12. Sri Aurobindo’s Contribution to the Understanding of Vedic Symbolism - IV (2)

As is evident from the history of evolution, it has taken aeons to develop Life out of Matter on this earth itself. The process must have been gradual and extremely slow and yet each point in the upward movement getting materialised in a state of transformation from Matter into Life. So must be the case with the range from Mind to Supermind.

Sri Aurobindo has delineated four distinct stages in the midst of the two. These he named as Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition and Overmind. Vedic gods and goddesses, in his view, are assignable to one or the other of these stages or even to the sub-section of any one of them. The Ŗgvedic story of seer Dadhyan learning Madhu-Vidyā from Indra and imparting the same to the Aśvins with the horse’s head is illustrative of the point involved here.

This significant role of gods and goddesses has been kept couched in a thick garb of symbols not discernible to the ordinary mind. It is as thick as the Nature herself, only letting it to be discernible intermittently and that also just partly. In this respect, the whole Nature is considered by Sri Aurobindo as symbolic of secret messages communicated by the supramental Reality to the world below, particularly the human for its elevation and re-integration with It. Sri Aurobindo observes:

“The forces and processes of the physical world repeat, as in a symbol, the truths of the supra-physical action which produced it. And since it is by the same forces and the same processes, one in the physical worlds and the supra-physical, that our inner life and its development are governed, the Rishis adopted the phenomena of physical Nature as just symbols for those functionings of the inner life which it was their difficult task to indicate in the concrete language of a sacred poetry that must at the same time serve for the external worship of the Gods as powers of the visible universe.” (On the Veda, pp.328-29)

This view of Sri Aurobindo’s gets illustrated in his commentary on Ŗgveda I.170, a short hymn of just five mantras recounting a dialogue between god Indra and seer Agastya. The latter, as explained by Sri Aurobindo, represents the highly elevated human soul striving hard to reach the Ultimate Reality in the form of the Absolute transcending everything lower to it including even gods. This aspiration of the human soul represented at the moment by the seer Agastya looks to Indra as violative of the integral scheme of things. He reminds the seer of the dangers lying ahead in his way. He tells him how it is almost impossible to attain to the Absolute in isolation of everything else below. The argument he puts forth in this context is revealing. It is contained in the opening mantra of the hymn. This mantra has been taken note of by Yāska also but just to illustrate the use of nūnam in the Veda. As such, he explains the rest of the mantra in a casual way.

Sri Aurobindo delves deep into the mantra and brings out something not thought of any earlier. He considers the mantra as a cryptic statement of the nature of the Absolute by no one lesser than Indra, the lord of gods himself. The significance of Sri Aurobindo’s discovery in regard to this mantra can better be understood by presenting his viewpoint in contrast to the literal translation of the mantra as given by Griffith, for instance, which is as follows:

“Naught is today, tomorrow naught. Who comprehends the mystery. We must address ourselves unto another’s thought, and lost is then the hope we formed.”

In contrast to it, Sri Aurobindo translates it as under:

“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.” (RV.I.170.1)

In the footnote to his translation, Griffith makes the following remark on the mantra:

“Indra appears to have appropriated to himself the sacrifice intended for the Maruts, who complain, accordingly, of their dependence on another’s will and of their disappointed hopes.”

Yāska, on the other hand, takes the main theme of the hymn as lying in Indra’s complaint against Agastya who having decided to offer the oblation to Indra, happens eventually to offer the same to the Maruts (Nirukta, I.5). Thus there is a clear contrast noticeable between the viewpoints presented by Griffith on the one hand and Yāska on the other regarding the very theme of the hymn. These contradictions get resolved in Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation of the mantra and indeed the whole hymn.

The mantra, according to Sri Aurobindo, characterises the Absolute as lying essentially beyond the process of time presenting objects and events in the perspective of its three broad divisions, i.e., the past, the present and the future. It is on account of this transcendence that It is described here as wonderful suggesting It’s inexplicability. This meaning emerges from the first part of the mantra spontaneously and directly by taking everything as referring to the word adbhutam, the Wonderful, instead of diffusing the entire sense by forcing it to concur to the concocted tale of Indra lamenting over the denial of his claim on the prospective offering.

The second hemistich of the mantra explained by Sri Aurobindo expatiates on the nature of the cognizance of the same Reality. In his view, this part of the mantra states that though lurking around the consciousness divided between the subject and the object, the Absolute slips away from the grasp of the same consciousness the very moment it is sought to be contemplated on. According to him it suggests that the Absolute can be known only by transcending the state of division of the consciousness into the subject and the object through their proper fulfillment and by no means through sheer escape attempted individually. Sri Aurobindo discovers this significant meaning of the mantra holding firmly the central idea expressed in it as well as by reducing nūnam and svah to the status of the symbols of the footsteps of Time which the Absolute transcends.

It is in this broad perspective that he is able to explain the rest of the mantras also. While taking Indra as the Illumined Mind, he regards the Maruts as symbolic of the principle of Life. With this basic postulate, he explains the second mantra as a query of the principle of Life represented by the Maruts as also by Agastya as to why it is not being permitted to proceed upward towards the Absolute by itself. Sri Aurobindo’s translate it as follows:

“Why dost thou seek to smite us, O Indra? The Maruts are thy brothers. By them accomplish perfection; slay us not in our struggle.” (RV.I.170.2)

This query of the principle of Life symbolised by the Maruts on the universal scale and by Agastya on the individual, gets answered back by Indra representing the Illumined Mind in the sequel which in Sri Aurobindo’s translation reads as follows:

“Why, O my brother Agastya, art thou my friend, yet settest thy thought beyond me? For, well do I know how to us thou willest not to give thy mind.” (RV.I.170.3)

This remark of Indra’s is a warning to the individual against becoming egoistic and selfish and yet seeking to reach the Absolute which is impossible in any case. Incidentally, it is this basic idea which gets elaborated subsequently in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Purāņas in the form of Indra presenting hurdle before tapasvins in their effort to attain to the Ultimate lying beyond him. Indra with all the loftiness ingrained in his nature as recounted in the Veda can by no means be so mean as to be envious of petty mortals and stop their progress upward. If the stories concerned smack of anything like this, that must be due to mishandling of them by subsequent authors. As a matter of principle conforming the main thrust of ideas embodied in the Veda, Indra’s intervention in the efforts of the tapasvin concerned ought to be intended for integrating him with the totality of the reality rather than letting him proceed just individually under the impulsion of egoism and personal ambition which, as a matter of fact, have no say in regard to the Absolute. The world has emerged from the Absolute as a whole and therefore it is only as a whole that it can re-enter into It (Brhadaranyaka Upanisad V.1.1). If the individual be regarded as a whole in himself and therefore comes to consider himself as entitled for this re-entry, he at least would have to wait until his entire being, comprising the physical, vital, mental and supramental, gets perfectly filled with the sense of the Absolute. Attainment of perfection at the cost of negligence of any of these components is not possible according to the Veda as understood by Sri Aurobindo. This is why Indra intervenes again and again in course of the sādhanā of the tapasvin, including Viśvāmitra and Agastya. Such intervention is an essential part of his duty assigned to him by Ŗta and by no means anything undertaken just arbitrarily. To consider such an intervention on his part as a sign of degradation in his post-Vedic character, as scholars have generally done, is rather baseless. Indra has never been the supreme godhead in the Veda, except only when used as a symbol of It. Normally he is a god of the mid-region. As such, he should be concerned basically with something of the intermediate level in our being. This is why Sri Aurobindo considers him as symbolic of the Illumined Mind lying intermediate to the Mind and the Supermind.

It is in this capacity that he comes in the way of Agastya who is in a hurry to reach the Absolute by disregarding the lower levels of his being, particularly the demand of the vital on him. As is evident from Ŗgveda I.179, he eventually gets persuaded by Indra to return home and fulfill the rest of his responsibilities concerning artha and kāma and make his advancement to the Transcendent Reality in an integrated way. In the last mantra of that hymn it has been observed in conclusion that by digging the soil by means of spade the seer came to be fulfilled in wealth and progeny as well as strength and thus in both the kinds of purusarthas, that is, artha and kāma on the one hand and dharma and moksa on the other, to use the post-Vedic terminology for what has been termed in the mantra as ubhau varnau, both the objectives. (RV.I.179.6)

Indra’s suggestion to him to this effect is evident from the next mantra in the hymn under discussion which in Sri Aurobindo’s translation reads as follows:

“Let them make ready the altar, let them set Agni in blaze in front. It is there, the awakening of the consciousness to Immortality. Let us two extend for thee thy effective sacrifice.” (RV.I. 170.4.)

Obviously, in this mantra, Indra suggests to the seer to get ready the sacrificial pit and kindle the fire so that he and the seer both together in co-operation may perform the sacrifice with a view to awakening the immortal consciousness from within. It is under this persuasion that the seer takes up the spade, cultivates the field besides producing the progeny and comes to fulfilment of both the objectives of life expected of us by gods, as is stated in Ŗgveda I.179.6 quoted above. From this, it can very well be inferred that the sacrifice suggested by Indra for seer Agastya to perform does by no means lie in just kindling fire and putting oblations into it. This sacrifice is basically the real discharging of duties obligatory on oneself not just for the sake of discharging them but for using them as stepping stones for ascension to the consciousness of immortality. Making the fire-altar ready, kindling the fire and putting oblations into it as well as digging the soil by means of spade, all these are symbolic of the practical undertakings of life obligatory on oneself not just for their accomplishment but as a means to ascending higher on the ladder of consciousness. Digging the ground for the sake of preparing the fire-altar is symbolic of strengthening oneself economically so as to serve as a firm basis for the subsistence of life and awakening of consciousness. Presence of the sacrificer’s wife on the sacrificial ground and her active participation in the whole affair symbolises the necessity of fulfilment of the demands of kāma on oneself while offering in the kindled fire stands for one’s exclusive devotion to the task of higher development in the consciousness.

Agastya’s submission to the persuasion of Indra forms the burden of the last mantra of the hymn which in translation reads as follows:

“O Lord of substance over all substances of being, thou art the master in force! O Lord of Love over the powers of love, thou art the strongest to hold in status! Do thou, O Indra, agree with the Maruts, then enjoy the offerings in the ordered method of the Truth.” (RV.I.170.5.)

Obviously, this is a mantra of reconciliation on behalf of Agastya who otherwise was not willing to care for Indra and offer anything to him, as is evident from the third mantra in the hymn. Now he gets himself fully prepared to offer everything to Indra so as to get it transformed and serve as a means in the ascension. His plea with Indra to agree with the Maruts is suggestive of the necessity of concordance between the Higher Intelligence or the Illumined Mind and the principle of Life. Discordance between the two in the make-up of the aspirant cannot permit the latter to go ahead with any tangible success. Transformation of the vital and mental both leading to their mutual concordance is the sure way to success in the awakening of the higher consciousness. To quote Sri Aurobindo:

“It is precisely by the progressive surrender of the lower being to the divine activities that the limited and egoistic consciousness of the mortal awakens to the infinite and immortal state which is its goal.” (On the Veda, p.290.)

Thus, we see how when explained in this way by decoding the symbolic significances of keywords and figures the hymn yields a rich harvest of ideas integrated, systematised and highly worthwhile, as against the anecdotal method adopted by earlier authorities beginning right from Yāska and leading us nowhere except trivialising the character of the gods as well as of the seers, as against the central thrust of ideas embedded in the Veda.

11. Sri Aurobindo’s Contribution to the Understanding of Vedic Symbolism - IV (1)

Sri Aurobindo has taken care of almost all the aspects of Vedic symbolism including seers, metres, gods and goddesses. He indeed has put forth a symbolic system which has the potentiality of explaining comprehensively and homogeneously everything in the Veda. This system was evolved in course of his intensive yogic sādhanā resulting on the one hand in the making of his own philosophical system known as integral Vedanta and on the other in the formulation of his view of the Veda particularly the symbolism involved in it. While the crux of his philosophical system is embodied in his magnum opus, The Life Divine, his theory of Vedic symbolism is formulated in his Secret of the Veda, both these works were serialised in the Arya concurrently during the years 1914-20. To understand his theory of the symbolism, it is essential to have some idea of his philosophical system which in itself seems to have been formulated as much by his understanding of the Veda from within its symbolic system as by his own yogic experiences.

To put it summarily, there are mainly seven pillars on which his philosophical system is built up. These pillars are: Existence, Consciousness, Delight, Supermind, Mind, Life and Matter. There is nothing hypothetical about these seven principles. They summarize the entire spectrum of reality conceivable by the human consciousness. Apart from Matter, Life and Mind which are the physical components of the being, Existence is absolutely necessary for the admittance of these components themselves.

The admittance of these components including Existence itself is dependent inevitably on consciousness. Consciousness, in its turn, is to be found nowhere operating just as mere awareness but as oriented to a certain end characterized by some or the other shade of Delight.

Lastly, the entire spectrum of these six factors coalescing with one another has the involvement of a certain system behind it evincing the working of a super intellect and serving as the basis of the human understanding of the nature of things by all means, including the commonsense, psychological, philosophical and scientific. Sri Aurobindo terms this supervening principle as Supermind.

The Supermind is the intermediary lying in the middle of the rest of the six principles. It is flanked by Existence, Consciousness and Delight on the one hand and by Matter, Life and Mind on the other. Its function lies in the conversion of the former three into the latter three as well as in the re-conversion of the latter into the former. It is on account of these processes of conversion and re-conversion that there is commotion involving movement, change, growth, mutilation, and transformation taking place constantly in the spectrum of the reality, actual and conceivable.

According to Sri Aurobindo, Vedic gods and goddesses are forces, formulations or agencies of the Supermind operating in the midst of these processes of conversion and re-conversion going on all planes of being. That is why there is constant commotion in their behaviour as recounted in the Veda in the form of coming into being, expanding, fighting, striking, emerging, illuminating, consuming, protecting, guiding, rescuing, sustaining, providing, helping, etc. Although everything in the world is the result of the operation of these forces, no matter tangible to the human consciousness or not, it is their operation between the Mind and the Supermind which in particular is the object of seeing of the Vedic seers.

In his view, this operation is oriented towards transformation of the mental into the supramental. Though the same operation is going on as per the orientation of the nature of things itself, human consciousness of the same operation as well as its own concerted striving in that direction is sure to stimulate and expedite the process of upward movement.

Vedic seers, according to Sri Aurobindo, are the scions of this stimulation and expedition. It is particularly with this end in view that they contemplate on gods and goddesses, seek to propitiate them by means of prayers and sacrifices.

The effectiveness of the role of gods and goddesses in this respect emerges from the pivotal position they occupy in the spectrum of the reality ranging from the mental to the supramental. The range between the mental and the supramental is by no means small. It is almost as large as that between any other two pillars of the reality such as Matter and Life, Life and Mind.

Introduction to Professor Kireet Joshi

( I am happy to inform my readers that Professor Kireet Joshi one of the greatest educationists, philosophers and yoga expert has kindly given his consent to contribute his articles and works on this blog, which will not only further enrich this blog in matters of yoga, philosophy but also benefit readers.)

Kireet Joshi (born on 10th August, 1931) studied Philosophy and Law in Bombay University. In 1953, he was awarded gold medal and Vedanta prize for having stood 1st class 1st at the M.A. examination. In 1955, he was selected for the IAS and posted as Assistant Collector of Surat in 1956 but resigned in the same year to devote his life to the study and practice of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga at Pondicherry. He was responsible for the establishment of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Educational Research at Auroville.

In 1976, the-then Prime Minister of India, Late Smt. Indira Gandhi requested him to advise the Government of India, particularly, to impart dimension of value-education to the entire system. Subsequently, in the same year he was appointed Educational Adviser to the Government of India and later as Special Secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development. He was also the Member-Secretary of the National Committee on Vishwabharati, under the Chairmanship of Dr. K.L. Shrimali. Subsequently, he was instrumental in redesigning and redrafting of the bill for Vishwa Bharati University, Shantiniketan.

He developed the idea of Indira Gandhi National Open University as also of Pondicherry University and the Bills for both them were drafted by him. Subsequently, both these universities came to be established.

In 1981, he was appointed Secretary of Auroville International Advisory Council, which consisted of the Union Minister of External Affairs, Director-General of UNESCO, Minister of Culture of Bulgaria and Shri J.R.D. Tata. He established Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Educational Research at Auroville.

He was Member of the University Grants Commission from 1982 to 1988 and also the Member-Secretary of National Commission on Teachers.

He played a major role in the establishment and development of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research. He shouldered the responsibilities of Member-Secretary of this Council from 1981-90, during which Indian philosophical tradition came to be encouraged and supported through original research and publication programme. Assisted Professor D.P. Chattopadhyaya in formulating a National Project on History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC), and worked as its Member-Secretary during its formative period from 1981-90.

Initiated and developed Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratisthan, New Delhi which was later shifted to Ujjain and renamed as Maharishi Sandipani Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratisthan (Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh). He served as its Founder Member-Secretary from 1987-93. He also framed and implemented scheme of financial assistance to Vedapathis and also for providing scholarships to students of the Veda and Vedic knowledge. He secured from the Government of India an endowment of Rs. 7 crores for this Organisation as a result of which it has been able to develop a number of activities connected with Vedic research.

He made valuable contributions to the field of education at international level and was a member of India’s delegation to UNESCO’s conferences in 1976, 1980, 1984, 1985 and 1988. He was elected Vice-president of International Commission on Education at Geneva for a period of two years from 1976-78. He was Chairman of UNESCO Committee on International Education for a period of four years (1983-87). He was Vice-Chairman of the UNESCO Institute of Education, Hamburg, during 1986-90.

The Institute of Advanced Studies at Shimla was redesigned in 1982 under the recommendations of the Kriplani Committee of which Dr. Kireet Joshi was the Member-Secretary. He was Member of the Executive Board of this Institute from 1983-89.

He has supported programmes of child education and advocated that the child should be the centre not only of the educational system but of the whole nation. He provided guidance and impetus to the Bal Bhavan movement in the country and was Member of the Children’s Film Society from 1974-77.

He was the President of Dharam Hinduja International Centre of Indic Research, New Delhi (Hinduja Foundation) from 1993 to August 2000; Chairman of Auroville Foundation, Auroville (1999-2004) and Chairman of Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) for two consecutive terms (5th June 2000 to 6th June 2006).

Kireet Joshi has written on a number of subjects connected with culture, science, spirituality, yoga and education. His works include: Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Education for Personality Development, Education for Character Development, Veda and Indian Culture, Bhagavadgita and Contemporary Crisis, Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth, Philosophy of the Role of the Contemporary Teacher, Philosophy of the Evolution for the Contemporary Man, Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga, Education for Tomorrow, Education at Crossroads, Glimpses of Vedic Literature, Portals of Vedic Knowledge, Towards Universal Fraternity, Landmarks of Hinduism, Veda Aur Bharatiya Sanskriti, Vaidik Vangmaya ka Itihasa and Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays.

His edited work include: “The Aim of Life”, “The Good Teacher and The Good Pupil” and Mystery Excellence of Human Body. He continues to write on the themes connected with the Vedic literature, educational issues and Integral Yoga. He is Editorial Fellow of PHISPC and currently working on a volume entitled: Synthesis of Yoga.

He is recipient of 1989 award of the Indian Council for Child Education for outstanding contribution in this field. He is also recipient of the National Citizen’s Award for 1989. The degree of D.Litt (Honoris Causa) was conferred upon him by Rahstriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati in 1996.

Kireet Joshi has studied French, Sanskrit and Hindi. Gujarati is his mother tongue.

Kireet Joshi is the Founder Managing Trustee of The Mother’s Institute of Research; Vice-Chairman of Indian Philosophical Congress (IPC) and recently he played a key role in the establishment of Vedic University at Tirupathi.

10. Sri Aurobindo’s Contribution to the Understanding of Vedic Symbolism - III

Vedic symbols are to be interpreted not in isolation but in relationship to each other. This is one of the basic propositions of Sri Aurobindo in course of his discussion on Angirasa. Working of this formula is to be seen in the sequel in regard to the same Angirasa legend with a view to determine the particular sense or system of ideas it might have been intended to communicate, as per Sri Aurobindo’s explanation.

Sri Aurobindo starts his deliberation on this legend with the cognisance of the fact that Angirasas occur in the Veda as seers, Fathers and gods all at the same time. In Ŗgveda V.11.6, for instance, Angirasas are said to have discovered Agni from within the forests and at the same time Agni itself has been addressed as Angiras, the son of force arising out of churning and becoming a force by itself (Rigveda, V.11.6.). It is significant to note that in the same mantra the Angirasas have been taken both as seers and god Agni.

In another mantra they are described as the sons of heaven and the heroes of the Asura bestowing riches upon Viśvāmitra as well as prolonging his life (Rigveda, III.53.7). Here they play the role of gods besides this they are addressed as pitaro manuşyāh, the human Fathers. Now the problem is how one and the same persons can be gods, seers and Fathers at the same time.

On this issue, Sri Aurobindo puts forth two possibilities:

“Two entirely opposite explanations can be given of the double character of these seers, divine and human. They may have been originally human sages deified by their descendants and in the apotheosis given a divine parentage and a divine function; or they may have been originally demigods, powers of the Light and Flame, who became humanised as the fathers of the race and the discoverers of its wisdom.” (On the Veda, p.182)

Sri Aurobindo gives a symbolic concretisation of certain psychic forces sometimes as seers and at others as Fathers and gods. One of the bases behind his exposition is the liquidity of the Sanskrit language as it is used in the Vedas where names usually are adjectival in character. Instances are Gotama, Viśvāmitra, Vāmadeva, Bharadvāja, Vasistha, Dirghatamas, Nābhānedistha, Uśanā Kāvya, etc., who, in Sri Aurobindo’s view, “have become types and symbols of certain spiritual experiences and victories and placed in that capacity side by side with the gods.” (On the Veda, p.183)

He concludes: “It is not surprising, then, that in this mystic symbolism the seven Angirasa Rishis should have become divine powers and living forces of the spiritual life without losing their traditional or historic human character.”

Sri Aurobindo concentrates on determining the nature of the role played by the Angirasas in the legend of recovery of the cow, sun, dawn, etc., from the darkness and finds them as playing their role in association with not only Indra but several gods. He finds close resemblance of their name with the word Agni, both having been derived from the common root anj, which means to anoint. He gets support for this proposition in the Brahmanic statement equating Angirasas with angāra, burning coal. He refers to Ŗgveda X.62.6 which describes the Angirasas as sons of Agni having been born from the heaven in diverse forms and being equipped with nine rays of light and even ten and therefore shining most brilliantly amongst the gods (Rigveda, X.62.6). Commenting on the content of this mantra, he observes that there is a definite symbolism involved in the account and that if taken to refer to the sun, which is most plausible one on the physical side, it would obviously be difficult to explain their human character and seerhood of mantras. As regards the idea of identifying the most brilliant one amongst the Angirasas with the sun, Sri Aurobindo refutes this suggestion with the remark: “We must not imagine that the Vedic poets were crude and savage intellects incapable of the obvious figure, common to all languages, which makes the physical light a figure of the mental and spiritual, of knowledge, of an inner illumination. The Veda speaks expressly of `luminous sages’, dyumato viprāh and the word suri, a seer, is associated with Sūrya, the sun, by etymology and must originally have meant luminous.” (On the Veda, p.188)

He refers to instances bearing Angirasa’s identification with Brhaspati or rather Brhaspati’s identification with Angirasa. One of them is Ŗgveda VI.73.1, where Brhaspati has been described as Angirasa and rich in oblations, besides being one of the first-borns, guardians of Ŗta and piercer of the mountain (Rigveda, VI.73.1). He also points out to Ŗgveda X.47.6 where Brhaspati occurs again as possessed of seven rays, wisdom of Ŗta and as supremely intelligent as well as an Angirasa worthy of going close to and capable of bestowing upon mankind luminous and mighty wealth (Rigveda, X.47.6).

Angirasas are also closely associated with Vāyu and Indra. As regards the Maruts, they are characterised by Sri Aurobindo as “luminous and violent gods of the storm and lightning uniting in themselves the vehement power of Vāyu, the Wind, the Breath, the Lord of Life and the force of Agni, the Seer-Will,” and therefore as “seers who do the work by the knowledge, as well as battling forces who by the power of the heavenly Breath and the heavenly lightning overthrow the established things, the artificial obstructions, in which the sons of Darkness have entrenched themselves, and aid Indra to overcome Vritra and the Dasyus.” He regards them as “the Life-Powers that support by their nervous or vital energies the action of the thought in the attempt of the moral consciousness to grow or expand itself into the immortality of the Truth and Bliss.” (On the Veda, p. 191)

Indra has also been brought close to the Angirasas. In one of the Rgvedic mantras, while, on the one hand, he has been prayed to become a bull in regard to virility, a friend in regard to friendship, a possessor of Rks in the midst of those who possess Rks, the best companion of Maruts in regard to speed, he, on the other, is expected to become the best of the Angirasas in regard to behaving like the Angirasas (Rigveda, I.100.4). Sri Aurobindo considers all the adjectives used for Indra here as applicable equally well to the Angirasas also. He states:

“This Indra who assumes all the qualities of the Angirasas is the Lord of Swar, the wide world of the Sun or the Truth, and descends to us with his two shining horses, hari, which are called in one passage sūryasya ketu, the sun’s two powers of perception or of vision in knowledge, in order to war with the sons of darkness and aid the great journey…Indra must be the Power of the divine Mind born in man and there increasing by the Word and the Soma to his full divinity. This growth continues by the winning and growth of the Light till Indra reveals himself fully as the lord of all the luminous herds which he sees by the `eye of the sun’, the divine Mind master of all the illumination of knowledge. ” (On the Veda, p.193.)

According to Upanişads Indra is the divine mind. The story of Umā Haimavatī recounted in the Kena Upanişad, while Agni represents Vāk and Vāyu Prāņa, Indra stands for the divine mind and gets therefore intimated to Brahman through Umā Haimavatī (On the Veda, p.193.).

Aitareya Upanişad states that the Atman, after its entrance into the human body via the saggital suture, was seen as such for the first time by Indra. Indeed, it is on account of his seeing Brahman as embodied in the human personality, says the Upanişad, that Indra has come to be given his name Indra (idam + dŗ, this he saw) (Aitareya Upanişad, III.13-14).

The Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanişad points out to the same status of Indra almost in continuation of the same state of things, though in a reverse order. It conceives of Indra as lying like a puruşa in the right eye along with his wife in the left eye, observing the world in co-ordination with her in the state of wakefulness. They are said to meet together in the heart-space in the states of dream and dreamless sleep and subsist on the subtlest substance of food lying in the heart. His way out from the body is the nerve rising upward from the heart and going to the saggital suture. It is while moving through this nerve that he happens to see the Atman or Brahman (Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanişad, IV.2.2-3.)

Sri Aurobindo’s view on Indra in the Veda gets validated by these Upanişadic accounts. The position of Indra thus determined, it becomes relatively easier to trace the identity of the rest of the figures associated with the legend of Angirasas.

Uşas is also one of these figures. Her involvement in the legend is evident from two significant adjectives used for her. She, on the one hand, has been addressed as angirasatamā and on the other as indratamā. Both these adjectives occur in the same mantra while angirasatamā occurs once in another mantra but that also having been seen by the same seer, namely Vasişţha. Now the oneness of the seer in both the usages and oneness of the devatā for whom both the adjectives have been used, can very well be expected to serve as the key to the opening out of the lock of mystery associated with the legend.

The mantra uses both the adjectives together and read as follows:

“Endowed with opulence in riches, the Dawn has become most full of Indra power and has given birth to the inspirations of knowledge for our happy going. The daughter of Heaven, the goddess, most full of Angirasahood places her riches at the disposal of doers of good works.” (Rigveda, VII.79.3)

Commenting on it, Sri Aurobindo observes:

“The riches in which Usha is opulent cannot be anything else than the riches of the Light and Power of the Truth; full of Indra power, the power of the divine illumined mind, she gives the inspirations of that mind (sravansi) which lead us towards the Bliss, and by the flaming radiant Angirasa-power in her she bestows and arranges her treausres for those who do aright the great work and thus move rightly on the path, ittha naksanto angirasvat (Rigveda, VI.49.11)”

Thus, there is some sort of complementarity between Indra and Angiras. While Indra represents symbolically the illumined mind serving as the source of inspiration, Angiras stands for the flaming radiant power of action for right and noble action which is characteristic of Agni. Uşas, on the other hand, operates on both these planes, i.e., the plane of inspiration as well as that of radiant flaming action. It is on account of her dual role that she has been addressed as both indratamā and angirastamā in one and the same mantra.

Sri Aurobindo translates it as follows:

“Dawn, heaven born, has opened up (the vital of darkness) by the Truth and she comes making manifest the vastness (mahimānam), she has drawn away the veil of harms and darkness (druhas tamah) and all that is unloved; most full of Angirasa-hood she manifests the paths (of the great journey).” (Rigveda, VII.75.1)

Sri Aurobindo’s comments on these mantras as:

“Again we have the Angirasa power associated with the journey, the revelation of its paths by the removal of the darkness and the bringing of the radiances of the Dawn; the Paņis represent the harms (druhah, hurts or those who hurt) done to man by the evil powers, the darkness is their cave; the journey is that which leads to the divine happiness and the state of immortal bliss by means of our growing wealth of light and power and knowledge.”

Finally, determining the symbolic significance of the Angirasas, he observes:

“The immortal lustres of the Dawn which give birth in man to the heavenly workings and fill with them the workings of the mid-regions between earth and heaven, that is to say, the functioning of those vital planes governed by Vāyu which link our physical and pure mental being, may well be the Angirasa powers. For they too gain and maintain the truth by maintaining unhurt the divine workings. This is indeed their function, to bring the divine Dawn into mortal nature so that the visible goddess pouring out her riches may be there, at once divine and human, devi martesu manusi, the goddess human in mortals.” (On the Veda, p.196)

9. Sri Aurobindo’s Contribution to the Understanding of Vedic Symbolism - II

Sri Aurobindo provided us with the clue to the understanding of Vedic accounts in general as centring around the gods like Agni, Indra, Soma, Aśvins, Mitra, Varuņa and Bŗhaspati, and goddesses like Sarasvatī and Uşas as also objects like cow, horse, gold, water and light, and he proceeds further to explain certain legends germane to the Vedic thought involving the interaction of almost all the above mentioned forces and objects together and therefore potent enough to show the working of the meanings assigned to each one of these agencies and objects together synthetically. Most prominent among them, in Sri Aurobindo’s view, is Angiras. As such, he deals with it at length.

The legend of Angiras involves the working of several gods and goddesses such as Indra, Brhaspati, Aśvins, Soma, Vāyu, Agni, Pūşan, Uşas and Sarasvatī. The basic problem ith legend is the confinement of cows by some adversaries in a certain cave. The names of those who have kept confined the cows are Vŗtra, Vala and Paņi in particular. The problem is as to what this legend refers to. Is it an actual incident? Or, is the whole account out and out symbolic?

As usual is the case, the modern scholarship takes this legend as reflective of the ancient Indian scenario in which the non-Aryans were driven out of the plains and were contriving against the newcomers from behind hills and mountains. They in particular would steal away their cows and keep them confined in narrow valleys and caves. Rescuing of the cows from their clutches became a great problem with the new settlers particularly as they were mostly not acquainted with those regions. Out of this helplessness they naturally used to pray to their favourite gods and goddesses so as to procure their help in the task of rescuing the cows.

Sri Aurobindo refutes this explanation on the ground that it is incompatible with the actual words of the seers and states:

“It is easy to suggest, as do the scholars who would read as much primitive history as possible into the Veda, that the Paņis are the Dravidians and Vala is their chief or god. But this sense can only be upheld in isolated passages; in many hymns it is incompatible with the actual words of the Rishis and turns into a jumble of gaudy nonsense their images and figures.” (Sri Aurobindo: On the Veda, pp.160-61.)

Sri Aurobindo further observes that the Vedic seers use the legend not as an event of the past but as a recurrent affair of the life of the seer involved so deeply in his quest for knowledge and wisdom. If the cows were lost and recovered prior to the composition of the mantras, the seer no more did require to get them back from the aborigines and, with that end in view, pray to the gods and goddesses to help him in the act of restoration. As against it, the fact is that Indra, for instance, continues to repeat the same feat again and again and constantly remains “the seeker of cows” and “restorer of the stolen wealth,” as Sri Aurobindo puts it. (On the Veda, p. 162)

Moreover, had the legend been an actual event of history, and Angirasa, Saramā, Vala, Paņi, etc., as actual characters of that historical event, it ought to have been restricted to them alone and not spread over other seers. As evidence, Sri Aurobindo refers to a mantra in the fifth mandala of the Ŗgveda where seer Kumāra Ātreya while praying to Agni talks of his having been divested of his cows in the absence of the protector and makes the request for their being released by the thief so that god Agni may drive them back home (Rigveda, V.2.5.). In this account of theft and restoration of the kine, the entire role has been played by Kumāra Ātreya as the seer and Agni as the god instead of Angiras and Indra respectively.

The thrust of the idea involved takes a different turn. This is evident from the mantras immediately preceding it. Sri Aurobindo translation is as follows:

“I beheld afar in a field one shaping his weapons who was golden tusked and pure bright of hue; I give to him the Amrita (the immortal essence, Soma) in separate parts; what shall they do to me who have not Indra and have not the word? I beheld in the field as it were a happy herd ranging continuously, many, shinning; they seized them not, for he was born; even those (cows) that were old, became young again.” (Rigveda, V.2.3-4.)

As regards the meaning of these mantras, Sri Aurobindo observes:

“What, we may fairly ask, are these shinning herds, these cows who were old and became young again? Certainly they are not physical herds, nor is it any earthly field by the Yamuna or the Jhelum that is the scene of this splendid vision of the golden–tusked warrior god and the herds of the shining cattle. They are the herds either of the physical or of the divine Dawn and the language suits ill with the former interpretation; this mystical vision is surely a figure of the divine illumination. They are radiances that were stolen by the powers of darkness and are now divinely recovered not by the god of the physical fire, but by the flaming Force which was concealed in the littleness of the material existence and is now liberated into the clarities of an illumined mental action.” (Sri Aurobindo: On the Veda, pp.162-63)

It is significant to note that the account of the theft of the cows is given in these mantras not as an event of the past but as a simile to bring out metaphorically something of entirely different nature. This is evident from the term yūtham na used in the fourth mantra and gobhir na in the fifth meaning `like the herd of kine’ and `as from the cows’ respectively. These usages bear out the fact that the seer is intending to communicate a certain secret idea bearing some sort of similitude to the event of loss or separation of cows and intense desire or aspiration for its restoration. Since the mantras are addressed to Agni, who forms the devatā or real subject matter of them, it is outrageous to interpolate anything from outside bearing a casual reference to the main theme by way of just analogy and declare it as the main burden of the account.

Uşas is another deity associated with the task of rescuing the cows. Sri Aurobindo refers to a mantra seen by Rishi Vasistha in this regard which reads in his translation as follows:

“True with the gods who are true, great with the gods who are great, sacrificial godhead with the gods sacrificial, she breaks open the strong places, she gives of the shinning herds; the cows low towards the Dawn.” (Rigveda, VII.75.7.)

Involvement of the Dawn in rescuing the cows transforms the nature of the cows themselves. Had any real incident of rescuing certain cows from the clutches of certain adversaries been intended to be depicted, the act might have been staged either in the night time or in the day time and least of all at the time of the dawn of the day which has naturally to do with the victory of light over darkness rather than with any event of theft getting so important as to be referred to by so many seers while praying to so many gods and goddesses including Uşas even.

Sri Aurobindo further refers to mantras recounting the Aśvins’ involvement in the act of freeing the cows. He quotes a mantra addressing the Aśvins as Angiras besides referring to the act of rescuing the cows. The mantra in his translation reads as follows:

“O Angiras, ye two take delight by the mind and enter first in the opening of the streams of the cows.” (Rigveda, I.112.18.)

Commenting on this mantra Sri Aurobindo observes that “the sense is evidently the liberated, outflowing stream or sea of the light,” rather than any incident of freeing any cows from anywhere, as was expected from the association of the name of Angiras who is the main character in the act of rescuing the cows from the cave of the Paņis. (Sri Aurobindo: On the Veda, p.163)

Sri Aurobindo raises the pertinent question whether there is “a definite sense in these variations which will bind them together into a single coherent idea or is it at random that the Rishis invoke now this and now the other deity in the search and war for their lost cattle.” (On the Veda, p. 164).

The answer which he offers to the problem is highly revealing inasmuch as it suggests the real way out in the midst of apparently disconnected details of bewildering nature embodied in the Vedas. He states:

“If we will consent to take the ideas of the Veda as a whole instead of bewildering ourselves in the play of separate detail, we shall find a very simple and sufficient answer. This matter of the lost herds is only part of a whole system of connected symbols and images. They are recovered by the sacrifice and the fiery god Agni is the flame, the power and the priest of the sacrifice by the Word, and Bŗhaspati is the father of the Word, the Maruts its singers, Saraswatī its inspiration by the Wine, and Soma is the god of the Wine and the Ashwins its seekers, finders, givers, drinkers. The herds are the herds of Light and the Light comes by the Dawn and by the sun of whom Pushan is a form. Finally, Indra is the head of all these gods, lord of the light, king of the luminous heaven called Swar, -- he is, we say, the luminous or divine Mind, into him all the gods enter and take part in his unveiling of the hidden light. We see therefore that there is a perfect appropriateness in the attribution of one and the same victory to these different deities and in Madhuchchandas’ image of the gods entering into Indra for the stroke against Vala. Nothing has been done at random or in obedience to a confused fluidity of ideas. The Veda is perfect and beautiful in its coherence and its unity.” (Sri Aurobindo: On the Veda, pp. 164-65).

Sri Aurobindo brings in another feature of the legend which cannot be accounted for in terms of the historic event. As per the latter, the objects stolen by the Paņis and rescued by Angiras with the help of Indra and, of course, Saramā, were simply cows. This central theme of the legend is sure to break down if horse also gets included along with the cows. As a matter of fact, this really occurs in several mantras in the Samhitā to which Sri Aurobindo draws our attention. He refers to a mantra addressed to Indra where the latter has been said to have opened out the stall hiding within it horses as well as cows (Rigveda, VIII.32.5.). In another mantra seen by Rebha Kāśyapa, Indra again has been prayed to deliver the horse as well as the cow to the Soma-squeezing and liberal sacrificer and by no means to the Paņi (Rigveda, VIII.97.2.). Apart from the inclusion of horse and particularly in the context of the mention of Paņi here what is difficult to understand is the probability of Indra delivering the cows to Paņis who, as per the prevalent interpretation, were deadly opposed to Indra and his followers, the Aryans. If the Aryans and non-Aryans were so dead against each other, where was the probability of Indra, the leader of the Aryans delivering the cows and horses to the Paņis in any case who represented the non-Aryans? The seer ought not to have felt such a danger at all under those circumstances. The real clue to the understanding of the hidden meaning of the account, however, lies in the significant adjective used in common for the horse and the cow craved for by the seer. That adjective is avyayam. When man himself is cognised and addressed so frequently in the Veda as martya, mortal, by the seer, how can an actual horse or cow be imperishable in his eyes?

In view of these as well as well as several other difficulties involved in the interpretation of the legend in the above simplistic historical way, Sri Aurobindo concludes:

“From these examples it will appear how closely the different symbols and parables of the Veda are connected with each other and we shall therefore miss the true road of interpretation if we treat the legend of the Angirasas and the Paņis as an isolated mythus which we can interpret at our pleasure without careful regard to its setting in the general thought of the Veda and the light that that general thought casts upon the figured language in which the legend is recounted.” (Sri Aurobindo: On the Veda, p.169)

8.Sri Aurobindo’s Contribution to the Understanding of Vedic Symbolism - I

After the Upanişads and Yāska, Sri Aurobindo is the most revealing light on the symbolism used in the Veda. There is a colossal difference not only of time from the Upanişads and Yāska to Sri Aurobindo. As regards the Upanişads, they came immediately after the Vedic Samhitās but for the intervention of the Brāhmaņas and the Āraņyakas and in certain cases without any such intervention at all. As such, they were most intimate to the spirit of the seers. The students who came to the Upanişadic sages for higher knowledge were well versed in the Vedas. Under these circumstances, the Upanişadic sage had only to hand over to them the key to this citadel of knowledge in the form of precise hints and suggestions and the whole thing became obvious to the student already fully charged with inquisitiveness.

More or less, the same conditions prevailed during the age of Yāska. No doubt, a considerable course of time had passed and consequently the Vedic words, phrases and idioms were becoming archaic to the people. Extremely short and cryptic remarks on mantras made by Yāska as against the word-by-word explanation of Sāyaņa millennia afterwards bear out the relatively convenient position in which Yāska had his placing in regard to the Vedic lore. Scholars of the time, no matter be they interpreters and teachers of Veda, grammarians, linguists, historians, mythologists, priests, astronomers, and the like, were equally devoted to the Veda. If there was any note of dissent in this whole House of scholarship, that was the lone and feeble voice of Kautsa which was silenced by Yāska in just one round of argumentation. If that voice reverberated in the Indian horizon, that was only centuries afterwards in the form of Jainism and Buddhism which, however, had little to do directly with textual interpretation of the Veda.

Conditions became entirely different by the time of Sri Aurobindo. The predominantly ritualistic interpretation of Sāyaņa with the involvement of stupendous scholarship in it had already reduced the Veda to the position of just a text on ritualism to be recited on sacred occasions but to be kept faithfully concealed so far as the understanding of its meaning was concerned. It was considered most precious no doubt in regard to knowledge also, but there was no scope for human effort left any more in this respect beyond keeping it safe from the evil eye of the infidel.

This position of standstill continuing for centuries came to be disturbed by the advent of the Westerners in the area. Through rigorous research they discovered that in the Veda there was neither the knowledge and wisdom believed to be there by the tradition nor the meaninglessness imputed by Kautsa but a world of meanings belonging to the primitive life of mankind. This fabulous discovery attracted the attention of a large number of scholars from the West perusing various disciplines such as history, culture, anthropology, religion, sociology, mythology and linguistics. With great perseverance they subjected the Veda to threadbare analysis from their respective viewpoints offering explanation for each and everything there in their own ways. The result was that each and everything in the Veda got apparently explained but in a way amounting to the conclusion that there was nothing worth the name in it except indirect portrayal of primitive life lived by the Aryans having entered the portals of India. It was like the early psychologists dissecting the body and not finding any trace of the soul there, abandoning the early Greek position and re-engaging themselves exclusively in the pursuit of psychology bereft of the psyche.

The result was that the Veda no longer remained a sacred book embodying a world of knowledge and wisdom tempting enough for anyone to go through with any deeper interest beyond the conjectures, guessing, contrivances, machinations, destitutions, and aberrations of the primitive life, save a spark of wisdom here and there which too was explicable in terms of chance occurrences.

This newly introduced viewpoint by the Westerners ruling over the country got so settled on the Indian psyche that except for the lone voice of Swami Dayanand Saraswatī, almost all of them took it as the last word on the Veda and went about using it as something axiomatic. After this, even if anyone of the Indians thought of anything new regarding the Veda, that had necessarily to be developed only under the framework provided to him anew. B.G. Tilak’s “Arctic Home in the Vedas” is a glaring example of this attitude. He dissented from the propositions of Max Muller etc., only to take the original home of the Vedic people farther off to the Arctic region.

There is a lot of difference between a text remaining unexplained and the same explained contrary to its basic spirit. It is under this precarious condition that Sri Aurobindo happened to come to the Veda. By his time the Veda was being taught in Indian universities and colleges as a dead book, no less dead than the Egyptian Book of the Dead, wherein students were being taught just the grammatical structure, literal translation and explanation, if any at all, confined well within the framework prepared by Peterson, Wilson, Griffith, Macdonell, etc., amounting to portrayal of primitive life centring around cows, bulls, milk, horses, chariots etc., as objects of longings and Nature as the article of worship. Promptings of the heart of Sri Aurobindo, as well as the visions he had had in course of his yogic sādhanā, telling an entirely different tale to him regarding the Veda, obliged him to study the Veda afresh leading him to find it as laden with profound knowledge and wisdom but couched in an array of symbols hard to penetrate through ordinarily.

After propounding his method of Vedic interpretation at length, Sri Aurobindo in his Secret of the Veda starts his interpretation of the symbols with Agni. He takes Agni as “the divine will perfectly inspired by divine Wisdom, and indeed one with it, which is the active or effective power of the Truth-consciousness.” (Sri Aurobindo, On the Veda, p.76, Pondicherry, 1956.) By “Truth-consciousness” he means the principle of Rta inherent in the Supreme Being and operating in the world as the agency of order. He associates this meaning with Agni particularly on the basis of the latter being characterised a number of times in the Veda as kavikratuh, having the will-power of the seer. The seer obviously stands for truth while his will-power denotes the power or consciousness of truth. Apart from this symbolic expression used for Agni, the latter at the very next step in the same mantra seen by Madhucchandas, has directly been described as satyah, truthful and citrasravastamah, most abundantly possessed of the word of wisdom. From the word hotŗ used for Agni in the same mantra he gets the hint of the latter’s working as the power of Truth in the work (Rigveda, I.1.5). Besides operating on the cosmic scale, Agni is recognised by the Vedic seer as indwelling the human heart also. Sri Aurobindo treats sacrifice in Agni as symbolical of “continual self-offering of the human to the divine and a continual descent of the divine into the human.”

Agni has also been associated in the Veda with the household. This has generally been taken to indicate to the fire kept burning in the house of the sacrificer. Sri Aurobindo interprets it differently. On the basis of a pertinent reference in which the phrases rtam brhat and svam damam have been used together and as almost equivalent to each other, he derives the obvious conclusion that the house of Agni must mean the vastly operative principle of Ŗta whose truth-consciousness Agni is. (Rigveda, I.75.5.)

Sri Aurobindo takes up Goddess Sarasvatī for his decoding. Sarasvatī occurs in the Veda as a river as well as a goddess. Recently the actual bed of the river has also been discovered through aerial photography. In the Ŗgveda, Sarasvatī as a river is said to emerge from the high Himalayas and merge in the sea. This has now been corroborated by recent researches. Now the question is what this Sarasvatī, as a matter of fact, was. Was she originally a goddess or merely a river? Sri Aurobindo does not deny the possibility of Sarasvatī having been an actual river also. But as the goddess of learning, as described in the Veda, she must not be a mere personification of any river whatsoever. Even then, however, how could the goddess of learning come to be associated with the stream of water? After raising this question, Sri Aurobindo refers to a point in the Greek mythology where Muses, the goddesses of learning, has been associated with an earthly stream of water known as Hippocrene. This river is said to have sprung from the hoof of the divine horse Pegasus. The horse smote the rock with his hoof and the waters of inspiration gushed out forming the river Hippocrene. Sri Aurobindo very rightly identifies Pegasus with the Sanskrit pājas meaning force, movement or footing. “The stroke of the Horse’s hoof on the rock releasing the waters of inspiration”, he observes, “would thus become a very obvious psychological image.” (On the Veda, p. 106). Thus, he shows the obvious possibility of representation of the string of inspiration by the stream of water.

Identification of Sarasvatī with inspiration gives a definite clue to the solution of the problem of sapta sindhava, the land of seven rivers whose identification with Punjab along with the Western part of Uttar Pradesh is being held even until now as a certainty. If Sarasvatī can represent the string of inspiration coming down from Ŗta, the truth-consciousness of the Eternal, will other river-goddesses associated so closely with her remain mere rivers, asks Sri Aurobindo. Via a discussion on the significance of the number seven used for these rivers in the Veda he eventually reaches the conclusion that they represent the seven planes of being which may be determined as the physical, vital, mental, supramental and the planes of delight, consciousness and existence. Sri Aurobindo states: “…the seven rivers are conscious currents corresponding to the sevenfold substance of the ocean of being which appears to us formulated in the seven worlds enumerated in the Purāņas.” (On the Veda, p.113)

Next to river and water, Sri Aurobindo takes up the problem of light, darkness, dawn, etc., as involved in the understanding of the Veda. The relevant accounts are explained by Sāyaņa in terms of breaking of day which was so essential for the performance of sacrifices. The Western Indologists, on the other hand, take it as a reflection of the state of mind of the newcomers of India who must naturally have been afraid of night and darkness in the alien land and therefore would have craved for the coming of the dawn and rising of the sun. Arguing on their behalf, Sri Aurobindo observes that even if we take the cow, so closely associated with the dawn, in the symbolic sense, it is quite possible to regard her as simply the symbol of the physical light. Sri Aurobindo states:

“Why should we not, even accepting this inevitable conclusion that the cow is an image for Light, understand it to mean simply the light of day as the language of the Veda seems to intend? Why suppose a symbol where there is only an image? Why invite the difficulty of a double figure in which “cow” means light of dawn and light of dawn is the symbol of an inner illumination? Why not take it that the Rishis were praying not for spiritual illumination, but for daylight?” (On the Veda, p. 146)

The difficulties which Sri Aurobindo feels to lie in this facile explanation is that in that case it would necessarily have to be admitted that “the Vedic peoples sat down to the sacrifice at dawn and prayed for the light when it had already come” and that “it was only after they had sat for nine or for ten months that the lost light and the lost sun were recovered by the Angirasa Rishis.” (On the Veda, p. 147). Moreover, he asks, in that case, “What are we to make of the constant assertion of the discovery of the Light by the Fathers - Our fathers found out the hidden light, by the truth in their thoughts they brought to birth the Dawn?” (Rigveda, VII.76.4.). He further points out that “If we find such a verse in any collection of poems in any literature, we would at once give it a psychological or a spiritual sense” and therefore suggests that “there is no just reason for a different treatment of the Veda.” (On the Veda, p.147)

In view of these facts, he ultimately comes to the conclusion that “The Night is clearly the image of an inner darkness; by the coming of the Dawn the Truths are won out of the Nights.” In regard to the Sun, he observes: “This is the rising of the Sun which was lost in the obscurity – the sun of Truth.” (On the Veda, p.149). In this connection, while explaining the symbolic significance of gold so often mentioned in the Veda he observes that it is “the concrete symbol of the higher light, the gold of the Truth, and it is this treasure, not gold coin, for which the Vedic Rishis pray to the gods” (On the Veda, p. 149).

Regarding the symbolism of Dawn, he points out in the same continuation: “Everywhere Dawn comes as a bringer of the Truth, is herself the outshining of the Truth. She is the divine Dawn and the physical dawning is only her shadow and symbol in the material universe.” (On the Veda, p. 150)

He finds support for this contention in the constant association of the Vedic Dawn with Aditi and Ŗta. Aditi is the mother of gods and so is said to be the Dawn, besides being directly stated as a form or power of Aditi (Rigveda, VII.76.4). As regards her association with Ŗta, it has been stated that she follows effectively the path of the Truth (Rigveda, I.124.3). Negating the feasibility of the interpretation of Ŗta here on sacrificial and naturalistic lines as sacrifice or water in this context, Sri Aurobindo points out: “Here neither the ritualistic nor the naturalistic sense suggested for ŗtam can at all apply; there would be no meaning in a constant affirmation that Dawn follows the path of the sacrifice or follows the path of the water.” (On the Veda, p. 152)

7. Sri Aruobindo’s Theory of Vedic Interpretation

Sri Aurobindo’s acquaintance with the Veda proved to be a remarkable incident in the history of Indian thought as well as in his own life. It is an incident of discovery of eternal life and inestimable amount of vitality from within the greatest literature of the world which virtually had begun to be treated as a dead mound containing completely fossilised ideas of bygone ages. It is an incident of re-enlivening what was supposed to be merely a historical record, into a perpetual psychology. To put the circumstances of this incident in Sri Aurobindo’s own words”:

“My first contact with Vedic thought came indirectly while pursuing certain lines of self-development in the way of Indian Yoga which, without my knowing it, were spontaneously converging towards the ancient and now unfrequented paths followed by our forefathers. At this time there began to arise in my mind an arrangement of symbolic names attached to certain psychological experiences which had begun to regularise themselves; and among them there came the figures of three female energies, Īļā, Saraswatī, Saramā, representing severally three out of the four faculties of the intuitive reason, -- revelation, inspiration and intuition.” (Sri Aurobindo, On the Veda, Pondicherry, 1956, p.42)

Visualisation of the images that the Vedic seers came across thousands of years ago, led Sri Aurobindo to the possibility of recovering the entire Vedic lore through Yogic experience. It is from such experiences that accrues his interpretation of the Veda to a certain extent as well as his philosophical system. He forges out his philosophical doctrines by putting those experiences into the fire of different disciplines of knowledge, such as history, sociology, philosophy, sciences and the rest as well as develops his view of the Veda by putting those experiences to the test of the psychology of the origin and growth of idea and language.

In the Veda there is an admixture of natural images and psychological terms. On the one hand, we have descriptions of dawn, sunrise, starry sky, night, mountains, clouds, rain, rivers, horses, cows, etc., and, on the other, its descriptions are equally well couched in such terms as dhī, dhişaņā, manisa, rta, prabodha, citti, acitti, śraddhā jñāna, mantra, and the rest. While we have gods and goddesses like Agni, Soma, Sūrya, Uşas, etc., we also have a number of such deities as Śraddha, Manyu, Dhī, Jñāna , Brhaspati, Vāk, Bhava-Vrtta and the like.

Naturally, the question arises: which aspect of the scripture is primary and fundamentally intended? Do the seers primarily strive to describe different aspects and processes of nature in course of which they happen to use certain psychological terms and concepts? Or, conversely, do they start from the psychological and come to clothe their subtle experiences and ideas in the garb of the phenomena of nature?

Western Orientalists and their counterparts take the first alternative to represent the correct view about the Veda. They argue as follows: Since the history of mankind is progressing from completely uncivilised conditions towards civilisation, man also must be taken to be advancing from complete ignorance to knowledge. Since the rate of progress has been quite rapid during the known history, the upper end of it must have rested in complete ignorance. Since that end is represented, in certain aspects, by the Vedic age, the people of those days must have been completely ignorant of the mysteries of the universe. It would have been out of that ignorance that they would have sung in the form of the Veda.

Quite contrary to the above views, Sri Aurobindo argues: since the Vedic Samhitās are immediately followed by the Brāhmaņas, which evidently are dovetailed by the Upanişads, the latter must not fall very far away from the age of the Samhitās. The Upanişads, in their content, are spiritual or of psychological nature as such, if the Upanişadic seers could be so thoroughly psychological as to remain almost unsurpassed even until now, how was it possible for the Vedic seers to have remained so completely naturalistic only a few centuries earlier? Apart from asking this question, Sri Aurobindo also contradicts the above view with a reference to the fact that on certain extremely complicated issues the Upanişads seek the help of the Samhitās by quoting them as the supreme authority. This clearly suggests that even the Upanişadic seers regarded the Samhitās as the reservoir of profound spiritual knowledge. This fact remains unexplained if we take the Samhitās as mere collections of shepherd-songs sung by the primitive people. In order to account for this obvious hiatus in the history of thought, it is necessary to examine the nature of the composition of the Samhitā more thoroughly and in greater depth. In any case, it is a historical necessity that they form an apt preamble to the Upanişads.

He starts his second argument in this respect from the difficulties involved in the purely naturalistic interpretation of a mantra, hymn or the whole of a Samhitā. It is a well known fact about these texts that if we strive to interpret them purely on the naturalistic line, we would arrive at a meaning which is incompatible in itself. In the majority of mantras, there are words which do not admit a naturalistic interpretation. One cannot subdue them but when we approach such mantras from the psychological side, maintains Sri Aurobindo, we find such words not only revealing their meaning in themselves but also converting the naturalistic elements to their own side. Thus, in his view, the Vedic texts are explicable consistently, homogeneously and completely only by following the psychological line of interpretation and not by means of the naturalistic method. The latter leaves us mid-way in the same way as similes and metaphors leave us half way in the understanding of a particular poem. In the words of Sri Aurobindo:

“…The inconsistencies of the Vedic texts will at once be explained and disappear. They exist in appearance only, because the real thread of the sense is to be found in an inner meaning. That thread found, the hymns appear as logical and organic wholes and the expression, though alien in type to our modern ways of thinking and speaking, becomes, in its own style, just and precise and sins rather by economy of phrase than by excess, by over-pregnancy rather than by poverty of sense. The Veda ceases to be merely an interesting remnant of barbarism and takes rank among the most important of the world’s earliest scriptures. ” (Sri Aurobindo, On the Veda, Pondicherry, 1956,p.10.)

Thinking on this line, Sri Aurobindo comes to the conclusion that the naturalistic exterior of the Veda also must have been intended by the seers to constitute the article of faith and practice of the people. Thus the Veda, according to him, has two aspects, the inner which is psychological, and the outer which is naturalistic. The inner is intended for the elites of the time while the outer is meant for the common people. The outer is drawn from the traditional beliefs of the semi-civilised people. It was also a matter of common practice at the time of composition of the Samhitās. The inner, on the contrary, represented the spiritual discovery of the Vedic seers themselves. Since the seers were not very large in number, and since the inner was not easy of comprehension, it remained confined only to a small circle.

This hypothesis of Sri Aurobindo’s finds support from the internal and external literary evidence within the Vedic fold as well as from a similar pattern obtaining in ancient literatures of some other branches of the Indo-European culture. The crux of the internal evidence consists in the suggestions to the same effect in the Ŗgveda itself. In it, there are several explicit indications to the presence of two orders in the society, of those who know, and of those who do not know. Those who know are said to understand a secret meaning in the mantras. For instance, in one of the mantras occurring in the oldest portion of the Samhitā, it is said, “He alone understands properly the thread and the art of weaving, and may tell the truths rightly who, the protector of immortality, while moving below and seeing the higher by his another sight, knows with certainty.” (Rigveda VI.6.3.). At another place, it is said that he alone can understand this mystery who himself is a Kavi. At yet another place, it is said, “Rks lie in the eternal highest heaven in which sit all the gods; one who does not know that, what will he do with the Rks? Those who know it, sit here together.” (Rigveda, I.164.39).

As regards the Vedic evidence, it is implied in the growth of two mutually distinct sorts of literature from the same Samhitās. The one of them is represented by the Brāhmaņas and the other by the Upanişads. The Brāhmaņas elaborate, interpret, rationalise and systematise the external aspect of the Samhitās while the Upanişads do the same in regard to their inner content. In fact, most of the fundamental Upanişadic doctrines are only systematised and logically developed versions of the visions of the earlier seers. It is absolutely wrong to suppose that they have come in complete independence of the Samhitās.

That visions of some fundamental philosophical doctrines may come to rationally less developed individuals living in a simple society, is borne out by the fact that some of the most important philosophical doctrines in the West germinated from Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries. Simplicity of civilisation is not always equivalent to lack of inner culture. In the words of Sri Aurobindo:

“Nor is it a certain conclusion from the data we possess that the early Aryan cultures – supposing the Celt, Teuton, Greek and Indian to represent one common cultural region, -- were really undeveloped and barbarous. A certain pure and high simplicity in their outward life and its organisation, a certain concreteness and vivid human familiarity in their conception of and relations with the gods they worshipped, distinguish the Aryan type from the more sumptuous and materialistic Egypto-Chaldean civilisation and its solemn and occult religions. But those characteristics are not inconsistent with a high internal culture. On the contrary, indications of a great spiritual tradition meet us at many points and negate the ordinary theory. The old Celtic races certainly possessed some of the highest philosophical conceptions and they preserve stamped upon them even to the present day the results of an early mystic and intuitional development which must have been of long standing and highly evolved to have produced such enduring results. In Greece it is probable that the Hellenic type was moulded in the same way by Orphic and Eleusinian influences.” (Sri Aurobindo, On the Veda, pp.31-32)

The epistemological difficulty being removed through historical evidence, there remains the linguistic problem of compressing a twofold meaning in a single word, clause or sentence, as is supposed by Sri Aurobindo. “The theory of the psychological interpretation”, he maintains, “depends very often on the use of a double meaning for important words – the key-words of the secret teaching.” In such cases, more than one meaning in a single word could be possible due to the fact that each one of the majority of Sanskrit roots conveys more than one sense. For instance, the root as means to attain as well as to enjoy, the word aśva, therefore, would mean force, attainment, joy as well as horse. Similarly the root gam which is used for spiritual as well as physical movement, hence the word go means sense-organ and knowledge as well as cow and ray. Accordingly, Uşas, for instance, meant for the personification of the dawn coming with all her glamour when prayed for cows, horses, etc. It is also understood by the wise as the cosmic principle of creativity embodying consciousness and force and manifesting the world out of the unmanifest. The second interpretation is easily available if we take go in the sense of `knowledge’ or `consciousness’, and asva in the sense of force.

Sri Aurobindo adduces one more linguistic fact in support of his proposition. It relates to the evolution of language. It is a long-drawn controversy whether language originated with a certain number of monosyllabic or disyllabic words called roots and signifying each an action as held by Max Muller and his school, or with strings of voices denoting each a whole incident, as is the case with animals, as held by Jesperson. All this controversy apart, what is, however, evident is that the Vedic language germinated out of roots signifying action. Whether verbs came first or substantives, is discussed penetratingly in the Nirukta of Yāska with the conclusion of the priority of the former. Sri Aurobindo also marks out this feature of the Vedic language, and basing himself on it, he argues that since the Vedic substantives are nearer to their roots, they are much more universal in their meanings than when used in the later literature. Thus, for instance, the word aśva should mean in the Veda not only `horse’ but also and more primarily `means of attainment’ or `force’. Similarly the word Vrka would mean in the Veda not only `wolf’ but also, and more primarily `the tearer’. Thus by means of this argument, Sri Aurobindo gives the most probable rationale of the traditional belief that the Veda is the book of universal knowledge and not merely an account of contemporary events.

Thus conceived, Sri Aurobindo’s line of Vedic interpretation leads us closest to the mind of the seer. The significance of this statement can be understood by a review of the earlier attempts in this direction which mostly are entangled in the symbolic stuff which they have taken to be the real meaning and have missed the real content. The Veda, after all, is a book of spiritual knowledge rather than a manual of sacrifice or an account of bewildered primitive gaze over the changing phenomena of nature. Sacrifice is an important ingredient in its composition no doubt, but on no account does sacrifice hold the pivotal position in it. Similarly nature is there in the Veda no doubt, but by no means is the latter an account of bewilderment over the changing phenomena of nature. The crux of the Veda is rather the deep spiritual experience of the seer. Its recapturing, therefore, needs spiritual penetration as well as keen historical and psychological insight which Sri Aurobindo could afford very well.