{"id":898,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=898"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:06","slug":"27-indra-giver-of-light-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\/27-indra-giver-of-light-vol-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","title":{"rendered":"-27_Indra Giver of Light.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

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

<\/b> <\/p>\n

\nINDRA, GIVER OF LIGHT <\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nRig-veda 1.4<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    \n\tThe fashioner of perfect forms, like a good yielder for the
    \nmilker of the Herds, we call for increase from day to day.<\/font>
    \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \n <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \n

      \n\tCome to our Soma-offerings. O   Soma-drinker, drink of the
      \nSoma-wine; the intoxication of thy rapture gives indeed the
      \nLight.<\/font> <\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \n <\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \n

        \n\tThen may we know somewhat of thy
        \n\tuttermost right thinkings. Show not beyond us, come.<\/font>
        \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \n <\/p>\n

          \n
        1. \n

          \n\tCome over, question Indra of the clear-seeing mind, the
          \nvigorous, the unoverthrown, who to thy comrades has
          \nbrought the highest good<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \n <\/p>\n

            \n
          1. \n

            \n\tAnd may the Restrainers\u00b9 say to us, "Nay, forth and strive
            \non even in other fields, reposing on Indra your activity."<\/font>
            \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \n\u00b9<\/font>Or Censurers, nidaḥ.<\/i> The root nid<\/i> bears, I think, in the Veda the sense of "bondage", "confinement", "limitation", which can be assigned to it with entire certainty by philological
            \ndeduction. It is the base of nidita,<\/i> bound and nidāna,<\/i> tether. But the root also means to
            \nblame. After the peculiar method of the esoteric diction one or other sense predominates in
            \ndifferent passages without entirely excluding the other. <\/font><\/p>\n

            \nPage <\/font>
            \n\u2013 245<\/font><\/p>\n

            \n

            \n <\/p>\n

              \n
            1. \n

              \n\tAnd may the fighters, doers of the work,\u00b9 declare us entirely
              \nblessed, O   achiever; may we abide in Indra’s peace.<\/font>
              \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              \n

               <\/p>\n

              \n <\/p>\n

                \n
              1. \n

                \n\tIntense for the intense bring thou this glory of the sacrifice
                \nthat intoxicates the Man, carrying forward on the way
                \nIndra who gives joy to his friend.<\/font> <\/font>\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                \n <\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. \n

                  \n\tWhen thou hadst drunk of this, O   thou of the hundred activities, thou becamest a slayer of the Coverers and protectedst
                  \nthe rich mind in its riches.<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  \n  <\/font><\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. \n

                    \n\tThee thus rich in thy riches we enrich
                    \n\tagain, O   Indra, O  
                    \nthou of the hundred activities, for the safe enjoyment of our
                    \nhavings.<\/font> <\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                    \n <\/p>\n

                      \n
                    1. \n

                      \n\tHe who in his vastness is a continent of bliss, \u2014 the friend
                      \nof the Soma-giver and he carries him safely through, \u2014 to
                      \nthat Indra raise the chant.<\/font> <\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                       <\/p>\n

                      \n\u00b9<\/font>Ariḥ kṛṣṭayah<\/i> may also be translated, "the Aryan people", or "the warlike nations".
                      \nThe words krsti<\/i> and carṣaṇi,<\/i> interpreted by Sayana as "man", have as their base the roots krs
                      \n<\/i>and cars<\/i> which originally imply labour, effort or laborious action. They mean sometimes the
                      \ndoer of Vedic Karma, sometimes, the Karma itself, \u2014 the worker or the works. <\/font><\/p>\n

                      \nPage <\/font>
                      \n\u2013 246<\/font><\/p>\n

                      \n

                      \nSAYANA’S INTERPRETATION
                      \n<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

                       <\/p>\n

                        \n
                      1. \n

                        \n\tThe doer of (works that have) a good shape, Indra, we
                        \ncall daily for protection as (one calls) for the cow-milker a
                        \ngood milch-cow.<\/font><\/li>\n

                      2. \n

                        \n\tCome to our (three) libations, drink of the Soma,
                        \n\tO   Soma 
                        \ndrinker; the intoxication of thee, the wealthy one, is indeed
                        \ncow-giving.<\/font> <\/font><\/li>\n

                      3. \n

                        \n\tThen (standing) among the intelligent people who are
                        \nnearest to thee, may we know thee. Do not (go) beyond us
                        \n(and) manifest (thyself to others, but) come to us.<\/font>
                        \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n

                      4. \n

                        \n\tCome to him and question about me, the intelligent one,
                        \n(whether I have praised him rightly or not), \u2014 to the intelligent and unhurt Indra who gives to thy friends (the priests)
                        \nthe best wealth.<\/font> <\/font><\/li>\n

                      5. \n

                        \n\tLet of us (i.e. our priests) speak (i.e. praise Indra),\u2014and
                        \nalso, O   you who censure, go out (from here) and from else 
                        \nwhere too, \u2014 (our priests) doing service all about Indra.<\/font>
                        \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n

                      6. \n

                        \n\tO   destroyer (of foes), may even our enemies speak of us as
                        \nhaving good wealth, \u2014 men (i.e. our friends will say it of
                        \ncourse); may we be in the peace (bestowed) by Indra.<\/font>
                        \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n

                      7. \n

                        \n\tBring this Soma, that wealth of the sacrifice, the cause of
                        \nexhilaration to men, (the Soma) that pervades (the three
                        \noblations) for Indra who pervades (the Soma-offering), that
                        \nattains the rites and is friendly to (Indra) who gives joy (to
                        \nthe sacrificer).<\/font> <\/font><\/li>\n

                      8. \n

                        \n\tDrinking of this, O   thou of many actions, thou becamest
                        \na slayer of Vritras (i.e. enemies led by Vritra) and didst protect entirely the fighter in the fights.<\/font>
                        \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                        \nPage <\/font>
                        \n\u2013 247<\/font><\/p>\n

                        \n
                          \n
                        1. \n

                          \n\tO   Indra of many actions, for enjoyment of riches we make
                          \nthee abundant in food who art strong in the battles.<\/font>\u00b9
                          \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n

                        2. \n

                          \n\tSing to that Indra who is a protector of wealth, great, a
                          \ngood fulfiller (of works) and a friend of the sacrificer.<\/font>
                          \n\t<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                          \n\u00b9Note that Sayana explains vājinam<\/i> in 1.48, as "fighter in the fights" and the same expression in the very next verse as "strong in the fights" and that in the phrase
                          \nvājeṣu vājinam
                          \nvājayāmaḥ̣,<\/i> he takes the base word vāja<\/i> in three different significances, "battle", "strength"
                          \nand "food". This is a typical example of the deliberate inconsistency of Sayana’s method.
                          \n<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nI have given the two renderings together so that the reader may make an easy comparison
                          \nbetween both methods and results. I enclose within brackets the commentator’s explanations
                          \nwherever they are necessary to complete the sense or to make it intelligible. Even the reader
                          \nunacquainted with Sanskrit will be able, I think, to appreciate from this single example the
                          \nreasons which justify the modem critical mind in refusing to accept Sayana as a reliable authority for the interpretation of the Vedic text. <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nPage <\/font>
                          \n\u2013 248<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \n

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

                           <\/p>\n

                          \nMadhuchchhandas, son of Vishwamitra, invokes in the Soma 
                          \noffering Indra, the Master of luminous Mind, for increase in
                          \nthe Light. The symbols of the hymn are those of a collective
                          \nsacrifice. Its subject is the growth of power and delight in Indra
                          \nby the drinking of the Soma, the wine of immortality, and the
                          \nconsequent illumination of the human being so that the obstructions of his inner knowledge are removed and he attains to the
                          \nutmost splendours of the liberated mind.<\/font>
                          \n<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nBut what is this Soma, called sometimes amr<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>ta,<\/i> the Greek
                          \nambrosia, as if it were itself the substance of immortality? It
                          \nis a figure for the divine Ananda, the principle of Bliss, from which, in the
                          \nVedic conception, the existence of Man, this mental being, is drawn. A secret Delight is the base of existence,
                          \nits sustaining atmosphere and almost its substance. This Ananda
                          \nis spoken of in the Taittiriya Upanishad as the ethereal atmosphere of bliss without which nothing could remain in being. In
                          \nthe Aitareya Upanishad Soma, as the lunar deity, is born from
                          \nthe sense-mind in the universal Purusha and, when man is produced, expresses himself again as sense-mentality in the human
                          \nbeing. For delight is the raison d’\u00eatre<\/i> of sensation, or, we may
                          \nsay, sensation is an attempt to translate the secret delight of existence into the terms of physical consciousness. But in that consciousness, \u2014 often figured as adri,<\/i> the hill, stone, or dense substance, \u2014 divine light and divine delight are both of them concealed and confined, and have to be released or extracted.
                          \nAnanda is retained as rasa,<\/i> the sap, the essence, in sense-objects
                          \nand sense-experiences, in the plants and growths of the earth 
                          \nnature, and among these growths the mystic Soma-plant symbolises that element behind all sense-activities and their enjoyments which yields the divine essence. It has to be distilled and,
                          \nonce distilled, purified and intensified until it has grown luminous, full of radiance, full of swiftness, full of energy, gomat,
                          \nās<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>u,
                          \nyuvāku.<\/i> It becomes the chief food of the gods who, called to the
                          \nSoma-oblation, take their share of the enjoyment and in the
                          \nstrength of that ecstasy increase in man, exalt him to his highest<\/font>
                          \n<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nPage <\/font>
                          \n\u2013 249<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \n

                          \npossibilities, make him capable of the supreme experiences.
                          \nThose who do not give the delight in them as an offering to the
                          \ndivine Powers, preferring to reserve themselves for the sense and
                          \nthe lower life, are adorers not of the gods, but of the Panis, lords
                          \nof the sense-consciousness, traffickers in its limited activities, they
                          \nwho press not the mystic wine, give not the purified offering, raise
                          \nnot the sacred chant. It is the Panis who steal from us the Rays of
                          \nthe illumined consciousness, those brilliant herds of the sun, and
                          \npen them up in the cavern of the subconscient, in the dense hill of
                          \nmatter, corrupting even Sarama, the hound of heaven, the luminous intuition, when she comes on their track to the cave of the
                          \nPanis.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \n  But the conception of this hymn belongs to a stage in our
                          \ninner progress when the Panis have been exceeded and even the
                          \nVritras or Coverers who seclude from us our full powers and
                          \nactivities and Vala who holds back the Light, are already over 
                          \npassed. But there are even then powers that stand in the way of
                          \nour perfection. They are the powers of limitation, the Confiners or Censurers,
                          \nwho, without altogether obscuring the rays or damming up the energies, yet seek by constantly affirming the deficiencies of our self-expression to limit its field and set up the
                          \nprogress realised as an obstacle to the progress to come. Madhuchchhandas calls upon Indra to remove the defect and affirm in its
                          \nplace an increasing illumination.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nThe principle which Indra represents is Mind-Power released
                          \nfrom the limits and obscurations of the nervous consciousness.
                          \nIt is this enlightened Intelligence which fashions right or perfect
                          \nforms of thought or of action not deformed by the nervous impulses, not hampered by the falsehoods of sense. The image
                          \npresented is that of a cow giving abundantly its yield to the milker
                          \nof the herds. The word go<\/i> means in Sanskrit both a cow and a ray
                          \nof light. This double sense is used by the Vedic symbolists to
                          \nsuggest a double figure which was to them more than a figure; for
                          \nlight, in their view, is not merely an apt poetic image of thought,
                          \nbut is actually its physical form. Thus, the herds that are milked
                          \nare the Herds of the Sun, \u2014 Surya, God of the revelatory and
                          \nintuitive mind, or else of Dawn, the goddess who manifests the
                          \nsolar glory. The Rishi desires from Indra a daily increase of this<\/font>
                          \n<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nPage <\/font>
                          \n\u2013 250<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \n

                          \nlight of Truth by his fuller activity pouring rays in a rich yield
                          \nupon the receptive mind.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nThe activity of the pure illuminated Intelligence is sustained
                          \nand increased by the conscious expression in us of the delight in
                          \ndivine existence and divine activity typified by the Soma-wine.
                          \nAs the Intelligence feeds upon it, its action becomes an intoxicated ecstasy of inspiration by which the rays come pouring
                          \nabundantly and joyously in. "Light-giving indeed is the intoxication of thee in thy rapture."<\/font>
                          \n<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nFor then it is possible, breaking beyond the limitations still
                          \ninsisted upon by the Confiners, to arrive at something of the
                          \nfinalities of knowledge possible to the illuminated intelligence.
                          \nRight thoughts, right sensibilities, \u2014 this is the full sense of the
                          \nword sumati;<\/i> for the Vedic mati<\/i> includes not only the thinking,
                          \nbut also the emotional parts of mentality. Sumati<\/i> is a light in the
                          \nthoughts; it is also a bright gladness and kindness in the soul.
                          \nBut in this passage the stress of the sense is upon right thought
                          \nand not on the emotions. It is necessary, however, that the
                          \nprogress in right thinking should commence in the field of
                          \nconsciousness already attained; there must not be flashes and
                          \ndazzling manifestations which by going beyond our powers elude
                          \nexpression in right form and confuse the receptive mind. Indra
                          \nmust be not only illuminer, but a fashioner of right thought 
                          \nformations, surūpakr<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>tnu.<\/i><\/font>
                          \n<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nThe Rishi, next, turning to a comrade in the collective Yoga,
                          \nor, perhaps, addressing his own mind, encourages him or it to
                          \npass beyond the obstruction of the adverse suggestions opposed
                          \nto him and by questioning the divine Intelligence progress to the
                          \nhighest good which it has already given to others. For it is that
                          \nIntelligence which clearly discerns and can solve or remove all
                          \nstill-existing confusion and obscuration. Swift of movement,
                          \nintense, energetic, it does not by its energy stumble in its paths
                          \nlike the impulses of the nervous consciousness. Or perhaps it is
                          \nrather meant that owing to its invincible energy it does not succumb to the attacks whether of the Coverers or of the powers that
                          \nlimit.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nNext are described the results towards which the seer aspires.
                          \nWith this fuller light opening on to the finalities of mental knowledge  <\/font>
                          \n <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nPage <\/font>
                          \n\u2013 251<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \n

                          \nthe powers of Limitation will be satisfied and of them 
                          \nselves will withdraw, consenting to the farther advance and to
                          \nthe new luminous activities. They will say, in effect, "Yes, now
                          \nyou have the right which we were hitherto justified in denying.
                          \nNot only in the fields won already, but in other and untrod
                          \nprovinces pursue then your conquering march. Repose this
                          \naction wholly on the divine Intelligence, not upon your lower
                          \ncapacities. For it is the greater surrender which gives you the
                          \ngreater right."<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nThe word ārata,<\/i> move or strive, like its congeners ari, arya,
                          \nārya, arata, aran<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>i,<\/i> expresses the central idea of the Veda. The
                          \nroot ar<\/i> indicates always a movement of effort or of struggle or a
                          \nstate of surpassing height or excellence; it is applied to rowing,
                          \nploughing, fighting, lifting, climbing. The Aryan then is the man
                          \nwho seeks to fulfil himself by the Vedic action, the internal and
                          \nexternal karma<\/i> or apas,<\/i> which is of the nature of a sacrifice to
                          \nthe gods. But it is also imaged as a journey, a march, a battle,
                          \na climbing upwards. The Aryan man labours towards heights,
                          \nfights his way on in a march which is at once a progress forward
                          \nand an ascent. That is his Aryahood, his arete,<\/i> virtue, to use a
                          \nGreek word derived from the same root. Ārata,<\/i> with the rest of
                          \nthe phrase, might be translated, "Out and push forward in other
                          \nfields".<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nThe idea is taken up again, in the subtle Vedic fashion of
                          \nthought-connections by word-echoes, with the arih<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font> kr<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>s<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>t<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>ayah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font> of
                          \nthe next verse. These are, I think, not the Aryan nations on
                          \nearth, although that sense too is possible when the idea is that of
                          \na collective or national Yoga, but the powers that help man in
                          \nhis ascent, his spiritual kindred bound to him as comrades, allies,
                          \nbrothers, yoke-fellows (sakhāyah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>, yujah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>,
                          \njāmayah<\/i><\/font>̣<\/i><\/font>),<\/i> for his aspiration is their aspiration and by his completeness they are fulfilled.
                          \nAs the Restrainers are satisfied and give way, so they too, satisfied, must affirm finally their task accomplished by the fullness of
                          \nhuman bliss, when the soul shall rest in the peace of Indra that
                          \ncomes with the Light, the peace of a perfected mentality standing
                          \nas upon heights of consummated consciousness and Beatitude.<\/font>
                          \n<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nTherefore is the divine Ananda poured out to be made
                          \nswift and intense in the system and offered to Indra for the support  <\/font>
                          \n <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nPage <\/font>
                          \n\u2013 252<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \n

                          \nof his intensities. For it is this profound joy manifest in the
                          \ninner sensations that gives the ecstasy by which the man or the
                          \nGod grows strong. The divine Intelligence will be able to move
                          \nforward in the journey yet incompleted and will return the gift
                          \nby fresh powers of the Beatitude descending upon the friend of
                          \nGod.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nFor it was in this strength that the Divine
                          \nMind in man destroyed all that opposed, as Coverers or besiegers, its hundred 
                          \nfold activities of will and of thought; in this strength it protected
                          \nafterwards the rich and various possessions already won in past
                          \nbattles from the atris<\/i> and dasyus,<\/i> devourers and plunderers of
                          \nour gains.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nAlthough, continues Madhuchchhandas, that Intelligence
                          \nis already thus rich and variously stored we seek to increase yet
                          \nmore its force of abundance, removing the Restrainers as well as
                          \nthe Vritras, so that we may have the full and assured possession
                          \nof our riches.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nFor this Light is, in its entire greatness free from limitation,
                          \na continent of felicity; this Power is that which befriends the
                          \nhuman soul and carries it safe through the battle, to the end of
                          \nits march, to the summit of its aspiration.<\/font>
                          \n<\/font><\/p>\n

                          \nPage <\/font>
                          \n\u2013 253<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                          II   INDRA, GIVER OF LIGHT   Rig-veda 1.4     The fashioner of perfect forms, like a good yielder for the milker of the…<\/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-898","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\/898","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=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}