History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.246
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.246
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In recent years Śrī Aurobindo in ‘Hymns to the mystic Fire’ (translated in the esoteric sense, 1946) and his ardent and devout disciple Sri. T. V. Kapali Sastry (in ‘Ṛgbhāṣya-bhūmikā in Sanskrit and its English translation, Pondicherry 1952) have started a theory about the Ṛgveda mantras which must be briefly stated and examined. Śrī Aurobindo first intended to publish an edition of the Ṛgveda with a word by word construction and an English translation. But he gave up that idea on account of other pre-occupations and rests content in the above book with the text and translation of about 230 verses in all from the 1st, 2nd and 6th *maṇḍalas* of the Ṛgveda and a foreword of 48 pages in which he propounds his theory. While this was being written by the present writer, Śrī Aurobindo's large work of 634 pages 'on the Veda' published in 1956 reached his hands. Over 60 hymns are dealt with in this big book and 283 pages are devoted to the elaboration of his theory first outlined in the brief work of Śrī Aurobindo mentioned above and reiterated with greater emphasis. On page 9 of the work of 1956 he states "*the ritual system recognized by Sāyaṇa may stand, the naturalistic sense discovered by European scholarship may, in its general conceptions be accepted, but behind there is always the true and still hidden secret of the veda—the secret words which were spoken for the purified in soul and the awakened in knowledge*'.
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In this work also he sticks to the meaning of ṛta as truth and on p 84 translates 'ṛtam' as 'Truth-consciousness', when in his first work he translated 'ṛta-cit' as Truth-consciousness'. Instead of comparing the several hundred passages where the word ṛta occurs in the Ṛgveda he sticks to his own rendering which is unacceptable to most scholars and makes a very perfunctory attempt at finding the correct meaning. One should like to have some clear examples of the distinction between Light and Consciousness in modern times and also in the Veda. So far as the present writer knows, in the language of ancient symbolism Consciousness is identified with Light. In the recently published book he deals with less than 1/18th of the total hymns (1017 or 1028) of the Ṛgveda. Readers are asked to subscribe to his views although he condescends to translate in the first work less than 1/20th of the total number of verses in the Ṛgveda and hardly ever enters into a discussion about the meaning of words like ṛta. Śrī Aurobindo (Foreword p. III.) concedes that Sāyaṇa does not reject the spiritual authority of the Veda and that Sāyaṇa does not deny that there is a higher truth contained in the ṛks He further says (IX) that we must take seriously the hint of Yāska (Śrī Aurobindo does not quote the Nirukta, but probably he has in mind Nir. I. 20 'sākṣātkṛtadharmāṇa ṛṣayo babhūvuḥ').
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Then he proceeds to state (XVII) that many whole hymns of the Veda bear on their face a mystic meaning and that the ṛṣis (p. XIX) for the sake of secrecy resorted to double meanings, a device easily manageable in the Sanskrit language. This is a hypothesis which cannot at all be accepted and is no more than mere conjecture. The Vedic mantras were composed thousands of years ago, when all persons among whom the sages moved must have spoken the same language, though generally not so polished and poetical as that of the mantras and they were not addressed to men like the moderns whose every day thoughts, surroundings and languages are entirely different. Both the Master and the disciple (Mr. Kapali Sastry) cause confusion (or, may be, are themselves confused) by supposing that the difficulties of the modern students of mantras did exist even at or near the time of the mantras. The most sublime thought of the Ṛgveda is that there is only one Spirit behind the various gods, Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan, that originally there was only that One, there was no day and night, no death and immortality. Śrī Aurobindo himself describes (p. XXXII) Ṛg. I. 164. 46 and X. 129. 2 as 'the summit of the vedic teaching.' This view of the one Entity is also illustrated in Ṛg. VIII. 58. 2 'one and the same Agni is kindled in many places, the one Sun enters the whole world and becomes many;
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the one Dawn illumines all this (physical) world, One became all this (assumes various forms)'. No secrecy was observed about this fundamental truth and it was proclaimed in mantras that can be understood even by an ordinary man of to-day who knows a little Sanskrit. Because we of these recent centuries cannot understand some mantras, that does not mean that the ancient seers were guilty of a subterfuge and purposely composed mantras with two meanings. They might have indulged in the pastime of two meanings (express and metaphorical) in a few cases as poetic devices.¹⁶¹² It is no fault of the sages, if we cannot understand their meaning, just as a blind man, who does not see a wooden post and comes to grief by dashing against it, should not blame the post, but should blame himself; we are to blame ourselves and should not foist upon the ancient sages a stratagem created by our own imagination or lack of knowledge (Nir. I. 16).¹⁶¹³