{"id":655,"date":"2013-07-13T01:29:30","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=655"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:29:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:30","slug":"29-the-great-aranyaka-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/12-the-upanishad-volume-12\/29-the-great-aranyaka-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","title":{"rendered":"-29_The Great Aranyaka.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nThe Great Aranyaka<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nFOREWORD<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/span>HE
\n<\/span><\/b>Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad, at once the most
\nobscure and the profoundest of the Upanishads, offers peculiar difficulties to
\nthe modern mind. If its ideas are remote from us, its language is still more
\nremote. Profound, subtle, extraordinarily rich in rare philosophical suggestions
\nand delicate psychology, it has preferred to couch its ideas in a highly
\nfigurative and symbolical language, which to its contemporaries, accustomed to
\nthis suggestive dialect, must have seemed a noble frame for its riches, but
\nmeets us rather as an obscuring veil. To draw aside this curtain, to translate
\nthe old Vedic language and figures into the form contemporary thought prefers to
\ngive to its ideas is the sole object of this commentary. The task is necessarily
\na little hazardous. It would have been easy merely to reproduce the thoughts and
\ninterpretations of Shankara in the modern tongue; if there were an error, one
\ncould afford to err with so supreme an authority. But it seems to me that both
\nthe demands of truth and the spiritual need of mankind in this age call for a
\nrestoration of old Vedantic truth rather than for the prolonged dominion of that
\nsingle side of it systematised by the mediaeval thinker. The great
\nShankaracharya needs no modern praise and can be hurt by no modern disagreement.
\nEasily the first of metaphysical thinkers, the greatest genius in the history of
\nphilosophy, his commentary has also done an incalculable service to our race by
\nbridging the intellectual gulf between the sages of the Upanishads and
\nourselves. It has protected them from the practical oblivion in which our
\nignorance and inertia have allowed the Veda to rest for so many centuries, only
\nto be dragged out by the rude hands of the daringly speculative Teuton. It has
\nkept these ancient grandeurs of thought, these high repositories of spirituality
\nunder the safeguard of that temple of meta\u00adphysics, the Adwaita philosophy \u2014 a
\nlittle in the background, a little too much veiled and shrouded, but
\nnevertheless safe from<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 397<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nthe iconoclasm and the restless ingenuities of modern
\nscholarship. Nevertheless, it remains true that Shankara’s commentary is
\ninteresting not so much for the light it sheds on the Upanishad as for its
\ndigressions into his own philosophy. I do not think that Shankara’s rational
\nintellect, subtle indeed to the extreme, but avid of logical clearness and
\nconsistency, could penetrate far into that mystic symbolism and that deep and
\nelusive flexibility which is characteristic of all the Upanishads, but rises to
\nan almost unattainable height in the Brihad Aranyaka. He has done much, has
\nshown often a readiness and quickness astonishing in so different a type of
\nintellectuality, but more is possible and needed. The time is fast coming when
\nthe human intellect will be aware of the mighty complexity of the universe, more
\nready to learn and less prone to dispute and dictate; we shall be willing then
\nto read ancient documents of knowledge for what they contain instead of
\nattempting to force into them our own truth or get them to serve our philosophic
\nor scholastic purposes. To enter passively into the thoughts of the old Rishis,
\nallow their words to sink into our souls, mould them and create their own
\nreverberations in a sympathetic and responsive material\u2014 submissiveness, in
\nshort, to the Sruti \u2014 was the theory the ancients themselves had of the method
\nof Vedic knowledge \u2014 girām upaśrutim cara, stomān abhi svara, abhi gr<\/i><\/span>̣̣̣̣̣̣<\/span>n<\/span>̣<\/span>īhi
\na ruva. <\/span><\/i>To listen in soul to the old voices and
\nallow the Sruti in the soul to respond, to vibrate, first obscurely, in answer
\nto the Vedantic hymn of knowledge, to give the response, the echo and last to
\nlet that response gain in clarity, intensity and fullness \u2014 this is the
\nprinciple of interpretation that I have followed \u2014 mystical perhaps, but not
\nnecessarily more unsound than the insistences and equally personal standards of
\nthe logician and the scholar. And for the rest, where no inner experience of
\ntruth sheds light on the text, to abide faithfully by the wording of the
\nUpanishad and trust my intuitions. For I hold it right to follow the intuitions
\nespecially in interpreting the Upanishad, even at the risk of being accused of
\nreading mysticism into the Vedanta, because the early Vedantists, it seems to
\nme, were mystics not in the sense of being vague and loose-thoughted
\nvisionaries, but in the sense of being intuitional symbolists \u2014 men who regarded
\nthe world as a movement <\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 398<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nof consciousness and all material forms and energies as
\nexternal symbols and shadows of deeper and deeper internal realities. It is not
\nmy intention here nor is it in my limits possible to develop the philosophy of
\nthe Great Aranyaka Upanishad, but only to develop with just sufficient amplitude
\nfor entire clearness the ideas contained in its language and involved in its
\nfigures. The business of my commentary is to lay a foundation; it is for the
\nthinker to build the superstructure.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nTHE <\/span>HORSE <\/span>OF <\/span>THE
\n<\/span>WORLDS<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nThe Upanishad
\nbegins with a grandiose abruptness in an impetuous figure of the Horse of the
\nAshwamedha. <\/b>"OM," it begins, "Dawn is the head of the horse sacrificial.
\nThe sun is his eye, his breath is the wind, his wide open mouth is Fire, the
\nuniversal energy. Time is the self of the horse sacrificial. Heaven is his back
\nand the mid-region is his belly. Earth is his footing, the quarters are his
\nflanks and these intermediate regions are his ribs;<\/span>
\n<\/span>the
\nseasons are his members, the months and the half-months are that on which he
\nstands, the stars are his bones and the sky is the flesh of his body. The
\nstrands are the food in his belly, the rivers are his veins, the mountains are
\nhis liver and lungs, herbs and plants are the hairs of his body; the rising day
\nis his front portion, and the setting day is his hinder portion. When he
\nstretches himself, then it lightens; when he shakes himself, then it thunders;
\nwhen he urines, then it rains. Speech verily is the voice of him. Day was the
\ngrandeur that was born before the horse as he galloped, the Eastern Ocean gave
\nit birth. Night was the grandeur that was born in his rear and its birth was in
\nthe Western waters. These were the grandeurs that arose into being on either
\nside of the horse. He became Haya and carried the Gods, \u2014 Vajin and bore the
\nGandharvas, \u2014 Arvan and bore the Titans, \u2014 Ashwa and carried mankind. The sea
\nwas his brother and the sea his birthplace."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis passage,
\nfull of gigantic imagery, sets the key to the Upanishad and only by entering
\ninto the meaning of its symbolism can we command the gates of this
\nmany-mansioned city<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 399<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nof Vedantic thought. There is never anything merely poetic or
\nornamental in the language of the Upanishads. Even in this passage which would
\nat first sight seem to be sheer imagery, there is a choice, a selecting eye, an
\nintention in the images. They are all dependent not on the author’s unfettered
\nfancy, but on the common ideas of the early Vedantic theosophy. It is fortunate,
\nalso, that the attitude of the Upanishad to the Vedic sacrifices is perfectly
\nplain from this opening. We shall not stand in danger of being accused of
\nreading modern subtleties into primitive minds or of replacing barbarous
\nsuperstitions by civilised mysticism. The Ashwamedha or Horse-Sacrifice is, as
\nwe shall see, taken as the symbol of a great spiritual advance, an evolutionary
\nmovement, almost, from out of the dominion of apparently material forces into a
\nhigher spiritual freedom. The Horse of the Ashwamedha is, to the author, a
\nphysical figure representing, like some algebraical symbol, an unknown quantity
\nof force and speed. From the imagery it is evident that this force, this speed
\nis something world-wide, something universal; it fills the regions with its
\nbeing, it occupies Time, it gallops through Space, it bears on in its speed men
\nand Gods and the Titans. It is the Horse of the Worlds, \u2014 and yet the Horse
\nsacrificial.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLet us regard first the word Ashwa and consider whether it
\nthrows any light on the secret of this image. For we know that the early
\nVedantins attached great importance to words in both their apparent and their
\nhidden meaning and no one who does not follow them in this path, can hope to
\nenter into the associations with which their minds were full. Yet the importance
\nof associations in colouring and often in determining our thoughts, determining
\neven philosophic and scientific thought when it is most careful to be exact and
\nfree, should be obvious to the most superficial psychologist. Swami Dayananda’s
\nmethod with the Vedas, although it may have been too vigorously applied and more
\noften out of the powerful mind of the modern Indian thinker than out of the
\nrecovered mentality of the old Aryan Rishis, would nevertheless, in its
\nprinciple, have been approved by these Vedantins. Now the word asva<\/i> must
\noriginally have implied strength or speed or both before it came to be applied
\nto a horse. In its first or root significance it means to exist pervadingly and
\n<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 400<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nso to possess, have, obtain or enjoy. It is the Greek echo<\/i>
\n(old Sanskrit aś),<\/i> the ordinary word in Greek for "I have". It means,
\nalso and even more commonly, to eat or enjoy. Besides this original sense
\ninherent in the roots of its family, it has its own peculiar significance,
\nexistence in force, \u2014 of strength, solidity, sharpness, speed, \u2014 in aśan<\/i>
\nand aśma,<\/i> a stone, aśani,<\/i> a thunderbolt, aśri, <\/i>a sharp edge
\nor corner (Latin acer, acris,<\/i> sharp, acus,<\/i> point etc.), and
\nfinally aśva,<\/i> the strong, swift horse. Its fundamental meanings are,
\ntherefore, pervading existence, enjoyment, strength, solidity, speed. Shall we
\nnot say, therefore, that aśva<\/i> to the Rishis meant the unknown power made
\nup of force, strength, solidity, speed and enjoyment that pervades and
\nconstitutes the material world?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut there is a danger that etymological fancies may mislead
\nus. It is necessary, therefore, to test our provisional conclusions from
\nphilology by a careful examination of the images of this parable. Yet before we
\nproceed to this enquiry, it is as well to note that in the very opening of his
\nsecond Brahmana, the Rishi passes on immediately from Ashwa the Horse to
\naśanāyā mr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>tyuh<\/span>̣<\/span>,
\n<\/span><\/i>Hunger that is death, and assigns this hunger that
\nis death as the characteristic, indeed the very nature of the Force that has
\narranged and developed, \u2014 evolved, as the moderns would say, \u2014 the material
\nworld.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n"Dawn," says the Rishi, "is the head of the Horse
\nSacrificial." Now, the head is the front, the part of us that faces and looks
\nout upon our world, \u2014 and Dawn is that part to the Horse of the worlds. This
\ngoddess must therefore be the opening out of the world to the eye of Being \u2014 for
\nas day is the symbol of a time of activity, night of a time of inactivity, so
\ndawn images the imperfect but pregnant beginnings of regular cosmic action; it
\nis the Being’s movement forward, thus its impulse to look out at the universe in
\nwhich it finds itself and waking to yearn towards it, to desire to enter upon
\nits possession of a world which looks so bright because of the brightness of the
\ngaze that is turned upon it. The word Ushas means etymologically coming into
\nmanifested being; and it could mean also desire or yearning. Ushas or Dawn, to
\nthe early thinker, was the impulse towards manifest existence, no longer a vague
\nmovement in the depths of<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 401<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nthe Unmanifest,
\nbut already emerging and on the brink of its satisfaction. For we must remember
\nthat we are dealing with a book full of mystical imagery which starts with
\nlooking on psychological and philosophical truths in the most material things
\nand we shall miss its meaning altogether, if in our interpretation we are afraid
\nof mysticism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe sun is the
\neye of this great Force, the wind is its life-breath or vital energy, Fire is
\nits open mouth. We are here in the company of very familiar symbols. We shall
\nhave to return to them hereafter but they are, in their surface application
\nobvious and lucid. By themselves they are almost sufficient to reveal the
\nmeaning of the symbol, \u2014 yet not altogether sufficient. For, taken by
\nthemselves, they might mislead us into supposing the Horse of the Worlds to be
\nan image of the material universe only, a figure for those movements of matter
\nand in matter with which modern Science is so exclusively preoccupied. But the
\nnext image delivers us from passing by this side-gate into materialism. "Time in
\nits period is the self of the Horse Sacrificial." If we accept for the word
\nātmā<\/i> a significance which is also common and is, indeed, used in the next
\nchapter, if we understand by it, as I think we ought here to understand by it,
\n"substance" or "body", the expression, in itself remarkable, will become even
\nmore luminous and striking. Not Matter then, but Time, a mental circumstance, is
\nthe body of this force of the material universe whose eye is the sun and his
\nbreath the wind. Are we then to infer that the Seer denies the essential
\nmateriality of matter? does he assert it to be, as Huxley admitted it to be, "a
\nstate of consciousness" ? We shall see. Meanwhile it is evident already that
\nthis Horse of the worlds is an image of the power which pervades and constitutes
\nthe material universe, as we had already supposed it to be, not an image merely
\nof matter or material force. We get also from this image of true Time the idea
\nof it as an unknown Power \u2014 for Time which is its self or body, is itself an
\nunknown quantity. The reality which expresses itself to us through Time \u2014 its
\nbody \u2014 but remains itself ungrasped, must be still what men have always felt it
\nto be, the unknown God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the images
\nthat immediately follow we have the conception <\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 402<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nof Space added
\nto the conception of Time. Both are brought together side by side as
\nconstituents of the being of the Horse. For the sky is the flesh of his body, \u2014
\nthe quarters his flanks and the intermediate regions his ribs, \u2014 the sky,
\nnabhas,<\/i> the ether above us in which the stellar systems are placed; and
\nthese stellar systems themselves, concentrations of ether, are the bones which
\nsupport the flesh and of which life in this spatial infinity takes advantage in
\norder more firmly to place and organise itself in matter. But side by side with
\nthis spatial image is that of the seasons reminding us immediately and
\nintuitionally of the connection of Time and Space. The seasons, determined for
\nus by the movements of the sun and stars, are the flanks of the horse and he
\nstands upon the months and the fortnights \u2014 the lunar divisions. Space, then, is
\nthe flesh constituting materially this body of Time which the sage attributes to
\nhis Horse of the Worlds, \u2014 by movement in Space its periods are shaped and
\ndetermined. Therefore we return always to the full idea of the Horse \u2014 not as an
\nimage of matter, not as a symbol of the unknown supra-material Power in its
\nsupra-material reality, but of that Power expressing itself in matter,
\nmaterially, we might almost say, pervading and constituting the universe. Time
\nis its body, \u2014 yes, but samvatsara<\/i> not kāla.<\/i> Time in its periods
\ndetermined by movement in Space, not Time in its essentiality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoreover, it is
\nthat Power imaging itself in Cosmos, it is the Horse of the Worlds. For, we
\nread, "Heaven is its back, the mid-region is its belly, earth is its footing" \u2014pājasyam,<\/i>
\nthe four feet upon which it stands. We must be careful not to confuse the
\nancient Seer’s conception of the universe with our modern conception. To us
\nnothing exists except the system of gross material world \u2014 annamayam jagat \u2014<\/i>
\nthis earth, this moon, this sun and its planets, these myriad suns and their
\nsystems. But to the Vedantic thinkers, the universe, the manifest Brahman, was a
\nharmony of worlds within worlds; they beheld a space within our space but linked
\nwith it, they were aware of a time connected with our time but different from
\nit. This earth was Bhur. Rising in soul into the air above the earth, the
\nantariks<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>am,<\/span><\/i>
\nthey thought, they came into contact with other sevenfold earths in which just
\nas here matter is the predominant principle, so there nervous<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 403<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nor vital energy is the main principle or else manas,<\/i>
\nstill dependent upon matter and vital energy; these earths they called Bhuvar.
\nAnd rising beyond this atmosphere into the ethereal void they believed
\nthemselves to be aware of other worlds which they called Swar or heaven, where
\nagain, in its turn, mind, free, blithe, delivered from its struggle to impose
\nitself in a world not its own, upon matter and nerve-life, is the medium of
\nexistence and the governing Force. If we keep in mind these ideas, we shall
\neasily understand why the images are thus distributed in the sentence I have
\nlast quoted. Heaven is the back of the Horse, because it is on the mind that we
\nrest, mind that bears up the Gods and Gandharvas, Titans and men; the mid-region
\nis the belly, because vital energy is that which hungers and devours, moves
\nrestlessly everywhere seizing everything and turning it into food; earth is the
\nfooting, because matter, outward form, is the fundamental condition for the
\nmanifestation of life, mind and all higher forces. <\/b>On Matter we rest and
\nhave our firm stand; out of Matter we rise to our fulfilment in Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen once again, after these higher and more remote
\nsuggestions, we are reminded that it is Force manifesting in matter which the
\nHorse symbolises; the material manifestation constitutes the essence of its
\nsymbolism. The images used are of an al\u00admost gross materiality. Some of them are
\nat the same time of a striking interest to the practical student of Yoga, for he
\nrecognises in them allusions to certain obscure but exceedingly common Yogic
\nphenomena. The strands of the rivers are imaged as the undigested food in the
\nHorse’s belly \u2014 earth not yet assimilated or of sufficient consistency for the
\nhabitual works of life; the rivers distributing the water that is the life-blood
\nof earth’s activities are his veins; the mountains, breathing in health for us
\nfrom the rarer altitudes and supporting by the streams born from them the works
\nof life, are his lungs and liver; herbs and plants, springing up out of the sap
\nof earth, are the hairs covering and clothing his body. All that is clear enough
\nand designedly superficial. But then the Upanishad goes on to speak no longer of
\nsuperficial circumstances but of the powers of the Horse. Some of these are
\nmaterial powers, the thunder, the lightning, the rain. "When he stretches
\nhimself, then it lightens, when he shakes himself, then<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 404<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nit thunders; when he urines, then it rains." Vijr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>mbhate\u2014<\/span><\/i>extends
\nhimself in intensity, makes the most of his physical bulk and force;
\nvidhūnute \u2014<\/i> throws himself out in energy, converts his whole body into a
\nmotion and force; these two words are of a great impetuosity and vehemence and,
\ntaken in conjunction with the image, extremely significant. The Yogin will at
\nonce recog\u00adnise the reference to the electrical manifestations, visible or felt,
\nwhich accompany so often the increase of concentration, thought and inner
\nactivity in the waking condition, \u2014 electricity, Vidyutas, the material symbol,
\nmedium and basis of all activities of knowledge sarvān<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>i
\nvij\u00f1āna-vijr<\/span>̣<\/span>mbhitāni.<\/span><\/i>
\nHe will recognise also the meghadhvani,<\/i> one of the characteristic sounds
\nheard in the concentration of Yoga, symbolical of ks<\/i><\/span>̣ā<\/span>tratejas<\/span><\/i>
\nand physically indicative of force gathering itself for action. The first image
\nis therefore an image of knowledge expressing itself in matter, the second is an
\nimage of power expressing itself in matter. The third, the image of the rain,
\nsuggests that it is from the mere waste matter of his body that this great Power
\nis able to fertilise the world and produce sustenance for the myriad nations of
\nhis creatures. "Speech verily is the voice of him." Vāgevāsya vāk.<\/i>
\nSpeech, with its burden of definite thought, is the neighing of this mighty
\nHorse of sacrifice; by that this great Power in matter expresses materially the
\nuprush of his thought and yearning and emotion, the visible sparks of the secret
\nuniversal fire that is in him \u2014 guhāhitam.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut the real powers, the wonderful fundamental greatnesses of
\nthe Horse are, the sage would have us remember, not the material. What are they
\nthen? The sunrise and sunset, day and night are their symbols, not the
\nmagnitudes of Space, but the magnitudes of Time, \u2014 Time, that mysterious
\ncondition of universal mind which alone makes the ordering of the universe in
\nSpace possible, although its own particular relations to matter are necessarily
\ndetermined by material events and movements \u2014 for itself subtle as well as
\ninfinite it offers no means by which it can be materially measured. Sunrise and
\nsunset, that is to say, birth and death, the front and hind are part of the body
\nof the Horse, Time expressed in matter. But on Day and Night the sage fixes a
\ndeeper significance. Day is the symbol of the continual<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 405<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nmanifestation of
\nmaterial things the vyākr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>ta,<\/span><\/i>
\nthe manifest or fundamentally in Sat, in infinite being; Night is the symbol of
\ntheir continual disappearance into avyākr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>ta,<\/span><\/i>
\nthe Unmanifest or finally into asat,<\/i> into infinite non-being. They appear
\naccording to the swift movement of this Horse of the Worlds, anu ajāyata, <\/i>
\nor as I have written, translating the idea and rhythm of the Upanishads rather
\nthan the exact words, as he gallops. Day is the greatness that appears in his
\nfront, Night in his rear, \u2014 whatever this Time-Spirit, this Zeitgeist or the
\ngreatness that appears, turns his face towards or arrives at, as he gallops
\nthrough Time, that appears or, as we say, comes into being, whatever he passes
\naway from and leaves, that disappears out of being or, as we say, perishes. Not
\nthat things are really destroyed, for nothing that is can be destroyed \u2014 na
\nabhāvo vidyate satah<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>
\n\u2014<\/span><\/i> but
\nthey no longer appear, they are swallowed up in this darkness of his refusal of
\nconsciousness; for the purposes of manifestation they cease to exist. All things
\nexist already in Parabrahman, but all are not here manifest. They are already
\nthere in Being, not in Time. The universal Thought expressing itself as Time
\nreaches them, they seem to be born. It passes away from them, they seem to
\nperish, but there they still are, in Being, but not in Time. These two
\ngreatnesses of the appearance of things in Time and Space and their
\ndisappearance in Time and Space act always and continuously so long as the Horse
\nis galloping, are his essential greatnesses. Etau vai mahimānau.<\/i> The
\nbirth of one is in the Eastern Ocean, of the other in the Western, that is to
\nsay, in sat<\/i> and asat,<\/i> in the ocean of Being and the ocean of
\ndenial of Being or else in vyākṛta prakr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>ti<\/span><\/i>
\nand avyākṛta prakṛti,<\/i> occult sea of Chaos, manifest sea of Cosmos.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen the sage
\nthrows out briefly a description, not exhaustive but typical, of the relations
\nof the Horse to the different natural types of being that seem to possess this
\nuniverse. For all of them He is the vāhana.<\/i> He bears them upon His
\ninfinite strength and speed and motion. He bears all of them without respect of
\ndifferences, samabhāvena,<\/i> with the divine impartiality and equality of
\nsoul \u2014 samam hi brahma.<\/i> To the type of each individual being this
\nUniversal Might adapts himself and seems to take upon himself their image. He is
\nHaya to the gods, Arvan to the<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 406<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nAsura, Vajin to
\nthe Gandharvas, Ashwa to men. Ye yathā mām prapadyante….<\/i> In reality
\nthey are made in His image, not He in theirs, and though He seems to obey them
\nand follow their needs and impulses, though they have the whip, ply the spur and
\ntug the reins, it is He who bears them on in the course of Yugas that are marked
\nout for Him by His hidden Self; He is free and exulting in the swiftness of His
\ngalloping.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut what are
\nthese names, Haya, Vajin, Arvan, Ashwa? Certainly, they must suggest qualities
\nwhich fit the Horse in each case to the peculiar type of its rider; but the
\nmeaning depends on associations and on etymology which in modern Sanskrit have
\ngone below the surface and are no longer easily seizable. Haya is especially
\ndifficult. For this reason Shankara, relying too much on scholarship and
\nintellectual inference and too little on his intuitions, is openly at a loss in
\nthis passage. He sees that the word haya<\/i> for horse must arise from the
\nradical sense of motion borne by the root hi;<\/i> but every horse has motion
\nfor his chief characteristic activity, Arvan and Vajin no less than Haya. Why
\nthen should Haya alone be suitable for riding by the gods, why Arvan for the
\nAsuras ? He has, I think, the right intuition when he suggests that it is some
\npeculiar and excelling kind of motion (viśis<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>ṭagati)<\/span><\/i>
\nwhich is the characteristic of Haya. But then, unable to fix on that
\npeculiarity, unable to read any characteristic meaning in the names that follow,
\nhe draws back from his intuition and adds that after all, these names may have
\nmerely indi\u00adcated particular kinds of horses attributed mythologically to these
\nvarious families of riders. But this suggestion would make the passage mere
\nmythology; but the Upanishads, always intent on their deeper object, never waste
\ntime over mere mythology. We must therefore go deeper than Shankara and follow
\nout the intuition he himself has abandoned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI am dwelling on
\nthis passage at a length disproportionate to its immediate importance, not only
\nbecause Shankara’s failure in handling it shows the necessity and fruitfulness
\nof trusting our intuitions… in contact with the Upanishads, but because the
\npassage serves two other important uses. It illustrates the Vedantic use of the
\netymology of words and it throws light on the pre\u00adcise notions of the old
\nthinkers about those super-terrestrial<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 407<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nbeings with whom the vision of the ancient Hindus peopled
\nthis universe. The Vedantic writers, we continually find, dwelt deeply and
\ncuriously on the innate and on the concealed meaning of words; vyākaran<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>a,<\/span><\/i>
\nalways considered essential to the interpretation of the Vedas, they used not
\nmerely as scholars, but much more as intuitive thinkers. It was not only the
\nactual etymological sense or the actual sense in use but the suggestions of the
\nsound and syllables of the words which attracted them; for they found that by
\ndwelling on them new and deep truths arose into their understandings. Let us see
\nhow they use this method in assigning the names assumed by the sacrificial
\nHorse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHere modern philology comes to our help, for, by the clue it
\nhas given, we can revive in its principle the Nirukta of our ancestors and
\ndiscover by induction and inference the old meaning of the Vedic vocables. I
\nwill leave haya<\/i> alone for the present; because philology unaided does not
\nhelp us very much in getting at the sense of its application, \u2014 in discovering
\nthe viśiṣṭagati <\/i>which the word conveyed to the mind of the sage. But
\nvājin<\/i> and arvan<\/i> are very illuminative. Vāja<\/i> and vājin<\/i>
\nare common Vedic words; they recur perpetually in the Rig-veda. The sense of
\nvāja <\/i>is essentially substantiality of being attended with plenty, from which
\nit came to signify full force, copiousness, strength and, by an easy transition,
\nsubstance and plenty in the sense of wealth and possessions. There can be no
\ndoubt about vājin.<\/i> But European scholarship has confused for us this
\napproach to the sense of arvan. Ar<\/i> is a common Sanskrit root, the basis
\nof ari, arya, aryamā<\/i> and a number of well-known words. But the scholars
\ntell us that it means to till or plough and the Aryans so called themselves
\nbecause they were agriculturists and not nomads or hunters. Starting from this
\npremiss one may see in arvan<\/i> a horse for ploughing as opposed to a
\ndraught-animal or a war-horse, and support the derivation instancing the Latin
\narvum,<\/i> a tilled field. But even if the Aryans were ploughmen, the Titans
\nsurely were not \u2014 Hiranyakashipu and Prahlada did not pride themselves on the
\nbreaking of the glebe and the honest sweat of their brow! There is no trace of
\nsuch an association in arvan<\/i> here, \u2014 I know not where there is any
\nelsewhere in the Vedas. Indeed, this agriculturist theory of the Aryans seems
\none of the worst of<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 408<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nthe many irresponsible freaks which scholastic fancifulness
\nhas perpetrated in the field of Sanskrit language. No ancient race would be
\nlikely so to designate itself. Ar<\/i> signifies essentially any kind of
\npre-eminence in fact or force in act. It means therefore to be strong, high,
\nswift in action, to be pre-eminent, noble, excellent, be first; to raise, lead,
\nbegin or rule; it means also to struggle, to fight, to drive, to labour, to
\nplough. The sense of struggle and combat appears in ari,<\/i> an enemy. The
\nGreek Ares, war-god, aretē,<\/i> virtue, meaning originally like the Latin
\nvirtus,<\/i> valour; the Latin arma,<\/i> weapons. Arya means strong, high,
\nnoble or worthier, as its…use in literature constantly indicates. The word
\nasura<\/i> also means the strong or mighty one. We can now discover the true
\nforce of Arvan, \u2014 it is the strong one, it is the stallion or the bull, the
\nmaster of the herd, the leader, master or the fighter. The Gandharvas are
\nmentioned here briefly, so as to suit the rapidity of the passage, as the type
\nof a particular class of beings, Gandharvas, Yakshas, Kinnaras whose unifying
\ncharacteristic is material ease, prosperity and a beautiful, happy and
\nundisturbed self-indulgence; they are the angels of joy, ease, art, beauty and
\npleasure. For them the Horse becomes full of ease and plenty, the support of
\nthese qualities, the vāhana<\/i> of the Gandharvas. The Asuras are, similarly,
\nangels of might and force and violent struggle, \u2014 self-will is their
\ncharacteristic, just as an undisciplined fury of self-indulgence is the
\ncharacteristic of their kindred Rakshasas. It is a self-will capable of
\ndiscipline, but always huge and impetuous, even in discipline, always based on a
\ncolossal egoism. They struggle gigantically to impose that egoism on their
\nsurroundings. It is for these mighty but imperfect beings that the Horse adapts
\nhimself to their needs, becomes full of force and might and bears up their
\ngigantic struggle, their increasing effort. And Haya ? In the light of these
\nexamples we can hazard a suggestion. The root meaning is motion; but from
\ncertain kindred words, hil<\/i> to swing, hind<\/i> to swing, hind<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>
\nto roam about freely and from another sense of hi<\/i> to exhilarate or
\ngladden, we may, perhaps, infer that haya<\/i> indicated to the sage a swift,
\nfree, joyous, bounding motion, fit movement for the bearer of the gods. For the
\nAryan gods were devas,<\/i> angels of joy and brightness, fulfilled in being,
\nin harmony with their functions and sur<\/span>roundings,
\n<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 409<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nnot like the
\nTitans imperfect, dispossessed, struggling. Firmly seated on the bounding joy of
\nthe Horse, they deliver themselves confidently to the exultation of his
\nmovements. The sense here is not so plain and certain as with Vajin and Arvan;
\nbut Haya must certainly have been one in character with the Deva in order to be
\nhis vāhana;<\/i> the sense I have given certainly belongs to the word and that
\nthis brightness and joyousness was the character of the Aryan gods, the
\ndevas,<\/i> is discoverable in Haya from its root, I think every reader of Veda
\nand Purana must feel and admit. Last of all, the Horse becomes Ashwa for men.
\nBut is he not Ashwa for all ? Why particularly for men ? The answer is that the
\nRishi is already moving forward in thought to the idea of aśanāyā mr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>tyuh<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>
\nwith which he opens the second Brahmana of the Upanishad. Man, one and supreme
\ntype of. terrestrial crea\u00adture, is most of all subject to this mystery of
\nwasting and death which the Titans bear with difficulty and the Gods and
\nGandharvas entirely overcome. For in man that characteristic of enjoyment which
\nby enjoying devours and wastes both its object and itself is especially
\ndeveloped and he bears that consequent pressure of aśanāyā mr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>tyuh<\/span>̣<\/span>.<\/span><\/i>
\nwhich can only lighten and disappear if we rise upward in the scale of Being
\ntowards Brahman and become truly sons of immortality, amr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>tasya
\nputrāh<\/span>̣<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nFinally, there
\ncomes a consummation to the parable in which the thought of the Upanishad opens
\nout to that ultimate idea for which the image of the Horse is only a pratis<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>t<\/span>̣<\/span>hā<\/span><\/i>
\nand a preface, \u2014 the liberation from aśanāyā mr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>tyuh<\/span>̣<\/span>..<\/span><\/i>
\nTo this Horse of the Worlds, who bears up all beings, the sea is the brother and
\nthe sea is the birthplace. There can be no doubt of the meaning of the symbol.
\nIt is the upper Ocean of the Veda in which it imaged the superior and divine
\nexistence, the waters of supramaterial causality. From that this lower Ocean of
\nour manifestation derives its waters, its flowing energies, apas;<\/i> from
\nthat, when the Vritras are slain, the firmaments opened, it is perpetually
\nreplenished, prati samudram syandamānāh<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>,<\/span><\/i>
\nand of that it is the shadow, the reproduction of its circumstances under the
\nconditions of mental illusion \u2014 Avidya, mother of limitation and death. This
\nimage not only consummates this passage but opens a door of escape from that
\nwhich is to follow. Deliverance from the dominion of aśanāyā mr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>tyuh<\/span>̣<\/span>.<\/span><\/i>
\nis <\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 410<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\npossible because
\nof this circumstance that this sea of divine being is kin (bandhu)<\/i> and
\nfriend to the Horse. The aparārdha<\/i> proves to be of the same essential
\nnature as the parārdha;<\/i> our mortal part, in its essence, a kin to our
\nunlimited and immortal part and partakes of its nature. The Horse of the Worlds
\ncomes to us from that divine source and from what other except this Ocean can
\nthe Horse of the Worlds, who is material yet supramaterial, be said to have
\nderived his being? We appearing bound, mortal, limited, are manifestations of a
\nfree and infinite reality and from that from which we were born comes friendship
\nand assistance for that which we are, towards making us that which we shall be.
\nFrom our kindred heavens the Love descends always that works to raise up the
\nlower to its brother, the higher.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 411<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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