{"id":237,"date":"2013-07-13T01:26:48","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=237"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:26:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:48","slug":"02-foreward-vol-11-hymns-to-the-mystic-fire-volume-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/11-hymns-to-the-mystic-fire-volume-11\/02-foreward-vol-11-hymns-to-the-mystic-fire-volume-11","title":{"rendered":"-02_Foreward.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nForeword <\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I<\/span>N<\/span><\/b>
\nANCIENT <\/span><\/b>times the Veda was
\nrevered as a sacred book’ of wisdom, a great mass of inspired poetry, the work
\nof Rishis, seers and sages, who received in their illumined minds rather than
\nmentally constructed a great  universal, eternal and impersonal Truth which they
\nembodied in Mantras, revealed verses of power, not of an ordinary but of a
\ndivine inspiration and source. The name given to these sages was Kavi, which
\nafterwards came to mean any poet, but at the time had the sense of a seer of
\ntruth, \u2014 the Veda itself describes them as Kavayaḥ satyasrutah, <\/i>"seers
\nwho are hearers of the Truth" and the Veda itself was called, sruti<\/i>,
\n<\/i>a word which came to mean "revealed Scripture" The seers of the Upanishad
\nhad the same idea about the Veda and frequently appealed to its authority for
\nthe truths they themselves announced and these too afterwards came to be
\nregarded as Sruti, revealed Scripture, and were included in the sacred Canon.\n<\/p>\n

This tradition persevered in the Brahmanas and continued to
\nmaintain itself in spite of the efforts of the ritualistic commentators,
\nYajnikas, to explain everything as myth and rite and the division made by the
\nPandits distinguishing the section of works, Karmakanda, and the section of
\nKnowledge, Jnanakanda, identifying the former with the hymns and the latter with
\nthe Upanishads. This drowning of the parts of Knowledge by the parts of
\nceremonial works was strongly criticised in one of the Upanishads and in the
\nGita, but both look on the Veda as a Book of Knowledge. Even, the Sruti
\nincluding both Veda and Upanishad was regarded as the supreme authority for
\nspiritual knowledge and infallible. <\/p>\n

Is this all legend and moonshine, or a groundless and even
\nnonsensical tradition? Or is it the fact that there is only a scanty element of
\nhigher ideas in some later hymns which started this theory? Did the writers of
\nthe Upanishads foist upon the Riks a meaning which was not there but read into
\nit by their imagination <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 1<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nor a fanciful interpretation? Modern European scholarship insists on having it
\nso. And it has persuaded the mind of modern India. In favour of this view is the
\nfact that the Rishis of the Veda were not only seers but singers and priests of
\nsacrifice, that their chants were written to be sung at public sacrifices and
\nrefer constantly to the customary ritual and seem to call for the outward
\nobjects of these ceremonies, wealth, prosperity, victory over enemies. Sayana,
\nthe great commentator, gives us a ritualistic and where necessary a tentatively
\nmythical or historical sense to the Riks, very rarely does he put forward any
\nhigher meaning though sometimes he lets a higher sense come through or puts it
\nas an alternative as if in despair of finding out some ritualistic or mythical
\ninterpretation. But still he does not reject the spiritual authority of the Veda
\nor deny that there is a higher truth contained in the Riks. This last
\ndevelopment was left to our own times and popularised by occidental scholars.\n<\/p>\n

The European scholars took up the ritualistic tradition, but
\nfor the rest they dropped Sayana overboard and went on to make their own
\netymological explanation of the words, or build up their own conjectural
\nmeanings of the Vedic verses and gave a new presentation often arbitrary and
\nimaginative. What they sought for in the Veda was the early history of India,
\nits society, institutions, customs, a civilisation-picture of the times. They
\ninvented the theory based on the difference of languages of an Aryan invasion
\nfrom the north, an invasion of a Dravidian India of which the Indians themselves
\nhad no memory or tradition and of which there is no record in their epic or
\nclassical literature. The Vedic religion was in this account only a worship of
\nNature-Gods full of solar myths and consecrated by sacrifices and a sacrificial
\nliturgy primitive enough in its ideas and contents, and it is these barbaric
\nprayers that are the much vaunted, haloed and apotheosized Veda. <\/p>\n

There can be no doubt that in the beginning there was a
\nworship of the Powers of the physical world, the Sun, Moon, Heaven and Earth,
\nWind, Rain and Storm etc., the Sacred Rivers and a number of Gods who presided
\nover the workings of Nature. That was the general aspect of the ancient worship
\nin Greece, Rome, India and among other ancient peoples. But in all these <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 2<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\ncountries these gods began to assume a higher, a psychological function; Pallas
\nAthene who may have been originally a Dawn-Goddess springing in flames from the
\nhead of Zeus, the Sky-God, Dyaus of the Veda, has in classical Greece a higher
\nfunction and was identified by the Romans with their Minerva, the Goddess of
\nlearning and wisdom; similarly, Saraswati, a River Goddess, becomes in Indian
\nthe goddess of wisdom, learning and the arts and crafts: all the Greek deities
\nhave undergone a change in this direction \u2014 Apollo, the Sun-God, has become a
\ngod of poetry and prophecy, Hephaestus the Fire-God a divine smith, god of
\nlabour. In India the process was arrested half-way, and the Vedic Gods developed
\ntheir psychological functions but retained more fixedly their external character
\nand for higher purposes gave place to a new pantheon. They had to give
\nprecedence to Puranic deities who developed out of the early company but assumed
\nlarger cosmic functions, Vishnu, Rudra, Brahma, \u2014 developing from the Vedic
\nBrihaspati, or Brahmanaspati, \u2014 Shiva, Lakshmi, Durga. Thus in India the change
\nin the gods was less complete, the earlier deities became the inferior
\ndivinities of the Puranic pantheon and this was largely due to the survival of
\nthe Rig-veda in which their psychological and their external functions
\nco-existed and are both given a powerful emphasis; there was no such early
\nliterary record to maintain the original features of the Gods of Greece and
\nRome. <\/p>\n

This change was evidently due to a cultural development in
\nthese early peoples who became progressively more mentalised and less engrossed
\nin the physical life as they advanced in civilisation and needed to read into
\ntheir religion and their deities finer and subtler aspects which would support
\ntheir more highly mentalised concepts and interests and find for them a true
\nspiritual being or some celestial figure as their support and sanction. But the
\nlargest part in determining and deepening this inward turn must be attributed to
\nthe Mystics who had an enormous influence on these early civilisations; there
\nwas indeed almost everywhere an age of the Mysteries in which men of a deeper
\nknowledge and self-knowledge established their practices, significant rites,
\nsymbols, secret lore within or on the border of the more primitive exterior
\nreligions. This took different forms in different countries; <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 3<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nin Greece there were the Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries, in Egypt and Chaldea
\nthe priests and their occult lore and magic, in Persia the Magi, in India the
\nRishis. The preoccupation of the Mystics was with self-knowledge and a
\nprofounder world-knowledge; they found out that in man there was a deeper self
\nand inner being behind the surface of the outward physical man, which it was his
\nhighest business to discover and know. "Know thyself" was their great precept,
\njust as in India to know the Self, the Atman became the great spiritual need,
\nthe highest thing for the human being. They found also a Truth, a Reality behind
\nthe outward aspects of the universe and to discover, follow, realise this Truth
\nwas their great aspiration. They discovered secrets and powers of Nature which
\nwere not those of the physical world but which could bring occult mastery over
\nthe physical world and physical things and to systematise this occult knowledge
\nand power was also one of their strong preoccupations. But all this could only
\nbe safely done by a difficult and careful training, discipline, purification of
\nthe nature; it could not be done by the ordinary man. If men entered into these
\nthings without a severe test and training it would be dangerous to themselves
\nand others; this knowledge, these powers could be misused, misinterpreted,
\nturned from truth to falsehood, from good to evil. A strict secrecy was
\ntherefore maintained, the knowledge handed down behind a veil from master to
\ndisciple. A veil of symbols was created behind which these mysteries could
\nshelter, formulas of speech also which could be understood by the initiated but
\nwere either not known by others or were taken by them in an outward sense which
\ncarefully covered their true meaning and secret. This was the substance of
\nMysticism everywhere. <\/p>\n

It has been the tradition in India from the earliest times
\nthat the Rishis, the poet-seers of the Veda, were men of this type, men with a
\ngreat spiritual and occult knowledge not shared by ordinary human beings, men
\nwho handed down this knowledge and their powers by a secret initiation to their
\ndescendant and chosen disciples. It is a gratuitous assumption to suppose that
\nthis tradition was wholly unfounded, a superstition that arose suddenly or
\nslowly formed in a void, with nothing whatever to support it; some foundation
\nthere must have been however  <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 4<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nsmall or however swelled by legend and the accretions of centuries. But if it is
\ntrue, then inevitably the poet-seers must have expressed something of their
\nsecret knowledge, their mystic lore in their writings and such an element must
\nbe present, however
\nwell-concealed by an occult language or behind a technique of symbols, and if it
\nis there it must be to some extent discoverable. It is true that an antique
\nlanguage, obsolete words, \u2014 Yaska counts more than four hundred of which he did
\nnot know the meaning, \u2014 and often a difficult and out-of-date diction helped to
\nobscure their meaning; the loss of the sense of their symbols, the glossary of
\nwhich they kept to themselves, made them unintelligible to later generations;
\neven in the time of the Upanishads the spiritual seekers of the age had to
\nresort to initiation and meditation to penetrate into their secret knowledge,
\nwhile the scholars afterwards were at sea and had to resort to conjecture and to
\nconcentrate on a mental interpretation or to explain by myths, by the legends of
\nthe Brahmanas themselves often symbolic and obscure. But still to make this
\ndiscovery will be the sole way of getting at the true sense and the true value
\nof the Veda. We must take seriously the hint of Yaska, accept the Rishi’s
\ndescription of the Veda’s contents as "seer-wisdoms, seer-words", and look for
\nwhatever clue we can find to this ancient wisdom. Otherwise the Veda must remain
\nfor ever a sealed book; grammarians, etymologists, scholastic conjectures will
\nnot open to us the sealed chamber. <\/p>\n

For it is a fact that the tradition of a secret meaning and a
\nmystic wisdom couched in the Riks of the ancient Veda was as old as the Veda
\nitself. The Vedic Rishis believed that their Mantras were inspired from higher
\nhidden planes of consciousness and contained this secret knowledge. The words of
\nthe Veda could only be known in their true meaning by one who was him-self a
\nseer or mystic; from others the verses withheld their hidden knowledge. In one
\nof Vamadeva’s hymns in the fourth Mandala (IV.3.16) the Rishi describes himself
\nas one illumined expressing through his thought and speech words of guidance,
\n"secret words" \u2014 niṇyā vacāmsi <\/i>\u2014 "seer-wisdoms that utter their inner
\nmeaning to the seer" \u2014 kāvyāni kavaye nivacanā<\/i>. The Rishi Dirghatamas
\nspeaks of the Riks, the Mantras of the Veda, as <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 5<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nexisting "in a supreme ether, imperishable and immutable in which all the gods
\nare seated", and he adds "one who knows not That what shall he do with the Rik?"
\n(1.164.39) He further alludes to four planes from which the speech issues, three
\nof them hidden in the secrecy while the fourth is human, and from there comes
\nthe ordinary word; but the word and thought of the Veda belongs to the higher
\nplanes (1.164.46). Elsewhere in the Riks the Vedic Word is described (X.71) as
\nthat which is supreme and the topmost height of speech, the best and the most
\nfaultless. It is something that is hidden in secrecy and from there comes out
\nand is manifested. It has entered into the truth-seers, the Rishis, and it is
\nfound by following the track of their speech. But all cannot enter into its
\nsecret meaning. Those who do not know the inner sense are as men who seeing see
\nnot, hearing hear not, only to one here and there the Word desiring him like a
\nbeautifully robed wife to a husband lays open her body. Others unable to drink
\nsteadily of the milk of the Word, the Vedic cow, move with it as with one that
\ngives no milk, to him the Word is a tree without flowers or fruits. This is
\nquite clear and precise; it results from it beyond doubt that even then while
\nthe Rig-veda was being written the Riks were regarded as having a secret sense
\nwhich was not open to all. There was an occult and spiritual knowledge in the
\nsacred hymns and by this knowledge alone, it is said, one can know the truth and
\nrise to a higher existence. This belief was not a later tradition but held,
\nprobably, by all and evidently by some of the greatest Rishis such as
\nDirghatamas and Vamadeva. <\/p>\n

The tradition, then, was there and it was prolonged after the
\nVedic times. Yaska speaks of several schools of interpretation of the Veda.
\nThere was a sacrificial or ritualistic interpretation, the historical or rather
\nmythological explanation, an explanation by the grammarians and etymologists, by
\nthe logicians, a spiritual interpretation. Yaska himself declares that there is
\na triple knowledge and therefore a triple meaning of the Vedic hymns, a
\nsacrificial or ritualistic knowledge, a knowledge of the gods and finally a
\nspiritual knowledge; but the last is the true sense and when one gets it the
\nothers drop or are cut away. It is this spiritual sense that saves and the rest
\nis outward and subordinate. He says further  <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 6<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nthat "the Rishis saw the truth, the true law of things, directly by an inner
\nvision"; afterwards the knowledge and the inner sense of the Veda were almost
\nlost and the Rishis who still knew had to save it by handing it down through
\ninitiation to disciples and at a last stage outward and mental means had to be
\nused for finding the sense such as Nirukta and other Vedangas. But even then, he
\nsays,’ "the true sense of the Veda can be recovered directly by meditation and
\ntapasya", those who can use these means need no outward aids for this knowledge.
\nThis also is sufficiently clear and positive.  <\/p>\n

The tradition of a mystic element in the Veda as a source of
\nIndian civilisation, its religion, its philosophy, its culture is more in
\nconsonance with historical fact than the European scouting of this idea. The
\nnineteenth century European scholarship writing in a period of materialistic
\nrationalism regarded the history of the race as a development out of primitive
\nbarbarism or semi-barbarism, a crude social life and religion and a mass of
\nsuperstitions, by the growth of outward civilised institutions, manners and
\nhabits through the development of intellect and reason, art, philosophy and
\nscience and a clearer and sounder, more matter-of-fact intelligence. The ancient
\nidea about the Veda could not fit into this picture; it was regarded as rather a
\npart of ancient superstitious ideas and a primitive error. But we can now form a
\nmore accurate idea of the development of the race. The ancient more primitive
\ncivilisations held in themselves the elements of the later growth but their
\nearly wise men were not scientists and philosophers or men of high intellectual
\nreason but mystics and even mystery-men, occultists, religious seekers;  they
\nwere seekers after a veiled truth behind things and not of an outward knowledge.
\nThe scientists and philosophers came afterwards ; they were preceded by the
\nmystics and often like Pythagoras and Plato were to some extent mystics
\nthemselves or drew many of their ideas from the mystics. In India philosophy
\ngrew out of the seeking of the mystics and retained and developed their
\nspiritual aims and kept something of their methods in later Indian spiritual
\ndiscipline and Yoga. The Vedic tradition, the fact of a mystical element in the
\nVeda fits in perfectly with this historical truth and takes its place in the
\nhistory of Indian culture.  <\/p>\n

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\n
<\/div>\n

\nThe tradition of the Veda as the bed-rock of Indian civilisation \u2014 not merely a
\nbarbaric sacrificial liturgy \u2014 is more than a tradition, it is an actual fact of
\nhistory.  <\/p>\n

But even if an element of high spiritual knowledge, or
\npassages full of high ideas were found in the hymns, it might be sup-posed that
\nthose are perhaps only a small factor, while the rest is a sacrificial liturgy,
\nformulas of prayer and praise to the Gods meant to induce them to shower on the
\nsacrificers material blessings such as plenty of cows, horses, fighting men,
\nsons, food, wealth of all kinds, protection, victory in battle, or to bring down
\nrain from heaven, recover the sun from clouds or from the grip of Night, the
\nfree flowing of the seven rivers, recovery of cattle from the Dasyus (or the
\nDravidians) and the other boons which on the surface seem to be the object of
\nthis ritual worship. The Rishis would then be men with some spiritual or mystic
\nknowledge but otherwise dominated by all the popular ideas proper to their
\ntimes. These two elements they would then mix up intimately in their hymns and
\nthis would account at least in part for the obscurity and the rather strange and
\nsometimes grotesque jumble which the traditional interpretation offers us. But
\nif, on the other hand, a considerable body of high thinking clearly appears, if
\nthere is a large mass of verses or whole hymns which admit only of a mystic
\ncharacter and significance, and if finally, the ritualistic and external details
\nare found to take frequently the appearance of symbols such as were always used
\nby the mystics, and if there are many clear indications, even some explicit
\nstatements in the hymns themselves of such a meaning, then all changes. We are
\nin the presence of a great scripture of the mystics with a double significance,
\none exoteric the other esoteric, the symbols themselves have a meaning which
\nmakes them a part of the esoteric significance, an element in the secret
\nteaching and knowledge. The whole of the Rig-veda, a small number of hymns
\nperhaps excepted, becomes in its inner sense such a Scripture. At the same time
\nthe exoteric sense need not be merely a mask; the Riks may have been regarded by
\ntheir authors as words of power, powerful not only for internal but for external
\nthings. A purely spiritual scripture would concern itself with only spiritual
\nsignificances, but the ancient mystics were also what we would  <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 8<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\ncall occultists, men who believed that by inner means outer as well as inner
\nresults could be produced, that thought and words could be so used as to bring
\nabout realisations of every kind, \u2014 in the phrase common in the Veda itself, \u2014
\nboth the human and the divine. <\/p>\n

But where is this body of esoteric meaning in the Veda ? It is
\nonly discoverable if we give a constant and straightforward meaning to the words
\nand formulas employed by the Rishis, especially to the key-words which bear as
\nkeystones the whole structure of their doctrine. One such word is the great
\nword, Ritam, Truth; Truth was the central object of the seeking of the Mystics,
\na spiritual or inner Truth, a truth of ourselves, a truth of things, a truth of
\nthe world and of the gods, a truth behind all we are and all that things are. In
\nthe ritualistic interpretation this master word of the Vedic knowledge has been
\ninterpreted in all kinds of senses according to the convenience or fancy of the
\ninterpreter, "truth", "sacrifice", "water", "one who has gone", even "food", not
\nto speak of a number of other meanings; if we do that, there can be no certitude
\nin our dealings with the Veda. But let us consistently give it the same master
\nsense and a strange but clear result emerges. If we apply the same treatment to
\nother standing terms of the Veda, if we give them their ordinary, natural and
\nstraightforward meaning and give it constantly and consistently not monkeying
\nabout with their sense or turning them into purely ritualistic expressions, if
\nwe allow to certain important words, such as sravas<\/i>, kratu<\/i>, the
\npsychological meaning of which they are capable and which they undoubtedly bear
\nin certain passages as when the Veda describes Agni as kratur hṛdi<\/i>, then
\nthis result becomes all the more clear, extended, pervasive. If, in addition, we
\nfollow the indications which abound, sometimes the explicit statement of the
\nRishis about the inner sense of their symbols, interpret in the same sense the
\nsignificant legends and figures on which they constantly return, the conquest
\nover Vritra and the battle with the Vritras, his powers, the recovery of the
\nSun, the Waters, the Cows from the Panis or other Dasyus, the whole Rig-veda
\nreveals itself as a body of doctrine and practice, esoteric, occult, spiritual,
\nsuch as might have been given by the mystics in any ancient country but which <\/p>\n

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\n
<\/div>\n

\nactually survives for us only in the Veda. It is there deliberately hidden by a
\nveil, but the veil is not so thick as we first imagine;  we have only to use our
\neyes and the veil vanishes; the body of the Word, the Truth stands out before
\nus.  <\/p>\n

Many of the lines, many whole hymns even of the Veda bear on
\ntheir face a mystic meaning; they are evidently an occult form of speech, have
\nan inner meaning. When the seer speaks of Agni as "the luminous guardian of the
\nTruth shining out in his own home", or of Mitra and Varuna or other gods as "in
\ntouch with the Truth and making the Truth grow" or as "born in the Truth", these
\nare words of a mystic poet, who is thinking of that inner Truth behind things of
\nwhich the early sages were the seekers. He is not thinking of the Nature-Power
\npresiding over the outer element of fire or of the fire of the ceremonial
\nsacrifice. Or he speaks of Saraswati as one who impels the words of Truth and
\nawakes to right thinkings or as one opulent with the thought: Saraswati awakes
\nto consciousness or makes us conscious of the "Great Ocean and illumines all our
\nthoughts". It is surely not the River Goddess whom he is thus hymning but the
\nPower, the River if you will, of inspiration, the word of the Truth, bringing
\nits light into our thoughts, building up in us that Truth, an inner knowledge.
\nThe Gods constantly stand out in their psychological functions; the sacrifice is
\nthe outer symbol of an inner work, an inner interchange between the gods and
\nmen, \u2014 man giving what he has, the gods giving in return the horses of power,
\nthe herds of light, the heroes of Strength to be his retinue, winning for him
\nvictory in his battle with the hosts of Darkness, Vritras, Dasyus, Panis. When
\nthe Rishi says, "Let us become conscious whether by the War-Horse or by the Word
\nof a Strength beyond men", his words have either a mystic significance or they
\nhave no coherent meaning at all. In the portions translated in this book we have
\nmany mystic verses and whole hymns which, however mystic, tear the veil off the
\nouter sacrificial images covering the real sense of the Veda. "Thought," says
\nthe Rishi, "has nourished for us human things in the Immortals, in the Great
\nHeavens ; it is the milch-cow which milks of itself the wealth of many forms" \u2014
\nthe many kinds of wealth, cows, horses and the rest for which the sacrificer
\nprays; evidently this is no material wealth, <\/p>\n

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\n
<\/div>\n

\nit is something which Thought, the Thought embodied in the Mantra, can give and
\nit is the result of the same Thought that nourishes our human things in the
\nImmortals, in the Great Heavens. A process of divinisation, and of a bringing
\ndown of great and luminous riches, treasures won from the Gods by the inner work
\nof sacrifice, is hinted at in terms necessarily covert but still for one who
\nknows how to read these secret words, niṇyā vacāmsi<\/i>, sufficiently
\nexpressive, kavaye nivacanā<\/i>. Again, Night and Dawn the eternal sisters
\nare like "joyful weaving women weaving the weft of our perfected works into the
\nform of a sacrifice". Again, words with a mystic form and meaning, but there
\ncould hardly be a more positive statement of the psychological character of the
\nSacrifice, the real meaning of the Cow, of the riches sought for, the plenitudes
\nof the Great Treasure. <\/p>\n

Under pressure of the necessity to mask their meaning with
\nsymbols and symbolic words \u2014 for secrecy must be observed \u2014 he Rishis resorted
\nto fix double meanings, a device easily manageable in the Sanskrit language
\nwhere one word often bears several different meanings, but not easy to render in
\nan English translation and very often impossible. Thus the word for cow, go,
\nmeant also light or a ray of light; this appears in the names of some of the
\nRishis, Gotama, most radiant, Gavishthira, steadfast in the Light. The cows of
\nthe Veda were the Herds of the Sun, familiar in Greek myth and mystery, the rays
\nof the Sun of Truth and Light and Knowledge; this meaning which comes out in
\nsome passages can be consistently applied everywhere yielding a coherent sense.
\nThe word ghṛta <\/i>means ghee or clarified butter and this was one of the
\nchief elements of the sacrificial rite; but ghṛta <\/i>could also mean light,
\nfrom the root ghṛ<\/i> to shine and it is used in this sense in many
\npassages. Thus the horses of Indra, the Lord of Heaven, are described as
\ndripping with light, ghṛtasnū<\/i>\u00b9 \u2014 it certainly does not mean that ghee
\ndripped from them as they ran, although that seems to be the sense of the same
\nepithet as applied to the grain of which Indra’s horses are invited to <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9Sayana, though in several passages he takes
\nghṛta <\/i>in the sense of light, renders it here by ‘water’; he seems to think
\nthat the divine horses were very tired and perspiring profusely! A Naturalistic
\ninterpreter might as well argue that as Indra is a God of the sky, the primitive
\npoet might well believe that rain was the perspiration of Indra’s horses. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 11<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\npartake when they come to the sacrifice. Evidently this sense of light doubles
\nwith that of clarified butter in the symbolism of the sacrifice. The thought or
\nthe word expressing the thought is compared to pure clarified butter,
\nexpressions like dhiyam ghṛtācīm<\/i>, the luminous thought or understanding
\noccur. There is a curious passage in one of the hymns translated in this book
\ncalling on Fire as priest of the sacrifice to flood the offering with a mind
\npouring ghrita, ghṛtapruṣā manasā <\/i>and so manifest the Seats ("places,
\nor planes"), the three heavens each of them and manifest the Gods.\u00b9 But what is
\na ghee-pouring mind, and how by pouring ghee can a priest manifest the Gods and
\nthe triple heavens? But admit the mystical and esoteric meaning and the sense
\nbecomes clear. What the Rishi means is a "mind pouring the light", a labour of
\nthe clarity of an enlightened or illumined mind; it is not a human priest or a
\nsacrificial fire, but the inner Flame, the mystic seer-will, kavikratu<\/i>,
\nand that can certainly manifest by this process the Gods and the worlds and all
\nplanes of the being. The Rishis, it must be remembered, were seers as well as
\nsages, they were men of vision who saw things in their meditation in images,
\noften symbolic images which might precede or accompany an experience and put it
\nin a concrete form, might predict or give an occult body to it: so it would be
\nquite possible for him to see at once the inner experience and in image its
\nsymbolic happening, the flow of clarifying light and the priest god pouring this
\nclarified butter on the inner self-offering which brought the experience. This
\nmight seem strange to a Western mind, but to an Indian mind accustomed to the
\nIndian tradition or capable of meditation and occult vision it would be
\nperfectly intelligible. The mystics were and normally are symbolists, they can
\neven see all physical things and happenings as symbols of inner truths and
\nrealities, even their outer selves, the outer happenings of their life and all
\naround them. That would make their identification or else an association of the
\nthing and its symbol easy, its habit possible. <\/p>\n

Other standing words and symbols of the Veda invite a similar
\ninterpretation of their sense. As the Vedic "cow" is the symbol of light, so the
\nVedic "horse" is a symbol of power,  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9 This is
\nSayana’s rendering of the passage and rises directly from the words. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 12<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nspiritual strength, force of tapasya. When the Rishi asks Agni for a "horse-form
\ncow-in-front gift" he is not asking really for a number of horses forming a body
\nof the gift with some cows walking in front, he is asking for a great body of
\nspiritual power led by the light or, as we may translate it, "with the Ray-Cow
\nwalking in its front."\u00b9 As one hymn describes the recovery from the Panis of the
\nmass of the rays (the cows, \u2014 the shining herds, gavyam<\/i>), so another hymn
\nasks Agni for a mass of abundance or power of the horse \u2014 asvyam<\/i>. So too
\nthe Rishi asks sometimes for the heroes or fighting men as his retinue,
\nsometimes in more abstract language and without symbol for a complete hero-force
\n\u2014suvīryam<\/i>; sometimes he combines the symbol and the thing. So too the
\nRishis ask for a son or sons or offspring, apatyam<\/i>, as an element of the
\nwealth for which they pray to the Gods, but here too an esoteric sense can be
\nseen, for in certain passages the son born to us is clearly an image of some
\ninner birth: Agni himself is our son, the child of our works, the child who as
\nthe Universal Fire is the father of his fathers, and it is by setting the steps
\non things that have fair offspring that we create or discover a path to the
\nhigher world of Truth. Again, "water" in the Veda is used as a symbol. It speaks
\nof the inconscient ocean, salilam apraketam<\/i>, in which the Godhead is
\ninvolved and out of which he is born by his greatness; it speaks also of the
\ngreat ocean, maho arnah, the upper waters which, as one hymn says, Saraswati
\nmakes conscious for us or of which she makes us conscious by the ray of
\nintuition \u2014pre cetayati ketuna<\/i>. The seven rivers seem to be the rivers of
\nNorthern India but the Veda speaks of the seven Mighty Ones of Heaven who flow
\ndown from Heaven; they are waters that know, knowers of the Truth \u2014 ṛtaj\u00f1a
\n<\/i>\u2014 and when they are released they discover for us the road to the great
\nHeavens. So, too, Parashara speaks of Knowledge and universal Life, "in the
\nhouse of the waters". Indra releases the rain by slaying Vritra, but this rain
\ntoo is the rain of Heaven and sets the rivers flowing. Thus the legend of the
\nrelease of the waters which takes so large a place in the Veda puts on the
\naspect of a symbolic myth. Along with it comes the other symbolic <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9Compare the
\nexpression which describes the Aryan, the noble people as led by the light \u2014
\njyotir-āgrah. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 13<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nlegend of the discovery and rescue, from the dark cave in the mountain, of the
\nSun, the cows or herds of the Sun, or the Sun-world \u2014 svar <\/i>\u2014 by the Gods
\nand the Angiras Rishis. The symbol of the Sun is constantly associated with the
\nhigher Light and the Truth: it is in the Truth concealed by an inferior Truth
\nthat are unyoked the horses of the Sun, it is the Sun in its highest light that
\nis called upon in the great Gayatri Mantra to impel our thoughts. So, too, the
\nenemies in the Veda are spoken of as robbers, dasyus<\/i>, who steal the cows,
\nor Vritras and are taken literally as human enemies in the ordinary
\ninterpretation, but Vritra is a demon who covers and holds back the Light and
\nthe waters and the Vritras are his forces fulfilling that function. The Dasyus,
\nrobbers or destroyers, are the powers of darkness, adversaries of the seekers of
\nLight and the Truth. Always there are indications that lead us from the outward
\nand exoteric to an inner and esoteric sense. <\/p>\n

In connection with the symbol of the Sun a notable and most
\nsignificant. verse in a hymn of the fifth Mandala may here be mentioned; for it
\nshows not only the profound mystic symbolism of the Vedic poets, but also how
\nthe writers of the Upanishads understood the Rig-veda and justifies their belief
\nin the inspired knowledge of their forerunners. "There is a Truth covered by a
\nTruth", runs the Vedic passage, "where they unyoke the horses of the Sun; the
\nten hundreds stood together, there was That One;\u00b9 I saw the greatest (best, most
\nglorious) of the embodied gods."\u00b2 Then mark how the seer of the Upanishad
\ntranslates this thought or this mystic experience into his own later style,
\nkeeping the central symbol of the Sun but without any secrecy in the sense. Thus
\nruns the passage in the Upanishad, "The face of the Truth is covered with a
\ngolden lid. O Pushan, that remove for the vision of the law of the Truth.\u00b3 O
\nPushan (fosterer), sole seer, O Yama, O Sun, O Child of the Father of beings,
\nmarshal and gather together thy rays; I see the Light which is that fairest
\n(most auspicious) form of thee; he who is this Purusha, He am I." The golden lid
\nis meant to be the same as the inferior covering<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9Or, That (the supreme Truth) was one; <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\u00b2Or, it means, "I saw the greatest (best) of the
\nbodies of the gods."<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00b3Or, for the law of the Truth, for vision.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 14<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\ntruth, ṛtam<\/i>, spoken of in the Vedic verse; the "best of the bodies of
\nthe Gods" is equivalent to the "fairest form of the Sun", it is the supreme
\nLight which is other and greater than all outer light;  the great formula of the
\nUpanishad, "He am I", corresponds to That One, tad ekam <\/i>of the Rig-vedic
\nverse; the "standing together of the ten hundreds" (the rays of the Sun, says
\nSayana, and that is evidently the meaning) is reproduced in the prayer to the
\nSun "to marshal and mass his rays" so that the supreme form may be seen. The Sun
\nin both the passages, as constantly in the Veda and frequently in the Upanishad,
\nis the Godhead of the supreme Truth and Knowledge and his rays are the light
\nemanating from that supreme Truth and Knowledge. It is clear from this
\ninstance\u2014and there are others\u2014that the seer of the\u00bb Upanishad had a truer sense
\nof the meaning of the ancient Veda than the mediaeval ritualistic commentator
\nwith his gigantic learning, much truer than the modem and very different mind of
\nthe European scholars.  <\/p>\n

There are certain psychological terms which have to be taken
\nconsistently in their true sense if we are to find the inner or esoteric
\nmeaning. Apart from the Truth, Ritam, we have to take always in the sense of
\n"thought" the word dhī <\/i>which constantly recurs in the hymns. This is the
\nnatural meaning of dhī <\/i>which corresponds to the later word Buddhi; it
\nmeans thought, under- standing, intelligence and in the plural ‘thoughts’,
\ndhiyaḥ<\/i>. It is given in the ordinary interpretation all kinds of meanings; 
\n"water", "work", "sacrifice", "food", etc. as well as thought. But in our search
\nwe have to take it consistently in its ordinary and natural significance and see
\nwhat is the result. The word ketu<\/i> means very ordinarily "ray" but it also
\nbears the meaning of intellect, judgment or an intellectual perception. If we
\ncompare the passages in the Veda in which it occurs we can come to the
\nconclusion that it meant a ray of perception or intuition, as for instance, it
\nis by the ray of intuition, ketunā<\/i>, that Saraswati makes us conscious of
\nthe great waters; that too probably is the meaning of the rays which come from
\nthe Supreme foundation above and are directed downwards; these are the
\nintuitions of knowledge as the rays of the Sun of Truth and Light. The word
\nkratu <\/i>means ordinarily work or sacrifice but it also means intelligence, \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 15<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\npower or resolution and especially the power of the intelligence that determines
\nthe work, the will. It is in this latter sense that we can interpret it in the
\nesoteric rendering of the Veda. Agni is a seer-will, kavikratu,<\/i> he is the
\n"will in the heart", kratur hṛdi<\/i>. Finally the word sravas <\/i>which
\nis constantly .in use in the Veda means fame, it is also taken by the
\ncommentators in the sense of food, but these significances cannot be fitted in
\neverywhere and very ordinarily lack all point and apposite force. But śravas
\n<\/i>comes from the root sru<\/i> to hear and is used in the sense of ear
\nitself or of hymn or prayer \u2014 a sense which Sayana accepts \u2014 and from this we
\ncan infer that it means the "thing heard" or its result knowledge that comes to
\nus through hearing. The Rishis speak of themselves as hearers of the Truth,
\nsatyasrutaḥ<\/i>, and the knowledge received by this hearing as Sruti. It is in
\nthis sense of inspiration or inspired knowledge that we can take it in the
\nesoteric meaning of the Veda and we find that it fits in with a perfect
\nappositeness; thus when the Rishi speaks of sravamsi<\/i> as being brought
\nthrough upward and brought through downward, this cannot be applied to food or
\nfame but is perfectly apposite and significant if he is speaking of inspirations
\nwhich rise up to the Truth above or bring down the Truth to us. This is the
\nmethod we can apply everywhere, but we cannot pursue the subject any further
\nhere. In the brief limits of this Foreword these slight indications must
\nsuffice; they are meant only to give the reader an initial insight into the
\nesoteric method of interpretation of the Veda. <\/p>\n

But what then is the secret meaning, the esoteric sense, which
\nemerges by this way of understanding the Veda? It is what we would expect from
\nthe nature of the seeking of the mystics everywhere. It is also, as we should
\nexpect from the actual course of the development of Indian culture, an early
\nform of the spiritual truth which found its culmination in the Upanishads; the
\nsecret knowledge of the Veda is the seed which is evolved later on into the
\nVedanta. The thought around which all is centred is the seeking after Truth,
\nLight, Immortality. There is a Truth deeper and higher than the truth of outward
\nexistence, a Light greater and higher than the light of human understanding
\nwhich comes by revelation and inspiration, an <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 16<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nimmortality towards which the soul has to rise. We have to find our way to that,
\nto get into touch with this Truth and Immortality, sapanta ṛtam amrtam<\/i>,\u00b9
\nto be born into the Truth, to grow in it, to ascend in spirit into the world of
\nTruth and to live in it. To do so is to unite ourselves with the Godhead and to
\npass from mortality into immortality. This is the first and the central teaching
\nof the Vedic mystics. The Platonists, developing their doctrine from the early
\nmystics, held that we live in relation to two worlds, \u2014 a world of higher truth
\nwhich might be called the spiritual world and that in which we live, the world
\nof the embodied soul which is derived from the higher but also degraded from it
\ninto an inferior truth and inferior consciousness. The Vedic mystics held this
\ndoctrine in a more concrete and pragmatic form, for they had the experience of
\nthese two worlds. There is the inferior truth here of this world mixed as it is
\nwith much falsehood and error, anṛtasya bhūreḥ<\/i>,\u00b2 and there is a world
\nor home of Truth, sadanam ṛtasya<\/i>\u00b3 the Truth, the Right, the Vast,
\nsatyam rtam bṛhat<\/i>4<\/span><\/sup>
\nwhere all is Truth-Conscious, ṛtacit<\/i>5<\/span><\/sup>. There are many worlds between up to the triple
\nheavens and their lights but this is the world of the highest Light \u2014 the world
\nof the Sun of Truth, svar<\/i>, or the Great Heaven. We have to find the path
\nto this Great Heaven, the path of Truth, ṛtasya panthāḥ<\/i>6<\/sup> or
\nas it is sometimes called the way of the gods. This is the second mystic
\ndoctrine. The third is that our life is a battle between the powers of Light and
\nTruth, the Gods who are the Immortals and the powers of Darkness. These are
\nspoken of under various names as Vritra and Vritras, Vala and the Panis, the
\nDasyus and their kings. We have to call in the aid of the Gods to destroy the
\nopposition of these powers of Darkness who conceal the Light from us or rob us
\nof it, who obstruct the flowing of the streams of Truth, ṛtasya dhārāh<\/i>,7<\/span><\/sup>
\nthe streams of Heaven and obstruct in every way the soul’s ascent. We have to
\ninvoke the Gods by the inner sacrifice, and by the Word call them into us, \u2014
\nthat is the specific power of the Mantra, \u2014 to offer to them the gifts of the
\nsacrifice and by that giving secure their gifts, so that by this process we may
\nbuild the way of our  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>1.68.2.  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>  \u00b2<\/font>VII.60.5.  
\n<\/font> <\/span>  \u00b3<\/font>1.164.47;
\nalso IV.21.3.     <\/font> <\/span>
\n4<\/font><\/span><\/sup>
\nAtharva XII.1.1.       <\/font> <\/span>
\n5<\/font><\/span><\/sup>IV.3.4.     6<\/sup>III.12.7; alsoVII.66.3.    
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>7<\/font><\/span><\/sup>V.12.2;
\nalso VII.43.4. <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 17<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nascent to the goal. The elements of the outer sacrifice in the Veda are used as
\nsymbols of the inner sacrifice and self-offering;  we give what we are and what
\nwe have in order that the riches of the divine Truth and Light may descend into
\nour life and become the elements of our inner birth into the Truth, \u2014 a right
\nthinking, a right understanding, a right action must develop in us which is the
\nthinking, impulsion and action of that higher Truth, ṛtasya preṣā<\/i>,
\nrūtasya dhītihś<\/i>,\u00b9 and by this we must build up ourselves in that Truth. Our
\nsacrifice is a journey, a pilgrimage and a battle, \u2014 a travel towards the Gods
\nand we also make that journey with Agni, the inner Flame, as our path-finder and
\nleader. Our human things are raised up by the mystic Fire into the immortal
\nbeing, into the Great Heaven, and the things divine come down into us. As the
\ndoctrine of the Rig-veda is the seed of the teaching of the Vedanta, so is its
\ninner practice and discipline a seed of the later practice and discipline of
\nYoga. Finally, as the summit of the teaching of the Vedic mystics comes the
\nsecret of the one Reality, ekam sat<\/i>,\u00b2 or tad ekam<\/i>,\u00b3 which became
\nthe central word of the Upanishads. The Gods, the powers of Light and Truth are
\npowers and names of the One, each God is him-self all the Gods or carries them
\nin him: there is the one Truth, tat satyam<\/i>4<\/span><\/sup>
\nand one bliss to which we must rise. But in the Veda this looks out still mostly
\nfrom behind the veil. There is much else but this is the kernel of the doctrine.\n<\/p>\n

The interpretation I have put forward was set out at length in
\na series of articles with the title "The Secret of the Veda" in the monthly
\nphilosophical magazine, Arya<\/i>, some thirty years ago; written in serial
\nform while still developing the theory and not quite complete in its scope or
\ncomposed on a preconceived and well-ordered plan it was not published in
\nbook-form and is therefore not yet available to the reading public. It was
\naccompanied by a number of renderings of the hymns of the Rig-veda which were
\nrather interpretations than translations and to these there was an introduction
\nexplanatory of the "Doctrine of the Mystics". Subsequently there was planned a
\ncomplete translation of all the hymns to Agni in the ten Mandalas which kept
\nclose to the text; the renderings of those hymns in the second  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b91.68.3.    
\n<\/span>\u00b21.164.46.     <\/span>\u00b3X.129.2.    
\n<\/span>4<\/span><\/sup>ffl.39.5;
\nalso IV.54.4 and VIII.45.27. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 18<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nand sixth Mandalas are now published in this book for the first time as well as
\na few from the first Mandala. But to establish on a scholastic basis the
\nconclusions of the hypothesis it would have been necessary to prepare an edition
\nof the Rig-veda or of a large part of it with a word by word construing in
\nSanskrit and English, notes explanatory of important points in the text and
\njustifying the interpretation both of separate words and of whole verses and
\nalso elaborate appendices to fix firmly the rendering of key-words like ṛta<\/i>,
\nśravas<\/i>, kratu<\/i>, ketu<\/i>, etc. essential to the esoteric
\ninterpretation. This also was planned, but meanwhile greater preoccupations of a
\npermanent nature intervened and no time was left to proceed with such a
\nconsiderable undertaking. For the benefit of the reader of these translations
\nwho might otherwise be at a loss, this Foreword has been written and some
\npassages\u00b9 from the unpublished "Doctrine of the Mystics" have been included. The
\ntext of the Veda has been given for use by those who can read the original
\nSanskrit. These translations however are not intended to be a scholastic work
\nmeant to justify a hypothesis ; the object of this publication is only to
\npresent them in a permanent form for disciples and those who are inclined to see
\nmore in the Vedas than a superficial liturgy and would be interested in knowing
\nwhat might be the esoteric sense of this ancient Scripture. <\/p>\n

This is a literary and not a strictly literal translation. But
\na fidelity to the meaning, the sense of the words and the structure of the
\nthought, has been preserved: in fact the method has been to start with a bare
\nand scrupulously exact rendering of the actual language and adhere to that as
\nthe basis of the interpretation;  for it is only so that we can find out the
\nactual thoughts of these ancient mystics. But any rendering of such great poetry
\nas the hymns of the Rig-veda, magnificent in their colouring and images, noble
\nand beautiful in rhythm, perfect in their diction, must, if it is not to be a
\nmerely dead scholastic work, bring at least a faint echo of their poetic force,
\n\u2014 more cannot be done in a prose translation and in so different a language. The
\nturn of phrase and the syntax of English and Vedic Sanskrit are poles asunder;
\nto achieve some sense of style and natural writing  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9In the
\npresent edition the entire essay has been reproduced. – Ed. <\/span>
\n                       
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

                                                                                                                                                       Page – 19<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\none has constantly to turn the concentrated speech of the Veda into a looser,
\nmore diluted English form. Another stumbling-block for the translator is the
\nubiquitous double entendre <\/i>marking in one word the symbol and the thing
\nsymbolised. Ray and Cow, clear light of the mind and clarified butter, horses
\nand spiritual power; one has to invent phrases like the "herds of the light" or
\n"the shining herds"’ or to use devices such as writing the word horse with a
\ncapital H to indicate that it is a symbolic horse that is meant and not the
\ncommon physical animal; but very often the symbol has to be dropped, or else the
\nsymbol has to be kept and the inner meaning left to be understood ;\u00b9 I have not
\nalways used the same phrase though always keeping the same sense, but varied the
\ntranslation according to the needs of the passage. Often I have been unable to
\nfind an adequate English word which will convey the full connotation or colour
\nof the original text; <\/p>\n

I have used two words instead of one or a phrase or resorted
\nto some other device to give the exact and complete meaning. Besides, there is
\noften a use of antique words or turns of language of which the sense is not
\nreally known and can only be conjectured or else different renderings are
\nequally possible. In many passages I have had to leave a provisional rendering;
\nit was intended to keep the final decision on the point until the time when a
\nmore considerable body of the hymns had been translated and were ready for
\npublication; but this time has not yet come. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9The Rishis
\nsometimes seem to combine two different meanings in the same word; I have
\noccasionally tried to render this double sense. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 20<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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