{"id":828,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=828"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:40","slug":"11-saraswati-and-her-consorts-vol-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10\/11-saraswati-and-her-consorts-vol-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","title":{"rendered":"-11_Saraswati and Her Consorts.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nC<\/font>HAPTER<\/font>
\nIX <\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n

Saraswati and Her Consorts <\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n                T<\/font>HE <\/font><\/b>symbolism of the Veda betrays itself
\nwith the greatest clearness in the figure of the goddess Saraswati.
\nIn many of the other gods the balance of the internal sense and
\nthe external figure is carefully preserved. The veil sometimes
\nbecomes transparent or its corners are lifted even for the ordinary hearer of
\nthe Word; but it is never entirely removed. One
\nmay doubt whether Agni is anything more than the personification of the
\nsacrificial Fire or of the physical principle of Light and
\nHeat in things, or Indra anything more than the god of the sky
\nand the rain or of physical Light, or Vayu anything more than
\nthe divinity in the Wind and Air or at most of the physical Life-
\nbreath. In the lesser gods the naturalistic interpretation has less
\nground for confidence; for it is obvious that Varuna is not merely
\na Vedic Uranus or Neptune, but a god with great and important
\nmoral functions; Mitra and Bhaga have the same psychological
\naspect; the Ribhus who form things by the mind and build up
\nimmortality by works can with difficulty be crushed into the
\nProcrustean measure of a naturalistic mythology. Still by imputing a chaotic
\nconfusion of ideas to the poets of the Vedic hymns
\nthe difficulty can be trampled upon, if not overcome. But Saraswati will submit
\nto no such treatment. She is, plainly and clearly,
\nthe goddess of the Word, the goddess of a divine Inspiration. <\/p>\n

If that were all, this would not carry us much farther than the
\nobvious fact that the Vedic Rishis were not mere naturalistic
\nbarbarians, but had their psychological ideas and were capable
\nof creating mythological symbols which represent not only those
\nobvious operations of physical Nature that interested their
\nagricultural, pastoral and open-air life, but also the inner operations of the
\nmind and soul. If we have to conceive the history of
\nancient religious thought as a progression from the physical to
\nthe spiritual, from a purely naturalistic to an increasingly ethical <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 86<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

and psychological view of Nature and the world and the gods,
\n\u2014 and this, though by no means certain, is for the present the
\naccepted view\u00b9\u2014 we must suppose that the Vedic poets were at
\nleast already advancing from the physical and naturalistic conception of the
\ngods to the ethical and the spiritual. But Saraswati
\nis not only the goddess of Inspiration, she is at one and the same
\ntime one of the seven rivers of the early Aryan world. The question at once
\narises, whence came this extraordinary identification ?
\nAnd how does the connection of the two ideas present itself in
\nthe Vedic hymns ? And there is more; for Saraswati is important
\nnot only in herself but by her connections. Before proceeding
\nfarther let us cast a rapid and cursory glance at them to see what
\nthey can teach us. <\/p>\n

The association of a river with the poetical inspiration
\noccurs also in the Greek mythology; but there the Muses are
\nnot conceived of as rivers; they are only connected in a not very
\nintelligible fashion with a particular earthly stream. This stream
\nis the river Hippocrene, the fountain of the Horse, and to account
\nfor its name we have a legend that it sprang from the hoof of the
\ndivine horse Pegasus; for he smote the rock with his hoof and the
\nwaters of inspiration gushed out where the mountain had been
\nthus smitten. Was this legend merely a Greek fairy-tale or had it
\nany special meaning ? And it is evident that if it had any meaning,
\nit must, since it obviously refers to a psychological phenomenon,
\nthe birth of the waters of inspiration, have had a psychological
\nmeaning; it must have been an attempt to put into concrete
\nfigures certain psychological facts. We may note that the word
\nPegasus, if we transliterate it into the original Aryan phonetics,
\nbecomes Pajasa and is obviously connected with the Sanskrit
\npājas,<\/i> which meant originally force, movement, or sometimes
\nfooting. In Greek itself it is connected with p\u00eag\u00ea,<\/i> a stream.
\nThere is, therefore, in the terms of this legend a constant association with
\nthe image of a forceful movement of inspiration. If we
\nturn to Vedic symbols we see that the Ashwa or Horse is an image <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9I do not think we have any real materials
\nfor determining the first origin and primitive history of religious ideas. What
\nthe facts really point to is an early teaching at once psychological and naturalistic, that is to say with two faces, of which the first
\ncame to be more or less
\nobscured, but never entirely effaced even in the barbarous races, even in races
\nlike the tribes
\nof North America. But this teaching, though prehistoric, was anything but
\nprimitive. <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 87<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

of the great dynamic force of Life, of the vital and nervous
\nenergy, and is constantly coupled with other images that symbolise the
\nconsciousness. Adri,<\/i> the hill or rock, is a symbol of formal existence and especially of the physical nature and it is out of
\nthis hill or rock that the herds of the Sun are released and the
\nwaters flow. The streams of the madhu,<\/i> the honey, the Soma, are
\nsaid also to be milked out of this Hill or Rock. The stroke of the
\nHorse’s hoof on the rock releasing the waters of inspiration
\nwould thus become a very obvious psychological image. Nor is
\nthere any reason to suppose that the old Greeks and Indians were
\nincapable either of such psychological observation or of putting
\nit into the poetical and mystic imagery which was the very body
\nof the ancient Mysteries. <\/p>\n

We might indeed go farther and inquire whether there was
\nnot some original connection between the hero Bellerophon,
\nslayer of Bellerus, who rides on the divine Horse, and Indra
\nValahan, the Vedic slayer of Vala, the enemy who keeps for him-
\nself the Light. But this would take us beyond the limits of our
\nsubject. Nor does this interpretation of the Pegasus legend carry
\nus any farther than to indicate the natural turn of imagination
\nof the Ancients and the way in which they came to figure the
\nstream of inspiration as an actual stream of flowing water.
\nSaraswati means, "she of the stream, the flowing movement",
\nand is therefore a natural name both for a river and for the
\ngoddess of inspiration. But by what process of thought or association does the
\ngeneral idea of the river of inspiration come to
\nbe associated with a particular earthly stream? And in the Veda
\nit is not a question of one river which by its surroundings, natural
\nand legendary, might seem more fitly associated with the idea
\nof sacred inspiration than any other. For here it is a question
\nnot of one, but of seven rivers always associated together in the
\nminds of the Rishis and all of them released together by the
\nstroke of the God Indra when he smote the Python who coiled
\nacross their fountains and sealed up their outflow. It seems
\nimpossible to suppose that one river only in all this sevenfold
\noutflowing acquired a psychological significance while the rest
\nwere associated only with the annual coming of the rains in the Punjab. The psychological significance of Saraswati
\ncarries with <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 88<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

it a psychological significance for the whole symbol of the Vedic
\nwaters.\u00b9<\/p>\n

Saraswati is not only connected with other rivers but with
\nother goddesses who are plainly psychological symbols and
\nespecially with Bharati and Ila. In the later Puranic forms of
\nworship Saraswati is the goddess of speech, of learning and of
\npoetry and Bharati is one of her names, but in the Veda Bharati
\nand Saraswati are different deities. Bharati is also called Mahi,
\nthe Large, Great or Vast. The three, Ila, Mahi or Bharati and
\nSaraswati are associated together in a constant formula in those
\nhymns of invocation in which the gods are called by Agni to the
\nsacrifice. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIḷ<\/span>ā
\nsarasvatī mahī tisro devīr mayobhuvaḥ<\/span>, <\/i> <\/p>\n

\nbarhiḥ<\/span>.
\nsīdantvasridhaḥ<\/span>.<\/i>
\n(1.13.9) <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

"May Ila, Saraswati and Mahi, three goddesses who give
\nbirth to the bliss, take their place on the sacrificial seat, they who
\nstumble not," or "who come not to hurt" or "do not
\nhurt." The
\nepithet means, I think, they in whom there is no false movement
\nwith its evil consequences, duritam,<\/i> no stumbling into pitfalls
\nof sin and error. The formula is expanded in Hymn 110 of the
\ntenth Mandala: <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nĀ no yaj\u00f1am bhāratī tūyam etu,<\/i> <\/p>\n

il<\/span>̣<\/span>ā<\/span> manuṣ<\/span>vad iha cetayantī, <\/span><\/i> <\/p>\n

\ntisro<\/span> devīr barhir <\/i>edam<\/i>
\nsyonam<\/i> <\/p>\n

sarasvatī svapasaḥ<\/span> sadantu.<\/i> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

"May Bharati come speeding to our sacrifice and Ila hither
\nawakening our consciousness (or, knowledge or perceptions)
\nin human wise, and Saraswati, \u2014 three goddesses sit on this
\nblissful seat, doing well the Work." <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is clear and will become yet clearer that these three <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9<\/font>The rivers have a symbolic sense in later
\nIndian thought; as for instance Ganges,
\nYamuna and Saraswati and their confluence are in the Tantric imagery Yogic
\nsymbols, and
\nthey are used, though in a different way, in Yogic symbolism generally. <\/font> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 89<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

goddesses have closely connected functions akin to the inspirational power of
\nSaraswati. Saraswati is the Word, the inspiration, as I suggest, that comes
\nfrom the ṛ<\/span>tam,<\/i>
\nthe Truth-Consciousness. Bharati and Ila must also be different forms of the
\nsame
\nWord or knowledge. In the eighth hymn of Madhuchchhandas
\nwe have a Rik in which Bharati is mentioned under the name of
\nMahi. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nEvā hyasya sūnṛ<\/span>tā, virapśī gomatī mahī, <\/i> <\/p>\n

\npakvā śākhā na dāśuṣ<\/span>e.<\/i> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

"Thus Mahi for Indra full of the rays, overflowing in her
\nabundance, in her nature a happy truth, becomes as if a ripe
\nbranch for the giver of the sacrifice." (1.8.8) <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The rays in the Veda are the rays of Surya, the Sun. Are
\nwe to suppose that the goddess is a deity of the physical Light or
\nare we to translate go<\/i> by cow and suppose that Mahi is full of
\ncows for the sacrificer ? The psychological character of Saraswati
\ncomes to our rescue against the last absurd supposition, but it
\nnegatives equally the naturalistic interpretation. This characterisation of
\nMahi, Saraswati’s companion in the sacrifice, the
\nsister of the goddess of inspiration, entirely identified with her
\nin the later mythology, is one proof among a hundred others
\nthat light in the Veda is a symbol of knowledge, of spiritual illumination. Surya
\nis the Lord of the supreme Sight, the vast Light, bṛ<\/span>hat
\njyotiḥ<\/span>,<\/i> or,
\nas it is sometimes called, the true Light, ṛ<\/span>tam
\njyotiḥ<\/span>.<\/i> And
\nthe connection between the words ṛ<\/span>tam<\/i> and bṛ<\/span>hat <\/i>is constant in the Veda. <\/p>\n

It seems to me impossible to see in these expressions any-
\nthing else than the indication of a state of illumined conscious-
\nness the nature of which is that it is wide or large, bṛ<\/span>hat,<\/i> full
\nof the truth of being, satyam,<\/i> and of the truth of knowledge
\nand action, ṛ<\/span>tam.<\/i>
\nThe gods have this consciousness. Agni, for
\ninstance, is termed ṛ<\/span>tacit,<\/i>
\nhe who has the Truth-Consciousness.
\nMahi is full of the rays of this Surya; she carries in her this illumination. Moreover
\nshe is sunṛ<\/span>tā,<\/i>
\nshe is the word of a blissful
\nTruth, even as it has been said of Saraswati that she is the impeller  <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 90<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

of happy truths, codayitrī sūnṛ<\/span>tānām.<\/i> Finally, she is
\nvirapśī,<\/i> large or breaking out into abundance, a word which
\nrecalls to us that the Truth is also a Largeness, ṛ<\/span>tam bṛ<\/span>hat.<\/i> And,
\nin another hymn, (1.22.10), she is described as varūtrī dhiṣ<\/span>aṇā<\/span>, <\/i>a widely covering or embracing Thought-power. Mahi, then,
\nis the luminous vastness of the Truth, she represents the Large-
\nness, bṛ<\/span>hat,<\/i>
\nof the superconscient in us containing in itself the
\nTruth, ṛ<\/span>tam.<\/i>
\nShe is, therefore, for the sacrificer, like a branch
\ncovered with ripe fruit. <\/p>\n

Ila is also the word of the truth; her name has become identical in a later
\nconfusion with the idea of speech. As Saraswati
\nis an awakener of the consciousness to right thinkings or right
\nstates of mind, cetantī sumatīnām,<\/i> so also Ila comes to
\nthe sacrifice awakening the consciousness to knowledge, cetayantī.<\/i> She
\nis full of energy, suvīrā,<\/i> and brings knowledge. She also is
\nconnected with Surya, the Sun, as when Agni, the Will, is invoked
\n(V.4.4) to labour by the rays of the Sun, Lord of the true Light,
\nbeing of one mind with Ila, iḷ<\/span>ayā sajoṣā<\/span> yatamāno raśmibhiḥ<\/span> <\/span>sūryasya.<\/i> She is the mother of the Rays, the herds of the Sun.
\nHer name means she who seeks and attains and it contains the
\nsame association of ideas as the words ṛ<\/span>tam<\/i> and Rishi. Ila may
\ntherefore well be the vision of the seer which attains the truth. <\/p>\n

As Saraswati represents the truth-audition, śruti,<\/i> which
\ngives the inspired word, so Ila represents dṛ<\/span>ṣ<\/span>ṭ<\/span>i,<\/i> the truth-vision.
\nIf so, since dṛ<\/span>ṣ<\/span>ṭ<\/span>i<\/i> and śruti<\/i> are the
\ntwo powers of the Rishi, the
\nKavi, the Seer of the Truth, we can understand the close connection of Ila and
\nSaraswati. Bharati or Mahi is the largeness
\nof the Truth-Consciousness which, dawning on man’s limited
\nmind, brings with it the two sister Puissances. We can also understand how these fine and living distinctions came afterwards to
\nbe neglected as the Vedic knowledge declined and Bharati, Saraswati, Ila melted
\ninto one. <\/p>\n

We may note also that these three goddesses are said to
\nbring to birth for man the Bliss, mayas.<\/i> I have already insisted on
\nthe constant relation, as conceived by the Vedic seers, between
\nthe Truth and the Bliss or Ananda. It is by the dawning of the
\ntrue or infinite consciousness in man that he arrives out of this
\nevil dream of pain and suffering, this divided creation into the <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 91<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Bliss, the happy state variously described in Veda by the words
\nbhadram, mayas<\/i> (love and bliss), svasti<\/i> (the good state of existence,
\nright being) and by others less technically used such as
\nvāryam, rayiḥ<\/span>,
\nrāyaḥ<\/span>.<\/i> For
\nthe Vedic Rishi Truth is the passage
\nand the antechamber, the Bliss of the divine existence is the
\ngoal, or else Truth is the foundation, Bliss the supreme result. <\/p>\n

Such, then, is the -character of Saraswati as a psychological
\nprinciple, her peculiar function and her relation to her most
\nimmediate connections among the gods. How far do these shed
\nany light on her relations as the Vedic river to her six sister
\nstreams? The number seven plays an exceedingly important
\npart in the Vedic system, as in most very ancient schools of
\nthought. We find it recurring constantly, \u2014 the seven delights,
\nsapta ratnāni;<\/i> the seven flames, tongues or rays of Agni, sapta
\narciṣ<\/span>aḥ<\/span>, sapta jvālāḥ<\/span>;<\/i> the seven forms of the
\nThought-principle,
\nsapta dhītayḥ<\/span>;<\/i>
\nthe seven Rays or Cows, forms of the Cow unslayable, Aditi, mother of the gods, sapta gāvaḥ<\/span>;<\/i> the seven rivers,
\nthe seven mothers or fostering cows, sapta mātarah, sapta dhenavaḥ̣<\/span>,<\/i> a term applied
\nindifferently to the Rays and to the Rivers.
\nAll these sets of seven depend, it seems to me, upon the Vedic
\nclassification of the fundamental principles, the tattvas,<\/i> of existence.
\nThe enquiry into the number of these tattvas<\/i> greatly
\ninterested the speculative mind of the ancients and in Indian
\nphilosophy we find various answers ranging from the One upward
\nand running into the twenties. In Vedic thought the basis chosen
\nwas the number of the psychological principles, because all existence was
\nconceived by the Rishis as a movement of conscious
\nbeing. However merely curious or barren these speculations and
\nclassifications may seem to the modern mind, they were no
\nmere dry metaphysical distinctions, but closely connected with a
\nliving psychological practice of which they were to a great extent
\nthe thought-basis, and in any case we must understand them
\nclearly if we wish to form with any accuracy an idea of this ancient and
\nfar-off system. <\/p>\n

In the Veda, then, we find the number of the principles
\nvariously stated. The One was recognised as the basis and continent; in this
\nOne there were the two principles divine and human, mortal and immortal. The
\ndual number is also otherwise <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 92<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

applied in the two principles. Heaven and Earth, Mind and
\nBody, Soul and Nature, who are regarded as the father and
\nmother of all beings. It is significant, however, that Heaven and
\nEarth, when they symbolise two forms of natural energy, the
\nmental and the physical consciousness, are no longer the father
\nand mother, but the two mothers. The triple principle was
\ndoubly recognised, first in the1 threefold divine principle answering to the
\nlater Sachchidananda, the divine existence, consciousness and bliss, and
\nsecondly in the threefold mundane principle,
\nMind, Life, Body, upon which is built the triple world of the Veda
\nand Puranas. But the full number ordinarily recognised is seven.
\nThis figure was arrived at by adding the three divine principles to
\nthe three mundane and interpolating a seventh or link-principle
\nwhich is precisely that of the Truth-Consciousness, ṛ<\/span>tam bṛ<\/span>hat, <\/i>afterwards known as Vijnana or Mahas. The latter term means
\nthe Large and is therefore an equivalent of bṛ<\/span>hat.<\/i> There are
\nother classifications of five, eight, nine and ten and even, as it
\nwould seem, twelve; but these do not immediately concern us. <\/p>\n

All these principles, be it noted, are supposed to be really
\ninseparable and omnipresent and therefore apply themselves to
\neach separate formation of Nature. The seven Thoughts, for
\ninstance, are Mind applying itself to each of the seven planes as
\nwe would now call them and formulating Matter-mind, if we
\nmay so call it, nervous mind, pure mind, truth-mind and so on to
\nthe highest summit, paramā parāvat.<\/i> The seven rays or cows are
\nAditi the infinite Mother, the Cow unslayable, supreme Nature or infinite Consciousness, pristine source of the later idea of Prakriti
\nor Shakti, \u2014 the Purusha is in this early pastoral imagery the
\nBull, Vrishabha, \u2014 the Mother of things taking form on the
\nseven planes of her world-action as energy of conscious being. So
\nalso, the seven rivers are conscious currents corresponding to the
\nsevenfold substance of the ocean of being which appears to us
\nformulated in the seven worlds enumerated by the Puranas. It is
\ntheir full flow in the human consciousness which constitutes the
\nentire activity of the being, his full treasure of substance, his full
\nplay of energy. In the Vedic image, his cows drink of the water
\nof the seven rivers. <\/p>\n

Should this imagery be admitted, and it is evident that if <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 93<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

once such conceptions are supposed to exist, this would be the
\nnatural imagery for a people living the life and placed in the surroundings of
\nthe ancient Aryans, \u2014 quite as natural for them
\nand inevitable as for us the image of the "planes" with which
\ntheosophical thought has familiarised us, \u2014 the place of Saraswati as one of
\nthe seven rivers becomes clear. She is the current
\nwhich comes from the Truth-principle, from the ṛ<\/span>tam<\/i> or Mahas,
\nand we actually find this principle spoken of in the Veda, \u2014
\nin the closing passage of our third hymn for instance, \u2014 as
\nthe Great Water, maho arṇ<\/span>aḥ<\/span>, \u2014<\/i> an expression which
\ngives
\nus at once the origin of the later term, Mahas \u2014 or sometimes
\nmahān arṇ<\/span>avaḥ<\/span>.<\/i> We see in the third
\nhymn the close connection
\nbetween Saraswati and this great water. Let us examine a little
\nmore closely this connection before we proceed to the consideration of the
\nVedic cows and their relation to the god Indra and
\nSaraswati’s close cousin the goddess Sarama. For it is necessary
\nto define these relations before we can progress with the scrutiny
\nof Madhuchchhandas’ other hymns addressed without exception
\nto the great Vedic deity. King of Heaven, who, according to our
\nhypothesis, symbolises the Power of Mind and especially the
\ndivine or self-luminous Mind in the human being. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 94<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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