An idiot hour destroys what centuries made...

SRI AUROBINDO

The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all their parts to the Divine. For them the calm, the light, the power, the bliss, the freedom, the wide-ness, the heights of knowledge, the seas of Ananda. Sri Aurobindo

THE ABDUCTION OF PRINCESS USHA

FIRST PART

First Canto - "The Coil"

SING once again, O Coil, the song you sang,

Sitting on a flowering tree, in the form of a bird, the Lord,

The conflagration of a conflict in the three heavens, on Earth a great war

 

You started with your cry behind the screen of a flower show

At the very moment when Usha, the daughter of a titan, did her ablutions

 

Leaving her flowery bed in the city divine of Bana.

That morn the young maid woke early, looked about

And saw a whole troop of budding lotuses,

Saw the dawn-rose-beauty, the leafy branches

Playing their game, revealing-hiding the luminous laugh

Of the fresh light of the rising sun. Slowly the breeze

Murmured among the flowers yearning for dew drops,

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Honey dripped in the cry of the Coil. With honeyed voice

The titan damsel called out to her play-mates:

"Rise, O dear friends with your charming eyes look, look

At the beautiful earth awake and bathing in the dew drops.

To sleep in the early morning is always dull.

Come, one almost desires

 

To run fast into the water where flow

A thousand waves of dancing mosses —

The flowers growing on the bank of the limpid water

That hastens through the woodlands seeking to cool them with its kisses."

 

Hearing that dear voice, as though the cuckoo's calling

In some far grove, the daughter of the King of Serpents

Came on leisurely. Even then lingered

Sleep in her wide eyes like pollen in a flower —

The maid, lovely her face, beautiful her eyes, indeed

Beautiful was the daughter of the Serpent King. When she was young,

 

Burning down the towering fortress of the Nagas,

The mighty warrior Vana brought her, as though flying his flag of victory on his chariot,

 

With proud steps. In the fullness of her youth

The beautiful daughter of the Serpent King was now a servant-girl at the feet of Usha.

 

Twenty maid-attendants of her own family

Came along, with her own sister lovely Chandralekha,

Of handsome gait she is a princess but born of a slave.

On the bank of the river rose a forest growth,

Where the master titan-artisan had built by his labour the assembly hall of the Pandavas

That which is famous in Indraprastha.

 

"Terrible is the pain, yet let us, O my Mother, bear it.

Even as Shankara bereaved of the daughter of Daksha

Bore it in his maddened spirit carrying her lifeless body on his shoulders."

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But Rati, the unfortunate mother of flowers

Remained silent, tearless, holding in her lap the ashes.

Rose then a silent voice from the torn veena within her.

"Come in this luminous world, come back, O Rati,

The lotus has dried up, the birds have died without you.

Even the human heart is dying. My heart weeps, O child,

Day and night I hear songs of dark hatred,

Their language is without beauty, painful to the ear is their rhythm.

 

Without justice Providence has inflicted pain,

Let-us bear it, O mighty Goddess, turn to the welfare of the world.

 

Oh poets, who are human, turn your own pain

Into the happiness of all. People look in surprise

Upon a brilliant piece of poetry and acclaim it.

Men do not know the brilliance of a poem comes

From the blood of the heart. O child, he whose selfless effort

Is towards increase of the worlds hope and happiness,

Pain is for him his glory. Come, Mother of flowers, come,

Awaken the soul of poetry, extinguish the fire of pain."

But Rati, the unfortunate Mother of flowers

Remained silent, tearless, holding in her lap the ashes.

Then came Narada, Rishi, lover of the world.

"Come back to this earth full of light, come back, O Rati.

Rivers have dried up, dried up the trees. Ananda has left

The leafy Ashram that used to echo to the cry of the cuckoo

Where was the cool shade of the trees and the Ashram rivulets flowing limpid water.

 

Rishis move about drifting aimlessly upon a desert earth.

Let us bear this unbearable pang of separation, O Mother.

Great souls, the Rishis, for the sake of your happiness

Will create a new deity of Love and a new life for him."

And yet Rati, the Mother of flowers, unhappy one,

Remained silent and tearless holding on her lap a handful of poor ashes.

 

Vishnu from his abode Vaikuntha looked down towards the earth.

The beautiful earth dying now was stumbling in the void,

Loud cries all around; as though heaps of black smoke

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Had gathered thick upon the earth. The terrible shadowy appearance of Death

Is increasing in size in the frightened spaces

Manifesting its huge body silent and grim,

The ageless Vishnu descended in this snow-hushed land.

The infinite nothingness proclaimed the godhead that descended,

The feet of the Himalayas shook with a roar.

Thus Vishnu addressed Shiva, merged in yoga,

"O Shiva, yogin always alone, in these solitary hills

You are seated, with your breath you create, with your breath you destroy

 

Countless universes, O destroyer of creations.

For a moment even you do not think of the good of the people,

You are blind in your greatness. Look, O great Lord, open your eyes.

 

As a mere creature under Death's power you killed Madana,

The sweet soul of the world. The world-chariot

Will come immediately to a dead halt without its charioteer.

For the sake of your creation, O Shambhu, bring to life Manmatha.

 

After destruction there is re-birth — such is the unalterable Law;

The ancient creation flows on ever-renewed,

Continues its eternal youthfulness. Such is the law of constancy.

In this restless world wandering without aim

It sticks to that law, the tiny animal kind."

Shiva, the solitary yogi, then answered:

"I know, O unbounded pity, it is an unmoving law,

The old creation is renewed through infinite youthfulness.

I know, in the mortal human kind bound to its roots

Such is the great play of the infinite Parabrahman.

Earth is bound by desire. Man enticed by honeyed sweetness

Conquers desire through desire and attains desirelessness.

I know Kama, the god of Love and Desire, is the sweet soul of the universe.

 

O Narayana, Madana with the flower-arrows killed himself

Untimely shooting the arrow at an unfair target;

Yet he will come to life. The Asuras and the Rakshasas

Nourish for long in their hearts cruel and indomitable anger.

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The spirit of the Aryan relents as soon as punishment

Is imposed on the enemy. O Vishnu, I pardon Madana.

Now descend to earth in the famous Dwaparayuga

And give birth again to Madana from the womb of Lakshmi.

Till then unseen let Ananga move about free

And spread in the world a sweet union once more,

Once more a sweet ritual of conjugal union upon Earth".

He stopped. His voice shook the world.

The victorious Lord, All-Pity, returned to the ageless darkness,

Where the mother of the spring-god sat in the dust, angry,

Alone, speechless in a dark corner.

He caressed her tresses and made her sit up.

The touch freed the flow of tears, freed the pitiful wail.

Rati wept and fell at the feet of her father.

"Why have you come, O Father! To see me once again

A poor soul disagreeable to this hateful world of light.

I will not go there in this life.

Are the gods dying of this suffering of the world? Let them die.

They are ungrateful and cruel, in spite of their own fault

Forgetting what a god ought to do. I will never go there

To their rescue. Did they come to my rescue?

What consolation can I bring? Where is the return

Of the pure stainless karma, where is justice, the right path?

Where is now the firm law unconquerable and immovable?

Injustice unfettered ranges there.

Even like any other creature equally under his sway, my beloved was killed

 

By Shiva, the destroyer. To please the gods

Most grievously he died. They did not rescue him,

They did not look back even to see him.

Cowards all ran away with their own life

Leaving the pitiful dead body. He died prematurely

Alone, unlamented. Alas! in the far snow-land.

I, too, am an ancient goddess, your daughter, O father.

And yet I have lost my husband." Thus the Mother of flowers

Gave free vent to her lamentations at the feet of her father.

Narayana in his all-kindness answered

"O child, Providence has made you suffer without cause.

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You are a goddess, a happy soul, the ungrateful world

Makes you suffer. Your soft heart is given

A hard blow, O Goddess. You are angry,

In sorrow you are hating the world; who can blame you?

Child, forgiveness is best, forgiveness is the sign of God.

With forbearance and gentleness in his eye appears the strong one

And, like a god upon earth, pardons the arrogant weak.

Control your proud heart, O Mother of Spring,

Doubly enjoy sweet happiness remembering all sorrows past;

In awaiting that happiness, bring peace to your heart.

There will be union again with Madana, with the physical tangible Madana.

 

Come back to this world of Light, O Rati, come back.

Awaken spring, child, awaken again in this world devoid of spring."

The great Mother returned to earth. His worlds came to fruition

When the cycle was completed at the end of the coming age.

In the womb of Rukmani with Krishna as the father

Madana was born as the warrior Pradyumna.

And with Rati as the mother was born Aniruddha the boy, mighty bow-wielder,

 

Krishna's grandson, warrior, through a sweet union of happiness." Reposing at the feet of her sister,

 

Her eyes bright in sweet meditation

Thus chanted Urvashi. Her heart was appeased.

The ancient legend flooded the land of love and emotion.

Her delicate hands forgot to caress the dark tresses of her sister,

Lay unmoving on the ground. Then came Agni,

Declarer of message from heaven, spreading fragrance around him.

The goddess irritated got up immediately. Her tresses

Loosened hung upon her shoulders; the robe also loose

Upon her bright breasts, the fingers of moonlight

Upon a heap of champaka flowers. If the child all on a sudden calls

Is there room for the mother to entertain in her heart any thought of self?

 

"Come, we descend to the city of the titans, O Sahaja.

Shailabala is calling me, I know the dear handwriting.

I am disturbed out of fear. What suffering,

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What worry has made my dear daughter call me?

The arrogant titans are always self-willed in pride,

A tyrant is the king of the titans, a great warrior, Vana."

The two goddesses descended the path through the sky.

In the firmament a reddish gleam shone as if a lightning flare,

The beautiful body of the nymphs floated in space.

Out of delight the earth brought forth new flowers

At the touch of their rosy feet. In the lovely city of Shonit Nagar

All on a sudden the dark room was illumined

With an unearthly beauty. Chitralekha took the child

Nandini in her lap. A divine smile on her immortal face

The mother pressed upon her breasts her flowery cheek.

Milk flowed from the pure breasts of the mother

And drenched her face. Kissing the perfumed tresses

The daughter of the Sea said : "Why, O Shailabala,

Have you called me? I open my divine eyes and see every day

That my daughter is happy. What is the pain

That assails you today. What is the want in your heart,

O Shailabala? What lacks in the affection of the mother

That a yearning is left unfulfilled in the daughter's heart?"

The child put her fair arms around the neck of the mother

To embrace her and then lifted her beautiful head from the mother's breasts

 

And said sweet smiling : "That story of the past

I will narrate today. Sit up, Mother, on the bed. O Mother,

As in the childhood I lay on thy lap, today also I do the same.

I need heaven's flower Pari jat, heaven's water

To bathe my body, O Mother, give me a living idol.

This way I tortured you a hundred times in a day

And asked for what could not be given. Today too I will ask.

Come, sit here. If you don't give, it will be a test

To your power, to the pride of an apsara. I will not let you go

Unless I get what I desire. You too take your seat here,

O Mother Urvashi, on this golden bed."

The goddess answered full of kindness : "You know, O Enchantress,

The mother is a slave obedient to you. If one demand

Remains unfulfilled in the heart of my dear child

The land of the immortals is forbidden to your mother

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The garland of Parijat crowns no more her cursed head."

 

Then began Shailabala : "In my young age

I found shelter in the paradise of your lap and I received

The gift of painting. I got it easily, as a child

Received milk from the mother's breasts. The power comes of itself

The eyes of the child open, the charmer holds the finger of the child

Makes it draw all the scenes that are in the world.

By himself man can do little, he labours much,

Dull are his faculties, they are bound to the material sheath

The touch of the free gods makes him capable of doing the impossible.

They are all under my control, all the beautiful figures

That Brahma in a happy moment created condensing sweetness.

A mere thought made you come and stand in front of me

As a figure complete and entire on the canvas. The river with its limpid water,

 

The lines of drakes dancing in the current were shown in the forefront.

The lightnings in the arms of the clouds suddenly began to smile

In my tiny home. The great ranges of hills came and stood

At the door of my vision — and the silent ascetics came as though

At the door of the Ashram, their heads held high,

With matted tresses white as snow.

Man's eyes look always upward. They rise

Always high until he climbs to the highest.

I lay in your lap weeping.

"My heart unappeased, O mother, always athirst

Like a bird in the cage who looks out and sees

His comrades freely move about in the sun

And he flutters about flying higher crying. O Mother,

Appease my mind immediately." "My daughter", you said to me

Giving a loving smile, "beautiful daughter of mountain,

She is called Chitralekha, people think her an incarnation,

She is spreading a great legend. The human heart that lies

In your bosom is not satisfied. I know your mind,

O Shailabala. On this other shore of the great ocean

Man's mind runs fast and ever moves forward.

Leaving the earthly limits, shining in the Infinite

He is like the stars, circles the spaces measuring it.

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He flies about with mighty wings outspread.

At the end they appear Embodied close to the world where stops the vision.

Where grim blackness smites him again and again,

And the mind's eye lies faint in the un encompassed darkness. -

There earth's darkness becomes light,

Shore less, aimless, bottomless is the ocean.

And yet man is not afraid. He burns in his own effulgence,

His soul moves lunconquerable into the infinite darkness.

The knowledge, the initiation to spirituality that has only Heaven for its aim is forbidden to man,

 

O child, courage is not forbidden to the human heart.

There is an oceanic land of heaven in the impenetrable ocean;

In that terrible spot, the queer eternal gods dwell

Permanently with closed eyes for ever. Over the head

The billowing ocean rumbles tirelessly,

Its mass of a million waves lies heavy. In that angry roar of mighty heavings

Alone in that terrific watery expanse she dwells in ecstasy.

Proud of his magnificence, Kuvera the mighty

Caught hold of the water-goddess in wild rage under the ocean,

Enjoyed her in a cavern and in the frightful darkness

Brought forth a son, a Kinnara, in that ancient age.

There was not the mother, the green earth,

Nor was there up in the sky a blue expanse.

The infinite ocean rushed to all sides proclaiming the formless emptiness.

 

Nothing exists either in the seven seas, or in the seven isles,

Or in the three heavens, or in the lower region which is unknown to Shalavi, the Kinnara.

 

But of all acquisitions of knowledge, he loves

Painting alone. Whatever lovely form is there in the world

Whatever sweet form is there in the mind sweeter than Nature's sweetness

 

He takes them up and imposing on the truth of fact the robe of imagination

He displays his genius in the painting of it all. Without his grace there is no accomplishment

In painting. His grace makes this earth the garden of Heaven.

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Fearful, unapproachable, lies hidden that land,

The mighty ocean, terrible, growls and swells,

A hundred foamy hoods lift up to sky. In this impenetrable sea

Weak human steps dare not cross that dangerous path

Catch him ashore, O Nandini,

Demand the achievements of immortal hands in painting,

Do not be persuaded by prayer and praise to accept other gifts

As the price of his liberation. At noon,

When ceaselessly uniting foamy spaces with the blue sky

The ocean goes to sleep in the breezeless expanses,

He rises up with a bright godlike pride

From the bottomless sea, sits alone

While in lovely Ceylon and contemplates the vast sea.

The waves play upon the stones, mount up and come down,

Roaring again rise up, and fall down roaring.

With a solemn howl the vast sea flows with the gait of a god,

Her steps resounding on the stones rhythmically.

He sits there engaged in painting, and at sunset

He rushes with great speed, scattering beauty, into the depth of water.

Prepare a rope of lotus stalk filling it with the energy of the holy Ganges —

 

There is no other thread strong enough to bind down

The mighty god — take shelter behind a boulder in the sea —

Even as does the hunter in the northern hills,

Who, trident in hand, sits on the path barring the passage

Of the lion of the snow in the snow-land, then with a great passion,

When the lion rises up with a mighty roar, suddenly he hurls

The trident hard and pierces it — O hide

With the lasso in your hand. Now when Shalavi the Kinnara

Rises up leaving the watery expanse as though through a spring of waters

 

In the hills, hurl the lasso, coil round

Every limb of his lovely body with knotted bonds, O Nandini,

Overwhelmed by the energy of Ganga, the great one will yield to you

All of his knowledge. First make him swear, then only liberate him.

Take care, child, do not be taken in by the magic of words,

Do not fall under the spell of Kinnara.

Else you will remain as his slave captured in the fathomless ocean.

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Shalavi the Kinnara knows endless tricks."

These words roused a great hope over flooding my heart.

As though I had heard the chanting of a mantra in the sky.

I could not understand why the sweet murmur of the hazy imagination

Came like a happy dream and disappeared immediately,

Carried away by the darkness of the desire-soul.

O Mother, you covered my body with a heavenly robe And brought me to the eternal bank of the Ganges.

I prepared a string from the lotus stalk and filled it with the power of a mantra

 

On the bank of the daughter-disciple of the Mother. The fibre was extremely subtle.

 

Even unseen by the gods whose immortal eyes

Pierce into the fathomless ocean as though into a tiny rivulet.

I spread this trap in the hills and hid my body

Behind the bank of the ocean trembling in hope

And fear. And then when the mighty ocean

Lay tired of its ceaseless rippl ings,

All on a sudden like a brilliant fountain

The Kinnara rose up leaving the ocean asleep,

And displayed his luminous beauty as if a star from the sky

Had fallen drawn by the gleam making the firmament brilliant.

I saw the beauty and my mind filled with delight.

When in summer butterflies with countless tints of colour

Like flying flowers charm the eyes

And a boy runs to catch them,

Even so my heart ran almost towards that beauty. I subdued greed through greed.

 

The Kinnara was seated on a stone by the sea,

The mighty intelligence beaming out of his face merged in the scenery,

Merged in the roar of the ocean. I saw his wide luminous

Unearthly eyes filled with unbearable sweetness. I trembled in fear,

I trembled in love. The god of courage came and filled my heart.

I was proud of my trick and all on a sudden I burst out in laughter

And cast the vast net, filled with the energy of Ganga sanctified with the mantra,

 

On his lovely body, maddened with delight and love

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I twisted it round and round many a time. Out of fright in a raucous laughter,

 

The Yaksha angrily pulled it into his formidable grip

Trying to free himself. If he pulled with a greater force, it was in vain,

Because out of fear I roped him in with unbreakable ties.

The defeated Kinnara at last with a sweet smile said:

"Who art thou? You are blessed, you mighty maiden,

From where have you learnt this all-conquering strength,

Being a weak woman? Which country is it, proud

But down-trodden by the heels of warriors, that in a happy moment

Gave birth to this vast intelligence in you?

O Aryan daughter, your mind yearns for the heights, I know.

Heaven's knowledge is unconquerable, that I give you.

All injunctions run away on seeing courage.

O cream of heroism, there lies the path to heaven.

Through boldness the devotee arrives at the desired Feet,

Through boldness the wise attain Nirvana. According to the rule of barter

 

I will sell you the gift of painting; as is the merchandise

So is the price. You are the price, O loveable child.

This pretty head, the two breasts filled with the wine

Of youthfulness, this bright body

As if in a robe of fire, these rosy feet,

I ask for them, O daughter of mountain. Fulfil my desire,

I shall enjoy a great delight from you, O desirable,

Charming and beautiful damsel. I will enjoy delight in your company,

So I shall possess and enjoy the heaven of love, being the owner of the treasure of love.

 

Give me the love not easily attainable, I will give you the art of painting.".

 

The Kinnara suffered terribly in pain because of the potency of the Ganges' touch

 

Still his deceitful heart did not abandon deceit.

Tempted by false words the fool follows his blind desire.

I forgot the command and loosened the bonds.

Immediately the Kinnara, the dweller of the ocean, got up and caught hold of me

 

With his formidable arms, captured me in joy

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And took me into the fathomless bottom of the sea...

Translation by Nolini Kanta Gupta of Sri Aurobindo's

original Bengali Epic ( Ushaharan-kavyd) a newly

discovered long poem from old papers.

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CRITICAL FOXFIRES

ONE of the best and most famous of the Japanese wood-block prints is "The Gathering of the Foxes at Oji," by Hiroshige. The broad field and the distance are covered by a multitude of foxes, coming nimbly, each bearing a torch in its mouth, flickering over the grey-green gloom.

The fox is a prominent figure in Japanese folklore. It is all the trickster that it is in the folklore of Europe, and in addition it has certain preternatural powers. It can take many shapes, to lead humanity astray; it is indeed the embodiment of cleverness and treacherous little knowledge, as of the small glimmering fire in the immense darkness: the knowledge that opposes Wisdom.

Now familiar perhaps to many is the saying of Archilochos, "The fox knows many things, the hedgehog one big thing." In Buddhist terms (which are larger than Archilochian, or, indeed, any Greek terms), the place of the hedgehog is taken by the lion. The one thing that the lion knows is true Knowledge: the many things known by the fox are a complexity of ignorance. The lion is Nirvana, that is, absolute Life; the fox is Samsara, that is, life-and-death — the elusive and insubstantial checkered shadow-play of light-and-darkness: the light being treacherous, partial and small, never sure, never stable, never really illuminating.

I have been led to a reflection on these matters by a book, The Partial Critics, by Lee T. Lemon (New York, 1965). Professor Lemon is perturbed by the way criticism and what passes for criticism has been going or rather not going in this twentieth century. He makes the unimpeachable observation that the most influential criticism of the last few decades - (a fact which remains true for the decade and a half since the book was published ) - is all fragmentary, specialization in one or two things that are emphasized or insisted on at the expense of al l the rest . His concern is primarily poetry, and he seeks a reconciliation of the various current approaches to this st range thing that is becoming increasingly recondite and problematical to the Modern consciousness.

Considering Cleanth Brooks, William Empson, R. P. Blackmur,

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T. S. Eliot, Northrop Frye and several others, their preoccupations with the ambiguities and the paradoxes, the archetypes and the ironies and the other things or conceptions or pseudo-conceptions that do preoccupy them in their "constant inconstancy," he comes to the unexceptionable conclusion that what they lack, with all their flashing and flickering brilliance, is a comprehensive and overall view, a capacity for seeing a poem, and poetry, as a whole, in a light both large and steady. And he looks for such a light, in the conviction that most critical controversy is made more by the jealous narrowness of the critics than by the difficulties of the material with which they purport to deal.

This material is difficult enough, however, for the Modern mind, and the desiderated synthesis has evaded the efforts of Professor Lemon too. He is all too much a part of his fumbling time, and does not see that what is needed is less reconciliation than genuine knowledge. He plumps for what he calls the "complexity" and the "integrity" of a "symbolic form." What this means to him, apparently, is only that the poet, and the critic, shall take most fully into consideration all the surrounding ignorance, and not be incompatible or incongruous with it : the result, it is to be hoped, being "symbolic" of something or other, we may further hope of something that is somehow significant, important or meaningful. That is, a poet must follow, or at best be a fellow-traveller; he cannot lead. What it comes to is that the "disciplines" of science and psychology must control him; there is nothing specifically poetical that he might teach those " disciplines," and it is by no means for him to oppose or contradict or be in an y way out of step with what they advance, or take for granted. Poetry may "open new fields," in a sense, but it is no sense really, because they are all on the same old ignorant and treacherous level of what is peered upon as "reality."

Professor Lemon's trouble is the same trouble that vitiates all contemporary attempts at poetry and criticism — that has made poetry and criticism non-existent, among those accepted by the present professional world of literature. The trouble is the being confined altogether to this flat "naturalistic" plane of ordinary experience, which excludes all the real nature, power and significance of poetry, and makes it only a game of the lesser mind. It is only the knowledge of the fox; and what is needed is the Knowledge of the

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lion, and the real experience of poetry as something given from a larger and brighter world.

Additional observations may be in order. An almost startling book that has come to my attention is Lost Bearings in English Poetry, by David Holbrook (New York, 1977). Mr. Holbrook is an anomaly unique in my experience, in that he can see that poetry, in these progressive times, is dead, and says so, without mincing words. For this one merit alone, the book should be required reading for all who can read - (the number, in these days of "universal literacy' not being large) .

The book's thesis is carried well, with cogent reference to "modern" names big and small: the thesis being, that the poets themselves have killed poetry by losing faith, by not being able to believe in poetry and its importance. They have lost, like Coleridge, the «shaping power of imagination"; they cannot rise to the heights on which true imagination functions, in a true human context; they cannot re ally believe in human nobility, dignity, and importance; and they have spread t heir debilitating influence wholesale, a cultural poison gas. Here of course Pound and Eliot are the large stars of negative magnitude: but even Yeats is brought into the picture where certainly he belongs. The fatally severe limitations of this Malachi Stilt jack are indeed obvious, and his fundamental emptiness is flaunted with perhaps a kind of desperate attempt at panache in this poem here at reference, where the uncomfortable mask slips more awry than usual. And he attempts to involve hi s ancestors too, the greater poets: he will have it that all high talk" is " stilted." High song, and full-bodied song, he found beyond him; and so he turned to the pretentious, posing talk, punctuated with shouts and other sounds, of his later period, which, with all its various complexities and allusions, is such a boon to the present breed of scholar . That he is touched by poetic greatness even so, makes him an especially apt and powerful vehicle of melancholy instruction, in this time of the academic book-makers who shall not perish, whatever poetry may do: he can, at least for hi s anguished and continued aspiration, serve as a foil to these mincing cheapjacks who make up the " modern" majority.

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As Mr. Holbrook sees it with a sufficient accuracy, the fundamental influence that has debilitated the poets is that of modern science, or rather, their puzzled semi-understanding of what it is. That science has long given up any attempt to explain the world in ultimate terms, is an apprehension still beyond our literary laggards — who without warrant, as it were, will have it that we are only a kind of cosmic accident head ed for certain extinction and oblivion, and that everything a man can do or say is just a meaningless posturing in the dark void . I am reminded here of a professional physicist I know: who enjoys Bach and Mozart, goes to church on Sunday, leads a decorous, moral and conscientious life, and acts for all the world as if he believes that human activity does have some dignity and importance. I once mentioned to him the idea of "universal entropy," and found that he did not know what I was talking about. He surely knew of the " second law of thermodynamics"; but, ,being really a scientist, he had never had occasion to go to school to Henry Adams. But our present would be poets and critics now go to school to nothing but hopeless ignorance and incapacity; anything greater than the illumination of a fox-fir e just hurts their poor eyes to o much, and all they can achieve is some redistribution of the rubble that has been mad e of our cultural heritage.

This is somewhat of a rhetorical exaggeration; but the point is that in cosmology there is no absolute certainty about anything. The most one can say is that certain assumptions follow from certain other assumptions, or at least would seem to do so.

So, becoming smaller and smaller, they become more and more spiteful, and hostile to largeness, and spoil anything and everything they touch. John Crowe Ransom, in a critique of one of the poems of Allen Tate, has spoken of "trifling with important substantives." But this is the ubiquitous "modern" disease: from Pound and Eliot down, if these costive or spewing word-mongers mention any of the important substantives, it is only to trifle with them; because they are not capable of engaging them strongly, on the sure basis of their own receptive and cultured consciousness, to some purpose. Nothing freally substantive means "anything }to these people; they are not equal to the largeness and the endlessly complex and ramified simplicity of the great things, and so they can only be pretentious, and spitefully destructive. And in fact we may say that trifling with important

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substantives has become the literary mode: the mode of men who, because they are not capable of it the mselves, deny that great literature is any longer possible - and infallibly detect and hate any possible manifestation to the contrary . They are men more critic than poet, and less critic than time-server: in the haven of the university system they trifle with all greatness at will, and write endless clever books on Blake and Yeats, and some other favourite unfortunates, in which they play at profundity without ever having to come with serious grips with anything - least of all the real human growth, the substantial growth in human nature and consciousness, that poetry entails and requires. They cannot take the poet serious ly, they can only use his text as an excuse for playing meaningless games, with prattle of "meaning" and " symbol" and "myth " and any convenient word by which the charade may be kept going.

Any man alive now who has not been denatured by the climate and conditions in which we live may hope for a speedy recovery of our cultural bearings and capacities; and here a book like David Holbrook's is a most healthy sign. That it could be written and published now is a good augury. That it proclaims the need for imaginative grasp and power, with evident belief in the possibility, is salutary. It desiderates with special emphasis the need for international activity: activity from what may be called a secure autonomous stance, based on a belief in the value of human activity and the growth of human consciousness. It is just this intentional power that Leone Vivante has found to be so strongly and generously present in English poetry; and what he has found, others may find, and profit by. It is indeed grotesquely stupid to claim that human consciousness, in its native working, cannot affect or change the world . What else does change and affect the world - the real human ambience, that is, the world we live in ? What has made it such a mess today is precisely the activity of human consciousness: of a humanity t hat, for no cogent reason, has lost confidence in itself. That to regain this confidence is possible as well as crucially necessary, Mr. Holbrook finds indication even in the present developments of psychology itself (about the last place where it might be expected to be found). Forgetting the " moderns" and drawing again on the real poets, and the real springs of poetry, we may regain our bearings and with a true orientation go ahead strongly, in t he clear and steady light that is

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the true basis of existence.

Walter Kaufmann, in the first volume of his trilogy Discovering the Mind (New York, 1980) has remarked how, in the academic world, standards in the humanities are appallingly low, as compared with standards in the sciences. One might almost suspect (this being my own comment) that most of the intelligent people have gone into science, that being where the prestige now is. Kaufmann, being of an older school, regrets this development; he enjoys poetry and recognizes its importance, emphasizes Kant's philistinism and calls it a disastrous influence, and champions Goethe as a "model of autonomy" now-much needed by humankind. One may applaud this advocacy, while recognizing that those born to the great heritage of English poetry need not go so far afield for great models of intentional confidence and power.

To conclude: The light and the substance exist, and it is not a meaningless hope, that the true receptors and extenders, lions of deathlessness, will soon arise, and be accepted by a humanity sick of its sickness and recognizing that it need not be. Here poetry will again lead, and its true criticism will come behind it. A dawn, a true sunlight of the soul and spirit, will come upon us; and there, in the larger picture, at the full human status, it will make no difference at all what science (not to speak of its poor relation, "psychology") may say or not say; for its provisional nature will be well understood, and it will have its due place, and no more.

SOLARIS

Replenishment impinges culturally,

The bankrupt time must turn, the light come strong;

The worth and promise of humanity

Now in the balance strikes the opening gong,

Not equiponderant to anomaly

Its sound strengths and perversions, strain on strain:

The flowering of the breast of unity

Is leader, and the depths are heaven's field

As truth, transcendent, universally

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Is deathless presence where the roots need rain;

All inexhaustible variety

Is ripe, harmonious in the round revealed.

As wholeness in full measure centrally

Swings freedom's ordered lines clear in the grain.

JESSE ROARKE

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PURANIC CONFIRMATION OF SRI AUROBINDO'S

PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION

OF THE VEDAS

ARE the gods merely personifications of Nature's forces as we are told by early European scholars? Do the gods serve a psychological function, imparting psychological and spiritual powers to human beings, as propounded by Sri Aurobindo in his interpretation of the Vedas ?

We are often told that the Seers of the Vedic Hymns were just like primitive children lisping their reactions to the terrific forces of Nature. Like all primitive people, they appealed to the powers around them to protect them from danger and to provide them with the good things of life. They untiringly petitioned for cows, horses, children, gold, a home; in short, all the objects of a full material life. Let us not deny that some used the great Vedic mantras to achieve purely material ends. Yet, can we discover any evidence that reveals anything about the Vedic hymns and mantras which corroborates a psychological purpose for their application?

Let us first examine what Sri Aurobindo has revealed about Agni and his functions within the psyche of man. About Agni Sri Aurobindo writes: "Agni is the Deva, the All-Seer, manifested as conscious-force or, as it would be called in modern language, Divine or Cosmic Will, first hidden and building up the eternal worlds, then manifest, 'born', building up in man the Truth and the Immortality— This divine Will carrying in all its workings the secret of the divine knowledge, kavikratuh, befriends or builds up the mental and physical consciousness in man, diuanprthiuydh, perfects the intellect, purifies the discernment so that they grow, to be capable of the 'knowings of the seers' and by the superconscient Truth thus made conscient in us establishes firmly the Beatitude. .. ." 1 Thus, we see that to Agni is attributed a role much greater than that of the material flame. Agni's work in the human being 'builds up the mental and physic al consciousness in man . . ., perfects the intellect,...so that they grow... .' Can Agni simply be the flame of the outer sacrificial fire? It is very unlikely that the Vedic seers would have been so enthusiastic scient in us establishes firmly the Beatitude____"¹ Thus, we see that  to Agni is attributed a role much greater than that of the material flame. Agni's work in the human being 'builds up the mental and physical consciousness in man perfects the intellect,...so that they  grow____' Can Agni simply be the flame of the outer sacrificial fire? It  is very unlikely that the Vedic seers would have been so enthusiastic

¹ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Centenary Edition, Vol. 10, p. 113.

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in extolling a fire which only consumed and devoured. This Agni is capable of creating forms, both material and mental, within the human being. "Psychologically, then, we make Agni to be the divine Will perfectly inspired by divine Wisdom, and indeed one with it, which is the active or effective power of the Truth-Consciousness."¹

The following statement from Agni Purana clearly supports the psychological function and power of Agni. It confidently asserts that " a man cursed with a defective sense organ is su re to recover a full and unimpaired use of that by repeating the mantras running as Bhadra, etc." 2 The mantra referred to is found in Yajur Veda (kathaka Samhita) IS, Verses 38 and 39. The Seer of the Mantra is' Sobharih' ka1Jva. The deity is Agni.

bhadro no agnirahuto bhadrā ratih subhaga bhadro advarah\

bhadrā uta prasastayah\\

bhadrā uta praśastayo bhadram manah\

krnusva thrtratūyarye yenā samatsu sāsahah\\

 

"May Agni, worshipped, bring us bliss, may the gift,

Blessed One! and sacrifice bring bliss,

Yea, may our praises bring us bliss.

Yea, may our praises bring us bliss. Show forth the

mind that brings success in war with fiends,

wherewith thou conquerests in fights."³

To be able to restore the proper functioning of a sense organ is clearly attributed to the mantra which is invocative of Agni. Let us look further to the internal sense of the mantra itself for further light. Note that the word bhadrā, "According to Sayana this is the sense [of bhadrā]: Agni gives wealth progeny, animals, money, house, [these] are the good, bhadram "4 Then, can material

¹ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda-, Cent. Ed. Vol. 10, pp. 61-2.

² M. N. Dutt Sastri, Agni Purānam, VoI II, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, Varanasi, 1967. P- 963-

³ Ralph T. H. Griffith, The Texts of the White Yajur Veda, E. J. Lazarus and Company, Benares, 1899, p. 136.

⁴ T. V. Kapali Sastriar, Rig Veda Samhita, (Translated by M. P. Pandit and S. Shankaranarayanan) p. 10.

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possessions restore the proper working of a defective sense organ? Does the word also carry a psychological connotation? The following words of T. V. Kapali Sastry provide a clear answer to the question:

"... There is no doubt that in the Rig Veda, Bhadra signifies good, something exalted connected with Truth. ... If the meaning is understood in the sense that the truth of Agni is verily the happy good that en d s the misfortunes resulting from false knowledge . . ., it is not some common good that is intended. The truth which is the good that opposes the false consciousness is verily the principle of Agni, hi s nature. All over the Veda the word bhadra is used in the sense of opposing the misfortune born of evil and false knowledge . ..."^l

Clearly, a defective sense organ would be a cause of false knowledge. Now, to this mantra of Agni, the Agni Purana attributes the power capable of re storing a ' full and unimpaired us e' of a defective sense organ. The function or purpose of the mantra is psychological, even psycho-physical, in nature. Sri Aurobindo has written, as we indicated before, that Agni 'builds up the mental and physical consciousness in man....' . We will now examine another case which supports this role of Agni in Vedic thought.

Agni Purana states, "A man wishing to improve his memory, should repeat the three Rik Mantras running as Sadasanyam*...."² The Riks referred to are found in Rig Veda I-18, verses six through eight. The Seer of the mantras is Medhatithi Kanoah , " These... Riks .. .are devoted to the Deity Sadasaspati. Sadasaspati is Agni himself, or a special form of his .''³

sadasaspatimadbhutath priyamindrasya kāmyam \

sanim medhāmayāsisam\\

yasmā drte na sidhyati yajño vipaścitaścana \

sa dhinām yogaminvati\\

 

¹  T. V. Kapali Sastriar, Op. Cit., p. 10.

2  Dutt, N. M., Op. Cit., p. 963.

³  T. V. Kapali Sastriar, Op. Cit., p. 218.

* The Roman transliteration of many of the mantras in Dutt's Agni Purana is not correct. One has to resort to the original Sanskrit in order to correctly identify the mantra referred to.

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ādrdhnoti haviskrtim prāñcam krnotyadhvaram\

hotrā devesu gacchati\\

"I have attained to Sadasaspati, the mighty, dear to Indra, desirable, giver, the Intelligence. He without whom even the sacrifice of the Wise succeeds not, the God effects the harmony of thoughts. After he increases the sacrificer, speeds the sacrifice, speech attains to the Gods."¹

On first examination one can see little evidence of this mantra's relation to the faculty of memory. The phrase sa dhinām yogaminvati, the God effects the harmony of thoughts" may help us to understand . We may profitably follow the words of T .V. K apali Sastry:

"...In the Veda there is a difference between mati and dhi. Mati means intellection, ordinary buddhi (intelligence) fu nction of mind or its st ate; . . .but dhi is the consciousness that holds; dhi also implies the operation of dhi.. .. In the field of dhi. . . there are obstructions..., as a result of the combination of many causes, . .. [which] bring about a disharmony which strikes at the well-coordinated activities of dhi an d in consequence a poverty of dhi and futility of its op erations. . .. "2 results.

It is to be remembered, sa dhinam yogaminvati. Since dhi is 'the consciousness that holds', its relation to memory is clear. Its increased effectivity by the power of Sadasaspati (Agni) would logically result in increased power of memory. The Agni Purana states that repetition of these Riks will improve one' s memory. This is in confirmation of on e of Agni's psychological powers and roles as described by Sri Aurobindo.

It is not denied that some used the mantras in an effort to obtain material objects of enjoyment, such as cows, horses, sons, and wealth of all kinds. For this study, however, emphasis is placed on the inner psychological functions of the Vedic mantras, the impact they are credited with having on the psychic functions of men.

Agni Purana states: "The Mantra, running as 'May cows be fruitful here, etc., (Iha gava Prajayadhvam), sharpens the intellect

¹ T. V. Kapali Sastriar, Op. Cit., pp. 218-20.

² Ibid., pp. 36-7.

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of its reciter...."¹ The mantra is found in Yajur Veda, (Kāthaka Samnita) 35, 21:

iha gāvah prajāyadhvamihāśvd iha purushāh\

iho sahasradaksino rāyaspāshah prajāyatām\\

 

Let cows, horses and men be fruitful here|

Here, Thousand-fold Dakshina, let wealth be produced||

This mantra reveals not only the psychological nature of Vedic mantras, but demonstrates clearly the intentional double meanings, inner and outer, which the Rishis imparted to the Riks.

Psychologically, then, what are cows, horses and wealth? Certainly, the acquisition of these as material objects would not result in the sharpening of one's intellect. About the psychological significance of these symbols Sri Aurobindo writes:

"The cow and horse, go and area, are constantly associated. .. . A study of the Vedic horse led me to the conclusion that go and area represent the two companion ideas of Light and Energy, Consciousness and Force, which to the Vedic and Vedantic mind were the double term or twin aspect of all the activities of existence. It was apparent therefore, that the two chief fruits of the Vedic sacrifice, wealth of cows and wealth of horses, were symbolic of richness of mental illumination and abundance of vit al energy."

What then is this 'thousand-fold Dakshina'? Is this evidence of greed for money as some would assert? "Dakshina is the discerning knowledge that comes with the dawn and enables the Power in the mind, Indra, to know aright and separate the fight from the darkness, the truth from the falsehood, the straight from the crooked."³ "Thousand symbolises absolute completeness, but there are ten subtle powers of the illumined mind each of which has to have its entire plenitude."⁴ "Raya..., [is] riches; bliss. t' "

¹ M. N. Dutt Shastri, Op, Cit ., p . 960 .

² Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed. Vol. 10, p. 42.

³ Ibid., p. 186.

⁴ Ibid., p. 416.

⁵ Sri Aurobindo, Index and Glossary, Cent. Ed. Vol. 30, p. 336.

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The preceeding observations of Sri Aurobindo about these symbols found in the Vedas are taken from other contexts than the specific mantra under consideration. It seems that the assertion of Agni Purana about this mantra is a clear confirmation of Sri Aurobindo's interpretation of these recurring Vedic symbols. With this understanding of the symbols used, we see that the mantra invokes an increase in psychological powers in the human being. Yet Sri Aurobindo t ells us that these alone are not the end. He writes, "But even this prosperity, this fullness of cows, horses, gold, men, chariots, offspring, is not an end in itself; all this is a means towards the opening up of the other worlds, the winning of Soar, the ascent to the solar heavens, the attainment by the path of the Truth to the Light and to the heavenly Bliss where the mortal arrives at Immortality."¹

In the next mantra under study we meet with a clearly spiritual aim to be realized by repetition of the Rik. Agni Purana states, " A recitation of the Man tra, beginning as May Vrihaspati protect us (Vrihaspatir No Patu) is the greatest peace-giving rite known.. . ." 2 The mantra is found in the Atharoa Veda, 7-51- 1:

brhaspatirnah pari patu pañcādutottarasmādadharādaghāyoh:

indrah purastāduta madhyato nah sakhā sakhibhyo varīyah krnotu\\

"Brihaspati protect us from the sinner, from rearward, from above and from below us. May Indra from the front and from the centre, as friend to friends, vouchsafe us room and freedom."³

The experience of Peace in the human being is recognized by all traditions as a development of one aspect of the spiritual consciousness. The import is clearly psycho-spiritual, and this Mantra is found in Atharva Veda, impugned by modern Western scholars to be a book of magical charms and sorcery.

¹ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed. Vol. 10, pp. 132-3.

² M. N. Dutt Shastri, Op. Cit., p. 971.

³ Ralph T. H. Griffith, The Hymns of the Atharvaveda, Vol. I, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, Varanasi, 1968, p. 35.

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Let us examine what Sri Aurobindo reveals about the godhead invoked in this mantra:

"Indra and Brihaspati are thus the two divine powers whose fullness in us and conscious possession of the Truth are the conditions of our perfection____ So let Brihaspati and Indra  increase in us and that state of right mentality which together they build will be manifested;... The powers that attack the Aryan fighter, would create in him poverties of mind and poverties of the emotive nature, all infelicities. Soul-force and mental-force increasing together, destroy all such poverty and insufficiency. Together they bring man to his crowning and his perfect kinghood."¹

Such a development of spiritual power in the human being would clearly account for the Agni Purana's assertion that recitation of this man tra, and the consequent change of consciousness, is the 'greatest peace-giving rite known'.

It is a common experience of spiritual seekers that their own nature is the greatest obstacle to its illumination, stubbornly repeating its old obscure movements which are incompatible with the growing Light. It is these same inner obstacles which serve as the occasion and opportunity for outer obstacles to impede the spiritual progress. The following mantra reflects a psychological as well as material action. Agni Purana states, "A repetition of the Mantra, running as 'Sastin Indra, et c.' removes all barriers both material and moral, standing in the way of an individual.. . ." 2 The mantra is found in Yajur Veda, 25,19. (It is also found in Rig Veda 1-89-6) The Rishi is Rāhūgano Gotama.

svasti na indro vrddhaśravah svasti nah pūsā viśvavedāh \

svasti nastārksyo aristanemih svasti no brhaspatirdadkātu\\

"Illustrious far and wide, may Indra prosper us: may Pushan prosper us, the Master of all wealth. May Tarkshya with uninjured

¹ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed. Vol. 10, p. 313.

² M. N. Dutt Sastri, Op. Cit., p. 958.

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fellies prosper us: Brihaspati vouchsafe to us prosperity."¹

From Griffinth's translation we may think that the mantra is calling for material prosperity and wealth. Yet the Agni Purana is clear in stating the purpose of the mantra. Sri Aurobindo defines svasti as "the good state of existence, right being."The statement of the Agni Purana confirms the latter in erpretation, for the removal of moral defects (moral barriers) would result in a good state of existence, right being'.

Let us see how Sri Aurobindo's description of the gods invoked in this mantra are in agreement with the functions attributed to the mantra in Agni Purana. The gods invoked are Indra, Pushan, Tarkshya and Brihaspati.

Indra

"Indra is the head of these gods, lord of the light, king of the luminous heaven called Swar, he is, we say, the luminous or divine Mind, into him all the gods enter and take part in his unveiling of the hidden light____"³ It is that Intelligence which clearly discerns and can solve or remove all still-existing confusion and obscuration. Swift of movement, intense, energetic, it does not by its energy stumble in its paths like the impulses of the nervous consciousness. Or perhaps it is rather meant that owing to its invincible energy it does not succumb to the attacks whether of the Coverers or of the powers that limit."⁴

Pushan

"The spiritual wealth coveted by the Rishis is one that... increases 'day by day', that is, in each return of this fostering Sun;... [Pushan] ...is the 'Lord and master of plenitudes, lord of our growing, our comrade.' Pushan is the enriched of our sacrifice____ The return of the night of ignorance which

¹ Ralph T. H. Griffith, The Hymns of the Rig Veda, Vol. I, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, Varanasi, 1971, p. 114.

² Sri Aurobindo, Index and Glossary, Cent. Ed. Vol. 30, p. 351.

³ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed. Vol. 10, p. 138.

⁴ Ibid., p. 251.

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intervenes between successive dawns is imaged as the loss of the radiant herds of the Sun frequently stolen from the seer by the Panis and some times as the loss of the Sun itself hidden by them again in their tenebrous cavern of the subconscient. The increase which Pushan gives depends upon the recovery of these disappearing illuminations of the Truth. Therefore this god is associated with Indra, the power of Divine Mind, his brother, friend, ally in battle, in their forceful recovery... The happy state of the soul that he gives removes from it all sin and evil ['moral obstacles or barriers'] and makes tomorrow for the building up of the whole godhead in our universal being____ Thus... Pushan, the divine and luminous increaser of man's soul, shall lead us to the light and bliss. . . ." ¹

Tarkshya

The deity Tarksya is hymned in the Veda for the purpose of suastyayana (See Brihad Devata, Chapter VIII, Verse 77). This has been translated rather abstractly as bringing good luck. Tarkshya brings svasti. In the hymn to Tarkshya of Rig Veda X-I78, we gather that hi s strength is great and he is not stop ped in his course. This much about Tarkshya is known regarding hi s contribution to the removal of moral and material barriers.

Brihaspati

"This self-expressive Soul, Brihaspati, is the Purusha, the Father of all things; it is the universal Divinity____ By the sacrifice we shall become through the grace of this godhead full of heroic energy for the battle of life, rich in the offspring of the soul, masters of the felicities which are attained by divine enlightenment and right action____ By that energy he throws himself upon and masters all that comes to him in... the planes of consciousness that open upon his perception in the progress of the being...."²

¹ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed., Vol. 10, pp. 434-6.

² Ibid., pp. 311-312.

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We observe that the removal of barriers, moral and material, would be accomplished by the birth in the individual of a greater light and force, the contribution of the Powers invoked, Indra, Pushan, Tarkshya and Brihaspati. To succumb to a moral barrier is the result of a weakness of will, of force, or of power. With the influx of these elements, the individual is prepared to break through all barriers that may be barring his advance.

The following mantra represents a spiritual advance over the preparatory removal of obstacles. "A man, by constantly repeating the Mantra, running as 'Shanno Mitra, etc.', shall have peace everywhere."¹ This mantra is found in Yajur Veda, (Kāthaka Samhita) 36, 9:

śam no mitrah śam varunah sam no bhavawaryamā\

śam na indro brhaspatih sa nom vishnururukramah \\

 

"Gracious be Mitra unto us, and Varuna and Aryaman; Indra,

Brihaspati be kind, and Vishnu of the Mighty stride."²

From the translation of Griffith, the mantra would seem to be a mere petition to gods for weal. The Agni Purana, however, gives us clear evidence as to a definite spiritual purpose of this mantra. It is stated that the fruit of the repetition of this mantra is to have peace everywhere. This implies a very durable and dynamic peace retained by the consciousness under all circumstances. Such a development is indicative of an advanced spiritual development. To have such a settled and dynamic peace in one's consciousness is an indispensable foundation for the growing light, power and bliss of the spiritual consciousness. Without such peace, the development of the spiritual consciousness cannot become the permanent possession of the seeker. With it, the growth of consciousness can proceed from light to greater Light, from joy to the Supernal Bliss, firmly supported by the underlying peace. In this regard it is very interesting to consider the following statement by Griffith about the section in which this mantra is found. He writes, 'This book [Yajur Veda IS] contains preliminary formulas - chiefly prayers for long life, unimpaired faculties,

¹ M. N. Dutt Sastri, Op. Cit., p. 969.

² Ralph T. H. Griffith, The Texts of the White Yajur Veda, p. 291.

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health, strength tranquility and contentment — of the Pravargya Ceremony which is a preparatory rit e of the Soma Sacrifice-...." (Italics ours) That the Yajur Veda follows an order requiring fir sttranquility, sound health, strength, etc., prior to the performance of the Soma sacrifice is significant. As previously stated, a strong peaceful foundation is required for the aspirant to receive and hold the blissful spiri tual consciousness.

T. V. Kapali Sastry sums up the spiritual interpretation of Sri Aurobindo in the following words:

"Throughout the Rig Veda we see that the effort of the Seers in the inner sacrifice is twofold: one is the maturing in body and mind of man by means of which they get equipped for the object to be attained. The other is the attainment of Truth and its Delight which is indicated by the term Soma, by which the work of the Supreme Godhead in the form of Immortality in man is fulfilled."²

This interpretation seems supported by the evidence considered above. As stated, once a wide unshakable foundation of peace, light and force was established, the Vedic sadhak would invoke the Grace of Soma to found in him the Nectar of Immortality.

Early European scholars have averred that Soma was an intoxicating beverage drunk by the sacrificers. In more recent times, apologists for the use of hallucinogenic drugs have insisted that the Soma of the Vedas was a psychedelic substance. Such allegations are best answered by turning to evidence of the true spiritual nature of the Soma.

We find a statement in Agni Purana which confirms the yogic and spiri tual nature of Soma. " T he Suktas, running as ' svadista, etc.', seventy-seven times repeated, tend to destroy all sins of the repeater and to purify his inner self and fill him with bliss,"( Italics ours) The Sukta thus referred to is found in the Ninth Mandala of the Rig Veda. I t is the firs t Sukta and is of ten Riks. The Seer is Madhuchchandas. The Deity is Pavamanah Soma. Due to want of space we

¹ Ralph T. H. Griffith, The Texts of the White Yajur Veda, fn. p. 291.

² T. V. Kapali Sastriar, Op. Cit., p. 39.

³ M. N. Dutt Shastri Op. Cit., p. 951.

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reproduce the first and last mantras of the hymn only:

svādisthayā madisthayā pavasva soma dāryā\

indrāya pātave sntah \\I\\

asyedindro madesvā viśvā vrtrāni jindhata |

 suro maghd ca mamhate\\1O\\

 

"In sweetest and most gladdening stream flow pure,

O Soma, on the way pressed out for Indra for his drink. "( I )

"In the wild raptures of this draught, Indra slays all

the Vritras: He, the Hero, pours his wealth on us."(`10)¹

The statement of Agni Purana makes it very clear that this hymn to Soma has a spiritual or yogic purpose far removed from the intoxication of any material substance. The reference to purification of the inner self makes it clear beyond doubt as to the nature of the Soma in its inner sense.

Let us examine what Sri Aurobindo has written about the Soma of the Veda:

"The Soma-Wine symbolises the replacing of our ordinary sense-enjoyment by the divine Ananda. That substitution is brought about by divinising our thought action and as it progresses it helps in its turn the consummation of the movement which has brought it about."²

In other words, the action of Soma will purify one's inner self and fill him with bliss.

"... Soma represents, as we have abundant proof in the Veda and especially in the ninth book, a collection of more than a hundred hymns addressed to the deity Soma, the intoxication of the Ananda, the divine delight of being inflowing upon the mind from the supramental consciousness through the rtam or Truth. If we accept these interpretations we can easily translate the hymn into its psychological significance.''³ "He [Soma] is the

 

¹ Ralph T. H. Griffith, The Hymns of the Rig Veda. Vol. II, pp. 269-70.

² Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed., Vol. 10, p. 75.

³ Ibid., p. 177.

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Supreme, standing out from all other beings and over them, other than they and wonderful,... and as the supreme and transcendent, present in the worlds but exceeding them, he protects in these worlds the births of the gods.... The 'births of the gods' is a common phrase in the Veda by which is meant the manifestation of the divine principles in the Cosmos and especially the formation of the godhead in its manifold forms in the human being."¹ By the grace of Soma,"... in us arises a honeyed wave of Ananda or pure delight of existence ...: it is by this Ananda that we can arrive at immortality."²

We find further support for this exalted conception of Soma in The Brhaddevatā attributed to Saunaka. In a reference to the hymns to Pavamana Soma of the Ninth Mandala of the Rig Veda, the Brhaddeuatd states: "The Pavamani Gayatris are the supreme Brahma, the bright, eternal Light.?"

We have seen that the Agni Purana gives clear support to a psychological and spiritual interpretation of Vedic Mantras. It is not denied that the Vedas have an outer sense, unspiritual in nature, meant for the ordinary worshippers. Yet for the spiritual initiate the inner meaning was revealed, leading him on the path of communion and union with the gods, the powers of the One Supreme, Infinite, Immortal Existence. The birth of the gods in the human, exalting the finite and mortal elements into forms of the infinite and the immortal, is the aim and goal, the inner significance of the Vedic Mantras. This decidedly spiritual purpose of union with the divine Power in its many aspects is clearly stated in The Brhaddeuatd of Saunaka.

"...Now distinguishing correctly in the formulas [mantras] this distribution of these (...deities) which arises from (their different) powers and spheres, ... Teaching, studying and reciting a formula (addressed to them), a man attains to the sphere of, to identity of world (and) intimate union with these same

¹ Sri Aurobindo, Ibid., p. 97.

² Ibid., pp. 97-8.

³ A. A. Macdonell, The Brhaddevat — Attributed to Saunaka, Vol.11,

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(gods)."¹ "Such a one enters into the Brahma, the immortal, the infinite, the permanent Source of that which is and is not, both vast and minute, the lord of all, the light supreme."²

The mantras considered in this study reveal something of the depth of psychological and occult knowledge of the Vedic Seers. As Sri Aurobindo has stated, the gods of the Vedas were

"the objects of worship to men far more inwardly civilised and profound in self-knowledge than ourselves. They may not have yoked the lightening to their chariots, nor weighed sun and star, nor materialised all the destructive forces in Nature to aid them in massacre and domination, but they had measured and fathomed all the heavens and earths within us, they had cast their plummet into the inconscient and the superconscient: they had read the riddle of death and found the secret of immortality; they had sought for and discovered the One and known and worshipped Him in the glories of His light and purity and wisdom and power."³

Much knowledge of the principles of cosmic existence lies hidden in the Hymns of the Four Vedas. Once the psychological and spiritual interpretation of the Mantras is more widely accepted, much of value is apt to be uncovered. With the help of clues found in other shastras, and especially with the help of the Vedic mantras themselves, the Truth of the Veda more and more reveals itself. Yet to avoid the pitfalls encountered by the early Western scholars, one may well, keep in mind the guiding purpose of one's studies. "The true purpose of one's studying the Veda is served only when its mantras arouse in oneself the aspiration for the divine Delight."⁴

STEPHEN K. WATSON

¹ A. A. Macdonell, Op. Cit., p. 36.

² Ibid., pp. 333-334-

³ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed., Vol. 10, p. 439.

⁴ Sri Nolini Kama Gupta, Vedic Hymns, Collected Works, Vol 8, p. 94.

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PHILOSOPHY OF INTEGRAL YOGA

To be one with all Nature and all beings, this is yoga.

Sri Aurobindo

CLASSICAL definitions of yoga most often include the idea of ^* uniting or yoking the lower human nature of body, life and mind to the higher divine nature of knowledge, will and bliss by means of certain methods of discipline. Sri Aurobindo expands the ideal of yoga to include, not just human nature, but all nature:

All life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. For we mean by this term a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being and a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. But all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature attempting to realise her perfection in an ever increasing expression of her potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality.¹

The main difference between human beings and the rest of nature is the degree of consciousness. Man has reached the evolutionary stage where he must consciously participate in his own spiritual growth and Sri Aurobindo suggests the method of Integral Yoga for this process. Integral Yoga (also called Purna Yoga) synthesizes the three paths of love, knowledge and works and at the same time transcends each of these three methods. This masterful synthesis is based upon Sri Aurobindo's hierarchical scheme of involution (descent of Spirit into Matter) and evolution (ascent of Matter into Spirit).

The fundamental premise of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is that Matter as well as Spirit is real. They are two aspects of the supreme Reality. Matter is imperfect, but it is divine, because out

¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Yoga I: The Synthesis of Yoga (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press. 1963), p. 4.

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of Matter, Spirit "weaves his forms and figures." The movement of Matter toward realizing her own divine reality is part of the whole yoga process.

Sri Aurobindo's philosophy of integral yoga is based upon his own experience of a spiritual consciousness beyond mind. He found that every step in the evolution is directed by the involution of the Spirit into lower states of consciousness. Without the descent of Spirit into the world, there cannot be any ascent of the world into Spirit and to the same extent which the Spirit has involved into the world, the world can evolve into the Spirit, i.e., the evolution of Matter, Life and Mind is possible only because there has been an involution of the Spirit into Matter, Life and Mind.

In the process of evolution every step is directed by the Spirit; every step is a spiral upward. The first step is the evolution of Matter out of the Nescience. The involution into Nescience pushes the evolution upward resulting in organized Matter in which each atom holds infinite potential energy.

The second step in evolution is Life. As matter evolves into Life, it does not reject its old basis, rather new impulses appear that were implanted in it. Each cell or unit of life holds within itself the power of becoming.

The third step is evolution of Mind. With mind in man came the mental or intellectual consciousness; it does not leave Matter and Life behind, but governs and assimilates both. With mind in man come the questions, Who am I? What created the world? When the principle of Mind comes into play, man becomes aware of his limitations, i.e., he realizes he is unable to answer with the mental reasoning mind these metaphysical questions. That is why, according to Sri Aurobindo, "Man is the greatest of living beings because he is the most discontented, because he feels most the pressure of limitations."

The Mind principle is not the last or highest rung on the evolutionary ladder for the very reason that it cannot answer the most pressing questions about Spirit and Matter. Mind is a subordinate power to Supermind (Supramental Truth-Consciousness) just as soul is a subordinate power to Bliss. The order of this involutionary descent and the evolutionary ascent is as follows:

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For Sri Aurobindo, evolution reproduces in the reverse order the process of involution. Just as Being exists potentially in Matter, Supermind exists potentially in Mind. It is through the method of Integral Yoga that one consciously, step by step, moves from mental mind to supermind. The knot between higher and lower maya or unity and multiplicity is exactly where mind and supermind meet. This knot is man's ego which perceives subject and object as separate, which makes men feel isolated from each other and nature. The ego is a sort of veil between knowledge and ignorance. Removing the veil through integral yoga is the condition of the divine life in humanity.

The universal Purusha (Spirit) dwells in all these planes in a certain simultaneity and builds upon each of these principles a world or series of worlds with its beings who live in the nature of that principle. Man, the microcosm, has all these planes in his own being, ranged from his subconscient to his superconscient existence. By a developing power of Yoga he can become aware of these concealed worlds hidden from his physical, materialised

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mind and senses which know only the material world, and then he becomes aware that his material existence is not a thing apart and self-existent, as the material universe in which he lives is also not a thing apart and self-existent, but is a constant relation to the higher planes and acted on by their power and beings... His most important capacity is that of developing the powers of the higher principles in himself, a greater power of life, a purer light of mind, the illumination of supermind, the infinite being, consciousness and delight of spirit. By an ascending movement he can develop his human imperfection towards that greater perfection.¹

As the participant in yoga ascends, he or she prepares the field through an aspiration to truth, a rejection of falsehood and a surrender in all parts of the being to the Divine. When the stage of surrender is reached, the supreme Grace guides the aspirant, for man is incapable, without Grace, of reaching the supreme Reality. The divine Grace is always present, but one must surrender before it can be recognized.

Sri Aurobindo explains the order of ascent from mind to supermind as levels of consciousness increasing in intensity. Beginning with ordinary mind the stages are: Ordinary Mind, Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Over mind, Supermind.

The function of man's ordinary mind is to divide, limit, separate one object from another, one person from another, one idea from another. The ordinary reasoning mind is an instrument for analysis which must separate one thing from another for study and observation. It is a mind that perceives only the particular and not the the universal. Because the ordinary mentality concentrates on the external world of objects and facts, it is also called the sense-mind.

Higher Mind, on the other hand, has a sense of unity as well as a sense of multiplicity. This is the luminous thought mind of conceptual knowledge where one is able to understand a priori the relation of idea with idea, of truth with truth. Higher Mind is the philosophic mind of pure reason and rational moral values.

The next level of mind evolution is Illumined Mind which works by vision (spiritual sight). There is usually a downpour of visible

¹ Ibid., p. 589.

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light (not the same light as seen by the physical eye) followed by an enthusiasm and inner power which replaces the ordinary mind level. If a person keeps his higher mind open to illumination he can experience inner revelatory ideographs, but the more closed the lower states of mind are to revelation, the more reduced such illuminations will become.

Intuitive Mind brings an even higher and more expansive state of consciousness into revelation and higher levels of knowledge. "It brings to man these brilliant messages from the unknown which are the beginning of his higher knowledge." "Intuition gives us that idea-of something behind and beyond all that we know and seem to be." There are, according to Sri Aurobindo, four powers of the intuitive mind:

1. Revelation (truth-seeing)

2. Inspiration (truth-hearing)

3. Sensing of significance (truth-touch)

4. Discrimination (orderly relation of truth to truth)

The faculty of intuition can easily use supra-logical intelligence and has the ability, when not rejected by the lower mind levels, to transform one's heart, mind, life and senses into a harmonious integration. As with all evolution, intuition does not leave behind a priori concepts or spiritual sight, but carries them with it into higher consciousness

From the intuitive mind the yogi moves into the Overmind where one now perceives the universe as integrally one with many aspects and potentials. The answer to the age-old question, How can the One become the Many and the Many remain the Many without diminishing the oneness of the One? is known at the Overmind level, because here one knows the divine personality and the divine impersonality as two aspects of the one supreme Reality — the unity upon which all multiplicity is based:

If we regard the Powers of the Reality as so many Godheads, we can say that the Overmind releases a million Godheads into action, each empowered to create its own world, each world capable of relation, communication and interplay with the others.¹

¹ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine (New York: India Library Society, 1965) pp. 256-257.

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Overmind, says Sri Aurobindo, is a principle of Cosmic Truth, but the truly perfect integral knowledge of Truth belongs only to Supermind which is the highest faculty possible for man's perfection. Supermind is the principle of "active will and knowledge" and has the ability to retain the true nature of Being, Consciousness-Force and Bliss without distorting or destroying it. Because of its ability to know perfectly the unity and the multiplicity, Supermind functions as the bridge between Higher Maya and Lower Maya. The Supramental Truth-Consciousness is the ultimate creator of the Kingdom of God within and without.

Supermind as the sole cause of cosmic existence has three movements:

1. It is the comprehending unity of all things.

2. It supports the manifestation of the One in the Many and the Many in the One.

3. It projects itself into the individual movement in order to become involved in it.

The purpose of man then, as a transitional being, is to evolve more and more consciously towards his highest faculty, the Supermind. Beyond ordinary human life based on ignorance, separation and alienation from Truth, lies a destiny of divine superman hood rooted in the unity of knowledge, love, wisdom and divine power. Integral Yoga is the method Sri Aurobindo chooses as the liberating key to man's troubled and mundane existence. It was his experience that the task at hand is for mankind to bridge the gigantic gulf between the ordinary reasoning mind and Supermind — to open the passages of ascent and descent where presently there are none. He calls this process through the use of Integral Yoga, the "triple transformation".

There must first be the psychic change, the conversion of our whole present nature into a soul-instrumentation; on that or along with that there must be the spiritual change, the descent of a higher Light, Knowledge, Power, Force, Bliss, Purity into the whole being, even into the lowest recesses of the life and body, even into the darkness of our subs conscience; last, there must supervene the supramental transmutation,— there must take place as the crowning movement the ascent into the

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supermind and the transforming descent of the supramental consciousness into our entire being and nature.¹

Psychic change is effected in yoga when the sadhaka (disciple) becomes an instrument capable of receiving and expressing the soul-force deeper than the mental mind. This transformation by the psychic being is the first prerequisite to a total surrender to the divine Reality. Since, however, the psychic being is becoming and does not suddenly emerge full-grown, its awakening to the Divinity is usually accomplished slowly and imperfectly through several life-times.

It is only when man awakes to the knowledge of the soul and feels a need to bring it to the front and make it the master of his life and action that a quicker conscious method of evolution intervenes and a psychic transformation is possible.²

There are three approaches of yoga that can be used to reach for this soul contact — Jnana (knowledge), Bhakti (love) and Karma (works). Jnana yoga would lead one to an impersonal realization of the supreme Truth, Good, Beauty, Delight and Purity where the mind becomes aware of the unchanging Self, "the formless Infinite and the nameless Absolute."³ A second approach may be through the heart path of Bhakti yoga, "when the mind goes beyond impersonality to the awareness of a supreme Personal Being"⁴ and opens to "the love of God and men and all creatures."⁵ In the third method of Karma yoga, the yogin uses the will to eliminate the ego by the guidance of a "Force or Presence acting within and moving or governing all the actions..."⁶ In Karma yoga the personal ego is surrendered completely to the divine Will.

Any one of these methods can be used by the aspirant, but Sri Aurobindo suggests that an integration of all three approaches — mind, heart, will — creates more of a spiritual or a psychic condition by opening oneself more completely and totally to the psychic light and spiritual Self.

The psychic change makes possible the second stage of the triple transformation — the spiritual transformation. Sri Aurobindo experienced

¹ Ibid., p. 793.              ² Ibid., P. 797.               3 The Life Divine, p . 802.

⁴ Ibid., p , 80 3.            ⁵ Ibid .                  ⁶ Ibid.

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spiritual transformation as the descent of the Overmind which brought with it a new consciousness of truth, vision and power which replaced any belief systems such as the belief in immortality, with the direct experience of the Divine Soul (the Self) which is immortality in itself.

The spiritual change prepares one for the third and most perfect stage of the triple transformation, the descent of the Supramental Consciousness:

... the whole radical change in the evolution from a basis of ignorance to a basis of Knowledge can only come by the intervention of the supramental Power and its direct action in earth-existence.¹

The third transformation completes the movement of the soul through ignorance into knowledge, but before the Supermind can manifest one must have a solid second stage or spiritual basis. The psychic transformation and the first stages of the spiritual transformation are within man's realm of conception, but the supramental consciousness lies so far beyond the conception of the human mind that "it is only when we have already had experience of a higher intermediate consciousness that any terms attempting to describe supramental being could convey a true meaning to our "intelligence."²

Since the supermind consciousness is a state which takes place in perfect knowledge well beyond the levels of man's ordinary consciousness, its realization is only possible through "the surrender of the whole being to the light and the power that come from the Super-nature."³

For a real transformation there must be a direct and unveiled intervention from above; there would be necessary too a total submission and surrender of the lower consciousness, a cessation of its insistence... If these two conditions can be achieved even now by a conscious call and will in the spirit... the evolution, the transformation can take place by a ... conscious change.⁴

¹ The Life Divine, p. 816.           ² Ibid., p. 818.

³ Ibid., p. 826.            ⁴ Ibid., p. 820.

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However, this movement to the higher truth can only be accomplished when "the psychic change has been complete or the spiritual transformation has reached a very high state of achievement."¹

Integral Yoga is not an easy path; man's nature and the nature of the world cannot be changed effortlessly or in a day. But that is no reason to become discouraged, the path is worth the taking and the goal is worth the striving. If the aspirant does become discouraged in his or her practice of yoga Sri Aurobindo is the first to give reassurance:

Imperfections, even many and serious imperfections, cannot be a permanent bar to progress in the Yoga... If imperfections were a bar, then no man could succeed in Yoga; for all are imperfect, and I am not sure, from what I have seen, that it is not those who have the greatest power for Yoga who have very often, or have had, the greatest imperfections.²

JOAN PRICE

¹ The Life Divine, p. 826.

² Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, i960), p. 60

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SRI AUROBINDO — THE MAN OF DESTINY

He is the Dawn before the Mankind awakes.

He sings of Divinity in widest Humanity spread.

SRI Aurobindo was the man of destiny in this modern age. His whole life and work was a colossal tryst with divinity. He was a born Karma yogi descended on this planet who revealed the ways of Divinity to mankind thereby fulfilling his Incarnate mission of universal transformation. He was the Modern Rishi — the Seer who was pre-eminently the 'Avatar' of the Age. He was the Incarnate Divine of the modern times who came to reveal his integral Yogic vision by 'mantric' words of intuition about the past, present and future times. He was the divine light of the supreme who came to illumine mankind with the Truth in all its plenitude. The man of destiny came to present before us an integral view of Man, Nature and God in order to facilitate the creation here on earth of the home of a divinized humanity.

Sri Aurobindo once wrote: "No one can write about my life because it has not been on the surface for men to see." His universal genius and multifaceted personality is mirrored in his varied life and career which overwhelms the average human being. He was a being par excellence — scholar, journalist, educationist, politician, statesman, revolutionary leader, nation builder, poet, philosopher, lover of humanity, lover of God, Yogi, Guru and Master — all in one. His majestic writings like The Life Divine, Savitri, The Future Poetry, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita, and The Foundations of Indian Culture, are the perennial shade of the huge Banyan tree under which the modern world can repose awhile in its long journey to the Eternal. His colossal labour revealed in his staggering mass of writings reminds us of majestic ancient temples like Konarak or of a Gothic architecture like Notre Dame before which one stands and stares in speechless ecstasy when one's soul takes a flight beyond time and space.

He was like a 'Brahmaputra' of inspiration who has left us an inexhaustible heritage of words, images, ideas, suggestions and hints about the divine emanation of the Supreme descending on earth to announce the manifestation of the new race and a new world: the

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Supramental. There was 'God's plenty in him' about whom we can say the same words as Mathew Arnold had said about Shakespeare:

"Others abide our question, thou art free,

We ask and ask, you smile and smile,

Out topping all knowledge."

When his 75th birthday coincided with the dawn of independence in India, he said in his message to the nation, "I take this identification not as a coincidence or fortuitous accident, but as a sanction and seal of the Divine Power which guides my steps on the work with which I began life." His birth centenary was observed and celebrated on 15th August 1972 not only at Pondicherry and other parts of India but all over the world. In the words of Romain Rolland, "Sri Aurobindo is the foremost of Indian thinkers, the greatest synthesis that has yet been realized of the genius of Asia and the genius of Europe, and the last great Rishi who held in his hand in firm unrelaxed grip, the bow of creative energy. It appeared as if all heaven's secrecy was lit to his face." According to Gurudev Tagore, "His face was radiant with an inner light and serene presence." Dr. Radhakrishnan hailed him as "The greatest intellectual of the age." The world has now come to recognise him as the greatest seer, sage, philosopher and poet in the Vedic, Upanishadic and classical epic traditions of this great and ancient land of ours. He was a technician and a craftsman par excellence suited to our practical, pragmatic, scientific and technological times. He was a new and great critic of modern times who can most favourably be compared with all the well established critics of today. He was a major philosopher and critic of aesthetics in modern times. He towers above all the literary and aesthetic critics, poets and philosophers we have had so far, not only in the East but also in the more sophisticated and scientifically up-to-date West. It is, therefore, our bounden duty to prepare ourselves with all sincerity and eagerness so that hi s celestial message of Life Divine keeps on ringing in our ears and reaches profound heights of thought.heights of thought.

O. P. MALHOTRA

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