Further lights : The Veda and the Tantra

GODHEAD AND THE GODS IN THE RIG VEDA

I

WE propose to consider the question of the Vedic Gods with special reference to Agni in this brief study. If symbolism is the key for the interpretation of the hymns of the Rig Veda in the inner sense as expounded by Sri Aurobindo, then by implication it applies to the discovery of the true character of the Vedic Gods some of whom are identified with the powers of Nature in the physical world, as Sun, Moon, Heaven, Earth, Fire, Wind, Waters and the others who are according to modern scholars personified natural forces at work in the Universe. There is no doubt that in the early ages people worshipped Nature-Gods in many countries, as in India, Greece or Rome. But it is not correct to say that the people of the Vedic times deified or personified the forces of Nature; rather they believed that there were Gods who presided over the Sun and the Moon, the Earth or Heaven, the Fire, the Storm, the sacred Rivers and other visible bodies in the physical universe. When they speak of Surya the Sun-God they have in mind for their object of worship the Deva who presides over the Solar body; the same is true with other Gods in the Veda insofar as they are identified beyond doubt with the workings of the natural forces in the world. But the Gods of the Veda were much more than the physical description given of them whether in the hymns or by the scholars. If the Sun and Storm and Wind and Waters and other objects of Nature were all that sum up the Gods of the Vedic pantheon, albeit with their presiding Deities, then the modern theory about the primitive Vedic people would be perfectly plausible. These ancients, then, had not emerged from the primitive barbarism, were still governed by the crude religious beliefs in the efficacy of sacrifice to their Gods. They believed that their prayers were effective means to bring them all material blessings, rains from heaven, to release the waters from the clouds and help loosen the grip of Night on the Sun. But the true character of the Gods as it emerges from the hymns themselves does not agree with this account hazarded by modern scholarship for which the Brahminical ritualism elucidated by Sayana is to some extent responsible. For the gross and physical aspect of the Vedic worship though applicable in certain hymns does not apply in many, does not at all hold good throughout, but fades away as we proceed from hymn to hymn of sage after sage in all the ten Books of the Samhita. There are whole hymns which in the exoteric sense do not make sense at all. The ritualistic meaning can not be maintained throughout. And in order to achieve the impossible, impossible constructions are invented and with laborious effort we arrive at a result which leaves us wondering at the grotesque mentality of the Vedic bards; or in such places the meanings of the hymns are empty of any worthy idea or presentation of truth, a thought-content commensurate with the repute of Knowledge associated with the Veda. The Herculean effort made to dive deep into the water bears fruit in discovering the potsherd. The necessity of the symbolic interpretation arises from the unsatisfactory results of the labours of modern scholarship with the help of Sayana’s ritualistic commentary. For apart from the poverty of thought and incoherence in the language of the sages assumed without warrant for the purpose of arriving at some sort of a cogent idea conveyed by the hymns, the learning does not take into account the ages-old tradition that the Vedas are the original source of spiritual Wisdom and Divine Knowledge.

When we seize the clues afforded by the deliberate symbolism devised by the Vedic seers in the hymns, we get admitted into the secrets of the Vedic Godhead, to the true character of the Gods, as seen and understood by the Rishis of the Rig Veda. Let us then seek for the truth in the original texts themselves and hear what the Rishis speak of the Gods and leave aside for the time being what others say about the Rishis or the Gods or what the moderns think the Gods must have been to the primitive poets of the Vedic age. A presentation of the Gods in general with their special and general function and nature as described in the Riks will facilitate our enquiry into Agni, the Deity who is usually first hymned by most sages of the Rig Veda.

The question then arises: who are these Gods, Agni, Indra, Surya, Varuna, Mitra, Ashwins and a host of others addressed in the hymns ? Moderns tell us that the Aryans of the Vedic times had susceptible minds, were easily impressionable, thought and believed all natural forces and phenomena to be bristling with life and intelligence and endowed with power to bestow benefits on them in return for the sacrifice and so they offered their prayers to them. What are these natural objects and forces that appeared to these early semi-civilised peoples as figuring and embodying the Gods? They are the blue expanse above, dyauḥ, the earth with her luxuriant vegetation and green meadows below, pithivi, the sun, source of all light and life, sūrya, the lovely dawn, uşas, the flowing rivers, nadyaḥ, and the cool life-giving waters, apaḥ, Maruts, the storms that rush through the sky, Indra who with his thunderbolt, vajra, deals a death-blow to the clouds and sends down rain. Modern learning avers further that in its childhood the Aryan humanity was possessed of a hankering after light and turned away from darkness and naturally could not suppress its wonder at the sight of fire when it was produced by the friction of the churning sticks, arani! Hence next to Indra, Agni is the most important God in the Vedic pantheon.

This account of the Gods is based largely on conjectures and the assumptions that there could not have been real spirituality or sublime conception of the Godhead in those primitive times. The Gods as they reveal themselves in the hymns do not throughout answer to this description, though the Riks in many places torn from the context may lend support to this view because of the external and physical aspect that is generally maintained for the purposes of outer worship and ceremonial rite. But there are many hymns scattered over all the Mandalas of the Rig Veda which not only do not testify to the correctness of this picture but contradict the external sense, overshadow the physical aspect and proclaim the spiritual and psychological functions of the Gods and their Cosmic character. There are a number of instances out of which we shall take up a few to show that the Riks cease to give us any meaning that is applicable to the physical aspect, to the Nature-gods of the naturalistic and ritualistic interpreters.

When the Rik says⁷

Usha is rightly identified with Dawn, but even here her attribute cannot apply always to the physical sunrise. Does she speak sweet and true words, sūnīta — a term which is repeatedly applied to her? Kakshivan addresses her: “Following the course of the Ray of Truth, ſtasya raśmim, bestow on us happy, happy knowledge-will”¹⁸

There are Mitra and Varuna, the Ashwins, other gods and goddesses whose identities are variously surmised and whose physical aspects are less pronounced than those we have referred to and for that reason we need not take up any of them here, as the Riks addressed will bear plain testimony to the psychological and inner significance, and to the Cosmic and spiritual functionings under different names and personalities of the Godhead. It is enough if we remember that the Gods whose identities with the objects and forces of Nature in the physical universe are quite assured are not really and deeply the external things meant as objects of ritual worship, but are much more and are intensely divine in their true form and nature, superb and intimate in their workings as powers of the Godhead in the hidden and occult layers of our being as well as in the Cosmic existence.

II

Now let us see if it is at all a fact that the hymns themselves speak of the Gods with different names and powers of the One supreme Godhead. The oft-quoted Rik of Dirghatamas is too well-known and there are a few others that have the same import that the One is named variously by the sages. And this fact is certainly important, but that is not enough to show the relation of the Gods among themselves or their position individually in relation to the One who is adored through each and all of them. For we can take them as mere names of the One, themselves without substance and form, distinct from one another or from the supreme One whose functions they represent. We shall present here in a general way the fact as emerging from the Riks themselves that the Gods of the Veda are not mere names but are different Powers, have different functions, distinctive signs that mark them out featuring their Personalities, yet not absolutely separate from but closely allied to one another, not apart from the sole Supreme Truth, the Godhead but definite manifestations of That indefinable.

It is advisable to convince ourselves that this our reading of the nature of the Vedic Gods is not an invention of our own but a discovery of the truth which was faintly seen and stated in unmistakable terms by Yaska who was after the Vedic age the first to probe into the secrets of the Gods, and openly acknowledged the impossibility of ordinary minds without tapas, spiritual force, understanding the nature of the Devatas. And we must remember in this connection that he was an etymologist and his interpretations are normally naturalistic. Though he admits the existence of other schools of Vedic interpreters and does not plainly condemn ritualism as such, still occasionally scouts the explanations given by the Brahmanas, the Vedic scripture for Ritualism. Brahmanas speak liberally of many qualities”; often they are extravagant and fanciful in reading into the hymnal texts or into the Vedic Gods many imagined meanings or qualities. According to his commentator, Yaska hesitates to follow the Brahmanas in their explanations as they speak of everything in all possible ways and we ought not to swallow them, but the truth must be sought for.¹⁹

A common dwelling and common enjoyment entitle the objects and beings of a world to be treated as belonging to and part of that world, samsthana-ekatwam, sambhoga-ekatwam. His account of the Vedic Gods and the world-existence may be summed up in a few passages; that will help us to get an idea of the system of thought pertaining to the deities of the Vedic pantheon that prevailed among a section of Vedic interpreters who were not ritualists; but they assumed to depend for their conclusions on the Vedas, the hymns themselves and not on the Brahmanas or Upanishads though the latter seem to have been known to them as could be seen from certain sections, at least the supplement, parishishta of Yaska’s Nirukta. Yaska’s commentator Durgacharya explains the passages of Yaska on the Devatas with their character, abodes and functions in the light of Upanishadic thought. Even though his explanations are quite plausible, we must avoid the suspicion that he read his own thought trained in the Upanishadic lore into the lines of the Nirukta. But Yaska himself gives in one or two short paragraphs what he understood to be the nature, work and place of the Vedic Gods as gathered from the hymns themselves and come down to him through the Nairukta tradition. There are three worlds, Earth, Middle region and the Sky which are the abodes of Agni, Vayu or Indra and Aditya respectively and above them all is the Mahan Atma; all the Gods, whatever their number, have their dwellings with one or other of these three Gods. They are born one of the other, the prakyti or nature of each is so flexible as to be modified into the nature of other Gods, itaretara-prakrtayaḥ; they are born as the fruit of works, karma-janmanaḥ. Because of the magnificent opulence of the Deity, mahābhāgya, the One Self eka åtmå, is lauded in many ways or as many. Of the One Atman other Gods are limbs; they are all born of the Atman; the Atman is their chariot, Atman is their horses, Atman is the weapon, Atman is the arrows, in short, Atman is the everything of the Gods (Nirukta VII.4). If all the Gods of all the worlds, their horses and chariots and weapons are all the One Devata, the One Atman, a misunderstanding may arise, viz., that really there is no difference among the Gods or between them and their vehicles etc. And to remove this possible misconception Yaska adds, because of the majestic power the Gods are endowed with, each Deity has different names and divides itself into different functionings and is accordingly hymned. That the various Vedic Gods have their many functions and names and that they are different Powers is admitted on all hands and there is no doubt or controversy on this point. As for their abodes it is a question that deserves to be considered at some length and that we shall do in determining the true character of the Gods.

Is the idea of the supreme Deity, the sublime Reality, as a fact of spiritual experience indicated, clearly expressed, in the hymns themselves generally or is it only a later bold conjecture or a vague idea ventured in a few later hymns and that it is only in the Upanishads the thought is developed as affirmed by modern scholars? This is the one question on which there have been conflicting views. We shall dispose of this first, for on this point hinges the whole question of the spiritual and true greatness of the Rishis of the Rig Veda. We shall take up a number of pertinent passages from many Mandalas of the Rik Samhita to show that That One, tad ekam, was known to the Rishis and it is That towards which they wend their way in the inner and secret path of the Sacrifice, with the help of the higher Powers, callcd Devas, limbs as it were, of the supreme Godhead functioning in the field of Cosmic action. We shall choose such texts as can be plainly construed and avoid passages which may require the elucidation of symbolic imagery in which the meanings of many hymns are clothed. First there stands the famous Rik of Dirghatamas: “Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, they call him; and he is also the Heavenly Garutman of lovely plumage. The One Existent the illumined ones call variously, call it Agni, Yama, Matarishwa.”²⁰

In the third Mandala we have the idea of the One plainly mentioned as all that is and moves. “ All beings that are born, they both (Earth and Heaven?) keep separate; bearing the great Gods, vexed they are not. The Universal One that rules over the immobile and the fixed (is) what walks, what flies, what is — this manifold birth.”²¹

In the fifth Mandala: “ There is a truth covered by aTruth where they unyoke the horses of the Sun: the ten hundreds stood together, there was that One (or That, the supreme Truth was one). I saw the greatest (best, most glorious) of the embodied gods."²³

Or we can take a hymn from Bharadwaja: “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 towards the One Will.”²⁴

Vasishtha says, " That one, Thy birth, was there when Agastya brought Thee here."²⁵

In the last Book: “ Where they regard the only One beyond the seven Rishis ..."²⁶

"In the navel of the unborn the One was placed and there in that One all the worlds abide."²⁷

Again in another place, “ The One existent, beautiful of plumage, the illumined seers by their words formulate in many ways (or forms)."²⁸

The few references we have given from many Books in the Rig Veda, not only from the last Book, are sufficient to show that the idea of That One, the Sublime Truth which is also the Deity of all deities is not a later development but is there throughout in the Vedic hymns though veiled or kept in the background in some places while in a few others it is plainly stated and quite overt. When we closely appreciate these facts and study the hymns addressed to the Gods, Indra or Soma or even Maruts, not to speak of Agni and Surya we find these Gods derive their support and strength from That One and are themselves that One, and they, cach in his own way, help man in his Heavenward travel of which the goal is the Supreme One. We can take for instance a few examples of Gods adored as and leading man to That One addressing the Maruts, Vasishtha says “Whose Name, resplendent, One alone, widely extended like a sea, for the joy of many like the enduring strength of ancestral heritage.”²⁹

In the Valakhilya Hymns we find a verse: “ The One has become all this.":³⁰

The seer Nema in his communion with Indra says verses 4 and 5 in the hymn of Nema are said to be the words of response from Indra – “O singer, look, here I by my greatness surpass all that is born, the followers of Truth increase mc .... the espousers of Truth ascend and approach me, as I, the One, am seated on the summit of Heaven."³¹

In another hymn, “ The one son born of the three, the conquering, ruddy treasure, they send, the Immortals unassailed look over the happy places (planes) of the mortals."³²

“Held by the seven thought-powers he pleases the unharming rivers who increase the One Eye."³³

“The Might of the great Deva is the great One."³⁴

“Here is one light for thee, there is another: enter close into the third Light. In the union of the body with the Light, grow beautiful, dear to the Gods in their supreme birthplace."³⁵

III

These Gods are quite often spoken of as identical with the Supreme Godhead that has manifested out of its own substance and power and intelligence the many Gods for their functionings in the various spheres of his Cosmic existence. Therefore the Veda mentions Him as One who alone is the holder of the Names of all the Gods (X. 82.3). But the Gods are distinct personalities with their respective activities, while each is important in his place and fulfils his purpose and is indispensable for the governing of the Cosmic order his individual importance or greatness must not be judged by the number of hymns addressed to them. “The importance of the Gods”, says Sri Aurobindo, “has not to be measured by the number of hymns devoted to them or by the extent to which they are invoked in the thoughts of the Rishis, but by the functions which they perform. Agni and Indra to whom the majority of the Vedic hymns are addressed are not greater than Vishnu and Rudra, but the functions which they fulfil in the internal and external world were the most active, dominant, directly effective for the psychological discipline of the ancient mystics. This alone is the reason of their predominance.” The Sun, the glorious symbol of the Truth, the supreme Godhead of the Veda, is referred to as That One, tad ekam, addressed in fewer hymns than Indra or Agni or even Maruts. The Rishis invoke the powers of Agni and Indra because they are of constant and immediate consequence in the psychological and spiritual discipline of these mystics, and hence the importance and not because they are superior to the Sun; similarly Maruts, children of Rudra are not greater than their Father though there are more hymns addressed to them than to Rudra in the Rig Veda. The same may be said of Vishnu and Rudra to whom lesser number of hymns are devoted and yet Indra and Agni are not greater than they.

All the gods have their Cosmic functions in the universe, and their workings as pychological and spiritual powers within man is the central thought with which we are concerned in our reading of the Veda in its esoteric sense. Whatever their province of influence and action be in the external universe, the benefit of their presence and activity is always open to man when he has grown enough to discover the means to enlarge his existence with and to enter into the region of their help and influence. And that means is the same instrumentation by which the supreme One, the Creative Godhead produced, manifested, or created the Universe of Many, the world of creatures out of his own being. It is the giving of Himself, something of His substance for the building of the worlds, their beings and their governing powers in the Cosmic existence. This giving is Sacrifice, Yajna, in the Vedic system. If the Supreme Purusha by self-giving made possible the creation of this world-existence with its countless variety of living beings of which the most grown-up is the human being, man also can by self-giving earn the help of the Gods, of the higher Powers of the Godhead to new-create himself in the Spirit. For Sacrifice is this Law instituted by the creative Godhead, the Purusha for self-extension in the world-existence, it is the Law by which creation is sustained, and it is also the Law by which enlargement and growth into the image of the immortal Godhead is made possible. This secret of the true and inner sacrifice was a common knowledge of the Vedic mystics, while the external Yajna was maintained as a symbol for ceremonial worship for the people in general.

Mortal man, the sages knew, could renew his birth by an interchange with the higher Powers, the cosmic Gods, the Immortals, who are the sons of Aditi, the Mother Infinite. For the supreme Godhead is not only He, but also She, in the infinitude of his calm potency for boundless extension, for ineasuring out his measureless powers in the Cosmic embodiment. This Infinite in the Veda is sometimes imaged as the ocean, samudra. And there is an upper ocean whence the creation and creative powers proceed downwards and over the Earth, while there is an inner ocean, antaḥ samudra, to which the mystic gains access by special discipline, in and through the heart. He thus begins to enter the inner existence and lives the inner life by deepening his existence within and offering his possessions and whatever he is to the Gods who rule over and really own him and his universe of thoughts, feelings and experiences, for their acceptance. They in their turn bestow on him something of themselves, their light, their strength, the riches of the Immortal world to which they belong. He progresses from the depths of his being upwards to the abode of the higher powers leading to the Home of Truth where reigns the Sublime Effulgence. But he does not effect his journey at a stretch and reach the destination, nor does he commence and proceed with this up-hill task by his own strength either. It is with the help, the light and strength of the Gods which he receives in return for his self-giving, he is urged to his upward march in the path of the sacrifice. This offering is so nourishing to the Gods that they are born in him and increase their own substance in him; they are called the twice-born, dwijanmānah, for they are first born in the Cosmos as the higher Powers of the Godhead, and their second birth takes place in man as the fruit of the sacrifice, thereby displacing his mortality, giving him his rightly won lift towards the higher altitudes of his being, to the Home of the Immortals, towards the sole Supreme, That One, for whose attainment all sacrifice is made, all tapasya undertaken, and all life, the whole being, dedicated.

This upward procession, then, is not effected at a stretch, there are many stages, many steps, padāni, many stations, dhamani, through which one has to ascend as one climbs up a hill passing from onc platcau to another, sānoḥ sānum áruhat. The Veda speaks of seven steps or places or worlds, at times of four, chaluspäd, or five orders of being, five births, panca janāḥ. But we meet with three worlds and steps quite commonly which, as is well known, is the triple world of Earth, prthivi, Middle-world, antarikșa, and Heaven, dyauả. These three are located in the outer existence and are used to represent the first three levels of inner existence, toughie there are still higher ranges overtopping this threefold layer of being and reaching out to the vaster and more luminous regions of the Cosmic ladder at the summit of which is the Home of the Eternal Truth, the Immortal Light, the Ineffable Beatitude.

But this Godward journey is not a smooth running, not without vicissitudes; there are the sons of Darkness, forces of Evil, Rakshasas, Asuras, to hinder the progress, even as there arc forces of Good, the sons of Light, the Gods, to help our onward march. “We have to call in the aid of the Gods to destroy the opposition of these powers of Darkness who conceal the Light from us or rob us of it ... we have to invoke the Gods by the inner sacrifice ... the Gods are not simply poetical personifications or abstract ideas or psychological and physical functions of nature ... they are living realities ... the soul of man is a world full of beings, a kingdom in which armies clash to help or hinder a supreme conquest, a house where the Gods arc our guests and which the Demons strive to possess ... the vicissitudes of human soul represent a Cosmic struggle not merely of principles and tendencies but of the Cosmic Powers which support and embody them. These are the Gods and Demons on the world-stage and in the individual Soul the same real drama with the same personages is enacted” [Sri Aurobindo).

The inner sacrifice, the real Yajna, then, is the way to rcach the goal; it is indeed spoken of as a journey or voyagc; it ascends, travels, hence is called adhwa-ra, pilgrim-sacrifice. The principle of sacrifice always exists in the creation; it is a latent power like electricity; to elicit it, the operation of a suitable apparatus is needed as in an electrical machine. Or it is conceived as a rolledup thread of power; once it is unrolled it extends, tantu; it extends from here to Heaven forming a bridge, setu, or ladder by which the sacrificer ascends to the worlds above, communicates with the Gods. We gather such images of the sacrifice from the Brahmanas which explain the symbolic rituals of the Vedic worship. But they are profoundly significant and apply more truly to the inner Yajna. When the sacrifice in the ritual sense is conceived as a machinery in which every part is in its place and properly adjusted to the others and related to the whole or when it is imagcd as a chain in which all the links are properly present and none is allowed to miss or when the Yajna is conceived to be a Purusha, a person with all the features of a human body, their decp and inner meaning becomes transparent to the sacrificer. All the different descriptions and the imagery unfailingly aim at the secret of the sacrifice – that it is at first in man a latent energy and once it is awakened by proper means it takes him up as on a lift to the regions of the higher Consciousness and does all that is necessary for the fulfilment of the Gods’ purpose in him. But the sacrifice must be perfect, all the parts of one’s being have to be willingly offered to the higher Powers, all the elements of the inner sacrifice must be prepared and properly arranged for the offering, so that the Gods may come down and accept his offerings and himself for their own strength and birth and growth in him for the Immortal ascension.

Even as every link has its place in a chain and every limb in a body, even so every one of the Cosmic Gods who has his part in the sacrificial session has his sanctified place in the scheme. Every portion of the Godhead, offered as sacrifice for the Cosmic creation, is entitled to receive its share in the inner sacrifice offered by man and it is indispensable that the entire body of the creative Purusha must be satisfied for the perfect fruition of the great work. It will be evident from what has been stated that the one element common to all the Gods is this that they are all Powers of the same Godhead, Sons of the Infinite and are Immortals, companions in the sacrifice, friends who offer their help to the sacrificer. Because of these general fcatures common to the Gods we find them so addressed in some hymns that on the surface onc is prone to think that cach of the Gods does not differ from the others since he is hymned by the Rishis using the same appellation as the great God or thic most beneficent or the supreme God himself. But this is only one aspect of the truth and does not abrogate the distinctness in their personalities and functions. For their distinguishing signs are clcarly mentioned and in their special functions their individualities are always discernible. This is applicable to a very great majority of hymns while there are a few where the Gods concerned may be of a doubtful character. Apart from the Knowledge one can gather from the meaning of a hymn that a particular God is addressed, there is a technique given to us by which the Gods are distinguished. The colours, vehicles, weapons and the physiognomies of the Gods are mentioned in some hymns and these are symbolical, intimately expressive of the truth and character of the Gods visible to the inner vision of the Rishis. Yaska’s Nirukta mentions the vehicles of Indra, Agni and other Gods. “Indra has two grcen horses, Agni’s ruddy, Aditya’s tawny, Ashwins have two donkeys and Pushan goats; antelopes of Maruts, rosy rays of Ushas and Savitr’s dusky horses along with the vehicle of Brihaspati called Vishwarupa arc mentioned and Vayu’s horses are called Niyuta.”³⁶

It is needless to say that these powers of the Godhead are realities to the Vedic Rishi. He sees them not as a mere form or symbol of an idea with an uncertain visionary eye of mind but as tangible and quite concrete in their own kind, receives their influence and is benefited by their favour; strengthened by their gift he comes into direct contact with them, achieves a scttlcd relationship that continues to the end or leads to the final consummation. Numerous are the hymns in which the many-sided relation cstablished between the Deva and the Rishis is revealed as to us. At times the Deva is realised as the father, guardian and protector and often he is the help, guide and friend; significantly, the God who is the Father becomes the Son of man, and all these relations do not detract from the eternal and immortal rulership of the Deity as the King of the Universe while mortal man, the awakened Rishi emerging from the murky waters of lower life rises in adoration, bows and pays his homage to the supreme Lord of the world and his Powers. This kind of relationship that the Vedic Rishis maintained with the Godhead has continued to exert its influence on later generations and in spite of the gulf between the Vedic times and later ages the tradition has lived down to our own days that man can worship God in that relation which is best suited to his temperament and competence. Or, it is truer to state that God chooses for the soul the kind of relation in which the type of the soul could most naturally commune with him father or mother, king or companion or child beloved.

We have in general terms spoken of the Vedic Gods, their general character as cosmic Powers functioning in the universe as well as in the individual, all having a common abode at the summit of the Creation but extending themselves and their activities over the whole range of Cosmic existence which has many steps or stages or what we may call planes of being: at the same time, they, each in his own way, dominate one plane or other with varying stress for their special functions. For these plancs or levels of being, or steps in the staircase of creation, represent the variously constituted world-existence governed by the cosmic principles of Matter, Life, Mind and other still subtler and higher principles of divine order which arc seven in number according to the Vedic seers. Wc have not here taken up the question of the special characteristics of the several Gods, much less their place and functions in the various stages of the sacrifice. That is a vast subject involving the cxplanation of the symbols employed in the outer sacrifice and then, their corresponding significances in the inner Yajna; and at cvery important stage of the discussion relevant hymns and passages and the ritualistic texts (Brahmanas) have to be mentioned in support of and as internal evidence for the correctness of our interpretation of the symbols in regard to the inner secret of the sacrifice and the true character of the Gods. But what we have stated so far is sufficient to give a general idea of the Gods as great and distinct powers of the supreme Godhead who come down to man when he has increased in stature to abide by the Law of sacrifice for the creation of the Godhead in him, even as the Godhead by sacrifice built the world of which he is a part.

To illustrate this truth we shall consider and confine ourselves to Agni the first God, enquire into the special functions he is associated with and ponder over his general and special attributes we come across in the Vedic hymns. We shall in the light of the hymns themselves deal with the important appellations with which the God is addressed and where necessary unveil the symbols in accordance with Sri Aurobindo’s way of approach to the Vedic study. We choose this God for our enquiry here because he is nearer to us than others, is easily accessible and awakened in us and his immediate importance entitles him to first place in our adoration.

IV

Who is Agni the Fire, the God who is first awakened and adored by the Rishis? Surely it is not the third element, the principle of heat and light that is adored as God though that may be his symbol and form for worship in the physical existence. Nor can it be the sacrificial fire though that was the consecrated symbol for ritualistic worship in ancient times. And that cannot be Agni the God without whom the Immortals are not happy’. For it is said that Agni is the intuitive Knowledge of sacrifice and in him all the Gods take joy. He is the face and mouth of the Gods because the offerings to him he conveys to the Gods and fronts them in their approach to man to partake in the offerings and sacrifice. He is their messenger, for through him first, man communicates with the higher Powers; he is also the leader, Nara, and priest, Hota, of the sacrifice; he guides it and calls upon the Gods to be present and accept the offerings. Of all the Gods he is the first to be born in man; to the Cosmic God this is the second birth as his first is in the Cosmos; he is the Will, Kratu, of the Divine in man and once he is awakened, i.e., produced by Father Heaven and Mother Earth, — the tinders, araņi, that strike out the sacrificial fire in the symbolic rite — he rises and grows heavenward fed by the offerings of the sacrificer, the human soul. This is the Flame whose original home is the great Heaven, but who is born in man, Immortal in the mortal. He is fostered by the seven Sisters, is the child of the seven Mothers, the seven Rivers, the Waters, nourish and support him — these are figures of the cnergies of the seven Cosmic principles. He has seven tongues because he contains in himself the seven essentials of the planes of Cosmic existence so that when he accepts the offerings with the seven tongues they reach and satisfy the needs of the seven planes of being into which the soul is to be born or which are to manifest in the soul of man for the fulfilment of his sacrifice.

Many are the significant Names by which he is addressed in the Veda. He is described as dwelling in the secret Cave, guhā, which is used to denote the heart, hột, the core of one’s being. We shall choose some of the descriptive attributes which throw light on the character and function of Agni as well as the way in which he came to be worshipped in the guise of Skanda Kumara in later ages. We shall also examine some of the important passages of the Rig Veda and show how in the Mahabharata and the Puranas Agni, beyond doubt, is himself the Kumara or the latter is the Son, a manifestation of Agni.

A few references will suffice to show that the reality of Agni as God, the Immortal in the mortal, impressed the Vedic Rishis from the very beginning and is not a later development, nor the things spoken of him are applicable to the fire elemental or ritual with some fanciful deity clothed in it. The Solar powers of the sublime Truth typified by the Bhrigus are said to have brought down and placed Agni in men like a lovely treasure, for the sake of the peoples, easy to invoke. And the seer Nodhas proceeding addresses, “ O Agni, Thee the Priest of the Call, the Guest worthy of choice, blissful Friend, for the Divine birth."³⁷

“How shall we give to Agni? For him what Word accepted by the gods is spoken, for the Lord of the brilliant plane? For him who in mortals Immortal possessed of the Truth, priest of the oblation, strongest for sacrifice, creates the gods."⁴⁵

“He is wide in his light like a seer of the Day; he is the one we must know and founds an adorable joy. In him is Universal life, he is the Immortal in mortals; he is the Waker in the Dawn, our Guest, the Godhead who knows all births that are.”⁴⁶

“When man gives to Thee with the sacrifice and the fuel and with his potent words and his chants of illumination, he becomes. O Immortal, O Son of Force, a mind of knowledge among mortals and shines with the riches and inspiration and light."⁴⁷

“Fire and again Fire set to work with your fuel, chant with your speech, the dear, the beloved guest. Approach and set the immortal Light with your words; a God he enjoys in the Gods our desirable things, – a God, he enjoys our works in the Gods.":⁴⁸

Such a God, the Immortal in us, must necessarily be somewhere in us hidden in the secrecies, in the depths of our being. The sages called it heart, hạt, indicated by the figure of the Cave, guha. Agni’s dwelling place, then, is guha and he is so hymned by many a sage and in many a hymn in the Rig Veda. Let us give a few examples from Parashara, Vamadeva and Vishwamitra.

“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.”⁴⁹

“He who has perceived him when he is in the secret Cave, he who has come to the stream of the Truth, those who touch the things of the Truth and kindle him, — to such a one he gives Word of the riches."’⁵¹

“ Him in the many Mothers linked together, widespread and unapproached in the forest, abiding in the secret cave and rich with many lights, full of knowledge or moving to some unknown goal.”:⁵²

Again in the hymns of Vishwamitra we shall find the same guhā, the secrecy in which he (Agni) moves (III.1.9).

Let us see how he is hymned as containing in himself the sevenfold principles of being, power, light and bliss. “The seven rays are extended in this leader of sacrifice.”:⁵³

“In house and house founding the seven ecstacies the Fire took its session as a priest of the Call strong for sacrifice.”⁵⁴

Or, “For me howso small impart not the heavy burden this thought, О purifying Fire, uphold with the violence this vast profound and mighty sevenfold plane."⁵⁵

Vishwamitra sings: “As thy comrades we choose thee, mortals a God, for protection, Thee the Child of the Waters, the Blessed, Resplendent, the Victorious without comparc. “⁵⁶

“He, Agni, Knower of the Honey, desiring the Sisters Mushing red, raised them for the seeing...."⁵⁷

Him of plenitude, the prime Intuition of the sacrifice, the priest in the front, the seven Gods of the planes adore. ”⁵⁸

Again it is interesting to note that Yaska quotes a passage from the Shukla Yajurveda which plainly says, “ In this body are established the seven Rishis”.⁵⁹

Who are the Rivers, the Waters? They are the streams of the Truth, floods of the Higher Consciousness: they are rich with the radiances of the Superconscient released by Indra, the God-mind, by slaying the Demon, the covering clouds, the obstructionist forces of Vritra that prevent the Truth-powers from entering into the Earth-consciousness. Sri Aurobindo explains the symbolism of the Waters, Rivers and Ocean by copious illustrations from the Vedic hymns. He takes up the hymns of Vasishtha (VII. 47, 49) and Vamadeva’s last hymn and shows that the ocean is the image of the Infinite and eternal existence and the image of the rivers or flowing currents is used to symbolise the currents of Conscious being. And further in order to show that the Waters, the Rivers, are seven representing the seven Cosmic principles or the seven strands of being, he comments upon the first hymn of Vishwamitra to Agni from which we gather the following facts which throw light on the Puranic legends of Kumara Agni, Skanda, son of Agni born and brought up in the growths of the Earth, fostered by the sisters and moving towards his own Home, the Vast Truth.

Let us first note briefly, the relevant points. “The gods discovered Agni visible in the waters, in the workings of the sisters. The seven mighty Ones increased in him who utterly enjoys felicity; white in his birth, he is ruddy when he has grown. They moved and laboured about him, the Mares around the new-born child. The gods gave body to Agni in his birth. Wearing light as a robe about all 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, the seven Words. Spread out were the masses of him in universal forms in the womb of the clarity, in the flowings of the sweetnesses; here the fostering rivers stood nourishing themselves. The two mothers of the accomplishing god became vast and harmonised. He discovered at his birth the source of the abundance of the Father and he loosed forth wide his streams and wide his rivers... One, he fed upon his many mothers in their increasing. Great in the unobstructed Vast he increased; many Waters victoriously increased Agni. In the source of the Truth he lay down, there he made his home, Agni in the working of his undivided Sisters. To the visible Birth of the Waters and of the growths of Earth the goddess of Delight now gave birth in many forms, she of the utter felicity. From him increasing in the secret places of existence in his own seat within the shoreless Vast they milked out immortality."

The following extracts from Sri Aurobindo’s comments are given here for the elucidation of these passages.

“These are the sevenfold waters of truth. The Divine Waters brought down from the heights of our being by Indra. It, the Divine power, is secret in the Earth’s growth, oşadhi, the thing that holds her heats and has to be brought out by a sort of force, by a pressure of the two arañis, Earth and Heaven. Therefore it is called the earth’s growths and the child of the earth and heaven; this immortal Force is produced by man with pain and difficulty from the workings of the pure mind upon the physical being. But in the divine waters Agni is found visible and easily born in all his strength and in all his knowledge and in all his enjoyment, entirely white and pure, growing ruddy in his action when he increases. From his very birth the gods give him force and splendour and body; the seven mighty Rivers increase him in joy. The rivers usually named dhenavaḥ, fostering cows, are here described as as vāḥ, Mares, because while the Cow is the symbol of consciousness in the form of knowledge the Horse is the symbol of consciousness in the form of force, Ashva the Horse is the dynamic force of Life, and the rivers labouring over Agni on the earth become the waters of the vital dynamis or kinesis, the prana, which moves and acts and desires and enjoys. Agni himself begins as material heat and power, manifests secondarily as Horse and then only becomes the heavenly fire. The seven-fold waters thus rise upward and become the pure mental activity, the Mighty Ones of Heaven. They have all flowed from the one womb of the superconscient Truth—the seven Words are fundamental creative expressions of the divine Mind, sapta våniḥ. The Father of all things is the Lord and Male; he is hidden in the secret source of things, in the superconscient; Agni with his companion gods and with the seven-fold Waters, enters into the superconscient without therefore disappearing from our conscient existence, finds the source of the honeyed plenty of the father of things and pours them out on our life. He bears and himself becomes the Son, the pure Kumara, the pure Male, the One, the soul in man revealed in its universality.”

V

When we ponder over the substance of these Riks of Vishwamitra with the help of Sri Aurobindo’s explanation given above, it is hardly possible to miss the mystic significance that becomes quite apparent from the transparent symbols employed by the Rishi to convey the profound secrets of the divine Child, the divine Will, his birth and growth and progress to his own home in the Vast Truth. For the Rivers, the flowing Waters, the Cows, the Mares and the Child cannot be physical objects, nor cows and horses the common quadrupeds, nor can they feed a child either; much less by any stretch of imagination can rivers themselves change into fostering cows or act as mares labouring over a child. Any construing of these passages which does not admit of the symbolic imagery does necessarily involve us in imputing an insane incoherence to the mentality of these seer-poets of the ancient Vedas. It is remarkable that some of these symbolic images are preserved in the Puranas. When they say that Vishnu sleeps on the folds of the snake Ananta upon the ocean of sweet Milk, clearly they symbolise the fact that Vishnu the all pervading God rests on the coils of the Infinite in the blissful ocean of Eternal Existence. An objection may be raised that “that cannot be really the meaning of the Purana as the priests or poets who believed that eclipses were caused by a dragon eating the sun and moon would also easily believe that the supreme Deity in a physical body went to sleep on a physical snake, upon a material ocean of real milk and that it is our own ingenuity that seeks for a spiritual meaning in these fables.” Sri Aurobindo’s reply is that there is no need to seek for such meanings, for these very superstitious poets have put them plainly on the surface of the fables for everybody to see who does not choose to be blind. Mark, Vishnu means all-pervading, Ananta infinite, sweet milk a symbol of Bliss, Ananda, and Ocean, immensity of the Eternal Existence.

But the Puranic story of Skanda, Kumara the Child closely follows the Vedic account and almost keeps intact the Vedic symbolism as explained above. In the Puranas, apart from the slightly different versions, the Kumara is an effulgence of the great God, Father Shiva. He is born in the growths of the Earth, śaravana, placed in the Waters, Ganga, who increase him in stature; he is nourished with milk by the fostering Lights of Krittikas — in the Veda they are cows. He reaches the heights of the hill of being, the Mind Divine, called mānasa saila (Mahabharata, Vanaparva, Ch. 222). He gives help to Indra, gives battle to the asuric forces, victorious, cherished and adored by the gods returns to his Father. We need not enter into the details of the story which are at every turn quite significant; but the difference between the Veda and the Purana lies in the number of the Mothers who foster him. The Veda mentions seven sisters or rivers while the Purana does only six mothers, omitting one possibly the highest height of being where fostering is not necessary.

If a doubt is entertained that we are rather ingenious in trading the Puranic Skanda to the Vedic Kumara Agni, it vanishes if we refer to the Mahabharata in which we find a link that connects the Vedic account with that of the Puranas, notably the Skanda, Shankara Samhita among others where shorter accounts are given, as in Ramayana. There is one feature that arrests our attention while perusing the Angirasa legend followed by chapters on the birth of Kumara Skanda in the Vanaparva of the great Epic. While elaborating the story in the later Puranic way, it retains to some extent the Vedic tradition and uses certain Vedic words and names not without significance. The narrative runs from Chapter 222 to 230 in the Vanaparva. We find it plainly stated in the course of the account that Indra—God Mind — stands on the summit of the manasa hill in deep contemplation waiting for the arrival of help, Agni, and that the rivers are the fostering mothers of Agni and other details which support the vicw that the symbolic imagery of the Vedas is maintained in the Mahabharata account of Skanda. But the most important of all is that it refers to many forms or manifestations of Agni and names them and their functions, the last that is mentioned is called “The wonderful, adbhuta” of whom the Child Kumara Skanda is a special manifestation. Here we are most concerned with this term, for there is a line here in the introduction to the story of Skanda’s birth. “The greatness of Adbhuta as sung in the Vedas, I shall tell you” (221-30), says the story-teller. Now who is the Adbhuta whose greatness is praised in the Vedas? If Agni is called Adbhuta in the Vedas, then we accept without hesitation that the narrative of Skanda in the Mahabharata is based on the Vedas themselves; but ordinarily we do not know this name as specially applied to Agni, just as we know him as Purohita, placed in front or Hota, priest of the Call or Jatavedas, knower of all that is born or saptajihva, the seven-tongued, and similar appellations that unmistakably refer to Agni. Nevertheless if we examine the texts of the Veda wherever this word occurs we find it generally applied to Agni and rarely to any other God such as Soma or Indra. Even then, when it is applicd to the latter it is associated with attributes which are recognised terms for Agni. The word occurs about thirty times in the Rig Veda and in four of them in four places it is part of a compound word. Let us first be clear about the meaning of the word as it is differently given by Sayana, and then look into these passages which do not lcave room for any doubt that the term Adbhuta is almost exclusively applied to Agni. Adbhuta in the Veda as in classical Sanskrit means ’wonderful’, but it also means in the Veda, mahat, the great, Supreme, as admitted by Sayana in some places supported by Nirukta. And because it is the Supreme it transcends our comprehension, and therefore it is uscd in the sense of the Transcendent which is the Supreme and the Wonderful. Sri Aurobindo has translated in the sense as explained above. But what it does not and could not mean must also be stated for the sake of precision. For Sayana in some places forces it to mean “what never was” (na bhūta, adhūta); this he does on the basis of the fantastic etymology which is abundant in Yaska’s derivations of words. But the one merit of Yaska in this respect lies in the indifferent value he attaches to his explanations as is clear from the number of alternatives he light-heartedly gives to word-derivations. And Sayana quite seriously, not always, falls back upon him on occasions, when he has to tide over difliculties in explaining some phrases. “ Adbhuta-enasaḥ” is used as an attribute of Maruts; he cxplains that Maruts are Gods who are not sinful, as if other Gods were! According to him, literally, it means “ those in whom there are no sins". Other Gods are nowhere addressed in this curious way. What seems to be the truth is this: the Maruts are known to be violent in their tempestuous action which to the mortal mind would naturally seem at times cruel as violence is and, therefore sinful; but these Maruts are Gods with wonderful sins and that is as much as to say their violence, if sin at all, is not of the ordinary kind, it is wonderful. There is a great advantage in giving the same or similar meaning to the word; it avoids the tantalising position to which we are forced quite often if we accept these unreasonable variations in the meaning. The only rational justification for this meaning of Sayana can be that even though they commit sins they are really sinless.

But our interpretation does not admit the sins at all, it holds that what appears to be violence and therefore "sin" is not of the ordinary kind, hence wonderful, the violent action of the Maruts is wonderful. And there is another instance of a compound of which this word is a part, adbhuta-kratu; it can be straightly rendered “ one who has a wonderful will ". Or in Sunasshepa’s Rik (1.25.1) we can easily see the word means “wonders”; “ He beholds all the wonders that have been and that have to be done."

We shall give a few instances where the Supreme is mcant as the Wonderful, it is really the Transcendent that is referred to by That. “It is not now, nor is It tomorrow. Who knowcth that which is Supreme and Wonderful? It has motion and action in the Consciousness of another, but when It is approached by the thought, It vanishes.”⁶⁰

“For pure understanding, I have come to the Lord of the assembly, the Wonderful, the lovable friend of Indra who gives.”⁶²

“The bright, the purifying, the Wonderful sprinkles the sacrifice with honey.”:⁶³

“God among Gods, Thou art friend, the Wonderful.”⁶⁴

"The King of the peoples, the Wonderful, this Agni who presides over the law I adore: may he give ear."⁶⁵

"O Flame, Thou Suprcme and Wonderful, it is Thou who by force of Will becomest in us the greatness of this discerning power; in Thee, the all-harmonising friend in the sacrifice accomplishes the work and climbs to divine mastery.”⁶⁶

“O Flame, O Might, that rich felicity bring which shall violently overpower the armies that are embattled against us; for thou art the true in being; the Transcendent and Wonderful who gives to man the luminous plenitude.”⁶⁷

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.”⁶⁸

“The Wonderful, the Friend propped up Earth and Heaven and made the darkness a disappearing thing by the light. He rolled out the two minds like skins; the Universal assumed every masculine might.”⁶⁹

The Bhrigus set in the Tree the Godhead of our aspiration with his high Flame of light like a friend well-confirmed in his place. And now, O Wonderful, well pleased in him who has cast to thee the offering, Thou art magnified by workings of thy power from day to day."⁷⁰

We have given those passages in which adbhuta is specially applied to Agni and so identified with the Supreme or said to lead to the Supreme. Even when it is occasionally used to refer to Indra the adjectives used are well-known to apply to Agni; this is cvident in the Rik: “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.”⁷¹

We have exhaustively given the important references to Agni as Adbhuta, an appellation which has been almost exclusively applied to him. There are solitary instances where it is applied to Indra and Soma or some other God. But this does not detract from the importance of the word mainly intended to indicate the Supreme as Agni. For it is a well-known fact that in the Veda cach major God is worshipped as the Supreme, therefore the exclusive epithets of one God occasionally extend themselves to others as well. We may take the instance of hymns to Agni Vaishwanara; they always refer to the Universal Purusha, the supreme Godhead and in many Riks we find it is the Sun of Truth, Surya, as the plenary Home of Agni that is mentioned. Vaishwanara, however, is primarily applied to Agni. In the light of the Angirasa legend of the Epic which mentions the Adbhuta Agni of the Vedas as the father of Skanda Kumara, and in the light of the Riks quoted above which systematically apply the term to Agni, we are entitled to conclude that the author of the Mahabharata was acquainted with the secrets of Agni as are to be discovered in the Rig Veda. This fact emerges from the unveiling of the symbols in parts in this section of the Vanaparva, identifying the Rivers and Sisters and Cows with the fostering Lights and Mothers and proceeding with its narrative in its own way but always keeping to the symbols significantly at every turn.

The significance then, of the symbolic imagery is preserved in the Puranas also, but there is a larger variation there than in the Mahabharata, at least so far as the legend of Kumara is concerned. And this fact clearly bears testimony to the correctness of our reading the hymns in their inner sense which cnables us to see and appreciate their secret meaning pointing to profound truths which are clothed in the inspired words of the mystics of the Rig Veda. In this study, then, the Gods cease to be allegorical representations of mere attributes of the Godhead, but reveal themselves as substantial Realities, Powers, Personalities of the Supreme One; they are no longer personifications of mere forces of Nature, but Beings at their back and top functioning indeed in the Universe as Cosmic manifestations of the Supreme Godhead; but more intimately they are active in the inner Existence as psychological and spiritual powers with which the awakened soul enters into relation cven as did the Vedic seers of yore: and of them there is One who is first to be born in man, to act as the Divine Messenger, who, while keeping himself in the front, in fact carries all the Gods in him, at the same time takes up the human soul along the path that leads to the Light, to the Truth, to Immortality — and that is the Divine Will, the Immortal in the mortal, the Flame Wonderful, Agni Adbhuta.