The Fifteenth Hymn to Agni   A HYMN OF THE DIVINE UPHOLDER AND CONQUEROR   [The Rishi hymns the Divine Will as the Seer and the Mighty One, the upholder of the Bliss and the Truth, by which men attain to the supreme-seated godheads. He breaks leonine through an army of opposers, sees and confirms for man all the possible births and manifestations of the soul, forms in him the secret superconscient plane and by knowledge delivers him into that vast beatitude.]     1. To the Seer and Ordainer who is the object of knowledge I bring the offering of the Word, to the glorious and

The Sixth Hymn to Agni   THE GALLOPING FLAME-POWERS OF THE JOURNEY   [The flames of Agni the divine Will, home and meeting-place of all our increasing and advancing life-powers, are imaged as galloping on our human journey to the supreme good. Divine Will creates in us the divine strength of impulsion, an illumined and undecaying force and flame described as the steed of the plenitude, which brings us that good and carries us to that goal. His flames are coursers on the path who increase by the sacrifice; they hasten uninterruptedly, and race always more swiftly; they bring in the penned-up illuminations of the hidden knowledge. Their enti

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.]     1. The protector of the creature is born, the Flame that is

' ' by Sri Aurobindo Page 1 of 50 Chapter XXII   The Conquest over the Dasyus   THE DASYUS stand in opposition to both the Aryan gods and the Aryan seers. The Gods are born from Aditi in the supreme Truth of things, the Dasyus or Danavas from Diti in the nether darkness; they are the Lords of Light and the Lords of Night fronting each other across the triple world of earth, heaven and mid-air, body, mind and the connecting breath of life. Sarama in X.108 descends from the supreme   realm, parākāt; she has to cross the waters of the Rasa, she meets the night which gives place to her for fear of her overleaping it, atiṣkado bhiyasā; she arrives

The God of the Mystic Wine   Rig Veda IX.75 and 42    These two hymns are rendered as literally as possible so as to show the original symbolism of the Veda untranslated into its psychological equivalents. I   1. Placed in delight he flows to the pleasant Names in which he increases; vast and wise he ascends the chariot of the vast sun, the chariot of a universal movement.     2. Tongue of the Truth, a pleasant honey,1 he flows speaker and lord of this Thought and invincible; the Son places the third hidden Name of the Parents2 in the luminous world of Heaven.  

Chapter XVIII   The Human Fathers   THESE characteristics of the Angiras Rishis seem at first sight to indicate that they are in the Vedic system a class of demigods, 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, devaputrāh, children of Agni, forms of the manifoldly born Brihaspati, and in their ascent to the world of the Truth they are described as ascendin

VII   To Bhaga Savitri, the Enjoyer   Rig Veda V.82     1. Of Savitri divine we embrace that enjoying, that which is the best, rightly disposes all, reaches the goal, even Bhaga's, we hold by the thought.     2. For of him no pleasure in things can they diminish, for too self-victorious is it, nor the self-empire of this Enjoyer.     3. 'Tis he that sends forth the delights on the giver, the god who is the bringer forth of things; that varied richness of his enjoyment we seek.     4. Today, O divine Producer, send forth on us fruitful felicity,

' ' by Sri Aurobindo Page 1 of 16 Appendix   The following letter was written in response to criticisms of the opening chapter of The Secret of the Veda made in a review of the first issue of the Arya. The review appeared in the Hindu of Madras on 24 August 1914. Sri Aurobindo's letter was written on 26 August and published the next day in the Hindu.   Interpretation of the Veda   MR. AUROBINDO GHOSE writes to us from Pondicherry: —   While thanking you for the generous appreciation in your review of the "Arya", may I also crave the indulgence of your columns, —i

The Ninth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna   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.]     1. Multiple indeed by the wideness1 is now your fostering of our being, O Varuna. O Mitra, I would enjoy your perfect mindedness.

The Second Hymn to Mitra-Varuna   THE GIVERS OF THE RAIN   [Mitra and Varuna are by their united universality and harmony the guardians of the divine Truth and its divine Law eternally perfect in the ether of our supreme being; thence they rain down the abundance of the heavens and its bliss upon the favoured soul. Seers in man of that world of Truth, as they are by their guardianship of its law rulers of all this becoming, they give us its rain of spiritual wealth and immortality. The Life-powers range with the voice of the truth-seeking thought through earth and heaven and the two Kings come to their cry with the brillian