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

GLOSSARY GLOSSARY (Meanings and explanations are from Sri Aurobindo's writings) A Abhaya Fearlessness Ācāra Custom Ādhāra Vehicle Adharma Not-dharma Adhibhūta The elemental, the objective phenomenon of being Adhidaiva The divine element in the becom- ing Adhyātma The spiritual Aditi The infinite mother of the gods Adri Hill, rock Adṛṣṭa The unseen thing Advaita One-existence Advaitavāda The doctrine of advaita Ādyā mahāśakti The original mahāśakti Agni

II THE MOUNTING FLAME OF FAITH Faith is heroic; it is the first condition of success in any spiritual endeavour. No difficulty is insurmountable for men of faith. It is heroic faith that ignores the impossible and turns the most difficult and unattainable into the feasible and attainable. It is inspiring in its vision and penetrating in its action. It was the invincible weapon of the Rishis in their march towards a luminous future. They had a flaming faith in themselves and in their endeavour, and had the essential courage to accomplish the task set before them. It was faith in their summit objective that was the mainspring of their strivings. Their pur

-002_Author's Note.htm AUTHOR'S NOTE The present work is based on Sri Aurobindo's epoch-making exposition, The Secret of the Veda, which is the profoundest expression of his own luminous experience of the Vedic Truth and the World. To retain the original deep vibration and the subtle import, translations of the Riks quoted herein have been provided, as far as it was possible, from Sri Aurobindo. They all bear an asterisk mark(*) in the text. The rest are free renderings by the author and not literal translations made with a view to bring out their esoteric sense and significance. The Riks are mostly from the Rig-Veda. The present work is the third and final volume, and has a Glossa

V EXPERIENTIAL EPISTEMOLOGY There is in each individual an immanent Omnipresence and Omniscience; there is also in him the infinite Consciousness-Force working creatively and constantly, manifesting itself more and more in Matter. It is therefore imperative that we understand the process of Nature's self-unfoldment and the progressive evolutionary manifestation of consciousness. Initially, logical reasoning is useful and even cardinal in its own area of operation for it gives the mind the necessary clarity, definitiveness and refinement in dealing with its own ideas, as well as steers clear of the obscurities created by the average human in

THE VEDIC EPIPHANY Volume Three THE VEDIC FULFILMENT THE VEDIC EPIPHANY An exposition and celebration of the Inaugural Dawn in the Light of Sri Aurobindo Volume Three THE VEDIC FULFILMENT V. Madhusudan Reddy Institute of Human Study Hyderabad, India THE VEDIC EPIPHANY Volume Three: The Vedic Fulfilment First Indian Edition: 15 August 1996 by V. Madhusudan Reddy Chairman, Institute of Human Study Hyderabad, India. © INSTITUTE OF HUMAN STUDY 1996 Published by Institute of Human Study