CHAPTER XVIII The Human Fathers THESE characteristics of the Angirasa Rishis seem at first sight to indicate that they are in the Vedic system a class of demi-gods, in their outward aspect personifications or rather personalities of the Light and the Voice and the Flame, but in their inner aspect powers of the Truth who second the gods in their battles. But even as divine seers, even as sons of Heaven and heroes of the Lord, these sages represent aspiring humanity. True, they are originally the sons of the gods, devaputrāḥ, children of Agni, forms of the manifoldly born Brihaspati, and in their ascent to the world of the Truth they are described as ascending b

THE TWENTY-SECOND HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE JOURNEY TO THE PERFECT JOY [Man, the eater of things, seeks a fulfilment of his desires in a final equality of delight. To this end he has to be purified by the divine Flame, the Seer-Will who holds in himself the conscious vision and the utter rapture. By increasing him in us we shall journey forward with our progressing sacrifice and the gods will utterly manifest themselves. We must entertain this divine Force as the master of our house, our physical and mental body, and give it all the objects of our enjoyment as its food.] Man who seekest thy equal fulfilment in all, sing as the enjoyer of th

THE EIGHTH HYMN TO MITRA-VARUNA V.69 THE HOLDERS OF THE LUMINOUS WORLDS [The Rishi invokes Mitra and Varuna as the upholders of the worlds or planes of being, especially the three luminous worlds in which the triple mental, the triple vital, the triple physical find the light of their truth and the divine law of their powers. The strength of the Aryan warrior is increased by them and guarded in that imperishable law. From the luminous worlds the rivers of the truth descend with their yield of bliss. In each of them a luminous Purusha fertilises a form of the triple thought- consciousness of the Truth; these, which make the luminous day of the soul,

VIII VAYU, THE MASTER OF THE LIFE ENERGIES Rig-veda IV.48 Do thou manifest the sacrificial energies that are unmanifested, even as a revealer of felicity and doer of the work; Vayu, come in thy car of happy light to the drinking of the Soma-wine. Put away from thee all denials of expression and with thy steeds of the yoking, with Indra for thy charioteer come, O Vayu, in thy car of happy light to the drinking of the Soma- wine. The two that, dark, yet hold all substances, shall observe thee in their labour, they in whom are all forms. O Vayu, come in thy car of happy lig

CHAPTER VIII The Ashwins — Indra — the Vishwadevas THE third hymn of Madhuchchhandas is again a hymn of the Soma sacrifice. It is composed, like the second before it, in movements of three stanzas, the first addressed to the Ashwins, the second to Indra, the third to the Vishwadevas, the fourth to the goddess Saraswati. In this hymn also we have in the closing movement, in the invocation to Saraswati, a passage of clear psychological significance, of a far greater clarity indeed than those that have already helped us to understand the secret thought of the Veda. But this whole hymn is full of psychological suggestions and we find in it t

-03_A Retrospect of Vedic Theory (1).htm CHAPTER II A Retrospect of Vedic Theory VEDA, then, is the creation of an age anterior to our intellectual philosophies. In that original epoch thought proceeded by other methods than those of our logical reasoning and speech accepted modes of expression which in our modern habits would be inadmissible. The wisest then depended on inner experience and the suggestions of the intuitive mind for all knowledge that ranged beyond mankind's ordinary perceptions and daily activities. Their aim was illumination, not logical conviction, their ideal the inspired seer, not the accurate reasoner. Indian tradition has faithfully preserved this account of the

THE ELEVENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN TO THE DIVINE PRIEST AND SACRIFICIAL FLAME [The Rishi hymns the birth of the wakeful and discerning sacrificial Flame who is vision and will-power, the seer whose passion of effort turns into a divine knowledge, in the heavens of mind. This seer-will the inspired words of the Thought have to increase. It is a thing of puissance, the Son of Force, and found by the ancient Souls of luminous puissance concealed in the growths of earth, in all the experiences that the soul here seeks to enjoy.] The protector of the creature is born, the Flame that is wakeful and perfect in discernment, for a new march to felicity. Hi

THE NINTH HYMN TO MITRA-VARUNA V.7O THE INCREASERS OF BEING AND DELIVERERS [The Rishi desires the wide and multiple fostering of our being and its powers which Varuna and Mitra give and their complete impulsion of our strength towards the perfect foundation of the divine status. He prays to them to protect and deliver him from the Destroyers and prevent their adverse control from impairing the growth of the godhead in our various sheaths or bodies.] Multiple indeed by the wideness¹ is now your fostering of our being, O Varuna. O Mitra, I would enjoy your perfect- mindedness. You are they who betra

Hymns to the Lords of Light THE FIRST HYMN TO MITRA-VARUNA V.62 THE LORDS OF THE THOUSAND-PILLARED HOME OF TRUTH AND BLISS [The Rishi hymns the eternal and immutable Truth of which the Truth in mutable things is the veil; that is the goal of the journey of the manifested Sun of divine knowledge; it is the eternal unity of all things that are and the supreme Divine of which the Gods are various forms. Into it unite all the wealth of being and knowledge and power and bliss won by the sacrifice. It is the large vastness of the wide purities of Varuna and of the shining harmonies of Mitra. There, eternally stable, dwell the herds of th

THE FIFTH HYMN TO MITRA-VARUNA V.66 THE GIVERS OF SELF-RULE [The Rishi invokes Varuna, the vast form of the Truth, and Mitra the beloved, godhead of its harmonies and large bliss, who conquer for us the perfect force of our true and infinite being, to change our imperfect human nature into the image of their divine workings. Then the solar Heaven of the Truth is manifested within us, its wide pasture of herding illuminations becomes the field of journeying of our chariots, the high thoughts of the seers, their purified discernment, their rapid inspirations become ours, our very earth becomes the world of that vast Truth. For then there is the