Rig Veda

Text & Audio

MAṆḌALA 1

Sūkta 2

2. Audio

▪   by South Indian brahmins
▪   by Sri Shyama Sundara Sharma and Sri Satya Krishna Bhatta. Recorded by © 2012 Sriranga Digital Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

1. 1939–40¹

1.2.1. O seeing Master of Life, come; ready are these pressings of the Wine; drink of them, hear our call.

1.2.2. O Master of Life, thy adorers turn in the Words their adoration towards thee; they have pressed out the Wine, they are knowers of the Days.

1.2.3. O Master of Life, thy brimming streams move for the giver wide-flowing to the drinking of the Wine.

1.2.4. O Indra and Vayu, here is wine pressed out, come to us with your delights; for you the moon-pourings desire.

1.2.5. O Indra and Vayu, become conscious of our wine-pourings, you who are rich with the plenitude; so, running, come to us.

1.2.6. O Indra and Vayu, come to the perfected offering of the presser of the Wine, swiftly, with right understanding, O Strong Ones.

1.2.7. Mitra of purified discernment I call and Varuna who destroys the adversary, accomplishing together a clear light of the understanding.

1.2.8. By the Truth, O Mitra and Varuna, growing by the Truth, in touch with the Truth you attain to a vast will-force.

1.2.9. Seers, many in your births, dwellers in the wideness, O Mitra and Varuna, you establish for us a judgment effective in its works.

2. December 1916²

1.2.7. Mitra I call, the pure in judgment, and Varuna, devourer of the foe.

1.2.8. By Truth, Mitra and Varuna, Truth-increasers who get to the touch of Truth, you attain to a vast working of the will.

1.2.9. Seers, dwellers in the wideness, born with many births, they uphold the judgment at its works

3. March 1915³

1.2.5. Indra and Vayu awaken in consciousness (cetathaḥ) to the flowings of the Soma-wine; that is to say, the mind-power and life-power working together in human mentality are to awaken to the inflowings of this Ananda, this Amrita, this delight and immortality from above. They receive them into the full plenitude of the mental and nervous energies, cetathaḥ sutānāṃ vājinīvasū.

1.2.6. 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 yātam upa niṣkṛtam makṣu dhiyā. For dhī is the thought-power, intellect or understanding. It is intermediate between the normal mentality represented by the combination of Indra and Vayu and the Ritam or truth-consciousness

1.2.7. I invoke Mitra of purified strength (or, purified discernment) and Varuna destroyer of our foes perfecting (or accomplishing) a bright understanding.

1.2.8. “By Truth Mitra and Varuna, truth-increasing, truth-touching, enjoy (or, attain) a mighty work” or “a vast (effective) power.”

1.2.9. For us Mitra and Varuna, seers, multiply-born, wide-housed, uphold the strength (or, discernment) that does the work.

Varuna-Mitra and the Truth

If the idea of the Truth that we have found in the very opening hymn of the Veda really carries in itself the contents we have supposed and amounts to the conception of a supramental consciousness which is the condition of the state of immortality or beatitude and if this be the leading conception of the Vedic Rishis, we are bound to find it recurring throughout the hymns as a centre for other and dependent psychological realisations. In the very next Sukta, the second hymn of Madhuchchhandas addressed to Indra and Vayu, we find another passage full of clear and this time quite invincible psychological suggestions in which the idea of the Ritam is insisted upon with an even greater force than in the hymn to Agni. The passage comprises the last three Riks of the Sukta.

In the first Rik of this passage we have the word dakṣa usually explained by Sayana as strength, but capable of a psychological significance, the important word ghṛta in the adjectival form ghṛtācī and the remarkable phrase dhiyaṁ ghṛtācīṁ. The verse may be translated literally “I invoke Mitra of purified strength (or, purified discernment) and Varuna destroyer of our foes perfecting (or accomplishing) a bright understanding.”

In the second Rik we have Ritam thrice repeated and the words bṛhat and kratu, to both of which we have attached a considerable importance in the psychological interpretation of the Veda. Kratu here may mean either work of sacrifice or effective power. In favour of the former sense we have a similar passage in the Veda in which Varuna and Mitra are said to attain to or enjoy by the Truth a mighty sacrifice, yajñaṃ bṛhantam āśāthe. But this parallel is not conclusive; for while in one expression it is the sacrifice itself that is spoken of, in the other it may be the power or strength which effects the sacrifice. The verse may be translated, literally, “By Truth Mitra and Varuna, truthincreasing, truth-touching, enjoy (or, attain) a mighty work” or “a vast (effective) power.”

Finally in the third Rik we have again dakṣa; we have the word kavi, seer, already associated by Madhuchchhandas with kratu, work or will; we have the idea of the Truth, and we have the expression urukṣayā, where uru, wide or vast, may be an equivalent for bṛhat, the vast, which is used to describe the world or plane of the truth-consciousness, the “own home” of Agni. I translate the verse, literally, “For us Mitra and Varuna, seers, multiply-born, wide-housed, uphold the strength (or, discernment) that does the work.”

It will at once be evident that we have in this passage of the second hymn precisely the same order of ideas and many of the same expressions as those on which we founded ourselves in the first Sukta. But the application is different and the conceptions of the purified discernment, the richly-bright understanding, dhiyaṁ ghṛtācīṁ, and the action of the Truth in the work of the sacrifice, apas, introduce certain fresh precisions which throw further light on the central ideas of the Rishis.

The word dakṣa, which alone in this passage admits of some real doubt as to its sense, is usually rendered by Sayana strength. It comes from a root which, like most of its congeners, e.g. daś, diś, dah suggested originally as one of its characteristic significances an aggressive pressure and hence any form of injury, but especially dividing, cutting, crushing or sometimes burning. Many of the words for strength had originally this idea of a force for injury, the aggressive strength of the fighter and slayer, the kind of force most highly prized by primitive man making a place for himself by violence on the earth he had come to inherit.We see this connection in the ordinary Sanskrit word for strength, balam, which is of the same family as the Greek ballō , I strike, and belos, a weapon. The sense, strength, for dakṣa has the same origin.

But this idea of division led up also in the psychology of language-development to quite another order of ideas, for when man wished to have words for mental conceptions, his readiest method was to apply the figures of physical action to the mental movement. The idea of physical division or separation was thus used and converted into that of distinction. It seems to have been first applied to distinguishing by the ocular sense and then to the act of mental separation,– discernment, judgment. Thus the root vid, which means in Sanskrit to find or know, signifies in Greek and Latin to see. Dṛś, to see, meant originally to rend, tear apart, separate; paś, to see, has a similar origin. We have three almost identical roots which are very instructive in this respect,– pis, to hurt, injure, be strong; piṣ, to hurt, injure, be strong, crush, pound; and piś, to form, shape, organise, be reduced to the constituent parts,– all these senses betraying the original idea of separation, division, cutting apart,– with derivatives, piśāca, a devil, and piśuna, which means on one side harsh, cruel, wicked, treacherous, slanderous, all from the idea of injury, and at the same time “indicatory, manifesting, displaying, making clear” from the other sense of distinction. So kṝ, to injure, divide, scatter appears in Greek krinō , I sift, choose, judge, determine. Dakṣa has a similar history. It is kin to the root daś which in Latin gives us doceo, I teach and in Greek dokeō , I think, judge, reckon, and dokazō , I observe, am of opinion. So also we have the kindred root diś meaning to point out or teach, Greek deiknumi. Almost identical with dakṣa itself is the Greek doxa, opinion, judgment, and dexios, clever, dexterous, right-hand. In Sanskrit the root dakṣ means to hurt, kill and also to be competent, able, the adjective dakṣa means clever, skilful, competent, fit, careful, attentive; dakṣiṇa means clever, skilful, right-hand, like dexios, and the noun dakṣa means, besides strength and also wickedness from the sense of hurting, mental ability or fitness like other words of the family. We may compare also the word daśā in the sense of mind, understanding. All this evidence taken together seems to indicate clearly enough that dakṣa must have meant at one time discernment, judgment, discriminative thought-power and that its sense of mental capacity is derived from this sense of mental division and not by transference of the idea of physical strength to power of mind.

We have therefore three possible senses for dakṣa in the Veda, strength generally, mental power or especially the power of judgment, discernment. Dakṣa is continually associated with kratu; the Rishis aspire to them together, dakṣāya kratve, which may mean simply, “capacity and effective power” or “will and discernment”. Continually we find the word occurring in passages where the whole context relates to mental activities. Finally, we have the goddess Dakshina who may well be a female form of Daksha, himself a god and afterwards in the Purana one of the Prajapatis, the original progenitors,– we have Dakshina associated with the manifestation of knowledge and sometimes almost identified with Usha, the divine Dawn, who is the bringer of illumination. I shall suggest that Dakshina like the more famous Ila, Saraswati and Sarama, is one of four goddesses representing the four faculties of the Ritam or Truthconsciousness,– Ila representing truth-vision or revelation, Saraswati truth-audition, inspiration, the divine word, Sarama intuition, Dakshina the separative intuitional discrimination. Daksha then will mean this discrimination whether as mental judgment on the mind-plane or as intuitional discernment on the plane of the Ritam.

The three riks with which we are dealing occur as the closing passage of a hymn of which the first three verses are addressed to Vayu alone and the next three to Indra and Vayu. Indra in the psychological interpretation of the hymns represents, as we shall see, Mind-Power. The word for the sense-faculties, indriya, is derived from his name. His special realm is Swar, a word which means sun or luminous, being akin to sūra and sūrya, the sun, and is used to indicate the third of the Vedic vyāhṛti and the third of the Vedic worlds corresponding to the principle of the pure or unobscuredMind. Surya represents the illumination of the Ritam rising upon the mind; Swar is that plane of mental consciousness which directly receives the illumination. Vayu on the other hand is always associated with the Prana or Life-Energy which contributes to the system all the ensemble of those nervous activities that in man are the support of the mental energies governed by Indra. Their combination constitutes the normal mentality of man. These two gods are invited in the hymn to come and partake together of the Soma-wine. This wine of Soma represents, as we have abundant proof in the Veda and especially in the ninth book, a collection of more than a hundred hymns addressed to the deity Soma, the intoxication of the Ananda, the divine delight of being, inflowing upon the mind from the supramental consciousness through the Ritam or Truth. If we accept these interpretations, we can easily translate the hymn into its psychological significance.

Indra and Vayu awaken in consciousness (cetathaḥ) to the flowings of the Soma-wine; that is to say, the mind-power and life-power working together in human mentality are to awaken to the inflowings of this Ananda, this Amrita, this delight and immortality from above. They receive them into the full plenitude of the mental and nervous energies, cetathaḥ sutānāṁ vājinīvasū.⁴ 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 yātam upa niṣkṛtam, makṣv itthā dhiyā.⁵ For dhī is the thought-power, intellect or understanding. It is intermediate between the normal mentality represented by the combination of Indra and Vayu and the Ritam or truthconsciousness.

It is at this point that Varuna and Mitra intervene and our passage begins. Without the psychological clue the connection between the first part of the hymn and the close is not very clear, nor the relation between the couple Varuna-Mitra and the couple Indra-Vayu. With that clue both connections become obvious; indeed they depend upon each other. For the earlier part of the hymn has for its subject the preparation first of the vital forces represented by Vayu who is alone invoked in the three opening Riks, then of the mentality represented by the couple Indra-Vayu for the activities of the Truth-consciousness in the human being; the close has for its subject the working of the Truth on the mentality so as to perfect the intellect and to enlarge the action. Varuna and Mitra are two of the four gods who represent this working of the Truth in the human mind and temperament.

In the style of the Veda when there is a transition of this kind from one movement of thought to another developing out of it, the link of connection is often indicated by the repetition in the new movement of an important word which has already occurred in the close of the movement that precedes. This principle of suggestion by echo, as one may term it, pervades the hymns and is a mannerism common to all the Rishis. The connecting word here is dhī, thought or intellect. Dhī differs from the more general word, mati, which means mentality or mental action generally and which indicates sometimes thought, sometimes feeling, sometimes the whole mental state. Dhī is the thoughtmind or intellect; as understanding it holds all that comes to it, defines everything and puts it into the right place,⁶ or often dhī indicates the activity of the intellect, particular thought or thoughts. It is by the thought that Indra and Vayu have been called upon to perfect the nervous mentality, niṣkṛtaṃ dhiyā. But this instrument, thought, has itself to be perfected, enriched, clarified before the mind can become capable of free communication with the Truth-consciousness. Therefore Varuna and Mitra, Powers of the Truth, are invoked “accomplishing a richly luminous thought,” dhiyaṃ ghṛtācīṃ sādhantā

This is the first occurrence in the Veda of theword ghṛta, in a modified adjectival form, and it is significant that it should occur as an epithet of the Vedic word for the intellect, dhī. In other passages also we find it continually in connection with the words manas, manīṣā or in a context where some activity of thought is indicated. The root ghṛ conveys the idea of a strong brightness or heat such as that of fire or the summer sun. It means also to sprinkle or anoint, Greek chriō . It is capable of being used to signify any liquid, but especially a bright, thick liquid. It is the ambiguity of these two possible senses of which the Vedic Rishis took advantage to indicate by the word outwardly the clarified butter in the sacrifice, inwardly a rich and bright state or activity of the brain-power, medhā, as basis and substance of illuminated thought. By dhiyaṃ ghṛtācīṃ is meant, therefore, the intellect full of a rich and bright mental activity.

Varuna and Mitra who accomplish or perfect this state of the intellect, are distinguished by two several epithets. Mitra is pūtadakṣa, possessed of a purified judgment; Varuna is riśādas, he destroys all hurters or enemies. In the Veda there are no merely ornamental epithets. Every word is meant to tell, to add something to the sense and bear a strict relation to the thought of the sentence in which it occurs. There are two obstacles which prevent the intellect from being a perfect and luminous mirror of the truth-consciousness; first, impurity of the discernment or discriminative faculty which leads to confusion of the Truth, secondly the many causes or influences which interfere with the growth of the Truth by limiting its full application or by breaking up the connections and harmony of the thoughts that express it and which thus bring about poverty and falsification of its contents. Just as the Gods in the Veda represent universal powers descended from the Truth-consciousness which build up the harmony of theworlds and in man his progressive perfection, so the influences that work against these objects are represented by hostile agencies, Dasyus and Vritras, who seek to break up, to limit, to withhold and deny. Varuna in the Veda is always characterised as a power of wideness and purity; when, therefore, he is present in man as a conscious force of the Truth, all that limits and hurts the nature by introducing into it fault, sin and evil is destroyed by contact with him. He is riśādas, destroyer of the enemy, of all that seek to injure the growth. Mitra, a power like Varuna of Light and Truth, especially represents Love, Joy and Harmony, the foundations of Mayas, the Vedic beatitude. Working with the purity of Varuna and imparting that purity to the discernment, he enables it to get rid of all discords and confusions and establish the right working of the strong and luminous intellect.

This progress enables the Truth-consciousness, the Ritam, to work in the human mentality. With the Ritam as the agency, ṛtena, increasing the action of the Truth in man,ṛtāvṛdhā, touching or reaching the Truth, enabling, that is to say, the mental consciousness to come into successful contact with and possession of the Truth-consciousness, ṛtaspṛśā, Mitra and Varuna are able to enjoy the use of a vast effective will-power, kratum bṛhantam āśāthe. For it is theWill that is the chief effective agent of the inner sacrifice, but awill that is in harmony with the Truth, guided therefore by a purified discernment. The Will as it enters more and more into the wideness of the Truth-consciousness becomes itself wide and vast, free from limitation in its view and of hampering impediments in its effectivity. It works urāv anibādhe, in the wideness where there is no obstacle or wall of limitation.

Thus the two requisites on which the Vedic Rishis always insist are secured, Light and Power, the Light of the Truth working in the knowledge, dhiyaṃ ghṛtācīm, the Power of the Truth working in the effective and enlightenedWill, kratuṃ bṛhantam. As a result Varuna and Mitra are shown to us in the closing verse of the hymn working in the full sense of their Truth, kavī tuvijātā urukṣayā. Kavī, we have seen, means possessed of the Truth-consciousness and using its faculties of vision, inspiration, intuition, discrimination. Tuvijātā is “multiply born”, for tuvi, meaning originally strength or force, is used like the French word “force” in the sense of many. But by the birth of the gods is meant always in the Veda their manifestation; thus tuvijātā signifies “manifested multiply”, in many forms and activities. Urukṣayā means dwelling in the wideness, an idea which occurs frequently in the hymns; uru is equivalent to bṛhat, the Vast, and indicates the infinite freedom of the Truth-consciousness. Thus we have as the result of the increasing activities of the Ritam the manifestation in the human being of the Powers of wideness and purity, of joy and harmony, a manifestation rich in forms, seated in the wideness of the Ritam and using the faculties of the supra-mental consciousness.

This manifestation of the Powers of the Truth upholds or confirms the discernment while it does the work, dakṣaṃ dadhāte apasam. The discernment, now purified and supported, works in the sense of the Truth, as a power of the Truth and accomplishes the perfection of the activities of Indra and Vayu by freeing the thought and the will from all defect and confusion in their working and results.

We see then that in the second hymn we find again the same governing ideas as in the first. All is based on the central Vedic conception of the supra-mental or Truth-consciousness towards which the progressively perfected mentality of the human being labours as towards a consummation and a goal. In the first hymn this is merely stated as the aim of the sacrifice and the characteristic work of Agni. The second hymn indicates the preliminary work of preparation, by Indra and Vayu, byMitra and Varuna, of the ordinary mentality of man through the force of the Ananda and the increasing growth of the Truth.

We shall find that the whole of the Rig Veda is practically a constant variation on this double theme, the preparation of the human being in mind and body and the fulfilment of the godhead or immortality in him by his attainment and development of the Truth and the Beatitude.

4. 1913 – early 1914⁷

1.2.1 Come, O Vayu visible, these are (ie here are) the Somas (ie Soma-pourings) made ready, drink of them, hear our call.

दर्शत. S. दर्शनीय beautiful. दर्शत, from Rt दृश् to see, may mean either (1) to be seen = therefore worthy to be seen, beautiful, or (2) to be seen = visible. It may even be active = having sight, ie having the power or faculty of the द्रष्टा — cf यजत, भरत. The latter has clearly an active sense.

अरंकृताः. Not another form of अलंकृत as Sayana wrongly supposes, but from अर् which means among other things to work at, so to elaborate, prepare.

1.2.2 O Vayu, thee-wards with their (expressive) speakings adore adorers whose Soma has been pressed and who have found (or know) the day.

उक्थ. There is a distinction between उक्थ and स्तोम. उक्थ from उच् (वच्), literally to bring out, express, is the hymn or word that expresses, brings out the god or his workings or the results desired; स्तोम is the hymn or word which affirms or confirms that which has been thus brought out by the उक्थ.

जरंते. From जॄ (जृ) lit., to break up, destroy, wound; then from the sexual act, to enjoy, love, as जारः a lover, close friend. जॄ, जर्च् , जर्झ् have also the sense of “to speak” (sound, but properly speaking loud, abrupt or harsh sound). जर्च् and जर्झ् mean also to blame, revile, from the original sense of hurting. जॄ in the Veda means to adore or woo, the sadhaka being the desirer of the godhead; but it has in the ritual the sense “to praise, hymn”.

अहर्विदः. अहस् , says Sayana, means a sacrificial rite performable in a single day. This is a far-fetched and artificial ritualistic interpretation. अहस् in the Veda means day in the sense of light, and the Rishi finds or wins the light of day as he is said to find or win the Sun सूर्यं विदत् , सूर्यं जयत् , सनत् or as he finds the luminous kine of the Angirasas. The adorers of Vayu have already pressed the Soma and won the light of the solar day for the yajna.

1.2.3 O Vayu, thy stream goes brimming (or, filling, lit. touching to the full) for the sacrificer, wide for the drinking of the Soma.

धेना. S. takes धेना = वाक् and gives an extraordinary interpretation. The speech of Vayu goes for Soma drinking to the man who has given, ie to say, Vayu says to him “I am going to drink”; the voice is प्रपृंचती = सोमसंपर्कं कुर्वती, ie it praises the Soma, and उरुची, many-going, ie praising or speaking of many sacrificers. The only possible answer to this amazing explanation is that no poet in his senses would use such language in such a sense, and if he did use it in a moment of aberration no reader or hearer would understand “O Vayu, thy speech, making relation, many-going, goes to the giver for Soma-drinking” to mean “O Vayu, thy voice says to the sacrificer ‘I will drink’ and praises the Soma and talks of many sacrificers.”

धेना from धि (धे) to drink, make drink, suckle, foster, means like धेनु , cow, and from धि in the lost sense to move, flow originally common to all the ध् roots, (see Aryan Origins), river, stream, flood — cf धाव् , धारा, धू , धन् (Vedic), धोर् , Greek θέω (dhav) to run, etc. From धि to sound comes the sense of speech. धेना means either “the flow, the stream” of Soma or of Vayu or else the Vayavic cow Priçni, mother of the Maruts; but the latter seems to have no business here.

प्रपृंचती. Probably filling, satisfying. We have पृक्षः in this sense. The sense to “touch, join etc” is the literal sense, from which comes that of filling.

उरूची. Sayana takes उरू = many, and the termination च = to move (अंच्), but उरु means wide, and च is simply an adjectival termination like क, त etc suffixed to a root or another word to modify slightly its force, eg पिशाच, दधीचि, घृताचि, सत्राच् .

The three first verses complete the first movement of the hymn, which is a hymn of the Soma-offering to the gods who lead towards the Truth. The first of these,— Dyavaprithivi, Night and Dawn and Agni being taken for granted,— is Vayu (Matariçwan), master of the life or vital principle. Life and Mind, Force and Light, Power and Knowledge are the continual duos of the Veda. Vayu has the first draught of the Soma, the Wine of Delight or Joy of things expressed or generated in the body of man by the pressure of the divine sensations, those which seek with the electrical force of the divine mind, the pure rasa of things. The Soma juices are ready — the immortalising joy in the mind, the amrita in the body. The Life-force is to drink of these [incomplete]

5. 1912–13⁸

दर्शत. Rt दृश् at that time still used in all its parts. The plural is used because the Rishi has in his mind not only Vayu, but the ganas or inferior devatas who assist the functioning of Vayu.

सोमाः. The lunar gods, ganas of Chandra, masters of the nectar of immortality, or “Somas” in the sense of “several cups of Soma” or of “Soma juices”, but this is a very strained sense. The English plural “wines” is not analogical. One would not say in any language “The brandies are ready.”

अरंकृताः. The root अर् , it has already been said, resembles अग् in conveying the idea of superlative existence, action or feeling. Like अग् , Grk ago, it means to move rapidly or violently, to struggle, to lead, drive, act, or to labour ground etc. From the latter sense comes that of ploughing from which we have the Greek ὰρόω, ἄρουρα, ἄροτρον etc, the Latin arvum, aro, arator etc (अग् must have had the same sense, cf ager, ἀγρός a field). Cf also अरणिः tinder, that which is rubbed or worked to produce fire, अरित्रम् oar, rudder or boat, Lat. ars, art, working, arma, tools; षरर्यति to work with an awl, test, try, अररः an awl, अरिन् a wheel. We have the idea of moving, wandering, अरणः (cf अट् to wander, अटवी a forest), अरिन् a wheel, अर्वन् a horse, अरं swiftly; nomadic ground or wild country अरण्यम् , Greek ὄρος (अरस्) a mountain. From the idea of struggle, we have that of fighting and this is one of the most characteristic uses of the root. We have in Greek Ἄρης, the god of war, Ἀρειμανής, our Aryama, ἁρετή, virtue (originally, valour, cf Lat. virtus), ἁρήγω, fight for, succour, ἄριστος, best, (originally perhaps, most valiant), in Latin arcus, a bow, arma, arms, armo, I arm. In Sanscrit we have अरिः, अरातिः, meaning originally a fighter, then an enemy; अररं, war, fighting; अररुः an enemy, a weapon. Other senses are to honour (अर्ध्), to love, woo, to shine, to have power, strength, to use power upon. Eg अर्ह् to be fit, worthy, honourable; अर्य excellent, best, master, — also, dear, loved; cf आर्यः, ἄριστος; अर्यमा, meaning a bosom friend, as well as the god Aryama; अर्ब् to kill, hurt; अर्द् to oppress (in Latin to burn); अर्थ् , अर्ज् and अर्द् to woo, press, ask, pray; अर्चिः ray, flame, brightness; अर्थ wish or desire; अर्क् to heat; अरु sun etc. A farther sense is little, young, inferior in अर्भक, अर्भग, अर्भ, अरम (low, vile) which may have come from the sense of love applied to children (darling); for the natural sense of अर् is just the opposite; it means superior, sufficient, high, strong; cf Latin arduus, Grk ἄρδω, ἄρρην or ἄρσην, a male, Sanscrit अरं enough, excessively. Among these meanings, we have to find the right sense of अरं in अरंकृत. Three possible senses suggest themselves; made sufficient, laboriously worked, (both senses leading to the idea of ready, prepared), or made war upon, attacked, taking अरः in the sense of war, just as अरिः means a warrior, fighter, enemy. From the nature of the hymn the last is to be selected, if the deeper interpretation be accepted; the former, if it is the ceremonial. But the plural सोमाः is a strong objection to the ceremonial interpretation.

श्रुधी. This lengthened इ is a trace of the free interchangeability of long and short vowels in the pre-Vedic tongue.

हवम्. The line is capable of two different interpretations. “Protect them, hear their cry”, or “Hear our prayer, protect their battle.” The ceremonial sense would be “Hear us, drink their libation”; but their libation must mean the libation given by the nectar-juices, which has no meaning, or the throwing down of the nectar-juices, where the expression “to drink the offering of” would be a forced and indeed impossible construction in Sanscrit. To interpret “a libation consisting of them” would be to contradict the spirit of the Sanscrit language which does not admit such a loose form of language. A cup of gold is possible in English, स्वर्णस्य पात्रम् is not possible in Sanscrit. On the other hand the other two senses are both of them perfectly straightforward and sensible and can only refer to the lunar gods of immortality who subtly protect the Soma or amritam in the body. The evidence of this line finally disposes of the ceremonial interpretation.

Translation.

Arrive, O Vayu; behold ye, these gods of the nectar assailed with war; protect their battle, hear our prayer.

6. 1912–13⁹

1. वायव् O Wind.

From Rt वा with the addition of the nominal suffix उ, base and suffix connected by the semivowel य् . The roots व, वा mean to exist in substance, solidity, plenty, fact, patent appearance. The wider sound आ, less simple and absolute than अ, brings out and lays stress on the idea of pervasion which the अ only involves and implies. Vayu is he who exists or moves pervading the whole world. The meaning “to blow” is of subsequent development and attached only to the physical aspect of Matariswan manifesting in gross matter as the Wind. It is more prominent in the word वातः.

आयाहि Come!

य, या express general motion to or from as opposed to the intenser and narrower senses of इ, ऋ etc.

दर्शत See.

Imperative plural of Rt दृश् , intensive formation from दृ to pierce, tear, divide, cut; also, to seize; from the sense of penetrating, seizing etc in the more instantaneous and decisive दृश् we get the sense “to study, scan; perceive, grasp, see, know, analyse”, all ancient meanings of दृश् . Gr. δέρϰομαι, I see, δράϰων (tearer, biter), δράσσομαι, to seize, are formed from this root. The plural is used, because Vayu is only considered as the leader of the quaternary of great Gods whom the seer is addressing.

इमे These.

ए , the old plural termination, added to इम् , this; now used as the plural of अयम्, an alternative form of इम् .

सोमाः Juices of immortality.

The root सु modified with the nominal suffix मः. We have seen that सु has various meanings, among which “to press out, pour out”, “to produce, beget”, “to besiege, invade, fight, attack” are of the most common. सोमः in the sense of “wine”, सुरा, wine, सुतः, a son, सव, libation, sacrifice, and Greek σῶμα, body, lit., object, production, (भूतम्), are instances of the first sense. On the other hand सु, सुतं, सवः, are used in the sense of to fight, attack, overpower (cf सूद् , सूर् etc); battle, siege etc. A third sense is to be at ease, in bliss, from which we get सुखम् , happiness; सुरः, happy, blissful, a god; सोमः, bliss, delight, ananda, nectar, the God of the Moon. Amrita or nectar may also be derived from the first sense, to press out; it may have meant not only extract, liquor, wine, but the wine of the gods, and the nectar distilled from the Brahmayoni in the Yoga.

अरंकृताः Drawn up in battle array.

The root अर् ; secondary from अ, with the letter र् conveying rapid, forceful, various and scintillating action, play, vibration etc. From the idea of working continually comes the sense, “to plough” which we find in Greek and Latin, aro, arvum, ἄρουρα ἀρόω, ἄροτος, ἀρότης, ἄροτρον. But its earlier and more distinguished sense was “to fight”. From this sense we get आर्यः, अरिः, अर्यमा, Greek Ares, the god of war; ἀρετή, fighting power, courage, virtue; ἄρεσις, Latin arx. It also meant to excel, rule, lead; to enjoy, satisfy, love, woo, please, Gr. ἀρέσϰω, ἄρχομαι, ἄρχων, Tamil arasan, a King, S. अर्च् , अर्घ् etc. It is one of the most important of the ancient Aryan roots, and has a wide and varied number of derivative meanings. अरं from अर् , to fight, means fighting, battle, battle-array, अरंकृताः drawn up in array, ready for battle.

तेषाम् Of those, them.

पाहि Protect.

Rt पा to protect, with the emphatic affix हि.

श्रुधि Hear!

Rt श्रु with the emphatic affix हि modified to धि.

हवम् Battle.

Rt हु to fight, modified, with the nominal affix अ. See under होतारम् in the first sloka of the first hymn¹⁰.

2. वायो. – O Wind.

उक्थेभिः – With desires, passions, attachments.

Root उच् or उश् to desire, in the form उक् with the nominal suffix थ् (थि, थु) as in ऋक्थम्, वेपथुः etc. The two roots उष् and उश् are almost identical in meaning, उष् means to reach after, seek to embrace; उश् to cling to, embrace fondly, seek, desire, be attached to. From उश् , we have उशनस् the name of Shukra or Venus, the planet of love and desire in the ancient astrology; उशना, with desire, attachment, joy; उशाना, wish, desire; उशिज् , desiring, devoted; उशी, wish, desire; उशेन्य, desirable. उच् is another form of the same verb and means to be attached to, fond of, used to, suitable; to cling to, flock together, keep companionship.

जरन्ते – Consume.

Rt जृ, also जॄ. The roots in ज् almost always assume sudden, violent or hostile action. To strike, shiver, burst are ordinary senses; to attack with physical force or speech; to damage, injure, hurt, kill; to consume, waste, decay; to burst open, be open; to manifest, appear, be born; to manifest, bring to light; produce; are frequent in this class. We find जृ, to humiliate, outdo; जॄ, to decay, grow old, wear out, break up, digest; जृम्भ् , to yawn, gape, burst open, manifest; जूर् , to hurt, kill, be angry; grow old; जै, जुर् , to decay, grow old; जीरः, a sword; जारः, a ravisher; जि, to overcome, conquer; जरा, old age, decay etc. The meaning is to shatter, break to pieces, wear down, consume.

त्वाम्

त्वा, accusative of तु (cf Greek περιϰλέα etc) with the definitive particle अम् as in त्वम् , अहम् , वयम् , etc.

अच्छा – Juices.

Root अच् , to move, flow with the nominal suffix ह. The adjective अच्छ, flowing, liquid, swift, clear as a liquid; and the substantive, water, a liquid, a juice, रस.

जरितारः – Disintegrating.

Rt जृ with the verbal suffix तृ connected by the enclytic इ. See जरन्ते, above. जरितृ is assailing, destructive, disintegrating, consuming.

सुतसोमाः – Warring down the gods of immortality.

सुत verbal adjective (participle) from सु , used either actively or passively. सु , to fight, besiege, oppress, crush.

अहर्विदः – Knowing their time.

अहर् . Root अह् , to be, pervade; to be strong, to breathe, speak, sing. From अह् we have अह, ’tis so, true, well, surely; अहन् , sky, the pervading ether, day; अहम् , originally meaning आत्मा, self, I, अहंयु , selfish, or, from the sense of strength, proud, haughty, a strong man, hero; अहि, pervading; sky, cloud; serpent (crawling thing, reptile); अह् , to move with effort, drag; अहु , pervading, also, strong, concentrated, narrow. In the Veda, it means often “time”.

3. वायो. – O Wind.

तव – Thy.

प्रपृञ्चती – Abundant, redundant, overflowing.

Rt पृच् reduplicated and nasalised; the form is the verbal adjective. A secondary intensive form of पृ, to occupy, fill, satisfy, grow full or to fullness; also to strike, dash, shiver, penetrate; to protect, cherish, embrace, touch, cling to, join, meet with. From the first sense we get that of possession or fullness in पृक्तम् or पृक्थम् , wealth, possessions, पृक्षस् food (?); from the second, that of investigation, examination, “to ask, inquire”; from the third, the ordinary meaning of पृच् , पृक्त.

धेना Stream.

Root धि modified with the nominal feminine suffix ना. The ध् roots contain the idea of heaviness, solidity, consistence, steadiness in being, motion, action, relation, etc. The ordinary idea is “to hold”, “to fix”, with all the obvious derivative meanings. When applied to motion, they give the idea of a continuous streaming, flowing, running motion. Hence such words as धारा, धातु (rasa), धे, धाव् etc. From the idea of suckling, nourishing, supporting comes the sense of “earth”, “cow”, “nurse”, applied to words like धेना, धेनु; from the sense of flowing, continuous motion comes that of “speech”, “river”, “ocean” (धेनः).

जिगाति Goes, flows.

Reduplicated from गा, to move widely, go, flow. गा also means to sing, from the sense of flowing sound.

दाशुषे To the enemy; assailant.

उरूची Passionate, longing, yearning.

Rt उर् with the adjectival suffix चि (च, चु) preceded by the long connecting enclytic ऊ. This suffix, characteristic of the older language, inclined to the long enclytics, आ, ई, ऊ. Cf धृताचि, पिशाचः, नमुचिः, दधीचिः or दधीचः. The root उ, ऊ expresses primarily being in pervasion or abundance or to the uttermost, motion through, across, to a great distance or height, embracing relation, (yearning, longing, desire etc), action of violence or intensity. In the roots उर् , ऊर् the addition of र् the intense sound of vibration brings out with yet greater emphasis the idea of magnitude, extent, intensity or passion. Thence the particles उरी, उररी, expressing emphatic assertion, verily, certainly, of course, yes; उरः, उरणः, उरभ्रः, a ram, and ऊर्णा, wool, felt (butting, aggressive, assailing); उरु, wide, abundant, prominent, excellent; उर्व् , to take violently, hurt, kill; उर्ज् , to cast away, abandon; उर्वरा, fertile soil; ऊर्ज् , ऊर्जः, ऊर्जस् , vigour, energy; ऊर्ध्व, high, lofty; ऊर्मि, a wave, high billow; उर्वशी; ऊरु, the thigh or seat of enjoyment; उरस् , desire, the seat of desire, emotion, heart. ऊरु in the ancient tongue had all these latter meanings, eminent; wide; desire, longing; emotion; heart; thigh. It is especially used in the Veda for the heart.

सोमपीतये – For drinking the juice of immortality.

Rt पी, to drink, with the nominal ति (S. पिब् , Latin bibo), a common meaning of the प् roots, from the sense of “filling, taking fully”, to drain, swallow, devour, drink. Cf पिपासा, पानम् , Gr. πότος, συμπόσιον, Lat. potio, potare etc.

7. 1912¹¹

1. Arrive, O Vayu, O beautiful one, lo these Soma-powers in their array (is it not a battle-array?), protect them, hear their call!

2. O Vayu, strongly thy lovers woo thee with prayers (or, desires), they have distilled the nectar, they have found their strength (or, they know the day?).

3. O Vayu, thy abounding stream moves for the giver, it is wide for the drinking of the Soma-juice.

4. O Indra and Vayu, here are the outpourings, come to them with outputtings of strength, the powers of delight desire you both.

5. Thou, O Vayu, awake, and Indra, to the outpourings of the Soma, you who are rich in power of your plenty; so (that is, rich in power) come to me, for the foe has attacked.

6. Come O Vayu, and Indra, to the distiller of the nectar, expel the foe, swiftly hither strong by the understanding.

7. I call Mitra of purified discernment and Varuna who destroys the foe, they who effect a bright and gracious understanding.

8. By Law of Truth, Mitra and Varuna, who by the Truth increase and to the Truth attain, enjoy a mighty strength.

9. Mitra and Varuna, the seers, born in Force, dwellers in the Vast, uphold Daksha (the discerning intelligence) at his work.

There are here a number of words whose exact meaning is exceedingly important for any fruitful enquiry into the religious significance of the Vedas. The most important, the decisive and capital word in the passage is Ritam. Whatever it may be held to mean, it will decide for us the essential character of Varuna and his constant comrade Mitra. I have already suggested in my first chapter the sense in which I understand Ritam. It is its ordinary sense in Sanscrit. Ritam is Truth, Law, that which is straight, upright, direct, rectum; it is that which gives everything its place and its motion (ritu), that which constitutes reason (ratio) in mind and rectitude in morals,— it is the rightness or righteousness which makes the stars move in their orbits, the seasons occur in their order, thought and speech move towards truth, trees grow according to their seed, animals act according to their species and nature, and man walk in the paths which God has prescribed for him. It is that in the Akasha — the Akasha where Varuna is lord — which develops arrangement and order, it is the element of law in Nature. But not only in material Nature, not only in the moral akasha even, the akasha of the heart of which the Rishis spoke, but on higher levels also. I have pointed out that Ritam is the law of the Truth, of vijnana. It is this ideal Truth, the Truth of being, by which everything animate or inanimate knows in its fibres of being and serves in action and feeling the truth of itself, in which Law is born. This Law which belongs to Satyam, to the Mahas, is Ritam. Neither of the English words, Law and Truth, gives the idea; they have to be combined in order to be equivalent to ritam. Well, then Varuna is represented to us as increasing in his nature by this Truth and Law, attaining to it or possessing it; Law and Truth are the source of his strength, the means by which he has arrived at his present force and mightiness.

But he is more than that; he is tuvijata, urukshaya. Uru, we shall find in other hymns, the Vast, is a word used as equivalent to Brihat to describe the ideal level of consciousness, the kingdom of ideal knowledge, in its aspect of joyous comprehensive wideness and capacity. It is clearly told us that men by overcoming and passing beyond the two firmaments of Mind-in-vitality, Bhuvar, and mind in intellectuality, Swar, arrive in the Vast, Uru, and make it their dwelling place. Therefore Uru must be taken as equivalent to Brihat; it must mean Mahas. Our Vedic Varuna, then, is a dweller in Mahas, in the vastness of ideal knowledge. But he is not born there; he is born or appears first in tuvi, that is, in strength or force. Since Uru definitely means the Vast, means Mahas, means a particular plane of consciousness, is, in short, a fixed term of Vedic psychology, it is inevitable that tuvi thus coupled with it and yet differentiated, must be another fixed term of Vedic psychology and must mean another plane of consciousness. We have found the meaning of Mahas by consulting Purana and Vedanta as well as the Veda itself. Have we any similar light on the significance of Tuvi? Yes. The Puranas describe to us three worlds above Maharloka, — called, respectively, in the Puranic system, Jana, Tapas and Satya. By a comparison with Vedantic psychology we know that Jana must be the world of Ananda of which the Mahajana Atma is the sustaining Brahman as the Mahan Atma is the sustaining Brahman of the vijnana, and we get this light on the subject that, just as Bhur, Bhuvah, Swar are the lower or human half of existence, the aparardha of the Brahmanda, (the Brahma-circle or universe of manifest consciousness), and answer objectively to the subjective field covered by Annam, Prana and Manas, just as Mahas is the intermediate world, link between the divine and human hemispheres, and corresponds to the subjective region of Vijnana, so Jana, Tapas and Satya are the divine half of existence, and answer to the Ananda with its two companion principles Sat and Chit, the three constituting the Trinity of those psychological states which are, to and in our consciousness, Sacchidananda, God sustaining from above His worlds. But why is the world of Chit called Tapoloka? According to our conceptions this universe has been created by and in divine Awareness by Force, Shakti, or Power which [is] inherent in Awareness, Force of Awareness or Chit Shakti that moves, forms and realises whatever it wills in Being. This force, this Chit-shakti in its application to its work, is termed in the ancient phraseology Tapas. Therefore, it is told us that when Brahma the Creator lay uncreative on the great Ocean, he listened and heard a voice crying over the waters OM Tapas! OM Tapas! and he became full of the energy of the mantra and arose and began creation. Tapas and Tu or Tuvi are equivalent terms. We can see at once the meaning. Varuna, existing no doubt in Sat, appears or is born to us in Tapas, in the sea of force put out in itself by the divine Awareness, and descending through divine delight which world is in Jana, in production or birth by Tapas, through Ananda, that is to say, into the manifest world, dwells in ideal knowledge and Truth and makes there Ritam or the Law of the Truth of Being his peculiar province. It is the very process of all creation, according to our Vedic and Vedantic Rishis. Descending into the actual universe we find Varuna master of the Akash or ether, matrix and continent of created things, in the Akash watching over the development of the created world and its peoples according to the line already fixed by ideal knowledge as suitable to their nature and purpose — yathatathyato vihitam shashwatibhyah samabhyah — and guiding the motion of things and souls in the line of the ritam. It is in his act of guidance and bringing to perfection of the imperfect that he increases by the law and the truth, desires it and naturally attains to it, has the spriha and the sparsha of the ritam. It is from his fidelity to ideal Truth that he acquires the mighty power by which he maintains the heavens and orders its worlds in their appointed motion.

¹ R.V. 1.2 / 1.4.– Sheets for revision of the Life Divine // CWSA.– Vol. 14.– Vedic and Philological Studies.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2016, pp. 199-201.

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² The Hymns of the Atris. The Guardians of the Light. Mitra // CWSA.– Vol. 15.– The Secret of the Veda.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1998, pp. 508-513. 1-st published: Arya: A Philosophical Review. Monthly.– Vol.3, No 5 – December 1916, pp. 299-304.

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³ The Secret of the Veda. VII. Varuna-Mitra and the Truth // CWSA.– Vol. 15.– The Secret of the Veda.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1998, pp. 70-79. 1-st published: Arya: A Philosophical Review. Monthly.– Vol.1, No 8 – March 1915, pp. 466-475.

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⁴ V. 5.

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⁵ V. 6.

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⁶ The root dhī means to hold or to place.

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⁷ R.V. 1.2 // CWSA.– Vol. 14.– Vedic and Philological Studies.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2016, pp. 357-359. (Part 3 № 3).

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⁸ R.V. 1.2 // CWSA.– Vol. 14.– Vedic and Philological Studies.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2016, pp. 354-356. (Part 3 № 2).

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⁹ R.V. 1.2 // CWSA.– Vol. 14.– Vedic and Philological Studies.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2016, pp. 349-354. (Part 3 № 1).

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¹⁰ The reference is to the commentaries on the first hymn of the Rig Veda that precede this commentary on the second hymn in the same notebook. See Hymns to the Mystic Fire, volume 16 of CWSA, pages 482 – 83 and 492. — Ed.

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¹¹ The Gods of the Veda // CWSA.– Vol. 14.– Vedic and Philological Studies.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2016, pp. 24-62. 1-st published: Sri Aurobindo: Archives & Research: a biannual journal.– Volume 8, No1 (1984, April), pp. 17-52.

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