SRI AUROBINDO AND THE VEDA

SRI AUROBINDO AND THE VEDA

It was casually that Sri Aurobindo looked into the Veda to see what warrant there was for certain present-day ethnical theories as regards the Aryan-Dravidian classification of races; of real warrant there was none to be found; but he discovered a world of the highest spiritual splendour, perhaps only once equalled, and then focused into a more perfect luminosity, in the long millenniums of man's history. It is a world unique in its spiritual effort and achievement; unique in the external forms it gave to its aspiration and adoration; unique too, and almost alien to us, in its ways of thought and sometimes even of feeling, especially feeling for Nature and in its modes of expression. Himself, he was living inwardly in a kindred world of spiritual effort and aspiration and so he was able to enter into the heart of the Vedic Rishis and their sacred mysteries. And now because of him, we are able to enter into that glorious world of ancient knowledge wherein illumined seers forge the human into the godlike birth in the divine smithy of the Yajna;² wherein they invoke through chants of compelling power Agni the Divine Will and Indra the Divine Mind and various other powers and personalities of the One Existent for the riches of the Spirit; wherein they yoke their mind and thoughts to the Vast Luminous Intelligence of the Sun of the Divine Truth for the attainment of the immortal Light.³

We are all acquainted with the current traditional account of the Veda. It is revelation of eternal and impersonal Truth, but of the complete revelation it forms the preliminary section, the book of Works, of sacrificial rites revealed to the Vedic seers, whose faultless performance bestows upon the doer all kinds of prosperity here on earth and beyond in the realms of the gods. The crown and culmination of the Veda is the Vedanta or the Upanishads, which are the book of Knowledge — Knowledge that opens to man his highest good.

¹Ayo na ...janim dhamantah:

'As if iron, forging the births.' 4-2-17.

(References when not otherwise stated are to the Rig-veda).

³Yunjate mana uta yunjate dhiyo vipra viprasya brhato vipaicitah:

Illumined seers yoke their mind and thoughts to the Illumined Seer, He of the vast luminous knowledge, 5-8I-I

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The Veda is for those who are driven by desire, who seek after enjoyment, who are content to swim in the unceasing currents of Nature, to rise and fall with its restless waves. But for those who would give up all desire and would turn away from the chase of worldly or heavenly pleasures, who would rise above the flux of Nature to the immutable truth of Being, for them is the Vedanta. But the sacrificial works of the Veda can be a step in the attaining of the true knowledge, for performed without desire for their fruits they purify the doer and he becomes a fit vessel for the knowledge. This is the traditional opinion on the Veda which had got slowly crystallised and ultimately prevailed, but there must have been, and we know that there were, other trends of opinion in the long course of India's cultural history. This view has been neatly and forcefully summarised for us in a few verses of the Gita,¹ though with special regard to fanatics of Vedic ritualism and from that time onward it has held the field.

But there is a very ancient world-view which forms a permanent strand of all traditional views on the Veda, to which we must pay special attention if we would understand them aright. According to that world-view this scheme of things that we behold has, both as a whole and in its elements and principles, three aspects, — the physical or the adhi-bhautika, the cosmic divine or the adhi-daivika and the spiritual or the adhyatmika.² Thus the Vedic Rishis approached and adored the gods in these three aspects, though it may be that it is their sacrificial forms and personalities closely connected with their cosmic divine aspect that they placed in the forefront. Agni, the foremost god in the Vedic scheme of worship, officiant at the sacrifice, bearer of man's oblations to the gods, conveyer of the gods to man, is Fire in his physical or nature aspect; but the presiding deity of Fire is a Creative Principle in things that is incessantly at work burning away the old and building up the new; and in his spiritual aspect he is the

¹Gita, II. 42-45 and IX. 20, 21.

²Some scholars say that this is an invention of later theologians. If this is meant to apply to the formulation of the three-fold division in these specific terms, it can be readily conceded. There is the triple world classification in the hymns themselves expressed in various ways. But these three worlds are not merely three regions lower, middle and higher of the boundless space overhead. They stand for the three lokas based on the three Principles of Matter, Life and Mind respectively. This classification with occasional variations is present in the Vedas, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads.

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Divine in the soul of man and in the soul of the Universe and in the Beyond. All gods have likewise these three aspects and it depends upon the capacity of the worshipper whether he stops short of this sacrificial form and personality or, through them as a vestibule, penetrates into their inner and innermost reality. "The sacrificial aspect is the flower and the cosmic divine aspect is the fruit; or the cosmic divine aspect is the flower and the spiritual aspect is the fruit", says Yaska.¹ Still it is recognized by tradition, that in the Veda it is the sacrificial or the adhi-yajna forms and personalities of the gods that are of prime concern and importance. It is on the basis of this idea that Sayana has written his monumental commentary on the Rig-vedic hymns.

The question for us is, have we got at the real sense and intention of this most ancient scripture of the world? Sayana's commentary is an amazing achievement, considering the difficulties of the times in which it was written and the special competence in many a recondite field of learning that it required. It would be superfluous to mention the thoroughness of its scholarship. It gives, for the language of the hymns, all relevant information as regards grammar and etymology and, for their substance, it brings together, wherever necessary, from the whole of extant Vedic Literature and Tradition, all supposed references to ritual practice and myth and legend. It is thus an indispensable aid to the understanding of the Veda. But unfortunately our praise of Sayana has to stop with this acknowledgment. As to entering into the meaning of the Riks and making explicit the subtle relations of idea to idea and the steps and transitions in the movement of the thought, he is often a thorough disappointment. He frequently destroys the poetical character of his text, even when it is there plainly on the surface and he seems to do it on a system. When in an impressive line communicating a fine glow of feeling through striking and truthful imagery a-Rishi sings:

Vastreneva vasaya manmana sucim jyotiratham sukravarriam tamo-hanam,²

"As if with a garment envelop him with thy thought, the Pure One, He who moves forth in his chariot of Light and whose hue is a flaming whiteness, — Slayer of the Darkness",

¹ Yajiia daivate puspaphale devatadhyatme va.

Nirukta 1-6-4.

² 1-140-I

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Sayana begins one of his renderings thus:

"Cover the sacrificial Fire with a chip of wood soft as a piece of cloth (vastreneva) and attractive to the mind or heart (manmana taken adjectivally)".

This is only a strong illustration of Sayana's method of interpretation based on the view that the hymns are in their intention and purpose entirely ritualistic, even though in a few passages it may be possible to read a spiritual significance.

Western scholars entered into the field of Vedic interpretation about a century ago and have kept on labouring steadily at it. They brought their fresh minds to the Vedic studies and also fresh knowledge which the old Indian scholars did not have at their disposal, — the knowledge of so many new sciences, especially of comparative Philology, comparative Mythology and Religion. They brought also their knowledge of the Avesta, a sister scripture to the Rig-veda. No praise can be too great for their disinterested pursuit of knowledge and their conscientious labours call forth our heart's gratitude in an abundant measure. But what, in the result, is their account of the Veda?

They find in it an extremely interesting picture of the mind of humanity in its childhood. Powers and phenomena of Nature are personified, deified and worshipped through magical rites for the sake of food and rain, cows and horses, sons and servants, long life, triumph over enemies, and wealth of all kinds. Fire and Air — Agni and Vayu; storm winds and the mysterious Power that bursts open the clouds with the lightning-shaft and makes them rain — Maruts and Indra; the Dawn and the Sun — Ushas and Surya; the Lords of the Day and the Night — Mitra and Varuna — such and suchlike are the gods of the Vedic worshipper. It happened that each of these gods in his turn for worship was being raised to the rank of supremacy and also one god was being identified with another for lack of any very distinctive features amongst themselves. There was thus a sort of perplexed tendency towards monotheism, which civilised religions of other countries reached through gradual evolution. But a peculiarly Indian development, we are made to understand, seems to have intervened with the identification of Aditi, mother of the gods, with the whole of Nature and we have as a result the pantheism of the Vedanta. The Vedic religion itself occupies a position somewhere between primitive anthropomorphism and the polytheism of the Greek and Roman mythologies.

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What may be called the nature aspect of the Vedic gods was no new thing to Indian tradition. "Who is Vritra?" asks Yaska¹ and answers, "The Nairuktas say it is the cloud and the Aitihasikas that he is an Asura, son of Twashtri". And he goes on to say that the battle between Indra and Vritra is only a figurative description of the intermingling of the two elements Water and Light, from which action rain is produced. And to the western scholars Vritra is either the nightly darkness destroyed by Indra the sun in his daily rising on the eastern horizon, or he is the primeval darkness of chaos victoriously conquered on the first morning of creation, or he is the demon of drought or even of eclipse, or, represented by that asterism of the zodiac in which the sun loses his strength, he stands for the forces of winter adverse to life. The traditional interpreters regarded the Nature aspect of the gods as the outer and part expression of their divine personalities. They did not speculate on the problem as to how man came to conceive them. But to the western scholars and those who follow in their wake the Veda is interesting as revealing the very birth of the gods, as showing how early man created them from the powers and phenomena of Nature.

In spite of radical difference in general outlook and wide divergence in the manner of looking at the attributes and functions of the gods, both the old and the new interpreters of the Veda have, on the whole, reduced it to a mass of sun and star and weather myths, with a sprinkling of prehistoric legends, couched in mystifying enigma and allegory and woven into an elaborate pattern of ritualistic worship. In one case the obsessions of a latter-day ritualistic theology and in the other the preconceived notions of a superficially-scientific view of the evolution of man's mind and thought have worked havoc with the real sense of the Veda. We may accept that man derived his notions of the divine from the manifestation of nature's power; that physical fire, for instance, may have so impressed him as to become an object and vehicle of his worship and a gateway to the Divine. But the anthropomorphic theory of religion and the magical theory of rites seem to be based on a very incomplete and superficial view of the psychology of early man. And even if we are disposed to accept these theories and apply them to account for the creation of the Vedic gods and rites by the primitive fore-fathers of the Aryans, in the

¹ Nirukta 2-5-2

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Rig Veda itself that stage has been long past and left far behind. Here surely are no primitive people whom we can picture on the model of aboriginal tribes visited and described by anthropologists and explorers of the last three or four hundred years, but a hieratic line of thinkers and seers — dhirah, viprah, rsayah — who are in charge of a sacred tradition of the mystical sacrifice and are intent upon keeping it alive and handing it down to future generations¹ and "who, in the light of the heart's perceptions, range along the thousand-branched mystery of existence" — ta in ninyam hf-dayasya praketaih sahasravaUm abhi sancaranti (7-33-9).

Most of us have heard the Vedic story of Sunahsepa who was sold away by his parents to serve as a human victim in a king's sacrifice, who was bound with three cords in three places of his body to the sacrificial post ready to be immolated, who in this last extremity turned to the gods and prayed to them and they delivered him. We refer to Sunahsepa's hymn in the Rig Veda which is said to allude to this story and what is it that we find? There is no actual sacrificial post and no material cords with which the victim is secured to it. The hymn is a magnificent chant to the gods of a soul thirsting for release into the boundlessness of Aditi, mother of the gods and the worlds. "Bound in three places of the Tree"² — the Tree of Life — with three bonds, higher, lower and middle, Sunahsepa calls upon Varuna for deliverance from them, "so that, O son of Aditi", he cries, "blameless in thy law we may pertain to Aditi" (1-24-15). It is plain the bonds are symbolic and they seem to be no other than the limitations imposed upon the soul by the body, life and mind. "Of whom now the name, the lovely name of which one among the immortals, shall we think upon? Who will deliver me back to great Aditi that I may see the Father and the Mother?" — so begins this eternal cry of the soul in lines whose rhythm seems to capture something of the swell of shoreless oceans. And Sunahsepa addresses Agni, Savita, Bhaga and other gods in turn and finally Varuna, Lord of the unconfined Vast, who it is that releases the soul into the infinitude of Aditi. And this is the constant theme of the Veda. But

¹ ma hedma rasmin iti nadhamanali pitfndm iaktir atiuyacchamSnafy.

"May we not break the threads" — thus in their hearts desiring and extending the knowledge-powers of the fathers.— r-109-3.

² or of the wood, in which case it may be taken to mean a sacrificial post made of wood.

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Sayana gives no inkling of this and he finds in the hymn the matter-of-fact story of a human victim tied to the sacrificial post and who obtains his freedom through miraculous divine intervention. For Sayana has very definite views on the intention and purpose of the Veda, which is only to reveal ritual works.

How is it that the Veda has been able to guard its secret inviolate for so long, is a question that naturally occurs to the mind. The Rig Veda, as we have it, is a subsequent compilation of hymns that had been composed throughout an epoch of intense spiritual and religious culture extending over a good number of generations. There is nothing before the Veda to throw its light upon it, and between it and the earliest attempts at its interpretation in the Brahmanas there lies a wide and very deep gap in tradition. Already in the Brahmanas they are guessing and speculating about the meaning of the hymns, trying out various interpretations, suggesting fanciful and fictitious etymologies, sometimes in sheer good faith and sometimes with the deliberate intention of grafting new significances into the text. That the Vedic tradition was almost entirely lost is a conclusion forced upon us by much evidence; but as to how it was lost, whether it was due to Nature's cataclysms or to sometimes more fierce and destructive social convulsions or to both, we can only speculate. There are stories, too, coming from old, old times of the loss of the Veda and its recovery by a divine Incarnation. And Yaska, later on, puts in the mouth of an opponent, invented or real, seriously the contention that the Veda has no intelligible meaning.

Still, however serious this gap in tradition, the thinkers of the Vedic Renaissance in the Brahmana and Aranyaka period, we feel, should not have been prevented by it from successfully recovering the culture and knowledge of the Vedic Age. In fact we have in the Upanishads luminous hints as to the true nature of the Vedic sacrifice and the Vedic gods. But the difficulties that baffle attempts to arrive at the real sense of the Veda are peculiar to the Veda. Its garb of archaic Sanskrit is not very difficult to unloose. The chief difficulty is its deliberately symbolic diction in which the true, inner sense is hidden under the veil of an external sense and also its unique mode of thinking in concrete images, for which our modern way of thinking would substitute its counters of abstract ideas.

Very often the language of the Veda is recognizably allegorical; for instance, when Vamadeva speaks of "the four-horned Bull with its

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three feet, two heads and seven hands, which triply tethered roars aloud — the great god who has entered into mortals"¹, there is no doubt that there is a hidden meaning in this freak of imagination, no doubt that, whatever might be our precise maimer of unriddling these strange features of the Bull,² it stands in a general way for the divine power which has entered into the world and activates it. But when Madhucchandas says that the rapture of Indra is indeed cow-giving — "go-da id revato madah" — one is apt to take it as a plain statement of fact, that the Rishi believed that the offering of the Soma-wine in the sacrific exhilarated Indra to the point of expelling all stinginess from him and that somehow he then saw to it that cows accrued to the sacrificer. This may have been the idea of the ordinary worshipper even in the Vedic times; but to those who entered into the heart of the Vedic worship it conveyed a different meaning altogether. To them the gift of Indra was the gift of Light, of the inner Light that illumines the mind. The image of the physical cow was merely a symbol for the inner Light. And moreover the word 'gau' conveyed the sense of light also as one of its various meanings. In the particular stage of language development which we observe in the Veda the word meant both cow and light, suggested to the mind both senses with equal readiness and naturalness. This may appear to us to be no more than an instance of the rhetorical figure of slesa or double entendre with which we are so familiar in classical Sanskrit, but there is a great difference. However easily classical Sanskrit may lend itself to the use of this figure, it is always by an artificial device of style that a word is made to yield more than one meaning. But Vedic Sanskrit appears to preserve something of the original character of language when words have not yet been rigidly fixed into conventional signs denoting a unique and precisely marked-off significance, but have a freedom of movement over a wide and connected range of meanings all of which are naturally suggested by their etymology and it is only the intention of the speaker as expressed by the context that decides which one of its several meanings a word conveys in a particular place. Thus, the Vedic use of the word 'gau' so as to give both the

¹ Catvari srnga trayo asya pada dve sirse sapta hastaso asya tridha baddho vrsabho roraviti maho devo martyan a vivesa. 4-58-3.

²The grammarians explain that the Bull is the word. The four horns are four classes into which it is divided, the three feet the three tenses, the seven hands the seven cases, and so on!

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meanings of cow and light is no artificial figure of double entendre, but a natural consequence of the peculiar character of the Vedic speech. A further extension of this method by which a word is made to convey more than one meaning is illustrated by the use of the word 'asva'. Coming from a root which means, among other things, to possess, to enjoy, to reach, to attain, it signifies not only a horse, but, by the packing of all these different senses into one idea so as to derive a cumulative effect, it is also made to stand as a designation of vital force — the Vedic Steed of Life. Influenced by this peculiar character of the language the Vedic Rishis are naturally led into a symbolic diction and they use words like 'gait and 'asva' to convey under cover of their external physical meaning an inner psychological conception.

And they use these symbols with great looseness; sometimes as algebraic signs which, in order to be understood, have to be overridden, have to be converted into their real values; sometimes as equally capable of both the outward and the inner sense; sometimes they keep the external image for its poetical value of suggestion and sometimes they lose sight of it altogether in the preoccupation with the inner psychological sense. That is why the Vedic poets are able to speak of Indra's rapture as cow-giving; to speak of dhiyah go-agrah (1-90-5) and matayah asvayogah (1-186-7) — "thoughts with their front of light" or "thoughts yoked with the quick energies of Life"; and, again, combining the two symbols of the Cow and the Horse, to speak of the higher divine mind of leading with its front or summit of Light and with its swift impulsions of the energy of Life — devya pramatya ... go-agraya asvavatya (1-53-5).

We shall now illustrate the other main difficulty concerning what we have called the peculiar mode of thought of the Vedic Rishis by referring to their use of the concrete image of "The Waters" for the abstract idea of existence. The general notion of existence common to all existences, in itself indeterminate and fluid but taking determinate form and fixity in individual existences, was expressed by them by the image of "the Waters", of "the Ocean" — apah, salila, samudra, arnah, ctc. And the idea of forms of being or principles of existence was expressed by the image of the Streams or the Rivers — nadi, srotas, vartanih, etc. A somewhat similar use of the image of the waters seems to be made by the Hebrew scripture when it speaks of the Spirit of God brooding over the waters.

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This method of presenting general notions in apt concrete images that seem somehow psychologically inevitable, appears to be universal and to come naturally to the mind of man before it turns in the direction of a predominantly intellectual development. But this is to be distinguished, as radically different, from the process of allegorizing in which the intellectual fancy of certain poets takes delight — a sort of deliberately contrived double entendre of the idea similar to the artificial double entendre of the word.

We can now understand how these peculiarities of diction and thought of the Vedic seers, together with the serious gap in tradition, made the Veda almost a sealed book to the subsequent generations. And it will also have been perceived by now that a sound view of the origins and development of words and ideas is an invaluable if not indispensable aid to the interpretation of the Veda; for it is in the fight of that view that we must be able to understand the peculiar characteristics of the Vedic Speech. The language of the Veda is much nearer to its origins than any other that we know of and its words seem to preserve some special virtues of their nascent condition. Sri Aurobindo has given a few of the results of his investigations into this aspect of the subject in an all too brief chapter in his series on the Secret of the Veda; but the little he has given is full of illuminating glimpses into the origins and development of language and thought and has an important bearing upon the many characteristic features of the Vedic Speech. He suggests that language starts with certain seed-sounds which give rise to a number of root-words and these go on putting out branches in all directions. Speech and Significance, Vak and Artha, are first shaped by the sense-mind of man, certain original language-sounds being associated, by an inherent, psychological fitness, with certain sense perceptions, emotional reactions and practical utilities. Language did not start as a code with certain sound-forms each made and designed to convey a single precise idea. An original sound-form had a general psychological character or quality which it shared in common with a group of kindred sound-forms and it expressed in common with the group a vaguely outlined general significance. It was hence capable of a great number of varying applications within the general significance. Variations in sound-form would be called forth by the need to express variations of the general significance, and so words would launch on their career of specialisation. It is thus that language in its early

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stages happens to abound in words which denote a great variety of senses and also in a redundant multiplicity of words which express the same or similar sense. But when words begin to become fully individual in character, this state of things changes. There is the need for economy and efficiency which increasingly does away with all undue over-loading and over-lapping. Thus, language begins with living-sounds which have a life of their own, a life that determines their sense and presides over its transformations and it ends in words which almost become lifeless and conventional signs for ideas. Again, looking from the side of idea, language starts with a small stock of very general and concrete notions, all immediately derivable from sense perceptions. Because of the need to express clearly different shades and varieties of idea, there is an increasing progression from the vague to the precise, from the general to the particular, from the concrete to the abstract, from the physical to the psychological and so on. And here are fixed laws of development observable in the evolution of ideas as in the evolution of words.

Now, by a knowledge of the laws that governed the association of certain sound-forms with certain sense-values in the Sanskrit tongue and by a close study of its word-families and also of their kindred in allied tongues whenever necessary it is possible, Sri Aurobindo thinks, to reconstruct to a great extent the past history of individual words, to account for the many different, and sometimes even contradictory, sense-values that a single word comes to possess, and even to restore lost senses of words.¹ It is possible to have a reliable scientific basis for our renderings of Vedic words instead of having to depend on mere ingenious conjecture. And we can account for the peculiar features of the Vedic Speech in the light of the knowledge of the fundamental processes of language development. It is needless to point out that a philological method based upon a true Science of Language and Thought is sure to be of essential help in the interpretation of the Vedic hymns.

The Vedic word has a peculiarly live quality which we must fully appreciate in order to understand the precise character of Sri Aurobindo's psychological theory of the Veda and not imagine that it is just an exercise in allegorical exegesis with which one is so familiar

¹ For an instance of this we shall point out to the fixing of the Vedic word 'daksa' in the sense of intuitive discrimination by Sri Aurobindo. The reader is referred to the exhaustive discussion on the word in the Arya.

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in India and elsewhere. We have already said that it is this peculiar quality of the Vedic word which led the Rishis into a symbolic diction. The Vedic word presents directly and primarily the general meaning of the root from which it is derived and almost as a sort of inference and secondarily the particular meaning which, on a given occasion, it is intended to convey. "Vrka" is first and foremost the tearer and therefore a wolf also. "Dhenu" is fosterer and so it could mean either a cow or a stream as occasion demanded. So the poets of the Vedic age could use these words to convey the ideas of tearing and fostering in a psychological sense under cover of the physical image of the wolf and the cow or the stream. Thus, Indra is said to create for the sacrificer "the wolfless (!) illuminations" — 'avrkani jyotinsi' (1-55-6), and the protecting influences of the gods¹ and the gods themselves are called 'avrka'. And 'dhenu' is used as an image for 'manisa' or thought (3-57-1) and also as an adjective to both thought and speech. Again, the different senses of the same word were not kept entirely separate. For instance, 'bhaga'has the sense of both enjoyment and share, 'vana' of delight and forest,'canas' of food and pleasure. The Vedic poets use such words, sometimes conveying both the senses together and sometimes bringing one of them only forward and keeping the other in the background so as to throw its suggestion on to the overt sense. The physical and psychological meanings of these words go hand in hand with varying degrees of prominence and contribute to both the external and the inner sense of the thought of the Rishis. Thus,'bhaga' is the portion which the deity bestows upon the worshipper, but at the same time it means the joy which the presence of the deity creates in him. 'Vana' is sometimes used solely in its psychological sense and when used prominently in its physical sense as is often done, it is so used that the suggestion of its psychological sense always hovers over it. 'Canas' is the food-offering in the external worship but it denotes the inner offering of delight as well. The names of the Vedic gods — Agni, Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Savita, Suiya and so on are not appellatives, they are epithets significant of their functions. The enemies of the gods too have intriguing names — Vrtra the coverer, Dasyu the destroyer, Vrka the tearer, Vala the encircler, Pani the trafficker and so on. It is clear that Vedic words are in live contact with their roots, roots which in many cases are multi-significant; and it is this vital

¹ avrkaIf pdyavafa 4-4-12.

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quality of the words which enables the Vedic Rishis to use them as vehicles for their profound psychological conceptions.

We are now in a position to give some brief and general indication of the psychological theory of the Veda which has been advanced by Sri Aurobindo. The Riks are hymns that grew round the Yajna or the Vedic ritual of worship, which as evidenced by the hymns themselves is already sufficiently elaborate. A rite in itself is ever symbolic, a dramatic representation, so to say, in word and gesture and act, of the sacred feelings — of awe and reverence, of adoration and aspiration. The gods of the Veda are presented with their several functions and attributes and myths and legends which are plainly symbolic are woven round them. But no consistent and adequate explanation of the symbolism has been given either by the traditional commentators or the western scholars. It is probable that certain conceptions of the gods and some of the myths had originated in naturalistic and in some cases more specifically from astronomical phenomena. But in the Rig Veda itself it is evident that the intention is not at all to present natural phenomena in the garb of myth and legend. Such an intention can be easily perceived in some of the stories in the Brahmanas. The naturalistic key, either of the traditional or western make, does not always fit into the Vedic symbolism. It does not offer a consistent explanation of it. But the Veda, except for certain secular and other compositions of a markedly disparate character, looks all of a piece and its symbolism, whatever its meaning, is neither incipient nor shifting but well developed, minutely elaborated and almost rigidly fixed. There is, on the face of it, a great similarity of form and matter throughout the Veda, in spite of personal variations in style and manner of presentation. We meet continuously with the same fixed terms, the same expressions and phrases, the same set formulae. Any explanation, therefore, of the Vedic symbolism must be consistently applicable throughout and if we have to be continually shifting and varying our ground in interpreting it, we can be sure we have not got the right clue at all.

Sri Aurobindo has conclusively shown that there lies at the core of the Vedic symbolism a psychological and spiritual meaning. Under the external figures of ritual and myth and legend what the Vedic poets present is a spiritual aspiration and knowledge. The ritual of the Yajna, as we find it in the Rig Veda, is not primitive, it is already elaborate in form, as we just now said. We know nothing of its past

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history and we can only speculate whether it was the result of a gradual development out of primitive forms of worship or whether these were appropriated by an age of intensive spiritual culture and organised as vehicles of its higher aspiration and deeper knowledge. However that might be, in the Rig Veda the Yajna is entirely symbolic, every aspect and feature of it. The gods are powers of the supreme Godhead at work in man and the universe. That these gods are not the inhabitants of some mythological heaven, that they are powers of consciousness is made abundantly clear by the full and minute psychological characterization bestowed upon them throughout the hymns and the naturalistic theories cannot explain it away and the ritualistic theories cannot account for it.

Let us take the god Agni, for instance. It is true he is worshipped as the altar fire and is even produced, for the purpose of the ritual, by some sort of fire-drill. But this Fire is the priest himself, he who takes man's worship and consecrated action into himself and leads them to their destination. He is "the immortal in mortals"¹ he "is born in that which is the very foundation of man"²; the gods create him with their thoughts,³ the seers guard him in their hearts.⁴ He is the Seer-Will, — Kavi-kratuh. He is the 'eye'⁵ that guides the mind. He is the divine worker in man and man's messenger to the gods. He is groomed like a horse by the worshippers, whom he carries over to the vast Home of the Truth. "He is the seeker and worker, he it is that travels to the delight. He is established in the highest (or the nearest) sheath. He speaks of the ways of knowledge to men, for he has the knowledge. He is Agni, the True and Knower of the Truth."⁶ "He is the moveless Light placed within us that we may see and he is the mind, swiftest-moving of all things that speed. All the gods, one in mind, one in perception, move rightly on their various paths towards him who is the one Will."⁷ There can be no doubt, in the face of this, that the Rishis did not worship either the physical fire or

¹Amartyam martyesu*. 4-1-1.

²Ayam jayata manuso dharimani. 1-128-1.

³Devaso agnim janayanta cittibhih. 3-2-3.

4 Kavayah hrda raksamand ajuryam. 1-146-4.

5 Caksuh.. codayanmati. 5-8-6.

⁶ Sa im mrgo apyo vanargur upa tvacyupamasyam nidhayi; vyabravid vayuna martyebhyognir vidvan rtaciddhi satyah. 1-145-5.

7Dhruvam jyotir nihitam drsaye kam mano javstham patayatsvantah visve devah samanasah saketa ekam kratum abhi vi yanti sadhu. 6-9-5.

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some mythological fire-god of the sacrifice. What they worshipped was the Divine Will under the figure of the sacrificial fire.

The Maruts, usually represented as storm-gods, have some prominently physical features associated with them. They seem to have originated not so much as storm-powers but as lightning-powers. But there is no doubt in the Veda they are invested with psychological functions. They are hearers of the Truth and seer-poets — satya-srutah kavayah. They are the symbol for the host of thought energies which move towards the Light. After the dawn of the divine illumination, they are said to undergo a new birth according to the innate law of their nature and assume the sacrificial name.¹ They sing the brahman, the chant of the soul, to Indra (8-89-3); they are the singers of the hymn — brahmanah. Indra is their companion and he is said to bestow upon the worshipper the host of the Maruts as a gift (2-11-14). The Maruts worship Indra who is their seer or Rishi

(5-29-1).

Indra, from which word we have "indriya", the name for sense faculties, is the lord of the luminous mind or Swar which receives the light of the Sun of the divine Truth. He is the seeker of the cows of Light—gavesanah and his gift to the worshipper is, as we have already seen, the gift of Light — of "the fearless light", abhayam jyotih, of "the light in which there is no hurt of division", avrkam jyotih, "the light which is immortal", amrtam jyotih, "the light that glows beyond heaven", paro yad idhyate diva (8-6-30). "Throw open the pen of the cows", gavam apa vrajam vrdhi (1-10-7), is the prayer of the Vedic seers to Indra and the fount of these cows is in the highest realm — 'utsa asam paratne sadhasthe' (5-45-8). He is the friend of Kutsa and Usana, types of the aspiring soul. He razes to the ground the fortified cities of Sambara, the wily Asura. Their number is variously given as three or nine or ninety-nine, and the hundredth he destroys for Divodasa for his "self-extension into the All" — satata-man vesyam sarvatarta (4-26-3). He strikes down Vritra who lies enshrouding the waters with his darkness. He breaks into pieces Vala who pens the "herd of the self-luminous cows" in his stone enclosure.

¹Samusadbhir ajayathah. Ad aha svadham ami punar garbhatvam erire, dadhand nama yajniyam. 1-6-3, 4.

After their illumination the thought powers become new-born and enter into the work of the divine movement. This is what is meant by the assumption of the sacrificial name by the Maruts.

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We forbear from entering here into a discussion of the meaning behind these exploits of Indra, but their psychological and spiritual suggestions, we believe, are clear and unmistakable.

We find the same kind of spiritual symbolism in respect of the other gods and goddesses of the Veda. Ushas or the Dawn is the illumination of the divine knowledge breaking on the mind of man. Surya is the divine Supramental Truth, the Self of all that moves and all that is stable and as Savita he is the divine Creator. As Mitra he is the lord of Harmony, the divine Friend of man and as Varuna he is the lord of the Vast Consciousness. Pushan, the nourisher and increaser, is a form of Surya. Bhaga is the divine enjoyer in man, and Aryaman, the lord of his aspiration and his upward labour, and these too are Solar deities, powers of the Sun of Truth. The symbolism of these gods is, as revealed by Sri Aurobindo, marvellously profound and subtle, appears as the natural flowering of a deep knowledge and strong discipline and has a perfectly poetic quality. It has no resemblance whatsoever to the prosaic and intellectual allegories which seem to be made from time to time in all countries ad out divine virtues and spiritual knowledge. Agni himself becomes these gods or he manifests and establishes them in man in the courses and seasons of the progressing Yajna. They bring to birth "the other wide world" even in "the narrowness" here; their fostering creates the bliss even in this world of fear and peril — bhaya a cin mayobku. They are different Names of the One Existent, various Powers and Personalities of the Supreme Godhead. They have their several functions to perform in the great movement of the soul from its present state of "threefold bondage" to that of Freedom and Immortality — to Aditihood.

We have said that all the features of the Vedic Sacrifice are symbolical. As we cannot enter in detail into their precise interpretation, we shall merely indicate the symbolical intention behind them. The several officiating priests with their different functions in the ritual of the Yajna — hota, ftvik, adhvaryu, brahma, etc., are all representative of the various aspects or powers of the human personality. Their number is usually seven and we know of the ancient idea that the world is created by a seven-fold principle and that all created things are therefore seven-fold. Often it is Agni and sometimes the other gods, too, who officiate at the sacrifice. This makes clear the symbolic nature of the officiation. And the various oblations, too,

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have their inner significance, their esoteric meaning. Let us take for example the oblations of "ghrta" and "madhu". The "ghrta" has its "secret name", "guhyam nama", says the Vedic seer; it is their way of saying that the "ghrta" oblation represents some other than material significance which is purposely kept hidden. And so too about the Soma. "He presses out the juice of the creeper and thinks he has drunk of the Soma; the Soma of which the sacred singers know, no one partakes of it.⁸ "Those whose bodies have not passed through the fire, the un-baked vessels, they do not enjoy it; only the fire-baked ones, bearing it in them, have of it the perfect enjoyment⁹". The offering of "ghrta" into the sacrificial fire is often likened to the offering up of the mind's thoughts and impulsions to the godhead: "may we offer up the mind's impulsion with knowledge , as if with a ladle the clarified butter.⁸" It is the clear bright-flowing thought of the mind that is concretely imaged by the ghrta¹⁰ oblation, as it is the heart's delight and the spirit's bliss that are imaged by madhu or Soma-wine. We have therefore "ghrtaci", an adjective from "ghrta", applied to mind and thought, as in "ghrtacim dhiyam'' (1-2-7) and in "sumatir ghrtaci" (3-30-7). And when the Vedic poet says that it is the "ghrita"-imbued milk — "ghrtavat payah" — of Heaven and Earth, the divine parents of man's being, that the illumined seers taste with their thoughts in the immutable world of the Gandharva, the guardian of the mystic Wine of Delight¹¹, only a mind that has shut itself behind doors triple-locked with prejudice can resist the conclusion that the "ghrta" is a concrete figure for a psychological conception.

But the greatest difficulty is as regards the real significance of the fruits of the sacrifice. It would appear at first sight that the Vedic

¹ Somam manyate papivan yat sampisantyosadhim,
Somam yam brahmano vidur na tasyasnati kascana, 10-85-3.
² Ataptatanur no tad amo asnute srtasa id vahantas tat samasata, 9-83-1.
3 Amanisam ... sruceva ghrtam juhavama vidmanii. l-IIo-6.
⁴ The root 'ghr' from which the word is derived, conveys the ideas of
flowing and of a warm glowing brightness. It is this general meaning of the
root that is made to apply to both thought and material "ghrta"• The word
'Soma', like the words 'Surya' and 'Savita', is derived from the root 'Su',
which means to impel, to release forth, to create, etc., and as such is apt for
typifying Ananda or the divine bliss.
⁵ Tayor it ghrtavat payo vipra rihanti dhuibhih, gandharuasya dhruue pade,
1-22-14

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poets are always beseeching the gods for material gifts — food and wealth, cattle and rain, sons and servants, and so on. We shall first take the important case of the rain. We are often told that the Yajna is the motive force which keeps the cosmic life-cycle continually revolving between heaven and earth. This is explained to mean that the oblation offered into the sacrificial fire ascends to the sun and comes down in the form of rain, which produces abundant food for men and cattle; and out of this food and the yield of the cattle oblations are offered again and the cycle goes on. One of the chief objects of the Yajna is, therefore, rain, "vrsti" and the gods are rain-givers, "vrsa-nah" But this word 'vrsan' occurs so often in contexts where it is impossible to translate it as rain-giving and the commentators too render it otherwise. Indra is often called 'Vrsan' and 'Vrsabha' which ordinarily mean a bull, and the bull in the usual manner of the thought of the Veda is intended as a significant image. The root from which these words are derived, besides meaning to rain, to bestow, conveys the ideas of supremacy, might, abundance, lofty eminence, fecundating power, etc.¹ When Indra was called Vrsan or Vj-sabka by the Vedic poet, we must remember that what these words conveyed to his mind were primarily the ideas of supremacy, might etc. and that their ordinary meaning of bull was to him secondary and merely furnished him with a suggestive concrete image. Incidentally, we should take care not to fall into the complacent idea that we are in the presence of an inferior type of mentality which figured its gods as animals.

And what is the 'Vrsti', which ordinarily means rain, that the Vedic poets seek of the gods? 'Vrsti' again is a 'guhyam nama', the external image of the rain being merely the vehicle of a psychological significance. To the Vedic poets it meant "the raining of the world of Light". "We desire from you both Mitra and Varuna the rain, the divine favour that perfects, the immortality — "Vrstim vdm radho amrtatvam imahe" (5-63-2). Need we say that the association of the rain or the 'vrsti' with 'amrtatva' is significant? Elsewhere, Indra is

¹ See the words 'varsiyas' and 'varsistha' which are taken as the comparative and superlative forms of 'vrddha' in classical Sanskrit; the words 'vrsnyam' height etc., 'vrsnyam', fecundating power. The use of the word 'vrsan' in compounds is instructive: 'vrsan-vasu' of mighty or supreme wealth; 'vrsamanah\ of powerful mind; vrsaa-ganah and vrsa-vrtah\ having mighty hosts. 'Vrsabha',is used as an adjective to 'manyu' in 'vrsabheva mrtyuna'.

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said to fight towards his own self-raining — 'sva-vrstim asya yudhya-tah' (1-52-14). It is to be marked that this rain is not from the clouds sealed up by Vritra, it is his own self-raining, the raining of Swar of which he is the lord. He wins for the worshipper the waters that contain the light of heaven — the luminous waters — "svarvatir apah". He is invoked to win the waters every day — "apo jaya dive dive" (8-15-6). Agni, Indra and Soma find "the cows, the waters and the heaven" — "ga apah svah"; and this phrase in which these three apparently incongruous entities are grouped together is repeated many a time as a set formula. The battle course or aji\ which again is a figure for the soul's upward striving and in which the sacrificer is helped on by the gods, is called "svarmilha" or that which has the raining down of Swar, the world of Light, or "sahasra-milha", that which has the raining down of the thousand — hundred or thousand in the Veda representing the plenitude of attainment. The heavenly rain for which the soul of the Vedic poet yearns and thirsts is not the rain from the clouds; it is the downpour from the luminous divine mind represented by Indra. It may be noted, here again as in the case of other symbol words, that the/word vrsti, ordinarily meaning rain, was not arbitrarily chosen to denote a certain esoteric meaning, but that the character of the word itself, its ability to extend to over a number of various significances, its 'gativibhutva' as one commentator calls this quality of the Vedic word and its consequent many-sided suggestions made it a natural vehicle for the spiritual conception that it was intended to convey.

The cow and the horse are two of the chief boons sought of the gods by the sacrificer. We have already referred to the inner meaning of ^lgau' and 'asva', which are two of the key-words of the Veda. They represent together, under material images, the constant Vedic dualism of Light and Power, knowledge and energy of action, for which we have a number of word-pairs occurring in the hymns, such as 'Kavya' and ^<paumsya\ ¹dyumna' and 'Vrsnya', 'dhirah and 'apasah', etc. Some of the words for the many other desires of the Rishis are: 'rayt', 'dhana', 'ratna\ 'vasu', usually rendered by Sayana as wealth; '«' 'vaja', 'cams', 'prayas', usually rendered as food; 'sravas', as food, fame, wealth, hymn, glorious deed; 'rta\ as water or truth or Yajna or sun or in so many other ways; 'kratu' and 'dhi\ as ritual action; 'viva', 'toka', 'tanaya', 'praja', as retainer, son or progeny.

¹ Durgacharya on Nirukta 1-2-2-4.

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We cannot read a few Suktas consecutively without coming across some of these words a number of times. They are among what may be called the fixed technical terms of the Veda and any interpretation of the Veda must stand or fall with the interpretation given to them. Sayana's handling of these words is to say the least extremely loose. Rita, which may be termed the key-word of the Veda, the word for its central conception, and which is to be invariably rendered as Truth, Sayana renders in any number of ways according to the exigencies of the moment. Such a plainly psychological term as 'dhi' for thought is made to yield by preference the sense of rite or ritualistic action. 'Kratu,' which in classical Sanskrit means a Vedic rite, means in the Veda 'power of action', 'will'. It is used in this sense in the Upani-shads also, for instance in the sentence, 'kratumayah purusah' — the will is the man.¹ Sayana takes it in the sense of knowledge or work and more often in the latter sense. To 'travels' he gives a number of incompatible senses. In the Veda it means the soul's faculty of hearing the voice of Truth, the inner audition, or that which is heard by it, inspiration. These fixed terms of the Veda must normally have a fixed sense and we cannot go on changing their meaning from hymn to hymn or from verse to verse in the same hymn, as Sayana is forced to do. The rest of the words above mentioned are all used symbolically. Sometimes they are used by themselves without anything added in the context which would bring their inner significance to the surface, as symbol words whose hidden meaning is presumed to be known to the initiates; but quite as often their real hidden sense is made unmistakably plain and inescapable by the context. For instance, the'rayi' or wealth prayed for is "the discoverer of Heaven" — 'rayim svarvidam' (8-13-5) ^and the "possessor of Heaven" — 'rayih svarvan' (6-22-3). It is the destroyer of evil thoughts — 'prabhangam durmatinam rayim' (8-46-19) and it is that which breaks up the blocking of expression by the hostile powers — 'yo bhanakti vanusam asastih' (6-68-6). It is described as shining white — ^lenim rayim' (5-33-6) and as being a flood of Light — 'go-arnasam rayim' (10-38-2). Surely this 'rayi' can be no sort of material wealth. But if we hold fast to the theory that the primitive peoples of the Vedic age could not think of anything beyond material wealth in their prayers to their deities; or if we lay it down as unalterable that the Rishis prayed for material wealth here and heavenly enjoyments

¹ Chandogya Upanishad 3-14-1.

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hereafter, as the only possible rewards for their ritual sacrifices, then it may not be impossible to wriggle out of the most adversely decisive contexts — on condition that we do not mind taking undue liberties with the meaning of words. When the Vedic poet says, "isam svasca dhimahi" — "may we hold by the thought the god ward impulsion and the world of Light" (7-66-9), the incompatibility between the sense of physical food and of the world of Light is too violent even for Sayana and so he makes 'svar' to mean water, and explains the passage as a prayer for food and water — 'annam udakam ca dharyemahi'But the more reasonable course would be not to do violence to the text in this manner but to lay aside our preconceived notions as regards the Vedic poets. We cannot go even briefly into the real inner sense of 'is', ¹vajaⁿ and the other words we have mentioned, but what has been stated is, we believe, a sufficient indication of the all-pervading symbolic intention of the Vedic poets. The whole setting of the sacrifice and all its features were so devised as to carry a spiritual and psychological significance. We shall just point out here to what may appear as a small detail, but it is highly significant as showing the spiritual nature of the atmosphere in which the ancient Yajna moved; 'brahman', the word or chant of the soul's creative power, usually rendered as prayer,'barhis' a seat spread out for the gods on the altar, 'brhat' which, besides meaning the vast plane of Truth-consciousness, means also a kind of Saman — these words so intimately connected with the Yajna are all derived from the root 'brh' ² — the same root which later gave to Indian religion and philosophy their name for the ultimate spiritual principle of all existence.

One very important point to remember about the psychological theory of the Veda is that the clues to it are derived, as we must have already seen,

¹We are aware that, to establish the real meaning of any one of these terms on a secure basis, a thorough and exhaustive discussion of a good number of relevant passages is necessary. We shall probably find in the course of such a discussion, that it is necessary to settle the meaning of a dozen other terms before we can settle the meaning of the term with which we started out. Then the discussion will have to range over these dozen other terms also. All this work is necessary but it cannot be attempted here. But at the end of it all, we have to read the Veda hymn by hymn, take each hymn as a whole, and then satisfy ourselves whether we have arrived at its real meaning,

²The root 'brh' or ^'brnh' means to grow, to expand, to spread out, to increase; but the derivatives of the root show that it was more especially applied to growth, expansion, etc. of the spiritual order.

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from the Veda itself. The Veda itself quite often insists upon the inner spiritual significance of its figures and symbols, myths and legends. "When they say He is come out of the horse", says a Vedic seer, "I understand Him to be born out of luminous energy; He is come out of the mind's force, He resides in the mansions; whence he is born, of that Indra has the knowledge".¹ The Vedic seers declare that their words are words of secret import to be unraveled by the seer—'ninya vacansi nivacana kavaye', (4-3-16). Very often, as in the hymns of Dirghatamas and especially of Vamadeva, the outer veil of symbol is thinned into transparency permitting us to see clearly into its secret significance and at times the true spiritual sense of the Veda stands out uncovered, trailing behind figure and symbol like an unloosed garment. The psychological theory is, therefore, no key brought from outside and tried upon the Veda to see if it fits; the Rishis have put the key in the Veda itself, leaving instructions as to how it is to be turned. It is for us to follow those instructions.

We have thus far attempted to give a brief and general indication of Sri Aurobindo's new interpretation of the Veda. To bring home to the mind of the reader the precise character and full import of this interpretation, it would be necessary to go through a good number of Sri Aurobindo's renderings of the hymns, and fully discuss the philological and other justification of the renderings. We shall then have to see what Sayana's commentary and the western scholars have to say upon the hymns in question. It would also be necessary to raise all the difficulties that the psychological theory has to face and resolve them. Such a task is beyond the scope of the present article which is intended only to give a general outline of the theory. We shall, therefore, limit ourselves in the rest of the article to a brief consideration of the two central myths of the Veda — the great quest of the Angiras Rishis for the lost Cows and the slaying of Vritra by Indra and the consequent release of the pent-up Rivers.

The Veda frequently refers to the Ancient Fathers of the race, 'piirvepitarah', in whose great discovery and attainment its knowledge and discipline are avowedly founded.² They are illumined seers whose number is often given as seven — sapta viprah, sapta rsayah.

¹Asvdd iyayeti yad vadantyojaso jatam uta many a enam, many or iyaya harmyesu tasthau yatah prajajna indro asya veda. 10-73-10.

² Seyam asme sanaja pitrya dhih. This in us is that thought of the Ancient Fathers 3-39-2.

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Vamadeva refers to them as our human forefathers here who found the Light —"asmakam atra pitaro manusyah ... vidanta jyotih" (4-1-13,14). They were also held to be divine beings, sons of Heaven, warriors of the Divine — divas putraso asurasya virah (10-67-2). They have a third, a strongly symbolic character which seems to take up into itself both their human and divine characters. The Veda itself insists on the inherent significance of their name, which gives the key to their mystic symbolism. The word 'Angiras' is derived from 'ang', a variant of the root 'ag' from which 'Agni' is derived. The roots mean, among other things, to move, to lead, to be forceful, to blaze. The words Agni and Angiras appear to suggest strongly the ideas of leading onward, of being forceful and of flaming brightly, all together. Agni is himself called the first Angiras and the first "most-Angiras", prathamo angirah, prathamo angirastamak;¹ and the Angiras Rishis are said to be sons of Agni born around him out of heaven.² And if more proof is needed to indicate their symbolic character, Vamadeva is there to furnish it. "May we be born", he says, "out of Dawn the Mother as the seven illumined Seers, the first ordainer of the Powers of the Sacrifice. May we become the Angirasas, sons of Heaven and may we, growing bright and pure, break open the treasure-filled hill".³

In spite of slight variations of feature, there is unity and consistency in the various references to the Angiras legend throughout the Rig Veda. As the Maruts are the chief companions of Indra in his fight with Vritra, so it is the Angirasas who form his cohort when he fights with Vala or the Panis, breaks open the impregnable hill and releases the imprisoned cows. Sometimes it is the Angiras Rishis themselves who achieve this victory, who with the divine word — vacasa daivyena — open wide the firm cow-pen, or who rend the earth and uncover the ruddy dawns.⁴ And be it noted here that the cows here have changed places with the dawns. Sometimes the Rishis ally themselves with Brihaspati the Angirasa, Master of the creative word and the victorious power of the soul; and then it is he that, with the

¹ 1-31-1, 2.

² Angirasah sunavas te agneh parijajnire. ye agneh panjajnire virupaso divaspari. 10-62-5,6.

³Adha matur usasah sapta vipra jayemahi prathama vedhaso nrH, divasputra angiraso bhavema adrim rujetna dhaninam sucanlah. 4-2-15.

⁴Vacasa daivyena vrajam gomantam usijo vivavruh, 4-1-15.

Ksama bhindanto arunir apa vran. 4-2-16.

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'phalanx that sings the hymn of the happy surging rhythm and the chant of the illumination', breaks Vala into pieces by his cry.¹ And, sometimes it is the impetuous Ayasya, he too an Angirasa, who leads the charge and crushes the impounders of the radiant treasure. There is also Sarama the fair-footed goddess, later definitely figured as the Hound of Heaven, who discovers the vulnerable spot of the hill, who first makes the great way to it a continuous passage and who leads Indra and the seven illumined seers to the front of the indestructible cows, for it is she who first goes to them recognising their voice.² And, though the protagonist in this great contest with Vala is Indra, the other gods too, Agni, the Maruts, the Asvins and even Saraswati as also Ushas are all considered as breakers of Vala and releasers, to the worshipper, of the captive cows.

What are we to make of this legend? There is no doubt that it is symbolic, but what does it symbolise? Is it all about some great prehistoric tribal conflict that had lodged itself in the race-memory, or is it a fanciful account of cattle-lifting, which must have been a very common occurrence in primitive pastoral life? Or do the cows represent the morning rays and is the whole myth merely the story of the night breaking into dawn? Or is the myth a confused medley of all these? Or is it a mythological story of the human ancestors of the race conceived as demiurges, for the Angirasas are said not only to release the dawns but also to extend earth and heaven and make the sun go up the sky?

The last supposition would seem to be warranted if we take certain passages dealing with the legend out of their context and read them independently of all cross references from other hymns. But it is easy to see even in the light of the few quotations from the hymns already given in this connection that the supposition would break down if we apply it to the legend as a whole. Let us see if the story is about the dawn. We have seen that the cows and the dawns in the myth are interchangeable. So the rescued cows may represent the dawn breaking out of the darkness. But there is a passage concerning the Angirasas which readily disproves at least the theory that the legend refers to the daily event of the dawn breaking out of the night. "Ye, the Fathers who drove upward the wealth of the cows,

¹Sa sustubha sa rkvata galena valam ruroja phaligam ravena. 4-50-5.

²Vidad yadt sarama rugnam adrer tnahi pathaft purvyam sadhryak kah, agram nayat supadi aksaranam accha ravam prathama janati gat. 3-31-6.

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Ye, who by the Truth battered down Vala in the coming round of the year"¹ — so are the Angirasas invoked. There may possibly be here, so far as the external figure is concerned, a reference to the dawn of the polar regions. But the celebration of the physical dawn, be it our daily dawn or the annual polar dawn, does not at all appear to be the intention of the legend when we examine its other features. The naturalistic clue snaps in our hands and we cannot make our way at all through the legend. The other clues, as we shall see, fare no better than the dawn clue. As for the year in the full revolution of which Vala is said to have been overthrown, we will merely mention in passing, as the matter has come up, that divisions of time, day and night, months and seasons and years, are used in the Rig Veda symbolically so as to represent the conditions and stages in the progress of the spiritual journey which the "adhvara yajna"² really is.

The captive cows which are rescued by Indra and the Rishis are very strange cows and not of the earth. We have seen that they are aksara — indestructible, unaging; but this, we may say, can be said of the dawns. But these indestructible cows, we are further told, are held in the bondage of falsehood — anrtasya setau; Brihaspati wishing for light in the darkness, drives upward the shining cows and throws wide open their three places of confinement. And with the booty of the cows, which is described as visvarupa — 'of all form', he ascends to heaven and still further upward to the higher seats (10-67) •

The whole setting of this high exploit of Indra and the Rishis has an unmistakable psychological character about it. It is in their great endeavour to reach the Truth — rtam asusanah, it is in order to make a path for the immortality — krnvanaso amrtatvaya gatum, that the steadfast thinkers and illumined seers, the pristine forefathers, rend asunder the firm cow-pen. This is the motive of the exploit and the men who take part in it are thinkers and seers; and what is

¹ya udajan pitaro gomayam vasu rtenabhindan parivatsare valam. 10-62-2.

²The word adhvara is usually taken to mean 'unhurt' or 'that in which there is no hurting or killing'. It has become a synonym of YajHa. Sri Aurobindo says that 'adhvara' is "travelling", "moving", connected with adhvan, a path or a journey from the lost root adh, to move, extend, be wide, compact, etc. We see the connection between the two words adhvan and adhvara in adhva, "air", "sky" and adhvara with the same sense. The passages in the Veda are numerous in which the adhvara or adhvara yajna is connected with the idea of travelling, journeying, advancing on the path.

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the result? They discover the Light and fulfil themselves by the agency of their thoughts — vidanta jyotis cakrpanta dhibhih.¹ They made a path in us to the vast Heaven — cakrur divo brhato gatum asme. They found the day, the heaven, the knowledge-perception anu the shining cows or dawns. They reached and held the Truth and enriched its thoughts....² And no wonder now that it is by Truth that the Angirasas break Vala into pieces; that it is by the divine word that the desirers of the godhead rive the dense compact hill, full of obstructions, which lies around the cows' pressing them in and throw open the cow-fold; no wonder that Indra fights the Panis with his words. These are the weapons suited to the spiritual battle that is waged — the power of the creative word and effectuating thought and victorious truth.

Indra following the track of the cows with his companions, we are told, discovers that Truth — the Sun dwelling in the darkness: satyam tat... suryarn viveda tamasi ksiyantam (3-39-5). Then follows an exhortation to choose and cleave to the light separating it in knowledge from the darkness —jyotir vrnita tamaso vijanan (3-39-7). It is obvious we are moving in a psychological plane. The sun referred to is not the physical luminary of our skies but the Sun of Truth. The dawns can then only be the successive illuminations of Truth. "The dawns shone out", says Vasishtha, "sinless and bringing forth happy and auspicious days; the lovers of the godhead, meditating and becoming illumined, discovered the Vast Light; they threw open the wide pasture of the cows.... They, meditating with the mind of Truth, yoked with their own will, they bear your car, O Indra, O Vayu!..."³ Nothing can be clearer than that this Vast Light, this Sim and these Dawns which are all discovered by men meditating with the mind of Truth — satyena manasa didhyanah — are figures for the inner light of a great knowledge. Vala and the Panis are no human enemies, but are powers that oppose the shining out in man of this great knowledge. And the hill itself in which the luminous cows are hidden is a figure of man's material existence.

¹4-1-14.

²Viju cid drlha pitaro na ukthair adrim rujann angiraso ravena, cakrur divo brhato gatum asme ahah svar vividuh ketum usrah. Daddhann rtam dhana-yann asya dhitim.... 1-71-2, 3.

³Ucchannt usasah sudina aripra uru jyotir vividur didhyanah, gaoyam cid urvam usijo vi vavruh..... Te satyena manasa didhyanah svena yuktasah kratuna vahanti, indra vayu viravaham ratham vam... 7-90-4, 5.

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Sarama who leads Indra and the Rishis to "the supreme hidden treasure of the Panis" — nidhim paninam paramam guhahitam (2-24-6) — has all the characteristics of intuition. The Angirasas themselves are powers of the human consciousness in all its levels become divine and achieving the final victory.

The legend of Vritra and the Seven Streams is as important for the understanding of the Veda as the Angiras legend. The confining of "the waters" by Vritra is compared by the Rishis themselves to the imprisoning of the cows by the Pani — niruddha apah panineva gavah. "The waters were under the lordship of the Dasa; Serpent Vritra was their king; they were confined by him like the cows by the Pani; the outiet of the waters that lay covered up Indra, having killed Vritra, opened wide.... O hero, you won the cows, you won the Soma, you released the seven rivers into flowing."¹ Vritra is often associated with darkness. He lies enshrouding the waters with his darkness — "darkness that makes even that which contains the waters crooked" — dharuna-hvaram tamah (1-54-10). Vritra grows and increases in the sunless darkness — asurye tamasi vavrdhanam (5-32-6). Indra and Kutsa are said to roll away the darkness from the waters, from their common dwelling place and from the heart of the bounteous giver.² And lying over their flood he drinks up their sweetness — arnam madhupam sayanam. (5-32-8)

Vritra not only oppresses the waters but also holds under his constraint the two firmaments.³ He would ascend even to the heavens with the dasyu-host that does not offer the Soma-wine to the gods.⁴ Indra, by overthrowing Vritra, wins svar, the world of Light — hano vrtram jaya svah (8-89-4). And this great action Indra repeats for his worshippers. Though Indra is the chief Vritra-slayer, the other gods too are Vritra-slayers and the slaying of Vritra appears as a common function of all godhead. And it is not only gods who win heaven by killing Vritra, the human worshippers also accomplish the same victory. "They who adore in true wise with the submission, they worship him, the self-ruler; desiring to cross beyond all hurtful

¹Dasapatnir ahigopa atisthan niruddha apah panineva gavah,' apam bilam apihitam yad asid vrtram jaghanvan apa tad vavara ... ajayo ga ajayah Sura somam avasrjah sartave sapta sindhun. 1-32-11, 12.

²Nih simadbhyo dhamatho nib sadhasthat maghono hrdo varathas tamansi. 5-31-9.

³Badbadhanasya rodasi. 1-52-10.

⁴Dyam aruruksatah 8-14-14.

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powers, men enkindle Agni with the invocations. Striking down Vritra, they crossed beyond the two firmaments and the waters; they made for the Vast Abode."¹

Here again our purpose is just to indicate the psychological intention of the legend. We cannot understand Vritra as a rain-withholder. We cannot picture him also as a human enemy who dams up the rivers flowing in the Aryan settlements and who is overthrown by the potency of the sacrifice. The Veda often refers to the Vast Abode as the seat of immortality.² Even if by the striking down of Vritra by the worshipper we are to understand that the worshipper himself is supposed to break open the clouds and to release their waters with the help of the gods, we are at a loss to conceive how this achievement could lead him to the Vast Abode, the seat of the Immortality. It is clear that Vritra is an adverse power of our conscient being holding back its streams from reaching their Ocean-goal. The figure of the Seven Streams is a constant Vedic symbol and even a casual acquaintance with these streams will show that they are neither the rivers of the Punjab nor of central Asia. "The seven mighty Rivers of Heaven, they that have the right thinking and are knower of the Truth, they found the doors of the felicity; Sarama discovered the firmly closed, wide cow range, through which the human being comes by his joy".³ The reaching by the Seven Rivers of their goal of felicity and the discovery by Sarama of the wide realm of the luminous cows are thus associated together; and, if we accept the hypothesis of a spiritual meaning hidden in these two legends, they seem to be closely connected movements in the victorious culmination of man's spiritual quest. The two distinct images of the Cows and the Rivers seem to be getting fused in the mind of Parasara, when in one of his beautiful hymns to Agni, he says: "The fostering cows of the Truth that have the happy udders, lowing, they have filled us, they that are enjoyed in Heaven; the Rivers seeking the happy thinking of the Supreme World flow all over the hill."⁴ And so too with Vamadeva: for,

¹Tarn ghem ittha namasvina upa svarajam asate, hotrabhir agnim manusah samindhate titirvanso ati sridhafi. Ghnanto vrtram ataran rodasi apa uru ksayaya cakrire. 1-36-7, 8.

²Amrtaya make ksayaya. 9-109-3.

³Svadhyo diva a sapta yahvt rayo duro vyrtajna ajanan, vidad gavyam sarama dr}ahm urvam yena nu kam manusli bhojate vip. 1-72-8.

⁴Rtasya hi dhenavo vavasanah smadudhnih pipayanta dyubhaktah, paravatah sumatim bhiksamana vi sindhavah samayd sasrur adritn. 1-73-6.

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after describing how when the hill was rent asunder the Angirasas with the cows raise joyous cries together, greet the dawn all around and then Agni was born and heaven became manifest, he too thinks of the Rivers and says: "The divine Waters immortal and inviolate, may they, O Agni, like a steed galloping in the charge, for ever by the Truth speed forth with honeyed floods".¹

Now these can be no pouring floods of rain nor terrestrial streams, that have the right thinking — su-adhyah, that beg of the supreme realm of Truth the mind of happy and right perception — paravatah sumatim bhiksamanah. Elsewhere, they are the waters that have the comprehending knowledge — apo vicetasah (1-83-1). The great wealth that is in them and in the sun is bestowed upon the worshipper by the gods — apsu stirye mahad dhanam (8-68-9). The Rishi places in them the thought that wins and possesses heaven — dhiyam vo apsu dadhise svarsam (5-45-11). They are the Seven Mothers — apo matarah sapta — who give birth to the world and hold it under their sway—janitrir bhuvanasya patnih (10-30-10). Their number is not always seven, but sometimes is given as three times seven and also as ninety and nine, — trih sapta (10-64-8), navatim nava (10-104-8). Of the seven Rivers four are "the upper rivers, floods of sweetness" — uparah ... madhvarnaso nadyas catasrah (1-62-6); obviously these must refer to the four higher worlds in whose movements of becoming the principle of the divine Ananda does not suffer obscuration as it does here in the physical, vital and mental worlds. These seven mighty Rivers flow on to their goal in the Ocean of Superconscience from which starts all creation, in which illumined seer-creators weave a newer and newer weft — navyam navyam tantum a tanvate divi, samudre antah kavayah suditayah (1-159-4).

None will demur now, we believe, to the statement that the Veda is full of mystic symbols of an ancient spiritual knowledge and discipline. We may prefer this or that interpretation for a particular symbolic conception and there may be some symbols whose meaning we may not be able to understand clearly at all, but that there is an all-pervading symbolism in the hymns and that its real inmost sense and intention is psychological and spiritual admits of no doubt. The Veda is concerned in presenting, through symbolic figures and

¹ Rtena devir amytd amrkta arnobhir apo madhumadbhir agne, vaji na satgesu prastubhanah pra sadamit sravitave dadhanyuh. 4-3-12.

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images drawn from the life of its age, from ritual practices and from the phenomena of Nature, a living and traditionally inherited knowledge as regards man's spiritual seeking and goal. The hymns embody a way of spiritual discipline — a Yajna Yoga. Sri Aurobindo's interpretation of the hymns brings this out clearly. But it has not been possible here to illustrate his method by citations from his Vedic renderings and to bring into clear light its full import and significance. It is a marvel to see how verse after verse and hymn after hymn that, without the psychological clues, had irritated and vexed you with their seeming obscurities and ineptnesses and chaotic inconsistencies, take shape, under his hand that clears up all confusion, as powerful and ordered progressions of daring thought. We shall, however, append at the end Sri Aurobindo's rendering of a short Vedic hymn, chosen partly from considerations of space, and also a rendering of it according to Sayana's commentary, with a request to the reader to make for himself a version of the hymn in accordance with the general lines of the naturalistic theory and compare all these together. It is hoped that in this way the reader may, to a slight extent, be enabled to realise what Sri Aurobindo has done for the recovery of the real sense of the Vedic revelation. The Riks, as their name testifies, are hyson to Light — to the Light that leads man from mortality into immortality. After long ages of obscuration they now stand re-revealed. We see them as the fount and origin of India's spiritual knowledge, ready henceforth to guide man in his supreme quest.

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APPENDIX

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(Rendering of the hymn according to Sayana's commentary)

1 Woe upon woe comes upon Vavri. May the enjoyer of oblations know this (and may we ward them off) — He, Agni, knower of all things which are near to his mother, the earth.

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2.Those men who knowing thy greatness ceaselessly invoke thee for the sacrifice and invoking, guard thy strength with the oblation and the praise, they enter a city which is impenetrable to their foes.

3.Men who are born into the world and who conduct the sacrifice, who are adorned with gold, who have extensive hymns of praise, who are desirers of food, they, with this hymn which is as it were honey (or with this hymn and honey), increase the bright strength of the Lightning-Agni, who is the son of the white mid-world.

4.May Agni, who is the helper of Earth and Heaven, listen to our hymn of praise, which is, like milk, desirable and faultless and pleasant. Agni is like the pravargya offering which has food in its belly. Unharmed by foes, he the eternal, he slays them.

5.O possessor of rays, who sporting in the forests art well-rcognized by the ashes which thou leavest behind and by the wind which impels thee, become favourable to us. The flames of the Fire, they that carry the oblation and are intense with heat and overpower the foe, may they not be scorching-hot to this sacrificer {i.e. to me).

Verse 1. Sayana follows the Anukramanika and makes Vavri the Rishi of this hymn. He takes the first vavri in the opening verse as the Rishi's name and the second vavri as meaning Agni. But vavra and vavri are both derived from the same root as that which gives the word "vj-tra", and they mean that which covers or obstructs. Sayana himself interprets the word in this sense, for instance in vavrim pramuncatam drapimiva cyavanat (1-116-10). Here Vavri is the covering of old age from which Chyavana is released by the Aswins. The mother is Aditi, the infinite consciousness.

Verse 2. It does not appear from Sayana's commentary that he recognizeis the plainly figurative and symbolic character of the fortified city which is entered by those who invoke Agni and sleeplessly guard the strength.

Verse 3. Sayana explains that svaitreya is Agni of the lightning, for svitram is antariksam or the mid-world, which is white, and Agni is born as lightning from the antariksa.

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But savitreya appears to be derived from svitri (cf. svitryam gam 1-33-15), the White Cow or Aditi. In the next verse there is reference to the milk of this cow.

The words "niska-grivah", "brhad-ukthah" and "vajayuh", all in the singular, are construed by Sayana with the plural "krstayah". The disagreement in number is explained by him as a Vedic irregularity. "Niska", like the many other words that mean "gold", is symbolic of the divine Truth.

Verse 4. The pleasant and desirable milk to which Agni is likened is the milk of Aditi, who is represented as the cow. Vamadeva compares the sight of Agni to the pure and well-heated grata of aghnya, the unslayable cow and also to the yield of dhenu, the fostering cow; aghnya and dhenu here refer to Aditi (4-1-6). Soma also is compared with Aditi's milk in payo na dugdham aditer isiram (9-96-15).

The dual jami refers to Heaven and Earth, the mental and physical planes of man's consciousness. Agni, as well as the other gods, sons of Aditi, of infinite consciousness, is beyond these twin planes. Still he comes down into them and dwells with them for their increase.

Verse 5. Bhasmana means shining or blazing and is used adjectivally, cf. 10-5-2. The harmonising in knowledge of different gods is referred to in other places also of the Veda. For the use of root vid with prefix sam in this sense, cf. dadhikrava .... Samvidana usasa suryenadityebhir vasubhir angirobhih (7-44-4), and apam naptra samvidanasa enah (10-30-14). In the first passage, it is Agni as dadhikrdvan, heaven's winged steed of flame hewn out of the sun, who is mentioned as in accord with the Dawn, the Sun, the Adityas, the Vasus and the Angirasas. In the second passage, the Waters are said to be in accord with apam napat, who is Agni as the son of the Waters — Vayu is associated not only with Agni but also with other gods, especially Indra. Vayu is mentioned as having Indra for his charioteer (4-48-2) and Indra wins the cow-folds with the help of Vayu (4-21-4). So the association of Agni and Vayu is something more than a Nature myth. — The Rishis do not shrink from the burning heat of Agni, the Divine Will; on the other hand, they wish to be sharpened by his keen flame. Cf. tigmena nas tejasa sam sisadhi. (6-15-19).

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