Commentary on the Rig Veda

SECTION FOUR

WE have still to say this much concerning the subject of the Deities in the Veda.

Such are the Mantras in the Rik Samhita in many places that they hardly make any consistent meaning unless interpreted in the inner sense; read in the gross external sense there is only incoherence. The other point to be noted is that though the moderns, following the Western line of research, adopt Sayana’s method of interpretation in the outer sense, they do not adhere to him always, particularly when he follows the ancient Indian tradition regarding the Deities. This is a feature to be noted regarding the Gods. Our ancients believed that the Gods presided over their respective worlds or over their principles with self-regard for them. When they praise the Surya, the Sun God, it is the Person who presides over the solar body or who dwells in it that is adored. Similarly praise of Agni and others means the praise of Deities presiding over Fire etc. But the moderns would oppose this position. They accepted only the physical forms, in external Nature, of Agni, Vayu, Indra, Surya and others but rejected the presiding, indwelling and self-regarding aspects (of Agni, Surya and others). This is the reason: in their opinion, the primitive poets of the Veda were indulging in their fancy when they ascribed divinity to physical objects. We, however, adherents of the esoteric interpretation, accept the truth of Agni presiding over Earth and so on even while recognising the symbolic character of exterior objects. In the exposition of the hymns according to the esoteric interpretation, the authority of the Gods is seen both in the outer as well as in the inner aspect; still primary importance is attached to the inner significance. We shall now substantiate what we have said by a few examples from the Riks. It is said that to the inner vision the Gods are conscious beings. Such a statement makes no meaning in the context of the outer sense.

We shall show how inappropriate is the meaning yielded by the grosser interpretation even in case of deities like the Maruts who are considered to be minor relatively to the major Gods like Indra. The Rik says: “The wise always see the highest step, the supreme abode of Vishnu like an eye extended in heaven" (1.22.20). God Vishnu mentioned in the Rik is explained to be the sun. So far so good. This Vishnu is Surya, indeed, but not the sun in the physical universe. Why? For otherwise, the highest step would be the meridian in the sky reached by the sun in his daily round; and the Rishi says that the wise see him always. Now how can the solar orb be found always at the meridian in the sky? and that too visible only to the wise ? If it were just the physical sun, the meridian reached by him would be visible to the others also who are not wise; why should it be said that it is visible to the wise? There can be no doubt whatever that it is something uncommon, beyond the physical senses, a matter pertaining to the direct realisation of the Wise. Otherwise, to say that the Wise always see the sun in the meridian of the sky would be utterly fanciful and incoherent babble. It is because of its uncommon character that the Supreme abode is said to be always seen by the Wise like an eye fully extended in the heaven.

To take another instance of the kind: Seer Praskanva says: “Beholding the loftier light that springs up above the Darkness we have come to the Sun, the God among Gods, the most excellent (loftiest) light” (1.50.10). And here is the meaning: vayam we, tamasaḥ from darkness, from sin, pari above, springing up, ut uttaram risen and excellent, jyotiḥ light, paśyantaḥ beholding, devatra among Gods, devam shining, sūryam the sun, uttamam jyotiḥ the excellent light, aganma we have attained. This is the common meaning. Sayana quotes from the Brahmanas in explaining that the word tamas signifies sin. In that case, the Sun cannot be the sun of the physical world. Sayana himself, commenting on the fourth quarter, says that seer Praskanva speaks of conscious union, sāyujyam with the Sun. In this Rik, then, there is an unmistakable mention of the supreme Light that transcends the senses and signified by the word Surya, Sun. It is also to be noted that here in this Mantra, whatever the interpretation, the Sun referred to is not simply the physical sun of our system, and this is clear.

We have instanced two Riks — one devoted to Vishnu as Surya, the Sun and the other to the Sun-God as the highest Light -to show the theory that the Sun and the other Gods are really nothing but phenomena of Nature, holds no water. Now we shall take up some Riks in praise of Indra. It is held that Indra, the king of the Gods ruling over the triple world, stands above the region of the clouds, deals with his thunderbolt, a death-blow to the cloud known as Vritra and releases the waters. There are certainly Riks which, when torn from the context go to support such views; but they do not, in most places, cohere in sense. But if we follow the inner sense, a happy harmony of sense leaps to the eye. For instance, in the Rik, “Far is that Name secret by which worlds in fear called to thee, with faces downcast, for strength" (X. 55.1). Here address. ing Indra, the Rishi says: Far is that secret Name of thee by which the Heaven and the Earth called to thee. Or the following Rik: “Great is that secret Name longed for by many by which thou madest what was and what shall be.” The import is clear. “The secret name is Great, the name that is aspired to by the worlds and is at once the means by which you created all that has been and shall create all that is to be.” To take up another Rik from the Atreya Mandala: “His strong and secret abode I have seen; desiring him who founds, I got at (his abode), I asked of others, they said, ’being men of leading, awakened, let us attain to Indra," (V. 30.2). The seer of this Mantra is Rishi Babhru and this is its import: “I have seen the firm and secret abode of Indra. Desiring him who establishes (founds) thoroughly I attained his station. How? First I asked other wise persons. They told me, ’Leaders that we are, being awakened, we shall attain to Indra’.” It is again the same secret; the secret in the two Mantras mentioned above is the name, here it is the abode. And where is this abode or name little above the region of the clouds or higher than that? The Rik is unequivocal in stating that the attainment to Indra comes to him who is awakened and longs for Indra. Here Indra is described as the nidhātā, he who founds thoroughly. Is he any fanciful God living somewhere in the sky? Does the word bubudhāna, awakening, signify simply the waking from ordinary sleep on the part of the Rishis?

Now, about Maruts. Let us concede they are storm-gods. Even though the Maruts, brothers of Indra, the leader of the storm-gods, may not be the leading deities like Indra, even though their external functions are generally noted and therefore the Mantras devoted to them substantiate doubtless the external interpretation to gross sight, yet the Mantras do reveal the inner functionings of the Maruts, the protection they give from sin and their veiled forms etc. Rishi Agastya prays to the Maruts to be saved from sin — aghāt rakṣata. If the Rishi appeases the Maruts — the material phenomena, the a storms — by his praise, his dwelling places and other possessions may be rendered safe from the attack of furious storms. But if they be simply the natural phenomena how is it possible for them to be instinct with conscious activity and inner functioning that eliminates sin ? Here is a Rik of Vasishtha: "Here, here, ye of self-grown strength, seers with skin of Sun’s splendour, O Maruts, dedicate to you this sacrifice” (VII. 59.11). The Rishi says: ’Oh you Maruts, you gods are svatavasaḥ, grown of your own strength, kavayaḥ, seers, sūrya-tvacaḥ, the splendour of the Sun itself is your covering and protective skin; to you, such as these, I dedicate today the sacrifice.’ Now how could these seers those who look beyond the past and present and as such endowed with consciousness, be mere natural phenomena of storms, entities without consciousness? From the Rik quoted earlier (Section II), “He is a sage, the illu-mined thinker, dhira, who knows these mysteries whom the mighty Prishni bore in her udder” (VII. 56.4), it should be clear that the mysteries of the Maruts can be known only by the enlightened sages with the subtle sight.

Now about Soma. There is no doubt whatever that the particular creeper of this name is simply the outer form. It is also clear from certain Riks that it is a symbolic plant in the sacrifice, standing for the God of the current of conscious delight in the inner context. Read in the outer sense, most of the Riks hardly make coherent meaning. Soma is mentioned among the kalpa-osādhis, elixirs for longevity etc. in the Ayurveda. Modern imaginative minds in their flights of fancy assume that the seers intoxicated with the Soma drink, go on to laud the glory of Soma. Twenty-four varieties of Soma plant are mentioned in the section on Chikitsa Sthana of the Sushruta Samhita (Ch. 29). But nowhere there is the intoxicating property eulogised. It is indeed astonishing that the Rishis desiring the intoxication of the drink should have praised Soma by means of hundreds of Riks, while in fact the creeper was only a symbolic form. It is only in the inner sense that the Soma Mantras make coherent sense; in the Rik, "O thou, all-seeing, the illumining rays of thee who art the lord encompass all the abodes; Soma with thy natural powers thou pervadest (the all) and flowest, thou art the King and lord of the whole world.” (IX. 85.6) How is it possible to explain the Rik if Soma is just a creeper ? Let the thoughtful reader answer. This is the meaning of the Rik: viśvacakṣan, all- seeing! Soma, O Soma, prabhoḥ of one who has mastery, te thy, ļbhvasaḥ vast seeing, ketavaḥ illumining rays, vi śvā all, dhāmāni abodes or lights, the abodes of Gods, pariyanti encompass, illumine. O Soma, vyāna śiḥ, Thou who pervadest, dharmabhiḥ with the powers that hold and sustain, with the drippings of Ananda known as Rasa, pavase thou flowest. viſvasya bhuvanasya, of the whole world, patiḥ the lord, rājasi thou art the king. We arrive at this meaning following the commentary of Sayana himself. If what has been said is not enough to dispel doubts on the subject of Soma, there is another Rik in the tenth Mandala which should set all doubt at rest; “When they crush the herb, one thinks that he has drunk the Soma; but no one ever tastes him whom the Brahmanas know to be the Soma” (X. 85.3). This Rik decides the real nature of Soma. It declares that commonly all drink the juice obtained by squeezing the Soma creeper, but rare is he who partakes of what is known as the real Soma to the wise - this is the purport of the Rik.

Then Ushas: Ushas is rightly identified with Dawn in the ordinary outward interpretation; but its truth is to be found only in the inner sense; there is no doubt whatever. The goddess of solar radiance manifests herself in advance before the rise of the Sun, which symbolises the rise or the beginning of the realisation of the Sun of Truth hymned in Vedas as the supernal Light. That is why the Riks describe her as ṛtavāri full of Truth, sūnytā, speaking sweet the word of Truth. "Following the course of the Ray of Truth, bestow on us happy, happy knowledge-will” (I. 123.13). Addressing in these terms, the Rishi prays to Ushas following the course of the Truth for the Gift to him of the firm and most felicitous knowledge-will. How can the physical dawn make such a gift? Similarly other Gods like Mitra, Varuna, Ashvins and others whose identities are uncertain in the external interpretation, reveal themselves in a penetrating study of the purport of their respective Mantras, as well-defined Gods in the context of the inner sense.

There is another question to be looked into. We have said before that the Gods are Names, limbs and personalities of the One Supreme Godhead. A doubt may arise whether the hymns them-selves support this conclusion or whether it is based on exegesis of later-day exponents of the Upanishadic teachings. The moderns hold: all over the Rig Veda the Gods are spoken of as many, it is only in the Upanishad that the One Truth, Brahman the One-without-a-second, is established. Even if the Rishis appear to know at times, the One Supreme Godhead, that is only in later Mantras, particularly in the tenth Mandala. We would reply: that is not a fact. Mantras can be cited from many Mandalas in the Rig Veda wherein Agni or Indra or any other God is adored as the direct and immediate form of that One. That One, the One Existent, the Supreme Light — thus is known the Supreme Truth designated by the term Surya, and we learn that it is on account of the multiplicity of its functions that there are so many Gods different in personality and Name. First there is the oft-quoted famous Rik of Dirghatamas beginning with ’Indra and Mitra’ ......"The One Existent the illumined ones call variously, ekaṁ sat viprāh bahudhā vadanti” (I. 164.46). The essence of the matter is given out in this third line of the Mantra.

In a hymn of twenty-two Riks of the Vaishwamitra Mandala (RV. III. 55) each Rik ends with the words, ’mahad devānām asurat-vam ekam’, the Great (powerful) Might of the Gods is One (the Great One). asuratva, the might, the great treasure of the Gods is spoken of as One. Elsewhere, (III. 54.8), the Rik reads: "...The All One has become what moves, what flies, all that is manifold.” This is the fourth line of the Rik. The purport of the Rik is: the Heaven and Earth bring into creation all beings and sustain them distinctly and separately; and even though they bear all the Gods they are not wearied of the load. That is so because that which is the moving and the unmoving, that which desires the creation, itself becomes what moves, what flies and what comes to be in manifold form. In the hymns of Vamadeva, we find the expression vapușā-midekaṁ (IV. 7.9) — the One of the embodied (Gods). Again in the Fifth Mandala we find the Rik: vapuşām apaśyam (V. 62.1) — that One, the greatest of the embodied Gods, I saw. The verse has been explained in the Third Section already. Or another Rik: "An immortal Light set inward for seeing, a swiftest mind within in men that walk on the way. All the Gods with a single mind, a common Intuition, move aright in their divergent paths toward the One Will.” (VI. 9.5) In this Rik (addressed to Agni) also mention is made of the Immortal, firmly set, Light, set within for seeing of the One Will towards which all the Gods move in their respective ways. Vasishtha says: "That One, thy birth, was there when Agastya brought Thee here" (V. 111.33.10). Again, in the last Book, it is plainly stated: “Where they regard the only one beyond the seven Rishis” (X. 82.2). In the same hymn (Rik. 6): "In the navel of the unborn the One was placed and there in that One all the worlds abide" (X. 82.6). All the worlds are set within the navel of the One without birth. Again (in X. 114.5): "The One existent, beauti-ful of plumage, the illumined seers by their words formulate in many ways (or forms).” We have given enough instances from many Mandalas, not only from the tenth, to show how That One, the one Supreme Truth, God of the Gods, is lauded in the Rig Veda, covertly or openly. A study of the hymns to Indra, Soma and other Gods — not only to Agni — bearing this truth in mind would convince that the One Existent is all the Gods, each of whom renders in his own way help to man the sacrificer, and leads him to that supreme One, the Light, the Immortal Truth.

We shall take up a few Riks describing that One, the Supreme Light, as the many Gods. In addressing the Marut Gods, Rishi Kanva Sobhari says: “Whose Name, resplendent, One alone, widely extended like a sea, for the joy of many like the enduring strength of ancestral heritage” (VII. 20.13). The Rik purports to say that the One Name of the Maruts, resplendent and wide-extended like the ocean, is there for the enjoyment of many, like an ancestral heritage. This also shows the one basis of the Maruts, and the helpfulness of the many Gods to the sacrificers or to the Creation. In the Valakhilya Hymns (VIII. 58.2), we find it plainly stated: “That One has become all this”. Verses 4 and 5 in VIII.100 read: ’O singer, look, here I...the One seated on the summit of Heaven.’ Here Indra addresses seer Nema who is overcome with doubt regarding the existence of Indra: ’O singer, I am, I, by my greatness, surpass all that is born, the followers of Truth increase me the espousers of Truth ascend and approach me, but I, the One, am seated on the summit of Heaven.’ Another hymn reads: “The one son born of the three, the conquering, ruddy treasure, they send, the Immortals unassailed look over the happy places (planes) of mortals” (VIII. 101.6). Here, the Light, born in the Yajamana as the great gift of the workings of the Gods, the one Light is described as the offspring of the three mothers. "Held by the seven thought-powers he pleases the unharming rivers who increase the One Eye." (IX. 9.4) He (Soma), held by the thought-powers of the seven planes of existence, delighted the streams of consciousness ; and these rivers nourished the all-seeing flame known as the One Eye of the Universe. “The Might of the great Deva is the great one” (X. 55.4) -- these words echo the verse quoted earlier, mahad devānāṁ asuratvam ekaṁ, the powerful Might of the Gods is the Great One.

Thus the Mantras themselves reveal the common origin, common self and common object of the Gods. The differentiation among the Gods is the differentiation of Name, function and per-sonality. That is why the ancients comprehended the characteristic marks of the Gods from the Mantras and described them. Even the weapons, vehicles and hues indicate the particular deities. This truth is known from the 29th hymn of the Eighth Book. The vehicles are dealt with in the Nirukta-Nighantu (1.15). Similarly the characteristic marks of the deities are to be found in the hymns themselves.

We have to state this much: though it is undoubtedly true that the activities of the Gods have their roots above and start from the plane Beyond, yet it is a fact to be noted that their importance, direct help or distinct benevolence depends upon the state of pro-gress of the Yajamana in the inner path upwards to the heaven, in the journey signified by the term adhvara, sacrifice. The Universe itself, inner and outer, is the field of activity for the Gods. Even though their functions are spread out over the whole field from the Foundation above to the Earth below, they vary from step to step according to needs. Though particular stations in the Path are presided over by and form the special sphere of a particular Deity, still that Deity is but one facet of the Supreme Godhead. The other deities stand behind or above that Deity supporting it in its functioning. It is this truth that is at the basis of the hymns of the Seers where the Yajamana, though lauding many Gods, yet approaches each one as the All-God and according to the context as the distinct one for the purpose at hand. Need it be added that to the Seer, these Gods are realities, not fanciful?

And this is to be noted: as the inner sacrifice proceeds, the Yajamana comes into relation with Agni and other Gods presiding over their respective places. This relation is seen in the Veda to be of many kinds — of father and son, of friendship etc. Another interesting feature is that the very God who is the protector, the father, the adored, is born in the Yajamana as the son. That is how all the Gods who are born first in the Cosmos for its governance obtain a second birth in the Yajamana. Hence it is meet that the Gods are called dvi-janmānaḥ, the twice-born. How and whence does the second birth of the Gods take place in the Yajamana ? Here is the answer. The Heaven is the head of the creation which has set out from the Supreme’s Home Beyond the heaven; the Earth is the feet and the lower terminus of the Cosmic creation. Between the Heaven and the Earth, as between the summit and the base of a mountain, there are many steps like the plateaus of a mountain. As the Yajamana ripens in his realisations the Gods presiding over these stations take birth in him, by first pouring into him their own riches for his uplift. The chief among these is Agni, the first born. Hence we shall enquire into his nature and function. For when that is done, it will be easy to follow the truth of the other Gods. Our enquiry shall proceed in this matter on the basis of the Mantras themselves.

Who is this Agni, the God who is awakened and adored by the Rishis ? Surely it cannot be the elemental fire, the third among the five elements being inanimate; and because though Agni may be the Deity with self-regard for the principle of heat, it is only the external symbol. The God without whom “the immortals are not happy", cannot be the fire produced from the araņis, tinders, in the external ceremonial rite. "The immortals rejoice not without thee", says the Rik. He is frequently lauded in the Vedas as the God who is the Seer-Will, one whose knowledge is that of the Seer into the Beyond. Many are the celebrated Riks in the Rik Samhita describ-ing him as the repository of the mysteries of Sacrifice, as one in whom all the immortals rejoice. He is the face as well as the mouth of the Gods He conveys to the Gods all that is offered by the Yaja-mana, sacrificer. A leader in front of the Gods, he approaches the Yajamana to accept the oblation (offering). Accepting the oblation, offerings and adorations, he causes the Gods to relish, he pleases them. Therefore he is the messenger of the Gods. It is through him alone that the mortal can commune with the immortals. He is the leader, the nara, the priest, ștvik, hotā, of the sacrifice. Executing the sacrifice he calls upon the Gods to accept the offerings of things made by the Yajamana. Thus he is the first of all the Gods to be born in man: this is the second birth to which we have referred before. He is the kratu, Will, the Knowledge-Will of the Divine in man functioning as the intelligent Will with the determination “This is so, not otherwise”. And when like the sacrificial fire pro-duced by the friction of tinders, araņis, such a Will (the Divine Will) is awakened in the altar of the heart of man by the grace of the Universal Father Heaven and Mother Earth, he rises as one arisen from sleep, and grows heavenward step by step, by fed the self-offerings of the sacrificer. This is Agni, the divine Flame in the heart, whose original home is the great Heaven but who is born in man, immortal in the mortal. At his birth he is fostered by the seven sisters. He is described as the Child of the Seven Mothers who is nourished and supported by the Waters, the seven Rivers. These are figures, it must be understood, of the energies of the seven Cosmic principles, governing the seven planes of existence. Thus the ener-gies of Knowledge and Power on the seven planes of existence, governed by their seven principles, it must be grasped, are there contained in Agni. And that is why when offerings like cooked rice etc. are made they reach all the seven planes of being, their shares of it severally; it is to signify this fact that Agni is said to have seven flames, seven tongues. Thus when the offerings of the Yaja-mana are reached to the seven planes of his being, they are severally ready to receive him on their respective levels and birth of the immortal Gods of these planes in the Yajamana, the mortal, is rendered possible.

Many are the names by which Agni is addressed in the Veda. He is described as lodged in the secret heart denoted by the word guhā, cave. We shall illustrate and explain some of the Riks con-veying (containing) descriptive attributes which throw light on the character and function of Agni and show how Agni himself came to be the celebrated Skanda Kumara of the Puranas. From the very beginning of time the Rishis have had a firm conviction that Agni is the Divine Truth (in truth the God himself), not fanciful, not merely physical or sacrificial, but the God immortal in the mortals. The solar powers of the sublime Truth having attained Rishihood and typified by the Bhrigus are said to have brought down, from the heaven, and placed Agni in men like a lovely (friendly) treasure. For what purpose? For man to attain the divine birth — so they sing. Says Rahugana: “The Bhrigus placed thee, Agni, in the men... blissful friend for the Divine birth" (I. 58.4). There are a number of Riks of this kind and they would make no coherent meaning if we do not accept that the Rishis had known at least some truths of the inner universe. "This our sacrifice, o knower of all births, set among Immortals, he pleased to accept our offerings” (III. 21.1). The Sacrificer, the Rishi prays: O Agni, thou knower of all that is born, do thou set our sacrifice among Gods, the Immortals; be pleased to convey these offerings to them. “This seer-poet, kavi, intensely Conscious, the Immortal in the mortals, is established among the unseeing, akavi” (VII. 4.4). This Mantra of Vasishtha clearly says that this Agni, the seer into the beyond, is established among akavis, the unseeing, who are not kavis the sightless, the Immortal among the mortals. Or, “Thou art great, the supreme Intuition of the pilgrim-sacrifice, without thee the Immortals are not joyous” (VII. 11.1). Here Vasistha again says that Agni is endowed with a supreme knowledge regarding the Sacrifice which is really a journey on the Path to the Heaven and without him the Gods rejoice not. "To Agni, knower of all births, Son of Force (for the gift of desirable things) who becomes twofold, the Immortal in the mortals, (the most delightful in the People") (VIII. 71.11). He is said to be twofold because though divine in himself he is the Immortal among the mortals. "I saw the greatness of this great Immortal in the mortals that are the peoples” (X. 79.1). This Rik of seer Sowchika says: I have seen among the mortals the greatness of the Great Immortal Agni. There is a clear Rik in the hymns of the Atris: “Agni shines out in the Gods. Agni enters into the mortals; Agni is the carrier of our offering. Serve Agni with all your thoughts”. (V. 25.4). In the same Mandala (11.2) it is said that Agni, the supreme Intuition of the Sacrifice, the representative Priest, seated in the same chariot, along with Indra and other Gods, comes to the seat made up of the pile of sacred grass. "He who in mortals Immortal possessed of the Truth” of Rahugana (I. 77.1). “The Universal Life, the Immortal in mortals” (VI. 4.2), “He Immortal among the mortals, a mind of Knowledge” (VI. 5.5), “Approach and set the Immortal with your words” (VI. 15.6) – these Riks of Bharadwaja celebrate Agni as the Immortal among the mortals.

If, then, the Immortal Agni is there in us, he must be some-where hidden in some secret place. The seer calls this secret inner place, the heart, hrt, indicated by the figures of the cave, guha. This cave, the dwelling-place of Agni is hymned in numerous Riks. Here are excerpts from the hymns of Parashara, Vishvamitra and Vamadeva.

"He hides himself like a thief with the cow of Vision in the secret cavern. He takes to himself our adoration and thither he carries it" (I. 65.1).³

“Seated in the cave holding all strengths in his arms, Agni bears all the gods in his Power. Leaders of men, upholders of intelligence, attain to him there in the cavern chanting the words carved out of the heart" (I. 67.2). “O Fire, thou art Universal life, enter into the secrecies of secrecies” (I. 67.3).⁴

“He who has perceived Him when He is in the secret cave" (I. 67.4).⁵

“Abiding in the secret cave and rich with many lights" (IV. 7.6).

“Moving in the cave with felicitous sisters" (III. 1.9).

Riks of this kind declare the cave, the secret heart, as the dwelling-place of Agni.

Agni is always associated with the septette because the seven principles of Existence are set in this Immortal Being; power, light, bliss are all described as being sevenfold in principle and hence Agni’s connection with the sevenfold principle is mentioned in various contexts.

“The seven rays are extended in this leader of sacrifice” (II. 5.2).

“In house and house founding the seven ecstasies the Fire took its session as a priest of the Call strong for sacrifice” (V. 1.5).⁶

“For me, how so small, impart not the heavy burden of this thought, О purifying Fire, uphold with violence this vast, profound and mighty sevenfold plane” (IV. 5.6).

The unbearable burden of the seven Planes is beyond me to hold. Hence, O Agni, give me not this heavy burden of thought. This is the purport. Trita sings:

"He, Agni, Knower of Honey, desiring the seven Sisters, flushing red, raised them, for seeing blissfully” (X. 5.5). ⁷

Or elsewhere,

“The Immortal going about the seven abodes" (X. 122.3). We would also recall a passage from the Shukla Yajur Veda quoted by Yaska: "In this body are established the seven Rishis.” Thus everywhere we hear of septettes, seven hills, seven rivers, seven Rishis, seven sisters, seven stations or places. As explained earlier, these are figures of the gradations of Planes of the sevenfold (seven-principled) Existence with their corresponding Knowledge, Power, Light or the presiding deities and must be so understood according to the context.

Now in our enquiry into the character of Agni we must consider the nature of these Waters because of the important context. What are these Waters or Rivers that are sung as sevenfold in the hymns of the Veda ? They are the streams of the Truth, floods of the Higher Consciousness, carrying the radiances of the Superconscient. According to the school of outward (naturalistic) interpretation they are released by Indra, the lord of the Gods, by slaying with his thunderbolt the demon Vritra, their coverer. But, it is to be noted, the Asura who obstructs the entry of the Truth-power into the Earth-consciousness has for his outer symbol the cloud named Vritra. The hymns of Vasishtha, Vamadeva, especially VII. 49 and IV. 58 make it clear that the ocean is the image of the Infinite and Eternal Existence, the waters are the flowing streams of Conscious-ness and the seven rivers are the powers rich with radiance that create and sustain the Existence in all its seven planes. This symbolic truth would get clear beyond doubt from a study of the import of the first hymn of Vishvamitra to Agni. We shall state in brief the main points in the hymn.

The Gods beheld Agni (in the Waters). The seven mighty ones increased in him. He became full of felicity. White in birth, he is ruddy or pink when he has grown. They loved and laboured about him, the Mares around the new-born child. Wearing light as his robe all about the life of the waters, he formed in himself glories vast and without any deficiency... Here the eternal and ever-young goddesses from one womb held the one child; they are the seven Words. Spread out were masses of him in universal forms in the womb of clarity, in the flowings of the sweetnesses; here the fostering rivers (cows) themselves stood nourishing. The two mothers of this accomplishing God became vast and harmonised. He discovered at his birth the source of abundance of his Father and he loosed forth wide his streams and wide his rivers. One, he fed upon his many mothers in their increasing. In the Vast Truth he accepted the home made for him by the undivided Sisters... From him dwelling in his vast secret seat within the shoreless Vast they milked out immortality.

This is the substance in part of the hymn of Vishvamitra.

We shall explain the symbolic meaning, using the words of the Riks then and there. These seven (rivers) are the sevenfold Divine Waters of Truth. The Divine waters brought Agni from the High above to set him here. This Agni, a divine secret, is set in plants on the earth; he is to be manifested by the pressure (friction) of the two tinders of Heaven and Earth. Hence he is called the child of the Heaven and Earth; and the consciousness of the Pure Mind of Heaven is itself called the dyauḥ. The waking consciousness of the physical mind is symbolised by the Earth. And it is by the strength of the interaction of these two that man has to achieve with effort that secret thing called - Agni. In the Divine Waters he is found visible, easily born in all his strength, knowledge and enjoyment and easily approached. White in birth he grows ruddy in his action when he increases. At his very birth the Gods give him splendour, force and body. The seven great rivers (Cows) nourish him. The rivers usually named dhenavaḥ, fostering Cows, are here described as Horses. This is the reason: in the Veda the Cow (termed dhenu) is the symbol of the power of knowledge, while the Horse is the symbol of force of action. Here Horse is the dynamic force of Life, the dhenavaḥ, Waters labouring over Agni on earth, in his birth (and sustained) become the waters of the vital dynamis. And this Prana -- the life-force- breathes, acts, desires, and enjoys. Agni himself begins first as the material heat, then becomes life-force, Prana and in the end becomes heavenly Fire. The sevenfold waters thus rise upwards and become the Pure luminous Mind, the Mighty Ones of Heaven. They all take their rise and flow from the highest, the One Truth-Consciousness. The seven Words are the fundamental creative expressions of the Supreme Lord. The Father of all things is the Lord and Male; he is hidden in the secret source of things; that is the supreme (plane of) consciousness. Agni with his com-panion-gods and with the sevenfold waters ascends to that plane. This ascent to Heaven by Agni in us, mortals, the Sacrificers, is effected without leaving the existence which is the field of the waking state indicated by the term Earth. By this ascent Agni finds the source of the honeyed plenty of the Father of things and collecting them pours them out into our lives. He bears and himself becomes the Son. That is why he is the eternal Youth — Kumara, pure Light, pure Male, Immortal in the mortals, is perfected as the one Soul in man revealed in its universality. The Seer-Will, the Divine child, the Son of God — his birth here, growth, nourishment by the Waters, the rivers that are Waters, the Cows, they again are the Mares — all these do not make coherent sense unless read in their secret symbolic meaning. To construe these without admitting the symbolic imagery would involve us in utter fanciful imagination or lead us to impute incoherent prattles to the seers of the Mantras. Such symbols with their inner meaning unveiled of their own accord, are to be seen in other hymns also. Can there be doubt that Vamadeva’s hymn (IV. 58) brings into the open the secret of the Veda ? From passages such as, “The name of ghỉta that is secret”, “Tongue of the Gods, navel of immortality”, “These ...from heart-ocean”, “Streams of clarity, ghrta...rivers like cows purified by the Mind in the inner Heart", "Auspicious maidens... Agni”, “Thy Home the entire universe...” and “In the inner Ocean, in the life-span in the Heart" etc., we see beyond doubt that ghrta, honey, Cow, Waters, Maidens, Heart, inner Ocean, etc. reveal their great symbolic significances of their own accord. Some of these symbolic images are clearly seen to be preserved in the Puranas. When Vishnu is said to sleep on the folds of the snake Ananta upon the ocean of sweet milk, Ananta is clearly seen to be not the common serpent, nor the milk the material sweet milk, nor, the ocean an expanse of the milky liquid. The symbolic meaning is that the All-pervading Vishnu rests on the coils of the Infinite in the blissful ocean of Eternal Existence. It may be said that the authors of the Puranas were priests, gross minds who knew not even the truth of the solar and lunar eclipse; how could they be in the know of profound verities? They mean only the usual physical serpent and material ocean of real milk and it is we who read into them the symbolic meaning. We would point out that there is no necessity for us to imagine so. These poets themselves have imprinted the symbolic thought by means of figures and words and made known impenetrable truths for the benefit of all. Note, those words are: Vishnu means all-pervading, the serpent Sesha is Ananta, infinite, sweet milk a symbol of Bliss and the Ocean, immensity of the Eternal Existence.

The Agni who is lauded in the Vedas as the Son, Kumara, is the same who in Purana is called Skanda, the Child of Agni. All the circumstances mentioned in the Puranic accounts of the Kumara narrative are to be seen in the symbolic language of the Veda. Though the Puranas differ in many places in details of narrative, still all of them give essentially the same account of the story and truth of Kumara. A perusal of the Mahabharata would remove all doubt whatever and show how the details in the descrip-tion of the birth of Skanda given in the narrative of Angiras in Vanaparva are in fact bodily taken from the Vedas. In spite of the difference in language, the Mahabharata uses at times the very Vedic words and brings out generally the significances found in the Veda. In the Veda it is Kumara, the Child of Agni who has arrived from his own Home of his father, from the Beyond; in the Mahabharata and the Purana it is the effulgence spilt from Maha-deva, the Skanda, Subrahmanya, the Kumara. In the Veda he is born in the plants, in the Puranas he is born in the wood of śara weeds; fostered by the Cows (in the Vedas), in the Purana he is given milk by (the fostering Lights of) Krittikas. The Veda mentions Seven Cows or Mares, mothers or sisters. The Purana does only six mothers leaving one mother, the Highest plane of being.

In the Mahabharata is the reading that Indra stands on the summit of the Manasa Hill waiting for the arrival of Agni. — "going to the Manasa Hill and contemplating deeply upon this subject” (Vanaparva 222). It is also mentioned that the Cows, Rivers are the fostering mothers of Agni. “These rivers are renowned as the Mothers of the abodes of Fire" (221.26).

Thus when we look closely into the narrative of the birth of Skanda we do find without doubt that the symbolic imagery of the Vedas is at the basis of the Puranic account. The Mahabharata makes its clear beyond question, in a line based on the Vedas, that Skanda is Agni himself. It says unambiguously that the Agni, Wonderful, adbhuta, described in the Veda is Skanda himself: "The greatness of adbhuta as sung in the Vedas. (I shall tell you)” (221.30). Many are the Agnis spoken of in the legend of the Angirasas. And of these, Agni the Wonderful, adbhuta, is indeed described in the Veda. If Agni is called adbhuta in the Vedas then it is possible to say that the author of the Mahabharata, on the strength of the knowledge of the meaning of the Vedic Hymn has placed the account of Skanda, who is the same as Agni called adbhuta, in the story after the manner of the Puranas. But the name adbhuta is not known to be a signification of Agni just as we know Agni as Purohita — placed in front at the sacrifice, or Hota, priest of the Call, or the mouth or messenger of the Gods, the Commander, the seven-tongued etc. Hence this our enquiry. The term adbhuta is seen to be used more than twenty-five times in the Rig Veda, in four other places it is part of a compound word e.g. adbhutainasaḥ. Let us first determine the connection of the term adbhuta. adbhuta in the Veda as in classical Sanskrit, undeniably means wonderful. But it is also used in the sense of mahat, the great, according to Sayana’s com-mentary also. And it is this great supreme that becomes the adbhuta, the wonderful. The same figure is reflected in the line of the Upa-nishad: "As the Wonderful does one behold it.” In the Upanishads the word Brahman following the root significance byh to grow, comes, to mean the Great, Mahat; the Purusha in the Upanishad is thus described as mahato mahiyān, greater than the Great. In lauding Agni as adbhuta, the Vedic hymn says the Supreme Light, the Father himself has become the son, Kumara. Though at times Sayana follows the extravagant word derivation of the Nirukta in explaining adbhuta as what never was (na bhūta abhūta adbhuta), usually, he explains it as wonderful, great. Let us first consider the word adbhuta as part of a compound and then take up the word itself as used to denote Agni.

The word adbhuta-enasaḥ occurs in the Rig Veda twice, once as an adjective of the Maruts and once that of the Adityas. Sayana explains it as the Maruts in whom there is no sin, na bhūtam enah pāpam eșu ye marutaḥ. This is hardly straight. To take it as those whose sins are wonderful is more appropriate. Why? The Maruts are known in the Veda as violent in their action and in the common mind violence is sin (lit. doers of violence are sinful). But the actions of the Maruts though they are violent are not of the ordinary kind; they are wonderful. It is to denote this that adbhuta-pāpāḥ is used. The purport is that there is no sin for them as there is for mortals like us. Be it noted that the import of Sayana’s explanation is well arrived at by taking adbhuta to mean the wonderful; there is no need for arbitrary derivation, nor is there injurty to the enrichment of the import. All the occasions where the appellation adbhuta for Agni is used in the Rig Veda are to be examined to show that the word is generally used as an epithet of Agni. Even if in places it is found to be used in reference to other deities e.g. Soma or Indra, still it is to be noted that attributes signifying Agni are used there. We shall show this later on. We shall leave aside contexts where the word is used merely in the sense of wonderful and take up only those where it is applied only to the Godhead, Devata.

"It is not now, nor is it tomorrow. Who knoweth that which is Supreme and Wonderful.”* (I. 170.1) Here the Supreme is pointed out.

“He is the Will, he is the strength, he is the effector of perfection, even as Mitra he becomes the charioteer of the Supreme”* (1.77.3). Here Agni is described as the charioteer of the Wonderful the Great Being (Supreme Being), “The Lord of the assembly, the Wonderful, the lovable friend of Indra” (I. 18.6). Agni the Wonderful is indeed dear to Indra.

“The bright, the purifying, the Wonderful, sprinkles the sacrificer with honey" (I. 142.3) — thus Dirghatamas lauds Agni.

“God among Gods. Thou art friend, the Wonderful” (I. 94.13). Here also Agni is the adbhuta, wonderful.

"The King of the peoples, the Wonderful, this Agni who presides over the Laws, I adore: may he give ear” (VIII. 43.24). It is clear that Agni is the adbhuta.

“O Flame, Thou Supreme and Wonderful, it is thou who by force becomest in us the greatness of these discerning powers”* (V. 10.2).

“Thou art the true in being, the Transcendent and Wonderful who gives to man the luminous plenitude”* (V. 23.2). Here it is Agni the Wonderful that is addressed.

“This is the eater of the Tree for whom is poured the running butter of the Light; this is the desirable, the ancient priest of the Call, the Wonderful, the Son of Force”* (II. 7.6). Here the deity is none other than Agni.

"The Wonderful, the Friend propped up Earth and Heaven”* (VI. 8.3). It is again Agni that is signified.

“And now, O Wonderful, well pleased in him who has cast to thee the offering"* (VI. 15.2); it is Agni that is addressed. “When the worshipper following the Law and in season holds to his words of prayer he (Indra) is called the Bright, the Purifier, the Wonderful” (VIII. 13.9). This is a Mantra addressed to Indra. Here also the deity is lauded with attributes of Agni, Bright, Purifier, Wonderful these attributes that are used here are those of Agni.

"O Soma, like a king of auspicious deeds, thou enterest the hymns of praise, purifier, bearer. O Wonderful (or Mighty)” (IX. 20.5). Here, the deity is Soma. In the invocation "O Vahni (the bearer)” “Wonderful” are used.

"A mighty Ruler art Thou; Destroyer of enemies, Wonderful” (X. 152.1). Here, only once, is Indra spoken of as wonderful, but without any attributes of Agni.

“Whoever serves him with offerings rich in clarity (lit. ghrta, clarified butter)... widely active, adbhuta, Wonderful” (II. 26.4). The deity is Brahmanaspati; only once is this attribute wonderful used of him. Only once in V. 66.4 are Mitra and Varuna spoken of as wonderful. Again once in V. 70.4 adbkuta as part of a compound word refers to Mitra and Varuna: adbhutakratū. Similarly as part of a compound adbhutakratum it applies to Agni (VIII. 23.8). We have already referred to the adjective adbhuta-enasam, applying to the Maruts. There is another place (VIII. 61.7) asti devāḥ etc.: “The Gods, Sons of Aditi, ādityāḥ adbhuta enasaḥ, cf Wonderful sin.”

We have examined all the places in the Rig Veda where the word adbhuta occurs. We have not taken up instances when it is used in the common sense of wonder for the reason that it is not relevant to our purpose. Everywhere the term adbhuta denotes the speciality of Agni. It is true, as has been pointed out, that at times it is used referring to other deities. That however does not detract from the speciality of Agni as distinctively qualified by the word adbhuta. We thus see that in the Veda adbhuta denotes the Higher Light in the form of Agni. Since the Supreme One is also the many Gods, the word udbhuta may well apply at times to other Gods like Indra and Soma. Agni himself is lauded as all the Gods. Though the word adbhuta is found in places to be applied as an adjective to other deities, it mainly indicates Agni just as in the Vaishvanara Hymns, though the Surya, Sun, is referred to at times it is Agni who is specifically made known by the term Vaishvanara.

Setting out to describe "the greatness of Agni, the adbhuta, celebrated in the Vedas”, the Mahabharata narrates the account of the birth of Skanda in the form of a story. This Vedic origin of the legend of Kumara becomes clear on a reading of the Riks already quoted irom Vishvamitra’s Hymn to Agni. We have drawn upon the Mahabharata because though the essential element in the story of Skanda is the same in the Mahabharata and the Puranas, still the former is more helpful in establishing the symbolic character of the Vedic language, by reason of its language and its idea. Similar is the Vedic origin of Puranic stories of Vritra etc., to be understood. Here, however, our subject is confined to Agni, his character, and by a study of the Puranic story of Skanda and its basis, we have confirmed the symbolic character of the language of the Veda.

Such is the mass of Riks, the treasury of Mantras that is to be commented upon. Though their inner sense is predominant, the Riks are so formed as to serve the purpose of ritual also and in our attempt to grasp their import following the inner sense we must make the resolve not to avoid the symbolic terms like cow, horse etc. It must be noted that though the names of Gods viz. Agni, can be explained in terms signifying their respective characteristics, still they cannot be treated as mere names which can bear substitution of synonymous words. Existence of Gods like Agni in the external universe in the form of physical fire etc., it must be noted, is merely symbolic. The true form and character of the deities are to be perceived by the divine or inwardly open eye. To say that each God is a limb, quality or power of the One Supreme Godhead (One without-a-second) is not to mean that a God like Agni is only a power, quality, or limb; he is himself the one with quality, with power or the personality. All over the Rig Veda the symbolism is one. It may be that in these hymns of the seers, at times the richness of ideas is more in abundance, the diction at times more profound or simple, at times direct, word and meaning may vary in their sweetness and profundity -- at times there may be profusion of symbols and esoteric meaning; yet to all the seers there is but one aim, one secret, only one system of symbolism. That is why there is no difficulty in getting at a knowledge of the secret meaning. The symbolic meaning is arrived at in a uniform method. We learn from the very opening hymns of Madhuchchandas in the Rig Veda that a knowledge of their symbolism is the door for entering into the secret of the Veda. It looks as if the first hymn to Agni is placed there at the commencement to serve as the first step towards an understanding of the Secret of the Veda. This will be intelligible, no doubt, in the course of investigation into the meaning of the Mantras. The ancients speak of the japa, the inaudible repetition, of the first hymn as holding in itself the fruit of the study of the entire Veda. The point of this eulogy (of fruits) is that the seed of the entire knowledge of the secret of the Veda is to be found in this hymn.

The Rig Veda is subdivided in two ways. One is into astaka (one-eighth part), adhyāya (chapter), varga (group) and rik (Mantra). This classification is useful for study, to get by heart. The other division into mandala (circles), anuvāka (section), and sūkta (hymn) is useful for purposes of practice. Practice also is of two kinds: the observance of karma rites, and observance of japa. inaudible repetition, and allied practices. The ritualists, yājinikas, call the connection of Mantras with the ritual viniyoga, application. The sūtra-kāra, the author of the aphorisms lays down the special viniyoga of the Mantras in the particular acts of ritual and this is of great service to the votaries of Vedic rites. However, it must be noted that the entire Veda has a general viniyoga, application, for purposes of one’s own study, japa and meditation. And this is the most needed for us to whom the secret sense of the Veda is most important. The Mantras of the hymn have their general use in practice that aims at a realisation of the particular deities, practice that is charged with the strength of meditation on the meaning and idea-force of the Mantras and takes the form of Japa, deliberation, constant poring over etc. The words of the Mantras have a potency of an uncommon kind, true; but a mere reading of them without putting oneself en rapport with the meaning is as wasteful as pouring oblations of clarified butter in the ashes without fire. That is why a student who did not know the meaning was derisively referred to by the ancients as a "post bearing a load”. Even leading exponents of ritualists (lit. of the cult of the supremacy of Vedic rites), authors of aphorisms like Ashvalayana say that the student of Veda has to turn inwards with a one-pointed mind. With this idea in mind, they state: "Study of the Veda is indeed brahma-yajna, the worship of the Veda (Brahman is the Veda Mantra Yajna is worship). One should take to the study of the Veda with as much selfgathering as one would bring to bear (while) gazing at the meeting-place of Heaven and Earth i.e. horizon, or with closed eyes. Thus though in the study of the Veda i.e. worship of the Veda, the word is primarily important, yet it is perfectly clear that the practice is fruitful only when the meaning of the text is thought of and meditated upon. May this enquiry into the meaning of the hymns be of help to all who aspire for the riches of mystic knowledge of the deities etc. and at the same time are in their faith wedded to the creed of Rituals,34 is our hope and prayer.

Thus ends the Introduction to the Commentary on the Rik-Samhitā entitled Siddhāñjana, the Mystic Collyrium, for the hidden meaning of the Veda, among the works of Kapāli Bhāradvāja, son of Viſvešvara, blessed by the Revered Sri Aurobindo, the Teacher of Integral Yoga, and a pupil of the Revered Vāsistha Ganapati Muni blessed by the Revered Maharși Ramaņa.