{"id":1868,"date":"2013-07-13T01:37:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:37:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:37:59","slug":"04-chapter-iv-the-foundations-of-the-psychological-theory-vol-15-the-secret-of-veda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/15-the-secret-of-veda\/04-chapter-iv-the-foundations-of-the-psychological-theory-vol-15-the-secret-of-veda","title":{"rendered":"-04_Chapter IV The Foundations of the Psychological Theory.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPart One <\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChapter IV <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Foundations of the
\n<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPsychological Theory <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA<\/font><\/b> HYPOTHESIS<\/b> of the sense of
\n\t\t\tVeda must always proceed, to be sure and sound, from a basis that
\n\t\t\tclearly emerges in the language of the Veda itself. Even if the bulk
\n\t\t\tof its substance be an arrangement of symbols and figures, the sense
\n\t\t\tof which has to be discovered, yet there should be clear indications
\n\t\t\tin the explicit language of the hymns which will guide us to that
\n\t\t\tsense. Otherwise, the symbols being themselves ambiguous, we shall
\n\t\t\tbe in danger of manufacturing a system out of our own imaginations
\n\t\t\tand preferences instead of discovering the real purport of the
\n\t\t\tfigures chosen by the Rishis. In that case, however ingenious and
\n\t\t\tcomplete our theory, it is likely to be a building in the air,
\n\t\t\tbrilliant, but without reality or solidity. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOur first duty, therefore, is to determine whether there is, apart
\n\t\t\tfrom figure and symbol, in the clear language of the hymns a
\n\t\t\tsufficient kernel of psychological notions to justify us in
\n\t\t\tsupposing at all a higher than the barbarous and primitive sense of
\n\t\t\tthe Veda. And afterwards we have to find, as far as possible from
\n\t\t\tthe internal evidence of the Suktas themselves, the interpretation
\n\t\t\tof each symbol and image and the right psychological function of
\n\t\t\teach of the gods. A firm and not a fluctuating sense, founded on
\n\t\t\tgood philological justification and fitting naturally into the
\n\t\t\tcontext wherever it occurs, must be found for each of the fixed
\n\t\t\tterms of the Veda. For, as has already been said, the language of
\n\t\t\tthe hymns is a language fixed and invariable; it is the carefully
\n\t\t\tpreserved and scrupulously respected diction consistently expressing
\n\t\t\teither a formal creed and ritual or a traditional doctrine and
\n\t\t\tconstant experience. If the language of the Vedic Rishis were free
\n\t\t\tand variable, if their ideas were evidently in a state of flux,
\n\t\t\tshifting and uncertain, a convenient licence and incoherence in   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 34<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nthe sense we attach to their terminology and the relation we find between their
\nideas, might be justified or tolerated. But the hymns themselves on the very
\nface of them bear exactly the contrary testimony. We have the right therefore to
\ndemand the same fidelity and scrupulousness in the interpreter as in the
\noriginal he interprets. There is obviously a constant relation between the
\ndifferent notions and cherished terms of the Vedic religion; incoherence and
\nuncertainty in the interpretation will prove, not that the face evidence of the
\nVeda is misleading, but simply that the interpreter has failed to discover the
\nright relations. <\/p>\n

\nIf, after this initial labour has been scrupulously and carefully done, it can
\nbe shown by a translation of the hymns that the interpretations we had fixed fit
\nin naturally and easily in whatever context, if they are found to illuminate
\nwhat seemed obscure and to create intelligible and clear coherence where there
\nseemed to be only confusion; if the hymns in their entirety give thus a clear
\nand connected sense and the successive verses show a logical succession of
\nrelated thoughts, and if the result as a whole be a profound, consistent and
\nantique body of doctrines, then our hypothesis will have a right to stand
\nbesides others, to challenge them where they contradict it or to complete them
\nwhere they are consistent with its findings. Nor will the probability of our
\nhypothesis be lessened, but rather its validity confirmed if it be found that
\nthe body of ideas and doctrines thus revealed in the Veda are a more antique
\nform of subsequent Indian thought and religious experience, the natural parent
\nof Vedanta and Purana. <\/p>\n

\nSo considerable and minute a labour is beyond the scope of these brief and
\nsummary chapters. Their object is only to indicate for those who care to follow
\nthe clue I have myself received, the path and its principal turnings, —the
\nresults I have arrived at and the main indications by which the Veda itself
\nhelps us to arrive at them. And, first, it seems to me advisable to explain the
\ngenesis of the theory in my own mind so that the reader may the better
\nunderstand the line I have taken or, if he chooses, check any prepossessions or
\npersonal preferences which may have influenced or limited the right application
\nof reasoning to this difficult problem.   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 35<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Like the majority of educated Indians I had passively accepted without
\nexamination, before myself reading the Veda, the conclusions of European
\nScholarship both as to the religious and as to the historical and ethnical sense
\nof the ancient hymns. In consequence, following again the ordinary line taken by
\nmodernised Hindu opinion, I regarded the Upanishads as the most ancient source
\nof Indian thought and religion, the true Veda, the first Book of Knowledge. The
\nRig Veda in the modern translations which were all I knew of this profound
\nScripture, represented for me an important document of our national history, but
\nseemed of small value or importance for the history of thought or for a living
\nspiritual experience. <\/p>\n

\n

My first contact with Vedic thought came indirectly while pursuing certain lines
\nof self-development in the way of Indian Yoga, which, without my knowing it,
\nwere spontaneously converging towards the ancient and now unfrequented paths
\nfollowed by our forefathers. At this time there began to arise in my mind an
\narrangement of symbolic names attached to certain psychological experiences
\nwhich had begun to regularise themselves; and among them there came the figures
\nof three female energies, Ila, Saraswati, Sarama, representing severally three
\nout of the four faculties of the intuitive reason, —revelation, inspiration and
\nintuition. Two of these names were not well known to me as names of Vedic
\ngoddesses, but were connected rather with the current Hindu religion or with old
\nPuranic legend, Saraswati, goddess of learning and Ila, mother of the Lunar
\ndynasty. But Sarama was familiar enough. I was unable, however, to establish any
\nconnection between the figure that rose in my mind and the Vedic hound of
\nheaven, who was associated in my memory with the Argive Helen and represented
\nonly an image of the physical Dawn entering in its pursuit of the vanished herds
\nof Light into the cave of the Powers of darkness. When once the clue is found,
\nthe clue of the physical Light imaging the subjective, it is easy to see that
\nthe hound of heaven may be the intuition entering into the dark caverns of the
\nsubconscious mind to prepare the delivery and out-flashing of the bright
\nilluminations of knowledge which have there been imprisoned. But the clue was
\nwanting   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 36<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nand I was obliged to suppose an identity of name without any identity of the
\nsymbol. <\/p>\n

\n It was my stay in Southern India which first seriously turned my thoughts to
\n\tthe Veda. Two observations that were forced on my mind, gave a serious shock
\n\tto my second-hand belief in the racial division between Northern Aryans and
\n\tSouthern Dravidians. The distinction had always rested for me on a supposed
\n\tdifference between the physical types of Aryan and Dravidian and a more
\n\tdefinite incompatibility between the northern Sanskritic and the southern
\n\tnon-Sanskritic tongues. I knew indeed of the later theories which suppose
\n\tthat a single homogeneous race, Dravidian or Indo-Afghan, inhabits the
\n\tIndian peninsula; but hitherto I had not attached much importance to these
\n\tspeculations. I could not, however, be long in Southern India without being
\n\timpressed by the general recurrence of northern or "Aryan" types in the
\n\tTamil race. Wherever I turned, I seemed to recognise with a startling
\n\tdistinctness, not only among the Brahmins but in all castes and classes, the
\n\told familiar faces, features, figures of my friends of Maharashtra, Gujarat,
\n\tHindustan, even, though this similarity was less widely spread, of my own
\n\tprovince Ben gal. The impression I received was as if an army of all the
\n\ttribes of the North had descended on the South and submerged any previous
\n\tpopulations that may have occupied it. A general impression of a Southern
\n\ttype survived, but it was impossible to fix it rigidly while studying the
\n\tphysiognomy of individuals. And in the end I could not but perceive that
\n\twhatever admixtures might have taken place, whatever regional differences
\n\tmight have been evolved, there remains, behind all variations, a unity of
\n\tphysical as well as of cultural type1 throughout India. For the rest, this
\n\tis a conclusion to which ethnological speculation2 itself has an increasing
\n\ttendency. 1 I prefer not to use the term race, for race is a thing much more
\n\tobscure and difficult to determine than is usually imagined. In dealing with
\n\tit the trenchant distinctions current in the popular mind are wholly out of
\n\tplace. 2 Always supposing that ethnological speculations have at all any
\n\tvalidity. The only firm basis of ethnology is the theory of the hereditary
\n\tinvariability of the human skull which is now being challenged. If it
\n\tdisappears, the whole science disappears with it.   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 37<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

But what then of the sharp distinction between Aryan and Dravidian races created
\nby the philologists? It disappears. If at all an Aryan invasion is admitted, we
\nhave either to suppose that it flooded India and determined the physical type of
\nthe people, with whatever modifications, or that it was the incursion of small
\nbands of a less civilised race who melted away into the original population. We
\nhave then to suppose that entering a vast peninsula occupied by a civilised
\npeople, builders of great cities, extensive traders, not without mental and
\nspiritual culture, they were yet able to impose on them their own language,
\nreligion, ideas and manners. Such a miracle would be just possible if the
\ninvaders possessed a very highly organised language, a greater force of creative
\nmind and a more dynamic religious form and spirit.<\/p>\n

\n

And there was always the difference of language to support the theory of a
\nmeeting of races. But here also my preconceived ideas were disturbed and
\nconfounded. For on examining the vocables of the Tamil language, in appearance
\nso foreign to the Sanskritic form and character, I yet found myself continually
\nguided by words or by families of words supposed to be pure Tamil in
\nestablishing new relations between Sanskrit and its distant sister, Latin, and
\noccasionally, between the Greek and the Sanskrit. Sometimes the Tamil vocable
\nnot only suggested the connection, but proved the missing link in a family of
\nconnected words. And it was through this Dravidian language that I came first to
\nperceive what seems to me now the true law, origins and, as it were, the
\nembryology of the Aryan tongues. I was unable to pursue my examination far
\nenough to establish any definite conclusion, but it certainly seems to me that
\nthe original connection between the Dravidian and Aryan tongues was far closer
\nand more extensive than is usually supposed and the possibility suggests itself
\nthat they may even have been two divergent families derived from one lost
\nprimitive tongue. If so, the sole remaining evidence of an Aryan invasion of
\nDravidian India would be the indications to be found in the Vedic hymns.<\/p>\n

\n

It was, therefore, with a double interest that for the first time I took up the
\nVeda in the original, though without any <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 38<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

immediate intention of a close or serious study. It did not take
\nlong to see that the Vedic indications of a racial division between Aryans and Dasyus and the identification of the latter
\nwith the indigenous Indians were of a far flimsier character than I had supposed. But far more interesting to me was the discovery
\nof a considerable body of profound psychological thought and experience lying neglected in these ancient hymns. And the importance of this element increased in my eyes when I found, first, that the mantras of the Veda illuminated with a clear and exact
\nlight psychological experiences of my own for which I had found no sufficient explanation either in European psychology or in the
\nteachings of Yoga or of Vedanta, so far as I was acquainted with them, and, secondly, that they shed light on obscure passages
\nand ideas of the Upanishads to which, previously, I could attach no exact meaning and gave at the same time a new sense to
\nmuch in the Puranas. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

I was helped in arriving at this result by my fortunate ignorance of the commentary of Sayana. For I was left free to attribute their natural psychological significance to many ordinary and current words of the Veda, such as dhī<\/font><\/i>, thought or
\nunderstanding, manas<\/i>, mind, mati<\/i>, thought, feeling or mental
\n state, manī<\/font>s<\/font>a<\/i>, intellect, r<\/font>tam<\/i>, truth; to give their exact shades <\/p>\n

<f sense to kavi<\/i>, seer, manī<\/font>s<\/font>i<\/i>, thinker, vipra<\/i>,
\nvipaścit<\/i>, enlightened in mind, and a number of similar words; and to hazard a
\npsychological sense, justified by more extensive study, for words
\n like daksa <\/i>which for Sayana means strength and śravas <\/i>which he <\/p>\n

renders as wealth, food or fame. The psychological theory of the Veda rests upon our right to concede their natural significance
\nto these vocables. \t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Sayana gives to the words dhī<\/i>, rtam<\/i>, etc., very variable significances.
\nRtam<\/i>, which is almost the key-word of any psycho
\n logical or spiritual interpretation, is rendered by him sometimes
\nas “truth”, more often “sacrifice”, occasionally in the sense of water. The psychological interpretation gives it invariably the
\n sense of Truth. Dhi <\/i>is rendered by Sayana variously “thought”,
\n“prayer”, “action”, “food”, etc. The psychological interpretation gives it consistently the sense of thought or understanding.
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 39<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

And so with the other fixed terms of Veda. Moreover, Sayana’s tendency, is to obliterate all fine shades and distinctions between
\nwords and to give them their vaguest general significance. All epithets conveying ideas of mental activity mean for him simply
\n“intelligent”, all words suggesting various ideas of force, and the Veda overflows with them, are reduced to the broad idea of
\nstrength. I found myself on the contrary impressed by the great importance of fixing and preserving the right shade of meaning
\nand precise association to be given to different words, however close they may be to each other in their general sense. I do
\nnot see indeed why we should suppose that the Vedic Rishis, unlike all other masters of poetic style, used words pell-mell
\nand indiscriminately without feeling their just associations and giving them their right and exact force in the verbal combination.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

By following this principle I found that without departing from the simple natural and straightforward sense of words and
\nclauses an extraordinarily large body not only of separate verses but of entire passages came at once into evidence which entirely
\naltered the whole character of the Veda. For this Scripture then appeared to have a constant vein of the richest gold of thought
\nand spiritual experience running all through it and appearing sometimes in small streaks, sometimes in larger bands, in the
\nmajority of its hymns. Moreover, besides the words that in their plain and ordinary sense give at once a wealth of psychological
\nsignificance to their context, the Veda is full of others to which it is possible to give either an external and material or an internal and psychological value according to our conception of the
\n general purport of Veda. For instance such words as rāye<\/i>, rayi<\/i>,
\n rādhas<\/i>, ratna<\/i>, may mean either merely material prosperity and riches or internal felicity and plenitude applying itself equally to
\n the subjective and the objective world; dhana<\/i>, vāja<\/i>,
\nposa
\n<\/i>may
\n mean either objective wealth, plenty and increase or all possessions internal or external, their plenitude and their growth in the
\n life of the individual. Rāye <\/i>is used in the Upanishads, in a quotation from the Rig Veda, to mean spiritual felicity; why should
\n it be incapable of bearing that sense in the original text? Vāja<\/i>
\noccurs frequently in a context in which every other word has  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 40<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\na psychological significance and the mention of physical plenty comes in with a violent jar of incoherency into the homogeneous
\ntotality of the thought. Commonsense, therefore, demands that the use of these words with a psychological import should be
\nadmitted in the Veda.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n But if this is done consistently, not only whole verses and
\npassages, but whole hymns assume at once the psychological complexion. On one condition this transformation is frequently
\ncomplete, leaving no word or phrase unaffected, —the condition that we should admit the symbolic character of the Vedic
\n\t sacrifice. We find in the Gita the word yaj\u00f1a<\/i>, sacrifice, used in a
\nsymbolic sense for all action, whether internal or external, that is consecrated to the gods or to the Supreme. Was such symbolic
\nuse of the word born of a later philosophical intellectuality, or was it inherent in the Vedic idea of sacrifice? I found that in the
\n\t Veda itself there were hymns in which the idea of the yaj\u00f1a <\/i>or
\nof the victim is openly symbolical, others in which the veil is quite transparent. The question then arose whether these were
\nlater compositions developing an incipient symbolism out of old superstitious practices or rather the occasional plainer statement
\nof a sense which is in most hymns more or less carefully veiled by the figure. If there were no constant recurrence of psychological
\npassages in the Veda, the former explanation would, no doubt, have to be accepted. But on the contrary whole hymns took
\nnaturally a psychological sense proceeding with a perfect and luminous coherency from verse to verse, where the only points
\nof obscurity were the mention of the sacrifice or of the offering or sometimes of the officiating priest, who might be either a man or
\na god. If these words could be interpreted symbolically, I found always that the progression of thought became more perfect,
\nmore luminous, more coherent and the sense of the hymn in its entirety was victoriously completed. I felt therefore justified
\nby every canon of sound criticism in pursuing my hypothesis farther and including in it the symbolic sense of the Vedic ritual.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n Nevertheless here intervenes the first real difficulty of the psychological interpretation. Hitherto I had been proceeding by
\na perfectly straightforward and natural method of interpretation   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 41<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

based on the surface meaning of the words and sentences. Now I came to an element in which the surface meaning had, in a sense,
\nto be overridden, and this is a process in which every critical and conscientious mind must find itself beset by continual scruples.
\nNor can one always be sure, even with the utmost care, of having hit on the right clue and the just interpretation.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The Vedic sacrifice consists of three features, —omitting for the moment the god and the mantra,
\n\t\t\t—the persons who offer,
\n the offering and the fruits of the offering. If the yaj\u00f1a <\/i>is the action
\n consecrated to the gods, I could not but take the yajamāna<\/i>, the
\n giver of the sacrifice, as the doer of the action. Yajna <\/i>is works,
\n internal or external, the yajamāna <\/i>must be the soul or the personality as the doer. But there were also the officiating priests,
\nhotā<\/i>,
\n rtvij<\/i>, purohita<\/i>, brahmā<\/font><\/i>, adhvaryu <\/i>etc. What was their part in
\n the symbolism? For if we once suppose a symbolic sense for the
\nsacrifice, we must suppose also a symbolic value for each feature of the ceremony. I found that the gods were continually spoken
\nof as priests of the offering and in many passages it was undisguisedly a non-human power or energy which presided over the
\nsacrifice. I perceived also that throughout Veda the elements of our personality are themselves continually personified. I had
\nonly to apply this rule inversely and to suppose that the person of the priest in the external figure represented in the internal
\nactivities figured a non-human power or energy or an element of our personality. It remained to fix the psychological sense of
\nthe different priestly offices. Here I found that the Veda itself presented a clue by its philological indications and insistences,
\nsuch as the use of the word purohita <\/i>in its separated form with the sense of the representative “put in front” and a frequent
\nreference to the god Agni who symbolises the divine Will or Force in humanity that takes up the action in all consecration of
\nworks.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The offerings were more difficult to understand. Even if
\nthe Soma-wine by the context in which it occurred, its use and effect and the philological indication of its synonyms, suggested
\nits own interpretation, what could possibly be indicated by the “ghritam”, the clarified butter in the sacrifice? And yet the word
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 42<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nas used in the Veda was constantly insisting on its own symbolical significance. What for instance could be made of clarified
\nbutter dropping from heaven or dripping from the horses of Indra or dripping from the mind? Obviously, this was grotesque
\nnonsense, if the sense of ghrta <\/i>as clarified butter was anything
\nmore than a symbol used with great looseness, so that often the external sense was wholly or partly put aside in the mind of the
\nthinker. It was possible of course to vary conveniently the sense of the words, to take
\nghrta <\/i>sometimes as butter and sometimes as
\n water and manas <\/i>sometimes as the mind, sometimes as food or
\na cake. But I found that ghrta <\/i>was constantly used in connection
\nwith the thought or the mind, that heaven in Veda was a symbol of the mind, that Indra represented the illuminated mentality and
\nhis two horses double energies of that mentality and even that the
\n Veda sometimes speaks plainly of offering the intellect (manīsa<\/i>)
\n3<\/font><\/sup>
\n  
\n as purified ghrta <\/i>to the gods, ghrtam na
\npūtam manīsām<\/i>. The
\n word ghrta <\/i>counts also among its philological significances the
\n sense of a rich or warm brightness. It was by this concurrence of
\nindications that I felt justified in fixing a certain psychological significance for the figure of the clarified butter. And I found the
\nsame rule and the same method applicable to other features of the sacrifice.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n The fruits of the offering were in appearance purely material —cows, horses, gold, offspring, men, physical strength, victory
\nin battle. Here the difficulty thickened. But I had already found that the Vedic cow was an exceedingly enigmatical animal and
\ncame from no earthly herd. The word go <\/i>means both cow and light and in a number of passages evidently meant light even
\nwhile putting forward the image of the cow. This is clear enough when we have to do with the cows of the sun
\n\t\t\t—the Homeric
\nkine of Helios —and the cows of the Dawn. Psychologically, the physical Light might well be used as a symbol of knowledge
\nand especially of the divine knowledge. But how could this mere possibility be tested and established? I found that passages occurred in which all the surrounding context was psychological
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n 3
\nSee Rig Veda I.110.6 and III.2.1. —Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 43<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

and only the image of the cow interfered with its obtrusive material suggestion. Indra is invoked as the maker of perfect
\nforms to drink the wine of Soma; drinking he becomes full of ecstasy and a “giver of cows”; then we can attain to his most
\nintimate or his most ultimate right thinkings, then we question him and his clear discernment brings us our highest good. It is
\nobvious that in such a passage these cows cannot be material herds nor would the giving of physical Light carry any sense in
\nthe context. In one instance at least the psychological symbolism of the Vedic cow was established with certainty to my mind. I
\nthen applied it to other passages in which the word occurred and always I saw that it resulted in the best sense and the greatest
\npossible coherency in the context.
\n\t\t\t <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The cow and horse, go <\/i>and aśva<\/i>, are constantly associated.
\n <\/i>
\n Usha, the Dawn, is described as gomatī<\/font>
\naśvavatī<\/i>; Dawn gives
\nto the sacrificer horses and cows. As applied to the physical
\n dawn gomati <\/i>means accompanied by or bringing the rays of light and is an image of the dawn of illumination in the human
\n 
\nmind. Therefore aśvavatī <\/i>also cannot refer merely to the physical steed; it must have a psychological significance as well. A study
\n of the Vedic horse led me to the conclusion that go <\/i>and aīva<\/i>
\nrepresent the two companion ideas of Light and Energy, Consciousness and Force, which to the Vedic and Vedantic mind
\nwere the double or twin aspect of all the activities of existence.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

It was apparent, therefore, that the two chief fruits of the
\nVedic sacrifice, wealth of cows and wealth of horses, were symbolic of richness of mental illumination and abundance of vital
\nenergy. It followed that the other fruits continually associated with these two chief results of the Vedic karma must also be
\ncapable of a psychological significance. It remained only to fix their exact purport.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Another all-important feature of Vedic symbolism is the system of the worlds and the functions of the gods. I found the
\nclue to the symbolism of the worlds in the Vedic conception of the vyāhrtis<\/i>, the three symbolic words of the mantra, “OM Bhur Bhuvah Swah”, and in the connection of the fourth Vyahriti,
\nMahas, with the psychological term “Ritam”. The Rishis speak   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 44<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nof three cosmic divisions, Earth, the Antariksha or middle region and Heaven (Dyaus); but there is also a greater Heaven
\n(Brihad Dyau) called also the Wide World, the Vast (Brihat), and typified sometimes as the Great Water, Maho Arnas. This
\n“Brihat” is again described as “Ritam Brihat” or in a triple term “Satyam Ritam Brihat”. And as the three worlds correspond
\nto the Vyahritis, so this fourth world of the Vastness and the Truth seems to correspond to the fourth Vyahriti mentioned in
\nthe Upanishads, Mahas. In the Puranic formula the four are completed by three others, Jana, Tapas and Satya, the three
\nsupreme worlds of the Hindu cosmology. In the Veda also we have three supreme worlds whose names are not given. But
\nin the Vedantic and Puranic system the seven worlds correspond to seven psychological principles or forms of existence,
\nSat, Chit, Ananda, Vijnana, Manas, Prana and Anna. Now Vijnana, the central principle, the principle of Mahas, the great
\nworld, is the Truth of things, identical with the Vedic Ritam which is the principle of Brihat, the Vast, and while in the
\nPuranic system Mahas is followed in the ascending order by Jana, the world of Ananda, of the divine Bliss, in the Veda
\nalso Ritam, the Truth, leads upward to Mayas, Bliss. We may, therefore, be fairly sure that the two systems are identical and
\nthat both depend on the same idea of seven principles of subjective consciousness formulating themselves in seven objective worlds. On this principle I was able to identify the Vedic worlds with the corresponding psychological planes of consciousness and the whole Vedic system became clear to my mind.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n With so much established the rest followed naturally and inevitably. I had already seen that the central idea of the Vedic
\nRishis was the transition of the human soul from a state of death to a state of immortality by the exchange of the Falsehood for the
\nTruth, of divided and limited being for integrality and infinity. Death is the mortal state of Matter with Mind and Life involved
\nin it; Immortality is a state of infinite being, consciousness and bliss. Man rises beyond the two firmaments, Rodasi, Heaven
\nand Earth, mind and body, to the infinity of the Truth, Mahas,   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 45<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

and so to the divine Bliss. This is the “great passage” discovered by the Ancestors, the ancient Rishis.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The gods I found to be described as children of Light, sons of Aditi, of Infinity; and without exception they are described as
\nincreasing man, bringing him light, pouring on him the fullness of the waters, the abundance of the heavens, increasing the truth
\nin him, building up the divine worlds, leading him against all attacks to the great goal, the integral felicity, the perfect bliss.
\nTheir separate functions emerged by means of their activities, their epithets, the psychological sense of the legends connected
\nwith them, the indications of the Upanishads and Puranas, the occasional side-lights from Greek myth. On the other hand
\nthe demons who opposed them, are all powers of division and limitation, Coverers, Tearers, Devourers, Confiners, Dualisers,
\nObstructers, as their names indicate, powers that work against the free and unified integrality of the being. These Vritras, Panis,
\nAtris, Rakshasas, Sambara, Vala, Namuchi, are not Dravidian kings and gods, as the modern mind with its exaggerated historic
\nsense would like them to be; they represent a more antique idea better suited to the religious and ethical preoccupations of our
\nforefathers. They represent the struggle between the powers of the higher Good and the lower desire, and this conception of the
\nRig Veda and the same opposition of good and evil otherwise expressed, with less psychological subtlety, with more ethical
\ndirectness in the scriptures of the Zoroastrians, our ancient neighbours and kindred, proceeded probably from a common
\noriginal discipline of the Aryan culture. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Finally, I found that the systematic symbolism of the Veda
\nwas extended to the legends related of the gods and of their dealings with the ancient seers. Some of these myths, if not all, may
\nhave had, in all probability had, a naturalistic and astronomical origin; but, if so, their original sense had been supplemented by a
\npsychological symbolism. Once the sense of the Vedic symbols is known, the spiritual intention of these legends becomes apparent
\nand inevitable. Every element of the Veda is inextricably bound up with every other and the very nature of these compositions
\ncompels us, once we have adopted a principle of interpretation,  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 46<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nto carry it to its farthest rational limits. Their materials have been skilfully welded together by firm hands and any inconsistency
\nin our handling of them shatters the whole fabric of their sense and their coherent thinking.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n Thus there emerged in my mind, revealing itself as it were out of the ancient verses, a Veda which was throughout the
\nScripture of a great and antique religion already equipped with a profound psychological discipline,
\n\t\t\t—a Scripture not confused
\nin thought or primitive in its substance, not a medley of heterogeneous or barbarous elements, but one, complete and self
\nconscious in its purpose and in its purport, veiled indeed by the cover, sometimes thick, sometimes transparent, of another and
\nmaterial sense, but never losing sight even for a single moment of its high spiritual aim and tendency.
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 47<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part One   Chapter IV   The Foundations of the Psychological Theory   A HYPOTHESIS of the sense of Veda must always proceed, to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15-the-secret-of-veda","wpcat-41-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}