THE VEDIC EPIPHANY Contents Pre-Content Author's Note Acknowledgements The Vedic Fulfilment I. The Word of Affirmation II. The Mounting Flame of Faith III. The Vision of Reality IV. The Integral Theophany V. Experiential Epistemology VI. Man: Pilgrim of the Soul VII. The Increasing Epiphany VIII. The Ascent to the Truth LX. Vision of Ṛta X. Mystique of an Evolving Universe XI. Inscrutable Ambivalence XII. Martanda XIII. From the Succession of Dawns to the Procession of Dawns XIV

VII THE INCREASING EPIPHANY A Divine Reality that is involved in Matter is essentially an infinite and eternal Existence, Consciousness, Bliss. Evolution then is an imperative emergence in forms that progressively express the manifold felicity of the concealed Sachchidananda. a)Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mettaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate iti matvā bhājante māṁ budhā bhāvasamanvitāḥ.1 I am the origin of everything and from Me the whole creation proceeds. Knowing this, the wise, full of enlightened thoughts, love and worship Me. b)Ahaṁ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ pralayas tathā.1 I am the sou

XI INSCRUTABLE AMBIVALENCE There is an inscrutable ambivalence in creation, an inbuilt tension that spells out the secret of the evolutionary process. Good and Evil, gods and the demons - the constructive and destructive forces, the expansive and restrictive energies in Nature - motion and stability, Immanence and Transcendence are constitutionally correlated and held together by a divine harmony for a divine purpose. Thus are cosmic order and a cosmic purpose sustained, promoted and fulfilled by the presence of a dynamic dichotomy. The antinomies are by nature impelled to 'work together in concerted action' towards the fulfilment of a common animus. Co

XIII FROM THE SUCCESSION OF DAWNS TO THE PROCESSION OF DAWNS Sri Aurobindo has the Word - the transforming Word of all creation, the supreme secret of human destiny as well as of the earth's destiny. He has the Word and the Wisdom that "...watches us from on high".1 and shows humanity the Way to a greater Future: "To be His arms whom I have sought; I saw How earth was made Out of His being; I perceived the Law, The Truth, the Vast, From which we came and which we are; I heard The ages past Whisper their history, and I know the Word That forth was ca

Volume Three THE VEDIC FULFILMENT It has been rightly observed that if one leg of the arch of human destiny is in the Veda the other is in 'The Life Divine'. For what has been envisioned and announced by the ancient Rishis finds its victorious consummation and fulfilment in Sri Aurobindo. The Author

VI MAN: PILGRIM OF THE SOUL* "An Omnipresent Reality", observes Sri Aurobindo, "is the truth of all life and existence... Brahman is the Alpha and the Omega. Brahman is the One besides whom there is nothing else existent."1 But it is well-nigh impossible to envisage this unity by the mind. However, the Unknowable can be approached through its many forms of Consciousness and many activities of Force. Sachchidananda has been credibly and cogently experienced by the Upanishadic Rishis as the highest positive expression of the Unknowable to human consciousness. But the Rishis do not stop there; they proceed to a Non-Being beyond - the asat. There

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My grateful thanks are due to Anie Nunnally, Chairperson, Foundation for World Education, New York, to Dr. M. Sanjeeva Reddy (Iowa) and Shri Amal B. Reddy (Fremont) for their generous help towards the publication of this volume. My very special thanks are also due to my student and friend Andre Mandel for his painstaking work of proof-reading and fruitful suggestions. Publisher's Note: This volume has been renamed The Vedic Fulfilment from the earlier proposed title The Vedic Victory

XII MARTANDA Aditi, the infinite Mother, is Supreme Nature and infinite Consciousness. She is the infinite Existence from whom the gods are born - Mātā devānām aditer anīkaṁ...1 The gods are the luminous divine powers whose activity in the mortal seeker is necessary for his growth into the luminous godhead which is the Immortality. In the radiant terms of the Rtam, all the worlds are brought from Aditi, the goddess of infinite being. If Aditi is the undivided Mother and mother of the gods, Diti is the nexus and nodus of division and mother of the Titans, the asuras. Aditi is originally the self-luminous pure consciousness of the supracosmic Infin

XIV THE FOUNT AND FOUNDATION OF A PERENNIAL SPIRITUAL CULTURE The Vedas are the supreme source of the summit culture of the subcontinent, and the key to the intuitive understanding of the working of the universe. Their vision of Reality is the foundation of a great and formidable creative civilisation; they offer an experience that not only reveals the secret of creation but sets in motion the dormant seeker in all humanity. The result is a positive and purposefull upward movement of the human spirit and even its transformation. They provide the Aryan race the basis of self-understanding as well as world-understan

I THE WORD OF AFFIRMATION The Veda is the supreme Word of Affirmation; it considers the world as a field for the progressive manifestation of the Truth by a luminous commerce between the seeker-sacrificers and the devas through times immemorial. Sacrifice, individual and cosmic, done with right intention brings in the effective action of the Flame of Truth. Agni, the high priest of sacrifice is ever awake for the performance of sacrifice; with the turning of the seeker towards him the Great Flame of perennial Strength stands up to dissolve all darkness and makes Matter increasingly malleable and receptive to the action of the Light and the Truth: Ab