(This article was first published in the Dec 2016 issue of 'The Call Beyond', monthly magazine of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, New Delhi.)
We have understood to not
take the Veda as merely a book of ritual for the fulfilment of human desires
but as the foremost book of spiritual knowledge, a profound expression of the
Rishis, seers of the Truth. We have learnt to look beyond the words of the Veda
and their common meaning and understand their deeper, psychological import. And
thus, we have come to see the Veda as a representation of the ascent of
consciousness from the darkness of Ignorance to the Infinite Truth and
Beatitude of the Supramental Consciousness.
In this representation, the
Veda made yajña, the physical act of sacrifice, as its centrepiece and
medium for invoking a wide spectrum of deities – Agni, Indra, Saraswati, Brihaspati
etc. – all symbols of psychological phenomenon of an illumined consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo writes:
“The sacrifice is the
giving by man of what he possesses in his being to the higher or divine nature
and its fruit is the farther enrichment of his manhood by the lavish bounty of
the gods. The wealth thus gained constitutes a state of spiritual riches,
prosperity, felicity which is itself a power for the journey and a force of
battle.”[1]
The battle here is the
ongoing inner battle between the pure, illumined mind and life powers, the devas,
which continuously seek an ascent towards the Truth-consciousness, and the
powers of ignorance, the daityas (called dasyus in the Veda),
which constantly limit and obstruct one’s progress. While the gods are the
children of Aditi, symbol of Infinity, the undivided supreme consciousness,
dasyus are the sons of Diti, of duality, of a divided consciousness.
Dasyus are known by
various names such as Vritra, Pani, Atri, Rakshasa, Sambara, Vala, Namuchi,
etc. They are all “powers of division and limitation, Coverers, Tearers,
Devourers, Confiners, Dualisers, Obstructers, as their names indicate, powers
that work against the free and unified integrality of the being.”
They are in strict
opposition to everything pure and good that the gods and the Aryan seers stand
for. The seers have the will to act, kāru, the gods perfect their
action, sukratu, but dasyus oppose both and are akratu. The seers
find the sacred Word, the mantra or brahma, they are its singers,
brahmā, the gods are invoked by it and they uphold it, giravāhas,
but dasyus are haters and destroyers of the Word, brahmadviṣaḥ[2].
The gods are magnanimous
givers of Light, dasyus are its withholders. This withholding is sometimes
symbolized by the kidnapping of cows by the demon Pani, sometimes by the
obstruction of waters by Vritra – both cows and waters being symbols of Light
of the Truth. The gods must constantly fight the dasyus to recover the lost
Light. This is the ongoing battle within the human mind and the Vedic sacrifice
is its profound representation.
Sri Aurobindo explains, “the
Vedic idea was that the subconscient darkness and the ordinary life of
ignorance held concealed in it all that belongs to the divine life and that
these secret riches must be recovered first by destroying the impenitent powers
of ignorance and then by possessing the lower life subjected to the higher… by
the penetrating action of the Light and the Truth the powers of the ordinary
ignorant sense-activity become subject to the Aryan.”[3]
The release of the cows and
the waters is like the advent of the divine Dawn and with it comes the release
of the Sun of Truth. The Light then ascends the hill of being, the lower realms
of body, prana, and mind, and makes way to “the luminous upper ocean of the
divine existence.”[4] This
ascent to the home of the Sun, to swar, is the ascent to the state of
Immortality. So is born from the Truth the supreme state of Ananda to which the
Rishis aspired by the sacrifice.
With this, we conclude
the series. Our aim was to present some of the most important portions of Sri
Aurobindo’s masterwork, The Secret of the Veda, to help the readers
understand the spiritual significance of the Veda. Readers who have found this
series interesting, should be inspired to read the original work and delve
deeper into the mysteries of the Veda.
[1] The
Secret of the Veda, Pg.242, Line no.25
[2]
The Secret of the Veda, Pg.234
[3]
The Secret of the Veda, Pg.238, Line no.10
[4]
The Secret of the Veda, Pg.244, Line no.24
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