{"id":838,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:44","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=838"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:44","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:44","slug":"36-the-ribhus-artisans-of-immortality-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\/36-the-ribhus-artisans-of-immortality-vol-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","title":{"rendered":"-36_The Ribhus Artisans of Immortality.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nXI <\/b><\/font> <\/p>\n

\nTHE RIBHUS, ARTISANS OF IMMORTALITY <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nRig-veda 1.20<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

    \n
  1. \n

    \n\tLo, the affirmation made for the divine Birth with the breath
    \nof the mouth by illumined minds, that gives perfectly the
    \nbliss;<\/font> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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

      \n
    1. \n

      \n\tEven they who fashioned by the mind for Indra his two
      \nbright steeds that are yoked by Speech, and they enjoy the
      \nsacrifice by their accomplishings of the work.<\/font> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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

        \n
      1. \n

        \n\tThey fashioned for the twin lords of the
        \n\tvoyage their happy car of the all-pervading movement, they fashioned the
        \n\tfostering cow that yields the sweet milk.<\/font> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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

          \n
        1. \n

          \n\tO Ribhus, in your pervasion you made young again the
          \nParents, you who seek the straight path and have the Truth
          \nin your mentalisings.<\/font> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \n <\/p>\n

          \nPage <\/font>
          \n\u2013 324<\/font><\/p>\n

          \n
            \n
          1. \n

            \n\tThe raptures of the wine come to you entirely, to you with
            \nIndra companioned by the Maruts and with the Kings, the
            \nsons of Aditi.<\/font> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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

              \n
            1. \n

              \n\tAnd this bowl of Twashtri new and perfected you made
              \nagain into four.<\/font> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              \n <\/p>\n

                \n
              1. \n

                \n\tSo establish for us the thrice seven ecstasies, each separately by perfect expressings of them.<\/font>\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                \n <\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. \n

                  \n\tThey sustained and held in them, they divided by perfection
                  \nin their works the sacrificial share of the enjoyment among
                  \nthe Gods.<\/font> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  \nPage <\/font>
                  \n\u2013 325<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n

                  \nCOMMENTARY<\/font>
                  \n<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \nThe Ribhus, it has been suggested, are rays of the Sun.
                  \nAnd it is true that like Varuna, Mitra, Bhaga and Aryaman
                  \nthey are powers of the solar Light, the Truth. But their special
                  \ncharacter in the Veda is that they are artisans of Immortality.
                  \nThey are represented as human beings who have attained to
                  \nthe condition of godhead by power of knowledge and perfection
                  \nin their works. Their function is to aid Indra in raising man towards the same
                  \nstate of divine light and bliss which they themselves have earned as their own divine privilege. The hymns
                  \naddressed to them in the Veda are few and to the first glance exceedingly enigmatical; for they are full of certain figures and
                  \nsymbols always repeated. But once the principal clues of the
                  \nVeda are known, they become on the contrary exceedingly clear
                  \nand simple and present a coherent and interesting idea which
                  \nsheds a clear light on the Vedic gospel of immortality.<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nThe Ribhus are powers of the Light who have descended
                  \ninto Matter and are there born as human faculties aspiring to become divine and immortal. In this character they are called
                  \nchildren of Sudhanwan,\u00b9 a patronymic which is merely a parable
                  \nof their birth from the full capacities of Matter touched by the
                  \nluminous energy. But in their real nature they are descended
                  \nfrom this luminous Energy and are sometimes so addressed,
                  \n"Offspring of Indra, grandsons of luminous Force" (IV.37.4).
                  \nFor Indra, the divine mind in man, is born out of luminous Force
                  \nas is Agni out of pure Force, and from Indra the divine Mind
                  \nspring the human aspirations after Immortality.<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nThe names of the three Ribhus are, in the order of their
                  \nbirth, ṛbhu<\/i> or ṛbhukṣan,<\/i> the skilful Knower or the Shaper
                  \nin knowledge, vibhva<\/i> or vibhu,<\/i> the Pervading, the self-diffusing,
                  \nand vāja,<\/i> the Plenitude. Their names indicate their special nature
                  \nand function, but they are really a trinity, and therefore, although
                  \nusually termed the Ribhus, they are also called the Vibhus and
                  \nVajas. Ribhu, the eldest is the first in man who begins to shape<\/font><\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b9<\/font>"Dhanwan" in this name does not mean "bow" but the solid or desert field of Matter
                  \notherwise typified as the hill or rock out of which the waters and the rays are delivered.<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nPage <\/font>
                  \n\u2013 326<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n

                  \nby his thoughts and works the forms of immortality; Vibhwa
                  \ngives pervasiveness to this working; Vaja, the youngest, supplies
                  \nthe plenitude of the divine light and substance by which the
                  \ncomplete work can be done. These works and formations of immortality they effect, it is continually repeated, by the force of
                  \nThought, with the mind for field and material; they are done
                  \nwith power; they are attended by a perfection in the creative and
                  \neffective act, svapasyayā, sukṛtyayā,<\/i> which is the condition of the
                  \nworking out of Immortality. These formations of the artisans of
                  \nImmortality are, as they are briefly summarised in the hymn
                  \nbefore us, the horses of Indra, the car of the Ashwins, the Cow
                  \nthat gives the sweet milk, the youth of the universal Parents,
                  \nthe multiplication into four of the one drinking-bowl of the gods
                  \noriginally fashioned by Twashtri, the Framer of things.<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nThe hymn opens with an indication of its objective. It is an
                  \naffirmation of the power of the Ribhus made for the divine
                  \nBirth, made by men whose minds have attained to illumination
                  \nand possess that energy of the Light from which the Ribhus were
                  \nborn. It is made by the breath of the mouth, the life-power in
                  \nthe world. Its object is to confirm in the human soul the entire
                  \ndelight of the Beatitude, the thrice seven ecstasies of the divine
                  \nLife.\u00b9<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nThis divine Birth is represented by the Ribhus who, once
                  \nhuman, have become immortal. By their accomplishings of the
                  \nwork, \u2014 the great work of upward human evolution which is the
                  \nsummit of the world-sacrifice, \u2014 they have gained in that sacrifice their divine share and privilege along with the divine powers.
                  \nThey are the sublimated human energies of formation and up-
                  \nward progress who assist the gods in the divinising of man. And
                  \nof all their accomplishings that which is central is the formation
                  \nof the two brilliant horses of Indra, the horses yoked by speech
                  \nto "their movements, yoked by the Word and fashioned by the
                  \nmind. For the free movement of the luminous mind, the divine
                  \nmind in man, is the condition of all other immortalising works.\u00b2<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nThe second work of the Ribhus is to fashion the chariot of
                  \nthe Ashwins, lords of the human journey, \u2014 the happy movement <\/font> <\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b9<\/font>Ayam
                  \ndevāya janmane, stomo viprebhir āsayā; akāri ratnadhatāmah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b2<\/font>Ya
                  \nindrāya vacoyujā tataks<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>ur
                  \nmanasā harī; śamībhir yaj\u00f1am āśata.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nPage <\/font>
                  \n\u2013 327<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n

                  \nof the Ananda in man which pervades with its action all
                  \nhis worlds or planes of being, bringing health, youth, strength,
                  \nwholeness to the physical man, capacity of enjoyment and action
                  \nto the vital, glad energy of the light to the mental being, \u2014 in a
                  \nword, the force of the pure delight of being in all his members.\u00b9<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nThe third work of the Ribhus is to fashion the cow who gives
                  \nthe sweet milk. It is said elsewhere that this cow has been delivered out of its
                  \ncovering skin, \u2014 the veil of Nature’s outward movement and action, \u2014 by the
                  \nRibhus. The fostering cow her- self is she of the universal forms and universal
                  \nimpetus of movement, viśvajuvam viśvarūpām,<\/i> in other words she is the first
                  \nRadiance, Aditi, the infinite Consciousness of the infinite conscious Being which is the mother of the worlds. That conscious-
                  \nness is brought out by the Ribhus from the veiling movement of
                  \nnature and a figure of her is fashioned here in us by them. She is,
                  \nby the action of the powers of the duality, separated from her
                  \noffspring, the soul in the lower world; the Ribhus restore it to constant
                  \ncompanionship with its infinite mother.\u00b2<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nAnother great work of the Ribhus is \u2014 in the strength of
                  \ntheir previous deeds, of the light of Indra, the movement of the
                  \nAshwins, the full yield of the fostering Cow \u2014 to restore youth
                  \nto the aged Parents of the world. Heaven and Earth. Heaven is
                  \nthe mental consciousness, Earth the physical. These in their
                  \nunion are represented as lying long\u2014old and prostrate like fallen
                  \nsacrificial posts, worn-out and suffering. The Ribhus, it is said,
                  \nascend to the house of the Sun where he lives in the unconcealed
                  \nsplendour of his Truth and there slumbering for twelve days
                  \nafterwards traverse the heaven and the earth, filling them with
                  \nabundant rain of the streams of Truth, nourishing them, restoring them to youth and vigour.<\/font>\u00b3<\/font> They pervade heaven with their
                  \nworkings, they bring divine increase to the mentality,<\/font>4<\/font><\/sup> they give
                  \nto it and the physical being a fresh and young and immortal
                  \nmovement.<\/font>5<\/font><\/sup> For from the home of the Truth they bring with
                  \nthem the perfection of that which is the condition of their work,
                  \nthe movement in the straight path of the Truth and the Truth<\/font><\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b9<\/font>Takfan
                  \nnāsatyābhyām, parijmānam sukham ratham.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b2<\/font>Taks<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>an dhenum
                  \nsabardughām.<\/i> For the other details see Rv. IV.33.4,8; IV.36.4 etc.<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b3<\/font>Rv.
                  \nIV.33.2,3,7; IV.36.1,3; 1.161.7.      4<\/sup>Rv.
                  \nIV.33.1,2.      5<\/sup>Rv. V.36.3.<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nPage <\/font>
                  \n\u2013 328<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n

                  \nitself with its absolute effectivity in all the thoughts and words
                  \nof the mentality. Carrying this power with them in their pervading entry into the lower world, they pour into it the immortal
                  \nessence.\u00b9<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nIt is the wine of that immortal essence with its ecstasies which
                  \nthey win by their works and bring with them to man in his sacrifice. And with them come and sit Indra and the Maruts, the divine Mind and its Thought-forces, and the four great Kings,
                  \nsons of Aditi, children of the Infinite, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman,
                  \nBhaga, the purity and vastness of the Truth-Consciousness, its
                  \nlaw of love and light and harmony, its power and aspiration, its
                  \npure and happy enjoyment of things.\u00b2<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nAnd there at the sacrifice the gods drink in the fourfold
                  \nbowl, camasam caturvayam<\/i> (IV. 36.4), the pourings of the nectar.
                  \nFor Twashtri, the Framer of things, has given man originally
                  \nonly a single bowl, the physical consciousness, the physical body
                  \nin which to offer the delight of existence to the gods. The Ribhus,
                  \npowers of luminous knowledge, take it as renewed and perfected
                  \nby Twashtri’s latter workings and build up in him from the material of the four planes three other bodies, vital, mental and the
                  \ncausal or ideal body.\u00b3<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nBecause they have made this fourfold cup of bliss and enabled
                  \nhim thereby to live on the plane of the Truth-Consciousness
                  \nthey are able to establish in the perfected human being the thrice
                  \nseven ecstasies of the supreme existence poured into the mind,
                  \nvitality and body. Each of these they can give perfectly by the
                  \nfull expression of its separate absolute ecstasy even in the combination of the
                  \nwhole.<\/font>4<\/font>
                  \n<\/font><\/sup><\/p>\n

                  \nThe Ribhus have power to support and contain all these
                  \nfloods of the delight of being in the human consciousness; and
                  \nthey are able to divide it in the perfection of their works among
                  \nthe manifested gods, to each god his sacrificial share. For such
                  \nperfect division is the whole condition of the effective sacrifice,
                  \nthe perfect work.<\/font>5<\/font><\/sup><\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b9<\/font>Yuvānā
                  \npitarā punah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>,
                  \nsatyamantrā rjūyavah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>,
                  \nr<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>bhavo vis<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>t<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>yakrata.
                  \n<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b2<\/font>Sam vo
                  \nmadāso agmata, indren<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>a ca
                  \nmarutvatā; ādityebhiśca rājabhih<\/i><\/font>̣̣<\/i><\/font>.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b3<\/font>Uta tyam camasam navam, tvas<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>t<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>ur devasya nis<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>kr<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>tam; akarta caturah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font> <\/b>punah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>.<\/b><\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n4<\/sup>Te no ratnāni dhattana, trir
                  \nā sāptāni sunvate; ekamekam suśastibhih<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>.
                  \n<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n5<\/sup>Adhārayanta vahnayo’bhajanta
                  \nsukr<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>tyayā;
                  \nbhāgam deves<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>u
                  \nyaj\u00f1iyam.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nPage <\/font>
                  \n\u2013 329<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \n

                  \nSuch are the Ribhus and they are called to the human sacrifice to fashion for man the things of immortality even as they
                  \nfashioned them for themselves. "He becomes full of plenitude
                  \nand strength for the labour, he becomes a Rishi by power of self-
                  \nexpression, he becomes a hero and a smiter hard to pierce in the
                  \nbattles, he holds in himself increase of bliss and entire energy
                  \nwhom Vaja and Vibhwa, the Ribhus foster…. For you are seers
                  \nand thinkers clear-discerning; as such with this thought of our soul we declare
                  \nto you our knowledge. Do you in your knowledge moving about our thoughts fashion
                  \nfor us all human enjoyings, \u2014 luminous plenitude and fertilising force and supreme
                  \nfelicity. Here issue, here felicity, here a great energy of inspiration fashion
                  \nfor us in your delight. Give to us, O Ribhus, that richly-varied plenitude by
                  \nwhich we shall awaken in our consciousness to things beyond ordinary men."\u00b9<\/font><\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \n\u00b9<\/font>Rv. IV.36.6-9.<\/font><\/p>\n

                  \nPage <\/font>
                  \n\u2013 330<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  XI   THE RIBHUS, ARTISANS OF IMMORTALITY   Rig-veda 1.20   Lo, the affirmation made for the divine Birth with the breath of the mouth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","wpcat-17-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}