Sri Aurobindo

The Secret of the Veda

with Selected Hymns

VI. The Divine Dawn

Rig Veda III.61

3.61.1

उषो॒ वाजे॑न वाजिनि॒ प्रचे॑ता॒: स्तोमं॑ जुषस्व गृण॒तो म॑घोनि ।

पु॒रा॒णी दे॑वि युव॒तिः पुरं॑धि॒रनु॑ व्र॒तं च॑रसि विश्ववारे ॥१॥

uṣaḥ vājena vājini pra-cetāḥ stomam juṣasva gṛṇataḥ maghoni

purāṇī devi yuvatiḥ puram-dhiḥ anu vratam carasi viśva-vāre

Dawn, richly stored with substance, conscious cleave to the affirmation of him who expresses thee, O thou of the plenitudes. Goddess, ancient, yet ever young thou movest many-thoughted following the law of thy activities, O bearer of every boon.

3.61.2

उषो॑ दे॒व्यम॑र्त्या॒ वि भा॑हि च॒न्द्रर॑था सू॒नृता॑ ई॒रय॑न्ती ।

आ त्वा॑ वहन्तु सु॒यमा॑सो॒ अश्वा॒ हिर॑ण्यवर्णां पृथु॒पाज॑सो॒ ये ॥२॥

uṣaḥ devi amartyā vi bhāhi candra-rathā sūnṛtāḥ īrayantī

ā tvā vahantu su-yamāsaḥ aśvāḥ hiraṇya-varṇām pṛthu-pājasaḥ ye

Dawn divine, shine out immortal in thy car of happy light sending forth the pleasant voices of the Truth. May steeds well-guided bear thee here who are golden brilliant of hue and wide their might.

3.61.3

उषः॑ प्रती॒ची भुव॑नानि॒ विश्वो॒र्ध्वा ति॑ष्ठस्य॒मृत॑स्य के॒तुः ।

स॒मा॒नमर्थं॑ चरणी॒यमा॑ना च॒क्रमि॑व नव्य॒स्या व॑वृत्स्व ॥३॥

uṣaḥ pratīcī bhuvanāni viśvā ūrdhvā tiṣṭhasi amṛtasya ketuḥ

samānam artham caraṇīyamānā cakram-iva navyasi ā vavṛtsva

Dawn, confronting all the worlds thou standest high-uplifted and art their perception of Immortality; do thou move over them like a wheel, O new Day, travelling over an equal field.

3.61.4

अव॒ स्यूमे॑व चिन्व॒ती म॒घोन्यु॒षा या॑ति॒ स्वस॑रस्य॒ पत्नी॑ ।

स्व१́र्जन॑न्ती सु॒भगा॑ सु॒दंसा॒ आन्ता॑द्दि॒वः प॑प्रथ॒ आ पृ॑थि॒व्याः ॥४॥

ava syūma-iva cinvatī maghonī uṣāḥ yāti svasarasya patnī

svaḥ janantī su-bhagā su-daṁsāḥ ā antāt divaḥ paprathe ā pṛthivyāḥ

Dawn in her plenitude like one that lets fall from her a sewn robe moves, the bride of the Bliss; creating Swar, perfect in her working, perfect in her enjoying, she widens from the extremity of Heaven over the earth.

3.61.5

अच्छा॑ वो दे॒वीमु॒षसं॑ विभा॒तीं प्र वो॑ भरध्वं॒ नम॑सा सुवृ॒क्तिम् ।

ऊ॒र्ध्वं म॑धु॒धा दि॒वि पाजो॑ अश्रे॒त्प्र रो॑च॒ना रु॑रुचे र॒ण्वसं॑दृक् ॥५॥

accha vaḥ devīm uṣasam vi-bhātīm pra vaḥ bharadhvam namasā su-vṛktim

ūrdhvam madhudhā divi pājaḥ aśret pra rocanā ruruce raṇva-sandṛk

Meet ye the Dawn as she shines wide towards you and with surrender bring forward your complete energy. Exalted in heaven is the force to which she rises establishing the sweetness; she makes the luminous worlds to shine forth and is a vision of felicity.

3.61.6

ऋ॒ताव॑री दि॒वो अ॒र्कैर॑बो॒ध्या रे॒वती॒ रोद॑सी चि॒त्रम॑स्थात् ।

आ॒य॒तीम॑ग्न उ॒षसं॑ विभा॒तीं वा॒ममे॑षि॒ द्रवि॑णं॒ भिक्ष॑माणः ॥६॥

ṛta-varī divaḥ arkaiḥ abodhi ā revatī rodasī iti citram āsthāt

āyatīm agne uṣasam vi-bhātīm vāmam eṣi draviṇam bhikṣamāṇaḥ

By heaven’s illuminings one perceives her a bearer of the Truth and rapturous she comes with its varied light into the two firmaments. From Dawn as she approaches shining out on thee, O Agni, thou seekest and attainest to the substance of delight.

3.61.7

ऋ॒तस्य॑ बु॒ध्न उ॒षसा॑मिष॒ण्यन्वृषा॑ म॒ही रोद॑सी॒ आ वि॑वेश ।

म॒ही मि॒त्रस्य॒ वरु॑णस्य मा॒या च॒न्द्रेव॑ भा॒नुं वि द॑धे पुरु॒त्रा ॥७॥

ṛtasya budhna uṣasām iṣaṇyan vṛṣā mahī rodasī ā viveśa

mahī mitrasya varuṇasya māyā candreva bhānuṁ vi dadhe purutrā

Putting forth his impulsions in the foundation of the Truth, in the foundation of the Dawns, their Lord enters the Vastness of the firmaments. Vast the wisdom of Varuna, of Mitra, as in a happy brightness, orders multitudinously the Light.

Commentary

Surya Savitri in his task of illumination follows the progress of the Dawn. In another hymn the movements of the mind have been described as growing conscient and brilliant by the bright power of the continuous Dawns. Throughout the Veda Usha, daughter of Heaven, has always the same function. She is the medium of the awakening, the activity and the growth of the other gods; she is the first condition of the Vedic realisation. By her increasing illumination the whole nature of man is clarified; through her he arrives at the Truth, through her he enjoys the Beatitude. The divine dawn of the Rishis is the advent of the divine Light throwing off veil after veil and revealing in man’s activities the luminous godhead. In that light the Work is done, the sacrifice offered and its desirable fruits gathered by humanity.

Many are the hymns, indeed, in which rich and beautiful figures of the earthly dawn veil this inner truth of the goddess Usha, but in this hymn of the great Rishi Vishwamitra the psychological symbolism of the Vedic Dawn is apparent from beginning to end by open expressions and on the surface of the thought. “O Dawn rich of store in thy substance,” he cries to her, “conscient cleave to the affirmation of him who expresses thee, O thou who hast the plenitudes.” The word pracetas and the related word, vicetas, are standing terms of Vedic phraseology; they seem to correspond to the ideas expressed in later language by the Vedantic prajñāna and vijñāna. Prajnana is the consciousness that cognizes all things as objects confronting its observation; in the divine mind it is knowledge regarding things as their source, possessor and witness. Vijnana is comprehensive knowledge containing, penetrating into things, pervading them in consciousness by a sort of identification with their truth. Usha is to occupy the revealing thought and word of the Rishi as a power of Knowledge conscient of the truth of all that is placed by them before the mind for expression in man. The affirmation, it is suggested, will be full and ample; for Usha is vājena vājini, maghoni; rich is the store of her substance; she has all the plenitudes.

This dawn moves in her progression always according to the rule of a divine action; many are the thoughts she brings in that motion, but her steps are sure and all desirable things, all supreme boons, the boons of the Ananda, the blessings of the divine existence,– are in her hands. She is ancient and eternal, the dawn of the Light that was from the beginning, purāṇī, but in her coming she is ever young and fresh to the soul that receives her.

She is to shine wide, she that is the divine Dawn, as the light of the immortal existence bringing out in man the powers or the voices of Truth and Joy, (sūnṛtāḥ,– a word which expresses at once both the true and the pleasant); for is not the chariot of her movement a car at once of light and of happiness? For again, the word candra in candrarathā,– signifying also the lunar deity Soma, lord of the delight of immortality pouring into man, ānanda and amṛta,– means both luminous and blissful. And the horses that bring her, figure of the nervous forces that support and carry forward all our action, must be perfectly controlled; golden, bright in hue, their nature (for in this ancient symbolism colour is the sign of quality, of character, of temperament) must be a dynamism of ideal knowledge in its concentrated luminousness; wide in its extension must be the mass of that concentrated force,– pṛthupājaso ye.

Divine Dawn comes thus to the soul with the light of her knowledge, prajñāna, confronting all the worlds as field of that knowledge,– all provinces, that is to say, of our universal being,– mind, vitality, physical consciousness. She stands uplifted over them on our heights above mind, in the highest heaven, as the perception of Immortality or of the Immortal, amṛtasya ketuḥ, revealing in them the eternal and beatific existence or the eternal all-blissful Godhead. So exalted she stands prepared to effect the motion of the divine knowledge, progressing as a new revelation of the eternal truth, navyasi, in their harmonised and equalised activities like a wheel moving smoothly over a level field; for they now, their diversities and discords removed, offer no obstacle to that equal motion.

In her plenitude she separates, as it were, and casts down from her the elaborately sewn garment that covered the truth of things and moves as the wife of the Lover, the energy of her all-blissful Lord, svasarasya patnī. Full in her enjoyment of the felicity, full in her effectuation of all activities, subhagā sudaṃsāḥ, she brings into existence in us by her revelations Swar, the concealed luminous mind, our highest mental heaven; and thus from the farthest extremities of mental being extends herself over the physical consciousness.

As this divine Dawn pours out widely its light upon them, so have men by submission to the law of her divine act and movement to bring forward for her the fully energised completeness of their being and their capacities as a vehicle for her light or as a seat for her sacrificial activities.

The Rishi then dwells on the two capital works of the divine Dawn in man,– her elevation of him to the full force of the Light and the revelation of the Truth and her pouring of the Ananda, the Amrita, the Soma Wine, the bliss of the immortal being into the mental and bodily existence. In the world of the pure mind, divi, she rises into the full force and mass of the Light, ūrdhvaṃ pājo aśret, and from those pure and high levels she establishes the sweetness, madhu, the honey of Soma. She makes to shine out the three luminous worlds, rocanā; she is then or she brings with her the beatific vision. By the effectual illuminations of the pure mentality, through the realising Word, divo arkaiḥ, she is perceived as the bearer of Truth and with the Truth she enters from the world above Mind, full of the delight, in a varied play of her multiple thought and activity, into the mental and bodily consciousness, those established limits between which man’s action moves. It is from her, as she comes thus richly laden, vājena vājini, that Agni, the divine Force labouring here in body and mind to uplift the mortal, prays for and attains to the Soma, the wine of the Beatitude, the delightful substance.

The supramental world in us, foundation of the Truth, is the foundation of the Dawns. They are the descent upon mortal nature of the light of that immortal Truth, ṛtaṃ jyotis. The Lord of the Dawns, Master of Truth, Illuminer, Creator, Organiser, putting forth in the foundation of Truth, above mind, the impulsion of his activities, enters with them by this goddess into a bodily and mental existence no longer obscured but released from their limits and capable of vastness, mahī rodasī. The Lord of Truth is the sole lord of things. He is Varuna, soul of vastness and purity; he is Mitra, source of love and light and harmony. His creative Wisdom, mahī mitrasya varuṇasya māyā, unlimited in its scope,– for he is Varuna,– appearing, candreva, as a light of bliss and joy,– for he is Mitra,– arranges, perfectly organises, in multitudinous forms, in the wideness of the liberated nature, the luminous expansions, the serene expressions of the Truth. He combines the various brilliancies with which his Dawn has entered our firmaments; he blends into one harmony her true and happy voices.

Dawn divine is the coming of the Godhead. She is the light of the Truth and the Felicity pouring on us from the Lord of Wisdom and Bliss, amṛtasya ketuḥ, svasarasya patnī.