Versatile Genius

III. Who are the Gods

A deep understanding of spirituality, interpreted in a broad sense, is not possible without a good understanding of the nature and role of gods mentioned in the Rig Veda. Before proceeding further, it is important to distinguish between the capitalized word God and gods in the plural. God refers to the supreme principle which is the substratum of all existence. On the other hand, "gods" refers to different aspects, powers and personalities of the supreme God. To avoid confusion, it may be better to replace the word God by another word like the Divine. Even the word Brahman is a source of confusion since it refers to the Supreme One in some contexts and also to a god representing a creative aspect of the Supreme One. It is important to remember, especially in the Vedas, that when a reference is made to the Supreme One, there is no attempt at denying the different manifestations of the One. Both the One and the manifestations are real.

In addition to the Rig Veda Samhita and other Samhitas, gods are mentioned in most of the Indian scriptures such as Brahmanas, Upanishads, Puranas, tantrik texts like Mahanirvana Tantra and the epics, namely Ramayana and Mahabharata. Puranas and epics are popularizations of subtle truths about our existence and, as discussed earlier, may involve misrepresentations, albeit unintentional. The protagonists of the Puranas may balk at this statement, but it is impossible to represent a subtle truth in the form of a story without introducing distortions. After all, the word "subtle" precisely implies that its meaning is not easily grasped. Moreover, Puranas were composed later than the Vedas. Therefore, the temptation to interpret the Vedic truths on the basis of Puranic stories should be controlled. The great Vedic Commentator Sri Sayanacharya interprets the Vedas in light of the Puranas and the resulting inconsistencies are well brought out by Sri Kapali Sastry and Sri Aurobindo. Consequently, there is no need to repeat them here. We need only follow the esoteric interpretation of the Vedas to get a clear picture of the gods. Some of the inconsistencies and symbolisms in the Puranic stories are discussed later in this essay.

Most of us are aware of the immense complexity of the life around us, even in its external forms. Unraveling the mystery of the external world is, after all, the goal of physical sciences. A complete analysis of all our experiences, physical, vital and mental, is impossible for most of us. Faced with this formidable situation, it is tempting to say that there is no order in this world and all the occurrences are the results of "pure chance whatever that word may mean. Many agnostic philosophers like Bertrand Russell have written extensively their reasons for not believing in the existence of a God who controls this universe. However, a close analysis of their writings reveals that these authors are only demolishing the limited conceptions of God in their mind. Again, the explanation of some theists that after death all go to a place called heaven or hell is also very simplistic. Another school of thought develops the idea that the whole world is a creation of our minds. Of course, in Hindu philosophy no one believes in the concept of each individual having his or her own mind. The existence of a cosmic mind is a basic tenet of Hindu Philosophy, and each individual is a channel connecting the universal cosmic mind to the individual. It is appropriate to remember the tale of five blind men who reported touching a creature which was as huge as the trunk of a big tree, as slithery as a snake, as hard and smooth like granite, and as broad as a huge leaf. It is easy to dismiss their reports as meaningless unless one has seen an elephant whose different parts of the body correspond to the diverse description given by the blind men. In other words, the purpose of logic is to see whether a new finding is consistent with our earlier experiences or hypothesis. Logic cannot suggest a new hypothesis. The only avenue for obtaining an entirely new hypothesis in spiritual life is by intuition or revelation. For instance, Sri Aurobindo did not arrive at his astounding conception of the Divine only by logical methods. After having obtained the broad picture by means of revelation, he showed in his "The Life Divine" the connection between the various, often conflicting conceptions of God or Divine discussed in scriptures, just as a person who has seen an elephant can make sense out of strange reports given by blind men.

The Vedic sages believed that the manifestation is like a many-tiered hill which can be adequately described by seven planes of existence. One may wonder why the number seven is chosen. There are other descriptions involving different numbers of planes and they are useful in appropriate places. We will give two such instances. To the question "How many gods are there?" posed in the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad, the sage Yajnavalkya replies with the number thirty-three crores and systematically prunes the number to thirty three thousand, three, two and one. Another related conversation between the sage Ashtavakra and Vandi reported in the Mahabharata has been commented upon by Sri Kapali Sastry in his essay "The Mystic Quartette." The seven planes of existence are the lower triple worlds, namely the world of matter, the world of life or vital and the world of mind; the higher triple worlds of the world of existence, world of knowledge, and the world of bliss; and finally the world linking the lower three to the upper three, namely the world of Mahas or Vijnana. Vijnana is often mistranslated as intellect. The power presiding over each plane is a Deva or god. Thus, a god is a distinct power and personality of the Supreme. It is worthwhile reiterating that these worlds are not the physical worlds which can be reached by physical means. These worlds are in reality different states of consciousness. A human being who is conscious of only matter is at that time living in the world of matter. When his consciousness is dwelling on desires, feelings, emotions, etc., then he is living in the vital world. When he is immersed in thought, then he is in the mental plane or world. The god Agni presides over the world of matter, the god Vayu presides over the vital world, and the god Indra over the mental world. Most human beings are conscious of only the three lower levels of existence.

The meaning of the gods is not exhausted by their descriptions as rulers of different planes. Let us take the God Agni. Agni, of course, in the physical sense stands for the principle of fire. But even in the first hymn of Rig Veda the god Agni is described as a herald, a priest and as one who leads all other gods to the worshipper. Western academics have been wont to dismiss these epithets as typical exaggerations conferred on an anthropomorphic conception of the god Agni. The classical commentator Sri Sayanacharya explains these epithets in terms of Puranic stories which are often contradictory. Sri Aurobindo and Sri Kapali Sastry explain that the god Agni in the esoteric sense stands for the principle of aspiration in man to achieve higher things than his present state. Progress is not possible without aspiration. Hence, only if Agni is active, can he bring in the other gods or powers, i.e., the other powers can manifest in man. Thus, at the start of Rig Veda Samhita the sages describe spiritual progress as a journey (adhvara) from one peak of the multi-tiered hill to another. If we are at a peak, we get a much better view of the road to be traversed than if we are near the base of a hill. This conception is clearly very modern, but it is a paraphrase of a part of 22 hymn of the Rig Veda Samhita.

Many scholars of the Vedas make the mistake of measuring the degree of importance of a god by the number of hymns addressed to the god. Such an approach is fallacious. Most of the hymns are addressed to Agni because aspiration is the most important element in spiritual practice. One should distinguish between a path and the goal. The goal is the consciousness of the Supreme in all its manifestations. The Rigveda itself says that the god Vishnu is in the highest tier or plane and self-realized sages have their consciousness enveloped in him "like a ray connected to heaven." Yet the number of hymns dedicated to Vishnu in the Rigveda is very few, less than half a dozen.

The next question is the relationship between gods in Puranas and the Vedic gods. As mentioned earlier, Puranas are popularizations of subtle truths of the Veda in a gross form. As a result, the picture of gods given in Puranas can be highly misleading if the symbolism in the stories is ignored. Fortunately, names of personages occurring in Puranas offer clues to the symbolism involved. Secondly, words used in the Vedas have developed a meaning in classical Sanskrit quite different from its intended meaning in the Vedas. As Sri Aurobindo points out words in the Vedas had a plasticity in their meaning which was lost in the course of millenia. Consider the Sanskrit word "go". In classical Sanskrit it stands for the animal cow. However, as noted by many persons including Sri Sayanacharya and the lexicographer Yaska, "go" in Vedas means both Light and the animal cow. The double meaning of the word "go" is the reason behind the puranic story that the cow contains and gives birth to all devas or gods, the word "deva" meaning "a ray of light." Similarly, the word "ashwa" stands for both the horse and purified vital energy. Thus, when the worshipper prays to the gods for "go" and "ashwa he is seeking both enlightenment and vital energy, not just cows and horses.

Let us consider in some detail two popular Puranic stories which describe the "immoral" behaviour of gods and explain the symbolism. A famous story in the Ramayana states that Ahalya, the wife of the sage Gautama, was seduced by the god Indra and consequently she was cursed by the sage to become a stone. Later, when Sri Rama touched that stone, she regained her original form and lived happily forever. First of all, a god is said to be born in man if the corresponding power is manifest in him. Indra is the god of the mental plane, consisting of all thoughts including those termed immoral. Evil and good are obverse and reverse of the same coin. Indra seducing Ahalya may thus be interpreted as Ahalya allowing the presence of immoral thoughts in her being and even encouraging them. The consequence is that her condition became more and more tamasic. Ordinarily, Tamas is denoted by inertia. Hence, her condition is symbolized by a stone. The condition can change only when a personality of pure Sattwic nature like Sri Rama can overwhelm her tamasic nature and replace it with Sattawa.

Another story, also in Ramayana is that the god Vayu made advances to a princess. On rejecting the advances, she was cursed to become a hunchback. Vayu is the symbol of all vital energies. Every god makes an advance to every human being, i.e., the god wants to bestow his powers on man. But, if the man disregards the oiler, then, of course, the god withdraws. Withdrawal of Vayu from a man means withdrawal of the major part of vital energies from him. This naturally makes the person weak and bent, a hunchback.

As Sri Aurobindo says, gods are not personifications of qualities or powers, but incarnations or emanations of conscious forces with whom we can enter into concrete touch and they can help man and show him the way to a divine consciousness and immortal life.

In the Vedas Aditi is the mother of all the gods. We will quote Sri Aurobindo to illustrate the connection between the reality and myth regarding Aditi. "...originally the pure consciousness of infinite existence one and self-luminous; she is the Light that is Mother of all things. As the infinite she gives birth to Daksha, the discriminating and distributing Thought of the divine Mind, and is herself born to Daksha as the cosmic infinite, the mystic Cow whose udders feed all the worlds... In the cosmos Aditi is the undivided finite unity of things, free from duality, Advaya and has Diti the separative dualizing consciousness for the obverse side of her cosmic creation—her sister and rival wife in the later myth."