Nolini Kanta Gupta
A commentary
on the First Six Suktas of Rigveda
Nolini Kanta Gupta. A commentary on the First Six Suktas of Rigveda / Translated from from the original Bengali in “Madhuchchandar Mantramala” by Chinmoy Kumar Ghose // Mother India
Edited version from Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta
A Commentary on the First Sukta of the Rigveda
Cosmic creation is a great and sublime sacrifice. “The all-pervading Brahman is established in the sacrifice,” says the Gita. Each and every object offers itself into this sacrificial fire. Why? Sacrifice indicates movement, that is to say, an ever-proceeding course towards the greater and still greater fulfilment of evolution. Sacrifice is being performed; creation has become dynamic and presses forward with the self-sacrifice of the objects inherent in it. By self-sacrifice one creates another form and gets in it one’s larger self. The plant has evolved from Matter; the animal after the plant; man from the animal, and God wants now to manifest Himself through man by virtue of this process of self-sacrifice. Sacrificing itself, the cloud comes down as rain. Parents sacrifice flesh and blood to give birth to their offspring. All these are but different forms of this sublime sacrifice. We may quote the Gita again: “With sacrifice the Lord of creatures of old created creatures and said: By this shall you bring forth (fruits or offspring), let this be your milker of desires.”
It is the gods who are the primal powers holding and controlling this sacrifice and the cosmic creation. By his self-offering man fulfils the nature of the gods.
What is called the sacrifice of elements outside is really Yoga in union inside. The discipline of human life is also a sacrifice. What is the aim of such a sacrifice? Evolution, ascension, from the little to the vast, from suffering, weakness and ignorance to delight, strength and knowledge. How is it possible? By the same self-sacrifice, self-offering dedication and prostration. The lower levels and basic propensities of our life must be surrendered to the higher levels and sublimer propensities. The Katha Upanishad declares:
“Let the wise man restrain speech in his mind and mind in Self, and knowledge in the Great-Self, and that again let him restrain in the Self that is at peace.” (Translated by Sri Aurobindo)
The Gita too says:
“And others offer all the actions of the sense and all the actions of the vital force into the fire of Yoga of self-control kindled by knowledge.”
The innermost and the uppermost “commune” of the divine energies is known as the gods. The aspirant will offer heart and soul and carry their prostration to the “commune” of the gods. Then alone will the gods descend in him with all their divine plenitude. The truth-seeker gives birth to the gods in his being. Likewise the gods draw him towards them. With regard to the mystery of this sacrifice Lord Sri Krishna proclaims:
“Foster by this the gods and let the gods foster you; fostering each other, you shall attain to the supreme good.”
This mutual exchange of sacrifice between man and the divine forces leading to progression, to evolution of life, is guarded by Fire, the light and heat that signify the power born of spiritual discipline. It is this energy that enables the practicant to go forward on his way of sacrifice. The aspirant offers as an oblation every limb of his being into this energy of spiritual practice which in its turn carries the self-offering of the aspirant to his divinity, and continues to work for its establishment; that is why Fire is the offerer. Fire is also called the carrier, for he brings down the divine powers into the aspirant and carries him up into their region. This work Fire has undertaken to perform without the least violation of the rhythm of Truth day after day through the evolutionary process. Hence he is called the priest. The priest is he who knows the proper time for the performance of the seasonal sacrifices. The energy born of spiritual practice too has the spontaneous tendency to determine the spiritual course of the practicant. The Fire of spiritual discipline burns up all the dross contained in the receptacle of the aspirant making him more capable and bringing down into him the divine power, knowledge and bliss – complete success. The power of Fire is no other than the dynamis of the Divine vision, the activity born of direct realisation (kavi-kratu); therefore Fire is called the protecting power of Truth (gopām ṛtasya). The status that forms the habitat of the vast, the unmanifested and manifested Truth, the fourth order beyond the ordinarily known three states, viz., the waking state, the dream state and the dreamless sound sleep: this indeed is swarloka, the real home of the Fire-god and all the other gods (swadhāma). It is here that the gods reign supreme in their own real form, in their true nature. But, then, every god has his assigned field of activity here on earth through some suitable subtle embodiment. The seat of Fire, his field of action, is the earth, the gross sheath. The Energy of spiritual discipline first possesses the practicant in his body, the body-consciousness; and gradually with the help of the other gods this Fire-god leads him to the vital region and then to the sphere of the mind, thence to the Supermind, the fourth heaven. Each god represents the divine embodiment of the special virtue of a particular region or level. But Fire is the foremost God, and the aspirant who wants to have an access to the secrets of spiritual practice and is eager to progress must become a worshipper of Fire (aṅgira).
This Sukta (the word literally means “well spoken”, the faultless speech, the infallible words of the seasoned seer of Truth) can be divided into three parts called Riks in accordance with the special differences in the current of thoughts. The first three Riks deal with the theme: Who is Fire, what are his particulars, name and form? The second three deal with the subject: What is Fire, what his virtues, nature and innate tendencies? The third group describes the relationship between Fire and the aspirant in the matter of spiritual practice, the holy sacrifice. The Mantras are composed in the metre called Gayatri, which too has three feet. Thus every Rik too has three metrical divisions.
A Commentary on the Second Sukta of the Rigveda
The upward spirit, the conscious energising power, the aspiration-fire that resides at the root of all spiritual disciplines as their fount and primal inspiration has been invoked in the first sukta. The present sukta throws light upon the different steps and rungs of that upward spiritual discipline.
The Vedic spiritual discipline aims at Truth, the Rhythm of Consciousness and the Vast. The ordinary life consists of body, life and mind. The trivial work, the insignificant inspiration and enjoyment of life, the limited knowledge of the mind – man is aware of nothing beyond. But there is something above the body, life and mind. When one reaches that higher plane, one becomes full of truth-consciousness, that is to say, one owns the nature and the law of conduct of the Gods. Body, life and mind stand in the way of the aspirant to the realm of the Gods. However, for that we are not to deny the existence of or do away with body, life and mind. What is actually needed is the purification and transformation of these three instruments. There are three stages of purification and transformation; accordingly the present sukta has been divided into three parts each containing three riks.
The first three riks deal with the purification and transformation of life-energy. Vayu is the presiding Deity of life-energy. “Vayu is life,” says the Mundaka Upanishad. In the Rigveda too there is a clear indication of it. It says, “Vayu came into existence from the Supreme as Life.” This Vayu or life-energy is the raison d’être of all the activities of the ordinary human life. Life abounds with desires and enjoyments of earthly objects. The ordinary life is blind and ignorant. It hankers after the satisfaction of desires. It gets satisfaction even in fleeting pleasures. But what an aspirant needs in life is to taste the pure and unalloyed nectar which is the perpetual divine delight inherent in each object.
The Somarasa is the transcendental Delight, and this Delight is nothing other than Immortality. It is also an immensely conscious and luminous exhilaration of the divine existence of the Gods. Truth must be revealed with the rhythm and words of direct knowledge, and the delight of the realised truth must be made manifest in life. Those who have done it are called “Aharvida”. It means they have now the light of the day. No more do they crave for trivial enjoyments. All the parts of their being are vibrant, conscious and filled with the immortal delight.
Luminous delight in profusion must be established in life. And for that the mind must be purified and made perfect first. Indra is the presiding Deity of pure and perfect mind. Indra gives pure intelligence and with that pure intelligence the aspirant establishes a pure enjoyment of the quintessence of truth, rich delight and fulfilment in life. Therefore in the second three riks Indra and Vayu are invoked together.
The last three riks deal with the full realisation and the goal of the aspirant. When life is purified, when mind is purified, the aspirant will be established in that vast and luminous Heaven. Varuna is the presiding Deity of vastness. The harmony and the union that came into existence from the infinite expanse of Varuna are the gifts of Mitra. Lord Varuna drives away the limitation, isolation and disunion of our ordinary knowledge. He tears away the hostile force that compels us to remain narrow and small. Hence he is called Rishadasam. And Mitra is our divine Guide. With his clear vision he unites all the objects together in perfect harmony. When an aspirant attains to the level of indivisible harmony in the infinite, in the limitless, he arrives at the fundamental Truth and his action then becomes the infallible manifestation of that Truth. Indra possesses pure intelligence. Behind him stand the two powers, Varuna and Mitra, of the Infinite Mother. It is they who turn intelligence into the divine Knowledge and Action. They are also called poets, i.e., the seers of Truth. It is because of their infinite expanse, eternal rhythm, and inborn power of truth that the aspirant is able to draw the stupendous inspiration of energising power and an unobstructed pure genuine capacity to carry on all his activities in life.
A Commentary on the Third Sukta of the Rigveda
Life needs pure, calm and effectuating delight. It is through delight that knowledge, work and truth are revealed. The more the inspiration of life-energy becomes divinely blissful and lasting, the more the aspirant is endowed with the pure intelligence, divine power and fulfilment, and at last he presses forward all the faculties of the vast direct knowledge and creation.
In the present sukta there are four groups of three slokas each, graded according to the spiritual progression.
The first group begins with the invocation of the twain equestrians. Who are these equestrians? According to the narration of the Puranas, the Aswinikumaras are generally known as the twain heavenly physicians. It means, they drive away disease, decay and incapacity from the being and make the life-energy pure, sound and indomitable. In other words, they are the gods of immortality. Their work is to found immortality and an eternal youth of divinity in life. Prāṇavāyu which is the conveyance of the divine power has been symbolically expressed as the horses. It may be asked why they have the twain forms. Perhaps it is because the one gives knowledge, the other the energy for work. Both are the presiding deities of immortality and both of them embody the most benevolent delight. Hence they are called Śubhaspati. Also they are called Purubhujā, for they bring into life the divine enjoyment in profusion. However, the one gives much importance to the energy of work, the other to the powerful pure intelligence. Whatever may be the difference in their outlook, they are the twain faces of one and the same God. The two horsemen open the fount of that very divine exhilaration in life by which there awakes and ascends an upward inspiration in the being of the aspirant. As the aspirant has been the possessor of an intense diversified delight, he is now able to proceed farther and farther, higher and higher by sacrificing his lower aspiration to the higher one. It is an immortalised life-energy that makes all the realisation effective, real and beautiful. It infuses spirit and power into the intelligence. The aspirant is endowed with an occult power of hearing and is initiated with the power of mantras which expresses and manifests the Truth. That is why the twain gods are called Nāsatya (the Guides on the path). They are the leaders in our spiritual adventure. They lead us speedily through the different levels of consciousness to the vast ocean of the higher truth.
The second group of slokas. The spiritual delight and the immortal power of life will found themselves in a calm, pure and firmly rooted basis of the entire being. And this immortal delight will lead the spiritual practicant to the Divine Mind, the pure Intelligence and to the realm of Indra. An ordinary man is unable to have a glimpse of the higher mind, the pure Intelligence because he is confined to the narrow limits of the lower material world and his life abounds with restless, impure and hurtful desires. It is not by a gross inert inspiration but by a subtle inward power that the enjoyment of life must be purified and divinised. Then only the sloth of the mind will be replaced by the divine Intelligence. With the divine Intelligence of Indra the aspirant enjoys a pure delight in life. It is Indra who fills the different aspects of each object with a luminous truth. The inspiration surcharged with the effulgent knowledge of Indra will bring down and manifest in the aspirant the delightful truth of the Self which is the main support of the divine in the aspirant.
The third group. After this the aspirant rises into the realm of Truth, Delight and the Vast where his being will embody all the gods. The universal Godhead is the collective power of all the gods. Each god has a different aspect and a particular truth to stress. They at once carry out their own work and help one another in performing their work. Thus in their combined efforts they give shape to diversified expressions of the one great and vast Truth. When the power of these gods is established in the aspirant, his aspiration rises higher and higher unfalteringly and infallibly. The body, life and mind which are the different parts of the being are considered to be the channels of different aspects of the Truth.
The fourth group. Saraswati, the wealth of the fullest inspiration of the complete Truth, signifies speedy and rhythmic truth. She is the divine hearing. No doubt, we see and meet the Truth with our divine vision, but to make the Truth active and dynamic and fill the creation with the power of Truth we needs must take the help of divine hearing. As the truth possesses a form, even so it has a name. It is precisely because of form and name that the truth becomes real. The form of truth is visible in the divine vision, the name of truth in the divine hearing. Saraswati gives the divine name and Ila gives the divine form to the truth. Under the inspiration of Saraswati the truth casts aside all untruths. Hence she is called Pāvaka (the Purifier). Above the mind there abides the vast ocean of Truth. We have neither any knowledge nor any experience of it. In a sense, we are quite unconscious of it. Saraswati raises the intelligence into the vast ocean of Truth and purifies it. Afterwards she brings it down to our understanding. She manifests the complete knowledge in all its facets and makes them living.
In the Vedic literature, very often we get the reference to vāk (speech). So it will be no exaggeration on our part to hold that the aim of the Vedic spiritual discipline is to get the significant sound aspect of the truth. And for this the Vedic seers of truth are called the seers of mantras or the creators of mantras. Vāk is the living image of truth. There lies a rhythm in the being of truth and the movement of this rhythm produces a note which was later on called nād (the unsounded sound) or Shabda Brahman (the Brahman manifested as Sound). When the rhythm of this note is found in our intelligence and mind, it takes the form of a sentence and this very thing is called a true mantra. The more a language can express intimately and directly the primal form and rhythm of truth, the more the mantra becomes living. Therefore the aspirant who has acquired this mantra has also acquired truth and the power of truth. The Vedic seers have placed the name of truth in different categories, e.g., ṛk, Stoma, Uktha, Brahman, etc. At the beginning of the present sukta too, in the spiritual practice of truth Gi, the vāk or name that reveals the truth clearly in the consciousness of the aspirant has been invoked with the help of the twain equestrians. Then with Indra’s help the Brahman, that is to say, the true message of the inner Self was invoked. When man gets a purified mind and purified intelligence, he discovers the real Being within and another name of this Being is Brahmanaspati (the Lord of the inner Self). Finally comes in Saraswati who is the power of the Infinite Truth in which the multiple aspects of the truth of the universal God are manifest.
A Commentary on the Fourth Sukta of the Rigveda
The gradual progression of the spiritual discipline takes place by virtue of the bliss-power in the pure mind. It is with that power that a spiritual seeker overcomes all the difficulties on his way and overcomes the downward urge or pull of ignorance of the lower nature.
In the first three slokas the nectar-emitting light and pure thought-power of Indra have been invoked. Indra is a milch cow, that is to say, the inexhaustible source from which a seeker draws the nectar of immortality.
But why? Because it is thus that a spiritual seeker can see the manifestation of the All-Blissful in the Vast. In our normal life-activities we have a partial consciousness and our mind remains narrow, degraded and twisted. So whatever we do is bound to fall short of perfection. And if we want to make our creations beautiful, blissful and perfect, we must exceed the boundary of the limited consciousness and rise into the everlasting poise and pure existence of the Vast. We are satisfied with a little, for our happiness and delight and enjoyment are confined to this material world alone. And from this sense-pleasure which is the outer form of the soma rasa we shall have to draw true delight and immortality. This is possible only after one has invoked Indra, the Lord of the senses and the presiding deity of the pure intellect. When the mind has become pure, when the Divine Being within it has awakened, the aspirant’s delight gets satisfaction no longer in the little imperfect pleasures of the material world. The ecstasy of the divinised mind is surcharged with the divine light. One who has achieved this delight has also achieved all the well-ordained rhythmic play of Truth inherent in the pure mind. It is there that an aspirant must pay particular attention to one thing. If all on a sudden truth and power descend from above into the aspirant’s mind in an excessive manner, then there is every possibility of his losing his mental balance; even if it is not so, the manifestation of this truth and power takes place in a very distorted way. That is why the aspirant has been asked to pray in this fashion:
“O Indra, do Thou manifest thyself before me to the extent of my receptivity and, I pray, exceed not the limit.”
The aspirant has to purify first his lower nature before invoking the truth and power in a large measure. Otherwise a reaction may at once take place. The subsequent slokas deal with this matter. The second group of three slokas indicates the process of the gradual ascension of the aspirant. Spirituality is, as it were, a long upward march and the aspirant has to fight and toil faithfully all the way in order to go ahead. It will not do for an aspirant to make an effort to pull the power from above, himself remaining below. He has to raise himself. He has to look upon the Divine Being that resides in the purified knowledge and mind of Indra, and according to the inspiration and guidance of the Being the aspirant has to proceed. When we shall be fully prepared for the realisation of the Godhead of Indra, the obscure and impure forces of ignorance cannot keep us enchained in the lower regions. They themselves will then open the new vistas for a higher journey and declare, “You have conquered us. Now go up, march onward, conquer all the forces that are challenging you from the higher regions.” Even obstacles are necessary and useful. We become stronger when we meet with oppositions in our life. The foundation gets firm only after it has weathered some storms. When we are established in the quiet foundation of Indra, by virtue of strength, vigour and courage, we shall be able to make ourselves worthy of possessing a blissful and perfect divine life.
In the three successive slokas of the third group the forces by which all obstacles in our journey are removed have been described. Vritra is only a name for the obstacles in one’s spiritual practice. Vritra means the cover (derived from the root vṛ) that keeps an aspirant in darkness. This blind force of the lower plane does not allow the light of knowledge to dawn on the aspirant. Drinking the nectar of soma-delight Indra kills Vritra, i.e., the forces of pure intelligence become fiery, as well as acute and sharp, with the pure and intense Ananda by which is expelled the darkness of ignorance. The aspirant gets strength to fight against the attraction of the unregenerated nature and to climb up and move in the higher regions. His conscious being gets intoxicated with the nectar of delight, armoured with a hundred powers. He surmounts all the obstacles of the spiritual adventure and makes the aspirant firmly established in all the glory of a fulfilled life.
In the last sloka the nature of the divine mental being is described. In this divine mental being the vast delight of the Infinite has descended and with the help of its inspiration the aspirant goes on safely and securely from one level to another, from one shore to another and climbs up from the unregenerated lower nature to the divine status.
In the present hymn we can notice one speciality of Vedic spirituality. Vedic spirituality was not something personal and individual. It was essentially collective, i.e., for the community as a whole. That is why we often hear an aspirant of the Vedas calling to his friends to assemble in spiritual practice and bring down the divine force with a collective effort. The communal life of each clan flourished in those days with the help of friends, companions and helpers. The gods too were among their constant companions and helpers in the spiritual endeavour. Hence they were addressed as friends.
A Commentary on the Fifth Sukta of the Rigveda
The present sukta also tells us that we are to conquer all the powers of the terrestrial life with the help of pure delight and establish in pure mind the foundation of Truth, the perfect manifestation of Force, Knowledge and Bliss, the manifold fulness and perfection of Indra.
The diversity in the creation is a profound and sublime Truth. So the sadhaka also has to manifest in his being and nature this immensely diverse play. The manifoldness of Form is revealed consciously through the mind. When the true mental being awakes, all the formations lose their petty and mortal nature and appear as cadences and expressions of the blissful immortal Truth. That is why the mental Purusha or Indra is called Purutaman Purunām. No other god has also many diversified forms as Indra. It is because he is at the root of all manifold diversities. Indra comes with plenitude; he conquers for the sadhaka Sahasrinam Vājam (a thousand-fold plenitude). Vājam is the fulness which is indivisible; it is the vessel of a thousand-fold movement of creation. Indra is the eldest of all, because the primal form of the external manifestation appears first in the heart of the mental being. Later on it becomes manifest in the outward nature. After his very birth Indra wants to be the eldest of all, i.e., as soon as the pure mental being awakes in the aspirant, it becomes the master and guide of his sadhana and his new spiritual creation. For this reason Indra is called Iśānam (Lord) and Sukratu (the all-accomplishing Power of action). It is in him that all the masculine powers of God are manifest. In accordance with the Will of the Purusha all the forms of Prakriti take shape. The vessel or the form which Indra is shaping newly in the aspirant is firmly established on supreme Truth and Knowledge.
Pure mental being is rich with pure knowledge. Pure mental knowledge is that which makes an object stand revealed to the knower. This knowledge of Indra is many-sided. The real function of Indra is to harmonise the truths of all objects and movements of the creation. Hence he is called Purandhi or Purudhi (a city full of intellect-power). Indra does not want dissolution in the One Existent, but he wants a diverse and many-sided manifestation. In unfolding or blossoming alone is his joy. He seeks for a vibrant cadence of the Truth. The Bliss of Indra is founded on Truth. That is why this Bliss is pure and tranquil and yet dynamic. The joy of sensuous pleasure of an ordinary man is emotional and fleeting. Man cannot hold it and an aspirant cannot build anything on it. That joy flows out and man spills it away in trying to hold it. That is the reason why this joy of the senses has to be purified and made noble with the light of pure mind, intelligence and knowledge. Then alone that joy will be beneficial, capable of doing works and yielding fruit. When the pure mental being, rich with the nectar of immortality and supported by the pure vital energy, marches forward driving his two luminous horses of knowledge and power to the battlefield to advance in spirituality, the dumb material forces of Ignorance fail to oppose them. Cutting asunder all limitations of the earthly consciousness and the powers of Death, Indra founds a full-fledged bliss of immortality in the aspirant. He enables the creative genius of the aspirant to blossom in the untrammelled expanse of the infinite consciousness.
A Commentary on the Sixth Sukta of the Rigveda
The theme of this sukta is to awaken the power of Indra with the help of his followers, the Maruts. Who are the Maruts? We find in the Puranas that Vayu (the Wind-God) in the womb of Diti (the consciousness of duality) had been divided into forty-nine parts by the Lord Indra. As a result, the Maruts, sub-divisions or various forms of Wind, came into existence. We also know that Vayu is the life-energy and Indra is the divine mental being. Diti is the divided consciousness, the source of multiplicity. Aditi means the undivided, indivisible and infinite consciousness. When the wave of life-energy rises into the mind and expresses itself as multiple thoughts, it turns into Maruts. In the Rigveda the God Marut has always been invoked and worshipped along with Indra. That is to say, without Indra, the mental being, the Maruts, the mental faculties, have no separate existence.
The seat of pure mind is a chariot. The chariot signifies movement and it is the emblem of the spiritual journey. The spiritual adventure of the purified mind gradually rises up. The movement of the purified mind is at once free and vast. Division and littleness are not to be found there. It is fully illumined by the light of knowledge. The purified mind is replete with thought-powers, in other words, the Maruts. And it is the Maruts who help the mind in its march towards the Goal.
Spiritual progress takes place by the conjoint force of two powers. They are nothing but the twin horses – life energies – that carry farther and farther the power of Indra. Of the two horses one is the symbol of knowledge, the other is that of power. The more the knowledge and the power of the aspirant increase, the more awakes in him the spiritual mental being in all its virtues. And the pure thought powers or the Maruts turn the flow of knowledge and power towards an inner spiritual discipline.
It is the power of pure thoughts that manifests the light of knowledge in the darkness of ignorance. With the gradual development of such thoughts the true mental being takes birth in the aspirant, i.e., it becomes vivid and real to the aspirant.
The true nature of the pure thought-power is to reveal the mental being by degrees. It is in the true mental being that the real existence and nature of a creature abide. The mental being comes more and more to the fore with the gradual development of the perennial surge of original thoughts. The pure thought-power when manifested presses forth a particular form of the mental being. Then it merges into the heart of the aspirant and comes out from there with a new form and truth. Thus the thought-power reveals the presiding divine Deity of sacrificial fire and spiritual evolution. A ‘name’ is the manifest power of truth, called ‘numen’ in Latin. The process of sadhana does not always follow a straight line. At times it goes into the deeper regions of consciousness and emerges from there with a new truth. Hence we notice a play of dissolution and manifestation. The Vedic seers used to express thus the idea: dawn follows night and night follows dawn, dawn then moves forward in a never-ending succession revealing the infinite truth.
In the innermost recesses of consciousness, in the depth of the night, in inert matter lie hidden the rays of knowledge. The divinised mental being penetrates those secret recesses in search of the rays of knowledge imbedded, stolen and stored there and drives the darkness away to rescue the knowledge-rays symbolised by a pair of cows. It is the mental being that turns the twilight of consciousness into the state of full awakening.
What does actually happen when Indra reveals the knowledge-rays after purging out ignorance and darkness? There echoes in the occult hearing the concrete messages of the vast truth. And of what type are those divine messages? They are the divine existences, they follow the divine nature. They infuse the aspirant with a clear and pointed intellect which can discern the quintessence of truth.
The true mental being and his pure thought-powers, Indra and Maruts, are reflected in that pure divine intellect.
Indra is the being of knowledge and delight and Marut is his power manifested in his divine play. On one side is the pure mental existence, on the other there rise and spread the pure thoughts from that mental existence. With their united help the spiritual sacrifice of the aspirant becomes a receptacle of luminous fulfilment.
Then the truth and plenitude of all worlds in all levels makes their appearances in the aspirant, starting from the fourth plane which is known in the Upanishad as the asau loka (That world) down to mental world.
The process does not end here. The truth contained in the material earth which is illumined by the mental light as well as the truth of the vital world filled with pure enjoyment and inspiration are concretely apprehended by the aspirant. Earth, air, sky, that is to say, the vast truths of the body, life and mind that are captured by the mental manifest their divine essence in the aspirant. Indra is the divine mental being and Indra is the power that is capable of revealing the truth.
(Concluded)
Note: The remaining suktas of Madhuchchandar Mantramala also deal with Indra. So there is hardly any necessity of commentaries. The commentaries given from the fourth sukta to the present one will serve as an aid to make the subsequent suktas comprehensible.