Sri Aurobindo’s Method of Interpretation

To understand the intent of the Veda one needs to understand the nature of its language as also the abstract psychological phenomena which it represents. These two aspects are interlinked and are central to Sri Aurobindo’s method of interpretation.

Language, in the early Vedic period, was at a stage where it was extremely fluid. It had not been cast into a fixed mould where each word referred to a particular thing and that thing alone. There was a creative utilization of word roots and each root could have multiple meanings. The word that a root gave birth to held, first, the sense of the root, and then, of the object which it named.

“The word for the Vedic Rishi is still a living thing, a thing of power, creative, formative. It is not yet a conventional symbol for an idea, but itself the parent and former of ideas. It carries within it the memory of its roots, is still conscient of its own history.”^[1]

“When in English we use the word “wolf” or “cow”, we mean by it simply the animal designated… But for the Vedic Rishi “vrika” meant the tearer and therefore, among other applications of the sense, a wolf; “dhenu” meant the fosterer, nourisher, and therefore a cow. But the original and general sense predominates, the derived and particular is secondary.”^[2] 

Secondly, there is a particular kind of inner, psychological experience that is being expressed through the hymns of the Veda. In fact, this fluidity of language gave the Rishis a suitable medium for conveying their abstract experiences.

“In that original epoch thought proceeded by other methods than those of our logical reasoning and speech accepted modes of expression which in our modern habits would be inadmissible. The wisest then depended on inner experience and the suggestions of the intuitive mind for all knowledge that ranged beyond mankind’s ordinary perceptions and daily activities.”^[3]

This inner experience is also the deeper layer of meaning behind the outer ritualistic and naturalistic framework and the Veda itself reveals it in certain passages. In such verses, the veil of symbols temporarily lifts and the spiritual intent is seen without any doubt whatsoever. One is required to find and hold on to these clues and correlate them with other occurrences of the same ideas. Eventually, one is able to affix the exact meaning to each symbol, each image, and the seemingly disconnected mass of hymns becomes a unified expression of a single conception.

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[1] The Secret of the Veda, Pg.54, Line no.6 from bottom

[2] The Secret of the Veda, Pg.55, Line no.1

[3] The Secret of the Veda, Pg.10, Line no.2