Function of the
Gods:
Sri Aurobindo
found that the systematic symbolism of the Veda was extended to the legends
related to the Gods and their dealings with ancient seers and that in all
probability had a naturalistic origin.
If this was so, the original sense was supplemented by psychological
symbolism.
In Sri Aurobindo’s own words – “The gods I found to be described as sons
of Aditi, of Infinity; and without exception they are described as increasing
man, bringing him light, pouring on him the fullness of waters, the abundance
of the heavens, increasing the truth in him, building up the divine worlds,
leading him against all attacks to the great goal, the integral felicity, the
perfect bliss”. He says, gods are not personifications of qualities of
powers, but incarnations or emanations of conscious forces with whom one can
enter into concrete touch. They can help man and show him the way to a divine
consciousness and immortal life.
Rig Veda
clearly mentions the nature and the role played by the Gods. Through this a
deep understanding of spirituality will be possible. By reciting the mantras and performing meditation, human
beings can enter into contact with these powers. Literally they can take birth
in human beings and guide them from within. The Sanskrit word for the God is deva
and this occurs in about 1300 out of 10,552 mantras.
The root word here ‘div’ meaning ‘to shine’ or ‘illumine’. They
are supra-physical beings without physical bodies endowed with consciousness,
knowledge and power. They carry out the actions directly from their
consciousness without the need for a body.
Every deva represents
an outward aspect and an inner or psychological power. Outwardly, Agni is
the physical fire or the fire of digestion. At a deeper level, Agni is
the Divine Will. Sri Aurobindo and Sri Kapali Sastry explain that Agni in
the esoteric sense stands for the principle of aspiration in man to achieve
higher things than his present state. Progress is not possible without
aspiration. Hence, only if Agni is active, can he bring other
gods or powers and make them manifest in man. Consequently, these powers enter
the human being and grow in him or her like a plant. This process of
manifestation is called ‘the birth of the Deva’. These are
indicated in hundreds of mantras by
words like ‘janayan’ or ‘jajna̅na’. Following table shows the description of the power of
some of the Gods:
|
Agni
|
Fire; Cosmic
power of heat and light. Will power united with wisdom. Human power is a
feeble projection of this. Can be strengthened by Rig Vedic chants to Agni.
|
|
Indra
|
Lord of the
Divine Mind and Action. In Indian
tradition, mind is not a source of knowledge. It manipulates the knowledge to
aid action. Indra battles the evil forces on behalf of humans. He is of
luminous intelligence.
|
|
Va̅yu
|
Wind; He is
the Lord of all the Life energies. Prana which represent passions, feelings,
emotions and abilities.
|
|
Ashwins
|
The Lords of
Bliss and Divine physicians. Renders human body free of disease, so that it
can accept the divine Prana, the life-energy.
|
|
Mitra
|
The Lord of
Love and Harmony.
|
|
Varuna
|
The Master of
infinities who cannot tolerate restrictive thinking or actions. Only he can
cut the three bonds which restrict the three aspects of every human being,
namely – physical, vital and mental.
He is vast and pure.
|
|
Saraswati
|
The Goddess
of inspiration.
|
|
Ila
|
The Goddess
of inspiration.
|
|
Sarama
|
The Goddess
of revelation.
|
|
Soma
|
The delight
of life-experience.
|
|
Surya
|
The Supreme
Deity of Light and Force.
|
Difference between ‘Vedic Gods’ and ‘Puranic
Gods’: In the Veda, all the Gods are
pure, harmonious, and devoid of undesirable qualities. Though each Vedic God
has a distinct power or personality, they carry the presence of the Supreme, ‘That
One’. They work together in divinising the individual person by being
born in him. When the age of Vedic Samhita came to an end, several centuries
later the Upanishad period started to capture the truths of Vedic period. At a
much later period, the Puranas started to state the esoteric truths of the Veda
through stories and in a language that was easily accessible to the common man.
In this process, the qualities of the Vedic Gods were mixed up with those of
the lower Gods of the Prana and vital plane. Here we find that the various
Gods, sometimes work together but also compete with one another.
Message of the Rig Veda: Aim of both the
riṣhis
and devas
is to systematically uplift every human being to higher and higher
levels of perfection. The journey never stops till all round perfection is
achieved. This applies not merely to an
individual level, but for the level of society at large. The Vedic seers realised
that it is not possible to intellectually describe such a radical goal of all
round perfection. According to them
there already exists the plane of satyam
ṛtam bṛhat - the truth, the
Right, the Vast - incorporating the seed
of perfect perfection to come, and to attain this state one has to get in touch
with the consciousness of that plane. However, they were able to give detailed
hints about the paths to be followed. They also realised that such a great task
cannot be achieved by human effort only and the Gods must collaborate doing the
actual work.
Every time a
human being does a task with some consciousness, he can feel the collaboration
of the Divine Powers. Human journey towards perfection is often compared to
climbing a mountain from peak to peak or to a journey in the uncharted waters
of the ocean in a boat. With dedicated effort a stage will come where the
person feels that all the work is done by the Gods themselves.
Adverse cosmic powers in nature are also common posing obstacles in the
path of human seeker. These are forces of darkness and falsehood called as Dasyu,
Vṛtra, Ahi, Vala etc. The Veda has many references to the symbolic
battles between the Forces of Light headed by Indra and Agni on one side and
the forces of darkness on the other. The victory of the Gods is celebrated by
the riṣhis through hymns dedicated
to the deities.
Every mantra in the Rig Veda is either a
prayer or an adoration addressed to a cosmic power or devata like Agni or a call for a Cosmic Power to manifest in the riṣhi or a call for some action by the
Cosmic Power. Many mantras are
celebrations of the actions of the devata including the gifts of powers
of light and might.
In the next
Chapter V of ‘The Secret of the Veda’,
Sri Aurobindo deals with the Philological Method of the Veda. He realised that
a mere psychological interpretation is not fully sufficient and at times must
be backed up by a sound philological basis. This will not only account for the
new sense, but explain how a single word came to be capable of so many
different meanings, the sense attached to it by the psychological
interpretation, those given to it by old grammarians and those, if any, are attached
to later Sanskrit. We will be looking to all these as we move along further
……….
(concluded)
References
1.
‘The Light of Veda – A Practical Approach ’ – by Sri T.V.Kapāli Sastry
2. ‘A New Light on the Veda ’ – by Sri
T.V.Kapāli Sastry
(Originally written in Sanskrit under the
name ‘Siddhānjana – Bhūmika’, translated into English by Sri M.P.Pandit
and thoroughly revised by the author himself, in 1952. Published by Sri Aurobindo Kapali Sastry
Institute of Vedic Culture, Bangalore.
(SAKSI))
3.
‘Agni in the Rig Veda’ - by Dr
R.L.Kashyap
4.
‘Why read the Rig Veda’ – by Dr
R.L.Kashyap
(Dr K.L.Kashyap is an Honarary Director
& Trustee of SAKSI. He has to his credit 6 major books on the Veda and has
undertaken a mission of writing a commentary on all the Veda mantras.)
- C. Krishnamurthy (chamathu2003@yahoo.co.uk)
