(This article was first published in the July 2016 issue of 'The Call Beyond', monthly magazine of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, New Delhi.)
The Soma wine has a very
important place in the Vedas. A host of Vedic deities like Indra, Vayu, and the
Ashwins are closely associated to Soma and its preservation and this imagery is
consistent throughout the Rig Veda. In The Secret of the Veda, Sri
Aurobindo explains how Soma and these deities represent psychological
experiences of the Rishis as they worked in the Truth-consciousness or the
supramental consciousness.
The Soma wine is the
Vedic symbol for Ananda - the divine delight of being, inflowing upon the
mind from the supramental consciousness through the Ritam or Truth[1].
While an ordinary mind derives happiness from sense-objects and
sense-experiences, a mind turned towards the Truth – the Truth of one’s own
being, one’s own immortality – such a mind experiences the permanent and
limitless bliss or Ananda. This is what the Soma wine represents.
Numerous Vedic mantras
are dedicated to Soma. The ninth book of the Rig Veda is entirely dedicated to Soma
alone. Sri Aurobindo interprets a few of these hymns to bring out its inner
meaning:
Eṣa dhiyā
yātyaṇvya śūro rathebhirāśubhiḥ gachan indrasya niṣkrtama
Eṣa purū dhiyāyate
barhate devatātaye yatrāmrtāsa āsate
– R.V.
IX.15.1, 2
“Soma advances, heroic
with his swift chariots, by the force of the subtle thought, dhiyā aṇvya, to
the perfected activity (or perfected field) of Indra and takes many forms of
thought to arrive at that vast extension (or, formation) of the godhead where
the Immortals are.”[2]
In these mantras, it is
evident that Soma is entirely associated with the mind – the word dhi
means the intellect or thoughts. Soma advances because of the subtle
thought-powers of a pure mind – represented by Indra.
Indra is the Vedic symbol
for the Illumined Mind – a mind which is turned towards the Light of Truth. He
is presented as the lord of Swar – the third Vedic vyāhrti (bhu, bhuvah, swah).
The word swar is akin to sūra and sūrya i.e. sun and it
means luminous. Indra represents the unobscured or pure mind which is thus fit
for receiving the divine delight of Soma.
Along with Vayu, Indra is
seen as the constant partaker of the Soma wine in the Veda. Vayu is associated
to the Prana or Life-Energy. The Illumined Mind is accompanied by the regulated
Prana represented by Vayu. They work together to awaken human mentality to the
inflow of Ananda.
Sri Aurobindo summarily presents
their working as follows:
“They receive them
into the full plenitude of the mental and nervous energies, cetathāḥ sutānāṃ
vājinīvasū. The Ananda thus received constitutes a new action preparing
immortal consciousness in the mortal and Indra and Vayu are bidden to come and
swiftly perfect these new workings by the participation of the thought, ā yātaṃ
upa niṣkrtaṃ makṣū dhiyā.”[3]
This is how one is to
understand the symbols and imagery associated with the Soma wine in the Veda.
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