The Riks : a “brilliant & astonishing” work on the Veda by T. Paramasiva Aiyar (q.v.).
... spirituality from "Dravidian" sources, profess again and again to bring out the truth of the Riks, the Mantras, the Verses of the Vedic Rishis. As M.P. Pandit 8 reminds us, "They quite often quote the Riks as seals of approval for their own findings." As examples 9 we may pick out: "This is said by the Riks" from the Mundaka Upanishad (III. 2.10) - "That is said by the Rishi" from the Aitareya... have one of the most spiritual declarations of India: "The Existent is One, but the sages express It variously; they say Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Agni..." The same hymn (I.164.39) openly speaks of the Riks as "existing in a supreme ether, imperishable and immutable, in which all the Gods are seated", and Dirghatamas adds: "one who knows not That, what shall he do with the Rik?" (The answer, of... that gives no milk, to him the Word is a tree without flowers or fruits. This is quite clear and precise; it results from it beyond doubt that even then while the Rig-veda was being written the Riks were regarded as having a secret sense which was not open to all." 16 Sri Aurobindo 17 continues: "The tradition, then, was there and it was prolonged after the Vedic times. Yaska speaks ...
... mythical or historical sense to the Riks, very rarely does he put forward any higher meaning though sometimes he lets a higher sense come through or puts it as an alternative as if in despair of finding out some ritualistic or mythical interpretation. But still he does not reject the spiritual authority of the Veda or deny that there is a higher truth contained in the Riks. This last development was left... nonsensical tradition? Or is it the fact that there is only a scanty element of higher ideas in some later hymns which started this Page 3 theory? Did the writers of the Upanishads foist upon the Riks a meaning which was not there but read into it by their imagination or a fanciful interpretation? Modern European scholarship insists on having it so. And it has persuaded the mind of modern India... ever a sealed book; grammarians, etymologists, scholastic conjectures will not open to us the sealed chamber. For it is a fact that the tradition of a secret meaning and a mystic wisdom couched in the Riks of the ancient Veda was as old as the Veda itself. The Vedic Rishis believed that their Mantras were inspired from higher hidden planes of consciousness and contained this secret knowledge. The words ...
... sometimes, though very rarely, to follow its suggestions. And if we go back to the earliest times we see that the Brahmanas give a mystically ritualistic interpretation of the Veda, the Upanishads treat the Riks as a book not of ritual, but of spiritual knowledge. There is therefore nothing fantastically new or revolutionary in an attempt to fix the psychological and spiritual purport of the Rig Veda. ... exceptions are certain hymns, mostly in the tenth Mandala, which seem to belong to a later development, some almost purely ritualistic, others more complex and developed in symbol than the body of the Riks, others clearly enouncing philosophical ideas with a modicum of symbol, the first voices which announce the coming of the Upanishads. Some hymns are highly archaic, others of a more clear and relatively... put the thing in its lowest terms, a strong possibility of a deeper psychological functioning of Agni. These are the main points for solution. Let us see then how the physiognomy of Agni evolves in the Riks; keeping our minds open, let us examine whether the hypothesis of Agni as one of the Gods of the Vedic Mysteries is tenable or untenable. And that means, whether the Veda is a semi-barbaric book of ...
... them in turn assisted by three, is the Master of the elaborate mighty Ceremony. The Hotris are chanting the Hymns of the Rig Veda; the Udgatra in his melodious voice is doing the Saman recitation of the Riks; the Adhwaryu is busy with the material arrangements of the Sacrifice; the Brahman takes care of this holy Action by assiduously supervising everything. The Fire is bright-lit, the flames leaping... Yajnas bom of the Maha-Yajna maintain a fulfilling relationship, a mutually enriching harmony in different parts of this vast creation. If in Brahma-Yajna the supreme deity is invoked by chanting the Riks of the Vedas, by Manushya-Yajna the sacrificers grow by helping each other. The Devas take of the offerings of the sacrifice and to its performer grant boons in full measure. Even departed spirits ...
... (13) In whose lap the three and thirty-three Gods, all of them, are established - of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it? (14) Wherein there are the first born Seers and the Riks and the Samas and the Great Goddess. In that is reposed the Sun, sole Seer. Of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it? Page 31 (I5) Thereupon the Person is laid, Immortality... Brahman is its mouth, they say, a very scourge of sweetness is its tongue and they say, the Vast¹ is its breast; of that Pillar speak – which one indeed is it? (20) Out of that they carved out the Riks, out of that they fashioned the Yajur: the Samas are its hair. The line of the ¹ Stainless. Page 32 Atharvas and the line of the Angirasa are its mouth. Of that Pillar speak ...
... Vishwamitra as in Vashishtha's even harmony we have the same firm foundation of knowledge and the same scrupulous adherence to the sacred conventions of the initiates."7 " The internal evidence of the Riks themselves establishes that this significance is psychological, as otherwise the terms lose their fixed value, their precise sense, necessary connection and their constant recurrence in relation ... Veda: the Vedas stand for the rituals and Upanishads for knowledge. They even assert that the Upanishads are a revolt against the Vedic ritualism. Those opinions are not supported by proper study of the Riks or of the Upanishads. The core of the effort, both of the Veda and the Upanishads, is the attainment of a spiritual state which can lift man out of ignorance. Only, the Upanishads speak of the experience... In this text is expressed the aspiration of the human Soul: " From non-being lead me to Being, from darkness lead me to Light, from death lead me to Immortality. " This finds expression in the Riks: The symbolic nature of the sacrifice was very well-known to the Upanishads, for it says : Aditya is the Samit, Page 190 the holy wood for offering ...
... of its actual length & scope in fixing the nature of theVedic outlook and helping us to some clue to the secret of its characteristic expressions. Our desideratum is a passage in which the god of the Riks must be a mental or moral Power, the thoughts religious, intellectual or psychological in their substance, the expressions insistent in their clear superphysical intention.We will begin with a striking... Nectarjuices, they are called, indavah, pourings of delight, áyavah, life forces, amritásah, elixirs of immortality. Thus we see that when we take words in their first & plain sense, the meaning of the riks builds itself up before our eyes, everything agrees, a coherent sense is obtained, idea links itself to idea, every noun, epithet & verb falls into its right place & has a clear & perfect appropriateness ...
... the man of knowledge passeth by this house of the Brahman to the one or the other. And if one meditate on the single letter, he getteth by it knowledge and soon he attaineth on the earth. And him the Riks lead to the world of men and there perfected in Tapas and Brahmacharya and faith he experienceth the greatness of the spirit. Now if by the double letter he is accomplished in the mind, then is he... used undivided and united to each other, then are the inner and the outer and the middle action of the spirit made whole in their perfect using and the spirit knows and is not shaken. This world by the Riks, the middle world by the Yajus and by the Samans that which the seers make known to us. The man of knowledge passeth to Him by OM, his house, even to the supreme spirit that is calm and ageless and ...
... wrote Sri Aurobindo in the Secret of the Veda. A tongue unintelligible to us may be correctly understood once a clue has been found, he pointed out. Really, how, without the key to the symbolism of the Riks, could one understand them or translate them? Something even more dangerous was happening. In the nineteenth century Europe the young science of philology set about interpreting those immemorial... have burgeoned into their wealth of branchings & foliage." Sri Aurobindo had found the clue to the secret of the Veda. He could now unlock the secret of the past, the messages and meaning of the Riks. "The substance of the Vedic hymns" he wrote way back in 1911, "is the record of certain psychological experiences which are the natural results, still attainable & Page 343 repeatable ...
... demanded of him and Page 373 lead you mightily into the peace of self-fulfilment. We shall see how the idea thus thrown out in these four simple & vigorous words stands as the basis of all the riks that follow. The Rishi adds, prichchhá vipaschitam; question him, for he has the eye of discerning thought. [6] [RV I.5] 5. Hymn in Praise of Indra आ त्वा इत निषीदत इन्द्रमभि प्रगायत । ...
... forms and cosmic aspects. Each of them is in himself the whole Deva and contains all the other gods. It was the full emergence in the Upanishads of the idea of this supreme and only Deva, left in the Riks vague and undefined and sometimes even spoken of in the neuter as That or the one sole existence, the ritualistic limitation of the other gods and the progressive precision of their human or personal ...
... Known to Pānini (University of Lucknow, 1953; 2nd ed. Varanasi, 1963). Aiyar, R. Swaminatha, Dravidian Theories (Madras Law Journal Office, Madras, 1975). Aiyar, T. ParamaŚiva, The Riks (Govt, of Mysore Press, 1911) [reference by Sri Aurobindo]. Albright, W.F., The Archaeology of Palestine (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1961). Allchin, Bridget and Raymond, The Birth ...
... Veda, which means "Knowledge" and "Insight", or why its composers were known as Rishis whom the hymns themselves define as "truth-seers and truth-hearers". What about the persistent tradition that the Riks were not human inventions but discoveries of eternal words? Side by side with such interpretations as Mr. de Sa favours, there has been the living sense that, behind all the Indian literature of ...
... Red Ware, 68 Rigveda, Rigvedic, Veda, Vedic, Vedism, ii, iv, 1-3, 8, 11, 13-16, 18, 19, 29, 31-47, 55, 56, 61-2, 63-6, 75, 76, 77, 78-82, 84-89, 90-94, 95-6, 98-121, 132 Riks, The Riks, Roth, 41, 110, 115 Roux, Georges, 31fn., 89fn. Royal Tombs of Ur, 54 Roychowdhuri, Ajit, iii Rudra, 41, 43-5 Russian conference, i, iii ...
... Varuna, Mitra and Aryaman. Separate sūktas addressed to any of these godheads are comparatively Page 300 rare, although there are some important hymns of which Varuna is the deity. But the Riks in which their names occur, whether in hymns to other gods or in invocations to the All-gods, the Viśve Devāḥ , are by no means inconsiderable in number. These four deities are, according to Sayana ...
... language of the Vedas is an ambiguous tongue, with an ambiguity possible only to the looser fluidity belonging to the youth of human speech & deliberately used to veil the deeper psychological meaning of the Riks. I hold that it was the traditional knowledge of this deep religious & psychological character of the Vedas which justified in the eyes of the ancient Indians the high sanctity attached to them & ...
... Being; Conscious-Soul; essential being supporting the play of Prakriti; the Purusha represents the true being on whatever plane it manifests—physical, vital, mental, psychic. Rig—veda —the Veda of the Riks (words of illumination), the most ancient of the sacred books of India. Russell, Bertrand —(1872-1970), English philosopher. Sachchidananda (Sat-Chit-Ananda) —the One Divine Being with a triple ...
... moment or to render differently the same phrase or line in different hymns, or to make incoherence a standard of right interpretation; on the contrary, the greater the fidelity to word and form of the Riks, the more conspicuously the general and the detailed sense of the Veda emerge in a constant clearness and fullness. We have therefore acquired the right to apply the sense we have discovered to ...
... सर्वमस्यात्रं भवति य एवमेतददितेरदितित्वं वेद ।।५।। Page 270 5) He saw, If I devour this, I shall diminish food; therefore by that speech & by that self he created all this that we see, the Riks & the Yajus & the Samas & the rhythms & sacrifices & animals & these nations. Whatsoever he created, that he set about devouring, verily he devoureth all; this is the substantiality of being in substance ...
... sacrifice? That is the thing that has to be seen,—to be understood. What is Saraswati, whether as a Muse or a river, doing at the Soma-offering? Or is she there as the architect of the hymn, the weaver of the Riks? The passage devoted to her occupies the three final & culminating verses of the sacred poem. Pavaka nah Saraswati vajebhir vajinivati Yajnam vashtu dhiyavasuh. Chodayitri sunritanam chetanti sumatinam ...
... error; tomorrow it may be rehabilitated. Parame vyoman is a Vedic phrase which most of us would translate "in the highest heaven", but Mr. T. Paramasiva Aiyar in his brilliant and astonishing work, The Riks , tells us that it means "in the lowest hollow"; for vyoman "means break, fissure, being literally absence of protection, (uma)"; and the reasoning which he uses is so entirely after the fashion ...
... This would not be possible unless they were based on a coherent doctrine with a precise significance for standing terms such as kavi, kratu, dakṣa, bhadram, ṛtam, etc. The internal evidence of the Riks themselves establishes that this significance is psychological, as otherwise the terms lose their fixed value, their precise sense, necessary connection, and their constant recurrence in relation ...
... words", ninya vacāmsi (4,3,16). In the same verse, nivacanā kavaye kavyani is translated by Sri Aurobindo 349 "seer-wisdoms that utter their inner meaning to the seer". Rigveda 1,164,39 speaks of the Riks as existing "in a supreme imperishable ether in which all the gods are seated" and asks, "one who knows not That, what shall he do with the Rik?" These hints at hidden meanings not accessible to all ...
... materials he got everything ready for the wedding. Page 22 He invited the elderly Brahmins, and all the priests officiating at the holy sacrifice, and the reciters of the Riks; choosing an auspicious day and hour he, along with them, and his daughter, set out on the journey. On reaching the deep and sacred forest the King walked, accompanied by the Brahmins, to ...
... his thought and speech words of guidance, 'secret words' - ninyā vāchamsi - 'seer-wisdoms that utter their inner meaning to the seer' - kāvyāni kavaye nivachanā. The Rishi Dirghatamas speaks of the Riks, the Mantras of the Veda, as existing 'in a supreme ether, imperishable and immutable in which all the gods are seated,' and he adds 'one who knows not That what shall he do with the Rik?' (I.164 ...
... astronomical data of the hymns, has established at least a strong probability that the Aryan races descended originally from the Arctic regions in the glacial period. Mr. T. Paramasiva Aiyar [in The Riks] by a still bolder departure has attempted to prove that the whole of the Rig-veda is a figurative representation of our planet after its long-continued glacial death in the same period of terrestrial ...
... 1.22.20 Page 85 Mitra Varuna, are all alike forms and cosmic aspects. Each of them is in himself the holy deva and contains all the other gods. The supreme deva was left in the Riks vague and undefined and sometimes even spoken of in the neuter as That or as the one sole existent. In the Upanishads, we find the full emergence of the idea of this supreme and only deva; but ...
... appropriately be sung. There are 1549 Riks in Sāmaveda, and only 75 of them are independent of Rigveda. At present, Sāmaveda has only 3 existing Shākhās, namely Kauthuma, Rānāyaniya, and Jaiminiya. The Riks are transformed into songs of Sāma by appropriate addition of words or stobhas, such as hā, u, ho, i, o, ho, oh, ou, hā, etc. * Incomplete versions only are available Page 91 Apart ...
... the mantra - in the field of nationalism and politics. But its effect in poetry and in the spiritual life is truly miraculous. Have you heard about the Rishis of the Vedas and the Upanishads, and of the Riks or Shiokas they uttered? A divine hearing had revealed these verses to them, and so it is said that the origin of the Vedic creation is supernatural, apauruseya. The undistorted and right utterance ...
... transformation of these three instruments. There are three stages of purification and transformation; accordingly the present sukta has been divided into three parts each containing three riks. The first three riks deal with the purification and transformation of life-energy. Vayu is the presiding Deity of life-energy. Vayuh pranah (Vayu is life), says the Mundaka Upanishad. In the Rigveda too... with that pure intelligence the aspirant establishes a pure enjoyment of the quintessence of truth, rich delight and fulfilment in life. Therefore in the second three riks Indra and Vayu are in- voked together. The last three riks deal with the full realisation and the goal of the aspirant. When life is purified, when mind is purified, the aspirant will be established in that vast and luminous Heaven ...
... The aspirant has to purify first his lower nature before invoking the truth and power in a large measure. Otherwise a reaction may at once take place. The subsequent riks deal with this matter. The second group of the three riks indicates the process of the gradual ascension of the aspirant. Spirituality is, as it were, a long upward march and the aspirant has to fight and toil faithfully all the... powers that help the aspirant - the vigour behind his spiritual endeavour and power of action - will be able to make us the possessors of the highest good and perfect bliss. In the three successive riks of the third group the forces by which all obstacles in our journey are removed have been described. Vritra is only a name for the obstacles in one's spiritual practice. Vritra means the coverer (derived... spiritual seeker overcomes all the obstacles and the downward pull of ignorance symbolised by Vritra and creates beautiful forms full of knowledge in the fullness of the Vast. In the first three riks the nectar-emitting light and pure thought-power of Indra have been invoked. Indra is a milch cow, that is to say, the inexhaustible source from which a seeker draws the nectar of immortality. But ...
... literally means "well spoken", the faultless speech, the infallible words of the seasoned seer of Truth) can be divided into three parts each containing three riks in accordance with the special differences in the current of thoughts. The first three riks deal with the theme: Who is Fire, what are his particulars, name and form? The second three deal with the subject: What is Fire, what his virtues, nature... describes the relationship between Fire and the aspirant in the matter of spiritual practice, the holy sacrifice. The mantras are composed in the metre called Gayatri, which too has three feet. Thus every rik too has three metrical divisions. Page 98 ...
... positive argument that race of the parents is a mixed one. Secondly, in the Rigveda itself there is mention of dark-skinned people and "Anasa." I said "Anasa" figures only in one Rik out of more than ten thousand Riks and it may not mean "nose-less" or "flat-nosed." Sri Aurobindo : "Anasa" is not flat-nosed, it means nose-less. Disciple : I consulted the Rigveda and found that it... refers only to the Dasyus and not to non-Aryans. Sri Aurobindo : The Orientalists also wanted to prove the Page 245 existence of Linga worship in the Rigveda by citing a Rik in which the word "Shishnadevah" occurs. Disciple : K. M. Munshi in tracing the origin of Bhakti long ago wrote that devotion is nothing else but sublimation of the sex-impulse, and he tried ...
... Guides on the path). They are the leaders in our spiritual adventure. They lead us speedily through the different levels of consciousness to the vast ocean of the higher truth The second group of riks: The spiritual delight and to immortal power of life will found themselves in a calm, pill and firmly rooted basis of the entire being. And this immortal delight will lead the spiritual practicant to... fulfilment, and at last he manifests in the waking consciousness the streams of the Vast, of direct sight and creation beyond mind and intelligence. In the present sukta there are four groups of three riks each, graded according to the spiritual progression. The first group begins with the invocation of the twin Riders. Who are these Riders? According to the narration of the Puranas, the Aswinikumaras ...
... admire one Indian writer's interpretation of the Gods as Gases—magnificently ingenious! PURANI: Many Riks of Dirghatamas are untranslated even today by European commentators. SRI AUROBINDO: You can't understand or translate them unless you have the key to their symbolism. PURANI: In several Riks he speaks of the largest or highest step of the cow. SRI AUROBINDO: That is certainly symbolic. Everyone... knows that the cow is a symbol of divine light and consciousness, and its highest step is their highest level. PURANI: Dirghatamas is to me a great stumbling-block on the whole, though some of his Riks are clear in their symbolism. SRI AUROBINDO: He has justified his name which means "Long in the darkness". PURANI: There was an article about Saraswati in a magazine, saying that it was a river ...
... of such a deity increasing in the exercise of such a function should be rather a psychological region than the house of ritual sacrifice or a place on a sacrificial altar. Let us examine the three Riks more minutely. The fifth verse runs: "Agni, the priest of the oblation (or, of the summoning), the seer-will (or he whose work, whose sacrifice or whose power-ofworks is a seer's), the true, who has... the altar. Or if " rita " is the cosmic Law Agni is the god of fire who is the guardian of the Law—in what sense?—and who is manifested in the sacrificial flame on the altar. Now, if we take the rik by itself, there is no means by which we can decide among these and other possible interpretations. But in the first place the idea of the guardian of the rita is a common thought of the Vedic Rishis... evident even at a first glance, and we shall be able to establish it conclusively enough, that rita must mean in these phrases some kind of truth and not the ritual of the sacrifice. Moreover this rik is preceded by three others in which there is repeated mention of the ideas of truth and thought and knowledge. Therefore in the absence of convincing reasons to the contrary we are justified in supposing ...
... × Or, as the birds carried Tugrya. × Note on Riks 13, 14 and 15: As is shown by the "Shravansi", "Turvatha" and the name "Shrutarvan", the Rishi is giving a symbolic turn to the name as well as to the horses and the waters. ...
... colloquy between the Rishi Agastya and the great god Indra which forms the five verses of Hymn 170 in the first Mandala. It opens with a verse spoken, it would seem, by Indra, one of the most remarkable riks in the whole Veda. “It is not now nor tomorrow; who knoweth that which is utterly wonderful? its movement has for its field the knowledge of another, but when it is approached, it disappears.” To this... commentary on the four words, anyasya chittam abhi sancharenyam. But why does Indra cast this assertion of the unknowability of Brahman at Agastya in their quarrel? His self-justification in the third rik explains the motive. Agastya has been seeking to go beyond Indra in his thought consciousness; he has been seeking to exceed mind & arrive straight at Brahman, to place his mind and its activities not ...
... inner heart, antar hṛdā manasā pūyamānāḥ . And in the closing Page 103 verse he speaks of the whole of existence being triply established, first in the seat of Agni—which we know from other Riks to be the Truth-Consciousness, Agni's own home, svaṁ damam, ṛtaṁ bṛhat, —secondly, in the heart, the sea, which is evidently the same as the heart-ocean,—thirdly, in the life of man. Dhāman te... The Secret of the Veda The Secret of the Veda The Secret of the Veda Chapter X The Image of the Oceans and the Rivers The three Riks of the third hymn of Madhuchchhandas in which Saraswati has been invoked, run as follows, in the Sanskrit:— Pāvakā naḥ sarasvatī, vājebhir vājinīvatī; yajñaṁ vaṣṭu dhiyāvasuḥ. Codayitrī sūnṛtānāṁ, cetantī sumatīnām;... explained to be that which is all honey,— ghṛtasya dhārā madhumat pavante ; it is Ananda, the divine Beatitude. And that this goal is the Sindhu, the superconscient ocean, is made clear in the last Rik, where Vamadeva says, "May we taste that honeyed wave of thine"—of Agni, the divine Purusha, the four-horned Bull of the worlds—"which is borne in the force of the Waters where they come together." ...
... most high seat of the Truth. The forty-third hymn is addressed to Rudra & Soma,Mitra & Varuna are mentioned casually only in a single verse along with Rudra. It is in the last of the three closing riks devoted to Soma that we come across this great & illuminating expression and it meets us in a passage where the vivid psychological purport is too convincingly clear, too immediately patent for any... Immortality, mrityum tírtwá amritam asnute. And then, to complete this preliminary foundation of our knowledge of the Ritam, we can go back to a neglected passage of the thirteenth hymn, to a couple of riks in which the secret of the Veda, the true symbolic nature of Vedic ritual & Vedic Page 69 sacrifice, start out clearly before the eyes. Striníta barhir ánushag, ghritaprishtham maníshinah... Rishi Kanwa son of Ghora to the three children of Aditi, & covers six out of the nine slokas of the hymn. It is fortunately a sufficiently clear & easy hymn, except precisely in the three closing riks with which we are not now concerned; we have to pause only for a moment [at] the word avakhádah , over which Sayana gives himself very unnecessary trouble,—for it means clearly a pitfall or an abrupt ...
... of earth in the glacial period and then indicates its geological evolution. I gave him up when I came upon his explanation of "parame Vyoman" meaning "trough" and "crest" of the ocean waves. Many riks of Dirghatamas are untranslated even to-day in spite of all ingenious theories and interpretations. Sri Aurobindo : You can't translate them or understand them unless you have the key to the ...
... dame dame sapta ratná (Rik 5), and assure that state of perfected and happy mentality, pure in perception, light and calm in the emotional parts,—the bhandishthasya sumatim of the tenth rik,—which the divine force dwelling in us abidingly assures to our conscious being. The Page 702 image of the physical morning sacrifice is maintained throughout the first two riks, but from its closing... aspiring activities of the intellectual mind. This essential relation of the divine force and the purified mind is brought out in a more general thought and figure in the first line of the succeeding rik. Agnim achchhá devayatám maná n si, Chakshú n shíva Súrye san charanti, Yad ím suváte ushasá virúpe, Śweto vájí jáyate agre ahnám. Iva in the Veda is not always a particle of similitude and... the great increasing states of illuminated force & being,—for that is the image of ahan,—which are the eternal future of the mortal when he has attained immortality. Page 709 In the next rik the idea is taken up, repeated & amplified to its final issues in that movement of solemn but never otiose repetition which is a feature of Vedic style. Janishta hi jenyo agre ahnám, Hito hiteshu ...
... own being. As Rik 15 says: "Now as the seven seers of Dawn, the Mother, the supreme disposers [of sacrifice, which in psychological terms means self- consecration, the discipline by which the separative sense of egoism is destroyed], may we beget for ourselves the gods; may we become the Angirasas, sons of Heaven, breaking open the wealth- filled hill, shining in purity." These Riks bring out the idea... the meaning of Vedic immortality. Page 53 There are also references in the second hymn of the fourth Mandala to the seven divine seers, who are the divine Angirasas and the human fathers. Riks 12 to 15 describe the seven Rishis as the supreme ordainers of the world-sacrifice, and put forth the idea of the human being "becoming" the seven Rishis, that is to say, creating them in himself and... their seerhood, Rishihood. They are the fathers who are full of the soma, they have the word and are increasers of the Truth. The Angirasas have been described as those who speak rightly, masters of the Rik who place perfectly their thought; they are heroes who speak the truth and think with straightness and thus are able to hold the seat of illumined knowledge {vide Rig Veda, X.67.2). The ancient ...
... In these and hundreds of other Riks we see multi-missioned Agni with his myriad functions and chameleonic personality, and of course we feel puzzled. The one sheet-anchor of unity is the Rik of Dirghatamas (I. 164.46): Ekam sat viprā bahudā vadanti (Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni they call Him... the Existent is ONE, the sages call Him variously). And in the Rik (V.3.1) quoted above, there is... goddesses who create the bliss sit on the sacred seat, they who never err.... O Tree, there where thou knowest the secret names of the gods make rich our offerings. 27 And a few more Riks at random: O Fire, companioning the shining ones bring to us Indra, companioning the Rudras bring vast Rudra, with the Adityas bring the boundless and universal Mother, with those who have... and poetic treasure that wings us back to the dreams and splendorous insights of humanity's enlightened Dawn. Certainly, Sri Aurobindo has succeeded in unveiling the esoteric meaning of numberless Riks and also of the Rig Veda as a whole. We can now read his renderings of the invocations to the Mystic Fire and rediscover in them with a continual stir of excitement the ineluctable strains of the Spirit ...
... his own being. As Rik 15 says: 'Now as the seven seers of Dawn, the Mother, the supreme disposers [of sacrifice, which in psychological terms means self-consecration, the discipline by which the separative sense of egoism is destroyed], may we beget for ourselves the gods; may we become the Angirasas, sons of Heaven breaking open the wealth-filled hill, shining in purity.' These Riks bring out the idea... Lord. This was the meaning of Vedic immortality. There are also references in the second hymn of the fourth Mandala to the seven divine seers, who are the divine Angirasas and the human fathers. Riks 12 to 15 describe the seven Rishis as the supreme ordainers of the world-sacrifice, and put forth the idea of the human being 'becoming' the seven Rishis, that is to say, creating them in himself and... their seerhood, Rishihood. They are the fathers who are full of the soma, they have the word and are increasers of the Truth. The Angirasas have been described as those who speak rightly, masters of the Rik who place perfectly their thought; they are heroes who speak the truth and think with straightness and thus are able to hold the seat of illumined knowledge (vide Rig Veda, X.67.2). The ancient ...
... Anyone may perceive in Sri Aurobindo’s writings a wealth of experiences, a mantric power and an extraordinary superhuman attraction. That first sublime article in the Arya begins with one or two Riks from the Rig Veda. Hear: “She follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming, — Usha widens bringing out that which ...
... Savitri), the fosterer or increaser (Pushan), and the enjoyer (Bhaga Savitri). Like reflections of light on a sheet of trembling water, meanings merge and separate and mingle again in some of these ancient Riks: And thou art powerful for every creation; and thou becomest the Increaser, O God, by thy movings; and thou illuminest utterly all this world of becomings. 46 ...
... Loveliness! Page 349 That is the affirmatory tone of the Vedic Rishi who hymned Agni Jatavedas, the High-Blazing Flame, King of Immortality in transformative Riks. That is the triumphant call of the victorious secret splendour within us all. PREMA NANDAKUMAR Page 350 ...
... Truth-consciousness as the goal of the sacrifice, the object of the Soma-offering, the culmination of the work of the Ashwins, Indra and the All-gods in the vitality and in the mind. For these are the three Riks devoted to Saraswati, the divine Word, who represents the stream of inspiration that descends from the Truth-consciousness, and thus limpidly runs their sense: "May purifying Saraswati with all the... "discerning, seeing", from which it gets Sayana's significance "beautiful", darśanīya , but in the sense of doing, acting, shaping, accomplishing, as in purudaṁsasā in the second Page 81 Rik. Nāsatya is supposed by some to be a patronymic; the old grammarians ingeniously fabricated for it the sense of "true, not false"; but I take it from nas to move. We must remember that the Ashwins... themselves, each evidently for the divine and joyous working of his proper activity, the Soma which the giver of the sacrifice distributes to them; viśve devāsa ā gata, dāśvāṁso dāśuṣaḥ sutam . In the next Rik the call is repeated with greater insistence; they are to arrive swiftly, tūrṇayaḥ , to the Soma-offering or, it may mean, making their way through all the planes of consciousness, "waters", which divide ...
... repeats the frequent idea of the Veda of the multiple manifestations of the human life when they are purified, tranquilized and fed by the waters of the Truth and the Infinity. In the next two Riks, 45 Vamadeva presents four preliminary conditions for the great achievement of Immortality. These four conditions were those which were fulfilled by the Angirasa Rishis. These were the following: ... aspiration symbolized by Agni becomes fully expressed; 4. Rush of divine immortal waters with their honeyed floods in their eternal flowing. Page 46 These four verses of these two Riks are: "By the Truth the Angirasas broke open and herd ascended the hill and came to union with the Cows; human souls, they took up their dwelling in the blissful Dawn, Swar became manifest when... speeding to our sacrifice and Ila hither awakening our consciousness in human wise, and Saraswati, — three goddesses sit on this blissful seat, doing well the Work." In the first Mandala in the eighth Rik in the eighth hymn, Madhuchhandas speaks of Bharati under the name of Mahi as follows: "Thus Mahi for Indra full of the rays, overflowing in her Page 36 abundance, in her nature a ...
... the human consciousness was achieved to a remarkable degree in the Upanishads generally, particularly in some, although the beginnings of it might be traced even in some of the earliest of the Vedic Riks. A serious and persistent attempt for this liberation was made later, in the age or rather ages of the Gita, the Mahabharata, the Darshanas. It was the rational spirit that impelled and inspired the ...
... तस्मादप्राणन्ननपानन्नृचमभिव्याहरति यर्क् तत्साम तस्मादप्राणन्ननपानन् साम गायति यत्साम स उद्गीथस्तस्मादप्राणन्ननपानन्नुद्गायति ।।४।। 4) But Speech is the Rik—therefore 'tis when one neither breatheth out nor breatheth in that one uttereth the Rik. And Rik it is Sama—therefore 'tis when one neither breatheth out nor breatheth in that one chanteth the Sama. But Sama it is Udgitha—therefore 'tis when one neither... Speech, Sama the essence of Rik. Of Sama OM is the essence. स एष रसानां रसतमः परमः परार्ध्योऽष्टमो यदुद्गीथः ॥३॥ 3) This is the eighth essence of the essences and the really essential, the highest and it belongs to the upper hemisphere of things. कतमा कतमर्क् कतमत् कतमत्साम कतमः कतम उद्गीथ इति विमृष्टं भवति ॥४॥ 4) Which among things and which again is Rik; which among things and which... now pondered. Page 250 वागेवर्क् प्राणः सामोमित्येतदक्षरमुद्गीथः । तद्वा एतन्मिथुनं यद्वाक् च प्राणश्चर्क् च साम च ॥५॥ 5) Speech is Rik, Breath is Sama; the Imperishable is OM of Udgitha. These are the divine lovers. Speech and Breath, Rik and Sama. तदेतन्मिथुनमोमित्येतस्मिन्नक्षरे संसृज्यते यदा वै मिथुनौ समागच्छत आपयतो वै तावन्योन्यस्य कामम् ॥६॥ 6) As a pair of lovers are these ...
... sense of the two that precede. For always when the Veda is properly understood, its verses are seen to unroll the thought with a profound logical coherence and pregnant succession. The two remaining riks indicate the result produced by this action of Heaven and Earth and by their yielding up of hidden forms and unmanifested energies on the movement of Vayu as his car gallops towards the Ananda. First ...
... (for महत्) is one of the few curious indeclinable adjectives. राः like रयिः is taken by Sayana as meaning wealth; so taking it he misses the whole sense of the passage and its connection with the two Riks that follow. It means obviously a divine riches or spiritual felicity, as we see in the next line, where the Rishis follow Agni as on a path to a great riches रयिं which they find in him, and again... would lead us to think that it meant something much more exalted and inspiring. Pass, but what of the पदं देवस्य व्यंतः in the next verse? And if that means the altar, what are we to make of the 7th rik, त्वं विशो अनयो दीद्यानो दिवो अग्ने बृहता रोचनेन, where Sayana himself is obliged to translate, thou shining leadst men to heaven? Is not this exactly the same idea and an echo of the same language as ...
... separate in its motion. × Yajur. The Rik is the word which brings with it the illumination, the Yajur the word which guides the sacrificial action in accordance with the Rik. × Or, "increasing and guarding ...
... horses of the Sun. He shines, a stream of the outpressed Soma, purifying himself, luminous, the brilliant One, when he encompasses all forms (of things) with the speakers of the Rik, with the seven-mouthed speakers of the Rik (the Angiras powers). Thou, O Soma findest that wealth of the Panis; thou by the Mothers (the cows of the Panis, frequently so designed in other hymns) makest thyself bright in... Thought. From these data there can be only one conclusion, that they are always and only enemies of the spiritual Light. We may take as the master-clue to the general character of these Dasyus the Rik V.14.4, "Agni born shone out slaying the Dasyus, the darkness by the Light; he found the Cows, the Waters Swar," agnir jāto arocata, ghnan dasyūn jyotiṣā tamaḥ; avindad gā apaḥ svaḥ . There are two... in wealth and have all forces, he growing in knowledge makes a third his helper and rushing impetuously looses upward the multitude of the cows ( gavyam ) by the help of his fighters." And the last Rik of the Sukta speaks of the Aryan (god or man) arriving at the highest knowledge-vision ( upamāṁ ketum aryaḥ ), the waters in their meeting nourishing him and his housing a strong and brilliant force ...
... scattered verses; there is no strong body of Riks from which we can construct firmly our idea of his functions or recompose his physiognomy. Most often he is simply invoked by his bare name along with Mitra and Varuna or in the larger group of the sons of Aditi, almost always in adjunction to other kindred deities. Still there are half a dozen or more half-Riks from which his one chief and characteristic... Aryaman among the Fathers. Now in the Veda the Fathers are the ancient illumined ones who discovered the Knowledge, created and followed the Path, reached the Truth, conquered Immortality; and in the few Riks in which Aryaman's separate personality emerges, it is as the God of the Path that he is hymned. His name Aryaman, kin etymologically to the words arya, ārya, ari , by which are distinguished the... who seeks the straightness of Mitra's and Varuna's workings and by the force of the word and the affirmation embraces their law with all his being, is guarded in his progress by Aryaman. But the Rik most distinctive of the function of Aryaman is that which describes him as "Aryaman of the unbroken path, of the many chariots, who dwells as the sevenfold offerer of sacrifice in births of diverse forms ...
... ecstasy of the Ananda. This last aspect, as it is the culmination of the Vedic वेदस्, the finding, conscious possession of the Divine, is rightly put here in front in the first Page 551 rik of the Veda. The Seer-Will is the first means, the Ananda of the divine riches the ultimate aim and last achievement of the Vedic Yoga. ...
... cotton, पाजस्यं footing (firm ground for the feet) etc. प्रसितिं may mean a path, but literally it seems to mean an assault or a march & that sense is most appropriate here. In any case the sense of the rik is perfectly lucid & simple & it is painful to see Sayana stumbling about it under a clumsy load of laborious & inapplicable learning. 2) तव भ्रमास आशुया पतंति अनु स्पृश धृषता शोशुचानः । तपृंषि... as an adjective to इष्टिः, cf सुदिनत्वमन्हाम्. 8) अर्चामि ते सुमतिं घोषि अर्वाक् सं ते वावाता जरतामियं गीः । स्वश्वास्त्वा सुरथा मर्जयेम अस्मे क्षत्राणि धारयेरनु द्यृन् ॥ I effect by the rik the perfect mind in thee; with sound descend; may this word woo thee entirely to me by its wide force of manifestation (or this word that I have uttered); may we with perfect steeds, in a perfect chariot ...
... highest spaces?" (Rik 34.) To these abstruse questions he himself gives, I am afraid, abstruse answers: "This sacrificial altar is the extreme end of the earth, this sacrifice is the nodus of the universe, and this nectar of immortality (Soma) is the energy-flow of the the steed and this Brahman is the Word in the supreme heaven." (Rik 35.) As are ...
... knowledge or perception she does not limit the infinity, the bṛhat , of which she is the illumination. That this is the true sense of the verse is proved beyond dispute, expressly, unmistakably, by a Rik of the fifth Mandala (V.80.1) which describes Usha dyutad-yāmānaṁ bṛhatīm ṛtena ṛtāvarīṁ svar āvahantīm , "of a luminous movement, vast with the Truth, supreme in (or possessed of) the Truth, bringing... bhāsvatī netrī sūnṛtānām (I.92.7). And this close connection in the mind of the Vedic Rishis between the idea of light, of the rays or cows, and the idea of the truth is even more unmistakable in another Rik, I.92.14, gomati aśvāvati vibhāvari ... sūnṛtāvati , "Dawn with the shining herds, with thy steeds, widely luminous, full of happy truths." A similar but yet more open phrase in I.48.2 points the s ...
... निर्जलानुन्नतान्देशान् । अज्रान् । मार्गस्य गन्तृन् तृषाणाम् पिपासया युक्तान्पुरूषान् । दंसुपत्नीः । दमनपरा असुराः सुष्ठु पतयो यासाम् । स्तर्यः । स्तरीर्निवृत्तप्रसवा गाः । सप्रसवाश्चकारेत्यर्थः । [ Riks 7 – 11 not translated .] Page 431 ...
... Veda, Sri Aurobindo's another major work, comprising all his writings on the Veda that originally appeared in the Arya from 1914 to 1918. Through these he has revealed the esoteric meaning of the Vedic Riks which conceal. behind their symbols deeper truths of the supramental world. Sri Aurobindo self says that while doing Yoga, he had knowledge of the Vedic gods before he actually read the Rigveda. This ...
... māso in v. 7, ten months, as if it were an epithet daśamāso , the ten-month ones i.e. the Dashagwas; but he offers this improbable rendering only as an alternative and abandons it in the eleventh rik. Page 175 Must we then suppose that the poet of this hymn had forgotten the tradition and was confusing the Dashagwas and Navagwas? Such a supposition is inadmissible. The difficulty arises... goal), standing on the mountain, inviolate in speech, most luminous-forceful by his thinkings," nakṣad-dābhaṁ taturiṁ parvateṣṭhām, adroghavācaṁ matibhiḥ śaviṣṭham (VI.22.2). It is by singing the Rik, the hymn of illumination, that they find the solar illuminations in the cave of our being, arcanto 7 gā avindan (I.62.2). It is by the stubh , the all-supporting rhythm of the hymn of the seven... Dawn brought to birth, gūḍhaṁ jyotiḥ pitaro anvavindan, satyamantrā ajanayann uṣāsam (VII.76.4). For these are the Angirases who speak aright, itthā vadadbhiḥ aṅgirobhiḥ (VI.18.5), masters of the Rik who place perfectly their thought, svādhībhir ṛkvabhiḥ (VI.32.2); they are the sons of heaven, heroes of the Mighty Lord who speak the truth and think the straightness and therefore they are able to ...
... देववीति; we have to choose between "going to the gods" and "manifesting the gods" for the mortal. बोधाति. S. जानाति or "wakes to the knowledge". This is the answer to the question in the first rik. The SeerWill once awake and formed in the man by submission and adoration of the human to the divine Will itself knows the godheads aright and sacrifices through the mind to them in the right manner ...
... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 8 Hymn to Peace and Power (Sam yoh) YAJURVEDA Chapter 36 (1) I SEEK the Grace of Rik, the Word. I seek the Grace of Yajur, the Mind. I seek the Grace of Sam a, the Life-Force. I seek the Grace of the Eye and the Ear; may the energy that is Speech, the Energy that is Power and the Life-Force ...
... mantra, stoma the firm established condition of the manifest god in the man. Nor are these the only terms which are applied to the mantra in the Vedic s úktas. It is also called rik, gáyatram, gátha or sáma. It is the rik when it is considered as the mantra Page 726 of realisation & the word arka is used to express the act of divine realisation by the mantra; gáyatram when it is considered... ofMitra, and thus ascends to the Tapas where Agni is [.....]. This ascension Gaya, the Rishi, is enabled by the fixed symbolic style of the Veda, to express with a masterly economy of words in the second rik of this Sukta. Agne adbhuta, kratwá dakshasya manhaná; Tve asuryam áruhat, kráṇá mitro na yajniyah. The Rishi next proceeds to dwell on this Ritam or Truth which is the path in... is still, in all mental concentration, a silent or halfexpressed word or vák by which the idea or object is brought before mind. The vák may be repeated aloud and then it becomes the hymn, s úkta or rik of the Vedic Rishi, or the námakírtana of the modern devotee; or it may be repeated only by subtle sound in the subtle matter of mind, then it is the mantra of the silent Yogin; or it may be involved ...
... knowledge, not of knower or else if knower, then in the sense, "knowers of the seven". Otherwise the prayer must mean, "Let us become the seven Rishis & give being to the gods". This is possible, if the rik be taken by itself without any connection with its context. अंगिरसो. The sense seems to be, "Let us, Angirasas in bodily birth, be truly Angirasas in our spiritual being." Sy. says भूतिमंतः स्याम for... says दिवस्पुत्रा अमृतस्य पुत्राः is using a plain & simple expression which we have every right to take in its natural significance,—emphasised as it is & brought out by the देवयंतो देवाः of the 17th Rik. Page 650 16) Adhá yathá nah pitarah parásah, pratnáso agna ṛitam á sh usháṇáh; Sh uchíd ayan dídhitim uktha sh ásah, kshámá bhindanto aruṇír apa vran. Now as when the ancient supreme ...
... Then we came down to the physical. Those brilliant experiences disappeared and the slow difficult work of physical transformation remained. There – in the physical – you find the truth of the Vedik rik – censurers are always ready telling – "you can't do the thing, you are bound to fail". Disciple : Would it then mean that the new people who would come to the yoga would have no experience of ...
... Bull with bulls (the bull is the male power or Purusha, nṛ , with regard to the Rays and the Waters who are the cows, gāvaḥ, dhenavaḥ ), the Friend with friends, the possessor of the Rik with those who have the Rik ( ṛgmibhir ṛgmī ), with those who make the journey ( gātubhiḥ , the souls that advance on the path towards the Vast and True) the greatest; may Indra become associated with the Maruts (... coming first to birth out of the great Light in the highest heaven, born in many forms, seven-mouthed, seven-rayed ( saptāsyaḥ saptaraśmiḥ ), by his cry dispelled the darkness; he by his host with the Rik and the Stubh (the hymn of illumination and the rhythm that affirms the gods) broke Vala by his cry." It cannot be doubted that by this host or troop of Brihaspati ( suṣṭubhā ṛkvatā gaṇeṇa ) are meant ...
... stubh and the Rik broke Vala into pieces by his cry. Shouting Brihaspati drove upwards the bright herds that speed the offering and they lowed in reply" (IV.50). And again in VI.73.1 and 3, "Brihaspati who is the hill-breaker, the first-born, the Angirasa.... Brihaspati conquered the treasures ( vasūni ), great pens this god won full of the kine." The Maruts also, singers of the Rik like Brihaspati ...
... recur everywhere ... when we have determined their sense, we have ________________________ 6 On the Veda, P. 46 7 Ibid, P. 49-50 Page 164 determined the sense of the whole Rik Samhita. "8 " We have concluded that the Angirasa Rishis are bringers of the Dawn, rescuers of the Sun out of the darkness, but that this Dawn, Sun, Darkness are figures used with a spiritual si... thoughts ". In IV. 39. 1-6 Dadhikravan has only spiritual functions. So also in IV. 40 Dadhikravan, a form of Agni, is spoken of as performing the functions of the Gods. In IV. 40.5-the last Rik; Dadhikravan is so openly symbolic as to leave no •doubt in the minds even of the most reluctant. Saraswati, either the river or goddess, or both, is Sadhayanti Dhiyam nah " perfects our in ...
... various elements of offering. [8] And That created all the animals, all that are in the air, in the forests and the homesteads. [8] All are offered unto Him and from Him are born Riks and Samas and the Chhandas and Yajuh. [9] From Him are born the horses and they who are of either kind and the cows and from there are born even the goatkiml.¹ [10] When they ...
... Anyone may perceive in Sri Aurobindo's writings a wealth of experiences, a mantric power and an extraordinary superhuman attraction. That first sublime article in the Arya begins with one or two Riks from the Rig Veda. Hear: "She follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming,—Usha widens bringing out that ...
... of the Vedic symbolism is woven. Not that they are its central ideas, but they are two main pillars of this ancient structure. When we determine their sense, we have determined the sense of the whole Rik Sanhita. If Vritra and the waters symbolise the cloud and the rain and the gushing forth of the seven rivers of the Punjab and if the Angirases are the bringers of the physical dawn, then the Veda is ...
... text of the Rig Veda has generally been followed. In The Secret of the Veda (Part One), Sri Aurobindo often identified quotations from the Rig Veda by references to the Mandala, Sukta and Rik. In passages where most quotations are so identified, the editors have supplied missing references in parentheses according to Sri Aurobindo's own style. But in other texts, where Sri Aurobindo provided ...
... mind? It is only when we discover that the "vast Light" was a fixed phrase in the language of the Mystics for a wide, free and luminous consciousness beyond mind, that we seize the true burden of the Rik. The seer is hymning his release from the triple cord of mind, nerves and body and the uprising of the knowledge and will within him to a plane of consciousness where the real truth of all things tr ...
... world and opens out the darkness as the pen of the Cow, where we have without any possibility of mistake the cow as the Page 125 symbol of light (I.92.4). We may note also that in this hymn (Rik 16), the Ashwins are asked to drive downward their chariot on a path that is radiant and golden, gomad hiraṇyavad . Moreover Dawn is said to be drawn in her chariot sometimes by ruddy cows, sometimes ...
... 32 The episode of the robbers stealing cows from the caves is analogous to the dark forces trying to rob the spiritual knowledge of the Rishis which they preserved in coded form in their Riks. This long chapter about the Vedas is condensed into a single line by Sri Aurobindo. However, the preceding and the following lines reveal that their knowledge is still indispensable today, because ...
... भुवनान्यस्थात् where the natural sense is that Agni placed in the earth (the physical world) rises up fronting all the other worlds, the Rajas, Div, the other heavens. This sense is confirmed by the second rik. नराशंसः प्रति धामान्यंजन्. Mighty in his manifestation brightening those seats by his reflected lustres (प्रति), तिस्रो दिवः प्रति मन्हा स्वर्चिः, brilliantly luminous in his greatness towards the three ...
... inspiration, as I suggest, that comes from the ṛtam, the Truth-Consciousness. Bharati and Ila must also be different forms of the same Word or knowledge. In the eighth hymn of Madhuchchhandas we have a Rik in which Bharati is mentioned under the name of Mahi. Evā hyasya sūnṛtā, virapśī gomatī mahī; pakvā śākhā na dāśuṣe. "Thus Mahi for Indra full of the rays, overflowing in her abundance ...
... Sarojini Naidu." – The Times Literary Supplement, July 8, 1944. Page 62 poetry is not merely beauty but power, it is not merely sweet imagination but creative vision – it is even the Rik, the mantra that impels the gods to manifest upon earth, that fashions divinity in man. Page 63 ...
... conscious force typified by the seven rivers. न here is the “as” of identity, not of similitude. It has more the force of एव than of इव, but hovers between the two. This sense is evident from the next Rik—सृजो महीः .. पूर्वीः. These abundances of forces, ऊर्जः, are those of the great floods formerly held in by the great Python. 2) चित् । एव ।। दासं । सर्वस्योपक्षपयितारं ।। अव । अवाङ्मुखं यथा भवति तथा... impossible to understand स्तुतयः । And what in the name of common sense are shining praises? एताः answers to इमा ऊर्जः of the first verse, प्रसिस्रते recalls the सिंधवो न क्षरंतः. The first line of this rik is a parenthesis developing the idea of the expressions which increase Indra, the second returns to the idea of the ऊर्जः, the महीः. रुद्रियेषु—either of Rudra, or of the Maruts who are Rudras & sons ...
... consciousness into the shining image of the world of free and luminous Mind. Ākenipāso ahabhir davidhvataḥ, svar ṇa śukraṁ tanvanta ā rajaḥ . The formula used is repeated without variation from the second Rik; but here it is the flames of the Will full of the fourfold satisfaction that do the work. There the free upsoaring of the gods by the mere touch of the Page 334 Light and without effort; ...
... Truth in its integrality, discoverable on the heights beyond the mind and in the planes described symbolically as those of higher light and highest light, swar and surya respectively. As a Rigvedic rik proclaims: उद्वय॑ तमसस्परि स्वः पश्यन्त उत्तरम् । देव॑ देवत्रा सूर्यमगन्म ज्योतिरुत्तमम् । RV.I. 50.10 We perceived the higher light of Swar beyond the darkness, and we arrived at the ...
... action then पश्व cannot mean animal = पशु, but must = विपन्या, दृष्टि from पश् to see; if पशु means the cow, the animal, then यंत्र must mean either driving or controlling as in गा येमानं in the next rik. Page 640 15) Te gavyatá manasá dṛidhram ubdham, gá yemánam pari shantam adrim; Dṛiḍham naro vachasá daivyena, vrajam gomantam u sh ijo vi vavruh. They with the light-seeking ...
... darknesses that encompass us makes an end of the Night. These are the "Brahma"s of the Veda, charged with the word, the brahman , the mantra ; it is they in the sacrifice who raise heavenward the divine Rik, the Stubh or Stoma. Ṛk , connected with the word arka which means light or illumination, is the Word considered as a power of realisation in the illuminating consciousness; stubh is the Word considered ...
... brought to birth the Dawn. It is that which is referred to in the mystic hymn to all the gods (VIII.29.10) attributed to Manu Vaivaswata or to Kashyapa, in which it is said, "Certain of them singing the Rik thought out the mighty Sāman and by that they made the Sun to shine." This is not represented as being done previous to the creation of man; for it is said in VII.91.1, "The gods who increase by our ...
... result for the fifth verse, "Agni the priest, active in the ritual, who is true (in its fruit)—for his is the most varied wealth,—let him come, a god with the gods." Page 61 To the sixth Rik the commentator gives a very awkward and abrupt construction and trivial turn of thought which breaks entirely the flow of the verse. "That good (in the shape of varied wealth) which thou shalt effect ...
... तद्विदुस्त इमे समासते ॥८॥ 8) In the highest immutable Heaven where all the gods have taken up their session, there are the verses of the Rigveda, and he who knows Him not, what shall he do with the Rik? They who know That, lo, it is they who thus are seated. छन्दांसि यज्ञाः कतवो व्रतानि भूतं भव्यं यच्च वेदा वदन्ति । अस्मान्मायी सृजते विश्वमेतत् तस्मिंश्चान्यो मायया संनिरुद्धः ॥९॥ 9) Rhythms ...
... Truth in its integrality, discoverable on the heights beyond the mind and in the planes described symbolically as those of higher light and highest light, swar and surya respectively. As a Rigvedic rik proclaims: उदृयं तमस्णरि स्वः पश्यन्त उतरम् | देवं देवत्रा सूयोमगन्म ज्योतिरतमम् | RV.I.50.10 We perceived the higher light of Swar beyond the darkness, and we arrived ...
... journey of the sacrifice let us express the thought to the Flame who heareth us from afar and heareth from within. 2) यः स्रीहितीषु पूर्व्यः संजग्मानासु कृष्टिषु । अरक्षद् दाशुषे गयं ॥ This rik is full of difficulties; we are in doubt about the meaning of three important words, स्नीहितिः, कृष्टिः & गयः. Sayana renders "when the killing peoples come together (to attack), he guards the wealth... एह्यग्न इह होता नि षीद अदब्धः सु पुरएता भवा नः । अवतां त्वा रोदसी विश्वमिन्वे यजा महे सौमनसाय देवान् ॥ एहि होता takes up the idea of हवींषि implied in दाशोम. The answer to the questions of the first rik is that Agni, the Seer- Will, must himself come as the होता, the होमनिष्पादक (Sayana takes it wrongly here as देवानामाह्वाता) and bring about the right mentality by his sacrifice, महे सौमनसाय. पुरएता ...
... lineage and succession of the Masters and their disciples. However, later on, all the available Vedic mantras were principally divided into three groups, known as trayi (a group of three) - Rik, Sama and Yajur. Rik consists of verses or poems; Sama of songs; Yajur of prose works. Miscellaneous things were collected in the Atharva. Thus the Veda developed into four parts. According to the Puranas ...
... the spiritual Light." The Panis, says Sri Aurobindo 20 , are constantly spoken of as Dasyus and Dāsas, and he adds: "We may take as the master-clue to the general character of these Dasyus the Rik V.14.4. 'Agni born shone out slaying the Dasyus, the darkness by the Light: he found the Cows, the Waters, Swar', agnir jāto arocata, ghnan dasyün jyotiṣā tamah avindad gaapah svah. There are two ...
... singing sweetly and deign to increase on earth. O men, approach them, serve and live. 9.Go forth and live by serving our Lord, the deathless One. With your tongues chant ye the hymns, the sacred Riks of the Veda, nor err in the laws of wisdom. Oh, rich has become this earth in the blessed ones and the faithful who serve them with flowers and incense and sandal and water. 10.In all these rising ...
... rhythm that repeats for man the rhythms of the Eternal. The illumining Godhead is himself the Veda and that which is made known by the Veda. He is both the knowledge and the object of the knowledge. The Rik, the Yajur, the Sama, the word of illumination which lights up the mind with the rays of knowledge, the word of power for the right ordaining of action, the word of calm and harmonious attainment for ...
... all. I had to work much through my intuition and it was not easy to make it work." 12 June. Talk on the Maruts, the storm-gods of the Veda, and on Agni, the divine Flame. Sri Aurobindo read some riks. 13 June. Talk on the Duttatreya Yoga, a system current in Maharashtra, and on Mahatma Gandhi. 18 and 19 June. Talks on Jain philosophy and the physical sciences. 20 June. Sri Aurobindo spoke... was not able to take up that course, Sri Aurobindo advised him to continue his political work and attend at the same time to his spiritual life as much as he could. 10 June. Translation of Vedic riks. In the evening talk on the Veda, Sri Aurobindo said: "I wrote The Secret of the Veda in a great hurry and it requires a revision. If I had not written it under the pressure of the Arya I would ...
... familiar with this brahmano rupam, with this divinity of the Word, can have access to the secret of the Vedic verses and can then alone try to bring it revealingly nearer to us. In fact a Vedic Rik boldly declares that one who has no knowledge of the Eternal cannot understand the Veda. Only a Rishi can disclose to us, rather to the Rishi, the dazzling marvel of two birds on the same tree ...
... the Soul,” “an organ scale of the Eternal’s acts,” “predestined stadia of the evolving Way”… – all expressions which we find in his epic poem Savitri , his ultimate statement. He translated the rik about the original idea of the triple world in which we live, the three paces of Vishnu, from the Sanskrit of the Rig Veda as follows : “Thrice Vishnu paced and set his step uplifted out of the primal ...
... Sri Aurobindo and he worked towards it and firmly established it in the earth's subtle-physical. Things now will happen in the dynamism of the Truth-consciousness itself. In one of the Vedic Riks we have the description of Agastya digging into the darkness of the Night, khanan as it says. But the Rishi found it difficult to deal with the physical nature. He could not bring light to it. His... context we may also recall the great Vedic revelation in which we see Yama and our illustrious forefathers having together an ambrosial drink under Supalash Vriksha. 37 The mention of supalāsha in the Rik is extraordinarily striking, particularly in association with Yama whom we take as the God of Death. The reference to a cluster of palāsha trees by Vyasa in his Savitri-narrative lifts up that narrative ...
... Ambassadress does - the Rigveda whose imagery so often gleams out in Savitri. Usha is described in I. 113.19, mātā devānām adder anīkam, "Mother of the gods, form (or power) of Aditi." A Rik (80.1) of the fifth Mandala presents Usha as "a form from far beatitudes" coming near: it describes her as dytad-yāmānam brhatīm rtena rtāvarim svar āvahamtīm, "of a luminous movement, vast with the ...
... Ambassadress does—the Rigveda whose imagery so often gleams out in Savitri. Usha is described in I, 113.19, m ā t ā dev ā n ā m aditer an ī kam, "Mother of the gods, form (or power) of Aditi." A Rik (80.1) of the fifth Mandala presents Usha as "a form from far beatitudes" coming near: it describes her as dytad-y ā m ā nam brihatim ritena rit ā verim svar ā vahant ī m, "of a luminous movement ...
... attention to the sound-patterns of their hymns, for the Goddess Vak was the mediatrix between the human and the divine: When the Rishi makes an invocation by a Rik he contacts, with the power of consciousness packed in the Rik, the supernal ether and in the Ether, the particular god who vibrates in resonance to the particular frequency of the sound symbol. The Vak itself is the vehicle on ...
... mind; for of submission are you the increasers. We have here the definition of the Mantra itself,—framed by the heart and confirmed or established by the mind, hŗdā tastān manasā dhyāi . In this Rik of Agastya we have perhaps the earliest recorded theory of the creative Word. Sri Aurobindo comments: The Word is a power, the Word creates. Certain schools of Vedic thoughts even suppose the worlds ...
... Anyone may perceive in Sri Aurobindo's writings a wealth of experiences, a mantric power and an extraordinary superhuman attraction. That first sublime article in the Arya begins with one or two Riks from the Rig Veda. Hear: "She follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming,—Usha widens bringing out that ...
... because all भावऽ are subject to Agni on account of आहुति—सर्वेषां भावानामाहुतिद्वाराग्न्यधीनत्वात् Possible “Like Yama he controls what is born and what is to be born.” जारः पतिः S. quotes a Rik. सोमो ददद्गंधर्वाय गंधर्वो दददग्नये । रयि च पुत्रांश्चादादग्निर्मह्यमथो इमां ।। and तथा चाख्यायते अनुपजातपुरूषसंभोगेच्छावस्थां स्त्रियं सोमो लेभे । स च सोम ईषदुपजातभोगेच्छां तां विश्वावसवे ...
... East-South-West-North and again East. Indeed the Upanishad mentions the positions of the sun in that order and gives a character to each successive station. The Ray from the East is red, symbolising the Rik, the Southern Ray is white, symbolising the Yajur, the Western Ray is black symbolising the Atharva. The natural phenomenon, however, might have been or might not have been before the mind's eye ...
... Hence we desire our getting, or in the earth-region of heaven, Indra desire, or in the great mid-world. SUKTA 7 (1) The chanters chant vastly Indra, Indra the singers of the Page 202 Rik with songs of light; all our words of speech unto Indra dawn. (2) Indra comes ever inseparably with the two bright steeds and the car yoked by the word, Indra of the thunderbolt is all a golden light... knowledge of the large, a brilliance of utterly forceful steadfastness and, Indra, those rapturous masteries. (9) Declare ye with your words Indra of the Substance, lord of substance, full of the rik (knowledge); as he goeth we call on him for expansion of our being. (10) In every pouring of the nectar for capacity, of the large and increaser of the large, for Indra proceeds. SUKTA 10 (1) ...
... mind being extended beyond the jnana & literary work to the trikaldrishti, but as yet insecurely & incompletely. 1 February 1915 1) The Reference of the 29ṭḥ repeated. 2) Finally in the third Rik. The day has chiefly been devoted to work of Sahitya & Veda. A great capacity for large quantities of work swiftly done is being now manifested. There is an attempt also at the primary utthapana ...
... Or, brought to birth the Bull (but the case is dative). × This Rik makes the connection between the hidden cows and the Truth, also the Cows and the Dawn. × Literally ...
... ious'. The parable is evidently of the inner life of man; it is a figure of the human growing into the likeness of the eternal divine by the increasing illumination of Knowledge." The Lady of the Rik, nāri , who could not distinguish between the God and the human Aspirant as they had grown one in likeness, sarūpā , has been suggested by Griffith to be Kutsa's wife; this interpretation can stand ...
... scious'. The parable is evidently of the inner life of man; it is a figure of the human growing into the likeness of the eternal divine by the increasing illumination of Knowledge." The Lady of the Rik, nārī, who could not distinguish between the God and the human Aspirant as they had grown one in likeness, sarūpā, has been suggested by Griffith to be Kutsa's wife; this interpretation can stand ...
... has to be added. The Rik promises for October (1) the increasing richness & organisation of the Ananda; (2) full and active plenty of the faculties & siddhis.. (3) Vijnana fulfilling itself by action (4) an increasing rapidity. The rapidity will be real and positive, not apparent, but still not the extreme rapidity. Question— Bodily Asiddhi? Rik— अर्हते जातवेदसे रथमिव संमहेम ...
... Disciple : It also says " yaj ñas is the head ; the rk is the right side ; saman is the left side ; command is the soul ; atharva-angirasa is the end and foundation". Sri Aurobindo : Rik means the intuitive movement in the mind ; saman is "the rhythm of the movement and harmony.” Atharva means "the effective action of the physical plane". Angirasa , in the Veda at least, means ...
... 'Brihaspati, coming first into birth from the great Light in the Supreme other, seven-mouthed, multiply-born, seven-rayed, dispelled the darknesses; he with his best that possesses Stubha and the Rik broke Vala into pieces by his cry. Shouting Brihaspati drove upwards the bright herds with speed the offering and they lowed in reply.' (IV.50.4&5). And again in VI.73.1&3 we have the following: ...
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