knowledge).”10 These illustrations of the meaning of ninyam according to Sayana himself go to show beyond doubt that it is used in the sense of anything that is not apparent or visible, anything concealed or mystcrious or knowingly kept secret. And Vasishtha’s Rik just referred to frankly says that his words of praise are secret words which the gods know because they are not and cannot be concealed from the gods, but only from the outward mind, from the common run of men, are they kept secret. Sri Aurobindo draws pointed attention to the praise of Vamadeva, ninyå vacāmsi; the seer says definitely, "Oh Agni, Disposer, to thee who knowest these secret words, fructuous, I have uttered, I have sung, enlightened, with thoughts and prayers.”ll One more reference to ninyam is an interesting passage where the seer Vamadeva comparcs Indra’s drinking of the Soma to a seer discovering in secret the truths or things that are to be known (or the objects of inner knowledge). 12 Now that we have finished with almost all the important rcferences to this word in the Riks, we may invite the reader’s attention to this characteristic feature of the utterances of Vedic seers; and it lies in the idea of the "secret” associated with certain objects—it may pertain to knowledge in general or a god or a hostile power or words or knowledge of things or truths. But there are in the Riks other words also to convey the sense of secret. It is necessary to make mention of a few instances where guhya, guhā, apicya and in some cases praticya are used to describe the secret speech. We know that the Riks have different appellations based on their use which cannot be translated into any other tongue, though most of them can be explained by paraphrasings. These are uktha, śastra, stoma, gir, vāk, vāņi, brahman, mantra etc. But the word Nama is little understood to mean stotra also. There are instances when it is used to denote words of praise addressed to the deity, words in the formula of the secret speech. Nama is undoubtedly name. But the name of a god in the Veda is much more than a means of distinguishing him from other gods. It carries a power of appeal to the god in question. It is a means by which one bows down, offers himself submissively namana-sådhanam in the phrase of Sayana (literally,“means of bending low”), to the gods, evoking their response. Näma therefore in many places is used in the sense of words of submission. At the same time it is often used as placed in the guha, cave, and as concealed, gūdham. Quite often we find it in association with apicya, which like ninyam means secret or covered or mysterious. Let us make mention of a few instances where the secret name or the secret speech is denoted by apicyam nāma. Gritsamada hymns, “They increase the charming face and the secret name of him the Child of Waters."13 Nabhaka, the seer, praises Varuna, "He who is the supporter of the worlds, who knows the Names of the Rays, mysterious, hidden in the cave — he is the seer-poet, he nourishes the poet-wisdoms as Heaven does the manifold form."14 Again in the same hymn there is another verse referring to the mysterious ocean”, samudra apicya. Kavi Bhargava sings, “The Son upholds the secret Name of the Father and the Mother in the luminous Heaven.”15 Sayana distinctly interprets Nāma to mean words of praise, stotra, in VII. 22.5. “Words of thy praise I ever utter”; again in VIII. II. 5. "Mortals, we adore thee for we know the wide Name, stotra."16

Instances are numerous enough to show that the Name is a word of appeal to the particular personality of the godhead and it is also used to denote the Mantra or words of adoration. In both the senses it is often spoken of as secret or concealed or mysterious. Occasionally the word pratici, one of the synonyms of "secret”, is used. But it is a word that can be taken to mean "confronting" or "turned inwards”. In classical Sanskrit in the latter sense this Vedic word is in currency as in the case of pratyag-ātmā, the inner self. Pratyan-mukha and Paranmukha arc common terms meaning "face (i.e., mind) turned inward and outward”. What has been shown is enough to indicate clearly the secret character of the language used by the Vedic Rishis. And this secret lies in the symbolic veil over the thought content of the Riks. We have earlier spoken of the system of double values in which Vedic seers arranged their ideas. Now we may recall to mind that the inner thought is the true and intended sense while the outer is kept as the symbol meant to cover it and at the same time to image it. This does not at all mean that every Rik throughout the Rik Samhita contains symbols for the outcr mcaning to act as a veil over the inner truth. For there are instances where no symbol at all is necessary and yet a double sense is conveyed; and this is because the words used lave often a double mcaning. We may cite, for example, dhi which means first and foremost “thought” in the Veda as in classical Sanskrit; but in the Veda dhiyah is taken in the sense of "works”, karmāņi, also, so that the latter meaning is given to it wherever it is convenient to the ritualist in preference to the former which is naturally adopted in the esoteric interpretation. It is not proposed to exhaust the list of similar words which are psychological terms used as such in the inner sense and which has in some cases, not in all, an appearance of outer meanings used justifiably for the purposes of the exoteric worship of the Vedic times. Ketu, Kratu, Shravas, Ritam are some of the outstanding terms; they denote intellectual judgement or intuitive perception, will with wisdom, or resolve, inspiration or inner audience, Truth or Right respectively, while in the outer garb they are ray, sacrifice, famc (quite often "food”, according to Sayana) and water or sacrifice or any other meaning, not always consistently applied or applicable to all instances and in all contexts. But in the inner sense these and similar terms arc understood invariably in the same sense. And this is the strength of the position taken for discovering the truth of the secret speech of the Vedic seers. But there are other terms which are not psychological but are images and figures of truths, ideas and things of the inner world. Cow (go) in the Veda means both Light and the quadruped and in the esoteric sense always an image of Light. A few of the other figures may be cited here for example: the Horse is the symbol of power, the Waters of life and the energies of cosmic principles; the rivers, the ocean, the hill, the plateau, the cave, guha— these are all, respectively images of the nourishing and creative forces, the infinite substance out of which emerges the Sun of truth, the manifested existence rising from the Physical towards a higher order of being, level or plane of being or consciousness, the secret spot, generally the heart of things and of man in particular. When we look straight at these symbols it would require no effort at all to understand the natural significance of these images taken from their environments by the seer-poets of the Rig Veda. The unsophisticated mind of the age was quite naturally impressed by the immensity of the ocean, by the ceaseless flowing of the rivers that fertilises the soil, by the life-giving principle of water (called jivanam in later Sanskrit), by many another object of the Physical universe and the natural phenomena that corresponded to those of the inner Nature which the Rishi was occupied with cxploring in his spiritual venture. It was a spontaneous choice of these images that the poet made for giving expression to the ideas and truths that he received and held and communicated to others in the course of his soul’s journey towards the Godhead. This is the supreme use of the symbols that they leave the impress of the truths that are contained in them, for they are natural in that no quality or property alien to the object used as a symbol is imposed upon them. Literary progress of later times in spite of the high boast of our intellect or because of it—has not outgrown the use of the images to carry home the thought substance, and feeling of the truth represented by the word. It was a great blessing of the Vedic age that feeling and understanding, what we would call heart and mind, were habitually not at variance with one another, as they later came to be in the age of intellect when the mind began to search for what is called "the abstract" and the heart for the concrete”. We are often possessed of a mistaken notion that there are concrete and abstract truths—this is a sort of intellectual vanity — and that the concrete is the mundane existence and the abstract are merc ideas in the void. The fact is that ideas are always abstract but not the truths they attempt to represent. But truth as an idea may be abstract, and as the mundane existence known to us may be concrete; but it is neither exclusively the concrete of our perception nor the abstract of our conception. But it is in itself substantial of which what we call the concrete is a superficial presentation and the abstract is nothing but a distant shadow of mind without substance. The Rishis, then, had in them a happy blending of thought and feeling and the question of concrete and abstract truths and ideas does not arise at all; the symbol they use is a direct vehicle of thought and feeling more effective than any conventional language. But it must be noted that there are different kinds of symbols, some may be classed together by virtue of their being images provided by nature in the physical universe. It is this group of symbols that we referred to in the examples of ocean and rivers and mountains and the rest, and this also is the kind that we mostly come across in the hymns, and which is fairly sufficient if we care to take the hint to guide us to read their correct significance.

But there are other kinds of images which do not belong to the physical universe but to a different order of cosmic existence, to a subtle plane of being — let us call them supraphysical, but on that account not less concrete quite substantial in their kind, visible to the inner vision of the Rishi; and thesc also he used for self-expression in the Mantra. In such cases these images themselves convey the idea, the truth they carry with them, directly, and no human speech is necessary to interpret the symbolic character of the figures so perceived; for the vehicle of thought and feeling is the symbolic image itself which is there the direct language, as we may say. To such groups belong some of the forms of the Vedic gods, their vehicles, zāhuna, their colours and movements described in the hymns.

We may note in passing that symbols of various kinds were always in vogue in the religious rites and worship of the earlier races in other countries also and not only in India. Certain symbols are geometrical expressions — circle, triangle, square and other figures. We now know that the cross was there as a symbol long before Jesus Christ. But the bases of these symbols, it must be borne in mind, are to be found in the inner and the psychic grounds, they are visions, signifying certain truths to the inner and awakened intelligence of the disciple of the secret path. Symbolism as a device of religious worship continued in India in the post-Vedic age also and still continues to our own days though the symbols and their significances and bases have varied and are absolutely different in some important respects. So much for symbolism with special reference to the hymns of the Rig Veda.

Yaska and others testify

We have had occasions to refer to Yaska, but so far we have not mentioned the kind of help we receive for our way of understanding the hymns. There is a double aspect of the Nirukta which we have to note before proceeding to consider the question of Yaska’s views in so far as they have bearing on our topic. We may state at the outset that Yaska is the author of the Nirukta that is handed down to us but not of the Nighantu — the vocabulary of the Vedic words given classified into certain groups. The latter is a collection of words taken from the Veda arranged under different heads; and the student of the Veda was expected to get this Nighantu by heart as he did the Vedas, though its importance is next only to the Vedic texts themselves. It is called by the sacred name of Sam-āmnāya a word which is applied to those Vedic texts which are learnt by heart, to Brahmanas mostly, or to the Vedas in general. As these words were gathered from the Veda and learnt by heart like the Veda, Yaska begins his work Nirukta with this word saying that "the Nighantu called Sam-ämnaya has been cited and now it is to be explained”. Whether the Nighantu that was handed down to Yaska was as complete as it was before and when the Samhitas were arranged, is a different question altogether. Like the Nighantu that came down to him, there was a school of Vedic interpreters long before Yaska who were Etymologists, Nairuktas, who attached great importance to the Vedic words because of their derivative significance. Yaska belongs to this school of Niruktakaras, some of whom he mentions by name, e.g., Shakapuni, Audumbarayana, Aupamanyava etc. Though the etymology he gives of words is often unreliable and fantastic, the fact that the Vedic words have derivative significance is a creed with them as the very term implies (nir-ukta, nir-vacana). And this served as a strong hint to Swami Dayananda when he started the revival of Vedic learning in our own times. This aspect of the Nirukta, not in details but in principle, is an asset, and invaluable for our guidance. Yaska clearly mentions that no one without tapaszâ can make a successful attempt to know the mcaning of the Mantra. This is a sure pointer to the mystical character of the Vedic language. He says that the language of the Veda is often figurative, and allegorical. "Dawn is said to be his sister—this is stated to convey the idea of association, the language is figurative" (ușasam asya svasäram aha, sähacaryal : (Nirukta Ill. 16). When he explains the Vritra legend as a natural phenomenon of the cloud imprisoning the waters etc., he states, “These battles are described in similes, i.e., allegorically" (Nir. II 16, upamarthe yuddhavarṇaḥ bhavanti). That the language is figurative or the legends allegorical is a fact we can admit but in the inner sense of the figure or the allegory, his interpretation is naturalistic. When modern scholars credit Sayana with being rational for his naturalistic interpretation on many occasions, the credit must really go to the Nairuktas as represented by Yaska. But behind all his naturalism there is a strong belief lurking in him that there is mystery about the Mantra, mystery about the Rishi who communes with the gods, and mystery about the gods themselves who are hymned. This aspect of Yaska is a factor that contributes to the justification of the line of interpretation we adopt. Above all his reference to the gods and their threefold classification based on the three cosmic divisions of the Universe — Earth, Mid-region and Heaven—is interesting and points to certain truths which it is doubtful he himself grasped in their fuller significance. He speaks of the gods who are characterised by a mutuality of birth and mutuality of nature and source (itaretara-janmānah itaretara-prakrtayah). The implication is that the nature and source of the gods and their births are interdependent —they are born, each one of the others, the origin of each is any one or all of the rest. We need not dilate upon this aspect of the truth about the gods since it offers no difficulty whatever in grasping it in our system of Vedic study. Yaska affirms as the supreme Vedic truth about the gods and quotes the relevant Riks that the Sun is the Soul of all that is mobile and immobile and that all the gods are limbs of the Great Self, Mahan Atma. All this stated by Yaska contributes to the help we get from recorded works for the esoteric interpretation, and what is much more, testifies to the need and correctness of our approach to the understanding of the Vedic hymns.

Before we take leave of Yaska, we may point out one characteristic feature of his work. We find a frank admission of ignorance in soine cases or doubts on his part in regard to the meanings of ancient words or of verses or even of matters concerning the gods. Nowhere do we find in his work that the views of Nairuktas whom he represents are the true ones. That the same verse or fact was variously interpreted before and during his time is evident from his references to the Ritualists, Yajnikas, the Etymologists, Nairuktas, the Mythologists, Aitihasikas, etc. He admits the currency of more than one interpretation of the Vedic hymns. It is a fact that he recognises the rights of other schools of thought giving their explanations of the Veda. But he is not uncritical, does not admit, much less follow unquestioningly, even well-known authorities that went before him. Occasionally he points outs when he sees them, errors in established and recognised authorities like Shakalya to whom is ascribed the authorship of the Padapatha of the Rik Samhita. It is interesting to note that the Brihad Devata, which comes immediately after Yaska, points out many errors in Yaska’s splitting of the words, but like the Nirukta it also recognises various schools of thought holding their own views on the interpretation of the Vedic hymns. This work is among the earliest upon which Katyayana and others depended for information on the particular Devatas addressed or spoken of in the hymns concerned. It also testifies to the fact that there was a school which held that the hymns were to be understood in the inner spiritual sense and so also some of the truths or facts which seemingly referred to external things. We may cite the examples of panca janāḥ or the five peoples which are identified by Sayana so often with the four Varnas and the fifth, called Nishada panchama. Here are the relevant views about the panca janāḥ that the Brihad Devata records: “Some say they are the Five Fires, others they are Men, Fathers, Gods, Gandharvas, Uragas or Rakshasas. Shakatayana thinks that they are the four Varnas and the fifth the nişāda. Shakapuni says they are the four main officiating priests, Riwiks, viz., Hota, Adhwaryu, Udgata, Brahma, and the sacrificer, Yajamana. But the Atmavadins (who are for the inner meaning of the Vedas) hold at the panca janāḥ are the Sight, the Audience, the Mind, the Voice, the life."⁶

18. महाभारते अश्वमेधपर्व अध्यायः ११ श्लो० ७-२०
    ततो वृत्रं शरीरस्थं जधान भरतर्षभ ।
    शतक्रतुरदृश्येन वज्रणेतीह नः श्रुतम्" ।।
19. अनुशासनपर्व अध्यायः ८४, श्लो:० ४७-४८
    "अजोऽग्निवरुणो मेषः सूर्योऽश्व इति दर्शनम् ।
    कुंजराश्च मृगा नागा महिषाश्चासुरा इति ।।
    कुककुटाश्च वराहाश्च राक्षसा भृगुनन्दन"।

The fact is now clear to us that both the Nirukta and the Brihad Devata testify to the existence of the tradition that the Vedas have an inner or spiritual meaning, though unfortunately even in their times it was only a tradition and memory of a past, but not a working faith that was in currency among the learned classes. We have already spoken of the Brahmanas which quite often treat the sacrifice in a symbolic way of their own. That again shows that they had some memory of the earlier thought that the hymns they used for sacrificial purposes had an inner meaning, spiritual and occult. The consecration ceremony in which the initiation of the sacrificer takes place is curiously symbolic; for when the sacrificer is made to enter the place for which he is destined, he is supposed to enter his own womb, for it is a new birth he is to take, a re-embodiment among the Gods in Heaven while he is still in the flesh (cf., Ait. Brahm. 1.3). At times in the beginning, in the middle on occasions, and mostly at the close, the Brahmanas which are the literature of the Yajnikas speak of the truth that the Vedic ritual by itself does not help one to ascend to That, it is only when one has Knowledge one can climb to Heaven (Shatapatha Brahm. X. 5.4).

The Puranas, it is stated, were originally meant to amplify the meaning of the Vedas (vedārthasya upab?mhanam) but it would be of little use to us if most of the Puranic legends could be traced to the Vedas; but there are certain portions there and especially of the Mahabharata which announce in unmistakable terms that certain Vedic legends have an inner meaning; also there are other sections which in unambiguous terms speak of the symbolic way in which gods and other Beings are signified. It is so interesting and has bearing on our subject that we may cite here the instance of the Vritra legend. Vyasa narrates to Dharmaputra the meaning of the Vritra legend as he learnt it from the sages. At the close is the verse which says, “Then Indra with his invisible thunderbolt slew Vritra in the body.” Earlier, Vritra is described as Tamas (Ashwamedha Parva XI. 7-20).18 The commentator Nilakantha says that Vajra is knowledge born of discrimination, viveka. Again in another place Goat (aja) is said to be the symbolic form of Agni, Ram (mesa) that of Varuna, Horse that of the Sun; Elephants, Deer, Serpents, Buffaloes are all Asuras; Cocks and Pigs are Rakshasas (Anushasana Parva Ch. 84).19 From these citations it would be clear that in the Mahabharata are incorporated the results of attempts to discover the hidden meaning of legends of the Vedic origins and the significance of symbols. So far we have dealt with the recorded tradition about the Vedic secret that there are behind the allegories and legends and images in the Rig Veda profound ideas of spiritual and occult truths, and that whatever may be their outer meanings and uses, it is the inner and the spiritual that are of supreme importance and that was the main preoccupation of the Rishis of the Rig Veda, the central wisdom of the ancient mystics. But the question remains: if the inner meaning of the Veda is the spiritual and that is the real import, if symbolism and double values are the key to unlock the Vedic secret, has there been none before us and after the Vedic Rishis who ever made attempts to discover the real meaning of the Riks? The answer is simple: there is no record available that goes to show that there was one. Nor has there been any attempt made by scholars to give us a complete commentary on the Vedas even from the standpoint of the Yajnikas, before Sayana. If there has been no attempt to deal with the spiritual interpretation, the reason is plain and history gives the explanation. The original epoch of the Veda was followed after a lapse of perhaps some centuries by an age of intellectual activity which in its turn was succeeded by dearth of vigour, by a certain plunge towards darkness, a decadence or a descent into something short of death. The absence of a commentary in the light of the symbolic and spiritual sense is no more a proof that there is really no secret meaning of the Veda that the absence of a complete commentary on the Vedas before Sayana is a proof that there is no ritualistic meaning possible of the Vedic hymns. As for traditions, both the kinds have been there from the beginning. But there is a disadvantage that certainly tells upon the esoteric interpretation because of the presence and influence of Sayana’s commentary and its having held sway these centuries over the minds of scholars saturated with ritualistic con-. ceptions. Again the tradition that the Vedic hymns are supremely spiritual in their import was recovered and maintained by Anandatirtha, the Dwaita teacher known as Madhwacharya. This shows clearly that there was even before Sayana a school of Vedic interpreters holding that though ritual worship was part of the Vedic religion and as such the Mantras present an aspect favourable to it, yet the inner meaning of the Mantra was spiritual and the highest aim and use of the Veda was God-knowledge and attainment of the supremest end of life possible for man. Madhwacharya’s work is comparatively small in volume, the language simple, but its influence among scholars modern or ancient is not commensurate with its importance and can be judged from the fact that most modern scholars and the Pundits as a class, with the possible exception of some among his followers, are unaware of the very existence of such a work. His follower, the great Yogin Raghavendra Swami (after Sayana) wrote the work Mantrarthamanjari in which he has explained and amplified in necessary places the Rig-bhashya of the great teacher, the founder of the Dwaita school, the Acharya Purna-prajna. He quotes an ancient Puranic text stating that the Vedas have three meanings (trayorthāḥ sarva-vedeșu) and illustrates the fact in the first forty suktas of the Rik Samhita.

It does not form part of our object to explain and discuss the bases of the three ways in which Riks are to be understood according to this commentary. Suffice it to say that Madhwa admits: firstly, there is a ritual use for the Mantra and it bears that meaning accordingly; secondly, the Mantra is addressed to the gods whose glories are sung and each god with his special function is an instrument of the Supreme God Vishnu and has a distinct consciousness of his own as an entity and through him the Upasaka realises some aspect of the greatness and the grace of the Supreme Lord for Moksha; thirdly, the same Mantra directly refers to the Supreme God Vishnu himself when the words of the Mantra are understood against their etymological background, yaugika, and that is the most natural as well as the supreme meaning. This commentary is a very interesting work and invaluable especially to that section of the Pundits who would choose to learn and see more in the Rig Veda than the sacrificial purpose and mythological ideas that are associated in their minds with the hymns of the great mystics. This again is another testimony to the sacred tradition that the Vedas are books of spiritual wisdom and have unfailingly three meanings one of which applies to the Supreme Godhead, applies to Him and Him alone without which the other two meanings are futile whatever may be the utility one may cling to in his ignorance of the high purpose of life. What is important to us is that the Acharya holds that there is an inner and spiritual meaning and that that is the supreme meaning of the Veda.

It is thus remarkable that everywhere we come across the tradition that the Veda is a secret lore. Even in the southernmost corner of the peninsula and in the early centuries of the Christian era we find the Tamil word marai, meaning secret, in currency to denote the Veda.

Now where do we stand in the relation to the labours of Indian scholars of our times? There are two outstanding contributions to the Vedic studies on Western lines in recent times, one of Mr. Tilak and another of Mr. Paramasiva Iyer. The former has propounded the theory of the Arctic Home of the Vedic Aryans, with sufficient internal evidence and in the light of this theory many Riks become intelligible which would otherwise remain inexplicable — in the outer interpretation. But the latter’s thesis requires good deal of proving, and must be supported by internal evidences, by copious illustrations from the hymnal texts. Perhaps Mr. Iyer has hit the mark when he says that Vritra Ahi is Glacier. In any case, the labours of these scholars may stand help to know something of the physical surroundings in which these hymns of the Rig Veda were composed.

Apart from the translations of the numerous hymns he has given us, Sri Aurobindo has illustrated the method followed by commenting upon the “Selected Hymns” in The Secret of the Veda. Sayana in his introduction to the Rig-bhashya says that if one studies the first Adhyaya of Rik Samhita with his Bhashya in accordance with the traditional instruction, the rest of the work the student can read for himself without further help. We may apply the same method to the study of the Rig Veda in its esoteric sense; for if one grasps and ponders over substance of the introduction to the Hymns to the Mystic Fire, he will find no difficulty in understanding the hymns, translated in the inner sense. And Sayana’s simple commentary, its startling imperfections notwithstanding, can be accepted in its outer sense and is also an indispensable help for studying the hymns in their esoteric aspect, once we are familiar with the psychological terms and the symbolic significance of the imagery we meet with in the hymns.

Now that we have done and come to the end, we may state a word about the religion and philosophy of the Rig Veda, so much spoken of by modern scholars. It is wrong, futile, wide of the mark, to think of the Rig Veda, even any portion of it, as a ground of philosophical speculations; nor were the sages of the Veda or Upanishads thinkers of the type that philosophical system-building requires. They were seers and not thinkers; it is a rather bold venture on our part to draw conclusions from a few hymns singled out from the last Mandala of the Rik Samhita and state that here the Sages have learnt to speculate and there they have progressed in advanced thought and views. The exoteric religion of the Vedic times is admitted on all hands to be a sort of Nature-worship or we may call it pantheistic Nature-worship. It is always possible to find hymns in the Rik Samhita from which we can gather that there was Polytheism, Monotheism or Max Muller’s Henotheism or even Monism. But the Rishis do not seem to have concerned themselves much about this sort of systematising. In handling their work we too can with great advantage follow them and let the gods alone separately and distinct from one another—let them subserve the Supreme Godhead of whom they are different names and aspects, or powers and personalities, or let them all combine singling out one to be in front while keeping the rest of themselves at the back, or let them all retire together into their Supreme Source and pass into the Nameless One or to the One who is the upholder and bearer of the names of all of them, yo devānām nāmadha eka eva. There is no reconciliation necessary, for all these are matters of fact with the seers, all these are their perception of the Truth, nay, of the truths.

In all that we have stated here, we have shown that there are sufficient grounds for understanding the Veda in its esoteric sense; we have pointed out the weaknesses in the system of exoteric interpretation of the hymns; we have as a matter of course assumed that the Rishis of the Rig Veda were not unlike other ancient peoples of pre-historic times, but were capable of coherent speech, quite capable of expressing themselves clearly, and were not imbeciles agape wondering all the days of their lives at natural phenomena. Once their language is understood and use made of the clues given in the symbolic interpretation, they present themselves to the eye of wisdom in their truer stature and, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, "the Rig Veda ceases to be an obscure, confused and barbarous hymnal, it becomes the high-aspiring Song of Humanity; its chants are episodes of the lyrical epic of the soul in its immortal ascension. This at least; what more there may be in the Veda of ancient science, lost knowledge, old psycho-physical tradition remains yet to be discovered.”

GODHEAD AND THE GODS IN THE RIG VEDA

I

WE propose to consider the question of the Vedic Gods with special reference to Agni in this brief study. If symbolism is the key for the interpretation of the hymns of the Rig Veda in the inner sense as expounded by Sri Aurobindo, then by implication it applies to the discovery of the true character of the Vedic Gods some of whom are identified with the powers of Nature in the physical world, as Sun, Moon, Heaven, Earth, Fire, Wind, Waters and the others who are according to modern scholars personified natural forces at work in the Universe. There is no doubt that in the early ages people worshipped Nature-Gods in many countries, as in India, Greece or Rome. But it is not correct to say that the people of the Vedic times deified or personified the forces of Nature; rather they believed that there were Gods who presided over the Sun and the Moon, the Earth or Heaven, the Fire, the Storm, the sacred Rivers and other visible bodies in the physical universe. When they speak of Surya the Sun-God they have in mind for their object of worship the Deva who presides over the Solar body; the same is true with other Gods in the Veda insofar as they are identified beyond doubt with the workings of the natural forces in the world. But the Gods of the Veda were much more than the physical description given of them whether in the hymns or by the scholars. If the Sun and Storm and Wind and Waters and other objects of Nature were all that sum up the Gods of the Vedic pantheon, albeit with their presiding Deities, then the modern theory about the primitive Vedic people would be perfectly plausible. These ancients, then, had not emerged from the primitive barbarism, were still governed by the crude religious beliefs in the efficacy of sacrifice to their Gods. They believed that their prayers were effective means to bring them all material blessings, rains from heaven, to release the waters from the clouds and help loosen the grip of Night on the Sun. But the true character of the Gods as it emerges from the hymns themselves does not agree with this account hazarded by modern scholarship for which the Brahminical ritualism elucidated by Sayana is to some extent responsible. For the gross and physical aspect of the Vedic worship though applicable in certain hymns does not apply in many, does not at all hold good throughout, but fades away as we proceed from hymn to hymn of sage after sage in all the ten Books of the Samhita. There are whole hymns which in the exoteric sense do not make sense at all. The ritualistic meaning can not be maintained throughout. And in order to achieve the impossible, impossible constructions are invented and with laborious effort we arrive at a result which leaves us wondering at the grotesque mentality of the Vedic bards; or in such places the meanings of the hymns are empty of any worthy idea or presentation of truth, a thought-content commensurate with the repute of Knowledge associated with the Veda. The Herculean effort made to dive deep into the water bears fruit in discovering the potsherd. The necessity of the symbolic interpretation arises from the unsatisfactory results of the labours of modern scholarship with the help of Sayana’s ritualistic commentary. For apart from the poverty of thought and incoherence in the language of the sages assumed without warrant for the purpose of arriving at some sort of a cogent idea conveyed by the hymns, the learning does not take into account the ages-old tradition that the Vedas are the original source of spiritual Wisdom and Divine Knowledge.

When we seize the clues afforded by the deliberate symbolism devised by the Vedic seers in the hymns, we get admitted into the secrets of the Vedic Godhead, to the true character of the Gods, as seen and understood by the Rishis of the Rig Veda. Let us then seek for the truth in the original texts themselves and hear what the Rishis speak of the Gods and leave aside for the time being what others say about the Rishis or the Gods or what the moderns think the Gods must have been to the primitive poets of the Vedic age. A presentation of the Gods in general with their special and general function and nature as described in the Riks will facilitate our enquiry into Agni, the Deity who is usually first hymned by most sages of the Rig Veda.

The question then arises: who are these Gods, Agni, Indra, Surya, Varuna, Mitra, Ashwins and a host of others addressed in the hymns ? Moderns tell us that the Aryans of the Vedic times had susceptible minds, were easily impressionable, thought and believed all natural forces and phenomena to be bristling with life and intelligence and endowed with power to bestow benefits on them in return for the sacrifice and so they offered their prayers to them. What are these natural objects and forces that appeared to these early semi-civilised peoples as figuring and embodying the Gods? They are the blue expanse above, dyauḥ, the earth with her luxuriant vegetation and green meadows below, pithivi, the sun, source of all light and life, sūrya, the lovely dawn, uşas, the flowing rivers, nadyaḥ, and the cool life-giving waters, apaḥ, Maruts, the storms that rush through the sky, Indra who with his thunderbolt, vajra, deals a death-blow to the clouds and sends down rain. Modern learning avers further that in its childhood the Aryan humanity was possessed of a hankering after light and turned away from darkness and naturally could not suppress its wonder at the sight of fire when it was produced by the friction of the churning sticks, arani! Hence next to Indra, Agni is the most important God in the Vedic pantheon.

This account of the Gods is based largely on conjectures and the assumptions that there could not have been real spirituality or sublime conception of the Godhead in those primitive times. The Gods as they reveal themselves in the hymns do not throughout answer to this description, though the Riks in many places torn from the context may lend support to this view because of the external and physical aspect that is generally maintained for the purposes of outer worship and ceremonial rite. But there are many hymns scattered over all the Mandalas of the Rig Veda which not only do not testify to the correctness of this picture but contradict the external sense, overshadow the physical aspect and proclaim the spiritual and psychological functions of the Gods and their Cosmic character. There are a number of instances out of which we shall take up a few to show that the Riks cease to give us any meaning that is applicable to the physical aspect, to the Nature-gods of the naturalistic and ritualistic interpreters.

When the Rik says⁷

Usha is rightly identified with Dawn, but even here her attribute cannot apply always to the physical sunrise. Does she speak sweet and true words, sūnīta — a term which is repeatedly applied to her? Kakshivan addresses her: “Following the course of the Ray of Truth, ſtasya raśmim, bestow on us happy, happy knowledge-will”¹⁸

There are Mitra and Varuna, the Ashwins, other gods and goddesses whose identities are variously surmised and whose physical aspects are less pronounced than those we have referred to and for that reason we need not take up any of them here, as the Riks addressed will bear plain testimony to the psychological and inner significance, and to the Cosmic and spiritual functionings under different names and personalities of the Godhead. It is enough if we remember that the Gods whose identities with the objects and forces of Nature in the physical universe are quite assured are not really and deeply the external things meant as objects of ritual worship, but are much more and are intensely divine in their true form and nature, superb and intimate in their workings as powers of the Godhead in the hidden and occult layers of our being as well as in the Cosmic existence.

II

Now let us see if it is at all a fact that the hymns themselves speak of the Gods with different names and powers of the One supreme Godhead. The oft-quoted Rik of Dirghatamas is too well-known and there are a few others that have the same import that the One is named variously by the sages. And this fact is certainly important, but that is not enough to show the relation of the Gods among themselves or their position individually in relation to the One who is adored through each and all of them. For we can take them as mere names of the One, themselves without substance and form, distinct from one another or from the supreme One whose functions they represent. We shall present here in a general way the fact as emerging from the Riks themselves that the Gods of the Veda are not mere names but are different Powers, have different functions, distinctive signs that mark them out featuring their Personalities, yet not absolutely separate from but closely allied to one another, not apart from the sole Supreme Truth, the Godhead but definite manifestations of That indefinable.

It is advisable to convince ourselves that this our reading of the nature of the Vedic Gods is not an invention of our own but a discovery of the truth which was faintly seen and stated in unmistakable terms by Yaska who was after the Vedic age the first to probe into the secrets of the Gods, and openly acknowledged the impossibility of ordinary minds without tapas, spiritual force, understanding the nature of the Devatas. And we must remember in this connection that he was an etymologist and his interpretations are normally naturalistic. Though he admits the existence of other schools of Vedic interpreters and does not plainly condemn ritualism as such, still occasionally scouts the explanations given by the Brahmanas, the Vedic scripture for Ritualism. Brahmanas speak liberally of many qualities”; often they are extravagant and fanciful in reading into the hymnal texts or into the Vedic Gods many imagined meanings or qualities. According to his commentator, Yaska hesitates to follow the Brahmanas in their explanations as they speak of everything in all possible ways and we ought not to swallow them, but the truth must be sought for.¹⁹

A common dwelling and common enjoyment entitle the objects and beings of a world to be treated as belonging to and part of that world, samsthana-ekatwam, sambhoga-ekatwam. His account of the Vedic Gods and the world-existence may be summed up in a few passages; that will help us to get an idea of the system of thought pertaining to the deities of the Vedic pantheon that prevailed among a section of Vedic interpreters who were not ritualists; but they assumed to depend for their conclusions on the Vedas, the hymns themselves and not on the Brahmanas or Upanishads though the latter seem to have been known to them as could be seen from certain sections, at least the supplement, parishishta of Yaska’s Nirukta. Yaska’s commentator Durgacharya explains the passages of Yaska on the Devatas with their character, abodes and functions in the light of Upanishadic thought. Even though his explanations are quite plausible, we must avoid the suspicion that he read his own thought trained in the Upanishadic lore into the lines of the Nirukta. But Yaska himself gives in one or two short paragraphs what he understood to be the nature, work and place of the Vedic Gods as gathered from the hymns themselves and come down to him through the Nairukta tradition. There are three worlds, Earth, Middle region and the Sky which are the abodes of Agni, Vayu or Indra and Aditya respectively and above them all is the Mahan Atma; all the Gods, whatever their number, have their dwellings with one or other of these three Gods. They are born one of the other, the prakyti or nature of each is so flexible as to be modified into the nature of other Gods, itaretara-prakrtayaḥ; they are born as the fruit of works, karma-janmanaḥ. Because of the magnificent opulence of the Deity, mahābhāgya, the One Self eka åtmå, is lauded in many ways or as many. Of the One Atman other Gods are limbs; they are all born of the Atman; the Atman is their chariot, Atman is their horses, Atman is the weapon, Atman is the arrows, in short, Atman is the everything of the Gods (Nirukta VII.4). If all the Gods of all the worlds, their horses and chariots and weapons are all the One Devata, the One Atman, a misunderstanding may arise, viz., that really there is no difference among the Gods or between them and their vehicles etc. And to remove this possible misconception Yaska adds, because of the majestic power the Gods are endowed with, each Deity has different names and divides itself into different functionings and is accordingly hymned. That the various Vedic Gods have their many functions and names and that they are different Powers is admitted on all hands and there is no doubt or controversy on this point. As for their abodes it is a question that deserves to be considered at some length and that we shall do in determining the true character of the Gods.

Is the idea of the supreme Deity, the sublime Reality, as a fact of spiritual experience indicated, clearly expressed, in the hymns themselves generally or is it only a later bold conjecture or a vague idea ventured in a few later hymns and that it is only in the Upanishads the thought is developed as affirmed by modern scholars? This is the one question on which there have been conflicting views. We shall dispose of this first, for on this point hinges the whole question of the spiritual and true greatness of the Rishis of the Rig Veda. We shall take up a number of pertinent passages from many Mandalas of the Rik Samhita to show that That One, tad ekam, was known to the Rishis and it is That towards which they wend their way in the inner and secret path of the Sacrifice, with the help of the higher Powers, callcd Devas, limbs as it were, of the supreme Godhead functioning in the field of Cosmic action. We shall choose such texts as can be plainly construed and avoid passages which may require the elucidation of symbolic imagery in which the meanings of many hymns are clothed. First there stands the famous Rik of Dirghatamas: “Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, they call him; and he is also the Heavenly Garutman of lovely plumage. The One Existent the illumined ones call variously, call it Agni, Yama, Matarishwa.”²⁰

In the third Mandala we have the idea of the One plainly mentioned as all that is and moves. “ All beings that are born, they both (Earth and Heaven?) keep separate; bearing the great Gods, vexed they are not. The Universal One that rules over the immobile and the fixed (is) what walks, what flies, what is — this manifold birth.”²¹

In the fifth Mandala: “ There is a truth covered by aTruth where they unyoke the horses of the Sun: the ten hundreds stood together, there was that One (or That, the supreme Truth was one). I saw the greatest (best, most glorious) of the embodied gods."²³

Or we can take a hymn from Bharadwaja: “An immortal Light set inward for seeing, a swiftest mind within in men that walk on the way. All the Gods with a single mind, a common Intuition, move aright in their divergent paths towards the One Will.”²⁴

Vasishtha says, " That one, Thy birth, was there when Agastya brought Thee here."²⁵

In the last Book: “ Where they regard the only One beyond the seven Rishis ..."²⁶

"In the navel of the unborn the One was placed and there in that One all the worlds abide."²⁷

Again in another place, “ The One existent, beautiful of plumage, the illumined seers by their words formulate in many ways (or forms)."²⁸

The few references we have given from many Books in the Rig Veda, not only from the last Book, are sufficient to show that the idea of That One, the Sublime Truth which is also the Deity of all deities is not a later development but is there throughout in the Vedic hymns though veiled or kept in the background in some places while in a few others it is plainly stated and quite overt. When we closely appreciate these facts and study the hymns addressed to the Gods, Indra or Soma or even Maruts, not to speak of Agni and Surya we find these Gods derive their support and strength from That One and are themselves that One, and they, cach in his own way, help man in his Heavenward travel of which the goal is the Supreme One. We can take for instance a few examples of Gods adored as and leading man to That One addressing the Maruts, Vasishtha says “Whose Name, resplendent, One alone, widely extended like a sea, for the joy of many like the enduring strength of ancestral heritage.”²⁹

In the Valakhilya Hymns we find a verse: “ The One has become all this.":³⁰

The seer Nema in his communion with Indra says verses 4 and 5 in the hymn of Nema are said to be the words of response from Indra – “O singer, look, here I by my greatness surpass all that is born, the followers of Truth increase mc .... the espousers of Truth ascend and approach me, as I, the One, am seated on the summit of Heaven."³¹

In another hymn, “ The one son born of the three, the conquering, ruddy treasure, they send, the Immortals unassailed look over the happy places (planes) of the mortals."³²

“Held by the seven thought-powers he pleases the unharming rivers who increase the One Eye."³³

“The Might of the great Deva is the great One."³⁴

“Here is one light for thee, there is another: enter close into the third Light. In the union of the body with the Light, grow beautiful, dear to the Gods in their supreme birthplace."³⁵

III

These Gods are quite often spoken of as identical with the Supreme Godhead that has manifested out of its own substance and power and intelligence the many Gods for their functionings in the various spheres of his Cosmic existence. Therefore the Veda mentions Him as One who alone is the holder of the Names of all the Gods (X. 82.3). But the Gods are distinct personalities with their respective activities, while each is important in his place and fulfils his purpose and is indispensable for the governing of the Cosmic order his individual importance or greatness must not be judged by the number of hymns addressed to them. “The importance of the Gods”, says Sri Aurobindo, “has not to be measured by the number of hymns devoted to them or by the extent to which they are invoked in the thoughts of the Rishis, but by the functions which they perform. Agni and Indra to whom the majority of the Vedic hymns are addressed are not greater than Vishnu and Rudra, but the functions which they fulfil in the internal and external world were the most active, dominant, directly effective for the psychological discipline of the ancient mystics. This alone is the reason of their predominance.” The Sun, the glorious symbol of the Truth, the supreme Godhead of the Veda, is referred to as That One, tad ekam, addressed in fewer hymns than Indra or Agni or even Maruts. The Rishis invoke the powers of Agni and Indra because they are of constant and immediate consequence in the psychological and spiritual discipline of these mystics, and hence the importance and not because they are superior to the Sun; similarly Maruts, children of Rudra are not greater than their Father though there are more hymns addressed to them than to Rudra in the Rig Veda. The same may be said of Vishnu and Rudra to whom lesser number of hymns are devoted and yet Indra and Agni are not greater than they.

All the gods have their Cosmic functions in the universe, and their workings as pychological and spiritual powers within man is the central thought with which we are concerned in our reading of the Veda in its esoteric sense. Whatever their province of influence and action be in the external universe, the benefit of their presence and activity is always open to man when he has grown enough to discover the means to enlarge his existence with and to enter into the region of their help and influence. And that means is the same instrumentation by which the supreme One, the Creative Godhead produced, manifested, or created the Universe of Many, the world of creatures out of his own being. It is the giving of Himself, something of His substance for the building of the worlds, their beings and their governing powers in the Cosmic existence. This giving is Sacrifice, Yajna, in the Vedic system. If the Supreme Purusha by self-giving made possible the creation of this world-existence with its countless variety of living beings of which the most grown-up is the human being, man also can by self-giving earn the help of the Gods, of the higher Powers of the Godhead to new-create himself in the Spirit. For Sacrifice is this Law instituted by the creative Godhead, the Purusha for self-extension in the world-existence, it is the Law by which creation is sustained, and it is also the Law by which enlargement and growth into the image of the immortal Godhead is made possible. This secret of the true and inner sacrifice was a common knowledge of the Vedic mystics, while the external Yajna was maintained as a symbol for ceremonial worship for the people in general.

Mortal man, the sages knew, could renew his birth by an interchange with the higher Powers, the cosmic Gods, the Immortals, who are the sons of Aditi, the Mother Infinite. For the supreme Godhead is not only He, but also She, in the infinitude of his calm potency for boundless extension, for ineasuring out his measureless powers in the Cosmic embodiment. This Infinite in the Veda is sometimes imaged as the ocean, samudra. And there is an upper ocean whence the creation and creative powers proceed downwards and over the Earth, while there is an inner ocean, antaḥ samudra, to which the mystic gains access by special discipline, in and through the heart. He thus begins to enter the inner existence and lives the inner life by deepening his existence within and offering his possessions and whatever he is to the Gods who rule over and really own him and his universe of thoughts, feelings and experiences, for their acceptance. They in their turn bestow on him something of themselves, their light, their strength, the riches of the Immortal world to which they belong. He progresses from the depths of his being upwards to the abode of the higher powers leading to the Home of Truth where reigns the Sublime Effulgence. But he does not effect his journey at a stretch and reach the destination, nor does he commence and proceed with this up-hill task by his own strength either. It is with the help, the light and strength of the Gods which he receives in return for his self-giving, he is urged to his upward march in the path of the sacrifice. This offering is so nourishing to the Gods that they are born in him and increase their own substance in him; they are called the twice-born, dwijanmānah, for they are first born in the Cosmos as the higher Powers of the Godhead, and their second birth takes place in man as the fruit of the sacrifice, thereby displacing his mortality, giving him his rightly won lift towards the higher altitudes of his being, to the Home of the Immortals, towards the sole Supreme, That One, for whose attainment all sacrifice is made, all tapasya undertaken, and all life, the whole being, dedicated.

This upward procession, then, is not effected at a stretch, there are many stages, many steps, padāni, many stations, dhamani, through which one has to ascend as one climbs up a hill passing from onc platcau to another, sānoḥ sānum áruhat. The Veda speaks of seven steps or places or worlds, at times of four, chaluspäd, or five orders of being, five births, panca janāḥ. But we meet with three worlds and steps quite commonly which, as is well known, is the triple world of Earth, prthivi, Middle-world, antarikșa, and Heaven, dyauả. These three are located in the outer existence and are used to represent the first three levels of inner existence, toughie there are still higher ranges overtopping this threefold layer of being and reaching out to the vaster and more luminous regions of the Cosmic ladder at the summit of which is the Home of the Eternal Truth, the Immortal Light, the Ineffable Beatitude.

But this Godward journey is not a smooth running, not without vicissitudes; there are the sons of Darkness, forces of Evil, Rakshasas, Asuras, to hinder the progress, even as there arc forces of Good, the sons of Light, the Gods, to help our onward march. “We have to call in the aid of the Gods to destroy the opposition of these powers of Darkness who conceal the Light from us or rob us of it ... we have to invoke the Gods by the inner sacrifice ... the Gods are not simply poetical personifications or abstract ideas or psychological and physical functions of nature ... they are living realities ... the soul of man is a world full of beings, a kingdom in which armies clash to help or hinder a supreme conquest, a house where the Gods arc our guests and which the Demons strive to possess ... the vicissitudes of human soul represent a Cosmic struggle not merely of principles and tendencies but of the Cosmic Powers which support and embody them. These are the Gods and Demons on the world-stage and in the individual Soul the same real drama with the same personages is enacted” [Sri Aurobindo).

The inner sacrifice, the real Yajna, then, is the way to rcach the goal; it is indeed spoken of as a journey or voyagc; it ascends, travels, hence is called adhwa-ra, pilgrim-sacrifice. The principle of sacrifice always exists in the creation; it is a latent power like electricity; to elicit it, the operation of a suitable apparatus is needed as in an electrical machine. Or it is conceived as a rolledup thread of power; once it is unrolled it extends, tantu; it extends from here to Heaven forming a bridge, setu, or ladder by which the sacrificer ascends to the worlds above, communicates with the Gods. We gather such images of the sacrifice from the Brahmanas which explain the symbolic rituals of the Vedic worship. But they are profoundly significant and apply more truly to the inner Yajna. When the sacrifice in the ritual sense is conceived as a machinery in which every part is in its place and properly adjusted to the others and related to the whole or when it is imagcd as a chain in which all the links are properly present and none is allowed to miss or when the Yajna is conceived to be a Purusha, a person with all the features of a human body, their decp and inner meaning becomes transparent to the sacrificer. All the different descriptions and the imagery unfailingly aim at the secret of the sacrifice – that it is at first in man a latent energy and once it is awakened by proper means it takes him up as on a lift to the regions of the higher Consciousness and does all that is necessary for the fulfilment of the Gods’ purpose in him. But the sacrifice must be perfect, all the parts of one’s being have to be willingly offered to the higher Powers, all the elements of the inner sacrifice must be prepared and properly arranged for the offering, so that the Gods may come down and accept his offerings and himself for their own strength and birth and growth in him for the Immortal ascension.

Even as every link has its place in a chain and every limb in a body, even so every one of the Cosmic Gods who has his part in the sacrificial session has his sanctified place in the scheme. Every portion of the Godhead, offered as sacrifice for the Cosmic creation, is entitled to receive its share in the inner sacrifice offered by man and it is indispensable that the entire body of the creative Purusha must be satisfied for the perfect fruition of the great work. It will be evident from what has been stated that the one element common to all the Gods is this that they are all Powers of the same Godhead, Sons of the Infinite and are Immortals, companions in the sacrifice, friends who offer their help to the sacrificer. Because of these general fcatures common to the Gods we find them so addressed in some hymns that on the surface onc is prone to think that cach of the Gods does not differ from the others since he is hymned by the Rishis using the same appellation as the great God or thic most beneficent or the supreme God himself. But this is only one aspect of the truth and does not abrogate the distinctness in their personalities and functions. For their distinguishing signs are clcarly mentioned and in their special functions their individualities are always discernible. This is applicable to a very great majority of hymns while there are a few where the Gods concerned may be of a doubtful character. Apart from the Knowledge one can gather from the meaning of a hymn that a particular God is addressed, there is a technique given to us by which the Gods are distinguished. The colours, vehicles, weapons and the physiognomies of the Gods are mentioned in some hymns and these are symbolical, intimately expressive of the truth and character of the Gods visible to the inner vision of the Rishis. Yaska’s Nirukta mentions the vehicles of Indra, Agni and other Gods. “Indra has two grcen horses, Agni’s ruddy, Aditya’s tawny, Ashwins have two donkeys and Pushan goats; antelopes of Maruts, rosy rays of Ushas and Savitr’s dusky horses along with the vehicle of Brihaspati called Vishwarupa arc mentioned and Vayu’s horses are called Niyuta.”³⁶

It is needless to say that these powers of the Godhead are realities to the Vedic Rishi. He sees them not as a mere form or symbol of an idea with an uncertain visionary eye of mind but as tangible and quite concrete in their own kind, receives their influence and is benefited by their favour; strengthened by their gift he comes into direct contact with them, achieves a scttlcd relationship that continues to the end or leads to the final consummation. Numerous are the hymns in which the many-sided relation cstablished between the Deva and the Rishis is revealed as to us. At times the Deva is realised as the father, guardian and protector and often he is the help, guide and friend; significantly, the God who is the Father becomes the Son of man, and all these relations do not detract from the eternal and immortal rulership of the Deity as the King of the Universe while mortal man, the awakened Rishi emerging from the murky waters of lower life rises in adoration, bows and pays his homage to the supreme Lord of the world and his Powers. This kind of relationship that the Vedic Rishis maintained with the Godhead has continued to exert its influence on later generations and in spite of the gulf between the Vedic times and later ages the tradition has lived down to our own days that man can worship God in that relation which is best suited to his temperament and competence. Or, it is truer to state that God chooses for the soul the kind of relation in which the type of the soul could most naturally commune with him father or mother, king or companion or child beloved.

We have in general terms spoken of the Vedic Gods, their general character as cosmic Powers functioning in the universe as well as in the individual, all having a common abode at the summit of the Creation but extending themselves and their activities over the whole range of Cosmic existence which has many steps or stages or what we may call planes of being: at the same time, they, each in his own way, dominate one plane or other with varying stress for their special functions. For these plancs or levels of being, or steps in the staircase of creation, represent the variously constituted world-existence governed by the cosmic principles of Matter, Life, Mind and other still subtler and higher principles of divine order which arc seven in number according to the Vedic seers. Wc have not here taken up the question of the special characteristics of the several Gods, much less their place and functions in the various stages of the sacrifice. That is a vast subject involving the cxplanation of the symbols employed in the outer sacrifice and then, their corresponding significances in the inner Yajna; and at cvery important stage of the discussion relevant hymns and passages and the ritualistic texts (Brahmanas) have to be mentioned in support of and as internal evidence for the correctness of our interpretation of the symbols in regard to the inner secret of the sacrifice and the true character of the Gods. But what we have stated so far is sufficient to give a general idea of the Gods as great and distinct powers of the supreme Godhead who come down to man when he has increased in stature to abide by the Law of sacrifice for the creation of the Godhead in him, even as the Godhead by sacrifice built the world of which he is a part.

To illustrate this truth we shall consider and confine ourselves to Agni the first God, enquire into the special functions he is associated with and ponder over his general and special attributes we come across in the Vedic hymns. We shall in the light of the hymns themselves deal with the important appellations with which the God is addressed and where necessary unveil the symbols in accordance with Sri Aurobindo’s way of approach to the Vedic study. We choose this God for our enquiry here because he is nearer to us than others, is easily accessible and awakened in us and his immediate importance entitles him to first place in our adoration.

IV

Who is Agni the Fire, the God who is first awakened and adored by the Rishis? Surely it is not the third element, the principle of heat and light that is adored as God though that may be his symbol and form for worship in the physical existence. Nor can it be the sacrificial fire though that was the consecrated symbol for ritualistic worship in ancient times. And that cannot be Agni the God without whom the Immortals are not happy’. For it is said that Agni is the intuitive Knowledge of sacrifice and in him all the Gods take joy. He is the face and mouth of the Gods because the offerings to him he conveys to the Gods and fronts them in their approach to man to partake in the offerings and sacrifice. He is their messenger, for through him first, man communicates with the higher Powers; he is also the leader, Nara, and priest, Hota, of the sacrifice; he guides it and calls upon the Gods to be present and accept the offerings. Of all the Gods he is the first to be born in man; to the Cosmic God this is the second birth as his first is in the Cosmos; he is the Will, Kratu, of the Divine in man and once he is awakened, i.e., produced by Father Heaven and Mother Earth, — the tinders, araņi, that strike out the sacrificial fire in the symbolic rite — he rises and grows heavenward fed by the offerings of the sacrificer, the human soul. This is the Flame whose original home is the great Heaven, but who is born in man, Immortal in the mortal. He is fostered by the seven Sisters, is the child of the seven Mothers, the seven Rivers, the Waters, nourish and support him — these are figures of the cnergies of the seven Cosmic principles. He has seven tongues because he contains in himself the seven essentials of the planes of Cosmic existence so that when he accepts the offerings with the seven tongues they reach and satisfy the needs of the seven planes of being into which the soul is to be born or which are to manifest in the soul of man for the fulfilment of his sacrifice.

Many are the significant Names by which he is addressed in the Veda. He is described as dwelling in the secret Cave, guhā, which is used to denote the heart, hột, the core of one’s being. We shall choose some of the descriptive attributes which throw light on the character and function of Agni as well as the way in which he came to be worshipped in the guise of Skanda Kumara in later ages. We shall also examine some of the important passages of the Rig Veda and show how in the Mahabharata and the Puranas Agni, beyond doubt, is himself the Kumara or the latter is the Son, a manifestation of Agni.

A few references will suffice to show that the reality of Agni as God, the Immortal in the mortal, impressed the Vedic Rishis from the very beginning and is not a later development, nor the things spoken of him are applicable to the fire elemental or ritual with some fanciful deity clothed in it. The Solar powers of the sublime Truth typified by the Bhrigus are said to have brought down and placed Agni in men like a lovely treasure, for the sake of the peoples, easy to invoke. And the seer Nodhas proceeding addresses, “ O Agni, Thee the Priest of the Call, the Guest worthy of choice, blissful Friend, for the Divine birth."³⁷

“How shall we give to Agni? For him what Word accepted by the gods is spoken, for the Lord of the brilliant plane? For him who in mortals Immortal possessed of the Truth, priest of the oblation, strongest for sacrifice, creates the gods."⁴⁵

“He is wide in his light like a seer of the Day; he is the one we must know and founds an adorable joy. In him is Universal life, he is the Immortal in mortals; he is the Waker in the Dawn, our Guest, the Godhead who knows all births that are.”⁴⁶

“When man gives to Thee with the sacrifice and the fuel and with his potent words and his chants of illumination, he becomes. O Immortal, O Son of Force, a mind of knowledge among mortals and shines with the riches and inspiration and light."⁴⁷

“Fire and again Fire set to work with your fuel, chant with your speech, the dear, the beloved guest. Approach and set the immortal Light with your words; a God he enjoys in the Gods our desirable things, – a God, he enjoys our works in the Gods.":⁴⁸

Such a God, the Immortal in us, must necessarily be somewhere in us hidden in the secrecies, in the depths of our being. The sages called it heart, hạt, indicated by the figure of the Cave, guha. Agni’s dwelling place, then, is guha and he is so hymned by many a sage and in many a hymn in the Rig Veda. Let us give a few examples from Parashara, Vamadeva and Vishwamitra.

“He hides himself like a thief with the Cow of Vision in the secret cavern. He takes to himself our adoration and thither he carries it.”⁴⁹

“He who has perceived him when he is in the secret Cave, he who has come to the stream of the Truth, those who touch the things of the Truth and kindle him, — to such a one he gives Word of the riches."’⁵¹

“ Him in the many Mothers linked together, widespread and unapproached in the forest, abiding in the secret cave and rich with many lights, full of knowledge or moving to some unknown goal.”:⁵²

Again in the hymns of Vishwamitra we shall find the same guhā, the secrecy in which he (Agni) moves (III.1.9).

Let us see how he is hymned as containing in himself the sevenfold principles of being, power, light and bliss. “The seven rays are extended in this leader of sacrifice.”:⁵³

“In house and house founding the seven ecstacies the Fire took its session as a priest of the Call strong for sacrifice.”⁵⁴

Or, “For me howso small impart not the heavy burden this thought, О purifying Fire, uphold with the violence this vast profound and mighty sevenfold plane."⁵⁵

Vishwamitra sings: “As thy comrades we choose thee, mortals a God, for protection, Thee the Child of the Waters, the Blessed, Resplendent, the Victorious without comparc. “⁵⁶

“He, Agni, Knower of the Honey, desiring the Sisters Mushing red, raised them for the seeing...."⁵⁷

Him of plenitude, the prime Intuition of the sacrifice, the priest in the front, the seven Gods of the planes adore. ”⁵⁸

Again it is interesting to note that Yaska quotes a passage from the Shukla Yajurveda which plainly says, “ In this body are established the seven Rishis”.⁵⁹

Who are the Rivers, the Waters? They are the streams of the Truth, floods of the Higher Consciousness: they are rich with the radiances of the Superconscient released by Indra, the God-mind, by slaying the Demon, the covering clouds, the obstructionist forces of Vritra that prevent the Truth-powers from entering into the Earth-consciousness. Sri Aurobindo explains the symbolism of the Waters, Rivers and Ocean by copious illustrations from the Vedic hymns. He takes up the hymns of Vasishtha (VII. 47, 49) and Vamadeva’s last hymn and shows that the ocean is the image of the Infinite and eternal existence and the image of the rivers or flowing currents is used to symbolise the currents of Conscious being. And further in order to show that the Waters, the Rivers, are seven representing the seven Cosmic principles or the seven strands of being, he comments upon the first hymn of Vishwamitra to Agni from which we gather the following facts which throw light on the Puranic legends of Kumara Agni, Skanda, son of Agni born and brought up in the growths of the Earth, fostered by the sisters and moving towards his own Home, the Vast Truth.

Let us first note briefly, the relevant points. “The gods discovered Agni visible in the waters, in the workings of the sisters. The seven mighty Ones increased in him who utterly enjoys felicity; white in his birth, he is ruddy when he has grown. They moved and laboured about him, the Mares around the new-born child. The gods gave body to Agni in his birth. Wearing light as a robe about all the life of the waters he formed in himself glories vast and without any deficiency . . . Here the eternal and ever young Goddesses from one womb held the one Child, they, the seven Words. Spread out were the masses of him in universal forms in the womb of the clarity, in the flowings of the sweetnesses; here the fostering rivers stood nourishing themselves. The two mothers of the accomplishing god became vast and harmonised. He discovered at his birth the source of the abundance of the Father and he loosed forth wide his streams and wide his rivers... One, he fed upon his many mothers in their increasing. Great in the unobstructed Vast he increased; many Waters victoriously increased Agni. In the source of the Truth he lay down, there he made his home, Agni in the working of his undivided Sisters. To the visible Birth of the Waters and of the growths of Earth the goddess of Delight now gave birth in many forms, she of the utter felicity. From him increasing in the secret places of existence in his own seat within the shoreless Vast they milked out immortality."

The following extracts from Sri Aurobindo’s comments are given here for the elucidation of these passages.

“These are the sevenfold waters of truth. The Divine Waters brought down from the heights of our being by Indra. It, the Divine power, is secret in the Earth’s growth, oşadhi, the thing that holds her heats and has to be brought out by a sort of force, by a pressure of the two arañis, Earth and Heaven. Therefore it is called the earth’s growths and the child of the earth and heaven; this immortal Force is produced by man with pain and difficulty from the workings of the pure mind upon the physical being. But in the divine waters Agni is found visible and easily born in all his strength and in all his knowledge and in all his enjoyment, entirely white and pure, growing ruddy in his action when he increases. From his very birth the gods give him force and splendour and body; the seven mighty Rivers increase him in joy. The rivers usually named dhenavaḥ, fostering cows, are here described as as vāḥ, Mares, because while the Cow is the symbol of consciousness in the form of knowledge the Horse is the symbol of consciousness in the form of force, Ashva the Horse is the dynamic force of Life, and the rivers labouring over Agni on the earth become the waters of the vital dynamis or kinesis, the prana, which moves and acts and desires and enjoys. Agni himself begins as material heat and power, manifests secondarily as Horse and then only becomes the heavenly fire. The seven-fold waters thus rise upward and become the pure mental activity, the Mighty Ones of Heaven. They have all flowed from the one womb of the superconscient Truth—the seven Words are fundamental creative expressions of the divine Mind, sapta våniḥ. The Father of all things is the Lord and Male; he is hidden in the secret source of things, in the superconscient; Agni with his companion gods and with the seven-fold Waters, enters into the superconscient without therefore disappearing from our conscient existence, finds the source of the honeyed plenty of the father of things and pours them out on our life. He bears and himself becomes the Son, the pure Kumara, the pure Male, the One, the soul in man revealed in its universality.”

V

When we ponder over the substance of these Riks of Vishwamitra with the help of Sri Aurobindo’s explanation given above, it is hardly possible to miss the mystic significance that becomes quite apparent from the transparent symbols employed by the Rishi to convey the profound secrets of the divine Child, the divine Will, his birth and growth and progress to his own home in the Vast Truth. For the Rivers, the flowing Waters, the Cows, the Mares and the Child cannot be physical objects, nor cows and horses the common quadrupeds, nor can they feed a child either; much less by any stretch of imagination can rivers themselves change into fostering cows or act as mares labouring over a child. Any construing of these passages which does not admit of the symbolic imagery does necessarily involve us in imputing an insane incoherence to the mentality of these seer-poets of the ancient Vedas. It is remarkable that some of these symbolic images are preserved in the Puranas. When they say that Vishnu sleeps on the folds of the snake Ananta upon the ocean of sweet Milk, clearly they symbolise the fact that Vishnu the all pervading God rests on the coils of the Infinite in the blissful ocean of Eternal Existence. An objection may be raised that “that cannot be really the meaning of the Purana as the priests or poets who believed that eclipses were caused by a dragon eating the sun and moon would also easily believe that the supreme Deity in a physical body went to sleep on a physical snake, upon a material ocean of real milk and that it is our own ingenuity that seeks for a spiritual meaning in these fables.” Sri Aurobindo’s reply is that there is no need to seek for such meanings, for these very superstitious poets have put them plainly on the surface of the fables for everybody to see who does not choose to be blind. Mark, Vishnu means all-pervading, Ananta infinite, sweet milk a symbol of Bliss, Ananda, and Ocean, immensity of the Eternal Existence.

But the Puranic story of Skanda, Kumara the Child closely follows the Vedic account and almost keeps intact the Vedic symbolism as explained above. In the Puranas, apart from the slightly different versions, the Kumara is an effulgence of the great God, Father Shiva. He is born in the growths of the Earth, śaravana, placed in the Waters, Ganga, who increase him in stature; he is nourished with milk by the fostering Lights of Krittikas — in the Veda they are cows. He reaches the heights of the hill of being, the Mind Divine, called mānasa saila (Mahabharata, Vanaparva, Ch. 222). He gives help to Indra, gives battle to the asuric forces, victorious, cherished and adored by the gods returns to his Father. We need not enter into the details of the story which are at every turn quite significant; but the difference between the Veda and the Purana lies in the number of the Mothers who foster him. The Veda mentions seven sisters or rivers while the Purana does only six mothers, omitting one possibly the highest height of being where fostering is not necessary.

If a doubt is entertained that we are rather ingenious in trading the Puranic Skanda to the Vedic Kumara Agni, it vanishes if we refer to the Mahabharata in which we find a link that connects the Vedic account with that of the Puranas, notably the Skanda, Shankara Samhita among others where shorter accounts are given, as in Ramayana. There is one feature that arrests our attention while perusing the Angirasa legend followed by chapters on the birth of Kumara Skanda in the Vanaparva of the great Epic. While elaborating the story in the later Puranic way, it retains to some extent the Vedic tradition and uses certain Vedic words and names not without significance. The narrative runs from Chapter 222 to 230 in the Vanaparva. We find it plainly stated in the course of the account that Indra—God Mind — stands on the summit of the manasa hill in deep contemplation waiting for the arrival of help, Agni, and that the rivers are the fostering mothers of Agni and other details which support the vicw that the symbolic imagery of the Vedas is maintained in the Mahabharata account of Skanda. But the most important of all is that it refers to many forms or manifestations of Agni and names them and their functions, the last that is mentioned is called “The wonderful, adbhuta” of whom the Child Kumara Skanda is a special manifestation. Here we are most concerned with this term, for there is a line here in the introduction to the story of Skanda’s birth. “The greatness of Adbhuta as sung in the Vedas, I shall tell you” (221-30), says the story-teller. Now who is the Adbhuta whose greatness is praised in the Vedas? If Agni is called Adbhuta in the Vedas, then we accept without hesitation that the narrative of Skanda in the Mahabharata is based on the Vedas themselves; but ordinarily we do not know this name as specially applied to Agni, just as we know him as Purohita, placed in front or Hota, priest of the Call or Jatavedas, knower of all that is born or saptajihva, the seven-tongued, and similar appellations that unmistakably refer to Agni. Nevertheless if we examine the texts of the Veda wherever this word occurs we find it generally applied to Agni and rarely to any other God such as Soma or Indra. Even then, when it is applicd to the latter it is associated with attributes which are recognised terms for Agni. The word occurs about thirty times in the Rig Veda and in four of them in four places it is part of a compound word. Let us first be clear about the meaning of the word as it is differently given by Sayana, and then look into these passages which do not lcave room for any doubt that the term Adbhuta is almost exclusively applied to Agni. Adbhuta in the Veda as in classical Sanskrit means ’wonderful’, but it also means in the Veda, mahat, the great, Supreme, as admitted by Sayana in some places supported by Nirukta. And because it is the Supreme it transcends our comprehension, and therefore it is uscd in the sense of the Transcendent which is the Supreme and the Wonderful. Sri Aurobindo has translated in the sense as explained above. But what it does not and could not mean must also be stated for the sake of precision. For Sayana in some places forces it to mean “what never was” (na bhūta, adhūta); this he does on the basis of the fantastic etymology which is abundant in Yaska’s derivations of words. But the one merit of Yaska in this respect lies in the indifferent value he attaches to his explanations as is clear from the number of alternatives he light-heartedly gives to word-derivations. And Sayana quite seriously, not always, falls back upon him on occasions, when he has to tide over difliculties in explaining some phrases. “ Adbhuta-enasaḥ” is used as an attribute of Maruts; he cxplains that Maruts are Gods who are not sinful, as if other Gods were! According to him, literally, it means “ those in whom there are no sins". Other Gods are nowhere addressed in this curious way. What seems to be the truth is this: the Maruts are known to be violent in their tempestuous action which to the mortal mind would naturally seem at times cruel as violence is and, therefore sinful; but these Maruts are Gods with wonderful sins and that is as much as to say their violence, if sin at all, is not of the ordinary kind, it is wonderful. There is a great advantage in giving the same or similar meaning to the word; it avoids the tantalising position to which we are forced quite often if we accept these unreasonable variations in the meaning. The only rational justification for this meaning of Sayana can be that even though they commit sins they are really sinless.

But our interpretation does not admit the sins at all, it holds that what appears to be violence and therefore "sin" is not of the ordinary kind, hence wonderful, the violent action of the Maruts is wonderful. And there is another instance of a compound of which this word is a part, adbhuta-kratu; it can be straightly rendered “ one who has a wonderful will ". Or in Sunasshepa’s Rik (1.25.1) we can easily see the word means “wonders”; “ He beholds all the wonders that have been and that have to be done."

We shall give a few instances where the Supreme is mcant as the Wonderful, it is really the Transcendent that is referred to by That. “It is not now, nor is It tomorrow. Who knowcth that which is Supreme and Wonderful? It has motion and action in the Consciousness of another, but when It is approached by the thought, It vanishes.”⁶⁰

“For pure understanding, I have come to the Lord of the assembly, the Wonderful, the lovable friend of Indra who gives.”⁶²

“The bright, the purifying, the Wonderful sprinkles the sacrifice with honey.”:⁶³

“God among Gods, Thou art friend, the Wonderful.”⁶⁴

"The King of the peoples, the Wonderful, this Agni who presides over the law I adore: may he give ear."⁶⁵

"O Flame, Thou Suprcme and Wonderful, it is Thou who by force of Will becomest in us the greatness of this discerning power; in Thee, the all-harmonising friend in the sacrifice accomplishes the work and climbs to divine mastery.”⁶⁶

“O Flame, O Might, that rich felicity bring which shall violently overpower the armies that are embattled against us; for thou art the true in being; the Transcendent and Wonderful who gives to man the luminous plenitude.”⁶⁷

This is the eater of the Tree for whom is poured the running butter of the Light; this is the desirable, the ancient priest of the Call, the Wonderful, the Son of Force.”⁶⁸

“The Wonderful, the Friend propped up Earth and Heaven and made the darkness a disappearing thing by the light. He rolled out the two minds like skins; the Universal assumed every masculine might.”⁶⁹

The Bhrigus set in the Tree the Godhead of our aspiration with his high Flame of light like a friend well-confirmed in his place. And now, O Wonderful, well pleased in him who has cast to thee the offering, Thou art magnified by workings of thy power from day to day."⁷⁰

We have given those passages in which adbhuta is specially applied to Agni and so identified with the Supreme or said to lead to the Supreme. Even when it is occasionally used to refer to Indra the adjectives used are well-known to apply to Agni; this is cvident in the Rik: “When the worshipper following the Law and in season holds to his words of prayer he (Indra) is called the Bright, the Purifier, the Wonderful.”⁷¹

We have exhaustively given the important references to Agni as Adbhuta, an appellation which has been almost exclusively applied to him. There are solitary instances where it is applied to Indra and Soma or some other God. But this does not detract from the importance of the word mainly intended to indicate the Supreme as Agni. For it is a well-known fact that in the Veda cach major God is worshipped as the Supreme, therefore the exclusive epithets of one God occasionally extend themselves to others as well. We may take the instance of hymns to Agni Vaishwanara; they always refer to the Universal Purusha, the supreme Godhead and in many Riks we find it is the Sun of Truth, Surya, as the plenary Home of Agni that is mentioned. Vaishwanara, however, is primarily applied to Agni. In the light of the Angirasa legend of the Epic which mentions the Adbhuta Agni of the Vedas as the father of Skanda Kumara, and in the light of the Riks quoted above which systematically apply the term to Agni, we are entitled to conclude that the author of the Mahabharata was acquainted with the secrets of Agni as are to be discovered in the Rig Veda. This fact emerges from the unveiling of the symbols in parts in this section of the Vanaparva, identifying the Rivers and Sisters and Cows with the fostering Lights and Mothers and proceeding with its narrative in its own way but always keeping to the symbols significantly at every turn.

The significance then, of the symbolic imagery is preserved in the Puranas also, but there is a larger variation there than in the Mahabharata, at least so far as the legend of Kumara is concerned. And this fact clearly bears testimony to the correctness of our reading the hymns in their inner sense which cnables us to see and appreciate their secret meaning pointing to profound truths which are clothed in the inspired words of the mystics of the Rig Veda. In this study, then, the Gods cease to be allegorical representations of mere attributes of the Godhead, but reveal themselves as substantial Realities, Powers, Personalities of the Supreme One; they are no longer personifications of mere forces of Nature, but Beings at their back and top functioning indeed in the Universe as Cosmic manifestations of the Supreme Godhead; but more intimately they are active in the inner Existence as psychological and spiritual powers with which the awakened soul enters into relation cven as did the Vedic seers of yore: and of them there is One who is first to be born in man, to act as the Divine Messenger, who, while keeping himself in the front, in fact carries all the Gods in him, at the same time takes up the human soul along the path that leads to the Light, to the Truth, to Immortality — and that is the Divine Will, the Immortal in the mortal, the Flame Wonderful, Agni Adbhuta.

THE GODS OF THE APRI HYMNS

THE POWERS THAT FILL

The Master, in providing us with the clues to unravel the mysteries of the Gods of the Rig Veda and of their functionings in the Universe, external and internal, has warned that the importance of a God is not to be judged by the number of hymns addressed to him, nor even by the extent of expressed invocation in the thought of the sages. This fact we have to bear in mind when we study the hymns and ponder over the functionings of the Vedic Gods. For the prominence of a God – which is not the same as the superiority of one over the others — is to be understood by such functionings of his as are immediate, direct and effective in the psychological discipline of the ancient Mystics. Looked at from this point of view, Agni, the Mystic Fire is more important than any other God of the Rig Veda, though the hymns addressed to him are less in number than those to Indra, the Lord of the Luminous Mind, the Divine Mind, the God of the third World, Swar.

Agni takes a prominent, first place among the Gods of the Vedic pantheon in the outer worship and indeed plays a predominant part in the inner worship, in the Yajna. His dominance is due to his function from the very beginning in the inner being of the Rishi; for he progressively unfolds his powers assuming the forms of the other Gods or bringing their Presence to the doors of the sacrificial chamber in the inner mansions, at the altar of the awakened soul of the human being. The special character of Agni in his various functions in the inner and mystic sacrifice is nowhere so clearly and unmistakably brought to light in a concise manner as in what are called the “ Apri Hymns". In this short study, we propose to think out the full implications of the term “āpri” and the significance of the Riks of the hymns that has bearing on the advent of other Gods or their manifestation in the progression of the well-kindled Agni in the onward march of the Aryan soul in the inner sacrifice.

Before proceeding to consider the nature of the Apri hymns, let us briefly recount the All-inclusive functions of Agni in the Rig Veda. Agni is the principle of heat and light in the external nature, a principle by which all developments of forms and renewal of forms, and purification in a general way are made possible. But Agni, in the spiritual and psychological discipline of the Vedic mystic, while not excluded from his external functioning in the world, takes an intimate place in the inner life that leads to the Light supernal, the Immortal Life, the supreme Truth-Consciousness above. For though the Highest Truth, the Supreme Consciousness is present everywhere in the universe, its plenary Home is above and beyond the triple world of ours, termed in the Vedic parlance, bhūḥ, represented by Matter, the gross physical, bhuva, the mid-air region dominated by the principle of Life-force and swar, the luminious pure mind of the higher Consciousness. Agni’s function is of course varied in the outer universe but is not confined to that, it continues in the inner universe of man to build it up and cffect the development of the Cosmic Powers in him for the perfection that makes for his competency to attain the Truth-Light and Iminortality. The fundamental nature of Agni is that he is the Divine Will that is at work in the Universe. Since he is the Divine Will, his true Home is the Home of Truth above the Mind-world in the Swar. Since Creation proceeds from above downwards he comes down to Earth and functions in the gross existence as the fire that assimilates the rasa, the sap in things, that is to say, the essence of their substantial being, he is also the Will in the dynamic life-energy, prāņa. Thus gradually his function advances from the physical to the psychological and spiritual nature of human existence. For Agni is born in man and ascends, he transfigures his powers into the energics of mind. And when Agni burns, “our passions and emotions are the smoke of his burning. Our nervous forces are assured of their action only by the support of this mystic Fire, Agni.

Now we can appreciate without difficult the prime place occupied by Agni in the Godward path of the Vedic sages. For when human aspiration rises towards the utmost possible perfection, when man strives for a divine birth and divine fulfilment, when the human soul has developed itself to such an extent as to give itself willingly to the Great In-dweller and with trust in the Divine Will and when to do this he is ripe and gets the strength and courage, when he is thus definitely on the way through devotion and arduous discipline, tapasya, and a confident knowledge of and faith in the higher Powers that transcend his many-sided limitation, then is the hour for the awakening of the human soul to the active presence of Agni, the Divine Will at work within him; then is he fit to perform the self-giving, the sacrifice called Yajna, the truc worship.

When Agni, the Seer-Will, kavikralu, is awakened in the human being, when he is well-kindled, fostered and enabled to increase in volume and intensity, many developments take place until finally and fully the Divine flame takes charge of the whole being of man in his journey upwards to the regions of the Gods above that border on the Home of the Eternal Truth, the undying Light. But this charge of Agni is effective and takes place when the utter self-giving symbolised by the ritual of animal sacrifice, pašumedha, is accomplished. And for this achievement of the truc sacrifice of self-giving, many Higher powers have to extend their help to the sacrificer, yajamāna, through the summonings of Agni who is already awakened and interested, though not yet in full charge of the task for the fulfilment of the work. This preliminary stage is a definite step to come face to face with the higher powers of Agni himself or through his intervention to commune with the Cosmic Powers of a higher existence. It is at this point that the Rishi prays for the help of the higher Powers manifested in Agni who devclops out of his own body of Divine Truth and substance thic Gods of the higher realms or calls them down to be present in him, for the effective march of the sacrifice, for assisting the Rishi to give his full support to tle workings so that in this sense they may be born in him, and he be taken up into them.

These prayers are called Apri hymns. The term can be interpreted in two ways. Ordinarily, it is taken to mean that they propitiate and are pleasing to the Gods, à-priņayantyaḥ, otherwise termed technically yajyāḥ, stutayaḥ, laudatory verses. But apriyaḥ is justly derived from pri to fill, as Sayana himself does in (11.6.8): cikitvaḥ sa vidwan a ca piprayaḥ, “such art Thou the Conscious Fire, fill us ". And in this case especially in the inner worship or sacrifice these higher Powers of Agni, i.e., the Gods, are addressed to come down and fill the Rishi. While the Apri hymns are used in the ritual as a preliminary to the animal sacrifice, its significance in the inner life of the Rishi is quite clear in that it invokes the help and presence of the Gods whose advent is vouchsafed to the Rishi by the progressive unfoldment of the powers of Agni himself. In every Mandala of the Rig Veda we have Apri hymns, except in the fourth, sixth and eighth. There has been a systematic arrangement of the verses of these hymns and usually they are eleven or twelve, occasionally thirteen verses in an Apri hymn. The Powers, devatās, addressed are all of Agni origin; therefore they are included in the hymns to Agni. In ancient times, as Yaska remarks, there was divergence of opinion in regard to the Devatas of these hymns. Some held that Yajna itself as a Person, purușa, is the Deity and they gave their reasons; some held Agni himself to be the Deity with sufficient reason. But the real difficulty in determining the Devata of some of the verses is that, Indra, Twashtr, the three Goddesses, lla, Saraswati and Bharati and others are mentioned in these hymns. Ordinarily their functions differ from those of Agni. But the difficulty is not very rcal; for Agni himself, in his progress in the inner life of the Rishi, assumes the forms of the other Gods. This development is a special feature of Agni. For it is characteristic of him to become in his heavenward activity endowed with attributes that distinguish severally, the other Gods of the Vedic system, while retaining his distinguishing feature of the Divine Will that is initially born as the Flame of human aspiration to the Sublime. This description of Agni appearing as different Gods is a general feature of the Vedic hymns and it is so expressed in clear terms in certain Riks also. When Agni is born, there is an encompassing wideness, that is because of his Varuna aspect. When he is well-kindled, he becomes the Lord of love and friendship. So says Rishi Vasushruta of the Atri house. Let us quote here two of the verses from Sri Aurobindo’s translation of a hymn which brings to the fore the truth of what we have stated in regard to the multiple Divine Personality of Agni.

“Thou art he of the Wideness, O Will, when thou art born; thou becomest the Lord of Love when thou art entirely kindled. In thee are all the gods, O Son of Force; thou art the Power-in-Mind for the mortal who gives the offering.

“O thou who possessest self-ordering Nature, thou becomest the might of the Aspirer when thou bearest the secret Name of the Virgins. They brighten thee with the Light in her rays as Love perfectly founded when thou makest of one mind the Lord and his Spouse in their mansion." (Rig Veda V.3, 1-2)

Such is the magnificent character of the Divine Will when it is awakened and set to work in the system of the human being. But here a difference must be noted between Agni as Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman and others as mentioned in the verses quoted above, and Agni as bringing about the advent of his higher powers from above for the fulfilment of the Rishi’s aspiration. There it is shown in a general way that Agni is in reality and ultimately all the other gods. Here in the Apri hymns, the powers of Agni are invoked, step by step, for certain functions direct and limited and immediate; some of them are Gods of the higher worlds and planes of Consciousness, while others are a sort of personification, so to say, of the manifestations of Agni himself here on the earth-plane, in the inner consciousness of the Rishi. Thus we find in these hymns the Doors that are called upon to open heavenwards are addressed as deities. The offerings of small pieces of wood that feed the flame to grow, are called deities; also there are other well-known Gods and Goddesses whose functions are clearly defined and recognised; and they too are included in the Apri for the simple reason that their functioning is indispensable for the fulfilment of the preliminary step, the step that immediately precedes the consummation of the inner worship, the sacrifice by which Agni himself takes the full responsibility and charge of the entire task of the human soul embarking on the heavenward voyage. We shall presently take up a short Apri hymn for example in which reference to these manifestations of Agni is made unmistakably, using the same appellation for the Deity concerned; and all the Rishis who sing the Apri hymns are of one voice and the order and arrangement of the deities are generally the same with very few variations. For the Rishis of these Apri hymns come from different houses and while adopting the technique common to all of them—for the principle was recognised and received universal acceptance among the mystics — they varied slightly the formula of including certain deities which are otherwise done by the Rishis of different houses. Thus, for instance, in the place of tanūnapat which means child of the body, they address narāśamsa, one who speaks out the Gods. Some Apris include both of them. Another small difference among the Apris is that the major Gods like Indra are mentioned in some and left out in others. But everywhere the same important Powers or deities are invoked which throw a flood of light on the mystic passage that led the Rishi from here on Earth while living in the physical body to the heavenward road in which communion with the higher Cosmic Powers was made possible while arriving at the ultimate goal of the Supreme Truth, the sole Godhead.

Let us take a hymn in a short metre, illustrative of the character of the Apri hymn, choosing from the Apris which are ten in all, found in the various books of the Rik Samhita.

The Apri of Medhatithi Kanwa (RV. 1.13) contains twelve Riks in Gayatri metre and is enough for our purpose which is to show how the Flame of the Divine Will is invoked to effect step by step the advent of his own higher Powers and those of the high existence for the uplift of the aspiring soul through the means of utter self-offering — the consummate worship, the true sacrifice — Yajna.

1. Well-kindled, O Agni, do thou bring the Gods for me, equipped with sacred offerings. O Summoner, Purifier, perform the worship.⁷²

The Rishi addresses Agni. He is already awakened from his slumber by the single-willed aspiration of the Rishi, by proper initiation, by tapasya and mystic discipline. This awakening is the birth in man of the Divine Will as distinct from the human will. But it has to be tended and fostered with care and vigilance. The Flame is to be fed by the fuel, the samit of devotional prayers backed by an exclusive choice of the Divine by the human will. Thus, well-kindled, susamiddha, he, the Divine Flame is enabled to rise high enough to bring the Gods of the higher realms for the sacrifice. But he will not and cannot bring them for one who keeps to himself what belongs to the Gods and therefore to be offered to them. Therefore for me, for one who has kept ready the offerings to make, havishmate, bring the Gods, it is said. Agni, the Divine Flame is also the Divine Voice, therefore he is the Summoner who calls the Gods and his Call is effective there where the human cry and call do not reach. He is thus addressed as hotar, Caller. Still he has to function in the human vessel, which in the best among men retains elements of impurity that clogs and limits and disfigures the higher functionings of the new-born Flame. Purification, then, is necessary, and this Agni himself effects in the human being. For only to a tolerably pure Adhar, the human vessel, the Gods can be expected to come. So, he is pāvaka, purifier. When the Gods come, worship is to be offered to them. The human being does not know how to receive and respect and use a language that can please the Gods. So Agni himself is called upon to do the worship. As sacrifice was the ceremonial form that congregational worship in the ancient times assumed, pajna came to mean sacrifice. Therefore we shall translate Yajna equivocally as true worship or sacrifice which does not mean in our sense of the word in the context, goat-immolation or any other animal slaughter.

2. Child of the Body, O Seer, do perform this our sacrifice to the Gods, fraught with the Honey of Soma-Wine, for the purpose of their advent.⁷³

The Rishi now calls upon Agni, Child of the body to give form to the sacrifice, i.e., to accomplish the worship to the Gods on his behalf. Tanūnapat, can mean child born of the body of Agni which is the Flame in which case he is a manifestation, a special form of the Divine Flame as it increases in volume, stature and intensity. So the term is a recognised appellation to Agni even in classical Sanskrit. But it can mean child born of the body of the sacrificer, yajamāna, in whom the Flame of the Divine Will is born and thus the taninapat is none other than the well-kindled Agni referred to in the first Rik, but the appellation here is significant in that it brings out the close relation, the intimacy that is developed between the Divine flame and the earnest worshipper. Because he is so intimate, the Rishi implores that he may be pleased to formulate the sacrifice, to give a definite shape to it among the Gods, yajnam krņuhi deveșu. And he is addressed as Kavi, seer; for he sees and knows the way to reach the worshipper’s offerings to the Gods. And the sacrifice, the Yajna, is fraught with the Honey, the honey of the Soma-Wine which represents the outflowing of the principle of Delight in things.

The human being that has launched upon the sublime worship of utter sacrifice, the giving of itself and all that belongs to it, offers the Soma, the rasa, the sap of all experiences of Delight in things and thus Soma is, indeed, the soul of all Yajna, madhumantam ; it is for the offering of this rasa, all preparations are made, all the preliminary steps are taken with great care. The Yajna, then, is filled with this honey for the acceptance of the Gods who are to come down at the fervent call of tanūnapät on behalf of the worshipper. Without the madhu, this honey, there is no purpose in calling the Higher Powers for the sacrifice. When the madhu is there, the advent of the Gods is assured, vitaye. It must be noted that viti means at once eating, bhakşaņa, as well as coming down, agamana. In the ceremonial worship, it means they are called to eat the honey. In the inner worship, they are invoked for their advent or manifestation at the sacrifice.

3. Beloved Narashamsa, sweet-tongued, who prepares the sacred offering, I call upon in this sacrifice. ⁷⁴

Narāśamsa is Agni who voices the Godhead. For Nara in the Veda means the Gods, though it may mean men also; strength is the element that is common to both. The strong male Gods are leaders, called naraḥ. Now the Divine Child born in the sacrificer has endeared himself to him, and is ready and willing to do the needful; he is beloved, priya. He is sweet-tongued, madhu-jihva; the rising flame is the tongue of Agni; when it goes up high enough it touches and reaches the Gods, carrying with it as it does, something of the taste, the agreeable sweet of the sacrifice that draws the Gods to it who respond to the offering naturally with a spontaneity that is characteristic of Divine response to the fervent prayers of man. And the offering itself is well prepared and accomplished by Agni, narāśamsa himself; for however arduous may be the discipline followed by the ardent worshipper, whatever the care and zeal and the human wisdom at its best that attend the human perfection, it can not equal the wisdom of the Divine flame when it is allowed to undertake the task of preparing the offering itself in order to carry it to perfection. Thus he is havişkſt. Such is the Divine flame who voices the Godhead and he is invoked now to come close and be present at the Yajna. Thus it will be seen that he is quite a natural aspect of Agni, not a special manifestation or any of the other Gods.

4. Agni, aspired to (by us), on thy most happy car bring the Gods hither; Manu has fixed thee as the Summoner. ⁷⁵

Agni is now invoked in his central aspect of idita or ilita, one who is aspired to and invoked to be the officiant appointed with due respect to conduct the sacrifice. Id or II, the root means, according to ancient authorities like Yaska, to praise, to worship, or to beg. And in this last sense, the sense of aspiration is implied and is so translated by Sri Aurobindo. And in Sanskrit it is adhyesană which technically means an act in which a God or a respected person is called upon with due reverence to fulfil a function. Now idita Agni has to appear and when he so does, it is not a quiet seeing or raising his voice to the Gods, he comes in a happy movement; dynamic is he and his advent in the car brings a most rapid and happy movement, sukhatama ratha, in which he is to bring the Gods. It is his car, his rapid movement that is charged with the advent of the Higher Powers.

How or why does he do it? Here the third foot of the Rik gives the answer; at the same time it reveals a secret which has much to do with the mystic discipline of the Vedic seers. He is the hotā, the summoning priest who calls the Gods, and to this position he is appointed, that is to say, he is fixed to this function by Manu, manurhitaḥ. Manu, says Sayana, is Mantra, though he gives an alternative meaning of manusya, man, who is the sacrificer. Though both are intelligible in the context, the first meaning, i.e. the mantra is more appropriate and reveals the fact that the mantra the inspired and revelatory Word has gone forth from the supreme Ether, paramam vyoma, to fix the Divine Flame in the Rishi, to carry out the great work of sacrifice and it is that sublime Voice, the vāk, the Mantra that the Initiate employed in establishing the Flame in him and keeping the entire task to the trust and care of the Divine Caller. This is the gist of the last line of the Rik.

It may be mentioned here that the word manu is employed to denote mantra in the Tantra Shastra and is a technical term, so understood even today.

The alternate meaning as suggested by Sayana is harmless and does not require elucidation, as the sacrificer is supposed to employ Agni in the ceremonial rite to officiate as the priest who calls upon the Gods to be present and accept the offerings at the sacrifice.

5. O Ye Wise Ones, spread the seat of sacred grass of bright surface, in unbroken order where the Immortal is beheld.⁷⁶

It is usual with the hymnodists of the Rig Veda to resort quite often to address themselves i.e. to the inner self, or to call upon comrades who are engaged in the Yajna. It is a general way of expressing themselves as to what they are persuaded to do or persuade their following to observe. Here the Rishi addresses the wise ones, manișinaḥ. The next step to be proceeded upon is to keep ready the seat for the Gods of whom Agni is the first in order to take his place at the altar. The sacred grass, bathiḥ, is the symbol used in the ritual to prepare the seat. It is to be spread, střnita, in due form, in unbroken order, anuşak, well-prepared and close so that every part of the seat will reveal its relation to the whole to be occupied by the Gods in regular order that starts with Agni. The seat is indeed within the inner being of man. It must not be supposed that it is a point or some imagined spot or heart in the physical frame of the human being. The seat for the Gods is indeed within, in the inner being which is wider and far greater and subtler, and supple and enlightened and distinguished from the physical being. We have to speak of it as within because the outer self and the outgoing mind and vital activities are all but a modicum of that larger being behind and even encompassing them. Once the initiation into the secret path that leads to the inner chamber takes effect, the outer normal self of man with all its thinkings and doings dwindles into a nothing before the wideness at the threshold of the vast Self within in which the sacred seat of Gods is arranged for the welcome of the Higher Powers.

But the seat must be kept pure and bright; this is effected by the clarities of the mind and heart of the Rishi, so that at first sight, on the very surface it is splendid enough to be god-inviting, ghrta-priștủa. Such a state of purity in the inner apartment glittering with the clarity of clear perception of the heart, is adorable and is the right condition for the Godhead to reveal himself. So, the Rishi says, there in that holy seat, the Immortal is beheld, amrtasya caksaņam. Here the Immortal is Agni himself; he can be clearly seen as the Immortal Godhead himself. He, the Rishi, may have felt him as the Divine Will different from his willings and strivings; he may have received from him the necessary guidance and help in his disciplinary exertions; he may have even had an assured contact of some kind in his laudable enterprise. but to behold him as the Immortal is different from all these things, Now in the sacred hall at the altar, in the Vast field of the inner being bright with the brightness of clarity, he, the Immortal is beheld. Such is the sanctity of the seat of sacred grass arranged and regulated in position, in uninterrupted sequence.

Till now, the Rishi invoked Agni himself as one Well-kindled, susamiddha, as child born of the body, tanūnapät, as one who voices the Godhead, nará śamsa, and as the very seat sacred for the advent of the Gods, barhiḥ. For, the ancient tradition that Barhih is a name worn by Agni, has meaning for us in the esoteric interpretation for the simple reason that the barhiḥ as described in this Rik can be nothing else but the result of the workings of Agni, an indispensable manifestation of the Divine Flame in the human being.

6. May the splendorous (or Divine) Doors truth-increasing, swing open, that do not stick up close, for the sacrifice now and sure.⁷⁷

Now the next step, mentioned in this Rik, is a revelation of the character of Yajna as also of the ancients’ mastery of the intricacies that beset the passage of the Vedic Yoga. The Rishi now calls upon the Doors to open that ordinarily are closed to mortals in their ignorant strivings. What are these doors that are called upon to open and what for? The Yajna, in the common conception of the Rishis, is to be treated as something definite and well-shaped, and it proceeds upwards; yajnam urdhwam kuruta, is a phrase we often meet with in the Rik Samhita itself, not to speak of the Brahmanas and kindred literature. Now the Yajna has to rise and travel heavenward to reach ultimately the Godhead; but as it goes up it reaches the realms of the Gods who come down to the sacrificer’s chamber; thus the passage is to be made clear, the Doors that lead upwards which are usually closed, must open for the sacrifice and therefore for the sacrificer. These doors are not obscure or somewhere vaguely above, elsewhere in the dark; when there is so much preparation and fitness on the part of the human aspirant and the seat within him for the Gods is made ready for the Gods, and he can behold the undying Flame within him, he is fully qualified to see the Doors that open upwards; for they too are shining, splendorous, devir dvårah. They are not there always to remain closed to all; they are there to swing wide open for the mortal who is qualified and seeks the Immortal. Viśrayantām, may they swing open, says the Rik. When they open, they increase the truth to the vision of the seer and to that extent it increases in him, ṛtāvṛdhā. The very appearance of the doors shining is an assurance that there are higher truths and their Powers beyond which are visible when the doors open. Thus they are incrcasers of Truth, in the sense that the Truth begins to grow larger and larger to the vision of the sceker at the sight of the opening of the Divine Doors, not that the Doors in any way aſſcct the Truth as it is; and increasing the Truth in any other sense is an absurdity. They are not hard to open themselves, for they are not close stuck up and obstinate, asascataḥ, but ever waiting to makc way and show the passage for the Sacrifice, for the sacrificer, for the Divine Flame, for all the higher Powers of the ultimate Godhead —and all this through the intervention of the new-born Immortal child in the mortal man. Let the Doors be open for passage of the sacrifice, yaṣtave.⁷⁸

7. Night and Dawn of auspicious form, I invoke to scat them on the sacred grass at this our solcmn worship (sacrifice).⁷⁹

In the mystic discipline of these ancient sages, there are alternations of Day and Night both of which are cqually important for thic perfect fulfilment of the purpose of sacrifice. It must be noted that the Day and Night are symbols in the esoteric system of the Vedic sages, of the alternations of the Divinc and human consciousness in us. The Night of our ordinary Consciousness, says Sri Aurobindo, holds and prepares all that the Dawn brings out into conscious being. Day also in another way represents broad open light, the light of Consciousness in which the worlds and plancs and their Powers are beheld severally and in toto, while Night represents a concentration and self-absorption in the consciousness, an intensity of self-gathering in what we may call the immobile, static existence in which there is nothing else to be seen, but in which the all is absorbed; the Truths, the planes and their Powers and the Gods and all beings and things lie latent and hidden and seem to be non-existent, as it were. Such alternation in the consciousness was a necessity in the mystic discipline of the Rishis for the perfection towards Immortality that was their aim. Hence Day and Night, nakta-ușăs, of distinct auspicious forms, supeçasă, are called upon to be present. Though this seems to be a personification of day and night as deities, the idea is clear in the mind of the Rishi that both the states must be made possible for him in his endeavour. The Day-consciousness shall not dazzle him and make him forgetful of the Night in whose womb lies the Day. The significance of invoking both together which are apparently of different hues, white and black, and can never co-exist lies in the fact that in the Vedic Yoga both are equally important and be made familiar to the being of the Rishi in whom both the forms, the twin sisters, Day and Night—can abide. It is this twin aspect of the Consciousness with necessary variation in its connotation that is the origin and support of the dictum of the Upanishad that both “Knowledge and Ignorance ” must be known together. “He who knows That as both in one, the Knowledge and the Ignorance, by the Ignorance crosses beyond death and by the Knowledge enjoys Immortality.” We may note in passing that this concept of Day and Night is expressed figuratively in the famous passage of the Gita that what is day to the Wise is night to the common man and vice versa. The Isha Upanishad text quoted above clearly says with reference to the Knowledge and Ignorance and Birth and non-birth, to be known together, that "we have heard it from the Wise ones of yore”. Who else could these Wise ones be but the mystics of the Vedic Wisdom, dhiraḥ?

This, then, is the significance of the Rishi’s invocation to the Day and the Night to be present at the sacrifice and take their places in the seat made ready for the advent of the Gods to the sacrificial Hall in the inner Mansion of the larger and wider being of the Rishi.

8. I invite the twin Divine Priests of the Call, sweet-tongued, Scers; let them conduct the worship at the sacrifice.⁸⁰

Hitherto the Agni Powers were invoked, and the Divine Doors were addressed to swing open wide and with so much of equipment, the Rishi addresses himself to settle in a position in which both the Divine Consciousness and human consciousness can be held together, or the static and dynamic aspects of the Consciousness as described in the note on the previous Rik can be contained in his being. The next step, then, is to invite the help of the Powers above the Earth-plane, though they have been at work in a general way all along without palpable distinction. Now the Rishi calls upon the two Divine Priests of the Call, daivya hotāra, who are Cosmic Powers on the Plane of the mid-air regions, of the world of Life-powers. They are seers, kavi. Now they are called upon to conduct the sacrifice. It is true that Agni as a matter of fact is in entire charge of the Sacrifice and that is a general function, but the distinct Powers are to manifest themselves and take their places and play their parts. And who are these Divine Priests of the Call? What is our authority to state with certainty or even to suppose that they dwell in the bhuvarloka, the world of Vayu or Prana, the Life-World? There is nothing in this Rik to show that they are so, although we are entitled to surmise that their normal place is just above the Earth-plane, mentioned as they are after the invocation to the Divine Doors that swing open upon the Higher worlds through which the Yajna is to journey towards the Realm of the Ultimate Reality — the Supreme Godhead, the Sun of Truth. There is authority, not mere surmise. For in other Apri hymns, they are described as the two Divine Priests of the Call for our humanity, mănușo daivyā hotārā, and are called upon to come on the paths of the Life-breath, vayoḥ patmānā. They are the first prathamā, full in wisdom and stature, viduștarā vapușțară. They are divine by nature, divine in stature and have a happy tongue, sujihvā, that speaks what is good and auspicious to man; they are the God-appointed heralds whose voice is pleasing to the Gods when it functions for the rise of humanity.

But we have no clues here in this hymn or in other Apris to discover the significance of the two. Here we have to fall back upon what may appear to be conjecture. The two may represent the upward movement that reaches the subtle higher planes of the Gods and the downward movement that brings down the higher powers and something of the substance of the higher worlds to the human being engaged in the sacrifice. Since thiy are always addressed in twain, it can also be the twin powers of Light and Life fixed in the mid-world to call upon the Gods to come down for the sake of humanity of which they are the appointed priests of the Call.

9. Ila, Saraswati, Mali, three Goddesses, delight-producers—may they be scated, unassailed, on the sacred grass-seat.⁸¹

We have now reached a step where there is a direct reference in unmistakable terms to three distinct Powers that are open to the aspiring soul. They afford an indispensable basis, quite tangible to the developing human consciousness that is released from the crampings and closings of crowded thoughts and feelings in the ignorance and darkness that stamp the common run of life; for the ordinary man is not turned Godwards, not wedded to the giving of himself to the Gods, Intelligent Powers of the Cosmic Godhead. What are these three Powers? They are, of course, the three well-known Goddesses of the Vedic Yoga; they are Shaktis, powers from the Home of the Vast, the Sun of Truth, rtam jyotir bıhat. Their names are sufficiently indicative of their functions; for lla is the Goddess of the vision of Knowledge; Saraswati is she of its flowing Inspiration; Bharati is the Goddess of its Vastness, the vastness of the Truth. Here in this Rik, Bharati is not mentioned by name, but referred to by an attribute which means the great mahi, which is the same as mahati or byhati and Bharati means she of the Bharata, Aditya, the Sun of Truth. Indeed she is the Power of vastness who takes the first place in the trinity of Goddesses though mentioned last in the order; and when she appears and removes the narrowness of the little human stuff, a wideness and vastness in, around and above opens upon man, accompanied by the vision of Knowledge, Ila, and Saraswati, the Inspiration that expresses the truth-knowledge and truth-vision in vocal terms. These three Powers are inestimable for the Rishi who has launched the great ship of Sacrifice in the charted sea of the hierarchy of Planes, of the rising tier of level after level of being, so that it may not flounder anywhere losing the way. Once they bestow their favour upon the Rishi at the opening of the Divine Doors, he feels a happiness, has the joy of bliss on the way, for they give birth to delight, mayo-bhuvaḥ. There is no fear of fall or failing in the midway, for they are not attacked by Ignorance and darkness, asridhaḥ, to which are due all human sorrows and suſſerings. The vision and inspiration and presence of the Vast are unfailing and the steps to be taken forward are assured of their rectitude and are straight and effective throughout the passage.

It is these threc Goddesses that are called upon to take their seats at the altar, strewn of Grass, the symbolic character of which has been explained in the note on an earlier Rik.

10. I invoke Twashtr, the excellent (or the foremost), the author of all forms. May he be our sole (adored God).⁸²

Now Twashtr is addressed. For he is the fashioner of all things in creation; as such he is the foremost agriya in giving shape to things and forms of beings in the Cosmos. Therefore his are all forms, vişwa-rūpa. Twashtr therefore has to confer upon the aspiring Aryan in the Yajna, his favours which build the new life, give new shape to the old material in the human being, remove the elements that are obstinate or change them to suit his purpose for the fashioning of the substance in the human being that could answer to the demands of the higher laws, the laws of the Divine Powers; for it is their manifestation in the human being that requires adequate response and a fit condition in the mortal frame of man for utilisation and proper adjustment. Here the importance of Twashtr in the new construction or resuscitation of the old structure of the human being cannot be cxaggerated. Therefore to stress the function of Twashtr, the Rik adds, “may he be our Absolute,” kevalaḥ. It means, in other words, the solc and adored God.

11. O Lord of the Earth’s growths, thou art God and to the Gods offer this our oblation. May there be the tangible Knowledge to the giver.⁸³

Then there is the invocation to Soma. He is addressed as the Lord of Plants, of the Earth’s growths, vanaspati. He is called upon to offer the oblation to the Gods. The significance of Soma, the lord of delight in things, being called upon to offer the oblation lies in the fact that the outflowing of rasa, the principle of delight in the human being, is absolutely essential in all worship to the Gods; a dry heart, a creature in depression can never rise above the common human level at its lowest, and whatever offering is made and prayers are offered, cannot reach the Gods; they go to feed and fatten the wrong elements, the adverse forces, the Pishacha, and the Rakshasa. It is only a glad heart and joyous feeling that can nourish a happy trust backing the offerings and prayers leading to self-giving. Thus Soma is mentioned for the purpose of making sure to one’s self the joyous element in the offering. When such a holy gift is made in the proper way, the result cannot be mistaken and the Rishi makes bold to say, “Let the giver be blessed with tangible Knowledge," cetanam. Hitherto there has been invocation to the Powers. Now the essential thing asked for is consciousness. It is not a mental thought, however illumined it may be or a sort of knowledge based upon it; but an indubitable knowledge, a consciousness in which what is known is felt and tangible and cetana means, as the root even in classical Sanskrit is understood, sam-jnana, contactual knowledge i.e., higher consciousness that is in close contact with the senses and sense-mind. The Rishi prays for such a substantial knowledge in which doubt has no place and certitude is dominant.

12. With Swaha offer the sacrifice to Indra in the house of the worshipper, I call the Gods thither.⁸⁴

Now the closing Rik of the hymn mentions the purpose of the Sacrifice. Here there is no invocation to any God, but there is a call to the friends, others engaged in the sacred toil, as in an earlier Rik. It must be borne in mind that all sacrifice is undertaken to arrive at the Lord of Swar, Indra, the Divine Mind. For he is the Lord of the triple world of ours, and the King of Gods devarāja; above him, i.e., beyond the triple world is the Sun of Truth with which as a matter of course he is in touch and he himself is a sublime manifestation of That,—the Truth which is not directly related to this triple world in the Ignorance. Therefore Indra is the chief God to whom the Soma is offered. Swaha is a sacred utterance used to appeal to the Gods when offerings are given and request made for their acceptance. “To Indra offer the sacrifice with Swaha,” says the Rik.

Where is the sacrifice conducted? In the house of the sacrificer yajvano grihe. Certainly this house of the yajvan is his own body with life and mind alive to their functions. The Rishi proclaims with confidence that he would call the other Gods there; for the King of the Gods is not to come alone; others, his assistants, the Powers are necessarily to attend upon him, tatra devān upahvaye.

Thus closes the Apri hymn of Medhatithi Kanva. This is the simplest of Apri hymns chosen here to show that there has been a methodical arrangement of the Riks in these hymns which are employed in the rite preliminary to the main sacrifice. But in the inner sacrifice, as has been shown, they are addressed to the Powers that come down and fill, ápūrayitryaḥ, the Rishi, the sacrificer, making him fit to execute the utter self-giving that is the meaning of Yajna. Even a casual reading of these hymns, without much scrutiny or close study will make it clear to the intelligent mind that on the very surface the Powers that are invoked, and accompanied by others are always the one well-kindled, the child born of the body or the one that voices the Godhead, the scat at the Altar, the Doors Divine, the two Divine Priests of the Call, the three Goddesses — and these are all systematically mentioned and their functionings are unequivocal in their order, while the other Powers that are mentioned may vary with the hymns; and this variance is negligible and does not alter the character of the Apri. The Apri, thus, is a clear indication of the mysteries of the Vedic Yoga followed by the seers of ancient times, marked by ordered steps with definite purpose at each stage in their journey towards the Home of Utter Bliss, the Immortal Life, the Truth Eternal.

ANJAH-SAVA OR THE RAPID RITE OF A SEER-PRIEST

As we follow in the footsteps of the Master in our studies of the hymns of the Rig Veda, we get more and more convinced not merely of the straightforwardness of the approach that leads us to discover the inner and true sense of the Riks, but of another fact. It is the conviction growing upon us that this is the only true way, that the inner meaning is the substance which is the trcasure of spiritual wisdom and Knowledge of the Gods and the Godhead. It is not that there is nothing else, any more or less than this, it may contain within it concealed other knowledge that pertains to the domain of many branches of Science. Therc may be and is room for other line or lines of approach affording fields of thought, for those interested in Astronomy, Geology, Biology or Ayurveda. But the one inner meaning that runs consistently through the whole body of the hymnal text is the main issue of the Veda and that is the spiritual and occult knowledge and Divine Wisdom which certainly justifies the hoary tradition of India among all religions and sects and saints that the Veda is Revelation and Divine Scripture. It may throw light on other objects of Knowledge, but they are side-issues, not the main spirit and substance which is knowledge of truths about the Godhead and the Gods who are Powers and Personalities of the Godhead and about their status and manifestation in the Cosmos as well as in man.

Apart from this sacred tradition which is based upon the secret and inner sense of the Veda, there runs a parallel tradition that the Veda is a book of Works, karma kāņda, rituals and sacrifice, and this is true in the external and gross sense, so ably and with great industry and diligence worked out and brought forth in the great commentary of Sayana. Leaving aside the question of discrepancies and quite often the incongruous and poverty-stricken thought that run through this commentary on a large body of the hymns — and after all this is a matter of detail — Sayana’s work is consistent in giving us the external and ritualistic meaning of the hymns. And this is a great asset for us, for those who attempt to get into the inner secret through the outer garb that is provided in this monumental work of extraordinary grossness and crudities often bordering on incoherences; it provokes our thought and invites our attention to seek for the secret behind the apparent. But though Sayana gives us the outer and apparent meanings of Riks, though the Gods are treated as Nature-powers, though very often his interpretation with the occasional help of Yaska lends support to the Naturalistic interpretation of modern scholarship he does not reject, as Sri Aurobindo points out, the spiritual authority of the Veda or "deny that there is a higher truth concealed in the Riks.” Nor does he affirm that the Vedic hymns are sacrificial compositions of priests, even though his interpretation constitutes a colossal support for ritualism.

But it may be asked: is it a baseless assumption on the part of scholars that the hymns are compositions of the priests for use in the sacrifices? Such a doubt naturally arises in the absence of a correct understanding of the position of the priest in the Vedic society, as well as the real character of the hymns used and chanted in the public sacrifices. For it is the seer, Rishi, who was the priest officiating at the ceremonies and the Riks were used for the rituals. The seers were certainly singers and their chants were sung at public sacrifices referring "constantly to the customary ritual and seem to call for the outward object of these ceremonies, wealth, prosperity, victory over enemies." While the Riks in their inner sense are profoundly spiritual and the exoteric sense was a mask which alone was perceptible to the outward mind, it was not and need not be merely a mask. Again as the Master points out, they were " words of power, powerful not only for internal but external things." The ancient mystics were concerned first and foremost with things of the Spirit, but they were also possessed of Knowledge of occult truths and "believed that by inner means outer as well as inner results could be produced, that thought and words could be so used as to bring about realisations of every kind, both the human and the divine” daivam mánuşam.

But a question may arise. How can we say that the seer of profound spiritual knowledge was also the priest for public worship? Of course in the Puranic legends many Rishis are mentioned as priests, purohits, and some of them are Rig Vedic names of renown, Vasishtha for example. Is it safe to build and base such a theory on later stories? This difficulty vanishes, once we study the hymns closely, note the tradition in regard to their outer applications also and take the help of the Brahmanas in the context in spite of their obscure symbolism. When we scrutinise, we find not only that the Rishi officiated as the Purohit at the Yajna, but also that the Riks he used are deliberately ritualistic to outward appearance mentioning the implements, external objects, and other things used in the sacrifice, as symbols covering an inner secret known to the Rishi and the initiates. I propose to illustrate this point by citing the example of a well-known Seer who consented to officiate at a Soma sacrifice without the customary goat-immolation. This ritual is entitled anjah-sava. which, Sayana explains, means a rapid direct straight-way offering of libation without the admixture of the sacrificial animal, anjasā rjunā márgena isți-pașu sānkaryam antarena. The seer-priest is the renowned Shunah-shepa and the hymn for the Anjah-sava is the fifth of the seven Hymns ascribed to him in the First Mandala of the Rik Samhita. It is 1.28, containing nine Riks in which external things like the pressing stones for the extraction of the Soma juice, the platters to receive the juice, the pestle and the mortar, the wooden vessel and other outer things are so plainly mentioned that on the face of it one can conclude that it is a sacrificial composition. When we consider the ideas expressly stated, it is rather childish, devoid of any deep thought, or significance. But when we look deeper into it and ponder over the terms used and the application of the whole hymn in the ritual as explained in the Brahmanas and also take into account the interesting explanation given by the Brahmanas for certain terms used according to themselves as symbolism, we find ourselves no longer studying the babblings of primitive people deceiving themselves and deceived by an avaricious and cunning priestcraft, but enter into the mysteries of the profound Vedic Yoga of which the seer in question was a notable votary and indeed he embodies one of the types of spiritual victories recorded in the Rig Veda that crowned the toil and ascension of the Aryan soul.

Sayana in his commentary on the 28th hymn of the First Mandala refers to Anjah-Sava as the title of the rapid rite of Soma libation seen by the Rishi Shunahshepa in response to the request of other sages and priests that the former must officiate on that day, the day of sacramental bath that is the close of the ceremony. Here mention is made of Aitareya Brahmana 33-5 which narrates the story in brief. The point to be noted in this connection is this that Shunahshepa was unanimously chosen to officiate because he was recognised as one who was the recipient of the grace of the Gods, devata-anugraha-sampanna, whose favours helped him to get released from the bonds to which reference for the first time is made in 1.24.

And these bonds are not fastenings with ropes on three parts of the body — the head and the waist and the feet—in spite of the later stories. There is nothing in the 24th hymn, in the text itself to support the extraordinarily gross meaning read into the hymn to the effect that he was sold to be immolated in a sacrifice. The legend started slowly with the Aitareya Brahmana in a moderate form, but assumed huge proportions in the Puranas. But a close reading of the hymn itself shows beyond a shadow of doubt that these fastenings refer to the upper, the lower and the middle regions; uttama, adhama, madhyama are the words used in the Rik. And certainly they point to the parts of the being; the upper is the knowledge part represented by the mind and spirit, the lower the material basis, the physical, while the middle refers to the link between Matter and mind, the vital nexus the life-principle. The profound sense of the whole hymn reveals the spiritual significance of every line and word in the Riks of that entire hymn. It is not our purpose here to take up the question of Shunahshepa and explain the meaning of the hymn around which so much crust has collected. That has been done elsewhere. It is sufficient to note here that such was the seer whom the priests honoured to officiate at the ceremony.

The Rishi readily consented to conduct the rite and saw, "dadarsha”, the method of a rapid rite for the straightway offering of the Soma libation. And the 28th hymn of nine Riks is used for the ritual. We shall first give a close rendering of the Riks which are apparently meant for the rite and make mention of the materials connected with the ceremony and then show how these very things are used as symbols for the inner sacrifice and signify subtle and deep truths pertaining to the Vedic Yoga. And in unveiling the symbols we shall as a matter of course take into account ancient authorities who looked upon these materials as symbols, though not exactly in the way we do, but still were familiar with a general knowledge of symbolism.

Of the nine Riks, in the first four Indra is invoked to come down and drink the Soma; the next four relate to the extraction of the Soma juice and the part of the pestle and mortar, while the last refers to the wooden vessel in which the Soma juice is poured and preserved and the cow-hide in which the dregs are kept.

Here is the English rendering of the hymn, verse by verse.

1. There where the broad-based Stone is high above to press (the Soma juice out), O Indra, drink with eagerness the pourings of the mortar.⁸⁵

Note. Yatra "where” means "in the ritual”, in this action; it can be applied to the outer rite as well as the inner Yaga. Sayana takes the preposition ava in the second half to mean avagatya, recognise. This is unwarranted even for the exoteric meaning. The sense of the Rik is this: Indra is above, he is called upon to come down, ava, to drink jalgulaḥ the drippings of the Soma juice from the mortar. In the ritualistic interpretation, grārā, stone is taken to be the pestle. Now there is a discrepancy. It is clearly the pressing stone and not pestle. The scholiast calls it pestle because there is the mortar, ulūkhala in the second line. Pestle and mortar are of wood and used in the Vedic rites to separate the chaff from the grain, they are not used to extract the Soma juice. Gråvá is stone used to crush the Soma creeper, so that it becomes soft and pressed, yields the juice which is received in the platters. Here in the very first Rik of the hymn the seer significantly refers to the "stone above” urdhva; he does not say it is raised, though for the external rite it can be so interpreted. This stone which is above is Indra’s weapon, the vajra. Indra is above, his weapon is above; by the blow dealt by the vajra even as Vritra, the darkened ’cloud of adverse forces and ignorance and inertia vanishes, so also the hard matter of body loses its hardness, becomes plastic, free from tamas, inertia and its brood of adverse conditions and forces that oppose the release of Rasa, the delight of all experiences to be offered to the Gods, the Cosmic powers of the Godhead. Here the mortar is the material body, and it must be noted that earth and every product of it such as the tree, and anything made of wood is symbolic of the physical body and even life and mind as products of the body are very often treated symbolically as of earth and earthern material; of this again later on. This then is the gist of the first Rik. Here this body symbolised by the mortar, "ulukhala ”, has yielded the Soma, the rasa, its sap, the essence and essential delight for the acceptance of Indra, the Divine mind, the God of the luminous mind, the higher consciousness in the pure mind of heaven, the ruler of this triple world of Matter, Life and Mind. The Rishi addresses Indra invoking his presence to come down and drink the Rasa whose extraction was possible because of the benign blows of the grava, the Vajra weapon of Indra himself. Note that this stone is the Vajra weapon, not the gross thunderbolt which is meaningless in the inner sacrifice, but the Vak, the Word wide-based in the Vast above, ürdhva-budhna, prthu-budhna, as can be gathered from repeated reference to it as such in many lines of the hymns of the Rig Veda, and so explained in the Brahmanas in their moods of symbolic interpretation of the Vedic rituals and Vedic mantras. This Vak, the Word or speech whose source is the Vast above is really that of the luminous mind of heaven, of the higher consciousness and when it functions, its vibrations rush forth and blow off the din and dust of the lower triple body of mind, life and matter, it illumines the mind, energises the life-force, drives out the inertia from the physical body and softens it so that it releases the rasa of the all experiences it earned through the life and heart and mind. This, then, is the real character and function of the gräva that it is the Word of power issuing forth from the higher consciousness which is the domain of Indra, pregnant with the light of knowledge, but dynamic in its vibrant movement that renoves all kinds of coverings and effects with the blow it deals out to the being of the worshipper, yajamāna, the release of the essence of all delight lying latent and hidden in the vessel, ādhara, of the human being which is indicated by the symbol of the wooden mortar, ulūkhala.

2. There where the two platters (to hold the juice), like broad-hips, are laid, O Indra, drink with eagerness the effusions of the mortar.⁸⁶

Now in the external rite of Soma extraction pressing stones are used to crush the creeper, squeeze and make it soft and release the sap. This extraction is called abhishava. But the juice is received in two platters, called " adhi-savaņa phalaka". They are two shallow dishes, one to receive and and the other to cover. They are broad and likened to broad hips to denote that they are broad and always two, never one without the other.

In the inner sacrifice, these two platters are symbols of Earth and Heaven according to Brahmanic symbology in which case they are the lower physical consciousness and the higher consciousness of the luminous mind. But we do not follow the Brahmanas in unveiling the symbols as they are very often at variance with the many alternatives they themselves suggest or with other Brahmanic interpretations with the result that they become obscure to us. But they shed light on the truth that the stone, platters, mortar, wooden cup or pot, camasa and kalaša are all symbolic and should not be taken in their literal sense as unthinking priestcraft would do. The two platters are the mind and life in the body which represent the principles of knowledge and activity. These two are together engaged in receiving the rasa yielded by the mortar of the material body and are conjointly there to receive and preserve the juice, the substantial element in all experience for offering to the Gods. In fact it is the twin aspect of knowledge and action, mind and life quite in accord and proper adjustment that makes it possible to receive and preserve the extracted rasa which is their common aim and true function. This is in brief the inner meaning of the second verse. It must be noted here that the implements used in the ritual are all mentioned here one by one, at the same time used as symbols which are avowedly said to be symbols, as has been pointed out, and not our invention or the result of ingenious speculation. Now let us pass on to the third Rik.

3. Where (in the rite) the woman learns (or practises) the egress and ingress, O, Indra, drink with eagerness the effusions of the mortar.⁸⁷

This is an interesting Rik. The woman goes out of and comes into the sacrificial hall. The woman is the sacrificer’s wife. This is Sayana’s explanation of the terms, nāri, apacyava and upacyava. The point to be noted here is that no Vedic rite could be performed by any one without a wife. The idea is that the woman, as the Shakti of man, shares the act and its fruit with him whose Shakti she is. I have given egress and ingress as the English equivalents of apacyava and upacyava; it is not quite accurate and may even mislead, but it has the advantage of leaning more towards the ritualistic interpretation which is best represented in Sayana’s commentary. There other commentators, for instance, Skandaswami, giving a very ludicrous and vulgar meaning which does not merit notice here. Some modern scholars think that it is rise and fall of the pestle that the woman, the sacrificer’s wife marks and learns. But there is no actual mention of pestle at all as has been shown already. In this verse also the words used are significant pointing definitely to the true and inner meaning.

As the action of the Vedic Yoga proceeds, the rasa of the whole being of the Yogin the sacrificer, Yajamana, is pressed out and received in the two platters of life and mind in the body and this was stated in the second verse. In the third it is stated that the Shakti of the Purusha, the sacrificer constantly watches and observes and learns the Yogic process in which the higher Force comes down into the being, upacyava, and the force from the being goes up or out, apacyava, making way for the entry of the higher force into the being. Nari is Nara-Shakti and Nara is either man or God in the Veda denoting one of strength. The power, the Conscious Power of the powerful Soul, nara, watches the yogic process of the force of getting in from above and rising up from below, and thus learns, siksate, the secret of the yogic action which is fulfilled in pressing out the juice, the delight of all experiences of the being to be offered to the Higher Powers of the Godhead, the Gods. Thus an intimate knowledge of the secret of the upward and downward movement of the Yoga-force becomes a natural possession under the control of the conscious power of the strong soul that has the strength to give its all to the Gods and receive in return what comes from the Godhead.

4. Where, they fasten the churning staff with a rope as with reins to control (a horse), O, Indra, drink with eagerness the effusions of the mortar.⁸⁸

In the external rite of Soma extraction when the juice is pressed out, it is mixed with milk or curds or corn, yava. They are called the three infusions, gavā sira, dadhyasira and yavā sira respectively. When the Soma juice is to be mixed with this infusion, it is churned; the churning stick is moved by a rope placed round the handle and round a post planted in the ground as a pivot. When the ends of the rope are drawn backwards and forwards, it gives the stick a rotatory motion and the component parts are separated. Thus they tie the churning stick with cords for churning and steadying the vessel, just as with reins one restrains a horse.

In the inner sacrifice, from the play of the Yoga-force of knowledge and action through the concord of mind and life, the rasa, the flow of delight that is pressed out has to be retained in the body-vessel and not split; and for this purpose, the body must be made firm and strong and steady and this object is achieved by the spinal column, made steady charged with the vibrations of the higher consciousness brought by the favours and workings of the Higher Powers. Thus in the first four verses, the pressing out of Soma in the Yajamana’s being and the instruments used in the process are mentioned, and the Rishi calls upon Indra to come down and accept the offering of Soma that has been extracted with so much skill and toil and devotion.

The next four Riks are used in the act of straining the Soma juice received in the platters.

5. O, Mortar, if in truih thou art set in every house, here, give forth thy resplendent sound, like the victor’s drum.⁸⁹

Here is a pronounced difficulty in the gross sense. Now, the mortar is addressed and called upon to give a loud sound like the drum of the conquerors. Mortar never makes noise without the rapid rise and fall of the pestle which is nowhere mentioned in the whole hymn though grāva in the first verse is pressed to yield that meaning in the ritualistic interpretation as it has to be somehow managed. Now in the inner interpretation, the idea is quite clear. Mortar is of course the physical being. In every house, in cvcry man, there is a mortar, there is a material body but every body does not shed the precious juice. But, the Rishi says, you are splendid and have given out the essence of all the experiences for offering even though you are jada matter, thick with inertia and darkness. You have trained yourself to respond to the touches and influence of the higher Powers that are invoked by the Yajamana and have yielded the rasa of your being. Therefore you can loudly proclaim your victory over the tamasic forces that oppose the release of the rasa. Hence like the drum of the conqueror you can proclaim; it is not every mortar, the material body of every onc, that is so successful as you.

6. O, Lord of the Forest, the wind blows fast in front of thee, O Mortar, for Indra that he may drink, press forth the Soma juice.⁹⁰

Vanaspati, literally lord of the forest is used to indicate any tree or plant or part and product of the forest. Mortar being made of wood is addressed here Vanaspati. The mortar is called upon to press out the juice, and the wind blows fiercely, vivāli! How does the wind blowing fast or fiercely help the mortar to yield the juice? Sayana says the wind blows fast in front of the mortar because of the speed of the pestle’s constant blow! Where is the pestle in the Rik? Here again, the Rik is seemingly ritualistic, but really reveals secrets of the action of Yoga-force in the inner sacrifice. Mortar is indeed the material body; Vayu is the life-force which is stimulated and by far strengthened at this stage, thus helping the body to give out the rasa. Without a strong lifc-force awake and active nothing can be done in the body whatever may be the light of knowledge that may fall upon it; the light does not enter a feeble frame, and even if it enters the weak material cannot hold it without a strong vital support. Only when it is endowed with a strong and well-poised life-force in action, can the body be willing to give itself joyfully i.e., the rasa for Indra’s drink.

7. Implements of sacrifice, best of strength-givers, sport high on like the two bay-horses of Indra munching noisily.⁹¹

Here again, the dual number is used in the address. Who are addressed is left to be understood and in the ritualist’s interpretation, they are the inevitable pestle and mortar and they give food, vāja. They are the implements of sacrifice ayaji. Because of the movement of the pestle in the mortar, they give loud sound; uchcha is thus interpreted without warrant. The straight meaning is uchchaih vihara; they sport high on like the two horses of Indra champing grain.

In the esoteric interpretation, the implements are really the two platters; they are of the forest, vanaspati, as the next verse confirms by stating so expressly. They are the procurers of strength in its plenitude, vājasātamam. They sport high above, like Indra’s horses. Because of their conjoint action and movement in the upper regions of the being of the Yogin, the Yajamana, they procure strength increasingly and receive the rasa of the being for offering. Indra’s two horses are used as a simile here for their capacity for enjoyment. It is much more than a simile. Life and mind themselves representing force of action and light of knowledge are the twin vehicles of the Divine Mind, the ruler of the triple words and king of the Gods, Indra.

8. O, Lords of the forest, mighty with the mighty pressors, press out today the most sweet Soma juice for Indra’s drink.⁹²

Ṛṣhwā means great or mighty; to press out the juice strength is necessary; hence with the help of other priests present in the sacrifice the juice is to be pressed out of the platters.

But in the inner ritual, the Rishi calls upon the platters of Life and Mind to press out the Rasa with the help of the mighty Powers of Knowledge and Power who are ever ready to render assistance to the aspiring soul that has consecrated itself for the Godward life; and this demands the giving up of all one is and has for the acceptance and enjoyment of the higher Powers of the Universal Purusha to whom all that one is and has really belongs.

9. What remains, hold in the two chamasa vessels, pour the Soma on the filter and set the residue on the cow-hide.⁹³

In the ritual we know the juice is purified and strained and then poured into a large wooden cup or vessel called the drona-kalasha. The dregs are set in the cow-hide.

Thus the outer rite was rapidly performed straightway offering the beverage to Indra who is invoked to come down to drink in the first four Riks.

In the inner sacrifice, when we take into consideration the context, the chamu or the camasa is a bowl and the two bowls are nothing else but the cups of the vital body and the mental body which were referred to by the symbolic platters, when they were used for the extraction of the rasa. But now, when the process is complete they are referred to as separate vessels to signify the yogic secret that though life and mind function in the body as part of it, they really are separate entities and are separated by the Yoga-force for readjustment in the new set-up for the consummation of the Yoga. Those who have studied Sri Aurobindo on the Ribhus cannot fail to appreciate the Yogic fact that out of the one bowl, four bowls are made for the Yogin by the Ribhus, who were once human beings, but have become gods by dint of their tapasya and help Indra in a variety of ways; they are indeed “artisans of Immortality”. Thus the juice of delight is taken up in the two bowls of Life and Mind. They are then poured into the Kalasha which is the material body. The residue is kept in the hide of cow which is the covering and protection of the Ray of Light in the physical frame of man.

We have stated that symbolism is the key to unlock the secret of the Veda; but the device of symbolism dating back from the age of the Rig Veda has been used in the latter scriptures also, closing with the Epics, Puranas and Tantric works. But it is the Brahmanas following the Vedas that openly gave symbolic explanations of the rituals and necessarily of the hymns used in them and this fact was recognised by later authors in their commentaries on the Brahmanas and on the Upanishads which form parts of them. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad forms the close of the 14th chapter of the Shatapatha Brahmana. Out of a number of examples we shall choose one to show how symbols were interpreted by Acharyas like Shankara, though that does not mean they recognised the close-knit symbolism of the hymns of the Rig Veda rich with deep meaning and profound truths of spiritual wisdom. But it undoubtedly shows that these later teachers of Vedanta know that there are many passages in the Upanishads and the Veda Samhitas which are symbolic, while some others are riddles and puzzles and the like. The passage occurs in Br. Up. 2.2.3. It refers to a bowl camasa with its base or bottom above and opening below. Glory that is the universe of forms or the All-form is laid in it," says the text.⁹⁴

Now in unveiling the symbols of the Riks used in the rapid rite of Soma, we have taken the help of other passages of the Rig Veda and taken into account the Yajurveda, the Veda most important for the ritualist as well as some Brahmana passages that have bearing on the question. We have already spoken of the two platters — adhişavaniya — as symbolic and explained it in a way that fits in with the rest of the symbols in the rite. And the White Yajurveda and the Shatapatha Brahmana (2.9.4) proclaim them to be so, stating that the two platters are symbols of Earth and Heaven. With reference to gräva this Brahmana says it is vajra and the blow it gives destroys what it calls papmā, evil (or sin), the dark and opposing block of forces that prevents the release of the juice of delight, the flow of Soma; it is not the Soma that is destroyed, but the papmā, pāpma hataḥ, na somaḥ. The grava is above, its base is broad, the Vast above; it is the weapon of Indra who is above, it is Vajra in the outer world, but its character in the inner sense is Vak, speech, the Word from the higher heights coming from the region of the Indra. This is clear from many passages of the Rig Veda. The Gods are above and Indra is certainly above, he is invoked to come down to man and to accept his offering. He is there above, and lifts us, mortals that we may live above. We shall cite a few passages here:

1. O, Indra of hundred activities, stay on above for our growth (or protection) in this our toil for plenitude. . . . (1.30.6)

2. Stay on above like the God Savitri for our growth (or protection); Thou, above, bestower of plenitude. . . . (1.36.13)

3. Thou above, guard us from evil, with thy flame of Intuitive vision burn every devouring demon. ... .. (1.36.14)

Urdhva-budhna, uru-budhna, prthu-budhna are in frequent use in the hymns e.g. IV.2.5; 1.169.6; X.47.3. This budhna is the base or foundation which is said to be above, urdhva, extensive and vast, uru, broad and wide, expansive, prthu. It is used as an adjective to grīvā and to some other things that are to come from above, related to the Gods. In a verse Indra is called upon to bestow upon the Rishi the wealth which is at once deep, gabhira, wide and vast, uru, based in the vast, prthu-budhna. It is an interesting Rik which reveals the real nature of the wealth above for which the Rishis prayed and toiled. “Riches, "Riches,—full of powerful Mantras (su-brahmanam) God-possessing, high above, wide and based on vast foundations above, virile with the Rishi’s inspiration, conquering the enemy (that is the opposing force) – such riches, mighty and colourful, vouchsafe to us” (X.47.3). Similar is the Stone, Indra’s grāvā of the lofty heights. It is the Heaven’s bolt of thunder which is indeed a symbol of the voice of Indra above which is invoked to drop down for the destruction of the enemy (I1.30.5). The “Stone” voices with the sound of the singer’s chant (1.83.6). The “Stone” attracts with its voice the mind of Indra (1.84.3). “Go you both (Indra and Vayu) there where the stone voices forth ” (1.135.17). Again, the stones of the lofty heights (III.53.12), voiceful stone laid on the altar” (V.31.4), a variegated stone set in the midst of Heaven (V.47.3). These “stones” are of Heaven and from the heights of being; they are not of earth, not the common stones used to press the creeper Soma. For the Soma is of Heaven and pressed by the symbolic stones for offering to the Gods, tam twām devebhyo grāvābhiḥ sutaḥ (IX.80.4), “pressed by the Stone, O, Soma, you enter the sieve strainer bestowing valiant strength on the chanter” (IX.67.19). These are a few lines out of the hundreds one frequently comes across in the hymns that go to show that the “ Stone” and other objects used in the ritual are symbolic and reveal the inner truths of the Vedic Yoga of which the seers were adepts. We shall close this short study with one last reference to a Rik in Vamadeva’s hymns (IV.27.5) where the kalasha though outwardly a beaker, refers certainly to the body. It is a famous hymn quoted in the Upanishads and as such is admittedly, even according to the ritualistic commentaries, rich with spiritual truths and therefore of inner significance.

“Let Indra accept the white beaker, annointed with the cow’s yield, filled with the luminous liquid etc.” Here the beaker, kalasha, is the drona-kalasha used in the rite. But it is symbolic and indicates the body which is annointed with the Ray of Light, it is “white" i.e., it is pure and filled with the shining rasa, the liquid of Soma, Delight. Here is a fine specimen of a hymn which openly proclaims the spiritual truth of Vamadeva in the womb for Divine birth and his experience in the iron-gated cities etc.; it uses plainly, in the last verse quoted above, ritualistic objects. This would be incongruous in the extreme, if something deeper were not meant, deeper than the beaker and milk and the juice of a creeper.

Such is the character of the Vedic ritual meant for outward worship; such is the nature of the symbolic objects prayed for and the materials used in the sacrificial rite; such also is the nature of the deeper truths of the hymns which keep to the inner sense quite closely and yet maintain to a large extent the outward form and meaning suitable to the understanding and use of the un-initiate. The salient feature that must be noted is this that while the hymns occasionally throw the exoteric sense overboard when so warranted by a necessity for the esoteric pressing overtly for prominence, still in most hymns the outer meaning leaps to the eye and the hymn 1.28 used in the rite of Anjah-sava is a typical example to show that the ritual is no ordinary rite and that the hymn is not an offhand or laboured composition of the priestcraft, that it has a revelatory significance and meaning deeper than what strikes the mind at first thought. And Shunah-shepa is a seer of renown, a seer whose victorious release from the triple bond of mind and life and body has given rise to allegories and impossible legends, whose other hymns, and many Riks in them, rank high among the plainly spiritual passages of lofty ideas and occult truths in the hymnal text. Thus when we study the hymns with the necessary background the secret of the Veda becomes apparent, the inner truth becomes lucid and transparent and we begin to appreciate more fully and intelligently the Master’s words that the Vedic Seer was also a priest who officiated at public sacrifices and chanted the hymns whose real purport, the inner truth of Divine Wisdom was known to him and the initiate.