पाकः पृच्छामि मनसाविजानन् देवानामेन निहिता पदानि।
pākaḥ pṛcchāmi manasāvijānan devānāmena nihitā padāni
अचिकित्वाञ्चिकितुषश्चिदत्र कवीन् पृच्छामि विद्मने न विद्वान्।
वि यस्तस्तम्भ षळिमा रजांस्यजस्य रूपे किमपि स्विदेकम्॥
acikitvāñcikituṣaścidatra kavīn pṛcchāmi vidmane na vidvān
vi yastastambha ṣaḻimā rajāṁsyajasya rūpe kimapi svidekam
अवर्त्या शुन आन्त्राणि पेचे न देवेषु विविदे मर्डितारम्।
अपश्यं जायाममहीयमानामधा मे श्येनो मध्वा जभार॥
avartyā śuna āntrāṇi pece na deveṣu vivide marḍitāram
apaśyaṁ jāyāmamahīyamānāmadhā me śyeno madhvā jabhāra
The first descriptive that comes to my mind whenever I think of a teacher is “a dispeller of ignorance”. Teachers share with us their experiences and shows us the path to right knowledge. They are our friend, philosopher and guide on our eternal journey. Some of them accompany us throughout the journey with us, some of them join us for brief periods during the journey, yet others receive us when we reach our destination. Visible and invisible, they give us that push or lend us a helping hand – one that enables us to make those quantum leaps and progress faster than we could on our own individual effort.
Relative to my inner journey, who then are these teachers? Where do I find them? How do I make them impart their knowledge for my benefit?
They are forces of cosmic consciousness, each with a specific outward characteristic and a more subtle inner power. They are the Gods that lie dormant in us waiting for us to call them by the Word. And the deeper I go, I realise that these are forces that we can enter into fulfilling and strong relationships with throughout the tenure of our journey. Each of them has a purposeful and subtle but powerful function they perform. They awaken various latent powers in us – what our outwardly vision mistakenly perceives as external to us.
The rşhi dīrghatamā aucathyaḥ first calls to them in supplication, “I am immature in mind, I want to know the hidden steps (to the Supreme) which even the Gods themselves may not know.”
And he then continues, “Being ignorant I approach the seers who know – Not knowing, I ask them for obtaining the knowledge – I want to know about the sole One, the unborn, who in his form, upholds the six worlds.”
The rşhi vāmadeva gautamaḥ further elucidates later in the Veda, “When I was immersed in the intricacies (entrails) of a miser, I did not receive any comfort from the Gods. My spouse was in despair. Then the soul brought the delight of existence.”
The first lesson I learn from the Veda is that the Gods do not manifest themselves to those who are greedy or who also labour under any of the five other psychological foes – lust, anger, delusion, arrogance and jealousy.
Enough of the theory, it is time to practice and imbibe the first lesson.
Peace
S
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Sunday, August 05, 2007
An English Hymn from G K Chesterton
A great writer whose work I chanced to remember this morning. The first verse from Hymn, which I find very relevant to this day and age:
O God of earth and altar bow down and hear our cry
Our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die
The walls of gold entomb us, the swords of scorn divide
Take not thy thunder from us but take away our pride
An Introduction to Vedic Religion Part 2
I set out below a beautiful and lucid piece that Sri Aurobindo wrote about the Veda. It is the underlying basis for all my readings in this great corpus and fills me with great determination and inspiration in my own spiritual pursuits. It is lengthy but needs mention in its entirety if one were to understand the foundations of human spiritual thought – human, since this extends to all of mankind, regardless of their origins and any other affiliations they acquire in their lives.
“The symbolism of the Veda depends upon the image of the life of man as a sacrifice, a journey and a battle. The Ancient Mystics took for their theme the spiritual life of man, but in order both to make it more concrete to themselves and to veil its secrets from the unfit, they expressed it in poetical images drawn from the outward life of their age. That life was largely an existence of herdsmen and tillers of the soil for the mass of the people varied by the wars and migrations of the clans under their kings, and in all this activity the worship of the gods had become the most solemn and magnificent element, the knot of all the rest.
For by the sacrifice were won the rain which fertilised the soil, the herds of cattle and horses necessary for their existence in peace and war, the wealth of gold, land (kshetra), retainers, fighting-men which constituted greatness and lordship, the victory in battle, safety in the journey by land and water which was so difficult and dangerous in those times of poor means of communication and loosely organised inter-tribal existence.
All the principal features of that outward life which they saw around them the mystic poets took and turned into significant images of the inner life. The life of man is represented as a sacrifice to the gods, a journey sometimes figured as a crossing of dangerous waters, sometimes as an ascent from level to level of the hill of being, and thirdly a battle against hostile nations. But these three images are not kept separate. The sacrifice is also a journey; indeed the sacrifice is itself described as traveling, as journeying to a divine goal; and the journey and the sacrifice are continually spoken of as a battle against dark powers.”
If we were to keep this thought in our mind, we appreciate that the Vedic Rşhis encouraged the practice of external worship through the Veda “to veil its secrets from the unfit” while cloaking its secret wisdom in the form of images and symbols “to make it more concrete to themselves”. An arrangement which simultaneously provided a spiritual experience to the higher aspirant and a physical experience to the lay-person.
I would like to make a general observation here – commentaries on the Rg Veda by Sayana Acharya, and later by several Western scholars including Griffith and others who based most of their interpretation of the Vedas on Sayana’s writings, focused primarily on the external physical aspects of the Veda. While doing so, they tended to stitch new fabric on an existing elaborate and orderly tapestry rather than merely ironing out the existing creases. The result leaves us with a seemingly barbarous collection of hymns that are both lofty and rich in their expression in places while appearing poorly constructed in other parts. This gap in understanding, sadly, is of our own creation.
When we understand that the Veda operates on a dual layer, we appreciate that seeming inconsistencies in this ancient corpus are rationally explained and resolved. They exist merely in form because their real meaning is to be found in the inner and veiled sense. We also appreciate that this ancient and great text is not the sole literary remnant of a primitive civilization. The Veda then becomes a chant to the powers of Light and their ascent by the force and vision of the Truth to its source and seat where it is free from the attack of the falsehood.
It is up to us to unlock this veiled secret in the several stages of our own journey. Assisting us throughout this (inner and) spiritual journey are several cosmic and other powers that progressively manifest themselves to us – they make themselves known to us in stages and when we are ready to receive them.
आ नो भद्राः क्रत्तवो यन्तु विश्वतः
Peace
S
PS: Sri Aurobindo's writing quoted above (c) Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1999.
“The symbolism of the Veda depends upon the image of the life of man as a sacrifice, a journey and a battle. The Ancient Mystics took for their theme the spiritual life of man, but in order both to make it more concrete to themselves and to veil its secrets from the unfit, they expressed it in poetical images drawn from the outward life of their age. That life was largely an existence of herdsmen and tillers of the soil for the mass of the people varied by the wars and migrations of the clans under their kings, and in all this activity the worship of the gods had become the most solemn and magnificent element, the knot of all the rest.
For by the sacrifice were won the rain which fertilised the soil, the herds of cattle and horses necessary for their existence in peace and war, the wealth of gold, land (kshetra), retainers, fighting-men which constituted greatness and lordship, the victory in battle, safety in the journey by land and water which was so difficult and dangerous in those times of poor means of communication and loosely organised inter-tribal existence.
All the principal features of that outward life which they saw around them the mystic poets took and turned into significant images of the inner life. The life of man is represented as a sacrifice to the gods, a journey sometimes figured as a crossing of dangerous waters, sometimes as an ascent from level to level of the hill of being, and thirdly a battle against hostile nations. But these three images are not kept separate. The sacrifice is also a journey; indeed the sacrifice is itself described as traveling, as journeying to a divine goal; and the journey and the sacrifice are continually spoken of as a battle against dark powers.”
If we were to keep this thought in our mind, we appreciate that the Vedic Rşhis encouraged the practice of external worship through the Veda “to veil its secrets from the unfit” while cloaking its secret wisdom in the form of images and symbols “to make it more concrete to themselves”. An arrangement which simultaneously provided a spiritual experience to the higher aspirant and a physical experience to the lay-person.
I would like to make a general observation here – commentaries on the Rg Veda by Sayana Acharya, and later by several Western scholars including Griffith and others who based most of their interpretation of the Vedas on Sayana’s writings, focused primarily on the external physical aspects of the Veda. While doing so, they tended to stitch new fabric on an existing elaborate and orderly tapestry rather than merely ironing out the existing creases. The result leaves us with a seemingly barbarous collection of hymns that are both lofty and rich in their expression in places while appearing poorly constructed in other parts. This gap in understanding, sadly, is of our own creation.
When we understand that the Veda operates on a dual layer, we appreciate that seeming inconsistencies in this ancient corpus are rationally explained and resolved. They exist merely in form because their real meaning is to be found in the inner and veiled sense. We also appreciate that this ancient and great text is not the sole literary remnant of a primitive civilization. The Veda then becomes a chant to the powers of Light and their ascent by the force and vision of the Truth to its source and seat where it is free from the attack of the falsehood.
It is up to us to unlock this veiled secret in the several stages of our own journey. Assisting us throughout this (inner and) spiritual journey are several cosmic and other powers that progressively manifest themselves to us – they make themselves known to us in stages and when we are ready to receive them.
आ नो भद्राः क्रत्तवो यन्तु विश्वतः
Peace
S
PS: Sri Aurobindo's writing quoted above (c) Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1999.
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