Vedic Mantras- 01
Aspiration
Rişhi: Sindhukşhit (RV 10.70.5)
divo vā sānu spŗshatā varīyaĥ pŗthivyā vā mātrayā vi shrayadhvam,
Touch either heaven's superior peak or swing wide
open with all the extent of the earth, O doors of aspiration!
Aspiration forges the bridge between the low and the high, between man and God. From his status in the lower nature man wants and wills consciously to rise into the higher consciousness. He seeks intensely to acquire what he has not. This effort of aspiration is the main-spring of progress. But it is not enough if this aspiration is an emotional feeling or a perception of intellect. It has to acquire force, spread out and be active all over the being. It must reach the highest heights of the heaven of purified mind. It must also extend itself and occupy the whole of the materially embodied being, the earth.
Rişhi: Ātreya (RV 5.1.4)Aspiration for the Divine is the gate for breaking out of the individual confinement in the separative walls of ego. It opens upwards to the limitless heights of the Superconscience even as it opens out on the universal wideness around.
Rişhi: Ātreya (RV 5.4.6)
vadhena dasyum pra hi chātayasva vayaĥ kŗņvānas-tanve svāyai,
Chase the Divider from us with thy blow, make a free space for thine own body.
The Divine Plane in man is enclosed and shut up in the smoke of the all-too human movements of desire and passion. There are, besides, the limiting walls of the ego that prevent the awareness of the divinity within and the presence of the Divine around. Unless this separative and narrowing action of the Force of Ego and Falsehood is broken up and cleared, the divine consciousness and will cannot spread and organize themselves in man. Agni, the flaming Divine Will, is invoked to effect this clearance and then extend his own workings in the seeker.
agnim-achchhā devayatām manāmsi chakhşhūmşhīva sūrye sam charanti,
The minds of men who seek the godhead move entering towards the flame of will,
Even as all their seeings converge in the Sun that illumines
In him who in yoga glows into a divine consciousness, thoughts and other movements of the mind are not scattered. They all tend to gather themselves under the direction of a central Will and become expression of its luminous workings. This perception and seeings are not obscured by the shadows of Ignorance and deviations of Falsehood but come to be suffused with and governed by a supreme Light of Knowledge.
(RV 7.76.4)
satyamantrā ajanayann uşhāsam,
By the truth in their thoughts they brought to birth the Dawn.
The Dawn is the outbreak of the Divine Light on the being emerging out of the Night of Nescience and Ignorance. It is the herald of the glories of knowledge, power and bliss to come. But this Dawn does not appear all of a sudden. Its advent has to be prepared for conditions created in one’s being and nature that make it ready for the revelation. The seeker has to open himself systematically to the reign of truth, rejecting the rule of falsehood. His mind and its activity of thinking must be filled with the movements of truth. Truth in thought, truth in feeling, truth in speech, must become normal to his life. It is only then that the Dawn consents to manifest and open the gates of Delight.
(RV 7.75.7)
satyā satyebhir-mahatī mahadbhir-devī devebhir yajatā yajatraiĥ,
rujad drļhāni dadad-usriyāņām prati gāva uşhasam vāvashanta.
True with the gods who are true, Great with the gods who are great, sacrificial Godhead with the gods sacrificial.
she breaks open the strong places, she gives of the shining herds; the cows low towards the Dawn.
When Usha, the long-looked for Dawn arrives, she brings with her the luminous truth of the superconscient with which the gods are charged, brings the might and power of the Divine Will that the gods carry with them, receives her share of the soul’s offering to the gods. With her light and power of Truth she breaks into the dark recesses of the sub-conscious regions where the radiant hosts of Light are kept hidden and imprisoned by the enemies; the freed lustres troop up with joyous cries.
(RV 5.79.8)
uta no gomatīr-işha ā vahā duhitar divaĥ, sākam sūryasya rashmibhiĥ ...
Bring to us luminous impulsion's, O daughter of Heaven, along with the rays of the Sun.
Dawn, the Goddess heralding the birth of Light, brings to man not only the illumination of thought, rays of Truth, but she also charges his forces of will and action with the superconscient Light. She makes it possible for both thought and will to be united in illumination so that the pilgrim-soul soars effortlessly on the luminous wings of Knowledge and Power.
(RV 7.77.3)
devānām chakshuĥ subhagā vahantī shvetam nayantī sudŗshīkam-ashvam,
ushā adarshi rashmibhir-vyaktā chitrāmaghā vishvamanu prabhūta,
Happy, bringing the Gods’ eye of vision, leading the white Horse that has perfect sight, Dawn is seen expressed entirely by the rays, full of her varied riches, manifesting her birth in all things.
The divine Dawn brings with her an ease and happiness that are causeless; she gives to man the faultless vision of the gods; she urges into action the pure Power of Life which is fully conscious and seeing; she brings with her the varied richness of divine plenty, illumination, intuition, discernment, forces of diverse kinds. When she appears, all springs to a new life.
Rişhi: Agastya (RV 1.171.3)
ūrdhvā naĥ santu komyā vanāni,
Upward may our desirable delights be uplifted.
Nothing of life is meant to be rejected. At its origin life is an ebullition of Delight and its fullness it is intended to be a conscious manifestation of the Bliss of God. If man's experience of life through the senses, which are his channels of enjoyment, is mixed, it is because he allows himself to be confined to the low levels of existence dominated and ruled by Ignorance and Ego. He must rise above to the higher levels of consciousness with all his healthy and elevating movements of joy, leaving behind those that drag down his being and keep him tied to the lower grounds. When these desirable delights that nourish his emotional being, promote the cheer of his mind and soul, are so uplifted, life becomes a current of the inviolable Bliss of Existence. His joy ceases to be a personal joy; his delight of life gives delight to all.
Rişhi: Ātreya (RV 5.28.3)
agne shardha mahate saubhagāya tava dyumnāny-uttamāni santu,
sam jāspatyam suyamam-ā kŗņuşhva shatrūyatām-abhi thişhţhā mahāmsi.
O Flame, put forth thy battling might for a vast enjoyment of bliss, may there be thy highest illumination;
create a will-governed union of the Lord and his Spouse, set thy foot on the greatness of hostile powers.
There is a sea of Bliss underlying this creation of God. But man misses it because of the disharmony in himself. The various parts of his nature – incomplete in themselves are in conflict with each other. The mind labouring in ignorance, the life force struggling against forces that are opposed to its continuance, the physical body constantly worn down by the demands of an unsympathetic mind and life are in disarray. Besides there is the disharmony between his nature and his self. Prakriti, nature, goes her own way ignoring or disobeying the Purusha, self. God Agni, the divine Seer-Will, is prayed to bring the conquering light to establish harmony, to eliminate prevailing forces of darkness and antagonism and make possible an abundant enjoyment.
Rişhi: Ghŗtsamada (RV 2.3.5)
vishrayantām-urviyā hūyamānā dvāro devīĥ suprāyaņā namobhiĥ,
May the divine Doors swing open, wide to our call, easy of approach, with our prostration's of surrender.
When in the journey of the Spirit, the seeker arrives at the farthest limits of human consciousness, he is faced with a barrier that stands between the human and the Divine, the lower and the upper realms of Existence. No human effort by itself can break this barrier, open the Doors that stay closed and bar the entry. The seeker has to appeal to the Grace, surrender himself entirely and affirm his surrender constantly; and it is only when the Grace responds that the opening is made, the Divine Doors swing wide allowing him to cross into the kingdom of Light.
(RV 1.50.10)
udvayam tamasas-pari jyotish-pashyanta uttaram,
devam devatrā sūryam-aganma jyotir-uttamam.
Beholding the higher Light beyond the darkness we came to the Divine Sun in the Godhead, to the highest Light of all.
Man is beset with endless obscurities of nature and well nigh lost in the darkness of Ignorance and unconsciousness that surrounds him. But there is in him a soul which refuses to be so imprisoned. It aspires for light, creates openings in its enclosing walls by aspiration and will and pushes in the direction of the spiritual light that is above the prevailing psychological darkness. Following the rays of this supernal light—refusing to be side tracked by other lesser attractions—one arrives ultimately at the glorious Sun of Truth, the Divine Sun of which the physical sun on earth is a material symbol.
(RV 1.115.1)
chitram devānām udagād anīkam chakshur-mitrasya-varuņasya-agneĥ,
āprā dyāvāpŗthivī antariksham sūrya ātmā jagatas-tasthuşhash-cha.
The wonderful face of the Gods has arisen the eye of the Mitra, Varuņa and Agni the Sun has filled the Heaven and Earth and the middle space, He, the soul of all that moves and moves not.
Surya is both the highest Light and the highest truth. The light of the physical solar orb seen in the physical form or body of that Divine Sun. To the Vedic rishis there is only one universal Deva of which all other names are alike forms and cosmic aspects. Surya is the symbol of this universal Deva. He is the soul of all that moves and moves not. (1.50.10) Declares Surya to be the highest Light of all, the Surya attained by the rishis. He is the eye of Mitra and Varuna, the gods of harmony and vastness. The Sun inside us and Sun outside is covered by darkness, the forces of ignorance. When, by the force of tapas, he wakes up destroying the forces of ignorance. He ascends with his seven shining horses or energies to the utter ocean of the higher existence. He leads us to the Truth and Immortality beyond evil and darkness.
(RV 6.5.2)
kshāmeva vishvā bhuvanāni yasmin
In earth are founded all the worlds.
This our creation consists of many planes of existence, and each plane has its own system of worlds. Each plane, dhama, is based upon and governed by one particular principle, tattwa. Thus there are worlds of Sat, Chit Ananda based upon the truths of Being, Consciousness and Bliss; the world of Mahas based upon Truth-Light; the lower worlds of Anna, Prana, Manas based upon the principles of Matter, Life and Mind. While each world is thus organized around its own truth, all of them are involved in their principles in Earth. For Earth is the foundation of this tier of worlds, prithvi pajasyam, and the field of evolution. It is because all of these worlds are so involved in Earth that their evolution here becomes possible. Earth is the base, the centre and the scene of this creative Evolution.
Five Earths
(RV 1.7.9)
ya ekash-charşhaņīnām vasūnām-irajyati, indraĥ pancha kshitīnām.
Indra who alone disposes all actions and possessions of the five planes.
Indra the Power of the Divine Mind is the sovereign of the being of man on all its planes of existence. Man is not merely his physical body. Exceeding his physical existence, is his life organization; above that is his mental consciousness; higher are the realms of the light of Knowledge and still above are the regions of blissful Transcendent, the parardha. Movements on all these five planes of being, the five Earths of the Veda, are controlled and disposed by Indra.
Rişhi: Ātreya (RV 5.1.5)
dame-dame sapta ratnā dadhāno-agnirhota nişhasādā yajīyān,
Upholding in house after house the seven Ecstasies, Agni has taken his seat as the Priest of the offering for the Yajna.
Agni is the great Priest who conducts the Sacrifice the self-offering of man to the Divine and his journey of life from the Earth of material existence to the supreme Heaven of the Eternal Light. The sacrifice is conducted on all the levels of the being, the seven planes or stations constituted of Matter, Life, Mind, Truth—Light, Bliss, Consciousness and Pure Existence. Corresponding to each plane there is a formulation of Delight that underlies it. Agni brings out that Ecstasy and establishes it overtly on each plane, in each body—in each house—in which he is ignited.