{"id":1903,"date":"2013-07-13T01:38:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1903"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:38:12","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:38:12","slug":"27-iv-agni-the-illumined-will-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\/27-iv-agni-the-illumined-will-vol-15-the-secret-of-veda","title":{"rendered":"-27_IV Agni, the Illumined Will.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\">\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n<td width=\"100%\" valign=\"top\">\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<b>IV <\/b><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<b><font size=\"4\">Agni, the Illumined Will<br \/>\n<\/font><\/b><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<b>Rig Veda I.77 <\/b><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent:25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"\/elibrarytest\/-01 Works of Sri Aurobindo\/-03_CWSA\/-15_The Secret of Veda\/-image\/-23_Agni,%20the%20Illumined%20Will.jpg\" width=\"373\" height=\"43\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\">1. How shall we give to Agni? For him what Word accepted<br \/>\nby the Gods is spoken, for the lord of the brilliant flame? for him who in mortals, immortal, possessed of the Truth, priest<br \/>\nof the oblation strongest for sacrifice, creates the gods?<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent:25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"\/elibrarytest\/-01 Works of Sri Aurobindo\/-03_CWSA\/-15_The Secret of Veda\/-image\/-24_Agni,%20the%20Illumined%20Will.jpg\" width=\"371\" height=\"45\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\">2. He who in the sacrifices is the priest of the offering, full<br \/>\nof peace, full of the Truth, him verily form in you by your surrenderings; when Agni manifests1 for the mortals the<br \/>\ngods, he also has perception of them and by the mind offers to them the sacrifice.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent:25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"\/elibrarytest\/-01 Works of Sri Aurobindo\/-03_CWSA\/-15_The Secret of Veda\/-image\/-25_Agni,%20the%20Illumined%20Will.jpg\" width=\"348\" height=\"45\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\">3. For he is the will, he is the strength, he is the effecter of perfection, even as Mitra he becomes the charioteer of the<br \/>\nSupreme. To him, the first, in the rich-offerings the people seeking the godhead utter the word, the Aryan people to the<br \/>\nfulfiller.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">1<br \/>\nOr &#8220;enters into the gods&#8221;. &nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/font><br \/>\n<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 276<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent:25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"\/elibrarytest\/-01 Works of Sri Aurobindo\/-03_CWSA\/-15_The Secret of Veda\/-image\/-26_Agni,%20the%20Illumined%20Will.jpg\" width=\"372\" height=\"45\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\">4. May this strongest of the Powers and devourer of the destroyers manifest<sup><font size=\"2\">2<\/font><\/sup> by his presence the Words and their understanding, and may they who in their extension are lords of plenitude brightest in energy pour forth their plenty and<br \/>\ngive their impulsion to the thought. <\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent:25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"\/elibrarytest\/-01 Works of Sri Aurobindo\/-03_CWSA\/-15_The Secret of Veda\/-image\/-27_Agni,%20the%20Illumined%20Will.jpg\" width=\"409\" height=\"45\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: -15pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 15pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\">5. Thus has Agni possessed of the Truth been affirmed by the<br \/>\nmasters of light,<sup><font size=\"2\">3<\/font><\/sup> the knower of the worlds by clarified minds. He shall foster in them the force of illumination,<br \/>\nhe too the plenty; he shall attain to increase and to harmony by his perceptions.<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n <b>COMMENTARY <\/b><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">Gotama Rahugana is the seer of this Hymn, which is a <i>stoma <\/i>in<br \/>\npraise of Agni, the divine Will at work in the universe.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">Agni is the most important, the most universal of the Vedic<br \/>\ngods. In the physical world he is the general devourer and enjoyer. He is also the purifier; when he devours and enjoys, then<br \/>\nalso he purifies. He is the fire that prepares and perfects; he is also the fire that assimilates and the heat of energy that forms.<br \/>\nHe is the heat of life and creates the sap, the <i>rasa <\/i>in things, the essence of their substantial being and the essence of their delight.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">He is equally the Will in Prana, the dynamic Life-energy, and in that energy performs the same functions. Devouring and<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n <font size=\"2\"> 2 Or &#8220;enter into the words and the thinking&#8221;.<br \/>\n<\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n <font size=\"2\">3 <i>Gotamebhih&#61477;&#61477;. <\/i>In its external sense &#8220;by the Gotamas&#8221;, the family of the Rishi, Gotama<br \/>\n Rahugana, the seer of the hymn. But the names of the Rishis are constantly used with a<br \/>\ncovert reference to their meaning. In this passage there is an unmistakable significance<br \/>\n  <\/i>&nbsp;<br \/>\nin the grouping of the words, <i>gotamebhir r&#61477;t&#257;v&#257;<\/i>, <i>viprebhir j&#257;taved&#257;h&#61477;<\/i>, as in verse 3 in<br \/>\n &nbsp;  <i>dasmam <\/i><br \/>\n<\/font><i><font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;<\/font><\/i><font size=\"2\"><i>r<\/i><\/font><i><font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#299;<\/font><\/i><font size=\"2\"><i>h&#61477;<\/i>. &nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 277 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">enjoying, purifying, preparing, assimilating, forming, he rises upwards always and transfigures his powers into the Maruts,<br \/>\nthe energies of Mind. Our passions and obscure emotions are the smoke of Agni&#8217;s burning. All our nervous forces are assured<br \/>\nof their action only by his support.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">If he is the Will in our nervous being and purifies it by action,<br \/>\nhe is also the Will in the mind and clarifies it by aspiration. When he enters into the intellect, he is drawing near to his divine birth<br \/>\nplace and home. He leads the thoughts towards effective power; he leads the active energies towards light.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">His divine birth-place and home, &#8212;though he is born everywhere and dwells in all things,<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#8212;is the Truth, the Infinity,<br \/>\nthe vast cosmic Intelligence in which Knowledge and Force are unified. For there all Will is in harmony with the truth of things<br \/>\nand therefore effective; all thought part of Wisdom, which is the divine Law, and therefore perfectly regulative of a divine action.<br \/>\nAgni fulfilled becomes mighty in his own home &#8212;in the Truth, the Right, the Vast. It is thither that he is leading upward the<br \/>\naspiration in humanity, the soul of the Aryan, the head of the cosmic sacrifice.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">It is at the point where there is the first possibility of the great passage, the transition from mind to supermind, the trans<br \/>\nfiguration of the intelligence, till now the crowned leader of the mental being, into a divine Light,<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#8212;it is at this supreme<br \/>\nand crucial point in the Vedic Yoga that the Rishi, Gotama Rahugana, seeks in himself for the inspired Word. The Word<br \/>\nshall help him to realise for himself and others the Power that must effect the transition and the state of luminous plenitude<br \/>\nfrom which the transfiguration must commence.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">The Vedic sacrifice is, psychologically, a symbol of cosmic<br \/>\nand individual activity become self-conscious, enlightened and aware of its goal. The whole process of the universe is in its<br \/>\nvery nature a sacrifice, voluntary or involuntary. Self-fulfilment by self-immolation, to grow by giving is the universal law. That<br \/>\nwhich refuses to give itself, is still the food of the cosmic Powers. &#8220;The eater eating is eaten&#8221; is the formula, pregnant and terrible,<br \/>\nin which the Upanishad sums up this aspect of the universe, and &nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 278<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\">in another passage men are described as the cattle of the gods. It is only when the law is recognised and voluntarily accepted that<br \/>\nthis kingdom of death can be overpassed and by the works of sacrifice Immortality made possible and attained. All the powers<br \/>\nand potentialities of the human life are offered up, in the symbol of a sacrifice, to the divine Life in the Cosmos.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">Knowledge, Force and Delight are the three powers of the divine Life; thought and its formations, will and its works, love<br \/>\nand its harmonisings are the corresponding human activities which have to be exalted to the divine level. The dualities of<br \/>\ntruth and falsehood, light and darkness, conceptional right and wrong are the confusions of knowledge born of egoistic division; the dualities of egoistic love and hatred, joy and grief, pleasure and pain are the confusions of Love, perversities of<br \/>\nAnanda; the dualities of strength and weakness, sin and virtue, action and inaction are the confusions of will, dissipators of the<br \/>\ndivine Force. And all these confusions arise and even become necessary modes of our action because the triune powers of<br \/>\nthe divine Life are divorced from each other, Knowledge from Strength, Love from both, by the Ignorance which divides. It<br \/>\nis the Ignorance, the dominant cosmic Falsehood that has to be removed. Through the Truth, then, lies the road to the true<br \/>\nharmony, the consummated felicity, the ultimate fulfilment of love in the divine Delight. Therefore, only when the Will in man<br \/>\n&nbsp;becomes divine and possessed of the Truth, <i><br \/>\n\tamr&#61477;to r&#61477;t&#257;v&#257;<\/i>, can the<br \/>\nperfection towards which we move be realised in humanity.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">Agni, then, is the god who has to become conscient in the<br \/>\nmortal. Him the inspired Word has to express, to confirm in this gated mansion and on the altar-seat of this sacrifice.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">&#8220;How must we give to Agni?&#8221; asks the Rishi. The word for<br \/>\nthe sacrificial giving, <i>d&#257;&#347;ema<\/i>, means literally distribution; it has<br \/>\n a covert connection with the root <i>da<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;<\/font> <\/i>in the sense of discernment. The sacrifice is essentially an arrangement, a distribution of the<br \/>\nhuman activities and enjoyments among the different cosmic Powers to whose province they by right belong. Therefore the<br \/>\nhymns repeatedly speak of the portions of the gods. It is the problem of the right arrangement and distribution of his works that<br \/>\n &nbsp; <\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 279; 279<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">presents itself to the sacrificer; for the sacrifice must be always according to the Law and the divine ordainment (<i>r&#61477;tu<\/i>, the later<br \/>\n <i>vidhi<\/i>). The will to right arrangement is an all-important preparation for the reign of the supreme Law and Truth in the mortal.<br \/>\n<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">The solution of the problem depends on right realisation,<br \/>\nand right realisation starts from the right illuminative Word, expression of the inspired Thought which is sent to the seer out<br \/>\nof the Vast. Therefore the Rishi asks farther, &#8220;What word is uttered to Agni?&#8221; What word of affirmation, what word of realisation? Two conditions have to be satisfied. The Word must be accepted by other divine Powers, that is, it must bring out some<br \/>\npotentiality in the nature or bring into it some light of realisation by which the divine Workers may be induced to manifest in the<br \/>\nsuperficial consciousness of humanity and embrace openly their respective functions. And it must be illuminative of the double<br \/>\n nature of Agni, this Lord of the lustrous flame. <i>Bh&#257;ma <\/i>means<br \/>\nboth a light of knowledge and a flame of action. Agni is a Light as well as a Force.<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">The Word arrives. <i>Yo martyes&#61477;u amr&#61477;to r&#61477;t&#257;v&#257;<\/i>. Agni is, pre<br \/>\n eminently, the Immortal in mortals. It is this Agni by whom the<br \/>\nother bright sons of Infinity are able to work out the manifestation and self-extension of the Divine (<i>devav&#299;ti<\/i>, <i><br \/>\ndevat&#257;ti<\/i>) which<br \/>\nis at once aim and process of the cosmic and of the human sacrifice. For he is the divine Will which in all things is always<br \/>\npresent, is always destroying and constructing, always building and perfecting, supporting always the complex progression<br \/>\nof the universe. It is this which persists through all death and change. It is eternally and inalienably possessed of the Truth. In<br \/>\nthe last obscuration of Nature, in the lowest unintelligence of Matter, it is this Will that is a concealed knowledge and compels<br \/>\nall these darkened movements to obey, as if mechanically, the divine Law and adhere to the truth of their Nature. It is this<br \/>\nwhich makes the tree grow according to its seed and each action bear its appropriate fruit. In the obscurity of man&#8217;s ignorance,<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#8212;less than material Nature&#8217;s, yet greater, &#8212;it is this divine Will that governs and guides, knows the sense of his blindness and<br \/>\nthe goal of his aberration and out of the crooked workings of the &nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 280<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<span lang=\"en-gb\">cosmic Falsehood in him evolves the progressive manifestation of the cosmic Truth. Alone of the brilliant Gods, he burns bright<br \/>\nand has full vision in the darkness of Night no less than in the splendours of day. The other gods are<br \/>\n<i>us&#61477;ar budhah&#61477;<\/i>, wakers with <\/p>\n<p>the Dawn.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">Therefore is he the priest of the offering, strongest or most<br \/>\napt for sacrifice, he who, all-powerful, follows always the law of the Truth. We must remember that the oblation (<i>havya<\/i>) signifies always action (<i>karma<\/i>) and each action of mind or body is regarded as a giving of our plenty into the cosmic being and<br \/>\nthe cosmic intention. Agni, the divine Will, is that which stands behind the human will in its works. In the conscient offering,<br \/>\nhe comes in front; he is the priest set in front (<i>puro-hita<\/i>), guides the oblation and determines its effectiveness.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">By this self-guided Truth, by this knowledge that works out as an unerring Will in the Cosmos, he fashions the gods in<br \/>\nmortals. Agni manifests divine potentialities in a death-besieged body; Agni brings them to effective actuality and perfection. He<br \/>\ncreates in us the luminous forms of the Immortals.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">This work he does as a cosmic Power labouring upon the<br \/>\nrebellious human material even when in our ignorance we resist the heavenward impulse and, accustomed to offer our actions<br \/>\nto the egoistic life, cannot yet or as yet will not make the divine surrender. But it is in proportion as we learn to subjugate the ego<br \/>\nand compel it to bow down in every act to the universal Being and to serve consciously in its least movements the supreme Will,<br \/>\nthat Agni himself takes form in us. The Divine Will becomes present and conscient in a human mind and enlightens it with<br \/>\nthe divine Knowledge. Thus it is that man can be said to form by his toil the great Gods.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t<span lang=\"en-gb\">The Sanskrit expression is here <i>a krn&#61477;udhvam<\/i>. The preposition gives the idea of a drawing upon oneself of something outside and the working or shaping it out in our own consciousness.<br \/>\n\t<i><font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#256;<\/font> kr<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#61477;<\/font><br \/>\n\t<\/i>corresponds to the converse expression, <i><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><br \/>\n\t&#257;<\/font> bh<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#363;<\/font><\/i>, used<br \/>\nof the gods when they approach the mortal with the contact of Immortality and, divine form of godhead falling on form<br \/>\nof humanity, &#8220;become&#8221;, take shape, as it were, in him. The &nbsp; <\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 281; 281<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">cosmic Powers act and exist in the universe; man takes them upon himself, makes an image of them in his own conscious<br \/>\nness and endows that image with the life and power that the Supreme Being has breathed into His own divine forms and<br \/>\nworld-energies.<sup><font size=\"2\">4<\/font><\/sup><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">It is when thus present and conscient in the mortal, like<br \/>\na &#8220;house-lord&#8221;,<sup><font size=\"2\">5<\/font><\/sup> master in his mansion, that Agni appears in the true nature of his divinity. When we are obscure and re<br \/>\nvolt against the Truth and the Law, our progress seems to be a stumbling from ignorance to ignorance and is full of pain and<br \/>\ndisturbance. By constant submission to the Truth, surrenderings, <i>namobhih&#61477;&#61477;<\/i>, we create in ourselves that image of the divine Will<br \/>\n which is on the contrary full of peace, because it is assured of the<br \/>\nTruth and the Law. Equality of soul6 created by the surrender to the universal Wisdom gives us a supreme peace and calm. And<br \/>\nsince that Wisdom guides all our steps in the straight paths of  the Truth we are carried by it beyond all stumblings (<i>durit&#257;ni<\/i>).<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">Moreover, with Agni conscious in our humanity, the creation of the gods in us becomes a veritable manifestation and no longer a veiled growth. The will within grows conscious of<br \/>\nthe increasing godhead, awakens to the process, perceives the lines of the growth. Human action intelligently directed and<br \/>\ndevoted to the universal Powers, ceases to be a mechanical, involuntary or imperfect offering; the thinking and observing<br \/>\nmind participates and becomes the instrument of the sacrificial will.<br \/>\nAgni is the power of conscious Being, called by us will, effective behind the workings of mind and body.<br \/>\n<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">Agni is the<br \/>\nstrong God within (<i>maryah<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#61477;<\/font><\/i>, the strong, the masculine) who puts<br \/>\nout his strength against all assailing powers, who forbids inertia, who repels every failing of heart and of force, who spurns out all<br \/>\nlack of manhood. Agni actualises what might otherwise remain as an ineffectual thought or aspiration. He is the doer of the<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">4 This is the true sense and theory of Hindu image-worship, which is thus a material<br \/>\nrendering of the great Vedic symbols. <\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">5<br \/>\n <i>Gr&#61477;hapati<\/i>; also <i>vi&#347;pati<\/i>, lord or king in the creature.<br \/>\n <\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">6<br \/>\n <i>Samat&#257; <\/i>of the Gita.<br \/>\n &nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/font><br \/>\n<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 282<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">Yoga (<i>s&#257;dhu<\/i>); divine smith labouring at his forge, he hammers<br \/>\nout our perfection. Here he is said to become the charioteer of the Supreme. The Supreme and Wonderful that moves and<br \/>\nfulfils Itself &#8220;in the consciousness of another&#8221;,7 (we have the same word, <i>adbhuta<\/i>, as in the colloquy of Indra and Agastya),<br \/>\neffects that motion with this Power as charioteer holding the reins of the activity. Mitra also, the lord of Love and Light<br \/>\nis even such a charioteer. Love illuminated fulfils the harmony which is the goal of the divine movement. But the power of this<br \/>\nlord of Will and Light is also needed. Force and Love united and both illumined by Knowledge fulfil God in the world.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\">Will is the first necessity, the chief actualising force. When therefore the race of mortals turn consciously towards the great<br \/>\naim and, offering their enriched capacities to the Sons of Heaven, seek to form the divine in themselves, it is to Agni, first and chief,<br \/>\nthat they lift the realising thought, frame the creative Word. For they are the Aryans who do the work and accept the effort,<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#8212;<br \/>\nthe vastest of all works, the most grandiose of all efforts, &#8212;and he is the power that embraces Action and by Action fulfils the<br \/>\nwork. What is the Aryan without the divine Will that accepts the labour and the battle, works and wins, suffers and triumphs? <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n \t<span lang=\"en-gb\">Therefore it is this Will which annihilates all forces commissioned to destroy the effort, this strongest of all the divine<br \/>\nPuissances in which the supreme Purusha has imaged Himself, that must bestow its presence on these human vessels. There it<br \/>\nwill use the mind as instrument of the sacrifice and by its very presence manifest those inspired and realising Words which are<br \/>\nas a chariot framed for the movement of the gods, giving to the Thought that meditates the illuminative comprehension which<br \/>\nallows the forms of the divine Powers to outline themselves in our waking consciousness.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n \t<span lang=\"en-gb\">Then may those other mighty Ones who bring with them the plenitudes of the higher life, Indra and the Ashwins, Usha<br \/>\nand Surya, Varuna and Mitra and Aryaman, assume with that formative extension of themselves in the human being their most<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n <span lang=\"en-gb\"><br \/>\n <font size=\"2\">7 R.V. I.170.1.<br \/>\n &nbsp; <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 283<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">brilliant energies. Let them create their plenty in us, pouring it forth from the secret places of our being so as to be utilisable in<br \/>\nits daylight tracts and let their impulsions urge upward the divinising thought in Mind, till it transfigures itself in the supreme<br \/>\nlustres.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">The hymn closes. Thus, in inspired words, has the divine<br \/>\nWill, Agni, been affirmed by the sacred chant of the Gotamas. The Rishi uses his name and that of his house as a symbol<br \/>\nword; we have in it the Vedic <i>go <\/i>in the sense &#8220;luminous&#8221;, and Gotama means &#8220;entirely possessed of light&#8221;. For it is only those<br \/>\nthat have the plenitude of the luminous intelligence by whom the master of divine Truth can be wholly received and affirmed<br \/>\n  <\/i>&nbsp;in this world of an inferior Ray, &#8212;<i>gotamebhir r&#61477;t&#257;v&#257;<\/i>. And it is<br \/>\nupon those whose minds are pure, clear and open, <i>vipra<\/i>, that there can dawn the right knowledge of the great Births which<br \/>\nare behind the physical world and from which it derives and   supports its energies, &#8212;<i>viprebhir<br \/>\nj&#257;taved&#257;h&#61477;<\/i>.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\">Agni is Jatavedas, knower of the births, the worlds. He knows entirely the five worlds<sup><font size=\"2\">8<\/font><\/sup> and is not confined in his consciousness to this limited and dependent physical harmony. He has access even to the three highest states<sup><font size=\"2\">9<\/font><\/sup> of all, to the udder<br \/>\nof the mystic Cow,<sup><font size=\"2\">10<\/font><\/sup> the abundance of the Bull<sup><font size=\"2\">11<\/font><\/sup> with the four horns. From that abundance he will foster the illumination in<br \/>\nthese Aryan seekers, swell the plenty of their divine faculties. By that fullness and plenty of his illumined perceptions he will unite<br \/>\nthought with thought, word with word, till the human Intelligence is rich and harmonious enough to support and become<br \/>\nthe divine Idea.<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">8<br \/>\nThe worlds in which, respectively, Matter, Life-Energy, Mind, Truth and Beatitude are the essential energies. They are called respectively Bhur, Bhuvar, Swar, Mahas and<br \/>\nJana or Mayas. <\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">9<br \/>\nDivine Being, Consciousness, Bliss, &#8212;Sachchidananda. <\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">10<br \/>\nAditi, the infinite Consciousness, Mother of the worlds. <\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p><span lang=\"en-gb\"><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">11<br \/>\nThe divine Purusha, Sachchidananda; the three highest states and Truth are his four horns.<br \/>\n &nbsp; <\/font><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\" style=\"text-indent: 25pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"text-indent: 0pt;line-height: 150%;margin-left: 0pt;margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n\t\t\t<span lang=\"en-gb\"><font size=\"2\">Page &#8211; 284<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IV &nbsp; Agni, the Illumined Will &nbsp; Rig Veda I.77 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1. How shall we give to Agni? For him what Word accepted&#8230;<\/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-1903","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\/1903","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=1903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}