History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.246.3

v7.c91.246.3

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;