{"id":1932,"date":"2013-07-13T01:38:22","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1932"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:38:22","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:38:22","slug":"20-chapter-xx-the-hound-of-heaven-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\/20-chapter-xx-the-hound-of-heaven-vol-15-the-secret-of-veda","title":{"rendered":"-20_Chapter XX The Hound of Heaven.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Hound of Heaven <\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nT<\/font>HERE<\/b> yet remain two constant features of the Angiras
\nlegend with regard to which we have to acquire a little farther light in order to master entirely this Vedic conception of the Truth and the discovery of the illuminations of the Dawn by the primeval Fathers; we have to fix the identity
\nof Sarama and the exact function of the Panis, two problems of Vedic interpretation which are very closely related to each other.
\nThat Sarama is some power of the Light and probably of the Dawn is very clear; for once we know that the struggle between
\nIndra and the original Aryan seers on the one hand and the sons of the Cave on the other is no strange deformation of primitive
\nIndian history but a symbolic struggle between the powers of Light and Darkness, Sarama who leads in the search for the
\nradiant herds and discovers both the path and the secret hold in the mountain must be a forerunner of the dawn of Truth in the
\nhuman mind. And if we ask ourselves what power among the truth-finding faculties it is that thus discovers out of the darkness
\nof the unknown in our being the truth that is hidden in it, we at once think of the intuition. For Sarama is not Saraswati, she is
\nnot the inspiration, even though the names are similar. Saraswati gives the full flood of the knowledge; she is or awakens the
\ngreat stream, maho <\/i>
\n<\/span>arn<\/span>̣<\/span>ah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>, and illumines with plenitude all the
\n thoughts,
\ndhiyo viśvā vi rājati. <\/i>Saraswati possesses and is the flood of the Truth; Sarama is the traveller and seeker on its path
\nwho does not herself possess but rather finds that which is lost. Neither is she the plenary word of the revelation, the Teacher
\nof man like the goddess Ila; for even when what she seeks is found, she does not take possession but only gives the message
\nto the seers and their divine helpers who have still to fight for the possession of the light that has been discovered.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nLet us see, however, what the Veda itself says of Sarama.  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 211<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

There is a verse, I.104.5, which does not mention her name, nor is the hymn itself about the Angirases or Panis, yet the line
\ndescribes accurately enough the part attributed to her in the Veda: —”When this guide became visible, she went, knowing,
\ntowards the seat that is as if the home of the Dasyu,” prati yat<\/i>
\nsyā nīthā adarśi dasyor oko na acchā sadanam jānāti gāt.
\n<\/i>These
\nare the two essential characteristics of Sarama; the knowledge comes to her beforehand, before vision, springs up instinctively
\nat the least indication and with that knowledge she guides the rest of the faculties and divine powers that seek. And she leads
\nto that seat, sadanam<\/i>, the home of the Destroyers, which is at the other pole of existence to the seat of the Truth,
\nsadanam<\/i>
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya<\/span><\/i>, in the cave or secret place of darkness,
\nguhāyām<\/i>, just
\nas the home of the gods is in the cave or secrecy of light. In
\nother words, she is a power descended from the superconscient Truth which leads us to the light that is hidden in ourselves, in
\nthe subconscient. All these characteristics apply exactly to the intuition.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Sarama is mentioned by name only in a few hymns of the Veda, and invariably in connection with the achievement of the
\nAngirases or the winning of the highest planes of existence. The most important of these hymns is the Sukta of the Atris we have
\nalready had to take note of in our scrutiny of the Navagwa and Dashagwa Angirases, V.45. The first three verses summarise the
\ngreat achievement. “Severing the hill of heaven by the words he found them, yea, the radiant ones of the arriving Dawn went
\nabroad; he uncovered those that were in the pen, Swar rose up; a god opened the human doors. The Sun attained widely to
\nstrength and glory; the Mother of the Cows (the Dawn), knowing, came from the wideness; the rivers became rushing floods,
\nfloods that cleft (their channel), heaven was made firm like a well-shaped pillar. To this word the contents of the pregnant hill
\n(came forth) for the supreme birth of the Great Ones (the rivers or, less probably, the dawns); the hill parted asunder, heaven
\nwas perfected (or, accomplished itself); they lodged (upon earth) and distributed the largeness.” It is of Indra and the Angirases
\nthat the Rishi is speaking, as the rest of the hymn shows and  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 212<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nas is indeed evident from the expressions used; for these are the usual formulas of the Angiras mythus and repeat the exact
\nexpressions that are constantly used in the hymns of the delivery of the Dawn, the Cows and the Sun. We know already what they
\nmean. The hill of our already formed triple existence which rises into heaven at its summit is rent asunder by Indra and the hidden
\nilluminations go abroad; Swar, the higher heaven of the superconscient, is manifested by the upward streaming of the brilliant
\nherds. The sun of Truth diffuses all the strength and glory of its light, the inner Dawn comes from the luminous wideness instinct
\nwith knowledge, —jānatī gāt<\/i>, the same phrase that is used of her
\nwho leads to the house of the Dasyu in I.104.5; and of Sarama in III.31.6, —the rivers of the Truth, representing the outflow of its
\nbeing and its movement (<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya pres<\/span>̣ā<\/span><\/i>), descend in their rushing
\nstreams and make a channel here for their waters; heaven, the
\nmental being, is perfected and made firm like a well-shaped pillar to support the vast Truth of the higher or immortal life that is
\nnow made manifest and the largeness of that Truth is lodged here in all the physical being. The delivery of the pregnant contents
\nof the hill, parvatasya <\/i>
\n<\/span>garbhah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>, the illuminations constituting
\n .<\/i> the seven-headed thought,
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya
\ndhītih<\/span><\/i>, which come forth in
\nanswer to the inspired word, leads to the supreme birth of the
\nseven great rivers who constitute the substance of the Truth put into active movement,
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya pres<\/span>̣ā<\/span><\/i>.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThen after the invocation of Indra and Agni by the “words of perfect speech that are loved of the gods”,
\n—for by those
\nwords the Maruts1<\/font><\/sup> perform the sacrifices as seers who by their <\/i> seer-knowledge do well the sacrificial work, ukthebhir hi <\/i>
\n<\/span>s<\/span>̣<\/span>mā kavayah<\/span>̣<\/span>
\nsuyaj\u00f1ā<\/span><\/i>. . . maruto yajanti<\/i>, —the Rishi next puts into <\/p>\n

the mouth of men an exhortation and mutual encouragement to do even as the Fathers and attain the same divine results.
\n“Come now, today let us become perfected in thought, let us destroy suffering and unease, let us embrace the higher good,”
\neto<\/i>
\nnu adya sudhyo bhavāma, pra ducchunā minavāma ā varīyah<\/i>;
\n“far from us let us put always all hostile things (all the things
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n1
\nThe thought-attaining powers of the Life as will appear hereafter.   <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 3<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

that attack and divide,
\n<\/span>dves<\/span>̣ā<\/span>msi<\/span><\/i>); let us go forward towards
\nthe Master of the sacrifice. Come, let us create the Thought, O friends, (obviously, the seven-headed Angiras-thought), which
\nis the Mother (Aditi or the Dawn) and removes the screening pen of the Cow.” The significance is clear enough; it is in such
\npassages as these that the inner sense of the Veda half disengages itself from the veil of the symbol.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Then the Rishi speaks of the great and ancient example which men are called upon to repeat, the example of the Angirases, the achievement of Sarama. “Here the stone was set in motion whereby the Navagwas chanted the hymn for the ten
\nmonths, Sarama going to the Truth found the cows, the Angiras made all things true. When in the dawning of this vast One (Usha
\n  <\/i>  representing the infinite Aditi,
\nmātā devānām aditer anīkam<\/i>) all
\nthe Angirases came together with the cows (or rather, perhaps by the illuminations represented in the symbol of the cows or Rays);
\nthere was the fountain of these (illuminations) in the supreme world; by the path of the Truth Sarama found the cows.” Here
\nwe see that it is through the movement of Sarama going straight to the Truth by the path of the Truth, that the seven seers,
\nrepresenting the seven-headed or seven-rayed thought of Ayasya and Brihaspati, find all the concealed illuminations and by force
\nof these illuminations they all come together, as we have been already told by Vasishtha, in the level wideness,
\nsamāne ūrve<\/i>,
\nfrom which the Dawn has descended with the knowledge (ūrvād jānatī gāt<\/i>, v. 2) or, as it is here expressed, in the dawning of this
\nvast One, that is to say, in the infinite consciousness. There, as Vasishtha has said, they, united, agree in knowledge and do
\nnot strive together,
\n<\/span>sangatāsah<\/span>̣<\/span> <\/span>sam jānate<\/span><\/i> na yatante mithas<\/i>
\nte<\/i>, that is to say, the seven become as one, as is indicated in another hymn; they become the one seven-mouthed Angiras, an
\nimage corresponding to that of the seven-headed thought, and it is this single unified Angiras who makes all things true as the
\nresult of Sarama’s discovery (verse 7). The harmonised, united, perfected Seer-Will corrects all falsehood and crookedness and
\nturns all thought, life, action into terms of the Truth. In this hymn also the action of Sarama is precisely that of the Intuition
\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 214<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nwhich goes straight to the Truth by the straight path of the Truth and not through the crooked paths of doubt and error
\nand which delivers the Truth out of the veil of darkness and false appearances; it is through the illuminations discovered by
\nher that the Seer-mind can attain to the complete revelation of the Truth. The rest of the hymn speaks of the rising of the seven
\nhorsed Sun towards his “field which spreads wide for him at the end of the long journey”, the attainment of the swift Bird to the
\nSoma and of the young Seer to that field of the luminous cows, the Sun’s ascent to the “luminous Ocean”, its crossing over it
\n“like a ship guided by the thinkers” and the descent upon man of the waters of that ocean in response to their call. In those
\nwaters the sevenfold thought of the Angiras is established by the human seer. If we remember that the Sun represents the
\nlight of the superconscient or truth-conscious knowledge and the luminous ocean the realms of the superconscient with their
\nthrice seven seats of the Mother Aditi, the sense of these symbolic expressions2<\/font><\/sup> will not be difficult to understand. It is the highest
\nattainment of the supreme goal which follows upon the complete achievement of the Angirases, their united ascent to the plane of
\nthe Truth, just as that achievement follows upon the discovery of the herds by Sarama.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAnother hymn of great importance in this connection is the thirty-first of the third Mandala, by Vishwamitra. “Agni (the
\nDivine Force) is born quivering with his flame of the offering for sacrifice to the great Sons of the Shining One (the Deva,
\nRudra); great is the child of them, a vast birth; there is a great movement of the Driver of the shining steeds (Indra, the Divine
\nMind) by the sacrifices. The conquering (dawns) cleave to him in his struggle, they deliver by knowledge a great light out of the
\ndarkness; knowing the Dawns rise up to him, Indra has become the one lord of the luminous cows. The cows who were in the
\nstrong place (of the Panis) the thinkers clove out; by the mind the
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n2
\nIt is in this sense that we can easily understand many now obscure expressions of the Veda, e.g. VIII.68.9, “May we conquer by thy aid in our battles the great wealth in the
\nwaters and the Sun,” apsu <\/i>
\n<\/font> sūrye <\/i><\/span>
\nmahad dhanam<\/i>.
\n 
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 215<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

seven seers set them moving forward (or upwards towards the supreme), they found the entire path (goal or field of travel) of
\nthe Truth; knowing those (supreme seats of the Truth) Indra by
\nthe obeisance entered into them,” <\/span>vīl<\/span>̣<\/span>au satīr abhi dhīrā atr<\/span>̣<\/span>ndan,
\nprācā ahinvan manasā sapta viprāh<\/span>̣<\/span>; viśvām avindan
\npathyām<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>r<\/span>̣<\/span>tasya, prajānann it tā namasā viveśa<\/span><\/i>. This is, as usual, the great
\nbirth, the great light, the great divine movement of the Truth
\nknowledge with the finding of the goal and the entry of the gods and the seers into the supreme planes above. Next we have the
\npart of Sarama in this work. “When Sarama found the broken place of the hill, he (or perhaps she, Sarama) made continuous
\nthe great and supreme goal. She, the fair-footed, led him to the front of the imperishable ones (the unslayable cows of the
\nDawn); first she went, knowing, towards their cry.” It is again the Intuition that leads; knowing, she speeds at once and in front
\nof all towards the voice of the concealed illuminations, towards the place where the hill so firmly formed and impervious in
\nappearance (<\/span>vīl<\/span>̣<\/span>u, dr<\/span>̣ḷ<\/span>hā<\/span><\/i>) is broken and can admit the seekers.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The rest of the hymn continues to describe the achievement
\nof the Angirases and Indra. “He went, the greatest seer of them all, doing them friendship; the pregnant hill sent forth its con
\ntents for the doer of perfect works; in the strength of manhood he with the young (Angirases) seeking plenitude of riches attained
\npossession, then singing the hymn of light he became at once the Angiras. Becoming in our front the form and measure of
\neach existing thing, he knows all the births, he slays Shushna”; that is to say, the Divine Mind assumes a form answering to
\neach existing thing in the world and reveals its true divine image and meaning and slays the false force that distorts knowledge
\nand action. “Seeker of the cows, traveller to the seat of heaven, singing the hymns, he, the Friend, delivers his friends out of
\nall defect (of right self-expression). With a mind that sought the Light (the cows) they entered their seats by the illumining words,
\nmaking the path towards Immortality (ni <\/i>
\n<\/span>gavyatā manasā sedur arkaih<\/span>̣<\/span> kr<\/span>̣<\/span>n<\/span>̣<\/span>vānāso
\namr<\/span>̣<\/span>tatvāya gātum<\/span><\/i>). This is that large seat of
\ntheirs, the Truth by which they took possession of the months (the ten months of the Dashagwas). Harmonised in vision (or,
\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 216<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nperfectly seeing) they rejoiced in their own (abode, Swar) milking out the milk of the ancient seed (of things). Their cry (of the
\nWord) heated all the earth and heaven (created, that is to say,
\nthe burning clarity, gharma<\/i>, taptam <\/i>
\n<\/span>ghr<\/span>̣<\/span>tam<\/span><\/i>, which is the yield <\/p>\n

of the solar cows); they established in that which was born a firm abiding and in the cows the heroes (that is, the battling
\nforce was established in the light of the knowledge).
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n“Indra, the Vritra-slayer, by those who were born (the sons
\nof the sacrifice), by the offerings, by the hymns of illumination released upward the shining ones; the wide and delightful Cow
\n(the cow Aditi, the vast and blissful higher consciousness) bringing for him the sweet food, the honey mixed with the
\n<\/span>ghr<\/span>̣<\/span>ta<\/span><\/i>,
\nyielded it as her milk. For this Father also (for Heaven) they
\nfashioned the vast and shining abode; doers of perfect works, they had the entire vision of it. Wide-upholding by their support
\nthe Parents (Heaven and Earth) they sat in that high world and embraced all its ecstasy. When for the cleaving away (of evil and
\nfalsehood) the vast Thought holds him immediately increasing in his pervasion of earth and heaven,
\n—then for Indra in whom are
\nthe equal and faultless words, there are all irresistible energies. He has found the great, manifold and blissful Field (the wide
\nfield of the cows, Swar); and he has sent forth together all the moving herd for his friends. Indra shining out by the human
\nsouls (the Angirases) has brought into being, together, the Sun, the Dawn, the Path and the Flame.”
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAnd in the remaining verses the same figures continue, with an intervention of the famous image of the rain which has been
\nso much misunderstood. “The Ancient-born I make new that I may conquer. Do thou remove our many undivine hurters and set
\nSwar for our possessing. The purifying rains are extended before us (in the shape of the waters); take us over to the state of bliss
\nthat is the other shore of them. Warring in thy chariot protect us from the foe; soon, soon make us conquerors of the Cows.
\nThe Vritra-slayer, the Master of the Cows, showed (to men) the cows; he has entered with his shining laws (or lustres) within
\nthose who are black (void of light, like the Panis); showing the truths (the cows of truth) by the Truth he has opened all his
\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 217<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

own doors,” pra <\/i>
\n<\/span>sunr<\/span>̣<\/span>tā diśamāna r<\/span>̣<\/span>tena
\nduraś ca viśvā avr<\/span>̣<\/span>n<\/span>̣<\/span>od
\napa svāh<\/span><\/i>; that is to say, he opens the doors of his own world, Swar, after breaking open by his entry into our darkness (<\/span>antah<\/span>̣<\/span>
\nkr<\/span>̣<\/span>s<\/span>̣<\/span>n<\/span>̣ā<\/span>n
\ngāt<\/span><\/i>) the “human doors” kept closed by the Panis.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Such is this remarkable hymn, the bulk of which I have translated because it both brings into striking relief the mystic
\nand entirely psychological character of the Vedic poetry and by so doing sets out vividly the nature of the imagery in the midst of
\nwhich Sarama figures. The other references to Sarama in the Rig Veda do not add anything essential to the conception. We have
\na brief allusion in IV.16.8, “When thou didst tear the waters out of the hill, Sarama became manifest before thee; so do thou
\nas our leader tear out much wealth for us, breaking the pens, hymned by the Angirases.” It is the Intuition manifesting before
\nthe Divine Mind as its forerunner when there is the emergence of the waters, the streaming movements of the Truth that break
\nout of the hill in which they were confined by Vritra (verse 7); and it is by means of the Intuition that this godhead becomes
\nour leader to the rescue of the Light and the conquest of the much wealth hidden within in the rock behind the fortress gates
\nof the Panis.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

We find another allusion to Sarama in a hymn by Parashara
\nShaktya, I.72. This is one of the Suktas which most clearly reveal the sense of the Vedic imagery, like most indeed of the hymns
\nof Parashara, a very luminous poet who loves always to throw back something more than a corner of the mystic’s veil. It is
\nbrief and I shall translate it in full. “He has created, within, the seer-knowings of the eternal Disposer of things, holding in
\nhis hand many powers (powers of the divine Purushas,
\n<\/span>naryā purūn<\/span>̣<\/span>i<\/span><\/i>); Agni creating together all immortalities becomes the
\nmaster of the (divine) riches. All the immortals, they who are not limited (by ignorance), desiring, found him in us as if the
\nCalf (of the cow Aditi) existing everywhere; labouring, travelling to the Seat, holding the Thought they attained in the supreme
\nseat to the shining (glory) of Agni. O Agni, when through the three years (three symbolic seasons or periods corresponding
\nperhaps to the passage through the three mental heavens) they,  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 218<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\npure, had served thee, the pure one, with the
\n<\/span>ghr<\/span>̣<\/span>ta<\/span><\/i>, they held the
\nsacrificial names and set moving (to the supreme heaven) forms well born. They had knowledge of the vast heaven and earth
\nand bore them forward, they the sons of Rudra, the lords of the sacrifice; the mortal awoke to vision and found Agni standing
\nin the seat supreme. Knowing perfectly (or in harmony) they kneeled down to him; they with their wives (the female energies
\nof the gods) bowed down to him who is worthy of obeisance; purifying themselves (or, perhaps, exceeding the limits of heaven
\nand earth) they created their own (their proper or divine) forms, guarded in the gaze, each friend, of the Friend. In thee the gods
\nof the sacrifice found the thrice seven secret seats hidden within; they, being of one heart, protect by them the immortality. Guard
\nthou the herds that stand and that which moves. O Agni, having knowledge of all manifestations (or births) in the worlds (or,
\nknowing all the knowledge of the peoples) establish thy forces, continuous, for life. Knowing, within, the paths of the journeying of the gods thou becamest their sleepless messenger and the bearer of the offerings. The seven mighty ones of heaven (the
\nrivers) placing aright the thought, knowing the Truth, discerned the doors of the felicity; Sarama found the fastness, the wide
\nness of the cows whereby now the human creature enjoys (the supreme riches). They who entered upon all things that bear
\nright issue, made the path to Immortality; by the great ones and by the greatness earth stood wide; the mother Aditi with her
\nsons came for the upholding. The Immortals planted in him the shining glory, when they made the two eyes of heaven (identical
\nprobably with the two vision-powers of the Sun, the two horses of Indra); rivers, as it were, flow down released; the shining ones
\n(the cows) who were here below knew, O Agni.”
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSo runs this hymn of Parashara, translated with the utmost
\npossible literalness even at the cost of some uncouthness in the English. It is clear at the very first glance that it is throughout
\na hymn of knowledge, of the Truth, of a divine Flame which is hardly distinguishable from the supreme Deity, of immortality,
\nof the ascent of the gods, the divine powers, by the sacrifice to their godhead, to their supreme names, to their proper forms, to
\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 219<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

the shining glory of the supreme state with its thrice seven seats of the Godhead. Such an ascent can have no other meaning
\nthan the ascent of the divine powers in man <\/i>out of their ordinary cosmic appearances to the shining Truth beyond, as indeed
\nParashara himself tells us that by this action of the gods mortal man awakens to the knowledge and finds Agni standing in the
\nsupreme seat and goal; vidan marto nemadhitā cikitvān, agnim pade parame tasthivāmsam. <\/i>
\nWhat is Sarama doing in such a
\nhymn if she is not a power of the Truth, if her cows are not the rays of a divine dawn of illumination? What have the cows of old
\nwarring tribes and the sanguinary squabbles of our Aryan and Dravidian ancestors over their mutual plunderings and cattle
\nliftings to do with this luminous apocalypse of the immortality and the godhead? Or what are these rivers that think and know
\nthe Truth and discover the hidden doors? Or must we still say that these were the rivers of the Punjab dammed up by drought
\nor by the Dravidians and Sarama a mythological figure for an Aryan embassy or else only the physical Dawn?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

One hymn in the tenth Mandala is devoted entirely to this “embassy” of Sarama, it is the colloquy of Sarama and the Panis;
\nbut it adds nothing essential to what we already know about her and its chief importance lies in the help it gives us in forming
\nour conception of the masters of the cavern treasure. We may note, however, that neither in this hymn, nor in the others we
\nhave noticed is there the least indication of the figure of the divine hound which was attributed to Sarama in a possibly later
\ndevelopment of the Vedic imagery. It is surely the shining fairfooted goddess by whom the Panis are attracted and whom they
\ndesire as their sister, —not as a dog to guard their cattle, but as one who will share in the possession of their riches. The image
\nof the hound of heaven is, however, exceedingly apt and striking and was bound to develop out of the legend. In one of the earlier
\nhymns we have mention indeed of a son for whom Sarama “got food” according to an ancient interpretation which accounts for
\nthe phrase by a story that the hound Sarama demanded food for her offspring in the sacrifice as a condition of her search
\nfor the lost cows. But this is obviously an explanatory invention  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 220<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nwhich finds no place in the Rig Veda itself. The Veda says, “In the sacrifice” or, as it more probably means, “in the seeking of Indra
\nand the Angirases (for the cows) Sarama discovered a foundation for the Son,” vidat saramā tanayāya dhāsim<\/i>(I.62.3); for such
\nis the more likely sense here of the word
\ndhāsim<\/i>. The son is in all probability the son born of the sacrifice, a constant element
\nin the Vedic imagery and not the dog-race born of Sarama. We have similar phrases in the Veda as in I.96.4,
\n<\/span>mātariśvā puruvārapus<\/span>̣<\/span>t<\/span>̣<\/span>ir
\nvidad gātum tanayāya <\/span> <\/i>svarvit<\/i>, “Matarishwan
\n(the Life-god, Vayu) increasing the many desirable things (the
\nhigher objects of life) discovered the path for the Son, discovered Swar,” where the subject is evidently the same but the son has
\nnothing to do with any brood of puppies.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe two Sarameya dogs, messengers of Yama, are mentioned in a late hymn in the tenth Mandala, but without any reference to Sarama as their mother. This occurs in the famous
\n“funeral” hymn X.14, and it is worth while noting the real character of Yama and his two dogs in the Rig Veda. In the
\nlater ideas Yama is the god of Death and has his own special world; but in the Rig Veda he seems to have been originally a
\nform of the Sun, —even as late as the Isha Upanishad we find the name used as an appellation of the Sun,
\n—and then one
\nof the twin children of the wide-shining Lord of Truth. He is the guardian of the dharma, the law of the Truth,
\nsatyadharma<\/i>,
\nwhich is a condition of immortality, and therefore himself the guardian of immortality. His world is Swar, the world of immortality, <\/span>amr<\/span>̣<\/span>te loke aks<\/span>̣<\/span>ite<\/span><\/i>, where, as we are told in IX.113, is
\nthe indestructible Light, where Swar is established, yatra jyotir<\/i>
\najasram, yasmin loke svar hitam. <\/i>The hymn X.14 is indeed not
\na hymn of Death so much as a hymn of Life and Immortality. Yama and the ancient Fathers have discovered the path to that
\nworld which is a pasture of the Cows whence the enemy cannot bear away the radiant herds, yamo no <\/i> <\/span>
\ngātum prathamo viveda, nais<\/span>̣ā<\/span> gavyūtir
\napabhartavā u, yatrā nah<\/span>̣<\/span> pūrve pitarah<\/span>̣<\/span>
\npareyuh<\/span><\/i><\/font><\/i>.
\nThe soul of the heaven-ascending mortal is bidden to “outrun
\nthe two four-eyed varicoloured Sarameya dogs on the good (or effective) path.” Of that path to heaven they are the four-eyed
\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 221<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

guardians, protecting man on the road by their divine vision, yau<\/i> te <\/i>
\n<\/span>śvānau yama raks<\/span>̣<\/span>itārau caturaks<\/span>̣<\/span>au
\npathiraks<\/span>̣<\/span>ī nr<\/span>̣<\/span>caks<\/span>̣<\/span>asau<\/span><\/i>,
\nand Yama is asked to give them as an escort to the soul on
\nits way. These dogs are “wide-moving, not easily satisfied” and range as the messengers of the Lord of the Law among men.
\nAnd the hymn prays, “May they (the dogs) give us back bliss here in the unhappy (world) so that we may look upon the Sun.”
\nWe are still in the order of the old Vedic ideas, the Light and the Bliss and the Immortality, and these Sarameya dogs have the
\nessential characteristics of Sarama, the vision, the wide-ranging movement, the power to travel on the path by which the goal is
\nreached. Sarama leads to the wideness of the cows; these dogs protect the soul on its journey to the inviolable pasture, the field
\n(<\/span>ks<\/span>̣<\/span>etra<\/span><\/i>) of the luminous and imperishable herds. Sarama brings
\nus to the truth, to the sun-vision which is the way to the bliss; these dogs bring the weal to man in this world of suffering so
\nthat he shall have the vision of the Sun. Whether Sarama figures as the fair-footed goddess speeding on the path or the heavenly
\nhound, mother of these wide-ranging guardians of the path, the idea is the same, a power of the Truth that seeks and discovers,
\nthat finds by a divine faculty of insight the hidden Light and the denied Immortality. But it is to this seeking and finding that her
\nfunction is limited.  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage –
\n222<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter XX   The Hound of Heaven   THERE yet remain two constant features of the Angiras legend with regard to which we have to…<\/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-1932","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\/1932","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=1932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}