5 Integral Yoga
15 Sri Aurobindo
2 Nolini Kanta Gupta
7 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
6 The Secret Of The Veda
3 Kena and Other Upanishads
2 Vedic and Philological Studies
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
1.01 - Foreward, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
or the Sun-world - svar - by the Gods and the Angiras Rishis.
The symbol of the Sun is constantly associated with the higher
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1.01 - The Human Aspiration, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
0:She follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming, - Usha widens bringing out that which lives, awakening someone who was dead. . . . What is her scope when she harmonises with the dawns that shone out before and those that now must shine? She desires the ancient mornings and fulfils their light; projecting forwards her illumination she enters into communion with the rest that are to come. Kutsa Angirasa - Rig Veda.1
0:Threefold are those supreme births of this divine force that is in the world, they are true, they are desirable; he moves there wide-overt within the Infinite and shines pure, luminous and fulfilling. . . . That which is immortal in mortals and possessed of the truth, is a god and established inwardly as an energy working out in our divine powers. . . . Become high-uplifted, O Strength, pierce all veils, manifest in us the things of the Godhead. Vamadeva - Rig Veda.2
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1.02 - The Doctrine of the Mystics, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
That ascension has already been effected by the Ancients, the human forefa thers, and the spirits of these great Ancestors still assist their offspring; for the new dawns repeat the old and lean forward in light to join the dawns of the future. Kanwa, Kutsa, Atri, Kakshiwan, Gotama, Shunahshepa have become types of certain spiritual victories which tend to be constantly repeated in the experience of humanity. The seven sages, the Angirasas, are waiting still and always, ready to chant the word, to rend the cavern, to find the lost herds, to recover the hidden Sun. Thus the soul is a battlefield full of helpers and hurters, friends and enemies. All this lives, teems, is personal, is conscious, is active.
We create for ourselves by the sacrifice and by the word shining seers, heroes to fight for us, children of our works. The Rishis and the Gods find for us our luminous herds; the Ribhus fashion by the mind the chariots of the gods and their horses and their shining weapons. Our life is a horse that neighing and galloping bears us onward and upward; its forces are swift-hoofed steeds, the liberated powers of the mind are wide-winging birds; this mental being or this soul is the upsoaring Swan or the Falcon that breaks out from a hundred iron walls and wrests from the jealous guardians of felicity the wine of the Soma. Every shining godward Thought that arises from the secret abysses of the heart is a priest and a creator and chants a divine hymn of luminous realisation and puissant fulfilment. We seek for the shining gold of the Truth; we lust after a heavenly treasure.
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1.05 - Hymns of Bharadwaja, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
10. O Fire, thou comest a priest of the call into the house of men that do the Rite of the Path. Make us complete in the treasure, O Master of men! O Angiras flame-seer, rejoice in our oblation.
11. O Fire, O friendly Light, O Godhead, turn to the Godheads, mayst thou speak for us the true thought of Earth and Heaven; move to the peace and the happy abode and the men of Heaven. Let us pass beyond the foe and the sin and the stumbling; let us pass beyond these things, pass in thy keeping through them safe.
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3. In thee the understanding is full of riches and it desires the gods, the divine births, that the word may be spoken and the sacrifice done, when the singer, the sage, wisest of the Angirases chants his honey-rhythm in the rite.
4. He has leaped into radiance and is wise of heart and wide of light; O Fire, sacrifice to the largeness of Earth and Heaven. All the five peoples lavish the oblation with obeisance of surrender and anoint as the living being Fire the bringer of their satisfactions.
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11. O Angiras, we make thee to grow by our fuel and our offering of the clarity; flame into a vast light, O ever-youthful
Fire.
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1.05 - Ritam, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
We do not find the word ritam in the hymns that follow and are ascribed to Sunahshepa Ajigarti and Hiranyastupa Angirasa, but the first two hymns of Sunahshepa are addressed mainly or entirely to the god Varuna and we glean from them certain indications which are of considerable interest & importance in connection with Varuna & the Truth. He is hymned by Sunahshepa as the master of wide vision, uruchakshasam, the god of august, boundless & universal knowledge. He has made a wide path for Surya,the Vedic god of ideal knowledge, as I shall suggest,to follow in his journeyings; he has made places for him to set his feet in the unfooted vasts of the infinite. He is hymned also as the punisher of sin and the deliverer from sinKritam chid enah pra mumugdhi asmat. And loose from us the sin we have done. Kshayann asmabhyam Asura prachet rjann ennsi sisrathah kritni, Dwelling in us, O Mighty One, O King, in conscious knowledge, cleave from us the sins of our doing.
Now in the 18th hymn, a hymn of Medhatithi to Brahmanaspati, I have passed over designedly a verse in which we have a direct reference to that goddess Dakshina whom I suppose to be the female energy of Daksha, the divine master of the viveka
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1.06 - Agni and the Truth, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
To the sixth Rik the commentator gives a very awkward and abrupt construction and trivial turn of thought which breaks entirely the flow of the verse. "That good (in the shape of varied wealth) which thou shalt effect for the giver, thine is that. This is true, O Angiras," that is to say, there can be no doubt about this fact, for if Agni does good to the giver by providing him with wealth, he in turn will perform fresh sacrifices to Agni, and thus the good of the sacrificer becomes the good of the god. Here again it would be better to render, "The good that thou wilt do for the giver, that is that truth of thee, O Angiras," for we thus get at once a simpler sense and construction and an explanation of the epithet, satya, true, as applied to the god of the sacrificial fire. This is the truth of Agni that to the giver of the sacrifice he surely gives good in return.
The seventh verse offers no difficulty to the ritualistic interpretation except the curious phrase, "we come bearing the prostration." Sayana explains that bearing here means simply doing and he renders, "To thee day by day we, by night and by day, come with the thought performing the prostration." In the eighth verse he takes r.tasya in the sense of truth and explains it as the true fruit of the ritual. "To thee shining, the protector of the sacrifices, manifesting always their truth (that is, their inevitable fruit), increasing in thy own house." Again, it would be simpler and better to take r.tam in the sense of sacrifice and to render, "To thee shining out in the sacrifices, protector of the rite, ever luminous, increasing in thy own house." The "own house" of Agni, says the commentator, is the place of sacrifice and this is indeed called frequently enough in Sanskrit, "the house of Agni".
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"The good that thou wilt create for the giver, that is that truth of thee, O Angiras.
"To thee day by day, O Agni, in the night and in the light we by the thought come bearing our submission, -
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1.06 - Hymns of Parashara, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
places, the Angiras seers shattered the mountain rock with
their cry; they made in us a path to the Great Heaven, they
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1.07 - Hymn of Paruchchhepa, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
we call, the eldest of the Angirases, the Illumined One, call
thee with our thoughts, O Brilliant Fire, with our illumined
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1.12 - The Herds of the Dawn, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The image of the Cow is constantly associated in Veda with the Dawn and the Sun; it also recurs in the legend of the recovery of the lost cows from the cave of the Panis by Indra and Brihaspati with the aid of the hound Sarama and the Angiras Rishis.
The conception of the Dawn and the legend of the Angirases are at the very heart of the Vedic cult and may almost be considered as the key to the secret of the significance of Veda. It is therefore these two that we must examine in order to find firm ground for our inquiry.
Now even the most superficial examination of the Vedic hymns to the Dawn makes it perfectly clear that the cows of the
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Light that Indra restores to the sacrificer. The recovery of the lost or stolen cows is constantly spoken of in the Vedic hymns and its sense will be clear enough when we come to examine the legend of the Panis and of the Angirases.
Once this sense is established, the material explanation of the Vedic prayer for "cows" is at once shaken; for if the lost cows for whose restoration the Rishis invoke Indra, are not physical herds stolen by the Dravidians but the shining herds of the Sun, of the Light, then we are justified in considering whether the same figure does not apply when there is the simple prayer for "cows" without any reference to any hostile interception.
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(vital force) and of many enjoyments. The herds which Usha gives are therefore the shining troops of the Light recovered by the gods and the Angiras Rishis from the strong places of Vala and the Panis and the wealth of cows (and horses) for which the
Rishis constantly pray can be no other than a wealth of this same
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Law or Truth! We have to suppose that when the Rishi gives vent to the joyous cry "We have crossed over to the other shore of this darkness!", it was only the normal awakening to the daily sunrise that he thus eagerly hymned. We have to suppose that the Vedic peoples sat down to the sacrifice at dawn and prayed for the light when it had already come. And if we accept all these improbabilities, we are met by the clear statement that it was only after they had sat for nine or for ten months that the lost light and the lost sun were recovered by the Angiras
Rishis. And what are we to make of the constant assertion of the discovery of the Light by the Fathers; - "Our fathers found out the hidden light, by the truth in their thoughts they brought to birth the Dawn," gud.ham jyotih. pitaro anvavindan, satyamantra ajanayan us.asam (VII.76.4). If we found such a verse in any collection of poems in any literature, we would at once give it a psychological or a spiritual sense; there is no just reason for a different treatment of the Veda.
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Truths are won out of the Nights. This is the rising of the Sun which was lost in the obscurity - the familiar figure of the lost sun recovered by the Gods and the Angiras Rishis - the sun of Truth, and it now shoots out its tongue of fire towards the golden Light: - for hiran.ya, gold is the concrete symbol of the higher light, the gold of the Truth, and it is this treasure not golden coin for which the Vedic Rishis pray to the Gods. This great change from the inner obscuration to the illumination is effected by the Ashwins, lords of the joyous upward action of the mind and the vital powers, through the immortal wine of the Ananda poured into mind and body and there drunk by them. They mentalise the expressive Word, they lead us into the heaven of pure mind beyond this darkness and there by the
Thought they set the powers of the Delight to work. But even over the heavenly waters they cross, for the power of the Soma helps them to dissolve all mental constructions, and they cast aside even this veil; they go beyond Mind and the last attaining is described as the crossing of the rivers, the passage through the heaven of the pure mind, the journey by the path of the Truth to the other side. Not till we reach the highest supreme, parama paravat, do we rest at last from the great human journey.
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1.14 - The Secret, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
At the same time, Sri Aurobindo was retrieving the lost Secret, that of the Veda and of all the more or less distorted traditions from Persia to Central America and the Rhine Valley, from Eleusis to the Cathars and from the Round Table to the Alchemists the ancient Secret of all the seekers of perfection. This is the quest for the Treasure in the depths of the cave; the battle against the subconscious forces (ogres, dwarves, or serpents); the legend of Apollo and the Python, Indra and the Serpent Vritta, Thor and the giants, Sigurd and Fafner; the solar myth of the Mayas, the Descent of Orpheus, the Transmutation. It is the serpent biting it own tail. And above all, it is the secret of the Vedic rishis, who were probably the first to discover what they called "the great passage," mahas pathah, (II.24.6) the world of "the unbroken Light," Swar, within the rock of the Inconscient: "Our fathers by their words broke the strong and stubborn places, the Angiras seers252 shattered the mountain rock with their cry; they made in us a path to the Great Heaven, they discovered the Day and the sunworld," (Rig Veda I.71.2) they discovered "the Sun dwelling in the darkness." (III.39.5) They found "the treasure of heaven hidden in the secret cavern like the young of the Bird, within the infinite rock." (I.130.3)
Shadow and Light, Good and Evil have all prepared a divine birth in Matter: "Day and Night both suckle the divine Child." 253 Nothing is accursed, nothing is in vain. Night and Day are "two sisters, immortal, with a common Lover (the Sun) . . . common they, though different their forms." (I.113.2.3) At the end of the "pilgrimage" of ascent and descent, the seeker is "a son of the two Mothers (III.55.7): the son of Aditi, the white Mother254 of the superconscious infinite, and the son of Diti, the earthly Mother of "the dark infinite." He possesses "the two births," human and divine, "eternal and in one nest . . . as the Enjoyer of his two wives" (I.62.7): "The contents of the pregnant hill255 (came forth) for the supreme birth . . . a god opened the human doors." (V.45) "Then indeed, they awoke and saw all behind and wide around them, then, indeed, they held the ecstasy that is enjoyed in heaven. In all gated houses256 were all the gods." (Rig Veda IV.1.18)
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1.17 - The Seven-Headed Thought, Swar and the Dashagwas, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
HE LANGUAGE of the hymns establishes, then, a double aspect for the Angiras Rishis. One belongs to the external garb of the Veda; it weaves together its naturalistic imagery of the Sun, the Flame, the Dawn, the Cow, the Horse, the Wine, the sacrificial Hymn; the other extricates from that imagery the internal sense. The Angirases are sons of the Flame, lustres of the Dawn, givers and drinkers of the Wine, singers of the Hymn, eternal youths and heroes who wrest for us the
Sun, the Cows, the Horses and all treasures from the grasp of the sons of darkness. But they are also seers of the Truth, finders and speakers of the word of the Truth and by the power of the Truth they win for us the wide world of Light and Immortality which is described in the Veda as the Vast, the True, the Right and as the own home of this Flame of which they are the children. This physical imagery and these psychological indications are closely interwoven and they cannot be separated from each other. Therefore we are obliged by ordinary common sense to conclude that the Flame of which the Right and the Truth is the own home is itself a Flame of that Right and
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The Angiras Rishis are at once divine and human seers. This double character is not in itself an extraordinary feature or peculiar in the Veda to these sages. The Vedic gods also have a double action; divine and pre-existent in themselves, they are human in their working upon the mortal plane when they grow in man to the great ascension. This has been strikingly expressed in the allocution to Usha, the Dawn, "goddess human in mortals", devi martes.u manus.i. But in the imagery of the Angiras Rishis this double character is farther complicated by the tradition which makes them the human fathers, discoverers of the Light, the
Path and the Goal. We must see how this complication affects our theory of the Vedic creed and the Vedic symbolism.
The Angiras Rishis are ordinarily described as seven in number: they are sapta viprah., the seven sages who have come down to us in the Puranic tradition1 and are enthroned by
Indian astronomy in the constellation of the Great Bear. But they are also described as Navagwas and Dashagwas, and if in
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III.39.5 we have mention of two different classes, Navagwas, and Dashagwas, the latter ten in number, the former presumably, though it is not expressly stated, nine. Sakha ha yatra sakhibhir navagvair, abhijnva satvabhir ga anugman; satyam tad indro dasabhir dasagvaih., suryam viveda tamasi ks.iyantam; "where, a friend with his friends the Navagwas, following the cows Indra with the ten Dashagwas found that truth, even the Sun dwelling in the darkness." On the other hand we have in IV.51 a collective description of the Angiras seven-faced or seven-mouthed, ninerayed, ten-rayed, navagve angire dasagve saptasye. In X.108.8 we have another Rishi Ayasya associated with the Navagwa
Angirases. In X.67 this Ayasya is described as our father who found the vast seven-headed Thought that was born out of
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Tradition asserts the separate existence of two classes of Angiras Rishis, the one Navagwas who sacrificed for nine months, the other Dashagwas whose sessions of sacrifice endured for ten. According to this interpretation we must take Navagwa and Dashagwa as "nine-cowed" and "ten-cowed", each cow representing collectively the thirty Dawns which constitute one month of the sacrificial year. But there is at least one passage of the Rig Veda which on its surface is in direct conflict with the traditional interpretation. For in the seventh verse of V.45 and again in the eleventh we are told that it was the Navagwas, not the Dashagwas, who sacrificed or chanted the hymn for ten months. This seventh verse runs, Anunod atra hastayato adrir, arcan yena dasa maso navagvah.; r.tam yat sarama ga avindad, visvani satya Angiras cakara, "Here cried (or, moved) the stone impelled by the hand, whereby the Navagwas chanted for ten months the hymn; Sarama travelling to the Truth found the cows; all things the Angiras made true." And in verse 11 we have the assertion repeated; Dhiyam vo apsu dadhis.e svars.am, yayataran dasa maso navagvah.; aya dhiya syama devagopa, aya dhiya tuturyama ati amhah.. "I hold for you in the waters (i.e. the seven Rivers) the thought that wins possession of heaven2
(this is once more the seven-headed thought born from the Truth and found by Ayasya), by which the Navagwas passed through the ten months; by this thought may we have the gods for protectors, by this thought may we pass through beyond the evil."
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Must we then suppose that the poet of this hymn had forgotten the tradition and was confusing the Dashagwas and Navagwas? Such a supposition is inadmissible. The difficulty arises because we suppose the Navagwas and Dashagwas to have been in the minds of the Vedic Rishis two different classes of Angiras
Rishis; rather these seem to have been two different powers of
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Swar in which we possess the truth of the one universal Deva, is disclosed and conquered. This conquest of Swar is the aim of the sacrifice and the great work accomplished by the Angiras
Rishis.
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Dashagwas. Hymned by the Angiras Rishis Indra opens up the darkness by the Dawn and the Sun and the Cows, he spreads out the high plateau of the earthly hill into wideness and upholds the higher world of heaven. For the result of the opening up of the higher planes of consciousness is to increase the wideness of the physical, to raise the height of the mental. "This, indeed," says the Rishi Nodha, "is his mightiest work, the fairest achievement of the achiever," dasmasya carutamam asti damsah., "that the four upper rivers streaming honey nourish the two worlds of the crookedness," upahvare yad upara apinvan madhvarn.aso nadyas catasrah.. This is again the honey-streaming well pouring down its many streams together; the four higher rivers of the divine being, divine conscious force, divine delight, divine truth nourishing the two worlds of the mind and body into which they descend with their floods of sweetness. These two, the Rodasi, are normally worlds of crookedness, that is to say of the falsehood, - the r.tam or Truth being the straight, the anr.tam or Falsehood the crooked, - because they are exposed to the harms of the undivine powers, Vritras and Panis, sons of darkness and division. They now become forms of the truth, the knowledge, vayuna, agreeing with outer action and this is evidently Gritsamada's carato anyad anyad and his ya cakara vayuna brahman.aspatih.. The Rishi then proceeds to define the result of the work of Ayasya, which is to reveal the true eternal and unified form of earth and heaven. "In their twofold
(divine and human?) Ayasya uncovered by his hymns the two, eternal and in one nest; perfectly achieving he upheld earth and
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Dawn, the dark physical and the illumined mental consciousness that they new-born (punarbhuva) about heaven and earth move into each other with their own proper movements, svebhir evaih. . . . carato anyanya (cf. Gritsamada's ayatanta carato anyad anyad, ayatanta bearing the same sense as svebhir evaih., i.e. spontaneously), in the eternal friendship that is worked out by the high achievement of their son who thus upholds them, sanemi sakhyam svapasyamanah., sunur dadhara savasa sudamsah.. In Gritsamada's hymn as in Nodha's the Angirases attain to Swar, - the Truth from which they originally came, the "own home" of all divine Purushas, - by the attainment of the truth and by the detection of the falsehood. "They who travel towards the goal and attain that treasure of the Panis, the supreme treasure hidden in the secret cave, they, having the knowledge and perceiving the falsehoods, rise up again thither whence they came and enter into that world. Possessed of the truth, beholding the falsehoods they, seers, rise up again into the great path," mahas pathah., the path of the Truth, or the great and wide realm, Mahas of the Upanishads.
We begin now to unravel the knot of this Vedic imagery.
Brihaspati is the seven-rayed Thinker, saptaguh., saptarasmih., he is the seven-faced or seven-mouthed Angiras, born in many forms, saptasyas tuvijatah., nine-rayed, ten-rayed. The seven mouths are the seven Angirases who repeat the divine word
(brahma) which comes from the seat of the Truth, Swar, and of which he is the lord (brahman.aspatih.). Each also corresponds to
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The legend of the Angirases takes up and combines all these three essential features of the Vedic imagery. The Angirases are pilgrims of the light. The phrase naks.antah. or abhinaks.antah. is constantly used to describe their characteristic action. They are those who travel towards the goal and attain to the highest, abhinaks.anto abhi ye tam anasur nidhim paramam, "they who travel to and attain that supreme treasure" (II.24.6). Their action is invoked for carrying forward the life of man farther towards its goal, sahasrasave pra tiranta ayuh. (III.53.7). But this journey, if principally of the nature of a quest, the quest of the hidden light, becomes also by the opposition of the powers of darkness an expedition and a battle. The Angirases are heroes and fighters of that battle, gos.u yodhah., "fighters for the cows or rays".
Indra marches with them saran.yubhih., as travellers on the path, sakhibhih., comrades, r.kvabhih. and kavibhih., seers and singers of the sacred chant, but also satvabhih., fighters in the battle.
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Angirases also conquer in the strength of the Soma. Sarama threatens the Panis with the coming of Ayasya and the Navagwa Angirases in the keen intensity of their Soma rapture, eha gamann r.s.ayah. somasita ayasyo Angiraso navagvah. (X.108.8). It is the great force by which men have the power to follow the path of the Truth. "That rapture of the Soma we desire by which thou,
O Indra, didst make to thrive the Might of Swar (or the Swarsoul, svarn.aram), that rapture ten-rayed and making a light of knowledge (or, shaking the whole being with its force, dasagvam vepayantam) by which thou didst foster the ocean; that Somaintoxication by which thou didst drive forward the great waters
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But it is especially the Word that the Angirases possess; their seerhood is their most distinguishing characteristic. They are brahman.asah. pitarah. somyasah. . . . r.tavr.dhah. (VI.75.10), the fathers who are full of the Soma and have the word and are therefore increasers of the Truth. Indra in order to impel them on the path joins himself to the chanted expressions of their thought and gives fullness and force to the words of their soul, Angirasam ucatha jujus.van brahma tutod gatum is.n.an (II.20.5).
The Seven-Headed Thought, Swar and the Dashagwas 185
It is when enriched in light and force of thought by the Angirases that Indra completes his victorious journey and reaches the goal on the mountain; "In him our primal fathers, the seven seers, the Navagwas, increase their plenty, him victorious on his march and breaking through (to the goal), standing on the mountain, inviolate in speech, most luminous-forceful by his thinkings," naks.ad-dabham taturim parvates.t.ham, adroghavacam matibhih. savis.t.ham (VI.22.2). It is by singing the Rik, the hymn of illumination, that they find the solar illuminations in the cave of our being, arcanto7 ga avindan (I.62.2). It is by the stubh, the all-supporting rhythm of the hymn of the seven seers, by the vibrating voice of the Navagwas that Indra becomes full of the power of Swar, svaren.a svaryah. and by the cry of the Dashagwas that he rends Vala in pieces (I.62.4). For this cry is the voice of the higher heaven, the thunder that cries in the lightning-flash of Indra, and the advance of the Angirases on their path is the forward movement of this cry of the heavens, pra brahman.o Angiraso naks.anta, pra krandanur nabhanyasya vetu (VII.42.1); for we are told that the voice of Brihaspati the Angirasa discovering the Sun and the Dawn and the Cow and the light of the Word is the thunder of Heaven, br.haspatir us.asam suryam gam, arkam viveda stanayann iva dyauh. (X.67.5). It is by the satya mantra, the true thought expressed in the rhythm of the truth, that the hidden light is found and the Dawn brought to birth, gud.ham jyotih. pitaro anvavindan, satyamantra ajanayann us.asam (VII.76.4). For these are the Angirases who speak aright, ittha vadadbhih. angirobhih. (VI.18.5), masters of the Rik who place perfectly their thought, svadhbhir r.kvabhih. (VI.32.2); they are the sons of heaven, heroes of the Mighty Lord who speak the truth and think the straightness and therefore they are able to hold the seat of illumined knowledge, to mentalise the supreme abode of the sacrifice, r.tam samsanta r.ju ddhyana, divas putraso asurasya vrah.; vipram padam Angiraso dadhana, yajnasya dhama prathamam mananta (X.67.2).
Arcati (r.c) in the Veda means to shine and to sing the Rik; arka means sun, light and the Vedic hymn.
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1.18 - The Human Fathers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
HESE characteristics of the Angiras Rishis seem at first sight to indicate that they are in the Vedic system a class of demigods, in their outward aspect personifications or rather personalities of the Light and the Voice and the Flame, but in their inner aspect powers of the Truth who second the gods in their battles. But even as divine seers, even as sons of Heaven and heroes of the Lord, these sages represent aspiring humanity. True, they are originally the sons of the gods, devaputrah., children of Agni, forms of the manifoldly born Brihaspati, and in their ascent to the world of the Truth they are described as ascending back to the place from whence they came; but even in these characteristics they may well be representative of the human soul which has itself descended from that world and has to reascend; for it is in its origin a mental being, son of immortality (amr.tasya putrah.), a child of Heaven born in Heaven and mortal only in the bodies that it assumes. And the part of the Angiras Rishis in the sacrifice is the human part, to find the word, to sing the hymn of the soul to the gods, to sustain and increase the divine Powers by the praise, the sacred food and the
Soma-wine, to bring to birth by their aid the divine Dawn, to win the luminous forms of the all-radiating Truth and to ascend to its secret, far and high-seated home.
In this work of the sacrifice they appear in a double form,1 the divine Angirases, r.s.ayo divyah., who symbolise and preside over certain psychological powers and workings like the gods, and the human fathers, pitaro manus.yah., who like the Ribhus, also described as human beings or at least human powers that
It is to be noted that the Puranas distinguish specifically between two classes of Pitris, the divine Fathers, a class of deities, and the human Ancestors, to both of whom the pin.d.a is offered. The Puranas, obviously, only continue in this respect the original Vedic tradition.
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Mandala in which the Angirases are spoken of as Barhishad
Pitris along with the Bhrigus and Atharvans and receive their own peculiar portion in the sacrifice, they are in the rest of the
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The hymn is therefore an invocation to Agni for the journey to the supreme good, the divine birth, the bliss. And its opening verse is a prayer for the necessary conditions of the journey, the things that are said here to constitute the form of the pilgrim sacrifice, adhvarasya pesah., and among these comes first the forward movement of the Angirases; "Forward let the Angirases travel, priests of the Word, forward go the cry of heaven (or, of the heavenly thing, cloud or lightning), forward move the fostering Cows that diffuse their waters, and let the two pressing-stones be yoked (to their work) - the form of the pilgrim sacrifice," pra brahman.o Angiraso naks.anta, pra krandanur nabhanyasya vetu; pra dhenava udapruto navanta, yujyatam adr adhvarasya pesah.. The Angirases with the divine
Word, the cry of Heaven which is the voice of Swar the luminous heaven and of its lightnings thundering out from the Word, the divine waters or seven rivers that are set free to their flowing by that heavenly lightning of Indra the master of Swar, and with the outflowing of the divine waters the outpressing of the immortalising Soma, these constitute the form, pesah., of the adhvara yajna. And its general characteristic is forward movement, the advance of all to the divine goal, as emphasised by the three verbs of motion, naks.anta, vetu, navanta and the emphatic pra, forward, which opens and sets the key to each clause.
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And the third verse runs, "May the Angirases who hasten through to the goal move in their travelling to the bliss of the divine Savitri; and that (bliss) may our great Father, he of the sacrifice, and all the gods becoming of one mind accept in heart." Turan.yavo naks.anta ratnam devasya savitur iyanah.. It is quite clear therefore that the Angirases are travellers to the light and truth of the solar deity from which are born the luminous cows they wrest from the Panis and to the bliss which, as we always see, is founded on that light and truth. It is clear also that this journey is a growing into the godhead, into the infinite being (aditayah. syama), said in this hymn (verse 2) to come by the growth of the peace and bliss through the action in us of
Mitra, Varuna and the Vasus who protect us in the godhead and the mortality.
In these two hymns the Angiras Rishis generally are mentioned; but in others we have positive references to the human Fathers who first discovered the Light and possessed the
Thought and the Word and travelled to the secret worlds of the luminous Bliss. In the light of the conclusions at which we have arrived, we can now study the more important passages, profound, beautiful and luminous, in which this great discovery of the human forefa thers is hymned. We shall find there the summary of that great hope which the Vedic mystics held ever before their eyes; that journey, that victory is the ancient, primal achievement set as a type by the luminous Ancestors for the mortality that was to come after them. It was the conquest of the powers of the circumscribing Night (ratr paritakmya), Vritras,
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Light. "Let there be that ancient friendship between you gods and us as when with the Angirases who spoke aright the word, thou didst make to fall that which was fixed and slewest Vala as he rushed against thee, O achiever of works, and thou didst make to swing open all the doors of his city" (VI.18.5). At the beginning of all human traditions there is this ancient memory.
It is Indra and the serpent Vritra, it is Apollo and the Python, it is Thor and the Giants, Sigurd and Fafner, it is the mutually opposing gods of the Celtic mythology; but only in the Veda do we find the key to this imagery which conceals the hope or the wisdom of a prehistoric humanity.
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Swar-possessing thought hymned by the Atris, the seven-headed thought discovered by Ayasya for the Navagwas; for in this hymn also it is spoken of in connection with the Angirases, the
Fathers. "The thought expressing itself from the heart, formed into the Stoma, goes towards Indra its lord." Indra is, we have supposed, the Power of luminous Mind, master of the world of
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And then the Rishi speaks of this Thought as "the mother of twins, who here gives birth to the twins; on the tip of the tongue it descends and stands; the twin bodies when they are born cleave to each other and are slayers of darkness and move in the foundation of burning force." I will not now discuss what are these luminous twins, for that would carry us beyond the limits of our immediate subject: suffice it to say that they are spoken of elsewhere in connection with the Angirases and their establishment of the supreme birth (the plane of the Truth) as the twins in whom Indra places the word of the expression
(I.83.3), that the burning force in whose foundation they move is evidently that of the Sun, the slayer of darkness, and this foundation is therefore identical with the supreme plane, the foundation of the Truth, r.tasya budhnah., and, finally, that they can hardly be wholly unconnected with the twin children of
Surya, Yama and Yami, - Yama who in the tenth Mandala is associated with the Angiras Rishis.3
Having thus described the ancestral thought with its twin
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Once we have the key to the meaning of the Cows, the Sun, the Honey-Wine, all the circumstances of the Angiras legend and the action of the Fathers, which are such an incongruous patchwork in the ritualistic or naturalistic and so hopelessly impossible in the historical or Arya-Dravidian interpretation of the hymns, become on the contrary perfectly clear and connected and each throws light on the other. We understand each hymn in its entirety and in relation to other hymns; each isolated line, each passage, each scattered reference in the Vedas falls inevitably and harmoniously into a common whole. We know, here, how the Honey, the Bliss can be said to be stored in the
Cow, the shining Light of the Truth; what is the connection of the honey-bearing Cow with the Sun, lord and origin of that
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Panis by the Angirases; why it is called the discovery of that
Truth; what is meant by the footed and hoofed wealth and the field or pasture of the Cow. We begin to see what is the cave of the Panis and why that which is hidden in the lair of Vala is said also to be hidden in the waters released by Indra from the hold of Vritra, the seven rivers possessed by the seven-headed heaven-conquering thought of Ayasya; why the rescue of the sun out of the cave, the separation or choosing of the light out of the darkness is said to be done by an all-discerning knowledge; who are Dakshina and Sarama and what is meant by Indra holding the hoofed wealth in his right hand. And in arriving at
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Vasishtha which I shall next examine, VII.76, although to a superficial glance it would seem to be only an ecstatic picture of the physical Dawn. This first impression, however, disappears when we examine it; we see that there is a constant suggestion of a profounder meaning and, the moment we apply the key we have found, the harmony of the real sense appears. The hymn commences with a description of that rising of the Sun into the light of the supreme Dawn which is brought about by the gods and the Angirases. "Savitri, the god, the universal Male, has ascended into the Light that is immortal and of all the births, jyotir amr.tam visvajanyam; by the work (of sacrifice) the eye of the gods has been born (or, by the will-power of the gods vision has been born); Dawn has manifested the whole world (or, all that comes into being, all existences, visvam bhuvanam)." This immortal light into which the sun rises is elsewhere called the true light, r.tam jyotih., Truth and immortality being constantly associated in the Veda. It is the light of the knowledge given by the seven-headed thought which Ayasya discovered when he became visvajanya, universal in his being; therefore this light too is called visvajanya, for it belongs to the fourth plane, the turyam svid of Ayasya, from which all the rest are born and by whose truth all the rest are manifested in their large universality and no longer in the limited terms of the falsehood and crookedness.
Therefore it is called also the eye of the gods and the divine dawn that makes manifest the whole of existence.
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What were these dawns? They were those created by the actions of the Fathers, the ancient Angirases. "They indeed had the joy (of the Soma) along with the gods,5 the ancient seers who possessed the truth; the fathers found the hidden Light; they, having the true thought (satyamantrah., the true thought expressed in the inspired Word), brought into being the Dawn."
And to what did the Dawn, the path, the divine journeying lead the Fathers? To the level wideness, samane urve, termed elsewhere the unobstructed vast, urau anibadhe, which is evidently the same as that wide being or world which, according to Kanwa, men create when they slay Vritra and pass beyond heaven and earth; it is the vast Truth and the infinite being of
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Vasus." It is evident that the seven Angirases, whether human or divine, represent different principles of the Knowledge, Thought or Word, the seven-headed thought, the seven-mouthed word of
Brihaspati, and in the level wideness these are harmonised in a universal knowledge; the error, crookedness, falsehood by which men violate the workings of the gods and by which different principles of their being, consciousness, knowledge enter into confused conflict with each other, have been removed by the eye or vision of the divine Dawn.
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(sunr.tanam). They desire to arrive at the same achievement as the primal seers, the fathers and it would follow that these are the human and not the divine Angirases. In any case the sense of the Angiras legend is fixed in all its details, except the exact identity of the Panis and the hound Sarama, and we can turn to the consideration of the passages in the opening hymns of the fourth Mandala in which the human fathers are explicitly mentioned and their achievement described. These hymns of
Vamadeva are the most illuminating and important for this aspect of the Angiras legend and they are in themselves among the most interesting in the Rig Veda.
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1.19 - The Victory of the Fathers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In order to hold clearly in our minds at the start what that great achievement was we may put before ourselves the clear and sufficient formulas in which Parashara Shaktya expresses them. "Our fathers broke open the firm and strong places by their words, yea, the Angirases broke open the hill by their cry; they made in us the path to the great heaven; they found the
Day and Swar and vision and the luminous Cows," cakrur divo br.hato gatum asme, ahah. svar vividuh. ketum usrah., (I.71.2).
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Note that in I.32 Hiranyastupa Angirasa describes the waters released from Vritra as "ascending the mind", mano ruhan.ah., and elsewhere they are called the waters that have the knowledge, apo vicetasah. (I.83.1).
202
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It is now perfectly clear that the achievement of the Angirases is the conquest of the Truth and the Immortality, that
Swar called also the great heaven, br.hat dyauh., is the plane of the Truth above the ordinary heaven and earth which can be no other than the ordinary mental and physical being; that the path of the great heaven, the path of the Truth created by the Angirases and followed by the hound Sarama is the path to the Immortality, amr.tatvaya gatum; that the vision (ketu) of the Dawn, the Day won by the Angirases, is the vision proper to the Truth-consciousness; that the luminous cows of the Sun and Dawn wrested from the Panis are the illuminations of this truth-consciousness which help to form the thought of the Truth, r.tasya dhtih., complete in the seven-headed thought of Ayasya; that the Night of the Veda is the obscured consciousness of the mortal being in which the Truth is subconscient, hidden in the cave of the hill; that the recovery of the lost sun lying in this darkness of Night is the recovery of the sun of Truth out of the darkened subconscient condition; and that the downflowing earthward of the seven rivers must be the outstreaming action of the sevenfold principle of our being as it is formulated in the
Truth of the divine or immortal existence. Equally then must the
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Truth went forward to it; the bright cows in their covering prison, the good milkers whose pen is in the rock they drove upward (to the Truth), the Dawns answered their call. They rent the hill asunder and made them bright; others all around them declared wide this (Truth) of theirs; drivers of the herds they sang the hymn to the doer of works (Agni), they found the light, they shone in their thoughts (or, they accomplished the work by their thoughts). They with the mind that seeks the light (the cows, gavyata manasa) rent the firm and compact hill that environed the luminous cows; the souls that desire opened by the divine word, vacasa daivyena, the firm pen full of the kine." These are the ordinary images of the Angiras legend, but in the next verse Vamadeva uses a still more mystic language.
"They conceived in mind the first name of the fostering cows, they found the thrice seven supreme (seats) of the Mother; the
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In the second hymn of the fourth Mandala we get very clearly and suggestively the parallelism of the seven Rishis who are the divine Angirases and the human fathers. The passage is preceded by four verses, IV.2.11-14, which bring in the idea of the human seeking after the Truth and the Bliss. "May he the knower discern perfectly the Knowledge and the Ignorance, the wide levels and the crooked that shut in mortals; and, O God, for a bliss fruitful in offspring, lavish on us Diti and protect Aditi."
This eleventh verse is very striking in its significance. We have the opposition of the Knowledge and the Ignorance familiar to
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work the bliss with its vast delight for his increasing, satisfying the doer of the work (or, the man, cars.an.iprah.). Now, O Agni, of all that we have done with our hands and our feet and our bodies the right thinkers (the Angirases) make as it were thy chariot by the work of the two arms (Heaven and Earth, bhurijoh.); seeking to possess the Truth they have worked their way to it (or won control of it)," r.tam yemuh. sudhya asus.an.ah.. "Now as the seven seers of Dawn the Mother, the supreme disposers (of the sacrifice), may we beget for ourselves the gods; may we become the
Angirases, sons of Heaven, breaking open the wealth-filled hill, shining in purity." We have here very clearly the seven divine
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The Angirases are again mentioned in IV.3.11, and some of the expressions which lead up to this verse, are worth noting; for it cannot be too often repeated that no verse in the Veda can be properly understood except by reference to its context, to its place in the thought of the Sukta, to all that precedes and all that follows. The hymn opens with a call to men to create Agni who sacrifices in the truth, to create him in his form of golden light (hiran.yarupam, the gold being always the symbol of the solar light of the Truth, r.tam jyotih.) before the Ignorance can form itself, pura tanayitnor acittat. The god is asked to awaken to the work of man and the truth in him as being himself "the
Truth-conscious who places aright the thought", r.tasya bodhi r.tacit svadhh., - for all falsehood is merely a wrong placing of the Truth. He is to refer all fault and sin and defect in man to the various godheads or divine powers of the Divine Being so that it may be removed and the man declared finally blameless before the Infinite Mother - aditaye anagasah., or for the infinite existence, as it is elsewhere expressed.
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Truth the Angirases broke open and hurled asunder the hill and came to union with the Cows; human souls, they took up their dwelling in the blissful Dawn, Swar became manifest when Agni was born. By Truth the divine immortal waters, unoppressed, with their honeyed floods, O Agni, like a horse breasting forward in its gallopings ran in an eternal flowing." These four verses in fact are meant to give the preliminary conditions for the great achievement of the Immortality. They are the symbols of the grand Mythus, the mythus of the Mystics in which they hid their supreme spiritual experience from the profane and, alas! effectively enough from their posterity. That they were secret symbols, images meant to reveal the truth which they protected but only to the initiated, to the knower, to the seer, Vamadeva himself tells us in the most plain and emphatic language in the last verse of this very hymn; "All these are secret words that I have uttered to thee who knowest, O Agni, O Disposer, words of leading, words of seer-knowledge that express their meaning to the seer, - I have spoken them illumined in my words and my thinkings"; eta visva vidus.e tubhyam vedho, nthani agne nin.ya vacamsi; nivacana kavaye kavyani, asamsis.am matibhir vipra ukthaih.. Secret words that have kept indeed their secret ignored by the priest, the ritualist, the grammarian, the pandit, the historian, the mythologist, to whom they have been words of darkness or seals of confusion and not what they were to the supreme ancient forefa thers and their illumined posterity, nin.ya vacamsi nthani nivacana kavyani.
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1.20 - The Hound of Heaven, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
HERE yet remain two constant features of the Angiras legend with regard to which we have to acquire a little farther light in order to master entirely this Vedic conception of the Truth and the discovery of the illuminations of the Dawn by the primeval Fathers; we have to fix the identity of Sarama and the exact function of the Panis, two problems of
Vedic interpretation which are very closely related to each other.
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There is a verse, I.104.5, which does not mention her name, nor is the hymn itself about the Angirases or Panis, yet the line describes accurately enough the part attributed to her in the
Veda: - "When this guide became visible, she went, knowing, towards the seat that is as if the home of the Dasyu," prati yat sya ntha adarsi dasyor, oko na accha sadanam janat gat. These are the two essential characteristics of Sarama; the knowledge comes to her beforehand, before vision, springs up instinctively at the least indication and with that knowledge she guides the rest of the faculties and divine powers that seek. And she leads to that seat, sadanam, the home of the Destroyers, which is at the other pole of existence to the seat of the Truth, sadanam r.tasya, in the cave or secret place of darkness, guhayam, just as the home of the gods is in the cave or secrecy of light. In other words, she is a power descended from the superconscient
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Dashagwa Angirases, V.45. The first three verses summarise the great achievement. "Severing the hill of heaven by the words he found them, yea, the radiant ones of the arriving Dawn went abroad; he uncovered those that were in the pen, Swar rose up; a god opened the human doors. The Sun attained widely to strength and glory; the Mother of the Cows (the Dawn), knowing, came from the wideness; the rivers became rushing floods, floods that cleft (their channel), heaven was made firm like a well-shaped pillar. To this word the contents of the pregnant hill
(came forth) for the supreme birth of the Great Ones (the rivers or, less probably, the dawns); the hill parted asunder, heaven was perfected (or, accomplished itself); they lodged (upon earth) and distributed the largeness." It is of Indra and the Angirases that the Rishi is speaking, as the rest of the hymn shows and
The Hound of Heaven
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as is indeed evident from the expressions used; for these are the usual formulas of the Angiras mythus and repeat the exact expressions that are constantly used in the hymns of the delivery of the Dawn, the Cows and the Sun. We know already what they mean. The hill of our already formed triple existence which rises into heaven at its summit is rent asunder by Indra and the hidden illuminations go abroad; Swar, the higher heaven of the superconscient, is manifested by the upward streaming of the brilliant herds. The sun of Truth diffuses all the strength and glory of its light, the inner Dawn comes from the luminous wideness instinct with knowledge, - janat gat, the same phrase that is used of her who leads to the house of the Dasyu in I.104.5; and of Sarama in
III.31.6, - the rivers of the Truth, representing the outflow of its being and its movement (r.tasya pres.a), descend in their rushing streams and make a channel here for their waters; heaven, the mental being, is perfected and made firm like a well-shaped pillar to support the vast Truth of the higher or immortal life that is now made manifest and the largeness of that Truth is lodged here in all the physical being. The delivery of the pregnant contents of the hill, parvatasya garbhah., the illuminations constituting the seven-headed thought, r.tasya dhtih., which come forth in answer to the inspired word, leads to the supreme birth of the seven great rivers who constitute the substance of the Truth put into active movement, r.tasya pres.a.
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that attack and divide, dves.amsi); let us go forward towards the Master of the sacrifice. Come, let us create the Thought, O friends, (obviously, the seven-headed Angiras-thought), which is the Mother (Aditi or the Dawn) and removes the screening pen of the Cow." The significance is clear enough; it is in such passages as these that the inner sense of the Veda half disengages itself from the veil of the symbol.
Then the Rishi speaks of the great and ancient example which men are called upon to repeat, the example of the Angirases, the achievement of Sarama. "Here the stone was set in motion whereby the Navagwas chanted the hymn for the ten months, Sarama going to the Truth found the cows, the Angiras made all things true. When in the dawning of this vast One (Usha representing the infinite Aditi, mata devanam aditer ankam) all the Angirases came together with the cows (or rather, perhaps by the illuminations represented in the symbol of the cows or Rays); there was the fountain of these (illuminations) in the supreme world; by the path of the Truth Sarama found the cows." Here we see that it is through the movement of Sarama going straight to the Truth by the path of the Truth, that the seven seers, representing the seven-headed or seven-rayed thought of Ayasya and Brihaspati, find all the concealed illuminations and by force of these illuminations they all come together, as we have been already told by Vasishtha, in the level wideness, samane urve, from which the Dawn has descended with the knowledge (urvad janat gat, v. 2) or, as it is here expressed, in the dawning of this vast One, that is to say, in the infinite consciousness. There, as Vasishtha has said, they, united, agree in knowledge and do not strive together, sangatasah. sam janate na yatante mithas te, that is to say, the seven become as one, as is indicated in another hymn; they become the one seven-mouthed Angiras, an image corresponding to that of the seven-headed thought, and it is this single unified Angiras who makes all things true as the result of Sarama's discovery (verse 7). The harmonised, united, perfected Seer-Will corrects all falsehood and crookedness and turns all thought, life, action into terms of the Truth. In this hymn also the action of Sarama is precisely that of the Intuition
The Hound of Heaven
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"like a ship guided by the thinkers" and the descent upon man of the waters of that ocean in response to their call. In those waters the sevenfold thought of the Angiras is established by the human seer. If we remember that the Sun represents the light of the superconscient or truth-conscious knowledge and the luminous ocean the realms of the superconscient with their thrice seven seats of the Mother Aditi, the sense of these symbolic expressions2 will not be difficult to understand. It is the highest attainment of the supreme goal which follows upon the complete achievement of the Angirases, their united ascent to the plane of the Truth, just as that achievement follows upon the discovery of the herds by Sarama.
Another hymn of great importance in this connection is the thirty-first of the third Mandala, by Vishwamitra. "Agni (the
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The rest of the hymn continues to describe the achievement of the Angirases and Indra. "He went, the greatest seer of them all, doing them friendship; the pregnant hill sent forth its contents for the doer of perfect works; in the strength of manhood he with the young ( Angirases) seeking plenitude of riches attained possession, then singing the hymn of light he became at once the Angiras. Becoming in our front the form and measure of each existing thing, he knows all the births, he slays Shushna"; that is to say, the Divine Mind assumes a form answering to each existing thing in the world and reveals its true divine image and meaning and slays the false force that distorts knowledge and action. "Seeker of the cows, traveller to the seat of heaven, singing the hymns, he, the Friend, delivers his friends out of all defect (of right self-expression). With a mind that sought the
Light (the cows) they entered their seats by the illumining words, making the path towards Immortality (ni gavyata manasa sedur arkaih. kr.n.vanaso amr.tatvaya gatum). This is that large seat of theirs, the Truth by which they took possession of the months
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He has found the great, manifold and blissful Field (the wide field of the cows, Swar); and he has sent forth together all the moving herd for his friends. Indra shining out by the human souls (the Angirases) has brought into being, together, the Sun, the Dawn, the Path and the Flame."
And in the remaining verses the same figures continue, with an intervention of the famous image of the rain which has been so much misunderstood. "The Ancient-born I make new that I may conquer. Do thou remove our many undivine hurters and set
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Veda do not add anything essential to the conception. We have a brief allusion in IV.16.8, "When thou didst tear the waters out of the hill, Sarama became manifest before thee; so do thou as our leader tear out much wealth for us, breaking the pens, hymned by the Angirases." It is the Intuition manifesting before the Divine Mind as its forerunner when there is the emergence of the waters, the streaming movements of the Truth that break out of the hill in which they were confined by Vritra (verse 7); and it is by means of the Intuition that this godhead becomes our leader to the rescue of the Light and the conquest of the much wealth hidden within in the rock behind the fortress gates of the Panis.
We find another allusion to Sarama in a hymn by Parashara
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which finds no place in the Rig Veda itself. The Veda says, "In the sacrifice" or, as it more probably means, "in the seeking of Indra and the Angirases (for the cows) Sarama discovered a foundation for the Son," vidat sarama tanayaya dhasim (I.62.3); for such is the more likely sense here of the word dhasim. The son is in all probability the son born of the sacrifice, a constant element in the Vedic imagery and not the dog-race born of Sarama.
We have similar phrases in the Veda as in I.96.4, matarisva puruvarapus.t.ir vidad gatum tanayaya svarvit, "Matarishwan
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1.2 - Katha Upanishads, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Bharadwaja told it, the Bharadwaja to Angiras, both the
higher and the lower knowledge.
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3. Shaunaka, the great house-lord, came to Angiras in the due
way of the disciple and asked of him, "Lord, by knowing
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4. To him thus spoke Angiras: Twofold is the knowledge that
must be known of which the knowers of the Brahman tell,
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1.3 - Mundaka Upanishads, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
11. This is That, the Truth of things, which the seer Angiras
spoke of old. This none learns who has not performed the
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2.01 - Mandala One, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(3) To the Angiras seers thou hast uncovered the pen of the cows and wast to Atri the finder of the path amid the hundred doors and even in sleep thou broughtest to Vimada the treasure when thou madest dance thy adamant bolt in the battle while he shone with light.
(4) And thou hast uncovered the veiling lids of the waters and held on the mountain the bountiful treasure. O Indra, when thou slewest the Coverer, the Serpent by thy might, then thou madest the Sun to climb up into heaven for sight.
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(1) We are thinking a hymn of strength, a hymn of power to the great One when he puts forth his strength, to the lover of our words, even as did the Angiras seers. Praising him with clear cuttings of our speech we would sing a song of illumination to the master of the words of light, to the strong god whom on all sides we hear.
(2) Bring for the great One a great adoration, the Sama of power for the god when he puts forth his strength, by which our ancient fathers the Angirases knew the foothold tracks and singing the word of light found the herd of the rays.
(3) In the sacrifice of Indra and the Angirases Sarama discovered a foundation for the Son, Brihaspati broke the rock of the mountain and discovered the herd of the rays and the shining cattle lowed and the Strong Ones cried out with them.
(4) He of the sun-world by stanzaed hymn and perfect verse with the seven nine-rayed sages rent by his cry the mountain; O Indra, O Puissant, thou with the ten-rayed travellers of the path torest Vala into pieces by thy cry.
(5) Hymned by the Angirases, O potent god, thou laidst open the darkness by the Dawn and the Sun and the herd of the rays. O Indra, thou madest wide the tops of earth and proppedst up the upper shining world of heaven.
(6) This is the most worshipful and fairest work of the potent god that he increased in the crooked declivity the four rivers of the upper world whose streams are honey wine.
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(4) He shall become most Angiras with the Angirases, strong with the strong, a comrade with the comrades, a singer of the word of light with the singers of the word, the Eldest with those who make the journey.
May that Indra with his retinue of Maruts be with us for our increase.
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(2) Let the gods, hymned by the Sama verses of the Angirases, come to us with cherishing and Indra with his Indra-powers and the Maruts with the Maruts and the infinite Mother with her Sun children extend bliss and peace.
(3) That gladness may Indra, that Varuna, that Aryaman, that Savitri lodge in us. This let Mitra and Varuna and the Mother Infinite magnify in me and the great River and Earth and Heaven.
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2.3.2 - Chhandogya Upanishad, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
10. Angiras worshipped OM of Udgitha as Breath in the mouth
and men think of Breath in the mouth as Angiras because it
is essence of the members of the body.
11. By the strength of Angiras, Brihaspati worshipped OM as
Breath in the mouth, and men think of the Breath as Brihaspati, because Speech is the great goddess and Breath is the
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2 - Other Hymns to Agni, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
6. O Fire, the happy good that thou wilt create for the giver, is That Truth of thee, O Angiras.
7. To thee, O Fire, day by day, in the dawn and in the dusk, we come bringing to thee by the thought our obeisance,
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5. Him men call the man complete in his offering, complete in his gods, complete in his base of sacrifice, O Angiras, O Son of Force.
6. Thou bringest both those gods here that we may express them and bearest, O rich in delight, the offerings on their journey (or, to be expressed and to eat the offerings).
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KUTSA AngirasA
SUKTA 94
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within us; may we become the Angirasas, sons of Heaven
and, shining with light, break the hill that has within it the
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11. By the Truth the Angiras-seers broke the hill, they parted
it asunder, they moved34 together with the Ray-Cows; men
--
15. O Fire, become great of mind by these hymns of illumination, by our thinkings touch these plenitudes, O heroic Flame, so take joy in the words of knowledge, O Angiras, let our speech expressing thee come close to thee, enjoyed by the gods.
16. Thus have I, an illumined sage, by my thoughts and utterances spoken to thee, who knowest, O Fire, O creator, secret words of guidance, seer-wisdoms that speak out their sense to the seer.41
--
7. Take pleasure in our pilgrim-rite, in our sacrifice, O Angiras, hear our call.
8. Let thy invincible car reach us and move round us on every side by which thou guardest the givers of the offering.
--
so do thou accept us, O Angiras, a godhead kindled by the
glory of a mortal and by his high illuminings.
--
7. Thou, O Fire, O Angiras, after and during the laud bring
to us riches of a far-reaching force, O priest of the call, for
--
6. Thee, O Fire, the Angiras sought and found hidden in the
secrecy lodging in tree and tree; by our pressure on thee thou
--
DHARUNA AngirasA
SUKTA 15
--
thee; O Fire, O Angiras, as the human offer sacrifice to the
gods for the seeker of the godheads.
--
10. Let our sacrifices go towards him united in their effort, to him most fiery-wise of the Angirasas who is the priest of the call in men and most glorious.
11. O ageless Fire, those lights of thine kindling the Vast are like male and mighty horses;
--
as by my father, by Mandhata, by the Angiras; protect us
with triple peace, may we be masters of the riches.
VIRUPA AngirasA
SUKTA 43
--
as did Manu, as did Angiras.
(v\ V`n
--
18. For thee, O most luminous Angiras, all those worlds of
happy dwelling, each in its separate power, labour for thy
--
luminous Angiras, O Fire, become aware of my word.
yd`n
--
8. O most luminous Angiras, taking pleasure in these offerings
lead the sacrifice uninterruptedly in the way of the Truth,16
--
2. For, towards thee, O Son of force, O Angiras, the ladles
move in the rite of the path; we seek the child of Energy
--
SUDITI AND PURUMILHA AngirasA
SUKTA 71
--
VIRUPA AngirasA
SUKTA 75
--
5. O Angiras, by words which bear in them the invocation,
bring down nearer that sacrifice as the heaven's craftsmen
--
4. O divine Fire, O Angiras, O child of energy, by what word,
the laud, for thy supreme thinking?
--
seer, the immortal, the carrier of offering, O Angiras.
ts\ (vA kv
--
9. O divine maker of forms, since thou hast reached beauty in thy works, since thou hast become companion in thy being to the Angiras seers, forward then to the goal of the journeyings of the gods, for thou knowest it! Aspiring, perfect in ecstasy, sacrifice to the gods, O giver of the treasure.
10. O Tree, knowing the goal of the journeyings of the gods, bear us to it binding with the radiant cord. May the godhead fashion the offerings in which he takes pleasure: may heaven and earth protect our call.
--
SAMVANANA AngirasA
SUKTA 191
--
sacrifice, is thine only and is that Truth, O Angiras.1
To thee day by day, O Flame, in night and in light we come
--
1 The seven Angiras seers, sons of the Flame, discovered, says the Veda, that Truth,
the sun that was lodged in the darkness. This inconscient darkness is figured as the
cave of the Panis; Indra and the Angiras seers enter and find the shining cows of the
Dawn, the Dawn herself, the Day, the Sun, the vision of knowledge and man's path to
--
adorers of Vayu. The name Angiras is given also to the gods as finders of the Truth.
Translations of the First Hymn of the Rig Veda
--
giver is That Truth and verily thine, O Angiras!
7. To thee, O Flame, we day by day, in the night and in the
--
truth of thee, O Angiras.
7. To thee we come, O Flame, day by day in the dark and in
--
That Truth of thee, O Angiras.
7. To thee, O Fire, day by day, in the dawn and in the dusk,
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34.09 - Hymn to the Pillar, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08, #unset, #Zen
Out of that they carved out the Riks, out of that they fashioned the Yajur: the Samas are its hair. The line of the Atharvas and the line of the Angirasa are its mouth. Of that Pillar speak - which one indeed is it?
(21)
--
The Winds are its higher and lower breath, the Angiras13
2 Fire-adept Rishis. became its eyes, That created the directions as openings to knowledge. To That the most Ancient, the Brahman we bow down.
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37.04 - The Story Of Rishi Yajnavalkya, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08, #unset, #Zen
After Asvala had finished, another got up. This was the Rishi Artabhaga of the family of Jaratkaru. The dialogue that ensued between him and Yajnavalkya forms another chapter of the Upanishadic lore. Then arose Rishi Bhujyu of the Lahya family. He began with a rather amusing story. "Yajnavalkya," he said, "when in my student days I was travelling round the country, I happened to be in the Madra region once. 1 was the guest of a householder whose name was Patanjala. Patanjala had a daughter who was possessed by an evil spirit. We were familiar with this particular one - it was a Gandharva. I asked him, 'Who are you?' The Gandharva replied, 'I am Sudhanvan born of the family of Angiras.' From this Gandharva, we had learnt a few things about the other worlds. That is why I am going to ask you, Yajnavalkya, a few questions about those other worlds. If your answers tally with those of the Gandharva, then I shall admit that you really know." Yajnavalkya repeated exactly what the Gandharva had said. After Bhujyu it was the turn of Ushasti Chakrayana, who was followed by Kahola Kaushitakeya.
And now there arose Gargi, the daughter of Vachaknu. Gargi began with the question, "Yajnavalkya, all this here is permeated by the waters. What then permeates the waters?"
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3 - Commentaries and Annotated Translations, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
loves. Agni as Angiras is the lord of love.
7 up (vA`n
--
to the sacrificer, this is that truth of thee, O Agni Angiras"; the
religious, "O beloved, that thou, O strong Agni, meanest to do
--
create for the giver, thine verily is that truth, O Angiras." This
is interpreted ritualistically, "The good that thou wilt do to
--
tat satyam, Agni is described as the Angiras. The coincidence
can hardly be fortuitous. Now the Angiras of the Veda, we shall
find, is precisely the seer-puissance or seer-will, kavikratuh. So
the good which Agni, the Angiras or seer-will, is to create for
the human soul, giver of the sacrifice, is that divine Truth now
--
O Fire, thou art the first seer, the most full of thy Angiras flameforce and thou encompassest with thy being all the works of
the gods; pervading thinker of every world, builder (or child) of
--
his gods, complete in his base of sacrifice, O Angiras, O Son
of Force.
--
The Divine Force, the Angiras, the puissance of Seer Will and
the Son of Strength overpowering the Panis and Vritras, effects
--
meaning to the name aE`n itself. But Angiras has a special sense
in the Veda; Agni is the original Angiras and the seven seers are
the powers of the luminous Flame, his children. The Angiras is
the Seer who seeks the Light by the force of the will and finds
--
as the army of Indra. Agni Angiras is the Seer-Puissance; that
as the messenger makes the human activities acceptable to the
--
the connection between the epithet Angiras, Seer-Puissance, and
the description "Son of Force" is very close, eg V.11.6, (vAm`n
--
makest to be seen by all, him indeed, O Angiras, son of Force,
all men speak of as having good offerings, a good godhead and
--
nA\gnAEdg;Zy;?t - y7A a\EgrsA\ vErS. Obviously "O most Angiras" cannot mean merely the best of the
Angirases, it must mean one who has most the qualities of the
--
of the seven-mouthed Angiras Brihaspati which wins the Sun,
the Dawn, the Herds etc, s$y snt^, therefore b} sAnEs.
--
at random; because Agni is the most Angiras, has most power
of seer-will for the word that conquers the desired luminous
--
the Angirases), that is most skilful by his right knowledge and
right force to order rightly the hymn in relation to the stages of
--
the wealth as did the hymn of the Angirases in connection with
whose achievement the word sn^ is continually used.
--
O best of the Angirases, O very intelligent one, then may
we speak to thee a pleasing and enjoyable hymn.
--
Hymns of Kutsa Angirasa
I.94 - 98 .. 101 - 115
--
Ancestors (the Gritsamadas are Bhargavas); as the Angirasas
are powers of Agni, so the Bhrigus are powers of Surya.
--
pvtEvlA\tvEt tm,, and explains, "The Angirasas surrounded by
the mountains in the cavern darkness drove up out of the cleft
--
may we become Angirasas, sons of heaven, being purely bright
may we break the hill full of substance.
--
Divas putra Angiraso bhavema, adrim rujema dhaninam
shuchantah.
--
a\Egrso. The sense seems to be, "Let us, Angirasas in bodily
birth, be truly Angirasas in our spiritual being." Sy. says B$Etm\t,
-yAm for which I see no justification, nor for his rendering of the
--
By truth the Angirasas broke the hill and parted it asunder and
they moved forward with the herds of light; men, they entered
--
the soul-mantras, O Angiras, & let that expression of thee manifesting thy godhead (manifested by the gods) woo thee for us.
a\Egr,. Sy. y
--
purve pitarah, and of the seven Angiras Rishis who founded
the Vedic religion. The solar gods, children of Infinity, Adityah,
--
have been the work of the Angiras Rishis. Here the making of
Agni so to shine is attri buted to Apnavana and the Bhrigus and
--
[that] the Bhrigus like the Angiras Rishis were founders of the
esoteric Vedic knowledge and discipline? But this supposition,
--
of Knowledge, just as the Angiras Rishis are very evidently the
Mandala Four
--
the nine or the ten months of the sacrifice of the Angirases,
that the Sun, Master of the Truth, the Wisdom, was recovered
--
and the Angirases. If the meaning of Agni is the inner flame, this
gets a striking, appropriate and profound meaning. In the Veda
--
This is a sense which is quite inappropriate in many passages and n could not have come to mean men, if it had meant leaders. n meant originally to move (cf nt^ to dance, nAr water etc.), n must have meant mobile, active and so strong. This sense is proved by the word nMZ which is certainly used in the Veda in the sense of strength. n is a word applied to the gods, the Males, Strong Ones, Purushas as opposed to the `nA,, the females, goddesses (Gr. gune, woman); it is applied to the fathers, the Angirases or others; it is used as an equivalent to vFr, as in nvd^ vs; for vFrvd^ vs;. These are, it seems to me, conclusive indications of the Vedic sense of n. Here it is used for the Fathers or ancient Seers as can be seen from many parallel passages. Tm\. S. takes "before the other gods", but that has no force in this passage, - what would be the sense of desiring Agni and following him to Heaven first, the other gods afterwards, as if the journey had to be undertaken many times, - and it ignores the Tm of the first line of which this is an evident resumptive repetition.
dvy\t,. Nominal vb. from
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BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
who, having had for his guru Brihaspati's father, Angiras, befriends his son. Indra is here the Indian
prototype of Michael, the Archistrategus and the slayer of the "Dragon's" angels -- since one of his
--
(Pitris, fathers), Angirases** (Ibid, 1, 31, 17, 139, et seq.), the Sadhyas, "divine sacrificers," the most
occult of all. They are all called deva putra rishayah or "the Sons of God" (X., 62; 1, 4). The
--
** Prof. Roth (in Peter's Lexicon) defines the Angirases as an intermediate race of higher beings
between gods and men; while Prof. Weber, according to his invariable custom of modernising and
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