{"id":249,"date":"2013-07-13T01:26:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=249"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:26:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:53","slug":"03-the-doctrine-of-the-mystic-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\/03-the-doctrine-of-the-mystic-vol-11-hymns-to-the-mystic-fire-volume-11","title":{"rendered":"-03_The Doctrine of The Mystic.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n Doctrine of the
\nMystics <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nT<\/span>HE<\/span><\/b> Veda possesses the high spiritual substance of the
\nUpanishads, but lacks their phraseology; it is an inspired knowledge as yet
\ninsufficiently equipped with intellectual and philosophical terms. We find a
\nlanguage of poets and illuminates to whom all experience is real, vivid,
\nsensible, even concrete, not yet of thinkers and systematisers to whom the
\nrealities of the mind and soul have become abstractions. Yet a system, a
\ndoctrine there is; but its structure is supple, its terms are concrete, the
\ncast of its thought is practical and experimental, but in the accomplished type
\nof an old and sure experience, not of one that is crude and uncertain because
\nyet in the making. Here we have the ancient psychological science and the art
\nof
\nspiritual living of which the Upanishads are the philosophical outcome and
\nmodification and Vedanta, Sankhya and Yoga the late intellectual result and
\nlogical dogma. But like all life, like all science that is still vital, it is
\nfree from the armoured rigidities of the reasoning intellect; in spite of its
\nestablished symbols and sacred formulae it is still large, free, flexible,
\nfluid, supple and subtle. It has the movement of life and the large breath of
\nthe soul. And while the later Philosophies are books of Knowledge and make liberation
\nthe one supreme good, the Veda is a Book of Works and the hope for which it
\nspurns our present bonds and littleness is perfection, self-achievement,
\nimmortality. <\/p>\n

The
\ndoctrine of the Mystics recognises an Unknowable, Timeless and Unnameable
\nbehind and above all things and not seizable by the studious pursuit of the
\nmind. Impersonally, it is That, the One Existence; to the pursuit of our
\npersonality it reveals itself out of the secrecy of things as the God or Deva,
\n\u2014 nameless though he has many names, immeasurable and beyond
\ndescription though he holds in himself all description of name and knowledge
\nand all measures of form and substance, force and activity.  <\/p>\n

The
\nDeva or Godhead is both the original cause and the final  <\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 21<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

result. Divine
\nExistent, builder of the worlds, lord and begetter of all things, Male and
\nFemale, Being and Consciousness, Father and Mother of the Worlds and their
\ninhabitants, he is also their Son and ours: for he is the Divine Child born into
\nthe Worlds who manifests himself in the growth of the creature. He is Rudra and
\nVishnu, Prajapati and Hiranyagarbha, Surya, Agni, Indra, Vayu, Soma, Brihaspati,
\n\u2014 Varuna and Mitra and Bhaga and Aryaman, all the gods. He is the wise, mighty
\nand liberating Son born from our works and our sacrifice, the Hero in our
\nwarfare and Seer of our knowledge, the White Steed in the front of our days who
\ngallops towards the upper Ocean. <\/p>\n

The soul of man soars as the Bird, the Hansa,
\npast the shining firmaments of physical and mental consciousness, climbs as the
\ntraveller and fighter beyond earth of body and heaven of mind by the ascending
\npath of the Truth to find this Godhead waiting for us, leaning down to us from
\nthe secrecy of the highest supreme where it is seated in the triple divine
\nPrinciple and the source of the Beatitude. The Deva is indeed, whether
\nattracting and exalted there or here helpful to us in the person of the greater
\nGods, always the Friend and Lover of man, the pastoral Master of the Herds who
\ngives us the sweet milk and the clarified butter from the udder of the shining
\nCow of the infinitude. He is the source and outpourer of the ambrosial Wine of
\ndivine delight and we drink it drawn from the sevenfold waters of existence or
\npressed out from the luminous plant on the hill of being and uplifted by its
\nraptures we become immortal. <\/p>\n

\nSuch are some of the images of this ancient mystic adoration. <\/p>\n

\nThe Godhead has built this universe in a complex system of worlds which we find
\nboth within us and without, subjectively cognised and objectively sensed. It is
\na rising tier of earths and heavens; it is a stream of diverse waters; it is a
\nLight of seven rays, or of eight or nine or ten; it is a Hill of many plateaus.
\nThe seers often image it in a series of trios; there are three earths and three
\nheavens. More, there is a triple world below, \u2014 Heaven, Earth and the
\nintervening mid-region; a triple world between, the shining heavens of the Sun;
\na triple world above, the supreme and rapturous abodes of the Godhead.  <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 22<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 
\nBut other principles intervene and make the order of the worlds yet more
\ncomplex. These principles are psychological;  for since all creation is a
\nformation of the Spirit, every external system of worlds must in each of its
\nplanes be in material cor-respondence with some power or rising degree of
\nconsciousness of which it is the objective symbol and must house a kindred
\ninternal order of things. To understand the Veda we must seize this Vedic
\nparallelism and distinguish the cosmic gradations to which it leads. We
\nrediscover the same system behind the later Puranic symbols and it is thence
\nthat we can derive its tabulated
\nseries most simply and clearly. For there are seven principles of existence and
\nthe seven Puranic worlds correspond to them with sufficient precision, thus:\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n

Principle<\/i><\/p>\n

1. Pure Existence\u2014Sat\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n2. Pure Consciousness \u2014 Chit <\/p>\n

\n3. Pure Bliss\u2014Ananda <\/p>\n

4. Knowledge or Truth\u00ad\u2014 Vijnana <\/p>\n

\n5. Mind <\/p>\n

\n6. Life (nervous being) <\/p>\n

\n7. Matter <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

World<\/i><\/p>\n

World of the highest truth of being (Satyaloka)<\/p>\n

\nWorld of infinite Will or conscious force(Tapoloka)<\/p>\n

\nWorld of creative delight of existence (Janaloka)<\/p>\n

World of the
\nVastness (Maharloka)<\/p>\n

World of light (Swar) <\/p>\n

World of various becoming (Bhuvar)<\/p>\n

The material world (Bhur) <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Now this system which in the Purana is simple enough, is a
\ngood deal more intricate in the Veda. There the three highest
\nworlds are classed together as the triple divine Principle, \u2014 for
\nthey dwell always together in a Trinity; infinity is their scope,
\nbliss is their foundation. They are supported by the vast regions
\nof the Truth whence a divine Light radiates out towards our
\nmentality in the three heavenly luminous worlds of Swar, the
\ndomain of Indra. Below is ranked the triple system in which we
\nlive. <\/p>\n

\nWe have the same cosmic gradations as in the Puranas but <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 23<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nthey are differently grouped, \u2014 seven worlds in principle, five in
\npractice, three in their general groupings: <\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n

\n1. The Supreme Sat-Chit-Ananda <\/p>\n

\n2. The Link-World Supermind  <\/p>\n

\n3. The triple lower world <\/p>\n

\nPure Mind <\/p>\n

\nLife-force<\/p>\n

\nMatter<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\nThe Triple divine worlds, <\/p>\n

\nThe Truth, Right, Vast, manifested in Swar, with its
\nthree luminous heavens<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nHeaven (Dyaus, the three heavens)<\/p>\n

\nThe Mid-Region (Antariksha)<\/p>\n

\n Earth (the three earths) <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nAnd as each principle can be modified by the subordinate
\nmanifestation of the others within it, each world is divisible into
\nseveral provinces according to different arrangements and self-orderings of its creative light of consciousness. Into this frame-work, then, we must place all the complexities of the subtle vision
\nand the fertile imagery of the seers down to the hundred cities
\nwhich are now in the possession of the hostile kings, the Lords of
\ndivision and evil. But the gods shall break them open and give
\nthem for his free possession to the Aryan worshipper! <\/p>\n

\nBut where are these worlds and whence are they created?
\nHere we have one of the profoundest ideas of the Vedic sages.
\nMan dwells in the bosom of the Earth-Mother and is aware of
\nthis world of mortality only; but there is a superconscient high
\nbeyond where the divine worlds are seated in a luminous secrecy; 
\nthere is a subconscient or inconscient below his surface waking
\nimpressions and from that pregnant Night the worlds as he sees
\nthem are born. And these other worlds between the luminous
\nupper and the tenebrous lower ocean ? They are here. Man draws from the
\nlife-world his vital being, from the mind-world his mentality; he is ever in
\nsecret communication with them; he can consciously enter into them, be born into them, if he will. Even into
\nthe solar worlds of the Truth he can rise, enter the portals of the
\nSuperconscient, cross the threshold of the Supreme. The divine
\ndoors shall swing open to his increasing soul. <\/p>\n

\nThis human ascension is possible because every being really <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 24<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nholds in himself all that his outward vision perceives as if external
\nto him. We have subjective faculties hidden in us which correspond to all the tiers and strata of the objective cosmic system and
\nthese form for us so many planes of our possible existence. This
\nmaterial life and our narrowly limited consciousness of the physical world are far from being the sole experience permitted to
\nman, \u2014 be he a thousand times the Son of Earth. If maternal
\nEarth bore him and retains him in her arms, yet is Heaven also
\none of his parents and has a claim on his being. It is open to him
\nto become awake to profounder depths and higher heights within
\nand such awakening is his intended progress. And as he mounts
\nthus to higher and ever higher planes of himself, new worlds open
\nto his life and his vision and become the field of his experience
\nand the home of his spirit. He lives in contact and union with
\ntheir powers and godheads and remoulds himself in their image.
\nEach ascent is thus a new birth of the soul, and the Veda calls
\nthe worlds "births" as well as seats and dwelling-places. <\/p>\n

\nFor as the Gods have built the series of the cosmic worlds,
\neven so they labour to build up the same series of ordered states
\nand ascending degrees in man’s consciousness from the mortal
\ncondition to the crowning immortality. They raise him from the
\nlimited material state of being in which our lowest manhood
\ndwells contented and subject to the Lords of Division, give him
\na life rich and abundant with the many and rapid shocks and
\nimpulsions from the dynamic worlds of Life and Desire where
\nthe Gods battle with the demons and raise him yet higher from
\nthose troubled rapidities and intensities into the steadfast purity
\nand clarity of the high mental existence. For pure thought and
\nfeeling are man’s sky, his heaven; this whole vitalistic existence
\nof emotion, passions, affections of which desire is the pivot, forms
\nfor him a mid-world; body and material living are his earth. <\/p>\n

\nBut pure thought and pure psychic state are not the highest
\nheight of the human ascension. The home of the Gods is an
\nabsolute Truth which lives in solar glories beyond mind. Man
\nascending thither strives no longer as the thinker but is victo-riously the seer; he is no longer this mental creature but a divine
\nbeing. His will, life, thought, emotion, sense, act are all trans-
\nformed into values of an all-puissant Truth and remain no longer  <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 25<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nan embarrassed or a helpless tangle of mixed truth and falsehood. He moves lamely no more in our narrow and grudging
\nlimits but ranges in the unobstructed Vast; toils and zigzags no
\nlonger amid these crookednesses, but follows a swift and conquering straightness; feeds no longer on broken fragments, but
\nis suckled by the teats of Infinity. Therefore he has to break
\nthrough and out beyond these firmaments of earth and heaven; 
\nconquering firm possession of the solar worlds, entering on to his
\nhighest Height he has to learn how to dwell in the triple principle
\nof Immortality. <\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\nThis contrast of the mortality we are and the immortal
\ncondition to which we can aspire is the key of the Vedic thought
\nand practice. Veda is the earliest gospel we have of man’s immortality and these ancient stanzas conceal the primitive discipline
\nof its inspired discoverers.  <\/p>\n

\nSubstance of being, light of consciousness, active force and
\npossessive delight are the constituent principles of existence; but
\ntheir combination in us may be either limited, divided, hurt,
\nbroken and’ obscure or infinite, enlightened, vast, whole and unhurt. Limited and divided being is ignorance; it is darkness and
\nweakness, it is grief and pain; in the Vast, in the integral, in the
\ninfinite we must seek for the desirable riches of substance, light,
\nforce and joy. Limitation is mortality; immortality comes to us
\nas an accomplished self-possession in the infinite and the power
\nto live and move in firm vastnesses. Therefore it is in proportion
\nas he widens and on condition that he increases constantly in
\nsubstance of his being, brightens an ever loftier flame of will and vaster light
\nof knowledge, advances the boundaries of his consciousness, raises the degrees and enlarges the breadth of his
\npower, force and strength, confirms an intenser beatitude of joy
\nand liberates his soul into immeasurable peace that man becomes
\ncapable of immortality. <\/p>\n

\nTo widen is to acquire new births. The aspiring material
\ncreature becomes the straining vital man; he in turn transmutes
\nhimself into the subtle mental and psychical being; this subtle
\nthinker grows into the wide, multiple and cosmic man open on
\nall sides of him to all the multitudinous inflowings of the Truth;  <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 26<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nthe cosmic soul rising in attainment strives as the spiritual man
\nfor a higher peace, joy and harmony. These are the five Aryan
\ntypes, each of them a great people occupying its own province or state of the
\ntotal human nature. But there is also the absolute
\nAryan who would conquer and pass beyond these states to the
\ntranscendental harmony of them all. <\/p>\n

\nIt is the supramental Truth that is the instrument of this
\ngreat inner transfiguration. That replaces mentality by luminous
\nvision and the eye of the gods, mortal life by breath and force
\nof the infinite existence, obscure and death-possessed substance
\nby the free and immortal conscious-being. The progress of man
\nmust be therefore, first, his self-expanding into a puissant vitality
\ncapable of sustaining all vibrations of action and experience and
\na clear mental and psychical purity; secondly, an outgrowing of
\nthis human light and power and its transmutation into an infinite
\nTruth and an immortal Will. <\/p>\n

\nOur normal life and consciousness are a dark or at best a
\nstarlit Night. Dawn comes by the arising of the Sun of that
\nhigher Truth and with Dawn there comes the effective sacrifice.
\nBy the sacrifice the Dawn itself and the lost Sun are constantly
\nconquered out of the returning Night and the luminous herds
\nrescued from the darkling cave of the Panis; by the sacrifice the
\nrain of the abundance of heaven is poured out for us and the
\nsevenfold waters of the higher existence descend impetuously
\nupon our earth because the coils of the obscuring Python,
\nthe all-enfolding and all-withholding Vritra, have been cloven
\nasunder by the God-Mind’s flashing lightnings; in the sacrifice
\nthe Soma-wine is distilled and uplifts us on the stream of its
\nimmortalising ecstasy to the highest heavens. <\/p>\n

\nOur sacrifice is the offering of all our gains and works to the
\npowers of the higher existence. The whole world is a dumb and
\nhelpless sacrifice in which the soul is bound as a victim, self-offered to unseen Gods. The liberating Word must be found,
\nthe illuminating hymn must be framed in the heart and mind of
\nman and his life must be turned into a conscious and voluntary
\noffering in which the soul is no longer the victim, but the master
\nof the sacrifice. By right sacrifice and by the all-creative and all-expressive Word that shall arise out of his depths as a sublime  <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 27<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nhymn to the Gods man can achieve all things. He shall conquer
\nhis perfection; Nature shall come to him as a willing and longing
\nbride; he shall become her seer and rule her as her King. <\/p>\n

\nBy the hymn of prayer and God-attraction, by the hymn of
\npraise and God-affirmation, by the hymn of God-attainment and
\nself-expression man can house in himself the Gods, build in this
\ngated house of his being the living image of their deity, grow into
\ndivine births, form within himself vast and luminous worlds for
\nhis soul to inhabit. By the word of the Truth the all-engendering
\nSurya creates; by that rhythm Brahmanaspati evokes the worlds
\nand Twashtri fashions them; finding the all-puissant Word in
\nhis intuitive heart, shaping it in his mind the human thinker, the
\nmortal creature can create in himself all the forms, all the states
\nand conditions he desires and, achieving, can conquer for him-self all wealth of being, light, strength and enjoyment. He builds
\nup his integral being and aids his gods to destroy the evil armies; 
\nthe hosts of his spiritual enemies are slain who have divided, torn
\nand afflicted his nature. <\/p>\n

\nThe image of this sacrifice is sometimes that of a journey or
\nvoyage; for it travels, it ascends; it has a goal \u2014 the vastness,
\nthe true existence, the light, the felicity \u2014 and it is called upon
\nto discover and keep the good, the straight and the happy path
\nto the goal, the arduous, yet joyful road of the Truth. It has to
\nclimb, led by the flaming strength of the divine Will, from plateau
\nto plateau as of a mountain, it has to cross as in a ship the waters
\nof existence, traverse its rivers, overcome their deep pits and rapid
\ncurrents; its aim is to arrive at the far-off ocean of light and
\ninfinity. <\/p>\n

\nAnd this is no easy or peaceful march; it is for long seasons
\na fierce and relentless battle. Constantly the Aryan man has to
\nlabour and to fight and conquer; he must be a tireless toiler and
\ntraveller and a stern warrior, he must force open and storm and
\nsack city after city, win kingdom after kingdom, overthrow and
\ntread down ruthlessly enemy after enemy. His whole progress is
\na warring of Gods and Titans, Gods and Giants, Indra and the
\nPython, Aryan and Dasyu. Aryan adversaries even he has to
\nface in the open field; for old friends and helpers turn into enemies;   <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 28<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nthe kings of Aryan states he would conquer and overpass
\njoin themselves to the Dasyus and are leagued against him in
\nsupreme battle to prevent his free and utter passing on. <\/p>\n

\nBut the Dasyu is the natural enemy. These dividers, plunderers, harmful powers, these Danavas, sons of the Mother of
\ndivision, are spoken of by the Rishis under many general appellations. There are Rakshasas; there are Eaters and Devourers,
\nWolves and Tearers; there are hurters and haters; there are dualisers; there are confiners or censurers. But we are given also
\nmany specific names. Vritra, the Serpent, is the grand Adversary; for he obstructs with his coils of darkness all possibility of
\ndivine existence and divine action. And even when Vritra is slain
\nby the light, fiercer enemies arise out of him. Shushna afflicts us
\nwith his impure and ineffective force, Namuchi fights man by his
\nweaknesses, and others too assail, each with his proper evil.
\nThen there are Vala and the Panis, miser traffickers in the sense-life, stealers and concealers of the higher Light and its illuminations which they can only darken and misuse, \u2014 an impious
\nhost who are jealous of their store and will not offer sacrifice to
\nthe Gods. These and other personalities, \u2014 they are much more
\nthan personifications, \u2014 of our ignorance, evil, weakness and
\nmany limitations make constant war upon man; they encircle
\nhim from near or they shoot their arrows at him from afar or
\neven dwell in his gated house in the place of the Gods and with
\ntheir shapeless stammering mouths and their insufficient breath
\nof force mar his self-expression. They must be expelled, over-powered, slain, thrust down into their nether darkness by the aid
\nof the mighty and helpful deities.  <\/p>\n

\nThe Vedic deities are names, powers, personalities of the
\nuniversal Godhead and they represent each some essential puissance of the Divine Being. They manifest the cosmos and are
\nmanifest in it. Children of Light, Sons of the Infinite, they recognise in the soul of man their brother and ally and desire to help
\nand increase him by themselves increasing in him so as to possess
\nhis world with their light, strength and beauty. The Gods call
\nman to a divine companionship and alliance; they attract and uplift him to their luminous fraternity, invite his aid and offer theirs
\nagainst the Sons of Darkness and Division. Man in return calls  <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 29<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nthe Gods to his sacrifice, offers to them his swiftnesses and his
\nstrengths, his clarities and his sweetnesses, \u2014 milk and butter
\nof the shining Cow, distilled juices of the Plant of Joy, the Horse
\nof the Sacrifice, the cake and the wine, the grain for the God-Mind’s radiant coursers. He receives them into his being and
\ntheir gifts into his life, increases them by the hymn and the wine
\nand forms perfectly, 1\u2014 as a smith forges iron, says the Veda, \u2014their great and luminous godheads. <\/p>\n

\nAll this Vedic imagery is easy to understand when once we
\nhave the key, but it must not be mistaken for mere imagery.
\nThe Gods are not simply poetical personifications of abstract
\nideas or of psychological and physical functions of Nature. To
\nthe Vedic seers they are living realities; the vicissitudes of the
\nhuman soul represent a cosmic struggle not merely of principles
\nand tendencies but of the cosmic Powers which support and embody them. These are the Gods and the Demons. On the world-stage and in the individual soul the same real drama with the
\nsame personages is enacted. <\/p>\n

\nTo what gods shall the sacrifice be offered? Who shall be
\ninvoked to manifest and protect in the human being this in-creasing godhead? <\/p>\n

\nAgni first, for without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn
\non the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued
\npower of the Will, a Force of God instinct with knowledge. This
\nconscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality,
\na pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth
\nand heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and
\nbrings back in return their force and light and joy into our
\nhumanity. <\/p>\n

\nIndra, the Puissant next, who is the power of pure Existence
\nself-manifested as the Divine Mind. As Agni is one pole of Force
\ninstinct with knowledge that sends its current upward from earth
\nto heaven, so Indra is the other pole of Light instinct with force
\nwhich descends from heaven to earth. He comes down into our
\nworld as the Hero with the shining horses and slays darkness
\nand division with his lightnings, pours down the life-giving
\nheavenly waters, finds in the trace of the hound. Intuition, the <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 30<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nlost or hidden illuminations, makes the Sun of Truth mount high
\nin the heaven of our mentality.  <\/p>\n

\nSurya, the Sun, is the master of that supreme Truth, \u2014truth of being, truth of
\nknowledge, truth of process and act and movement and functioning. He is therefore the creator or rather the
\nmanifester of all things, \u2014 for creation is outbringing, expression
\nby the Truth and Will, \u2014 and the father, fosterer, enlightener of
\nour souls. The illuminations we seek are the herds of this Sun
\nwho comes to us in the track of the divine Dawn and releases
\nand reveals in us night-hidden world after world up to the
\nhighest Beatitude. <\/p>\n

\nOf that beatitude Soma is the representative deity. The
\nwine of his ecstasy is concealed in the growths of earth, in the
\nwaters of existence; even here in our physical being are his
\nimmortalising juices and they have to be pressed out and offered
\nto all the gods; for in that strength these shall increase and
\nconquer. <\/p>\n

\nEach of these primary deities has others associated with him
\nwho fulfil functions that arise from his own. For if the truth of
\nSurya is to be established firmly in our mortal nature, there are
\nprevious conditions that are indispensable; a vast purity and
\nclear wideness destructive of all sin and crooked falsehood, \u2014
\nand this is Varuna; a luminous power of love and comprehension leading and forming into harmony all our thoughts, acts
\nand impulses, \u2014 this is Mitra; an immortal puissance of clear-discerning aspiration and endeavour, \u2014 this is Aryaman; a
\nhappy spontaneity of the right enjoyment of all things dispelling
\nthe evil dream of sin and error and suffering, \u2014 this is Bhaga.
\nThese four are powers of the Truth of Surya. <\/p>\n

\nFor the whole bliss of Soma to be established perfectly in
\nour nature a happy and enlightened and unmaimed condition of
\nmind, vitality and body are necessary. This condition is given
\nto us by the twin Ashwins; wedded to the daughter of Light,
\ndrinkers of honey, bringers of perfect satisfactions, healers of
\nmaim and malady they occupy our parts of knowledge and
\nparts of action and prepare our mental, vital and physical being
\nfor an easy and victorious ascension. <\/p>\n

\nIndra, the Divine Mind, as the shaper of mental forms has <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 31<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nfor his assistants, his artisans, the Ribhus, human powers who
\nby the work of sacrifice and their brilliant ascension to the
\nhigh dwelling-place of the Sun have attained to immortality and
\nhelp mankind to repeat their achievement. They shape by the
\nmind Indra’s horses, the Ashwins’ chariot, the weapons of the
\nGods, all the means of the journey and the battle. But as giver
\nof the Light of truth and as Vritra-slayer Indra is aided by the
\nMaruts, who are powers of will and nervous or vital Force that
\nhave attained to the light of thought and the voice of self-expression. They are behind all thought and speech as its impellers and
\nthey battle towards the Light, Truth and Bliss of the supreme
\nConsciousness. <\/p>\n

\nThere are also female energies; for the Deva is both Male
\nand Female and the gods also are either activising souls or
\npassively executive and methodising energies. Aditi, infinite
\nMother of the gods, comes first; and there are besides five powers
\nof the Truth-Consciousness, \u2014 Mahi or Bharati, the vast Word
\nthat brings us all things out of the divine source; Ila, the strong
\nprimal word of the Truth who gives us its active vision; Saraswati, its streaming current and the word of its inspiration; 
\nSarama, the Intuition, hound of heaven who descends into the
\ncavern of the subconscient and finds there the concealed illuminations; Dakshina, whose function is to discern rightly, dispose the action and the offering and distribute in the sacrifice
\nto each godhead its portion. Each god, too, has his female
\nenergy. <\/p>\n

\nAll this action and struggle and ascension is supported by
\nHeaven our Father and Earth our Mother, Parents of the Gods,
\nwho sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the
\nphysical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, Master of life, links them
\ntogether by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are
\nother deities,\u2014Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic
\nDragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third
\nplane of existence consummates our triple being; and more
\nbesides. <\/p>\n

\nThe development of all these godheads, is necessary to our <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 32<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nperfection. And that perfection must be attained on all our levels, \u2014 in the
\nwideness of earth, our physical being and consciousness ; in
\nthe full force of vital speed and action and enjoyment and nervous vibration, typified as the Horse which must be
\nbrought forward to upbear our endeavour; in the perfect gladness of the heart of emotion and a brilliant heat and clarity of
\nthe mind throughout our intellectual and psychical being; in
\nthe coming of the supramental Light, the Dawn and the Sun
\nand the shining Mother of the herds, to transform all our existence; for so comes to us the possession of the Truth, by the
\nTruth the admirable surge of the Bliss, in the Bliss infinite Consciousness of absolute being. <\/p>\n

\nThree great Gods, origin of the Pu’-anic Trinity, largest puissances of the supreme Godhead, make possible this development
\nand upward evolution; they support in its grand lines and fundamental energies
\nall these complexities of the cosmos. Brahmanaspati is the Creator; by the word, by his cry he creates, \u2014 that is
\nto say, he expresses, he brings out all existence and conscious
\nknowledge and movement of life and eventual forms from the
\ndarkness of the Inconscient. Rudra, the Violent and Merciful,
\nthe Mighty One, presides over the struggle of life to affirm itself; 
\nhe is the armed, wrathful and beneficent Power of God who lifts
\nforcibly the creation upward, smites all that opposes, scourges
\nall that errs and resists, heals all that is wounded and suffers
\nand complains and submits. Vishnu of the vast pervading motion
\nholds in his triple stride all these worlds; it is he that makes a
\nwide room for the action of Indra in our limited mortality; it is
\nby him and with him that we rise into his highest seats where
\nwe find waiting for us the Friend, the Beloved, the Beatific
\nGodhead. <\/p>\n

\nOur earth shaped out of the dark inconscient ocean of existence lifts its high formations and ascending peaks heavenward;
\nheaven of mind has its own formations, clouds that give out their
\nlightnings and their waters of life; the streams of the clarity and
\nthe honey ascend out of the subconscient ocean below and seek
\nthe superconscient ocean above; and from above that ocean
\nsends downward its rivers of the light and truth and bliss even
\ninto our physical being. Thus in images of physical Nature the <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 33<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nVedic poets sing the hymn of our spiritual ascension. <\/p>\n

\nThat ascension has already been effected by the Ancients,
\nthe human forefathers, and the spirits of these great Ancestors
\nstill assist their offspring; for the new dawns repeat the old and
\nlean forward in light to join the dawns of the future. Kanwa,
\nKutsa, Atri, Kakshiwan, Gotama, Shunahshepa have become
\ntypes of certain spiritual victories which tend to be constantly
\nrepeated in the experience of humanity. The seven sages, the
\nAngirasas, are waiting still and always, ready to chant the word,
\nto rend the cavern, to find the lost herds, to recover the hidden
\nSun. Thus the soul is a battlefield full of helpers and hurters, friends and
\nenemies. All this lives, teems, is personal, is conscious, is active. We create for ourselves by the sacrifice and by
\nthe word shining seers, heroes to fight for us, children of
\nour works. The Rishis and the Gods -find for us our luminous
\nherds; the Ribhus fashion by the mind the chariots of the
\ngods and their horses and their shining weapons. Our life is
\na horse that neighing and galloping bears us onward and upward ; its forces are swift-hooved steeds, the liberated powers of
\nthe mind are wide-winging birds; this mental being or this soul is
\nthe upsoaring Swan or the Falcon that breaks out from a hundred
\niron walls and wrests from the jealous guardians of felicity the
\nwine of the Soma. Every shining godward Thought that arises
\nfrom the secret abysses of the heart is a priest and a creator and chants a
\ndivine hymn of luminous realisation and puissant fulfilment. We seek for the shining gold of the Truth; we lust after
\na heavenly treasure. <\/p>\n

\nThe soul of man is a world full of beings, a kingdom in
\nwhich armies clash to help or hinder a supreme conquest, a
\nhouse where the gods are our guests and which the demons strive
\nto possess; the fullness of its energies and wideness of its being
\nmake a seat of sacrifice spread, arranged and purified for a celestial session. <\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nSuch are some of the principal images of the Veda and a
\nvery brief and insufficient outline of the teaching of the Fore-
\nfathers. So understood the Rig-veda ceases to be an obscure,
\nconfused and barbarous hymnal; it becomes the high-aspiring <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 34<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nSong of Humanity; its chants are episodes of the lyrical epic
\nof the soul in its immortal ascension. <\/p>\n

\nThis at least; what more there may be in the Veda of ancient
\nscience, lost knowledge, old psycho-physical tradition remains
\nyet to be discovered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 35<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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