BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Sri Aurobindo's various writings on the Veda and his translations of some of the hymns, originally published in the Arya between August 1914 and 1920, were brought together and published in book-form in 1956 under the general title ON THE VEDA. They were reissued in 1964. The title of the volume, however, has now been changed to the more significant, THE SECRET OF THE VEDA. For the purposes of the Centenary Edition the same arrangement as in ON THE VEDA has been maintained except for the following additions and alterations in Part III and Part IV. In Part III a number of translations of Hymns to Indra, found in his manuscripts and

CHAPTER XIX The Victory of the Fathers THE hymns addressed by the great Rishi Vamadeva to the divine Flame, to the Seer-Will, Agni are among the most mystic in expression in the Rig-veda and though quite plain in their sense if we hold firmly in our mind the system of significant figures employed by the Rishis, will otherwise seem only a brilliant haze of images baffling our comprehension. The reader has at every moment to apply that fixed notation which is the key to the sense of the hymns; otherwise he will be as much at a loss as a reader of metaphysics who has not mastered the sense of the philosophical terms that are being constantly used or, let u

THE TWENTIETH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE WORK AND THE ATTAINMENT [The Rishi desires a state of spiritual wealth full of the divine working in which nothing shall fall away to the division and the crookedness. So, increasing by our works the divine Force in us daily, we shall attain to the Bliss and the Truth, the rapture of the Light and the rapture of the Force.] O Will, O conqueror of our plenitude, the felicity which thou alone canst conceive in the mind, that make full of inspiration by our words and set it to labour in the gods as our helper. They who are powers increased of thee in the fierceness of thy flame and strength, yet

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE STRENGTH AND ILLUMINATION The Rishi under the figure of the demigod, Traivrishna Tryaruna Trasadasyu, and the seer Ashwamedha, symbolises the fulfilment in the human mentality of the illumination of the God-Mind Indra, and the power of the God-Will, Agni in the vitality. The Mind-Soul, destroyer of the demons, awakened to knowledge as the human-born Indra, has given to the seer his two cows of light that draw his wain, his two shining horses that draw his chariot and the ten times twelve cows of the dawn of knowledge. He has assented to and confirmed the desire with which the Life-Soul has given the sacrif

PART TWO SELECTED HYMNS* THE COLLOQUY OF INDRA AND AGASTYA Rig-veda 1.170 It is not now, nor is It tomorrow; who knoweth that which is Supreme and Wonderful? It has motion and action in the consciousness of another, but when It is approached by the thought. It vanishes. Why dost thou seek to smite us, O Indra ? The Maruts are thy brothers. By them accomplish perfection; slay us not in our struggle. • These translations are offered here only in their results for the interest of the general reader and as an illustration of the theory advanced. Their philological and critical justifi

THE NINETEENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE REVEALING RAY AND CONQUERING WILL [That epiphany of the soul is sung in which all the coverings of its higher states are penetrated and open to the divine light. It is the opening of the whole third plane of our existence which was before as a fortified city with its gates closed to the soul embodied in Matter. By this new action of the Divine Force the mental and physical consciousness are wedded to the high supramental which was till now separated from them and the life-force blazing in its works with the heat of the divine Sun is harmonised with the play of the sun-ray of the divine knowledge.] State

III INDRA AND THE THOUGHT-FORCES Rig-veda 1.171 To you I come with this obeisance, by the perfect word I seek right mentality from the swift in the passage. Take delight, O Maruts, in the things of knowledge, lay aside your wrath, unyoke your steeds. Lo, the hymn of your affirmation, O Maruts; it is fraught with my obeisance, it was framed by the heart, it was established by the mind, O ye gods. Approach these my words and embrace them with the mind; for of submission¹ are you the increasers. Affirmed let the Maruts be benign to us, affirmed the lord of plenitude has becom

Interpretation of the Veda A REJOINDER TO AN EARLY CRITICISM* While thanking you for the generous appreciation in your re- view of the "Arya" "may I also crave the indulgence of your columns, — if indeed you can spare so much space at such a time when the whole world is absorbed in the gigantic homicidal conflict convulsing Europe, — for an answer to your criticisms on my "Secret of the Veda", or rather to an explanation of my standpoint which the deficiencies of my expression and the brief and summary character of my article in the "Arya" have led you, in some respects, to misconceive? Surely, I have nowhere said that "knowledge of which no o

THE TWENTY-FIRST HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE DIVINE FLAME IN HUMANITY [The Rishi invokes the divine Flame to burn as the divine Man in humanity and to raise us to our perfection in the seats of the Truth and the Bliss.] As the human¹ we set thee within us, as the human we kindle thee; O Flame, O Seer-Puissance, as the human offer sacrifice to the gods for the seeker of the godheads. O Flame, thou burnest in the human creature when thou art satisfied with his offerings; his ladles go to thee unceasingly, O perfect in thy birth, O presser out of the running richness. Thee all the gods with one heart of love made their

THE SECOND HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE LIBERATION OF THE DIVINE FORCE [Nature in her ordinary limited and material workings holds the Divine Force concealed in her secret or subconscient being; only when consciousness enlarges itself towards the One and Infinite, is it manifested, born for the conscient Mind. The clarities of the higher illumination cannot be kept so long as there is not this Strength to guard them, for hostile powers snatch them away and conceal them again in their secret cavern. Divine Will manifested in man, itself liberated, liberates him from the cords which bind him as a victim in the world- sacrifice; we attain to it by the teaching o