{"id":1921,"date":"2013-07-13T01:38:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:38:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:38:18","slug":"19-chapter-xix-the-victory-of-the-fathers-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\/19-chapter-xix-the-victory-of-the-fathers-vol-15-the-secret-of-veda","title":{"rendered":"-19_Chapter XIX The Victory of the Fathers.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nChapter
\nXIX <\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Victory of the Fathers<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nT<\/font>HE HYMNS <\/b>addressed by the great Rishi Vamadeva to
\nthe divine Flame, to the Seer-Will, Agni are among the most mystic in expression in the Rig Veda and though
\nquite plain in their sense if we hold firmly in our mind the system of significant figures employed by the Rishis, will otherwise seem
\nonly a brilliant haze of images baffling our comprehension. The reader has at every moment to apply that fixed notation which is
\nthe key to the sense of the hymns; otherwise he will be as much at a loss as a reader of metaphysics who has not mastered the sense
\nof the philosophical terms that are being constantly used or, let us say, one who tries to read Panini’s Sutras without knowing
\nthe peculiar system of grammatical notation in which they are expressed. We have, however, already enough light upon this
\nsystem of images to understand well enough what Vamadeva has to tell us about the great achievement of the human forefathers.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIn order to hold clearly in our minds at the start what that great achievement was we may put before ourselves the clear
\nand sufficient formulas in which Parashara Shaktya expresses them. “Our fathers broke open the firm and strong places by
\ntheir words, yea, the Angirases broke open the hill by their cry; they made in us the path to the great heaven; they found the
\nDay and Swar and vision and the luminous Cows,” <\/span>cakrur divo br<\/span>̣<\/span>hato
\ngātum asme, ahah<\/span>̣<\/span> svar vividuh<\/span>̣<\/span>
\nketum usrāh<\/span><\/i>, <\/i>(I.71.2). <\/p>\n

This path, he tells us, is the path which leads to immortality;
\n“they who entered into all things that bear right fruit formed a path towards the immortality; earth stood wide for them by the
\ngreatness and by the Great Ones, the mother Aditi with her sons came (or, manifested herself) for the upholding” (I.72.9).1<\/font><\/sup> That
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n1
\nĀ<\/font>  ye viśvā
\nsvapatyāni tasthuh<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>
\nkrn<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>vānāso
\namr<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>tatvāya
\ngātum; mahnā mahadbhih<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>
\npr<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>thivī
\nvi tasthe mātā putrair aditir dhāyase veh<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 199<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

is to say, the physical being visited by the greatness of the infinite planes above and by the power of the great godheads who reign
\non those planes breaks its limits, opens out to the Light and is upheld in its new wideness by the infinite Consciousness, mother
\nAditi, and her sons, the divine Powers of the supreme Deva. This is the Vedic immortality.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The means of this finding and expanding are also very succinctly stated by Parashara in his mystic, but still clear and
\nimpressive style. “They held the truth, they enriched its thought; then indeed, aspiring souls (<\/span>aryah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>), they, holding it in thought, <\/p>\n

bore it diffused in all their being,” <\/span>dadhan r<\/span>̣<\/span>tam
\ndhanayan asya dhītim, ād id aryo didhis<\/span>̣<\/span>vo vibhr<\/span>̣<\/span>trāh<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>, <\/i>(I.71.3). The image
\n.<\/i> in <\/span>vibhr<\/span>̣<\/span>trāh<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i> suggests the upholding of the thought of the Truth
\nin all the principles of our being or, to put it in the ordinary Vedic image, the seven-headed thought in all the seven waters,
\n<\/span>apsu dhiyam dadhis<\/span>̣<\/span>e<\/span><\/i>, as we have seen it elsewhere expressed
\nin almost identical language; this is shown by the image that
\nimmediately follows, —”the doers of the work go towards the unthirsting (waters) which increase the divine births by the satisfaction of delight,” <\/span>
\natr<\/span>̣<\/span>s<\/span>̣<\/span>yantīr
\napaso yanti acchā, devān janma prayasā vardhayantīh<\/span><\/i><\/font>. <\/i>The sevenfold Truth-consciousness in the
\nsatisfied sevenfold Truth-being increasing the divine births in us by the satisfaction of the soul’s hunger for the Beatitude, this is
\nthe growth of immortality. It is the manifestation of that trinity of divine being, light and bliss which the Vedantins afterwards
\ncalled Sachchidananda.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The sense of this universal diffusion of Truth and the birth
\nand activity of all the godheads in us assuring a universal and immortal life in place of our present limited mortality is made
\nyet clearer by Parashara in I.68. Agni, the divine Seer-Will, is described as ascending to heaven and unrolling the veil of the
\nnights from all that is stable and all that is mobile, “when he becomes the one God encompassing all these godheads with
\nthe greatness of his being. Then indeed all accept and cleave to the Will (or the Work) when, O godhead, thou art born a
\nliving soul from the dryness (i.e. from the material being, the desert, as it is called, unwatered by the streams of the Truth);
\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 200<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nall enjoy godhead attaining to the truth and the immortality by
\ntheir movements, <\/span>bhajanta viśve devatvam nāma, r<\/span>̣<\/span>tam
\nsapanto amr<\/span>̣<\/span>tam evaih<\/span><\/i>.
\n<\/i>The impulse of the Truth, the thinking of the <\/p>\n

Truth becomes a universal life (or pervades all the life), and in
\nit all fulfil their workings,” <\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya
\npres<\/span>̣ā<\/span> r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya dhītir
\nviśvādyur viśve apāmsi cakruh<\/span><\/i><\/font><\/i>.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAnd in order that we may not, haunted by the unfortunate misconstruction of the Veda which European scholarship has
\nimposed on the modern mind, carry with us the idea of the seven earthly rivers of the Punjab into the super-terrestrial achievement
\nof the human forefathers, we will note what Parashara in his clear and illuminating fashion tells us about the seven rivers.
\n“The fostering cows of the Truth (<\/span>dhenavah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>, an image applied
\n  .<\/i>
\nto the rivers, while
\n<\/span>gāvah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i> or
\n<\/span>usrāh<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i> expresses the luminous cows of the Sun) nourished him, lowing, with happy udders,
\nenjoyed in heaven; obtaining right thinking as a boon from the supreme (plane) the rivers flowed wide and evenly over the hill,”
\n<\/span>
\nr<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya hi dhenavo vāvaśānāh<\/span>̣<\/span>,
\nsmadūdhnīh<\/span>̣<\/span> pīpayanta dyubhaktāh<\/span>̣<\/span>;
\nparāvatah<\/span>̣<\/span> sumatim bhiks<\/span>̣<\/span>amān<\/span><\/i><\/font><\/i><\/span>ā,
\nvi sindhavah<\/span>̣<\/span> samayā sasrur adrim<\/span><\/i>, <\/i>(I.73.6). And in I.72.8, speaking of them in a phrase which is applied to the rivers in other hymns, he says,
\n“The seven mighty ones of heaven, placing aright the thought, knowing the Truth, discerned in knowledge the doors of felicity;
\nSarama found the fastness, the wideness of the luminous cows; thereby the human creature enjoys the bliss,”
\n<\/span>svādhyo diva ā sapta yahvīh<\/span>̣<\/span>, rāyo duro
\nvi r<\/span>̣<\/span>taj\u00f1ā ajānan; vidad gavyam saramā dr<\/span>̣ḍ<\/span>ham
\nūrvam, yenā nu kam mānus<\/span>̣ī<\/span> bhojate vit<\/span><\/i><\/font>. <\/i>These are
\nevidently not the waters of the Punjab, but the rivers of Heaven,
\nthe streams of the Truth,2<\/font><\/sup> goddesses like Saraswati, who possess the Truth in knowledge and open by it the doors of the beatitude
\nto the human creature. We see here too what I have already insisted on, that there is a close connection between the finding
\nof the Cows and the outflowing of the Rivers; they are parts
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n2
\nNote that in I.32 Hiranyastupa Angirasa describes the waters released from Vritra
\n. as “ascending the mind”,
\n<\/font> <\/span>mono ruhān<\/font><\/span>̣āh<\/font><\/span><\/i>, and elsewhere they are called the waters that
\nhave the knowledge,
\n<\/font> āpo vicetasah<\/font><\/i><\/span>
\n(I.83.1).
\n 
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 201<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

of one action, the achievement of the truth and immortality by
\nmen,
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tam sapanto amr<\/span>̣<\/span>tam
\nevaih<\/span><\/i>.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

It is now perfectly clear that the achievement of the Angirases is the conquest of the Truth and the Immortality, that Swar called also the great heaven,
\n<\/span>br<\/span>̣<\/span>hat dyauh<\/span><\/i><\/font><\/i>, is the plane <\/p>\n

of the Truth above the ordinary heaven and earth which can be no other than the ordinary mental and physical being; that
\nthe path of the great heaven, the path of the Truth created by the Angirases and followed by the hound Sarama is the path
\nto the Immortality,
\n<\/span>
\namr<\/span>̣<\/span>tatvāya gātum<\/span><\/i>; that the vision (ketu<\/i>) of <\/p>\n

the Dawn, the Day won by the Angirases, is the vision proper to the Truth-consciousness; that the luminous cows of the Sun
\nand Dawn wrested from the Panis are the illuminations of this truth-consciousness which help to form the thought of the Truth,
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya
\ndhītih<\/span><\/i>, complete in the seven-headed thought of Ayasya;
\nthat the Night of the Veda is the obscured consciousness of the
\nmortal being in which the Truth is subconscient, hidden in the cave of the hill; that the recovery of the lost sun lying in this
\ndarkness of Night is the recovery of the sun of Truth out of the darkened subconscient condition; and that the downflowing
\nearthward of the seven rivers must be the outstreaming action of the sevenfold principle of our being as it is formulated in the
\nTruth of the divine or immortal existence. Equally then must the Panis be the powers that prevent the Truth from emerging out
\nof the subconscient condition and that constantly strive to steal its illuminations from man and throw him back into the Night,
\nand Vritra must be the power that obstructs and prevents the free movement of the illumined rivers of the Truth, obstructs
\nthe impulsion of the Truth in us,
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya pres<\/span>̣ā<\/span><\/i>, the luminous
\nimpulsion, jyotis<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>matīm <\/i><\/span>
\nis<\/span>̣<\/span>am<\/span><\/i> , which carries us beyond the Night
\nto the immortality. And the gods, the sons of Aditi, must be on the contrary the luminous divine powers, born of the infinite
\nconsciousness Aditi, whose formation and activity in our human and mortal being are necessary for our growth into the godhead,
\ninto the being of the Deva (devatvam<\/i>) which is the Immortality. Agni, the truth-conscious seer-will, is the principal godhead who
\nenables us to effect the sacrifice; he leads it on the path of the  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 202<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nTruth, he is the warrior of the battle, the doer of the work, and his unity and universality in us comprehending in itself all the
\nother godheads is the basis of the Immortality. The plane of the Truth to which we arrive is his own home and the own home of
\nthe other gods, and the final home also of the soul of man. And this immortality is described as a beatitude, a state of infinite
\nspiritual wealth and plenitude, ratna<\/i>, rayi<\/i>,
\nvāja, rādhas<\/i>, etc.; the opening doors of our divine home are the doors of the felicity,
\nrāyo durah<\/i>, the divine doors which swing wide open to those
\nwho increase the Truth (<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tāvr<\/span>̣<\/span>dhah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>) and which are discovered for
\nus by Saraswati and her sisters, by the seven Rivers, by Sarama; to them and to the wide pasture (<\/span>ks<\/span>̣<\/span>etra<\/span><\/i>) in the unobstructed
\nand equal infinities of the vast Truth Brihaspati and Indra lead
\nupward the shining Herds.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWith these conceptions clearly fixed in our minds we shall be
\nable to understand the verses of Vamadeva which only repeat in symbolic language the substance of the thought expressed more
\nopenly by Parashara. It is to Agni the Seer-Will that Vamadeva’s opening hymns are addressed. He is hymned as the friend or
\nbuilder of man’s sacrifice who awakes him to the vision, the
\nknowledge (ketu<\/i>), sa cetayan manuso <\/i> <\/span>yaj\u00f1abandhuh<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i> (IV.1.9); so <\/p>\n

doing, “he dwells in the gated homes of this being, accomplishing; he, a god, has come to be the means of accomplishment of the mortal,” sa <\/i>
\n<\/span>
\nks<\/span>̣<\/span>eti asya duryāsu sādhan<\/span><\/i>, devo martasya<\/i>
\nsadhanitvam āpa. <\/i> What is it that he accomplishes? The next verse tells us. “May this Agni lead us in his knowledge towards
\nthat bliss of him which is enjoyed by the gods, that which by the thought all the immortals created and Dyauspita the father
\nout-pouring the Truth”; sa tū no agnir nayatu prajānann, acchā<\/i><\/i>
\nratnam devabhaktam yad asya; dhiyā
\nyad <\/i> <\/span>viśve amr<\/span>̣<\/span>tā akr<\/span>̣<\/span>n<\/span>̣<\/span>van,
\ndyaus<\/span>̣<\/span>pitā janitā satyam uks<\/span>̣<\/span>an<\/span><\/i>. <\/i>This is Parashara’s beatitude
\nof the Immortality created by all the powers of the immortal godhead doing their work in the thought of the Truth and in
\nits impulsion, and the out-pouring of the Truth is evidently the out-pouring of the waters as is indicated by the word
\n<\/span>uks<\/span>̣<\/span>an<\/span><\/i>,
\nParashara’s equal diffusion of the seven rivers of the truth over
\nthe hill.   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 203<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

Vamadeva then goes on to tell us of the birth of this great, first or supreme force, Agni, in the Truth, in its waters, in its
\noriginal home. “He was born, the first, in the waters, in the foundation of the vast world (Swar), in its womb, (i.e. its seat
\nand birthplace, its original home); without head and feet, concealing his two extremities, setting himself to his work in the
\nlair of the Bull.” The Bull is the Deva or Purusha, his lair is the plane of the Truth, and Agni the Seer-Will, working in the
\ntruth-consciousness, creates the worlds; but he conceals his two extremities, his head and feet; that is to say, his workings act
\nbetween the superconscient and the subconscient in which his highest and his lowest states are respectively concealed, one in
\nan utter light, the other in an utter darkness. From that he goes forth as the first and supreme force and is born to the Bull or the
\nLord by the action of the seven powers of the Bliss, the seven Beloved. “He went forward by illumined knowledge as the first
\nforce, in the seat of the Truth, in the lair of the Bull, desirable, young, full in body, shining wide; the seven Beloved bore him to
\nthe Lord.”
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The Rishi then comes to the achievement of the human fathers,
\n<\/span>asmākam atra pitaro manus<\/span>̣<\/span>yāh<\/span>̣<\/span>,
\nabhi pra sedur r<\/span>̣<\/span>tam āśus<\/span>̣ā<\/span>n<\/span>̣ā<\/span>h<\/span><\/i><\/font><\/i>: “Here our human fathers seeking possession of the
\nTruth went forward to it; the bright cows in their covering prison, the good milkers whose pen is in the rock they drove
\nupward (to the Truth), the Dawns answered their call. They rent the hill asunder and made them bright; others all around
\nthem declared wide this (Truth) of theirs; drivers of the herds they sang the hymn to the doer of works (Agni), they found
\nthe light, they shone in their thoughts (or, they accomplished the work by their thoughts). They with the mind that seeks the
\nlight (the cows,
\ngavyatā manasā<\/i>) rent the firm and compact hill that environed the luminous cows; the souls that desire opened
\nby the divine word,
\nvacasā daivyena<\/i>, the firm pen full of the
\nkine.” These are the ordinary images of the Angiras legend, but in the next verse Vamadeva uses a still more mystic language.
\n“They conceived in mind the first name of the fostering cows, they found the thrice seven supreme (seats) of the Mother; the
\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 204<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nfemales of the herd knew that and they followed after it; the ruddy one was manifested by the victorious attainment (or,
\nthe splendour) of the cow of Light,” te manvata prathamam<\/i>
\n<\/span>nāma dhenos trih<\/span>̣<\/span> <\/span>
\nsapta mātuh<\/span>̣<\/span> paramān<\/span>̣<\/span>i
\nvindan; taj jānatīr abhyanūs<\/span>̣<\/span>ata vrā, āvirbhuvad
\narun<\/span>̣ī<\/span>r yaśasā goh<\/span><\/i><\/font>. <\/i>The Mother
\nhere is Aditi, the infinite consciousness, who is the Dhenu or fostering Cow with the seven rivers for her sevenfold streaming
\nas well as Go the Cow of Light with the Dawns for her children; the Ruddy One is the divine Dawn and the herd or rays are
\nher dawning illuminations. The first name of the Mother with her thrice seven supreme seats, that which the dawns or mental
\nilluminations know and move towards, must be the name or deity of the supreme Deva, who is infinite being and infinite
\nconsciousness and infinite bliss, and the seats are the three divine worlds, called earlier in the hymn the three supreme births of
\nAgni, Satya, Tapas and Jana of the Puranas, which correspond to these three infinities of the Deva and each fulfils in its own
\nway the sevenfold principle of our existence: thus we get the series of thrice seven seats of Aditi manifested in all her glory
\nby the opening out of the Dawn of Truth.3<\/font><\/sup> Thus we see that the achievement of the Light and Truth by the human fathers is also
\nan ascent to the Immortality of the supreme and divine status, to the first name of the all-creating infinite Mother, to her thrice
\nseven supreme degrees of this ascending existence, to the highest levels of the eternal hill (sānu<\/i>, adri<\/i>).
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis immortality is the beatitude enjoyed by the gods of
\nwhich Vamadeva has already spoken as the thing which Agni has to accomplish by the sacrifice, the supreme bliss with its thrice
\nseven ecstasies (I.20.7). For he proceeds; “Vanished the darkness, shaken in its foundation; Heaven shone out (rocata dyauh<\/i>,
\nimplying the manifestation of the three luminous worlds of Swar,
\ndivo rocanāni<\/i>); upward rose the light of the divine Dawn; the
\nSun entered the vast fields (of the Truth) beholding the straight
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n3
\nThe same idea is expressed by Medhatithi Kanwa (I.20.7) as the thrice seven ecstasies
\nof the Beatitude, <\/font> <\/span>ratnāni trih<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>
\nsāptāni<\/font><\/span><\/i>, or more literally, the ecstasies in their three series
\nof seven, each of which the Ribhus bring out in their separate and complete expression,
\nekam ekam <\/i> <\/font> <\/span>suśastibhih<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span><\/i>.
\n  <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 205<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

things and the crooked in mortals. Thereafter indeed they awoke and saw utterly (by the sun’s separation of the straight from the
\ncrooked, the truth from the falsehood); then indeed they held
\nin them the bliss that is enjoyed in heaven, ratnam dhārayanta dyubhaktam. <\/i>
\nLet all the gods be in all our homes, let there be the truth for our thought, O Mitra, O Varuna”;
\n<\/span>viśve viśvāsu duryāsu devā mitra dhiye varun<\/span>̣<\/span>a<\/span><\/i> satyam astu<\/i>. This is evidently
\nthe same idea as has been expressed in different language by Parashara Shaktya, the pervasion of the whole existence by the
\nthought and impulse of the Truth and the working of all the godheads in that thought and impulsion to create in every part
\nof our existence the bliss and the immortality.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The hymn closes thus: “May I speak the word towards Agni
\nshining pure, the priest of the offering greatest in sacrifice who brings to us the all; may he press out both the pure udder of the
\nCows of Light and the purified food of the plant of delight (the Soma) poured out everywhere. He is the infinite being of all the
\nlords of sacrifice (the gods) and the guest of all human beings; may Agni, accepting into himself the increasing manifestation
\nof the gods, knower of the births, be a giver of happiness.”
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

In the second hymn of the fourth Mandala we get very
\nclearly and suggestively the parallelism of the seven Rishis who are the divine Angirases and the human fathers. The passage is
\npreceded by four verses, IV.2.11-14, which bring in the idea of the human seeking after the Truth and the Bliss. “May he the
\nknower discern perfectly the Knowledge and the Ignorance, the wide levels and the crooked that shut in mortals; and, O God, for
\na bliss fruitful in offspring, lavish on us Diti and protect Aditi.” This eleventh verse is very striking in its significance. We have
\nthe opposition of the Knowledge and the Ignorance familiar to Vedanta; and the Knowledge is likened to the wide open levels
\nwhich are frequently referred to in the Veda; they are the large levels to which those ascend who labour in the sacrifice and they
\nfind there Agni seated self-blissful (V.7.5); they are the wide being which he makes for his own body (V.4.6), the level wideness, the
\nunobstructed vast. It is therefore the infinite being of the Deva to which we arrive on the plane of the Truth, and it contains
\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 206<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nthe thrice seven supreme seats of Aditi the Mother, the three supreme births of Agni within the Infinite,
\nanante antah <\/i>(IV.1.7).
\nThe Ignorance on the other hand is identified with the crooked
\nor uneven levels4<\/font><\/sup> which shut in mortals and it is therefore the limited, divided mortal existence. Moreover it is evident that
\nthe Ignorance is the Diti of the next half-verse, ditim ca rāsva aditim
\nurusya<\/i>, and the Knowledge is Aditi. Diti, called also
\nDanu, means division and the obstructing powers or Vritras are her children, Danus, Danavas, Daityas, while Aditi is existence in its infinity and the mother of the gods. The Rishi desires a bliss
\nfruitful in offspring, that is in divine works and their results and this is to be effected through the conquest of all the riches held
\nin itself by our divided mortal being but kept from us by the Vritras and Panis and through the holding of them in the infinite
\ndivine being. The latter is to be in us protected from the ordinary tendency of our human existence, from subjection to the sons of
\nDanu or Diti. The idea is evidently identical with that of the Isha Upanishad which declares the possession of the Knowledge and
\nthe Ignorance, the unity and the multiplicity in the one Brahman as the condition for the attainment of Immortality.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWe then come to the seven divine seers. “The seers unconquered declared the Seer (the Deva, Agni) holding him within
\nin the homes of the human being; thence (from this embodied human being) mayst thou, O Agni, aspiring by the work (<\/span>aryah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>),
\nbehold by thy advancing movements these of whom thou must
\nhave the vision, the transcendent ones (the godheads of the Deva)”; kavim <\/i>
\n<\/span>śaśāsuh<\/span>̣<\/span> kavayo adabdhāh<\/span>̣<\/span>,
\nnidhārayqnto duryāsu āyoh<\/span>̣<\/span>; atas tvam dr<\/span>̣<\/span>śyān
\nagna etān, pad<\/span>̣<\/span>bhih<\/span>̣<\/span>
\npaśyer adbhutān arya evaih<\/span><\/i>. This is again the journey to the vision of the God
\nhead. “Thou, O Agni, youngest power, art the perfect guide (on that journey) to him who sings the word and offers the Soma and
\norders the sacrifice; bring to the illumined who accomplishes the
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n4
\nCittim acittim cinavad vi <\/i> <\/font>
\nvidvān, pr<\/font><\/i><\/span><\/span>̣ṣṭheva
\nvītā vṛjina
\nca martān<\/font><\/span><\/i>. Vrjina <\/i>means
\ncrooked, and is used in the Veda to indicate the crookedness of the falsehood as opposed
\nto the open straightness of the Truth, but the poet has evidently in his mind the verbal sense of
\nvrj<\/i>, to separate, screen off, and it is this verbal sense in the adjective that governs
\n<\/font> martān<\/font><\/i>.  
\n208<\/i> <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 207<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

work the bliss with its vast delight for his increasing, satisfying  
\nthe doer of the work (or, the man,
\n<\/span>cars<\/span>̣<\/span>an<\/span>̣<\/span>iprāh<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>). Now, O Agni, of all that we have done with our hands and our feet and our bodies
\nthe right thinkers (the Angirases) make as it were thy chariot by the work of the two arms (Heaven and Earth,
\nbhurijoh<\/i>); seeking
\nto possess the Truth they have worked their way to it (or won <\/p>\n

control of it),”
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tam yemuh<\/span>̣<\/span>
\nsudhya āśus<\/span>̣ā<\/span>n<\/span>̣ā<\/span>h<\/span><\/i>. “Now as the seven
\nseers of Dawn the Mother, the supreme disposers (of the sacrifice), may we beget for ourselves the gods; may we become the
\nAngirases, sons of Heaven, breaking open the wealth-filled hill, shining in purity.” We have here very clearly the seven divine
\nSeers as the supreme ordainers of the world-sacrifice and the idea of the human being “becoming” these seven Seers, that is
\nto say, creating them in himself and growing into that which they mean, just as he becomes the Heaven and Earth and the
\nother gods or, as it is otherwise put, begets or creates or forms (jan<\/i>,
\nkr<\/i>, tan<\/i>) the divine births in his own being.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Next the example of the human fathers is given as the
\noriginal type of this great becoming and achievement. “Now also, even as our supreme ancient fathers, O Agni, seeking to
\npossess the Truth, expressing the Word, travelled to the purity and the light; breaking open the earth (the material being) they
\nuncovered the ruddy ones (the Dawns, the Cows); perfected in works and in light, seeking the godheads, gods, forging the Births
\nlike iron (or, forging the divine births like iron), making Agni a pure flame, increasing Indra, they attained and reached the
\nwideness of the Light (of the Cows, gavyam ūrvam<\/i>). As if herds
\nof the Cow in the field of riches, that was manifested to vision which is the Births of the Gods within, O puissant One; they
\nboth accomplished the wide enjoyments (or, longings) of mortals and worked as aspirers for the increase of the higher being”;
\nā yūtheva ks<\/span><\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>umati
\npaśvo akhyad devānām<\/span><\/i> yaj janima anti ugra;<\/i> <\/p>\n

<\/span>martānām cid urvaśir akr<\/span>̣<\/span>pran vr<\/span>̣<\/span>dhe
\ncid arya uparasya āyoh<\/span><\/i><\/font>.<\/i>
\nEvidently, this is a repetition in other language of the double
\nidea of possessing the riches of Diti, yet safeguarding Aditi. “We have done the work for thee, we have become perfect in works,
\nthe wide-shining Dawns have taken up their home in the Truth  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 208<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n(or, have robed themselves with the Truth), in the fullness of Agni and his manifold delight, in the shining eye of the god in
\nall his brightness.”
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Angirases are again mentioned in IV.3.11, and some of
\nthe expressions which lead up to this verse, are worth noting; for it cannot be too often repeated that no verse in the Veda can
\nbe properly understood except by reference to its context, to its place in the thought of the Sukta, to all that precedes and all
\nthat follows. The hymn opens with a call to men to create Agni who sacrifices in the truth, to create him in his form of golden
\nlight (<\/span>hiran<\/span>̣<\/span>yarūpam<\/span><\/i>, the gold being always the symbol of the <\/p>\n

solar light of the Truth,
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tam jyotih<\/span><\/i>) before the Ignorance can
\nform itself,
\npurā tanayitnor acittāt<\/i>. The god is asked to awaken to the work of man and the truth in him as being himself “the
\nTruth-conscious who places aright the thought”,
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya bodhi r<\/span>̣<\/span>tacit
\nsvādhih<\/span><\/i>, —for all falsehood is merely a wrong placing of
\nthe Truth. He is to refer all fault and sin and defect in man to
\nthe various godheads or divine powers of the Divine Being so that it may be removed and the man declared finally blameless
\nbefore the Infinite Mother —aditaye <\/i>
\n<\/span>anāgasah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i> , or for the infinite
\nexistence, as it is elsewhere expressed.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThen in the ninth and tenth verses we have, expressed in various formulas, the idea of the united human and divine
\nexistence, Diti and Aditi, the latter founding, controlling and flooding with itself the former. “The Truth controlled by the
\nTruth I desire (i.e. the human by the divine), together the unripe things of the Cow and her ripe and honeyed yield (again the
\nimperfect human and the perfect and blissful divine fruits of the universal consciousness and existence); she (the cow) being
\nblack (the dark and divided existence, Diti) is nourished by the shining water of the foundation, the water of the companion
\nstreams (<\/span>jāmaryen<\/span>̣<\/span>a payasā<\/span><\/i>). By the Truth Agni the Bull, the
\nMale, sprinkled with the water of its levels, ranges unquivering, establishing wideness (wide space or manifestation); the dappled
\nBull milks the pure shining teat.” The symbolic opposition between the shining white purity of the One who is the source, seat,
\nfoundation and the variegated colouring of the Life manifested   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 209<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

in the triple world is frequent in the Veda; this image of the dappled Bull and the pure-bright udder or source of the waters
\nonly repeats therefore, like the other images, the idea of the multiple manifestations of the human life purified, tranquillised
\nin its activities, fed by the waters of the Truth and the Infinity.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Finally the Rishi proceeds to the coupling, which we so
\nrepeatedly find, of the luminous Cows and the Waters. “By the Truth the Angirases broke open and hurled asunder the hill and
\ncame to union with the Cows; human souls, they took up their dwelling in the blissful Dawn, Swar became manifest when Agni
\nwas born. By Truth the divine immortal waters, unoppressed, with their honeyed floods, O Agni, like a horse breasting forward
\nin its gallopings ran in an eternal flowing.” These four verses in fact are meant to give the preliminary conditions for the great
\nachievement of the Immortality. They are the symbols of the grand Mythus, the mythus of the Mystics in which they hid
\ntheir supreme spiritual experience from the profane and, alas! effectively enough from their posterity. That they were secret
\nsymbols, images meant to reveal the truth which they protected but only to the initiated, to the knower, to the seer, Vamadeva
\nhimself tells us in the most plain and emphatic language in the last verse of this very hymn; “All these are secret words that I
\nhave uttered to thee who knowest, O Agni, O Disposer, words of leading, words of seer-knowledge that express their meaning
\nto the seer, —I have spoken them illumined in my words and my thinkings”;
\n<\/span>etā viśvā vidus<\/span>̣<\/span>e tubhyam vedho nīthāni
\nagne nin<\/span>̣<\/span>yā vacāmsi; nivacanā kavaye kāvyāni,
\naśamsis<\/span>̣<\/span>am
\nmatibhir vipra ukthaih<\/span><\/i>. Secret words that have kept indeed their secret
\nignored by the priest, the ritualist, the grammarian, the pandit, the historian, the mythologist, to whom they have been words
\nof darkness or seals of confusion and not what they were to the <\/i> supreme ancient forefathers and their illumined posterity,
\n<\/span>nin<\/span>̣<\/span>yā vacāmsi nīthāni nivacanā kāvyāni<\/span><\/i>.<\/i>  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 210<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter XIX   The Victory of the Fathers   THE HYMNS addressed by the great Rishi Vamadeva to the divine Flame, to the Seer-Will, Agni…<\/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-1921","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\/1921","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=1921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}