{"id":907,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=907"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:09","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:09","slug":"20-the-human-fathers-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\/20-the-human-fathers-vol-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","title":{"rendered":"-20-_The Human Fathers.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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


\nThe Human Fathers <\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HESE <\/font><\/b>characteristics of the Angirasa Rishis
\nseem at first sight to indicate that they are in the Vedic
\nsystem a class of demi-gods, in their outward aspect personifications or rather
\npersonalities of the Light and the Voice and the
\nFlame, but in their inner aspect powers of the Truth who second
\nthe gods in their battles. But even as divine seers, even as sons
\nof Heaven and heroes of the Lord, these sages represent aspiring
\nhumanity. True, they are originally the sons of the gods, devaputrāḥ<\/span>,<\/i> children of Agni, forms
\nof the manifoldly born Brihaspati, and in their ascent to the world of the
\nTruth they are described as ascending back to the place from whence they came; but even in these characteristics they may well be representative
\nof the human soul which has itself descended from that world
\nand has to reascend; for it is in its origin a mental being, son of
\nimmortality (amṛ<\/span>tasya
\nputrāḥ)<\/span>,<\/i>
\na child of Heaven born in Heaven
\nand mortal only in the bodies that it assumes. And the part of
\nthe Angirasa Rishis in the sacrifice is the human part, to find the
\nword, to sing the hymn of the soul to the gods, to sustain and in-
\ncrease the divine Powers by the praise, the sacred food and the
\nSoma-wine, to bring to birth by their aid the divine Dawn, to
\nwin the luminous form of the all-radiating Truth and to ascend
\nto its secret, far and high-seated home. <\/p>\n

In this work of the sacrifice they appear in a double form,\u00b9
\nthe divine Angirasas, ṛ<\/span>ṣ<\/span>ayo divyāḥ<\/span>,<\/i> who symbolise and
\npreside
\nover certain psychological powers and workings like the gods,
\nand the human fathers, pitaro manuṣ<\/span>yāḥ<\/span>,<\/i>
\nwho like the Ribhus,
\nalso described as human beings or at least human powers that
\nhave conquered immortality by the work, have attained the goal <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>It<\/span> is to be
\nnoted that the Puranas distinguish specifically between two classes of Pitris,
\nthe divine Fathers, a class of deities, and the human Ancestors to both of whom
\nthe pin<\/i><\/span><\/span>̣<\/span>d<\/span>̣<\/span>a<\/span><\/i> is
\noffered. The Puranas, obviously, only continue in this respect the original
\nVedic tradition.<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 179<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

and are invoked to assist a later mortal race in the same divine
\nachievement. Quite apart from the later Yama hymns of the
\ntenth Mandala in which the Angirasas are spoken of as Barhishad
\nPitris along with the Bhrigus and Atharvans and receive their
\nown peculiar portion in the sacrifice, they are in the rest of the
\nVeda also called upon in a less definite but a larger and more
\nsignificant imagery. It is for the great human journey that they
\nare invoked; for it is the human journey from the mortality to
\nthe immortality, from the falsehood to the truth that the Ancestors
\naccomplished, opening the way to their descendants. <\/p>\n

We see this characteristic of their working in VII.42 and
\nVII. 52. The first of these two hymns of Vasishtha is a Sukta in
\nwhich the gods are invoked precisely for this great journey,
\nadhvara yaj\u00f1a,<\/i>\u00b9<\/span> the
\nsacrifice that travels or is a travel to the home
\nof the godheads and at the same time a battle: for thus it is sung, "Easy of
\ntravelling for thee is the path, O Agni, and known to thee
\nfrom of old. Yoke in the Soma-offering thy ruddy (or, actively-
\nmoving) mares which bear the hero. Seated, I call the births
\ndivine" (verse 2). What path is this? It is the path between the
\nhome of the gods and our earthly mortality down which the gods
\ndescend through the antarikṣ<\/span>a,<\/i> the vital regions, to the earthly
\nsacrifice and up which the sacrifice and man by the sacrifice
\nascends to the home of the gods. Agni yokes his mares, his
\nvariously-coloured energies or flames of the divine Force he
\nrepresents, which bear the Hero, the battling power within
\nus that performs the journey. And the births divine are at once
\nthe gods themselves and those manifestations of the divine life
\nin man which are the Vedic meaning of the godheads. That this
\nis the sense becomes clear from the fourth Rik. "When the Guest
\nthat lodges in the bliss has become conscious in knowledge
\nin the gated house of the hero rich (in felicity), when Agni is
\nperfectly satisfied and firmly lodged in the house, then he gives
\nthe desirable good to the creature that makes the journey" <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>Sayana takes a-dhvara yaj\u00f1a,<\/i> the
\nunhurt sacrifice; but "unhurt" can never have come to
\nbe used as a synonym of sacrifice. Adhvara<\/i> is "travelling",
\n"moving", connected with adhvan,
\n<\/i>path or journey from the lost root adh,<\/i> to move, extend, be wide,
\ncompact, etc. We see the
\nconnection between the two words adhvan<\/i> and adhvara<\/i> in adhva,<\/i>
\nair, sky and adhvara<\/i> with
\nthe same sense. The passages in the Veda are numerous in which the adhvara<\/i>
\nor adhvara yaj\u00f1a
\n<\/i>is connected with the idea of travelling, journeying, advancing on the
\npath.<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 180<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

or, it may be, for his journeying. <\/p>\n

The hymn is therefore an invocation to Agni for the journey
\nto the supreme good, the divine birth, the bliss. And its opening
\nverse is a prayer for the necessary conditions of the journey,
\nthe things that are said here to constitute the form of the pilgrim
\nsacrifice, adhvarasya peśaḥ<\/span>,<\/i> and among these comes first the forward movement of the
\nAngirasas; "Forward let the Angirasas
\ntravel, priests of the Word, forward go the cry of heaven (or, of
\nthe heavenly thing, cloud or lightning), forward move the fostering Cows that
\ndiffuse their waters, and let the two pressing-stones
\nbe yoked (to their work) \u2014 the form of the pilgrim sacrifice",
\npra brahmāṇ<\/span>o
\nangiraso nakṣ<\/span>anta,
\npra krandanur nabhanyasya
\nvetu; pra dhenava udapruto navanta, yujyātām adrī adhvarasya
\npeśaḥ<\/span><\/i>
\n(VII.42.1). The Angirasas with the divine Word, the cry
\nof Heaven which is the voice of Swar, the luminous heaven, and
\nof its lightnings thundering out from the Word, the divine waters
\nor seven rivers that are set free to their flowing by that heavenly
\nlightning of Indra the master of Swar, and with the outflowing
\nof the divine waters the outpressing of the immortalising Soma,
\nthese constitute the form, peśaḥ<\/span>,<\/i> of the adhvara yaj\u00f1a.<\/i> And its
\ngeneral characteristic is forward movement, the advance of all
\nto the divine goal, as emphasised by the three verbs of motion,
\nnaksanta, vetu, navanta<\/i> and the emphatic pra,<\/i> forward, which
\nopens and sets the key to each clause. <\/p>\n

But the fifty-second hymn is still more significant and
\nsuggestive. The first Rik runs, "O Sons of the infinite Mother
\n(ādityāsaḥ<\/span>),<\/i>
\nmay we become infinite beings (aditayaḥ<\/span> syāma), <\/i>may the Vasus protect in the godhead and the mortality (devatrā
\nmartyatrā);<\/i> possessing may we possess you, O Mitra and
\nVaruna, becoming may we become you, O Heaven and Earth",
\nsanema mitrāvaruṇā<\/span>
\nsanantaḥ<\/span>,
\nbhavema dyāvāpṛ<\/span>thivī
\nbhavantaḥ<\/span>. <\/i>This is evidently the sense that we are to possess and become the
\ninfinities or children of Aditi, the godheads, aditayah, ādityāsaḥ<\/span>. <\/i>Mitra and Varuna, we must remember, are powers of Surya
\nSavitri, the Lord of the Light and the Truth. And the third verse
\nruns, "May the Angirasas who hasten through to the goal move
\nin their travelling to the bliss of the divine Savitri; and that
\n(bliss) may our great Father, he of the sacrifice, and all the gods <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 181<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

becoming of one mind accept in heart." Turaṇ<\/span>yavo nakṣ<\/span>anta
\nratnam devasya savitur iyānāḥ<\/span>.<\/i> It is quite clear therefore that
\nthe Angirasas are travellers to the light and truth of the solar deity
\nfrom which are born the luminous cows they wrest from the
\nPanis and to the bliss which, as we always see, is founded on that
\nlight and truth. It is clear also that this journey is a growing into
\nthe godhead, into the infinite being (aditayaḥ<\/span> syāma),<\/i> said in this
\nhymn (verse 2) to come by the growth of the peace and bliss
\nthrough the action in us of Mitra, Varuna and the Vasus who
\nprotect us in the godhead and the mortality. <\/p>\n

In these two hymns the Angirasa Rishis generally are mentioned; but in
\nothers we have positive references to the human
\nFathers who first discovered the Light and possessed the Thought
\nand the Word and travelled to the secret worlds of the luminous
\nBliss. In the light of the conclusions at which we have arrived, we
\ncan now study the more important passages, profound, beautiful
\nand luminous, in which this great discovery of the human fore-
\nfathers is hymned. We shall find there the summary of that great
\nhope which the Vedic mystics held ever before their eyes; that
\njourney, that victory is the ancient, primal achievement set as a
\ntype of the luminous Ancestors for the mortality that was to
\ncome after them. It was the conquest of the powers of the
\ncircumscribing Night rātrī paritakmyā<\/i> (V.30.14), Vritras,
\nSambaras and Valas, the Titans, Giants, Pythons, subconscient
\nPowers who hold the light and the force in themselves, in their
\ncities of darkness and illusion, but can neither use it aright nor
\nwill give it up to man, the mental being. Their ignorance, evil
\nand limitation have not merely to be cut away from us, but bro-
\nken up and into and made to yield up the secret of light and good
\nand infinity. Out of this death that immortality has to be conquered. Pent up
\nbehind this ignorance is a secret knowledge and
\na great light of truth; prisoned by this evil is an infinite content
\nof good; in this limiting death is the seed of a boundless immortality. Vala,
\nfor example, is Vala of the radiances, valasya
\ngomataḥ<\/span><\/i>
\n(1.11.5), his body is made of the light, govapuṣ<\/span>o valasya <\/i>(X.68.9), his hole or cave is a city full of treasures; that body
\nhas to be broken up, that city rent open, those treasures seized.
\nThis is the work set for humanity and the Ancestors have done <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 182<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

it for the race that the way may be known and the goal reached
\nby the same means and through the same companionship with
\nthe gods of Light. "Let there be that ancient friendship between
\nyou gods and us as when with the Angirasas who spoke aright
\nthe word, thou didst make to fall that which was fixed and slowest
\nVala as he rushed against thee, O achiever of works, and thou
\ndidst make to swing open all the doors of his city" (VI. 18.5).
\nAt the beginning of all human traditions there is this ancient memory. It is
\nIndra and the serpent Vritra, it is Apollo and the
\nPython, it is Thor and the Giants, Sigurd and Fafner, it is the
\nmutually opposing gods of the Celtic mythology; but only in the
\nVeda do we find the key to this imagery which conceals the hope
\nor the wisdom of a prehistoric humanity. <\/p>\n

The first hymn we will take is one by the great Rishi, Viswamitra. III.39;
\nfor it carries us right into the heart of our subject.
\nIt sets out with a description of the ancestral Thought, pitryā
\ndhīḥ<\/span>,<\/i>
\nthe Thought of the fathers which can be no other than the
\nSwar-possessing thought hymned by the Atris, the seven-headed
\nthought discovered by Ayasya for the Navagwas; for in this
\nhymn also it is spoken of in connection with the Angirasas, the
\nFathers. "The thought expressing itself from the heart, formed
\ninto the Stoma, goes towards Indra its lord" (Rik 1). Indra is,
\nwe have supposed, the Power of luminous Mind, master of the
\nworld of Light and its lightnings; the words or the thoughts are
\nconstantly imaged as cows or women, Indra as the Bull or husband, and the words
\ndesire him and are even spoken of as casting
\nthemselves upwards to seek him, e.g. 1.9.4, giraḥ<\/span> prati tvām ud
\nahāsata…vṛ<\/span>ṣ<\/span>abham patim.<\/i> The luminous
\nMind of Swar is the
\ngoal sought by the Vedic thought and the Vedic speech which
\nexpress the herd of the illuminations pressing upward from the
\nsoul, from the cave of the subconscient in which they were penned; <\/p>\n

Indra master of Swar is the Bull, the lord of these herds, gopatiḥ<\/span>.<\/i> <\/p>\n

The Rishi continues to describe the Thought. It is "the
\nthought that when it is being expressed, remains wakeful in the
\nknowledge", does not lend itself to the slumber of the Panis, yd
\njāgṛ<\/span>vir
\nvidathe śasyamānā;<\/i> "that which is born of thee (or, for
\nthee), O Indra, of that take knowledge". This is a constant
\nformula in the Veda. The god, the divine, has to take cognizance <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 183<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

of what rises up to him in man, to become awake to it in the
\nknowledge within us, (viddhi, cetathaḥ<\/span>, etc.),<\/i> otherwise it remains
\na human thing and does not "go to the gods", (deveṣ<\/span>u gacchati). <\/i>And then, "It is ancient (or eternal), it is born from heaven; when it is being expressed, it remains wakeful in the knowledge; wearing white and happy robes, this in us is the ancient thought
\nof the fathers", seyam asme sanajā pitryā dhīḥ<\/span><\/i> (Rik 2). And then
\nthe Rishi speaks of this Thought as "The mother of twins, who
\nhere gives birth to the twins; on the tip of the tongue it descends
\nand stands; the twin bodies when they are born cleave to each
\nother and are slayers of darkness and move in the foundation of
\nburning force" (Rik 3). I will not now discuss what are these luminous
\ntwins, for that would carry us beyond the limits of our
\nimmediate subject: suffice it to say that they are spoken of elsewhere in
\nconnection with the Angirasas and their establishment
\nof the supreme birth (the plane of the Truth) as the twins in whom
\nIndra places the word of the expression (1.83.3), that the burning
\nforce in whose foundation they move is evidently that of the Sun,
\nthe slayer of darkness, and this foundation is therefore identical
\nwith the supreme plane, the foundation of the Truth, ṛ<\/span>tasya
\nbudhne,<\/i> and, finally that they can hardly be wholly unconnected
\nwith the twin children of Surya, Yama and Yami, \u2014 Yama who
\nin the tenth Mandala is associated with the Angirasa Rishis.\u00b9<\/p>\n

Having thus described the ancestral thought with its twin
\nchildren, slayers of darkness, Vishwamitra proceeds to speak
\nof the ancient Fathers who first formed it and of the great victory by which
\nthey discovered "that Truth, the sun lying in the darkness". "None is there among mortals who can blame (or, as it
\nrather seems to me to mean, no power of mortality that can confine or bind) our ancient fathers, they who were fighters for the
\ncows; Indra of the mightiness, Indra of the achievement released
\nupward for them the fortified pens, \u2014there where, a comrade
\nwith his comrades, the fighters, the Navagwas, following on his
\nknees the cows, Indra with the ten Dashagwas found that Truth, <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>It is in the light of
\nthese facts that we must understand the colloquy of Yama and Yami
\nin the tenth Mandala in which the sister seeks union with her brother and is
\nput off to later
\ngenerations, meaning really symbolic periods of time, the word for later
\nsignifying rather
\n"higher", uttara.<\/i><\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 184<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

satyam tad,<\/i> even the sun dwelling in the darkness" (Riks 4,5).
\nThis is the usual image of the conquest of the luminous cattle and
\nthe discovery of the hidden Sun; but in the next verse it is associated with
\ntwo other related images which also occur frequently
\nin the Vedic hymns, the pasture or field of the cow and the honey
\nfound in the cow. "Indra found the honey stored in the Shining
\nOne, the footed and hoofed (wealth) in the pasture\u00b9 of the
\nCow" (Rik 6). The Shining One, usriyā <\/i> (also usrā),<\/i>
\nis another
\nword which like go<\/i> means both ray and cow and is used as a
\nsynonym of go<\/i> in the Veda. We hear constantly of the ghṛ<\/span>ta<\/i> or
\nclarified butter stored in the cow, hidden there by the Panis in
\nthree portions according to Vamadeva; but it is sometimes the
\nhoneyed ghṛ<\/span>ta<\/i>
\nand sometimes simply the honey, madhumad
\nghṛ<\/span>tam<\/i> (IX.
\n86.37) and madhu.<\/i> We have seen how closely the yield
\nof the cow, the ghṛ<\/span>ta,<\/i>
\nand the yield of the Soma plant are connected in other hymns and now that we
\nknow definitely what is
\nmeant by the Cow, this strange and incongruous connection
\nbecomes clear and simple enough. Ghṛ<\/span>ta<\/i> also means shining,
\nit is the shining yield of the shining cow; it is the formed light of
\nconscious knowledge in the mentality which is stored in the illumined
\nconsciousness and it is liberated by the liberation of the
\nCow: Soma is the delight, beatitude, Ananda inseparable from
\nthe illumined state of the being; and as there are, according to
\nthe Veda, three planes of mentality in us, so there are three portions of the ghṛ<\/span>ta<\/i> dependent on the three
\ngods Surya, Indra and
\nSoma, and the Soma also is offered in three parts, on the three
\nlevels of the hill, triṣ<\/span>u
\nsānuṣ<\/span>u.<\/i>
\nWe may hazard the conjecture,
\nhaving regard to the nature of the three gods, that Soma releases
\nthe divine light from the sense mentality, Indra from the dynamic
\nmentality, Surya from the pure reflective mentality. As for the
\npasture of the cow we are already familiar with it; it is the field
\nor kṣ<\/span>etra<\/i>
\nwhich Indra wins for his shining comrades from the
\nDasyu and in which the Atri beheld the warrior Agni and the
\nluminous cows, those of whom even the old became young again.
\nThis field, kṣ<\/span>etra,<\/i>
\nis only another image for the luminous home
\n(kṣ<\/span>aye)<\/i>
\nto which the gods by the sacrifice lead the human soul. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font><\/span>Name goh<\/span>̣<\/span>. Nama<\/span><\/i> from nam<\/i> to move,
\nrange, Greek nemo; nama is<\/i> the range, pasture,
\nGreek namos.<\/i><\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 185<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Vishwamitra then proceeds to indicate the real mystic
\nsense of all this imagery. "He having Dakshina with him held
\nin his right hand (dakṣ<\/span>ine
\ndakṣ<\/span>iṇā<\/span>vān)<\/i> the
\nsecret thing that is
\nplaced in the secret cave and concealed in the waters. May he,
\nknowing perfectly, separate the light from the darkness, jyotir
\nvṛ<\/span>ṇ<\/span>īta twnaso vijānan,<\/i>
\nmay we be far from the presence of the
\nevil" (Riks 6,7). We have here a clue to the sense of this goddess
\nDakshina who seems in some passages to be a form or epithet
\nof the Dawn and in others that which distributes the offerings
\nin the sacrifice. Usha is the divine illumination and Dakshina
\nis the discerning knowledge that comes with the dawn and enables
\nthe Power in the mind, Indra, to know aright and separate the
\nlight from the darkness, the truth from the falsehood, the straight
\nfrom the crooked, vṛ<\/span>ṇī<\/span>ta vijānan.<\/i> The
\nright and left hand of
\nIndra are his two powers of action in knowledge; for his two
\narms are called gabhasti,<\/i> a word which means ordinarily a ray
\nof the sun but also forearm, and they correspond to his two
\nperceptive powers, his two bright horses, harī,<\/i> which are described
\nas sun-eyed, sūracakṣ<\/span>asaḥ<\/span><\/i>
\nand as vision-powers of the Sun,
\nsūryasya ketū.<\/i> Dakshina presides over the right-hand power,
\ndakṣ<\/span>iṇ<\/span>a,<\/i> and therefore we have
\nthe collocation dakṣ<\/span>iṇ<\/span>e dakṣ<\/span>iṇā<\/span>vān.<\/i> It is this
\ndiscernment which presides over the right action
\nof the sacrifice and the right distribution of the offerings and it
\nis this which enables Indra to hold the herded wealth of the
\nPanis securely, in his right hand. And finally we are told what
\nis this secret thing that was placed for us in the cave and is concealed in the
\nwaters of being, the waters in which the Thought of
\nthe Fathers has to be set, apsu dhiyam dadhiṣ<\/span>e.<\/i> It is the hidden Sun,
\nthe secret Light of our divine existence which has to be found
\nand taken out by knowledge from the darkness in which it is
\nconcealed. That this light is not physical is shown by the word
\nvijānan,<\/i> for it is through right knowledge that it has to be found,
\nand by the moral result, viz.<\/i> that we go far from the presence of
\nevil, duritād,<\/i> literally, the wrong going, the stumbling to which
\nwe are subjected in the night of our being before the sun has
\nbeen found, before the divine Dawn has arisen. <\/p>\n

Once we have the key to the meaning of the Cows, the Sun,
\nthe Honey-Wine, all the circumstances of the Angirasa legend <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 186<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

and the action of the Fathers, which are such an incongruous
\npatchwork in the ritualistic or naturalistic and so hopelessly
\nimpossible in the historical or Arya-Dravidian interpretation of
\nthe hymns, become on the contrary perfectly clear and connected
\nand each throws light on the other. We understand each hymn
\nin its entirety and in relation to other hymns; each isolated line,
\neach passage, each scattered reference in the Vedas falls inevitably
\nand harmoniously into a common whole. We know, here, how
\nthe Honey, the Bliss can be said to be stored in the Cow, the shining Light of
\nthe Truth; what is the connection of the honey-bearing Cow with the Sun, lord
\nand origin of that Light; why the
\ndiscovery of the Sun dwelling in the darkness is connected with
\nthe conquest or recovery of the cows of the Panis by the Angirasas; why it is
\ncalled the discovery of that Truth; what is meant
\nby the footed and hoofed wealth and the field or pasture of the
\nCow. We begin to see what is the cave of the Panis and why that
\nwhich is hidden in the lair of Vala is said also to be hidden in
\nthe waters released by Indra from the hold of Vritra, the seven
\nrivers possessed by the seven-headed heaven-conquering thought
\nof Ayasya; why the rescue of the sun out of the cave, the separation or
\nchoosing of the light out of the darkness is said to be done
\nby an all-discerning knowledge; who are Dakshina and Sarama
\nand what is meant by Indra holding the hoofed wealth in his right
\nhand. And in arriving at these conclusions we have not to wrest
\nthe sense of words, to interpret the same fixed term by different
\nrenderings according to our convenience of the moment or to
\nrender differently the same phrase or line in different hymns, or
\nto make incoherence a standard of right interpretation; on the
\ncontrary, the greater the fidelity to word and form of the Riks,
\nthe more conspicuously the general and the detailed sense of the
\nVeda emerge in a constant clearness and fullness. <\/p>\n

We have therefore acquired the right to apply the sense we
\nhave discovered to other passages such as the hymn of Vasishtha
\nwhich I shall next examine, VII. 76, although to a superficial
\nglance it would seem to be only an ecstatic picture of the physical
\nDawn. This first impression, however, disappears when we examine it; we see that
\nthere is a constant suggestion of a profounder meaning and, the moment we apply the key we have <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 187<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

found, the harmony of the real sense appears. The hymn commences with a
\ndescription of that rising of the Sun into the light
\nof the supreme Dawn which is brought about by the gods and the
\nAngirasas. "Savitri, the god, the universal Male, has ascended
\ninto the Light that is immortal and of all the births, jyotir amṛ<\/span>tam
\nviśvajanyam;<\/i> by the work (of sacrifice) the eye of the gods has
\nbeen born (or, by the will-power of the gods vision has been
\nborn); Dawn has manifested the whole world (or, all that comes
\ninto being, all existences, viśvam bhuvanam)<\/i>" <\/i><\/span>(Rik 1). This
\nimmortal light into which the sun rises is elsewhere called the true
\nlight, ṛ<\/span>tam
\njyotiḥ<\/span>,<\/i>
\nTruth and immortality being constantly
\nassociated in the Veda. It is the light of the knowledge given by
\nthe seven-headed thought which Ayasya discovered when he
\nbecame viśvajanya,<\/i> universal in his being; therefore this light
\ntoo is called viśvajanya,<\/i> for it belongs to the fourth plane, the
\nturīyam svid<\/i> of Ayasya, from which all the rest are born and by
\nwhose truth all the rest are manifested in their large universality
\nand no longer in the limited terms of the falsehood and crookedness. Therefore
\nit is called also the eye of the gods and the divine
\ndawn that makes manifest the whole of existence. <\/p>\n

The result of this birth of divine vision is that man’s path
\nmanifests itself to him and those journeyings of the gods or to
\nthe gods {devayānāḥ<\/span>)<\/i> which lead to the infinite wideness of the
\ndivine existence. "Before me the paths of the journeyings of the
\ngods have become visible, journeyings that violate not, whose
\nmovement was formed by the Vasus. The eye of Dawn has come
\ninto being in front and she has come towards us (arriving) over
\nour houses" (Rik 2). The house in the Veda is the constant image
\nfor the bodies that are dwelling-places of the soul, just as the
\nfield or habitation means the planes to which it mounts and in
\nwhich it rests. The path of man is that of his journey to the
\nsupreme plane and that which the journeyings of the gods do not
\nviolate is, as we see, in the fifth verse where the phrase is repeated,
\nthe workings of the gods, the divine law of life into which the soul
\nhas to grow. We have then a curious image which seems to
\nsupport the Arctic theory. "Many were those days which were
\nbefore the rising of the Sun (or which were of old by the rising
\nof the Sun), in which thou, O Dawn, wert seen as if moving about <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 188<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

thy lover and not coming again" (Rik 3). This is certainly a picture of
\ncontinual dawns, not interrupted by Night, such as are
\nvisible in the Arctic regions. The psychological sense which arises
\nout of the verse, is obvious. <\/p>\n

What were these dawns? They were those created by the
\nactions of the Fathers, the ancient Angirasas. "They indeed had
\nthe joy (of the Soma) along with the gods,\u00b9 the ancient seers who
\npossessed the truth; the fathers found the hidden Light; they,
\nhaving the true thought satyamantrāḥ<\/span>,<\/i> the true thought expressed in
\nthe inspired Word), brought into being the Dawn"
\n(Rik 4). And to what did the Dawn, the path, the divine journeying lead the
\nFathers ? To the level wideness, samāne ūrve,<\/i> termed
\nelsewhere the unobstructed vast, urau anibādhe,<\/i> which is evidently
\nthe same as that wide being or world which, according to Kanwa,
\nmen create when they slay Vritra and pass beyond heaven and
\nearth; it is the vast Truth and the infinite being of Aditi. "In
\nthe level wideness they meet together and unite their knowledge
\n(or, know perfectly) and strive not together; they diminish not
\n(limit not or hurt not) the workings of the gods, not violating
\nthem they move (to their goal) by (the strength of) the Vasus"
\n(Rik 5). It is evident that the seven Angirasas, whether human or
\ndivine, represent different principles of the Knowledge, Thought
\nor Word, the seven-headed thought, the seven-mouthed word of
\nBrihaspati, and in the level wideness these are harmonised in a
\nuniversal knowledge; the error, crookedness, falsehood by which
\nmen violate the workings of the gods and by which different principles of their
\nbeing, consciousness, knowledge enter into confused conflict with each other,
\nhave been removed by the eye or
\nvision of the divine Dawn. <\/p>\n

The hymn closes with the aspiration of the Vasishthas towards this divine
\nand blissful Dawn as leader of the herds and
\nmistress of plenty and again as leader of the felicity and the truths
\n(sūnṛ<\/span>tānām<\/span>).<\/i> They desire to arrive at the same
\nachievement as
\nthe primal seers, the fathers and it would follow that these are
\nthe human and not the divine Angirasas. In any case the sense of
\nthe Angirasas legend is fixed in all its details, except the exact <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>I adopt provisionally the traditional rendering of sadhamādah<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span> <\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>though I am not sure
\nthat it is the correct rendering.<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 189<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

identity of the Panis and the hound Sarama, and we can turn to
\nthe consideration of the passages in the opening hymns of the
\nfourth Mandala in which the human fathers are explicitly mentioned and their
\nachievement described. These hymns of Vamadeva are the most illuminating and
\nimportant for this aspect of
\nthe Angirasa legend and they are in themselves among the most
\ninteresting in the Rig-veda. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 190<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER XVIII The Human Fathers   THESE characteristics of the Angirasa Rishis seem at first sight to indicate that they are in the Vedic system…<\/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-907","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\/907","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=907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}