vibhrā́ḍ bṛhát pibatu somiyám mádhu
ā́yur dádhad yajñápatāv ávihrutam
vā́tajūto yó abhirákṣati tmánā
prajā́ḥ pupoṣa purudhā́ ví rājati 10.170.01

1
MAY the Bright God drink glorious Soma−mingled meath, giving the sacrifice’s lord uninjured life; He who, wind−urged, in person guards our offspring well, hath nourished them with food and shines o’er many a land.

Interpretation:
“The shining wide, vibhrāj, the Vast, bṛhad, should drink the Honey of Soma, pibatu somyam madhu, establishing the Life-Force in the Lord of the Sacrifice, āyur dadhad yajñapatāv avihrutam, which is unbroken and unbent.
He who is swift like the Wind, vātajūto yaḥ, protects [all] by his own Self, abhirakṣati tmanā, making the offspring born in time and projected to the future grow, prajāḥ pupoṣa, ruling all in detail of their manifestation, purudā vi rājati.

Vocabulary:
vibhrāj, 2 mfn. (nom. ṭ) shining , splendid , luminous RV.; m. (with saurya) N. of the author of RV. x , 170 Anukr.
avita-, ppp from av, to protect, to nourish.
vāta-jūta, mfn. wind-driven, swift as wind RV. AV.
purudhā, ind , variously , frequently RV. AV.; -pratīka (-dha-) mfn. appearing variously RV.
avihruta, mfn. unbent , unbroken RV. v , 66 , 2 and x , 170 , 1; AV. vi , 26 , 1.

vibhrā́ḍ br̥hát súbhr̥taṃ vājasā́tamaṃ
dhárman divó dharúṇe satyám árpitam
amitrahā́ vr̥trahā́ dasyuhántamaṃ
jyótir jajñe asurahā́ sapatnahā́ 10.170.02

2
Radiant, as high Truth, cherished, best at winning strength, Truth based upon the statute that supports the heavens,
He rose, a light, that kills Vrtras and enemies, best slayer of the Dasyus, Asuras, and foes.

Interpretation:
“The truth is rendered, satyam arpitam, in the upholding of Heaven, dharman divo dharuṇe, shining all over, vibhrāṭ, the Vastness well maintained, bṛhat subhṛtam, bestowing upon us the most of luminous strength, vājasātamam.
Destroying all unfriendly spirits, Vritras and Dasyus, amitrahā vṛtrahā, dasyuhantamam, the light was born, jyotir jajñe, striking Asuras and all enemies, asurahā sapatnahā!

Vocabulary:
subhṛta, mfn. well borne or maintained, well cherished or protected RV.
vājasā-tama, mfn. Superl. from vāja-san, most bestowing or winning, realizing the strength;

idáṃ śréṣṭhaṃ jyótiṣāṃ jyótir uttamáṃ
viśvajíd dhanajíd ucyate br̥hát
viśvabhrā́ḍ bhrājó máhi sū́riyo dr̥śá
urú paprathe sáha ójo ácyutam 10.170.03

3
This light, the best of lights, supreme, all−conquering, winner of riches, is exalted with high laud. All−lighting, radiant, mighty as the Sun to see, he spreadeth wide unfailing victory and strength.

Interpretation:
“This supreme light is the best of all lights, idáṃ śréṣṭhaṃ jyótiṣāṃ jyótir uttamám, the all-conquering, viśvajíd, Victor of the riches, dhanajíd, is spoken of as the Vast, ucyate br̥hát.
The all-illuminating flame, viśvabhrā́ḍ bhrājó, as the Great Sun to see, máhi sū́riyo dr̥śe, spread vast his power and deathless strength, urú paprathe sáha ójo ácyutam.”

Vocabulary:
bhrājas, n. sparkling , flashing , glittering , lustre , brilliance RV. VS. Br.
sahas, mfn. powerful , mighty , victorious (superl. tama) RV.
ojas, n. (vaj , or uj; cf. ugra) , bodily strength , vigour , energy , ability , power RV. AV. TS. AitBr. MBh. &c.; vitality (the principle of vital warmth and action throughout the body) Suśr. &c.

vibhrā́jañ jyótiṣā súvar
ágacho rocanáṃ diváḥ
yénemā́ víśvā bhúvanāni ā́bhṛtā
viśvákarmaṇā viśvádeviyāvatā 10.170.04

4
Beaming forth splendour with thy light, thou hast attained heaven’s lustrous realm. By thee were brought together all existing things, possessor of all Godhead, All−effecting God.

Interpretation:
“Svar flaming vast with light, vibhrā́jañ jyótiṣā súvar, you have reached the luminous realm of Heaven, ágacho rocanáṃ diváḥ, by whom all these worlds were brought into being, yénemā́ víśvā bhúvanāni ā́bhṛtā, who is the Maker of Universe, viśvákarmaṇā, and the Lord of all Universal Godheads, viśvádeviyāvatā.”
It is a direct definition of Svar, the world between the lower hemisphere and the Supermind. It is on the level of the Overmind, which is central to the world of Svar, that the Universe is shaped and all the Universal Gods dwell, viśvákarmaṇā viśvádeviyāvatā.

Vocabulary:
vibhrājate (ep. also P.), to shine forth, be bright or radiant RV. &c. &c.; to shine through (acc.) RV. AV.
viśvadevyā-vat, mfn., relating or dear to all gods RV. VS. &c.

RV 10.158
ṛṣi: cakṣu saurya; devatā: sūrya; chanda: gāyatrī

sū́riyo no divás pātu vã́to antárikṣã́t
agnír naḥ pā́rthivebhiyaḥ 10.158.01
1
MAY Surya guard us out of heaven, and Vata from the firmament,
And Agni from terrestrial spots.

Interpretation:
“Surya should fill and keep us against or free from the Heaven, sū́riyo no divás pātu, Vata against the Antariksha, vāto antárikṣāt, Agni against the earthly movements, agnír naḥ pā́rthivebhyaḥ.”
The idea that Sūrya is to fill us in and thus protect against the universal movements in Heaven, whereas Vāta, the Divine Life Energy should fill us and thus keep us protected against the Life regions, and the Divine Power dwelling in the material universe, Agni, should keep us protected against the influences coming from the physical universe, is the idea of a completed sacrifice, where Agni, Vāta (or Vāyu) and Sūrya are totally united, support thus the being from within against all possible un-divine or anti-divine movements in Nature.

jóṣā savitar yásya te háraḥ śatáṃ savā́m̐ árhati
pāhí no didyútaḥ pátantyāḥ 10.158.02

2
Thou Savitar whose flame deserves hundred libations, be thou pleased:
From failing lightning keep us safe.

Interpretation:
“Happy is the one, O Savitar, joṣā savitar, who has the flame of yours, yasya te haras, which deserves hundred oblations, śatam savān arhati!
Protect us from the falling lightning, pāhi no didyutaḥ patantyāḥ”.

Vocabulary:
joṣa, m. ( juṣ) satisfaction, approval, pleasure RV. i , 120 , 1 ; joṣamā, or anuj-, ‘according to one’s pleasure , to one’s satisfaction’ RV.; (am) ind. (g. svar-ādi) according to one’s wish or liking RV.
sava m. (fr. sū) one who sets in motion or impels, an instigator, stimulator, commander VS. ŚBr.; m. the sun (cf. savitṛ) L.; setting in motion, vivification, instigation , impulse , command , order (esp. applied to the activity of Savitṛ; dat. savāya, ‘for setting in motion’) RV. AV. VS. TBr.; N. of partic. initiatory rites, inauguration , consecration Br.; any sacrifice MBh.
haras, n. a grasp , grip AV.; a draught , drink , beverage RV. AV.; flame, fire (accord. to some also ‘anger’, ‘fury’) ib.
didyut, mfn. shining , glittering RV. vii , 6 , 7; f. an arrow , missile , thunderbolt of Indra RV.; flame ib. vi , 66 , 10

cákṣur no deváḥ savitā́
cákṣur na utá párvataḥ
cákṣur dhātā́ dadhātu naḥ 10.158.03

3
May Savitar the God, and may Parvata also give us sight;
May the Creator give us sight.

Interpretation:
“The Sight for us, God Savitar, cakṣur no devaḥ savitā, the Sight for us the higher region, cakṣur na uta parvataḥ, the Sight for us the Holder should establish (uphold), cakṣur dhātā dadhātu naḥ!”

Vocabulary:
parvata, mfn. (fr. parvan cf. Pāṇ. 5-2 , 122 Vārtt. 10 Pat.) knotty, rugged (said of mountains) RV. AV.; (according to ĀpŚr. Sch. = parutka, parva-vat) m. a mountain, mountain-range, height, hill, rock (often personified ; ifc. f. ā) RV. &c. &c. the number 7 (from the 7 principal mountain-ranges) Sāryas. a fragment of rock , a stone (adrayaḥ-parvatāḥ , the stones for pressing Soma) RV.

cákṣur no dhehi cákṣuṣe cákṣur vikhyaí tanū́bhiyaḥ
sáṃ cedáṃ ví ca paśyema 10.158.04

4
Give sight unto our eye, give thou our bodies sight that they may see:
May we survey, discern this world.

Interpretation:
“Establish/hold our sight/eye for [the divine] Sight to see, cakṣur no dhehi cakṣuṣe, create for us the bodies to perceive this Vision, cakṣur vikhyai tanūbhyaḥ!
May we see This [manifestation] in its totality and in detail, sam cedam vi ca paśyema.”

Vocabulary:
vikhyā, P. -khyāti (Ved. inf. vikhye Pāṇ. 3-4 , 11 ; vi-khyai RV. x , 158 , 4) , to look about , look at , view , see , behold RV. ŚBr.; to shine , shine upon , lighten , illumine RV. AV.

susaṃdŕ̥śaṃ tuvā vayám práti paśyema sūriya
ví paśyema nr̥cákṣasaḥ 10.158.05

5
Thus, Surya, may we look on thee, on thee most lovely to behold,
See clearly with the eyes of men.

Interpretation:
“May we see you directly, O Surya, tvā vayaṃ prati paśyema sūrya, who is perfect in his vision, susaṃdṛśam; may we see all of you in detail with the sight of our souls, vi paśyema nṛcakṣasaḥ.”

Vocabulary:
nṛcakṣas mfn. beholding or watching men (said of gods) RV. AV. VS. TS.; looking after men i.e. leading or guiding them (as a Rishi) RV. iii. 53 , 9

RV 10.149
ṛṣi: arcana hairaṇyastūpa; devatā: savitā: chanda: triṣṭup

savitā́ yantraíḥ pr̥thivī́m aramṇād
askambhané savitā́ dyā́m adr̥ṃhat
áśvam ‘vādhukṣad dhúnim antárikṣam
atū́rte baddháṃ savitā́ samudrám 10.149.01

1
SAVITAR fixed the earth with bands to bind it, and made heaven steadfast where no prop supported. Savitar milked, as ’twere a restless courser, air, sea bound fast to what no foot had trodden.

Interpretation:
“The Lord Savitar by his restraining forces, savitā́ yantraíḥ, has fixes the Earth, pr̥thivī́m aramṇād, and Heaven made here steady without a pillar, askambhané savitā́ dyā́m adṛṃhat.
As if from [his] Swiftness he milked the roaring Antariksha, Space between Heaven and Earth, áśvam ‘vādhukṣad dhúnim antárikṣam, and in the Abyss he tied and fixed the Ocean, atū́rte baddháṃ savitā́ samudrám.”

Vocabulary:
yantra, n. any instrument for holding or restraining or fastening , a prop , support , barrier RV. &c. &c.; a fetter , band , tie , thong , rein , trace Mn. MBh.; restraint , force (-eṇa ind. forcibly , violently) MW.
ram 1.A. (Dhātup. xx , 23) ramate (Ved. also P. ramati or ramṇāti pf. rarāma MBh. ; reme Br. &c.) to stop , stay , make fast , calm , set at rest (P. ; esp. pres. ramṇāti) RV. VS. (P.A.)to delight, make happy, enjoy carnally MBh. Hariv. Śukas.; (A.) to stand still, rest, abide, like to stay with (loc. or dat.) RV. &c. &c.
askambhana, n. no pillar or support [‘having no pillar or support’, the ether] RV. x , 149 , 1.
dhuni, mfn. roaring , sounding , boisterous (the Maruts , rivers , the Soma &c.) RV. VS. TAr.; m. N. of a demon slain by Indra RV.
atūrta, [RV. viii , 99 , 7] [RV.] mfn. not outrun, not outdone , not obstructed , unhurt; (a-tūrtam}) n. illimited space RV. x , 149 , 1.

yátrā samudrá skabhitó ví aúnad
ápāṃ napāt savitā́ tásya veda
áto bhū́r áta ā útthitaṃ rájo
áto dyā́vāpr̥thivī́ aprathetām 10.149.02

2
Well knoweth Savitar, O Child of Waters, where ocean, firmly fixt, o’erflowed its limit.
Thence sprang the world, from that uprose the region: thence heaven spread out and the wide earth expanded.

Interpretation:
“Where the Ocean fixed springs out, yátrā samudrá skabhitó ví aúnad, O Son of Waters, ápāṃ napāt, Savitar knows that, savitā́ tásya veda!
From this came the Becoming, áto bhū́r, from this arose the Space, áta ā útthitaṃ rájo, from this the Earth and Heaven spread [their wings], áto dyā́vāpr̥thivī́ aprathetām!”
Vocabulary:
ud 2 or und cl. 7. P. unatti (RV. v , 85 , 4): cl. 6. P. undati (Dhātup. xxix , 20); to flow or issue out , spring (as water); to wet , bathe RV. AV. ŚBr.

paścédám anyád abhavad yájatram
ámartiyasya bhúvanasya bhūnā́
suparṇó aṅgá savitúr garútmān
pū́rvo jātáḥ sá u asyā́nu dharma 10.149.03

3
Then, with a full crowd of Immortal Beings, this other realm came later, high and holy. First, verily, Savitar’s strong−pinioned Eagle was born: and he obeys his law for ever.

Interpretation:
“Then this another[world] was born, that of the Sacrifice, paścédám anyád abhavad yájatram! By the abundance of Immortal World, ámartiyasya bhúvanasya bhūnā́!
The Eagle with the perfect wings indeed of Savitar was born first, suparṇó aṅgá savitúr garútmān pū́rvo jātáḥ, [perfectly] following his Law, sá u asyā́nu dharma.”

Vocabulary:
paśca, mfn. hinder, later, western , [only ibc. or ind. = paścā, -cāt Pāṇ. 5-3 , 33. Cf. uc-ca, nI-ca]
bhuman, m. abundance , plenty , wealth , opulence , multitude , majority RV. &c. &c. (ifc. filled with Mcar. ; bhumnā ind. generally , usually Ka1v. Rājat. ; bhūnā ind. plentifully, abundantly RV.)
aṅga, ind. a particle implying attention , assent or desire , and sometimes impatience , it may be rendered , by well indeed , true , please , rather quick; kimaṅga, how much rather!

gā́va ‘va grā́maṃ yū́yudhir ‘va áśvān
vāśréva vatsáṃ sumánā dúhānā
pátir ‘va jāyā́m abhí no ní etu
dhartā́ diváḥ savitā́ viśvávāraḥ 10.149.04

4
As warriors to their steeds, kine to their village, as fond milk giving cows approach their youngling, As man to wife, let Savitar come downward to us, heaven’s bearer, Lord of every blessing.

Interpretation:
“As cows [return] to village, gā́va iva grā́maṃ, warriors to horses, yū́yudhir ‘va áśvān, as if a calf to its mother full of milk and happy, vāśréva vatsáṃ sumánā dúhānā, as if the husband to his wife, pátir ‘va jāyā́m, to us should he come down, abhí no ní etu, the Holder of Heaven, Lord Savitar, bearing all the blessings, dhartā́ diváḥ savitā́ viśvávāraḥ.”

Vocabulary:
vāśra, mfn. roaring , lowing , howling , thundering , sounding , whistling &c. RV. BhP.; f. (scil. dhenu) a lowing cow , any cow RV. AV. (also written vāsrā)

híraṇyastūpaḥ savitar yáthā tvā
āṅgirasó juhuvé vā́je asmín
evā́ tvā́rcann ávase vándamānaḥ
sómasyevāṃśúm práti jāgarāhám 10.149.05

5
Like the Angirasa Hiranyastupa, I call thee, Savitar, to this achievement: So worshipping and lauding thee for favour I watch for thee as for the stalk of Soma.

Interpretation:
“O Savitar, as Hiranyastupa Agnirasa did, in this conquest, I call you, híraṇyastūpaḥ savitar yáthā tvā āṅgirasó juhuvé vā́je asmín.
Thus aspiring towards You in adoration, evā́ tvā́rcann ávase vándamānaḥ, as if awaking to the taste of Soma, sómasyevāṃśúm práti jāgarāhám.”
Vocabulary:
jāgṛ, 2. –garti (cf. Pāṇ. 6-1 , 192) to be awake or watchful RV. AV. &c.; to watch over , be attentive to or intent on , care for , provide , superintend (with loc. or loc. with adhi) RV. AV. &c.; (with acc. Caurap.) (said of fire) to go on burning AV.

RV 10. 139
ṛṣi: viśvāvasu devagandharva; devatā: savitā, 4-6 viśvāvasu devagandharva
(ātmastuti); chanda: triṣṭup

sū́ryaraśmir hárikeśaḥ purástāt
savitā́ jyótir úd ayām̐ ájasram
tásya pūṣā́ prasavé yāti vidvā́n
sampáśyan víśvā bhúvanāni gopā́ḥ 10.139.01
1
SAVITAR, golden−haired, hath lifted eastward, bright With the sunbeams, his eternal lustre; He in whose energy wise Pusan marches, surveying all existence like a herdsman.

Interpretation:
“With the Ray of Sūrya and the hair of Hari (or Gold), sū́ryaraśmir hárikeśaḥ, forward goes the Lord Savitar, purástāt savitā́ , up is rising the Light eternal, jyótir úd ayān ájasram.
It is in his advance that the Lord Pūṣan moves knowing, tásya pūṣā́ prasavé yāti vidvā́n, seeing all the becomings, [as] the Herdsman, sampáśyan víśvā bhúvanāni gopā́ḥ.”

Here the relation of Savitar and Pushan are depicted. Savitar himself becomes a movement in manifestation, known as Pushan, growing within with his power of light, knowing all and seeing all.

Vocabulary:
sūryaraśmi, m. a sunbeam Mn. v , 133; mfn. having the rays of the sun RV. VS.
harikeśa, mfn. fair-headed RV. VS. MBh.; m. N. of one of the 7 principal rays of the sun VP.; of Savitṛ RV.; of Shiva MBh.
ajasram, mfn. ( jas) , not to be obstructed , perpetual RV. &c.; (am [gaṇa svar-ādi, &c.] or eṇa [RV. vi , 16 , 45]) , ind. perpetually , for ever , ever.

nr̥cákṣā eṣá divó mádhya āsta
āpaprivā́n ródasī antárikṣam
sá viśvā́cīr abhí caṣṭe ghr̥tā́cīr
antarā́ pū́rvam áparaṃ ca ketúm 10.139.02

2
Beholding men he sits amid the heaven filling the two world−halves and air’s wide region. He looks upon the rich far−spreading pastures between the eastern and the western limit.

Interpretation:
“With his eyes fixed upon the soul man, nr̥cákṣā eṣá, he sits within the Heaven, divó mádhya āsta, having filled with his presence Heaven and Earth and Space between, āpaprivā́n ródasī antárikṣam.
He oversees all movements in the Universe, sá viśvā́cīr abhí caṣṭe, which are of mental clarity, ghṛtā́cīr, within the first and the last perception of the World, antarā́ pū́rvam áparaṃ ca ketúm.”

It is a very psychological description of the Lord Savitar, of what is actually happening within his own perception. His inner gaze is fixed upon the heroic souls of men, involved in manifestation, but his presence occupies the whole world, both mental and physical existence and the vital regions. Thus He can see all the movements in the Universe, which rise from mental clarity, for these are subtly related to and generated by the soul, on which he fixed his gaze. Thus he can follow the perception of all the creatures from their first to their last movement.

Vocabulary:
nṛcakṣas, mfn. beholding or watching men (said of gods) RV. AV. VS. TS.; looking after men i.e. leading or guiding them (as a Rishi) RV. iii. 53 , 9; m. ‘waiting for men’, a Rākṣasa Pāṇ 2-4 , 54 Vārtt. 10 Pat.
viśvāci, f. (fr. viśva + añc) universal RV.
ghṛtācī, f. (fr. añc Pāṇ. 6-3 , 95 Vārtt. 2 Pat.) abounding in ghee , filled with ghee , sprinkling ghee , shining with ghee RV. AV.
ketu, m. (fr. 4. cit) , bright appearance , clearness , brightness (often pl. , ‘rays of light’) RV. VS. AV.; lamp , flame , torch ib.; day-time ŚāṅkhBr. (Naigh. iii , 9); apparition , form , shape RV.; sign , mark , ensign , flag , banner RV. AV. MBh. &c.; a chief , leader , eminent person RV. R. iv , 28 , 18 Ragh. ii , 33 BhP.; intellect , judgment , discernment (?) RV. v , 66 , 4, AV. x , 2 , 12; any unusual or striking phenomenon , comet , meteor , falling star AdbhBr. Mn. i , 38 VarBṛS. BhP. &c.; the dragon’s tail or descending node (considered in astron. as the 9th planet , and in mythol. as the body of the demon Sainhikeya [son of Sinhikā] which was severed from the head or Rahu by Vishnu at the churning of the ocean , but was rendered immortal by having tasted the Amrita) Hariv. 4259 R. VP.; aruṇāḥ ketavaḥ , ‘red apparitions’, a class of spirits (a kind of sacrificial fire is called after them āruṇaketuka q.v.) AV.TAr. MBh. xii , 26 , 7.

rāyó budhnáḥ saṃgámano vásūnāṃ
víśvā rūpā́ abhí caṣṭe śácībhiḥ
devá iva savitā́ satyádharmā
índro ná tasthau samaré dhánānām 10.139.03

3
He, root of wealth, the gatherer−up of treasures, looks with his might on every form and figure. Savitar, like a God, whose Law is constant, stands in the battle for the spoil like Indra.

Interpretation:
“He is the foundation of [all] the Riches, rāyó budhnáḥ, the coming back together of all the luminous dwellers within the substance, [who were scattered in the night], saṃgámano vásūnāṃ. He oversees all forms by his powers, víśvā rūpā́ abhí caṣṭe śácībhiḥ.
He is like the God, devá iva, holding [onto] the Truth, satyádharmā, He Savitar, like Indra, stands firm in the battle for the Riches, índro ná tasthau samaré dhánānām.”

Vocabulary:
śacī, f. the rendering of powerful or mighty help , assistance , aid (esp. said of the deeds of Indra and the Aśvins , instr. śacyā and śacībhis, often = ‘mightily or , helpfully’) RV.; kindness , favour , grace ib. AV. AitBr. [1048, 2] ; skill , dexterity RV. VS.; speech , power of speech , eloquence Naigh.; N. of the wife of Indra (derived fr. śacī-pati q.v.) MBh. &c. of the authoress of RV. x , 159 (having the patr. Paulomi) Anukr.
budhna, m.n. (probably not connected with budh; but cf. Uṇ. iii , 5) bottom , ground , base , depth , lowest part of anything (as the root of a tree &c.) RV. AV. ŚBr. (budhna) ŚrS. ChUp.

viśvā́vasuṃ soma gandharvám ā́po
dadr̥śúṣīs tád r̥ténā ví āyan
tád anvávaid índro rārahāṇá āsām
pári sū́ryasya paridhī́m̐r apaśyat 10.139.04

4
Waters from sacrifice came to the Gandharva Visvavasu, O Soma, when they saw him.
Indra, approaching quickly, marked their going, and looked around upon the Sun’s enclosures.

Interpretation:
“The Waters having seen the Gandharva, gandharvám ā́po dadṛśúṣīs, the Universal Dweller within the Substance, O Soma, viśvā́vasuṃ soma, rushed onto him in accordance with the Truth, tád r̥ténā ví āyan!
That [movement] of them Indra discovered, and approaching quickly, tád anvávaid índro rārahāṇá āsām, he saw the halo round the sun, pári sū́ryasya paridhī́m̐r apaśyat.”

Vocabulary:
viśvāvasu, mfn. beneficent to all (said of Vishnu) MBh.; m. N. of a Gandharva (regarded as the author of the hymn RV. x , 139) RV. AV. VS. &c.; of a Marut-vat ib.
rah, 1. P. (Dhātup. xvil , 82) rahati (pf. rarāha &c. Gr. ; inf. -rahitum see vi-rah) , to part , separate MBh.; to leave , quit , abandon Dhātup.
rārahāṇa, mfn. (fr. Intens.) id. R
paridhi, m. an enclosure , fence , wall , protection , (esp.) the 3 fresh sticks (called madhyama, dakṣiṇa, uttara) laid round a sacrificial fire to keep it together RV. &c. &c.; (fig.) the ocean surrounding the earth ib.; a halo round the sun or moon Ragh. Var. BhP.; any circumference or circle Var. Sūryas..

viśvā́vasur abhí tán no gr̥ṇātu
divyó gandharvó rájaso vimā́naḥ
yád vā ghā satyám utá yán ná vidmá
dhíyo hinvānó dhíya ín no avyāḥ 10.139.05

5
This song Visvavasu shall sing us, meter of air’s mid−realm celestial Gandharva, That we may know aright both truth and falsehood: may he inspire our thoughts and help our praises.

Interpretation:
“The Universal Dweller within the Substance should voice it within us, viśvā́vasur abhí tán no gr̥ṇātu, the Heavenly Gandharva, the measurer of Space, divyó gandharvó rájaso vimā́naḥ!
May we know thus what is true and what is not, yád vā ghā satyám utá yán ná vidmá! May he propel our concentration and increase it, dhíyo hinvānó dhíya ín no avyāḥ!”

Vocabulary:
vimāna, 3 mf(ī)n. measuring out, traversing RV. AV. MBh.; m. n. a car or chariot of the gods , any mythical self-moving aerial car (sometimes serving as a seat or throne , sometimes self-moving and carrying its occupant through the air ; other descriptions make the Vima1na more like a house or palace , and one kind is said to be 7 stories high ; that of Rāvaṇa was called puṣpaka q.v. ; the nau-v- [Ragh. xvi , 68] is thought to resemble a ship) MBh. Kāv. &c.

sásnim avindac cáraṇe nadī́nām
ápāvr̥ṇod dúro áśmavrajānām
prā́sāṃ gandharvó amŕ̥tāni vocad
índro dákṣam pári jānād ahī́nām 10.139.06

6
In the floods’ track he found the bootyseeker: the rocky cow−pen’s doors he threw wide open. These, the Gandharva told him, Rowed with Amrta. Indra knew well the puissance [sic] of the dragons.

Interpretation:
“Thus He discovered the Goal [hidden] in the bedrocks of the rivers, sásnim avindac cáraṇe nadī́nām! He removed the door to the stony cow-pens, ápāvr̥ṇod dúro áśmavrajānām !
And of these [waters or rivers] Gandharva spoke to him the immortal things, prā́sāṃ gandharvó amŕ̥tāni vocad. Thus Indra came to know about the Knowledge-Power of the pythons, índro dákṣam pári jānād ahī́nām.”

Vocabulary:
sasni, mfn. (fr. 1. san) procuring, bestowing, gaining, winning RV.

The international township of Auroville was founded in 1968 in southern India, near Pondicherry, – in the words of the Charter of Auroville: “to be the site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.”

As stated in the 4^th UNESCO Resolution on Auroville, in 1983, the aims of Auroville are “to ensure international understanding, peace, innovative education, a learning society, and an all round material and spiritual development of harmonious individual and collective growth, and… such aims contribute to the advancement of the objectives of UNESCO”.

In the course of Auroville’s first four decades, its research and development, especially in the fields of environmental restoration, reforestation, alternative energy design and technology, alternative healing practices, and integral education have been widely recognized: it has already become a community for men, women, and children of many different nationalities, and it has hosted numerous international conferences, workshops, seminars, and research projects in a wide variety of fields.  Today, Auroville aspires to become the learning community of tomorrow: a global adventure to discover the knowledge, understanding, creativity and consciousness that humanity searches for and needs everywhere, as it leaps into the 21^st Century.

40^th Auroville Anniversary and Inauguration

As early as 1969, The Mother, Auroville’s founder and guide, addressed  her intention to UNESCO to create a “Université de l’Unité Humaine”, a University of Human Unity, as a means to realise the spiritual and material goals of Auroville. “The permanent university will be the key to the reason for Auroville’s existence (la clef de la raison d’être d’Auroville)” she said. “It has to be a leap forward, to hasten the advent of the future – a world of harmony and beauty and union.”

Since the beginning, researchers, scholars, seekers, graduate and post-graduate students, professionals at all stages of their growth and development have been coming to Auroville for specific research and study in various Auroville-related topics – in the fields of integral yoga, architecture, town planning, ecology, sustainable development and society, philosophy and psychology.*  For the past three years, the University of Human Unity has hosted conferences, workshops and seminars featuring presentations by leaders from Auroville and around the world in the fields of integral education, the psychology of social development, environmental sustainability, sustainable technology and design, linguistics and philosophy.  Now, with the growing aspiration and intention of our  affiliates from within Auroville and around the globe, a coordinated effort is at last underway to develop a more coordinated structure that will enable the evolution of a next level of organisation in Auroville’s education: the manifestation of a true university of integral learning.

A New Integral Learning Paradigm

The University of Human Unity is being conceived of as an innovative alternative genre of university, expressive of the explorations of a new consciousness in the universe-city that is Auroville, free from many of the conventional restraints that characterize higher educational institutions in the world today. The specific mission of the University of Human Unity will be to provide an environment for higher learning where the discovery of an integral self-knowledge and world-knowledge will be the aim, and where integral self-development and the realization of the full human potential will be the primary object of research and discovery in all fields of study.

The University of Human Unity will be a platform for exploration and discovery in all areas of knowledge and activity where students may design, develop and implement programs of study in a supportive and contemplative atmosphere, with the participation and cooperation of other students and facilitators in their respective fields of interest. To do this, new approaches to knowledge and new learning modalities are to be discovered, and a new perception, a deeper understanding, a truer force of consciousness manifested, in Auroville and in the world.  In the words of Sri Aurobindo, the spiritual visionary, poet and philosopher whose Ideal of Human Unity provides the philosophical framework for Auroville:

“A greater whole-being, whole-knowledge, whole-power is needed to weld all into a greater unity of whole-life. …A life of unity, mutuality and harmony born of a deeper and wider truth of our being is the only truth of life that can successfully replace the imperfect mental constructions of the past” (p.577).

Beginning in the Fall of 2007 and continuing in 2010

The University of Human Unity in Auroville offers:

-  opportunities for long or short term residential accommodations,

-  programs of discovery in many fields of the humanities and natural sciences,

- individual or small group explorations,

- informal experiential learning,

- internships,

- graduate and post-graduate seminars,

- applied research,

- distance learning in association with our many affiliates in India and abroad.

Schedule of Regular Activities

1st Semester September- December 2010

2^nd Semester January- April 2011

Affiliates in Auroville

Centre for Indian Studies

Centre for International Research in Human Unity

Centre for Scientific Research

Savitri Bhavan

Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Education and Research

Pitchandikulam Biological Research Centre

The Auroville Earth Institute

The Unity Pavilion/International Zone Group

Verite Integral Learning Centre

World-wide Affiliates

Indian Psychology Institute, Pondicherry

Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, Pondicherry

The California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco

The Sri Aurobindo Learning Center, Crestone Colorado

The WorldShift University and The Club of Budapest

Part One – Wilber’s Early Works

1. Introduction

Ken Wilber’s work now spans two decades, from The Atman Project (1980), to A Theory of Everything (2001), and it includes some 20 books. In most of these books Sri Aurobindo’s work, especially The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga, are referenced, and his language of integral transformation and spiritual evolution is frequently used. It seems to many, in fact, that Wilber has done an outstanding job of incorporating Sri Aurobindo’s ideas in a way that makes them accessible to a very large audience. For Wilber is widely read in America today, and Sri Aurobindo’s books are rarely seen on bookshelves.

But it is rather extraordinary at the same time, that in all those thousands of pages, there is hardly a page all together of direct quotes from Sri Aurobindo, very little that is direct commentary on his work, and the references are usually to a list of names, among which Sri Aurobindo is included. To give a typical example, from Integral Psychology (2000), “Like all truly great integral thinkers – from Aurobindo to Gebser to Whitehead to Baldwin to Habermas – he (Abraham Maslow) was a developmentalist.” And so, one might well ask what actually remains of Sri Aurobindo after his ideas are incorporated, along with all of the other many sources that Wilber’s genius has so skillfully worked into his voluminous synthesis, and what is there that is truly Wilber’s? In fact, it may be noted that the other illustrious sources that Wilber frequently refers to are also generally not quoted directly; one must either already be familiar with them, or else assume that Wilber is doing them justice.

The goals of this essay, therefore, are to present a summary of various essential aspects of Wilber’s work, hopefully in a way that makes it more accessible to those who are not already familiar with it, and then to submit these aspects to a critical comparison with specific related aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s work. (“Work” is used here in a dual sense: the written work of these authors, and the practical thrust, purpose, intent of their writing in the context of our actual human predicament.) For those who are familiar with both authors, there will be little that is new or unknown here. But the critical perspective that I hope to present should help to clarify the relationship of Wilber’s writing to that of Sri Aurobindo, and it should highlight the unique contribution that each has made to their common project: the evolution of consciousness. I shall assume that most readers of this essay will not have extensive knowledge of the writings of Wilber.

1. The Atman Project

Wilber is a transpersonal, developmental psychologist, who has attempted to map the entire territory of human development – “the evolution of consciousness” – through time, and to formulate a comprehensive theory of the processes, stages, and mechanisms of that development. His method is historical, analytical and contemplative: he attempts to synthesize all the relevant views of philosophy, psychology, and religion, East and West, in support of what he calls an “integral theory of consciousness.” Let me hasten to say that one can only respect and admire the persistence, scope, clarity and integrity of purpose with which he has carried his project forward. It seems to have begun with the theory that he calls “the Atman Project,” and although it appears, from the scope of his writings, that he has moved well beyond that point in his own development, let us begin there.

In the very first sentence of the Preface to that book, Wilber states the theory:

… development is evolution; evolution is transcendence…; and transcendence has as its final goal Atman, or ultimate Unity Consciousness in only God. All drives are a subset of that Drive, all wants a subset of that Want, all pushes a subset of that Pull – and that whole movement is what we call the Atman-project: the drive of God towards God, Buddha towards Buddha, Brahman towards Brahman, but carried out initially through the intermediary of the human psyche, with results that range from ecstatic to catastrophic (p.ix).

At the very outset, Wilber also states a corollary of this theory, for which he is well known, – the “pre/trans fallacy,” which qualifies his position with respect to the developmental theories of both Jung and Sri Aurobindo. If, as Wilber says, the evolution of consciousness spans three broad stages from pre-egoic to egoic to transpersonal, a spectrum of development that is recapitulated in every human being, it is a mistake to confuse the pre-egoic, unconscious, uroboric stage with the transpersonal, integrated, transcendent stages of development, as if the higher consisted in a return to and recapture of the lower. This seminal distinction marks the point of departure for Wilber, sets the direction of all his future work, and establishes the terminology that he will use. For the student of Sri Aurobindo, this may call to mind occasional remarks made by Sri Aurobindo about Western psychology, to the effect that it tries to explain the lotus by analyzing the mud. Wilber seems to agree with this sentiment. A few excerpts from The Atman Project will illustrate this development in his thought.

The infantile fusion-state is indeed a type of “paradise,” as we will see, but it is one of pre-personal ignorance, not transpersonal awakening. The true nature of the pre-personal, infantile fusion state did not dawn on me until I ran across Piaget’s description of it: ‘The self at this stage is material, so to speak…’ And material union is the lowest possible unity of all – there is nothing metaphysically “high” about it; the fact that it is a unity structure, prior to subject-object differentiation, erroneously invites its identification with the truly higher unity structures which are trans-subject/object. At the point that became obvious to me, the whole schema that I had presented in RE-VISION (a journal of transpersonal psychology edited by Wilber) re-arranged itself…

I have reserved “uroboros” for the pre-personal state of infantile material fusion (along with “pleroma”); “centaur” is now reserved strictly for the mature integration of body and ego-mind, and “typhon” is introduced for the infantile period of pre-differentiation of body and ego (Freud’s “body-ego” stages); “transpersonal” refers strictly to the mature, adult forms of transcendence of the ego-mind and body; my use of the terms “evolution” and “involution” has been brought into accord with that of Hinduism (e.g., Aurobindo), and my original use of those terms (based on Coomaraswamy) has been replaced by the terms “Outward Arc” and “Inward Arc” (p.x).

In the next few pages of the prologue to The Atman Project, Wilber presents the first of many diagrams of psychological development, describing the Outward and Inward Arcs. The Outward Arc of development includes the sequence: pleroma, uroboros, bodyego, membership-cognition, early and middle ego/persona, late ego/persona; the Inward Arc of development includes the stages: mature ego, biosocial bands, centaur/existential, subtle, causal, Atman. These consecutive stages of ascending development are also presented in the form of a chart (simplified here):

This conception of the stages of development will evolve in Wilber’s writing through many versions and many books, but will retain the same basic structure. And it will frequently be compared with other developmental models. For example, at the end of The Atman Project, Wilber provides several charts that compare his system with some twenty other similar developmental models. The chart I have reproduced here is based on his comparisons with just three other frequently mentioned models. As I said, these comparative models have been elaborated and have evolved throughout Wilber’s work, and he uses them effectively to illustrate his point. The general idea of psychological development, the way that it has been drawn from a variety of sources, and, most importantly, his inclusion of the higher mental and spiritual ranges, roughly in accordance with Sri Aurobindo’s system, are made sufficiently clear.

The major thesis, and the method to be applied in establishing it, are immediately set forth in The Atman Project (p. 2-3):

Modern developmental psychology has, on the whole, simply devoted itself to the exploration and explanation of the various levels, stages, and strata of the human constitution – mind, personality, psychosexuality, character, consciousness. The cognitive studies of Piaget and Werner, the works of Loevinger and Arieti and Maslow and Jakobson, the moral development studies of Kohlberg – all subscribe, in whole or part, to the concept of stratified stages of increasing differentiation, integration, and unity. Having said that much, we are at once entitled to ask, “What, then, is the highest stage of unity to which one may aspire?” Or, perhaps we should not phrase the question in such ultimate terms, but simply ask instead, “What is the nature of some of the higher and highest stages of development? What forms of unity are disclosed in the most developed souls of the human species?” The problem with that type of question lies in finding examples of truly higher-order personalities – and in deciding exactly what constitutes a higher-order personality in the first place. My own feeling is that as humanity continues its collective evolution, this will become very easy to decide, because more and more “enlightened” personalities will show up in data populations, and psychologists will be forced, by their statistical analyses, to include higher-order profiles in their developmental stages. In the meantime, one’s idea of “higher-order” or “highly-developed” remains rather philosophic. Nonetheless, those few gifted souls who have bothered to look at this problem have suggested that the world’s great mystics and sages represent some of the very highest, if not the highest, of all stages of human development.

…Let us then simply assume that the authentic mystic-sage represents the very highest stages of human development – as far beyond normal-and-average humanity as humanity itself is beyond apes. This, in effect, would give us a sample which approximates “the highest state of consciousness” – a type of “superconscious state.”

In accordance with this assumption, Wilber includes in his developmental model, as we have seen, an upper tier of higher stages of consciousness: “low subtle,” “high subtle,” “low causal,” “high causal,” and “ultimate,” corresponding roughly to the upper categories defined by Sri Aurobindo. Wilber frequently reduces his upper tier to four categories: psychic, subtle, causal, nondual. And he often explains these by comparison with the Buddhist categories: Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya, Dharmakaya, Svabhavikakaya. (His sources for this terminology appear to be, primarily, Evans-Wentz and D.T. Suzuki.)

1. Involution/Evolution

In both The Atman Project and its successor, Up from Eden (1981), Wilber devotes most of his thesis to a detailed description of the unfolding of the lower stages of human development, from the uroboric and typhonic to the mental egoic and centauric levels, utilizing familiar Freudian and Jungian concepts and terminology. In Up from Eden, the exposition deals primarily with the cultural myths and symbols that indicate a parallel development in the collective psyche of humanity. And in both books, the dynamics and the mechanics of involution and evolution that underlie and drive the process of psychological unfolding called the Atman-project are elaborated. In this theory, the traditional psychoanalytic dynamics of repression and sublimation, and the playing out in the human psyche of the struggle between Life and Death, Eros and Thanatos, are shown to be, rather than the repression of sexuality, the repression of the soul through the involution of spirit, and its sublimation in the stages of evolution back towards spirit. A few selections from these early books will serve to illustrate Wilber’s argument and style, as well as to bring us up to speed with this psychoanalytical/spiritual way of viewing the human psyche.

The Atman-project

The ultimate psychology is a psychology of fundamental Wholeness, or the superconscious All. At any rate, let us simply note that this Wholeness…is what is real and all that is real. A radically separate, isolated and bounded entity does not exist anywhere.

It follows, then, that to erect a self-boundary or barrier, and hold a separate-identity feeling against the prior Wholeness, not only involves illusion, it requires a constant expenditure of energy, a perpetual contracting or restricting activity. This of course obscures the prior Wholeness itself, and this…is the primal repression. It is the illusory repression of universal consciousness and its projection as an inside-self vs. an outside-world, a subject vs. an object. …

Because man wants real transcendence above all else, but because he cannot or will not accept the necessary death of his separate-self sense, he goes about seeking transcendence in ways, or through structures, that actually prevent it and force symbolic substitutes. And these substitutes come in all varieties: sex, food, money, fame, knowledge, power – all are ultimately substitute gratifications, simple substitutes for true release in Wholeness. …This attempt to regain Atman consciousness in ways or under conditions that prevent it and force symbolic substitutes – this is the Atman-project ( p.102-103).

Uroboric Incest

…The neonate begins to realize that the environment and his self are not one and the same. The infant starts to recognize that something exists apart from his self, and this “global something” we call the “uroboric other.” …uroboric incest is the tendency to fall back into embryonic and pleromatic states – we would say, the desire to unite with the uroboric other and sink back into pre-differentiated oblivion. …

In other words, uroboric incest is simply the most primitive form of Eros, the most archaic and least developed form of the Atman-project. Uroboric incest is the tendency to seek out that lowest-level unity of all – simple material embeddedness, wherein all conscious forms melt back into the utter darkness of the prima materia.

…But as soon as the self is strong enough to accept the death of the uroboros, as soon as the self can surrender or die to the exclusively uroboric incest, then Thanatos outweighs Eros, uroboric translation ceases and transformation upward ensues ( p. 112-114).

The Atman-project in the Typhonic Realms

…But as the organism itself begins to mature physiologically, and especially in its capacity for imagery, the primitive uroboric self-feeling begins to shift to the individual bodyself, and the uroboric other begins to focus as the “mothering one.” The infant thus begins to grow out of the purely pre-personal and uroboric realm into the typhonic plane of existence, where it will face the existential battle of being vs. nullity, a battle centered around the figure – now loving, now terrifying, now benevolent, now devouring – of the Great Mother.…the infant at this stage translates his situation (in images) so as to present itself as the center of the cosmos by – as psychoanalysis puts it – “incorporating” or “swallowing” the world (the Great Mother), or just initially the “breast” in image form.

And so the infant proceeds to translate his self and his world, attempting to gain some sort of prior Unity. In this manner, then, we can view the stock in trade phenomenon of psychoanalysis: infantile thumb-sucking. For by virtue of the magical primary process which, as we saw, dominates this body level, the infant can translate the Great Environment or Great Mother into the breast-image, into the thumb-image, and thus…he can pretend to unite himself with his world. …To find Atman, to find Unity, the infant eats the world, the Great Mother (p. 114-116).

Before going on to examine Wilber’s attempt to explain this psychoanalytic picture of development in terms of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of evolution, and then putting the Atman-project in a more critical perspective, I would like for us to look briefly at Wilber’s characterization of the Great Mother/Great Goddess transformation, in Up From Eden (1981). In this book, the author applies the Atman-project theory to the evolution of human society and culture, which is documented in detail and moves along a similar path of unfolding, from the uroboric to the typhonic to the mythic-membership stage. The latter is parallel to the next stage of ego differentiation in the individual, beyond the typhonic body-ego: the formation of an early stage mental-ego, which takes place primarily through verbal development and various forms of parental fixation. So for mankind and its cultures, the uroboric Eden is superseded by the typhonic, magic-hunter stage, and then by the mythic-membership stage, which includes the emergence of agriculture, ritual sacrifice, and symbolic religion. As in individual development, these stages of social development are all, of course, successive substitutes – “substitute subjects, substitute objects, substitute sacrifices, immortality projects, cosmocentric designs and tokens of transcendence” – for the real unity of the Atman.

Wilber’s account of the historical transition from the practice of physical sacrifice made to the Great Mother, to symbolic sacrifice made to the Great Goddess, is presented as a definitive example of the upward evolution of consciousness in early human societies, and is particularly relevant in the context of Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual philosophy, as a few brief excerpts should show.

The Great Mother/Great Goddess

The Great Mother, then, is initially representative of global, bodily, separate, and vulnerable existence in space and time, with consequent desires for a Great Protectress and consequent fears of a Great Destroyer. And it is not hard for me to imagine that something very similar occurred to mankind on the whole as it emerged from its collective slumber in the uroboric Eden. …The Great Mother came thus to represent bodily existence itself, matter and nature, water and earth, and life and death in the naturic realm.

…To the primitive it was obvious: the menstrual blood flow of the woman continues periodically throughout her maturity – except when she is pregnant. And thus it is this “withheld” menstrual blood that is being converted into the form of a living baby and new life. And therefore the Great Mother needs blood in order to bring forth new life. And this equation was supplemented by the otherwise quite accurate perception that bodily life depends on blood: take away blood, and you take away life. For either or both of these reasons, the conclusion was obvious: just as the earth needs rain to bring forth crops, the Great Mother needs blood to bring forth new life.

When we put these two symbolic equations (of the dead and resurrected lunar-god consort and the blood sacrifice for life) together, we straightforwardly arrive at the perfect logic of the early rites of human sacrifice: the symbolic consort (human or animal) is sacrificed in blood to the Great Mother, dies, and is resurrected (after three days according to many myths). In fact, the Great Mother follows the dead god-consort into the dark underworld, and there effects his resurrection, thus ensuring another cycle of new life and new fertility and new moon. In the sacrifice itself, the god-consort is actually uniting with the Great Mother, and thus himself is reborn or resurrected (becoming in the process, the father of himself.)

For the essence of the Great Mother is that she demanded the dissolution, the sacrifice, of the separate self. Let us note that: the Great Mother demands the dissolution of the self. But the self can dissolve in two entirely different directions: one, it can dissolve in transcendence, it can fall forward into superconsciousness. But two, it can dissolve in regression, in a falling back into the subconscious, in an obliteration of personality and not a transcendence of it. And whereas, for a very few, the Mother was, and still is, the portal to subtle superconsciousness, the way to transcend the personality, she was for most that terrible form of inertia which prevented the emergence, out of the uroboros and typhon, of a truly strong personality.

Put in a different way: a given rite, ceremony, sacrament, or myth can function as a symbol, in which case it evokes higher levels of self and reality, or as a mere sign, in which case it simply confirms and strengthens the same mundane level of self and reality. That is, a given rite or sacrament can serve as a symbol of transformation or as a sign of translation. The first function is properly religious (esoteric), and works to undermine or dissolve self in God consciousness; whereas the second function is merely substitutive, and serves to perpetuate and strengthen the self sense by securing magical substitutes for God (p. 119-135).

This very severely abbreviated example, is only one among many myths recounted in Up From Eden to illustrate the evolution of human societies and cultures, and to illustrate the mechanism of repression and sublimation of the self which the Atman-project theory endeavors to explain. But this particular example is important to include here especially because of the central importance of the Divine Mother as Mahashakti or Supermind in Sri Aurobindo’s cosmology, and as Tranformative Force in Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga. It is curious, however, that Wilber never mentions this aspect of Sri Aurobindo’s work, that I am aware of. And I find this omission significant in particular because Savitri is not only Sri Aurobindo’s most important written work, but in it the goddess both symbolizes and concretely illustrates the spiritual level of the myth that Wilber interpreted at the ritual and symbolic levels in an early, pre-modern society. But the “spiritual” level of interpretation, which would show the Great Goddess also to be a “real force” for transformation at the post-egoic, and post-modern stage of development seems to have been missed – an oversight which I believe has bearing on Wilber’s application of Sri Aurobindo’s concept of involution and evolution, and on our interpretation of that application, to which we shall now turn. (It is in Savitri (1950), Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem of spiritual transformation, let us note, that the emerging planes, forms, and structures of evolutionary consciousness are described, in images and ideas similar to the psychological schemas and symbols analyzed by Jung, Gebser, and Wilber. But in Sri Aurobindo’s vision, ascending Nature (the Great Mother) and descending Consciousness-force (the Great Goddess) are guided at every step by the indwelling self or spirit, and their intersection is the unfolding manifestation in time.)

In both of the books that we have been considering in Part One of this essay, The Atman Project, A Transpersonal View of Human Development, and Up From Eden, A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution, Wilber has formulated his theory of the Atman-project in great detail. And near the end of both books he has included a section on Involution and Evolution, where he has made reference to Sri Aurobindo. This is an especially important aspect of Wilber’s theory because it provides the philosophical basis, the essential reason and meaning for the unfolding process of the Self in evolution. Without such a basis, the traditional theory of repression and sublimation based on sexuality, like Darwin’s theory of evolution based on natural selection, both of which lack the notion of a “telos” – a purpose and direction (other than ‘survival’ or ‘pleasure’), would seem just as adequate. It is for this reason, I believe, that Sri Aurobindo devoted his major philosophical work, The Life Divine, to establishing just such a metaphysical basis for his theory of the evolution of consciousness, – in order to achieve a more meaningful, more adequate, more profound explanation of the basis of human life and existence in general. The question here is whether Wilber has succeeded in providing his theory of psychological development with the foundation it needs, by his application of the theory of evolution drawn from Sri Aurobindo.

Wilber introduces the subject, the “what” of involution and evolution, in The Atman Project, like this: We have already examined evolution, which is the movement of the world towards Brahman-Atman. Involution is, more or less, the opposite of that – it is the movement whereby Brahman throws itself outward to create the manifest worlds, a process of kenosis or self-emptying which, at the same time, is a process of pure act and pure creativity. As evolution is movement from the lower to the higher, involution is a movement from the higher to the lower – a movement which “enfolds” and “involves” the higher levels of being with the lower.

…in order for evolution – which is the unfolding of higher structures – to occur at all, those higher structures must, in some sense, be present from the start: they must be enfolded as potential, in the lower modes. …And the story of involution is simply the story of how the higher modes came to be lost in the lower – how they came to be enwrapped and enfolded in the lower states.

And then, in order to tell the story of  the “how,” Wilber turns immediately to The Tibetan Book of the Dead and its account of the soul’s journey in the “in between.”

Thus, there are two major bardos or “in betweens” – one occurs as a series of temporal events lasting up to 49 days after physical death, and the other occurs now, moment to moment. And the Tibetan tradition adds one simple and crucial point: these two bardos are the same. What happened to you before you were born is what is happening to you now.

… Immediately following physical death, the soul enters the Chikhai, which is simply the state of the immaculate and luminous Dharmakaya, the ultimate Consciousness, the Brahman-Atman. …

The soul falls away from the ultimate Oneness because “karmic propensities cloud consciousness” – karmic propensities means seeking, grasping, desiring: means, in fact, Eros. And as this Eros-seeking develops, the state of perfect Oneness starts to “break down.” … Contraction and Eros – these karmic propensities couple and conspire to drive the soul away from pure consciousness and downwards into multiplicity, into less intense and less real states of being. …right here the soul is starting to move from the highest state into lower states, which means that involution itself has just started.

… at each stage of involution, the soul constructs a substitute self and a substitute world. The causal, the subtle, the mental and the bodily – all were created as substitute formations to present the self as deathless, god-like, immortal and cosmocentric. …

But since each of these “steps down” is accompanied by a swoon of forgetfulness, the entire sequence is rendered unconscious – rendered unconscious – not destroyed, not removed, not vacated… Which means: all of the higher levels are present, but they are simply forgotten… And, very simply, the result of that entire sequence of forgetting is the ground unconscious. Thus enfolded and enwrapped in the ground unconscious of the newborn lie all the higher states of being.

And here, finally, is the other meaning of the Bardo, of the In Between, and if you feel that “reincarnation” or “rebirth” is unacceptable, then this might be easier to accept… not only did the whole involutionary series occur prior to one’s birth, one re-enacts the entire series moment to moment. …This moment to moment phenomenon we call “microgeny” – the micro-genetic involution of the spectrum of consciousness. Each moment, the individual passes through the entire Bardo sequence – ultimate to causal to subtle to mental to gross – and he remembers only to the extent he has evolved. If an individual has evolved to the subtle realm, then he will remember the gross, mental, and subtle aspects of consciousness, but he will not remember the causal and ultimate aspects of this moment’s experience: they remain in the emergent unconscious, awaiting emergence via remembrance. Evolution is simply the interception of micro-involution at higher and higher stages: the more evolved a person is, the less involved he is (p. 160-175).

Now, Wilber has said repeatedly throughout this originally lengthy and detailed description of the “how” of involution, that it is “simply” put. But it is nevertheless obviously quite complicated. Moreover, I have omitted the explanation of the Eros/Thanatos struggle that mediates the remembering at each moment of ascent and descent. It is described as a vertical struggle between the pull of Atman at one end and Contraction at the other, and a horizontal struggle between Eros at one end and Thanatos at the other. The developing soul is driven by Eros towards substitutes, until it can die to that drive and be pulled away by Thanatos, so it can then emerge upward towards Atman before contracting back down to a lower level of Eros-substitution. The downward movement of the soul in involution is like a ball bouncing down stairs on an elastic band, until it reaches its nadir and then begins to be pulled in all directions by its karmic propensities.

The whole process looks remarkably like a description of what makes the wheel of karma spin. And perhaps it suggests more questions than it answers, not least of which is the big “Why”? But before we attempt to find that one out, it is interesting to note that on the page where we left off, there occurs the one and only reference to Sri Aurobindo in this section, and a quote. Wilber writes: The higher modes can emerge because, and only because, they were enfolded, as potential, in the lower modes to begin with, and they simply crystallize out and differentiate from the lower modes as evolution proceeds. This is exactly what Aurobindo means when he says: “Since this Consciousness [ultimate Brahman-Atman] is creatrix of the world, it must be not only state of knowledge, but power of knowledge, and not only a will to light and vision, but a will to power and works. And since mind, too, is created out of it [Atman], mind must be a development by limitation out of this primal faculty and this…supreme consciousness [that "development by limitation" is precisely involution] and must therefore be capable of resolving itself back into it through a reverse development by expansion [and that is evolution].

The highlights and brackets in this quote are all Wilber’s, and the reference is to a selection from The Life Divine included in an anthology of Indian Philosophy edited by S. Radhakrishnan (1973, p.598). It is possible to trace it back to the original, which is in The Life Divine, Chapter XIV, The Supermind As Creator. There, Will and Mind are capitalized. The “consciousness” that is being spoken of is Supermind, not Atman. The last sentence reads, “And since Mind too is created out of it, Mind must be a development by limitation out of this primal faculty and this mediatory act of the supreme Consciousness.” Sri Aurobindo then goes on to say, “For always Mind must be identical with Supermind in essence and conceal in itself the potentiality of Supermind, however different or even contrary it may have become in its actual forms and settled modes of operation. It may not then be an irrational or unprofitable attempt to strive by the method of comparison and contrast towards some idea of the Supermind from the standpoint and in the terms of our intellectual knowledge. …Supermind is the vast self-extension of the Brahman that contains and develops. …It possesses the power of development, of evolution, of making explicit, and that power carries with it the other power of involution, of envelopment, of making implicit. In a sense, the whole of creation may be said to be a movement between two involutions, Spirit in which all is involved and out of which all evolves downward to the other pole of Matter, Matter in which all is involved and out of which all evolves upwards to the other pole of Spirit. …The first business of Mind is to render “discrete,” to make fissures much more than to discern, and so it has made this paralysing fissure between thought and reality. But in Supermind all being is consciousness, all consciousness is of being, and the idea, a pregnant vibration of consciousness, is equally a vibration of being, pregnant of itself; it is an initial coming out, in creative self-knowledge, of that which lay concentrated in uncreative self-awareness. It comes out as Idea that is a reality, and it is that reality of the Idea which evolves itself, always by its own power and consciousness of itself, always self-conscious, always self-developing by the will inherent in the Idea, always self-realising by the knowledge ingrained in its every impulsion. This is the truth of all creation, of all evolution” (p. 115-122).

I have followed out this quotation at some length in order to show the depth and scope of the ideas of involution and evolution in Sri Aurobindo’s thought, from which Wilber seems to have drawn only a portion of his understanding. What he has left out, or not grasped, and which is of considerable importance to this Vedantic conception, is the idea of Supermind as the Creatrix, the Mediatrix, or creative Consciousness-Force of the Brahman responsible for each moment of the involutionary/evolutionary cycle. And the stress here is on Conscious Being, and on Existence, which is all inclusive. In Sri Aurobindo’s conception, this process of involution and evolution is conscious, harmonious, divine, at every level. It is only Mind which experiences the illusion of fragmentation, and the Ego which experiences the separate-self, and Life which undergoes the struggle of Eros/Thanatos. But the reality is quite other than the interpretation given to it by Mind focusing on these various levels of experience, until it is able to rise into that which is its container and its real originating substance. It is possible that Wilber could have derived the notion of involution and evolution from this paragraph, but not the complicated process of forgetting and remembering that he has constructed, and not the microgeny which gives rise to the spectrum of consciousness. According to Sri Aurobindo, the so called “structures of consciousness” or levels of the Great Chain of Being, in Wilber’s system, are inherent aspects of Conscious Being, enfolded and unfolded, by the creative Will-Force inherent in them.

In his chapter on the same subject in Up From Eden, which he also concludes with a quote from Sri Aurobindo, the focus is on the larger, cosmic and collective as well as individual human picture, and he comes closer to the problem of the “Why,” while stressing the positive role of the illusory ego-mind in its evolutionary ascent from the unconscious to the superconscious. He still doesn’t endow the process with much dynamism or will-power, but he does seem to credit the Brahman with a little more responsibility and creative gusto, at least initially.

He writes, in the section titled Involution and Evolution, To begin with, we need only recall that all esotericism subscribes to the view that reality is hierarchal, or composed of successively higher levels of reality (or, more accurately, levels of decreasing illusion), reaching from the lowest material plane to the ultimate spiritual realization. This is the universal Great Chain of Being, …some of the major links (of which) are: 1) physical, material nature, 2) the biological body, 3) the lower mind (verbal membership), 4) the advanced mind (egoic conceptual), 5) the lower soul (psychic level, Nirmanakaya), 6) the higher soul (subtle level, Sambhogakaya), 7) the Spirit (as Limit, Dharmakaya), and the Spirit (as Ground, Svabhavikakaya).

According to this cosmology/psychology, the ultimate Brahman-Atman periodically “gets lost” – for the fun and sport (lila) of it – by throwing itself outward as far as possible: to see how “far out” it can get. …But in so doing, in initiating this great sport and play, Spirit temporarily “forgets” itself and thus “loses” itself in successively lower levels. That is, since Spirit successively “forgets” itself in each descending level, each level actually consists of successively decreasing consciousness. The Great Chain thus descends from superconsciousness to simple consciousness to subconsciousness (p. 300).

He later rephrases this notion of the creative beginning of evolution with a more Western, mythological image: We have seen two major events, both of which have been described, appropriately enough, as “falls” – the scientific fall and the theological fall. And we put the two falls together in this fashion: beginning approximately 15 billion years ago, the material cosmos – which represents the most alienated form of Spirit – blew into sole existence with the Big Bang, which was really the roaring laughter of God voluntarily getting lost for the millionth time. That was the limit of involution, and it represented the epitome of the theological  fall – the illusory separation of all things from Godhead. From that point on, evolution back to Spirit began, an evolution which produced, in the actual course of history and prehistory, successively higher-order levels – mineral, plant, lower animal, primate, man – but all were still in a state of original sin, or apparent alienation from Spirit (p. 311-312).

Harking back to the “pre/trans fallacy,” Wilber has given an interesting interpretation in this section of his book to the myth of the Fall. He speculates that the original “theological” Fall was in fact the involution of Spirit, while what he calls the “scientific” Fall occurred, symbolically, in the departure from the Garden of Eden, when mankind realized its vulnerability and separate-self sense, left the uroboros stage, and began the awakening of ego-mind, which is the real beginning of the ascent back to Spirit. To support this thesis, he draws on three philosophical authorities – Hegel, Berdyaev, and Sri Aurobindo.

He writes, I am not alone in this overall view. Sri Aurobindo, India’s greatest modern sage, has written on just this viewpoint – Brahman getting lost in involution and then evolving back – from matter to prana to mind to over-mind to super-mind and Atman, and he sees it occurring cosmologically as well as psychologically (p. 313).

This historical development, or actualization of Spirit by Spirit, occurs, according to Hegel, in three major stages (stages which correspond precisely with our realms of sub-, self-, and super-consciousness). The first is that of Bewusstein, which is bodily awareness, or the sensory perception of an external world without any mental reflection or self-consciousness. It corresponds with our subconscious realm (uroboric and typhonic). The second phase is that of Selbstbewussen, self-awareness and mental reflection – our realm of self-consciousness. More specifically, during this period of self-consciousness there occurs, according to Hegel, “the unhappy consciousness,” the “divided consciousness,”  “self-alienated” – because of the stresses involved in self-consciousness itself. This is our “fallen egoic consciousness,” the scientific fall, whose genesis we have traced. Hegel’s third phase is that of Vernunft, or transcending knowledge, “the synthesis of objectivity and subjectivity,” Spirit knowing Spirit as Spirit, which for us is the superconscious (p. 314-315).

Berdyaev zeroes in on the precise heart of the historical Eden and Paradise: “Not everything was revealed to man in paradise, and ignorance was the condition of life in it. It was the realm of the unconscious. …After the Fall [self-] consciousness was needed to safeguard man from the yawning abyss below [the Devouring Mother]. But [self-] consciousness also shuts man off from the superconscious, divine reality and prevents intuitive contemplation of God… And in seeking to break through to superconsciousness, to the abyss above [the Void], man often falls into the subconscious – the abyss below. In our sinful world consciousness means… dividedness, pain and suffering… Unhappy consciousness can only be overcome through super-consciousness” (p. 316-317).

We can finish this section with a concluding remark from Aurobindo, for he expressed precisely the same sentiments: “For actually we see… the universe start with a subconscious [state] which expresses itself openly [but with minimal or "superficial awareness"]. In the conscient [self-conscious realm] the ego becomes the superficial point at which the awareness of unity can emerge; but it applies its perception of unity to the form and surface action [this misapplication of Unity to "the surface form" is precisely the Atman project] and, failing to take account of all that operates behind, fails also to realise that it is not one in itself but one with others. This limitation of the universal “I” [Atman] in the divided ego-sense constitutes our imperfect individualised personality. But when the ego transcends the personal consciousness, it begins to include and be over-powered by that which is to us superconscious; it becomes aware of the cosmic unity and enters into the transcendent Self [Atman] (p. 318).

Again, the quote is taken from Radhakrishnan (1973, p. 587), and it can be traced back to The Life Divine, Chapter V, The Destiny of the Individual. And again, a number of questions can be raised in the context of Wilber’s interpretation.  The first sentence in the original says, “For actually we see that the Many objectivised in form in our material universe start with a subconscious unity which expresses itself openly enough in cosmic action and cosmic substance, but of which they are not themselves specifically aware.” And where he puts Atman in brackets, the original continues “which here cosmos expresses by a multiple oneness” (p. 40). The first problem to be addressed, I believe, is that for Wilber, and also for Hegel and Berdyaev, here in our world of subjectivity and illusory separate-self sense, Brahman/Spirit has been lost to itself and forgotten by us. This is undoubtedly the problem “from below” so to speak. But it is an illusion of the ego, not a truth of the Brahman. Just on the other side of this surface, just above this limitation of Mind, and also just below in Life and Matter, is the Brahman as Supermind. It is an underlying unity, as well as a transcendence to be realized, “which expresses itself openly enough in cosmic action and cosmic substance” or in that world of form and matter which to the ego-mind seems other. The reality, as Wilber mentioned in the beginning, is Wholeness, which always seems to be the point of view and emphasis of Sri Aurobindo when speaking of the involution of that One in all forms of Consciousness. But the point of view of involution and evolution expressed by Wilber always seems to convey the idea of polar opposites and separation from the source. Involution is always only a movement backward and downward, evolution a very halting and painful movement forward and upward.

And if the source is, as he has suggested, the playful spirit of Brahman losing himself in unconsciousness, where does the journey back lead? An answer is given in The Atman Project: Development or evolution is simply the unfolding of these enfolded structures, beginning with the lowest and proceeding to the highest: body to mind to subtle to causal.

We already saw that in evolution each of these structures emerges as a substitute gratification, and is abandoned when it ceases to gratify. And we can see now that each of them emerges as a substitute in evolution because each was created as substitute in involution. The self can climb back up this involved chain of substitutes only by tasting them, finding them lacking, accepting their death, and thus transcending them… a highly evolved being will escape involution altogether: at the first stage of the Clear Light – it will not contract in the face of God nor recoil from the embrace of eternity; and, refusing to create any substitute subjects or substitute objects, it will never again be reborn as a separate self… (p. 174).

The second problem, then, is that for Wilber the embrace of God occurs only in the final return from this difficult process and liberation from the cycle of involution and evolution, while for Sri Aurobindo the Divine Embrace is the involution and evolution itself, this whole process of enfolding and unfolding is the Self embracing Existence. On either side of the quote taken by Wilber from The Life Divine are these sentences, which indicate both its origin and where the process leads, according to Sri Aurobindo: “The transcendent, the Supracosmic is absolute and free in Itself beyond Time and Space and beyond the conceptual opposites of finite and infinite. But in cosmos It uses Its liberty of self-formation, Its Maya, to make a scheme of Itself in the complementary terms of unity and multiplicity; and this multiple unity It establishes in the three conditions of the subconscient, the conscient and the superconscient. …The liberation of the individual soul is therefore the keynote of the definitive divine action; it is the primary divine necessity and the pivot on which all else turns. It is the point of Light at which the intended complete self-manifestation in the Many begins to emerge. But the liberated soul extends its perception of unity horizontally as well as vertically. Its unity with the transcendent One is incomplete without its unity with the cosmic Many. …But we can attain to the highest without blotting ourselves out from the cosmic extension. Brahman preserves always its two terms of liberty within and of formation without, of expression and of freedom from the expression. We also, being that, can attain to the same divine self-possession” (p. 39-41).

The third problem is whether, even after co-opting the idea of involution, the Atman-project sufficiently accounts for life as we experience it here in the Ignorance, and answers the Why question.  It is certainly true and common to all yoga practice that it is necessary to die to the sense of separateness in order to experience unity. But is the yin/yang dance of Eros/Thanatos and the mechanism of substitute gratification capable of explaining the infinite array of “subjective” impulses, actions, choices, thoughts, decisions that take place at every moment in the life of every human being on earth, as well as the equally boundless permutations of the lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and so on, that form the “objective” context of the evolution of consciousness? And are the seemingly passive pulls of the opposite poles of Contraction and of Atman-telos enough to justify this complex machinery of existence and keep it in motion? Or, rather, isn’t the Atman-project an attempt to explain both human development and the evolution of the cosmos by reducing them to a mechanistic model based upon the fairly traditional Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth?

In his more recent and central works, such as Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), and the others that follow from it, Eye of Spirit (1997) and Integral Psychology (2000), – which seem to me to be much more sophisticated, more philosophical in the true sense of the word, stylistically more interesting, and filled with stimulating and relevant ideas – the Wilber paradigm gets fully developed, along with a more detailed “integral theory of consciousness.”  And while he continues to draw significantly upon the thought of Sri Aurobindo, at the same time the contrast between their points of view continues to become clearer and more precise, along with the elements of a possible explanation of the difference. While this will be the focus of my study in Part Two, I will mention here just one example to illustrate the point, and it is a point with which I think Wilber would not disagree. In Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Wilber takes on the philosophical problem of subjectivity vs. objectivity, drawing extensively on the history of Western epistemology, while attempting a synthesis of Vedanta and Vajrayana. And he ultimately seems to stick to a dualistic model of consciousness and world, form and spirit, even while extolling Nondualism. For example, he says in a note on page 538 in this book of more than 800 pages (SES): My own claim is that the distinction interior/exterior is not an emergent quality, but rather exists from the first moment a boundary is drawn; exists, that is, from the moment of creation. What most panpsychists mean by consciousness or mind is not what I mean by consciousness, which is depth. Because consciousness is depth, it is itself literally unqualifiable. …When I say that consciousness or depth is unqualifiable, I mean, in a strong sense, to evoke the Mahayana Buddhist notion of shunyata, or pure Emptiness, …pure Emptiness and pure Consciousness are synonymous.

I believe that this statement is in clear contrast with Sri Aurobindo’s fundamental spiritual and metaphysical position with regard to Consciousness. For example, without going into a complex discussion of the principles of Purusha and Prakriti, I would counterpose a simple argument from The Life Divine, admitting of course that it is an over-simplification of an issue that probably cannot be resolved by the mental faculties: “Existence is in its activity a Conscious-Force which presents the workings of its force to its consciousness as forms of its own being. Since force is only the action of one sole-existing Conscious-Being, its results can be nothing else but forms of that Conscious-Being; Substance or Matter, then, is only a form of Spirit” (p. 216).

Part Two – Wilber’s Central Works

1. Integralism

In Eye of Spirit, Wilber fully reiterates the bipolar, ten to twenty level model of involution and evolution, which he calls the “spectrum of consciousness,” as formulated in The Atman Project. And he now refers to that late seventies-early eighties model as the Tibetan/Aurobindo/ Wilber II model, or the Aurobindo/Wilber II model, or sometimes simply the Wilber II model, while explaining the further evolution of the model into Wilber III and Wilber IV, as presented in the books published in the nineties. The basic innovation in Wilber III is the addition of the multiple lines in an individual’s  psychological development which proceed through all the levels but may do so at different rates, such as the affective, cognitive, moral, interpersonal, social, intellectual, aesthetic, creative lines of development, etc. He explains this psychological consideration in the new model as follows: “In the same social domain, and in a single transaction, a person can, for example, be at a very high cognitive level of development, while simultaneously being at an extremely low level of moral development, with an unconscious fixation at an even earlier affective stage. …The Wilber II model fails dramatically in accounting for those facts – because it fails, in general, to distinguish carefully enough between levels and lines, and further to account for just what is preserved, and what is negated, in evolution (by which he refers to transitional structures of consciousness such as the archaic, magic, mythic, etc. which are dropped, he believes, as higher formations emerge, while preserving the basic “enduring” structures)” (p. 213).

The Wilber IV model, which was first elaborated in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (SES), makes a quantum conceptual leap from the simple vertical scale of individual consciousness to a four-quadrant model which includes all of the physical, social, and cultural dimensions of human consciousness. Wilber explains this rather remarkable breakthrough in Eye of Spirit, as follows: “…consciousness actually exists distributed across all four quadrants with all of their various levels and dimensions. There is no one quadrant (and certainly no one level) to which we can point and say, There is consciousness. Consciousness is in no way localized in that fashion. …It is true that the Upper Left quadrant is the locus of consciousness as it appears in an individual, but that’s the point: as it appears in an individual. Yet consciousness on the whole is anchored in, and distributed across, all of the quadrants – intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social. If you “erase” any quadrant, they all disappear, because each is intrinsically necessary for the existence of the others” (p. 273).

A version of this four-quadrant model of the spectrum of consciousness is reproduced below, and constitutes the developmental paradigm for Wilber’s “integral theory of consciousness.” If we can imagine a series of five concentric circles, labeled from the smallest to the largest – matter, life, mind, soul, spirit, – and superimpose this image on the four-quadrant graph, at appropriate intervals, then we will see how the “basic enduring structures” of consciousness get further subdivided into the ten to twenty developmental levels most commonly presented in the various Wilber models. On this map, however, the outer, transpersonal rings of soul and spirit would fall outside the box. (The model below is an approximation based on various models.)

(The All-Level, All-Quadrant Paradigm)

On other models, several of which appear in the recent publication, A Theory of Everything (2001), the soul and spirit circles are included, with the corresponding levels of development in the UL quadrant of integral self, then holistic self; in the LL quadrant integral culture and holistic culture; in the LR quadrant integral commons and holistic meshworks; and in the UR just another level of corresponding physiological organization (SF4, etc.). If we look around the circle from quadrant to quadrant we will see, for example, that Typhonic culture corresponds to the Emotional level of individual development, to the Limbic system, and to pre-tribal Clan society. Similarly, the Rational type of culture corresponds to Formal mind, to the appropriate physical structures, and to the Nation State organization of society. In this diagram, Vision-logic represents the optimal level of general evolution today, with its corresponding Centauric (individualistic and pluralistic) culture, and a Global (informational) society. In some models, the vital-body ring corresponds roughly to the levels of “pre-modern” individual, cultural and social development; the mental ring corresponds to the “modern” and “post-modern” levels of rational and centauric development, and the soul and spirit rings would include “post-post-modern” developments, as yet hardly conceivable.

This more comprehensive, integral or holistic paradigm makes it possible to interpret every domain of human existence developmentally; it can be used as a tool for evaluating and categorizing systems of interpretation, such as those which reduce knowledge to just one quadrant and thereby exclude other essential aspects of the picture; and it can be used to predict the further development of a particular level of consciousness in any quadrant. For example, this system makes it irrational to expect individuals at the symbolic and archaic levels of development to quickly assimilate the values of a pluralistic, vision-logic community and vice-versa. Certain steps could be prescribed, on the basis of such an analysis, however, to bring about the necessary development, through education, social and economic organization, psychological counseling, spiritual practice, etc., to make their mutual assimilation eventually possible. According to Wilber, in A Theory of Everything, the four-quadrant integral development paradigm is being applied in exactly this way by development organizations in the Third World to re-evaluate their short and long term strategies.

I must apologize for this rather crude and over-simplified rendering of the Wilber IV model, and I strongly recommend that anyone who is interested should read Sex, Ecology, Spirituality and Eye of Spirit, in order to appreciate the unfolding of this theory of development and the many interesting avenues of thought that flow from it. For our purposes here, it is especially important to grasp two aspects of the theory, and to examine them in relation to Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy and Yoga. One aspect is that it purports to be an “integral theory of consciousness.” The other is that it is used to predict a certain direction for the future evolution of human consciousness.

The picture of consciousness that emerges with the integral development paradigm is that of a vast ascending scale of structures comprised of bodies (UR), minds (UL), cultures (LL), and societies (LR), all evolving through the same basic levels of development in the so-called Great Chain of Being. And it is this whole field of interrelated structures and systems that somehow locates, carries, or embodies “consciousness.” The higher the developmental level of structural complexity and integrity, the higher the level of consciousness.

Of course, the perennial question remains as to the nature of the two terms of the equation and their relationship: consciousness and the structures or forms that house it: mind and body, subject and object. And Wilber is certainly aware of the problem. One of the primary functions of the four-quadrant paradigm is to show how the methodologies of the sciences tend to address only the right “objective” quadrants and reduce all knowledge to its structures (which Wilber calls the “flatland” of modern rationalist culture). The more “subjective” methodologies of psychology, metaphysics, hermeneutics, aesthetics, on the other hand, tend to occupy themselves with left-quadrant structures to the exclusion of the more easily quantifiable domains on the right. The “integral theory” calls for the mutual recognition and inclusion of all quadrants and aspects of the complex picture of existence as we know it through experience.

In Integral Psychology (2000), the mind-body, subject-object enigma is addressed in depth and with particular clarity. I would like to quote Wilber here at some length in order to frame this important issue, as well as to gain the further elucidation of the integral paradigm that he provides in this discussion.

In the chapter titled The 1-2-3 of Consciousness Studies, Wilber writes: The first major problem that a truly integral (all-level, all-quadrant) approach helps to unravel is what Schopenhauer called “the world-knot,” namely, the mind-body problem (p. 174).

The materialist reduces the mind to the brain, and since the brain is indeed part of the organism, there is no dualism: the mind/body problem is solved!  And that is correct – the brain is part of the organism, part of the physical world, so there is no dualism; nor are there any values, consciousness, depth, or divinity anywhere in the resultant universe. And that reductionism is exactly the “solution” that the physicalist imposes on reality, a solution still rampant in most forms of cognitive science, neuroscience, systems theory, and so on: reduce the Left to the Right and then claim you have solved the problem. …

But the reason most people, even most scientists, are uneasy with that “solution” – and the reason the problem remains a problem – is that, even though materialism announces that there is no dualism, most people know otherwise, because they feel the difference between their mind and their body (between their thoughts and their feelings) – they feel it every time they consciously decide to move their arm, they feel it in every exercise of will – and they also feel the difference between their mind and their Body (or between the subject in here and the objective world out there). …

There is a distinction between mind (formop) and felt body (vital and sensorimotor), and this can be experienced in the interior or Left-Hand domains. It is not a dualism, but is rather a case of “transcend and include,” and almost every rational adult has a sense of the transcend part, in that the mind can, on a good day, control the body and its desires. All of that is phenomenologically true for the Left-Hand domains. But none of those interior stages of qualitative development (from body to mind to soul to spirit) are captured when “body” means Right-Hand organism and “mind” means Right-Hand brain – all of those qualitative distinctions are completely lost in material monism, which does not solve the problem but obliterates it.

The dualist, on the other hand, acknowledges as real both consciousness and matter, but generally despairs of finding any way to relate them. “Mind” in the general sense of “interiors” and “Body” in the general sense of “exteriors” seem to be separated by an unbridgeable gulf – a dualism between subject and object. And at the level of formal operational thinking (or reason in general), at which the discussion usually takes place, the dualists are right: inside and outside are a very real dualism, and attempts to deny that dualism can almost always be shown to be facile, a semantic sleight-of-hand that verbally claims that subject and object are one, but which still leaves the self looking at the world out there which seems as separate as ever.

This is where the transrational stages of development have so much to offer this discussion. In the disclosure known as satori, for example, it becomes clear that the subject and object are two sides of the same thing, that inside and outside are two aspects of One Taste.  How to relate them is not the problem, according to the clear consensus of the many individuals who have tapped into this wave of development. The problem, rather, is that this genuinely nondual solution is not something that can be fully grasped at the rational level. …

Those who develop to the nondual stages of consciousness unfolding are virtually unanimous: consciousness and matter, interior and exterior, self and world, are of One Taste. Subject and object are both distinct realities and aspects of the same thing: a true unity-in-diversity. But that unity-in-diversity cannot be stated in rational terms in a way that makes sense to anybody who has not also had a transrational experience. Therefore, the proof for this nondual solution can only be found in the further development of the consciousness of those who seek to know the solution (p. 180-181).

…But how do we proceed to unsnarl the world-knot if we have not yet reached these higher stages ourselves, and if we cannot expect that others will have done so? We can at least begin, I suggest, by acknowledging and incorporating the realities of all four quadrants. That is, if we cannot yet ourselves – in our own consciousness development – be “all-level” (matter to body to mind to soul to spirit), let us at least attempt to be “all-quadrant”…

It is not enough to say that organism and environment coevolve; it is not enough to say that culture and consciousness coevolve. All four of those “tetra-evolve” together.

That is, the objective organism (the Upper-Right quadrant), with its DNA, its neuronal pathways, its brain systems, and its behavioral patterns, mutually interacts with the objective environment, ecosystems, and social realities (the Lower Right), and all of those do indeed coevolve. Likewise, individual consciousness (Upper Left), with its intentionality, structures, and states, arises within, and mutually interacts with, the intersubjective culture (Lower Left) in which it finds itself, and which it in turn helps to create, so that these, too, coevolve. But just as important, subjective intentionality and objective behavior mutually interact (e.g., through will and response), and cultural worldviews mutually interact with social structures, as does individual consciousness and behavior. In other words, all four quadrants – organism, environment, consciousness, and culture – cause and are caused by the others: they “tetra-evolve.” …

As we have seen, the subjective features of consciousness (waves, streams, states) are intimately interrelated with the objective aspects of the organism (especially the brain, neurophysiology, and various organ systems in the individual), with the background cultural contexts that allow meaning and understanding to be generated in the first place, and with the social institutions that anchor them. …

Accordingly, in writings such as “An Integral Theory of Consciousness,” I have stressed the need for an approach to consciousness that differentiates-and-integrates all four quadrants (or simply the Big Three of I, we, and it; or first-person, second-person, and third-person accounts: the 1-2-3 of consciousness studies) (p. 183-184).

This seems to be the theory in a nutshell, and there are a few quick observations that I would like to make before putting it into a more critical perspective. “Consciousness” is frequently associated with subjective states throughout Wilber’s discussion, and is placed in the context of, or in relationship to, objective states – physical, cultural, and social. Consciousness consistently has the connotation of “perception,” “awareness,” “cognition,” “intention,” (and we might as well add the more traditional terms judgment, imagination, ratiocination) in short, the functions usually associated with Mind. Although it is clear that these functions coexist with, and are mutually determined by interactions with, culture, society, and the material body, they remain distinct, (as he says above, “distinct aspects of the same thing”) and therefore the problem with which the discussion began seems to have been merely restated rather than solved.

The modern and post-modern philosophies of idealism and phenomenology have handled the problem in much the same way. Wilber has not moved far, if at all, from the widely held philosophical views of both East and West that consciousness and matter, mind and body are simply two aspects of the same thing. Both are necessary to existence as we know it and to any reasonably complete description of that existence: nothing is, in any absolute sense, exclusively either subjective or objective. The four-quadrant paradigm is, therefore, a reasonably accurate way of understanding and depicting such a manifold world. Moreover, it suggests, and supports with compelling evidence, that it is an evolving world that it describes, with clearly defined stages of development and the possibility of yet higher levels of the interaction of matter and spirit to be realized.

How then does this form of integralism compare with that of Sri Aurobindo? Is the problem of consciousness/matter, mind/body dualism handled in any significantly different way by Sri Aurobindo? And does the higher, transrational, nondual level of consciousness defined and predicted by Wilber differ appreciably from Sri Aurobindo’s conception of the spiritual consciousness to be realized in the next stages of evolution?

The answer to each of these questions will depend, in fact, upon what we might call the metaphysics of consciousness, which is of course the subject of The Life Divine. In that treatise, Sri Aurobindo demonstrates with a variety of arguments based on intuition, reason, and Vedanta, that Existence is Consciousness, Consciousness is Energy, and the so-called Great Chain of Being, at every level – matter, life, mind, soul, spirit – is an expression of Conscious Being. In a particularly compact and luminous formulation of this concept of Reality and its process, he writes:

“Existence is in its activity a Conscious-Force which presents the workings of its force to its consciousness as forms of its own being. Since Force is only the action of one sole-existing Conscious-Being, its results can be nothing else but forms of that Conscious-Being; Substance or Matter, then, is only a form of Spirit. The appearance which this form of Spirit assumes to our senses is due to that dividing action of Mind from which we have been able to deduce consistently the whole phenomenon of the universe. We know now that Life is an action of Conscious-Force of which material forms are the result; Life involved in those forms, appearing in them first as inconscient force, evolves and brings back into manifestation as Mind the consciousness which is the real self of the force and which never ceases to exist in it even when unmanifest. We know also that Mind is an inferior power of the original conscious Knowledge or Supermind, a power to which Life acts as an instrumental energy; for, descending through Supermind, Consciousness or Chit represents itself as Mind, Force of consciousness or Tapas represents itself as Life. Mind, by its separation from its own higher reality in Supermind, gives Life the appearance of division and, by its farther involution in its own Life-Force, becomes subconscious in Life and thus gives the outward appearance of an inconscient force to its material workings. Therefore, the inconscience, the inertia, the atomic disaggregation of Matter must have their source in this all-dividing and self-involving action of Mind by which our universe came into being. As Mind is only a final action of Supermind in the descent towards creation and Life an action of Conscious-Force (Chit-tapas) working in the conditions of the Ignorance created by this descent of Mind, so Matter, as we know it, is only the final form taken by conscious-being as the result of that working. Matter is substance of the one conscious-being phenomenally divided within itself by the action of universal Mind, – a division which the individual mind repeats and dwells in, but which does not abrogate or at all diminish the unity of Spirit or the unity of Energy or the real unity of Matter.” (LD, 1949, p. 216-217)

In this concept, subjectivity and objectivity are merely two aspects of consciousness, through which being knows itself; and Mind is the principle of this illusion of separateness and division, not only the cause of limiting and dividing knowledge in evolving minds, but the mediating principle for the descent of Spirit into substantial form.

“If we go back to the spiritual basis of things, substance in its utter purity resolves itself into pure conscious being, self-existent, inherently self-aware by identity, but not yet turning its consciousness upon itself as object. Supermind preserves this self-awareness by identity as its substance of self-knowledge and its light of self-creation, but for that creation presents Being to itself as the subject-object one and multiple of its own active consciousness. Being as object is held there in a supreme knowledge which can, by comprehension, see it both as an object of cognition within itself and subjectively as itself, but can also and simultaneously, by apprehension, project it as an object (or objects) of cognition within the circumference of its consciousness, not other than itself, part of its being, but a part (or parts) put away from itself, – that is to say, from the center of vision in which Being concentrates itself as the Knower, Witness or Purusha. We have seen that from this apprehending consciousness arises the movement of Mind, the movement by which the individual knower regards a form of his own universal being as if other than he; but in the divine Mind there is immediately or rather simultaneously another movement or reverse side of the same movement, an act of union in being which heals this phenomenal division and prevents it from becoming even for a moment solely real to the knower. This act of conscious union is that which is represented otherwise in dividing Mind obtusely, ignorantly, quite externally as contact in consciousness between divided beings and separate objects, and with us this contact  in divided consciousness is primarily represented by the principle of sense. On this basis of sense, on this contact of union subject to division, the action of the thought-mind founds itself and prepares for the return to a higher principle of union in which division is made subject to unity and subordinate. Substance, then, as we know it, material substance, is the form in which Mind acting through sense contacts the conscious Being of which it is itself a movement of knowledge. …But Mind by its very nature tends to know and sense substance of conscious-being, not in its unity or totality but by the principle of division.” (LD, 1949, p. 218-219)

In one of the later chapters of The Life Divine, titled Reality and the Integral Knowledge, Sri Aurobindo makes explicit what his form of “integralism” means, makes clear the point of view which justifies the philosopher Haridas Chaudhuri labeling this philosophy “integral non-dualism,” and outlines the project of his Yoga Philosophy to heal the division, not only of Mind but of Existence, through a return to and a descent of Supermind.

“This then is the origin, this the nature, these the boundaries of the Ignorance. Its origin is a limitation of knowledge; its distinctive character a separation of the being from its own integrality and entire reality; its boundaries are determined by this separative development of the consciousness, for it shuts us to our true self and to the true self and whole nature of things and obliges us to live in an apparent surface existence. A return or a progress to integrality, a disappearance  of the limitation, a breaking down of separativeness, an overpassing of boundaries, a recovery of our essential and whole reality must be the sign and opposite character of the inner turn towards Knowledge. There must be a replacement of a limited and separative by an essential and integral consciousness identified with the original truth and the whole truth of self and existence. The integral Knowledge is something that is already there in the integral Reality: it is not a new or still non-existent thing that has to be created, acquired, learned, invented, or built up by the mind; it must rather be discovered or uncovered, it is a Truth that is self-revealed to a spiritual endeavor: for it is there veiled in our deeper and greater self; it is the very stuff of our own spiritual consciousness, and it is by awaking to it even in our surface self that we have to possess it. There is an integral self-knowledge that we have to recover and, because the world-self also is our self, an integral world-knowledge. A knowledge that can be learned or constructed by the mind exists and has its value, but that is not what is meant when we speak of the Knowledge. …An integral spiritual consciousness carries in it a knowledge of all the terms of being; it links the highest to the lowest through all the mediating terms and achieves an indivisible whole. …An integral knowledge presupposes an integral Reality; for it is the power of a Truth-consciousness which is itself the consciousness of the Reality.” (LD, 1949, p. 565-566)

If we view the four-quadrant, all-level, paradigm of development in the context of this conception of a vast integral Reality of Conscious-Being, we have to conclude that the “Integral Theory of Consciousness” is at least not the same as a theory of integral consciousness. In fact, the reduction of the cosmos to a four quadrant developmental model may very well be a valid aid to the mind in coming to terms with the problems of psychological development and the evolution of human consciousness. But it seems obvious that such a map of the territory does not lead necessarily to what Sri Aurobindo describes as an integral consciousness, and to what Wilber identifies as a second-tier or transpersonal consciousness. An integral consciousness might be able to understand or represent the world in terms of such a map, but the map doesn’t even indicate the possibility of such an integral consciousness. And it appears that Wilber would probably agree with this observation. In Eye of Spirit, the book in which he perhaps reaches his highest levels of thought and insight, he writes: Integral philosophy itself is of the mental domain, and cannot by itself, with its mental devices alone, step beyond that sphere. But it firmly acknowledges the role of contemplation in generating data, and it takes that data into account in its own coordinating and elucidating activities. If it does not itself deliver meditative data, it firmly acknowledges the existence of that data. It is mandalic reason at its finest and most encompassing. …Integral philosophy thus mentally coordinates the Good, and the True, and the Beautiful, weaving a mandala of the many faces of Spirit, and then invites us to take up spiritual practice itself, and thus finally meet spirit face to face (p. 94-95).

It is in this book, too, where Wilber ventures farther than elsewhere into the realm of spiritual practice and contemplation, and reveals through a number of inspired passages something of the second-tier experience of transpersonal reality as he envisions it. And though still not attempting a metaphysics of this reality, he gives enough information for us to be able to establish a contextual perspective. He writes:

…the ultimate reality is not something seen, but rather the everpresent seer. Things that are seen come and go, are happy or sad, pleasant or painful – but the Seer is none of these things, and it does not come and go. The Witness does not waiver, does not wobble, does not enter that stream of time. The Witness is not an object, not a thing seen, but the everpresent seer of all things, the simple Witness that is the I of Spirit, the center of the cyclone, the opening that is God, the clearing that is pure emptiness.

There is never a time that you do not have access to this Witnessing awareness. At every single moment, there is a spontaneous awareness of whatever happens to be present – and that simple, spontaneous, effortless awareness is ever-present Spirit itself. Even if you think you don’t see it, that very awareness is it. And thus, the ultimate state of consciousness – intrinsic Spirit itself – is not hard to reach but impossible to avoid. …

Thus, as you rest in the Witness, you won’t see anything in particular. The true seer is nothing that can be seen, so you simply begin by disidentifying with any and all objects.

I am aware of sensations in my body; those are objects, I am not those. I am aware of thoughts in my mind; those are objects, I am not those. I am aware of my self in this moment, but that is just another object, and I am not that.

Sights float by in nature, thoughts float by in the mind, feelings float by in the body, and I am none of those, I am not an object. I am the pure Witness of all those objects. I am Consciousness as such. …

And so we rest in this state of the pure and simple Witness, the true seer, which is vast Emptiness and pure Freedom, and we allow whatever is seen to arise as it wishes. Spirit is in the Free and Empty Seer, not in the limited, bound, mortal, and finite objects that parade by in the world of time. And so we rest in this vast Emptiness and Freedom, in which all things arise (p. 288-290).

In Vajrayana Buddhism, the ultimate nature of Mind is emptiness. Consciousness, conscious of itself, the Witnessing Purusha of the Sankhya philosophy – the akashara purusha - is the Self, Atman, and the realization of this ultimate reality is liberation. It is apparent from this clear description of the meditation practice suggested by Wilber, that for him too, this is the ultimate reality, the realization of the true nature of Self and Spirit. But if ultimate reality is Emptiness, then what is the status of all of those subjects and objects in the other three quadrants and in all the lower levels of development that are mapped by the integral theory of consciousness? If consciousness is emptiness, then is all the rest of the map ultimately illusion? Does this form of “nondualism” simply negate the form and substance of everything that arises within its purview, or absorb it into its emptiness? And if so, then how does this point of view account for the continued arising of form and its circumstantial, physical, vital and mental conditioning of the witness by its objective appearances?

These are of course the questions that are raised by this traditional interpretation of spiritual truth when it is challenged, as it has been as a secondary theme throughout The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo, and also by the philosophy of the Gita. It is the classical question of the nature and relationship of Purusha and Prakriti, and it seems inevitable that it be raised very seriously in any attempt to reconcile Vedanta and Vajrayana. In an early chapter of The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo says, “…the first thing we have to ask ourselves is whether that force (matter, energy, motion, “the Becoming”) is simply force, simply an unintelligent energy of movement or whether consciousness which seems to emerge out of it in this material world we live in, is not merely one of its phenomenal results but rather its own true and secret nature. In Vedantic terms, is Force simply Prakriti, only a movement of action and process, or is Prakriti really power of Chit, in its nature force of creative self-conscience? On this essential problem all the rest hinges [My emphasis]” (p. 75). And not only does a complete metaphysical theory of consciousness hinge on the question; it is also essential to a thorough psychology of development and to a spiritual practice that seeks the higher evolution of consciousness. If it is not answered, then the problem is not really solved and we are left with what Wilber referred to earlier as “a semantic sleight-of-hand.”

The place where Ken Wilber comes closest to a systematic treatment of the issue is in his philosophy of “interiors” and “exteriors,” which I mentioned briefly at the end of Part One. Since this is indeed the question on which all the rest hinges, let us look closely at the argument presented in Chapter Four of SES. There he says: Spinoza, Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Whitehead, Aurobindo, Schelling, and Radhakrishnan are just a few of the major theorists who have explicitly recognized that the within of things, the interiority of individual holons, is in essence the same as consciousness, though of course they use different names with slightly different meanings.

I will not, at this point, get involved in the philosophical nuances of those various positions, which are inextricably bound up with the problems of pansychism and historical solutions to the mind-body problem…Rather, I will, for the time being, take a more generalized position and simply say that, for me, the within of things is consciousness, the without of things is form.

Or, as we put it earlier, the within of things is depth, the without is surface. But all surfaces are surfaces of depth, which means, all forms are forms of consciousness.

Further, I don’t want to haggle over whether the very lowest holons are totally or only mostly devoid of rudimentary forms of consciousness, or prehension. First, there is no lower limit to holons, so there is no rock bottom to serve as a standard. Second, they are all forms of depth, so the actual amount of consciousness in them is a completely relative affair. Thus, whatever we take at present as the lowest or most primitive holons (quarks, for example), I will simply say that they have the least depth, the least consciousness, relatively speaking, and I will, with Whitehead, call that form “prehension.” You are free to call the lowest levels “totally inert” if you wish, and pick up the argument from there.

Let me emphasize that it really does not matter, as far as I am concerned, how far down (or not) you wish to push consciousness. Whitehead, as we said, saw prehension as the irreducible “atom” of existence. Mahayana Buddhism maintains that literally all sentient beings possess Buddha Mind, and liberation involves a realization of that all-pervading consciousness. Lynn Margulis, the noted biologist, believes that cells possess consciousness. A handful of scientists think that plants show protosensation. Animal rights activists insist that most animal forms show rudimentary feelings. And I suppose most orthodox theorists don’t really see consciousness emerging until primates and usually humans.

…But my main point is not where precisely to draw the line – draw it wherever you feel comfortable – but that the line itself involves preeminently the distinction between interiority and exteriority (p. 111-112).

The theory of interiors and exteriors is graphically represented by the four-quadrant paradigm which shows that the levels of the left quadrants are the interiors of the corresponding levels of the right quadrants. The interiors are the shared feelings, meanings, values expressed by or perceived within the exterior forms. Consciousness increases with the complexity of forms up the ascending scale of development until it experiences itself at the uppermost, transpersonal level and is liberated. What drives this progressive emergence of consciousness in the evolving structures and processes is apparently the Atman-project. How the “interiors” and “exteriors” are related, and how they mutually interact is not explained, nor is the fundamental two-fold nature of existence, nor how the process of unfolding is maintained after the consciousness is liberated. The theory of interiors and exteriors is a “metaphor” of conscious existence, rather than an explanation. And it appears that the material or mechanical force of Prakriti, on the structural side of the equation, carries the soul or Purusha along in its progressive unfolding until, at the top levels of physical, social, and cultural evolution, it is liberated and has no further need of or attachment to the exteriors. And, therefore, it is impossible to predict what forms these exteriors will take in the future evolution of a second-tier, integral culture. This is the fundamental problem with such a theory of consciousness with respect to the prospects of a higher evolution of life on earth; it is a problem that Sri Aurobindo has repeatedly identified with both Buddhism and Sankhya philosophies.

Wilber reveals this paradox in a note on psychic and spiritual consciousness in SES: Pure subtle level mysticism thus has few actual referents in the gross (natural) world. …Causal-level mysticism…has no gross or subtle referents; it has no referents at all, except its own self-existing emptiness. And nondual mysticism is the identity of Emptiness and all form, so its referents are whatever is arising at the moment… …The psychic is on the border between the gross and subtle states. As such, not only is it the home of all sorts of various preliminary and initial mystical phenomena…, it is itself the broad transition state from gross to subtle (p. 608-609).

This conclusion regarding the nature of spiritual development is perhaps the reason why Wilber’s fundamental paradigm of development tops out at the vision-logic level. It seems that after touching the low subtle or psychic plane he drops back to a mental plane and translates, to use the Atman-project terminology, his own urge to higher development into the only level of consciousness and form that still appears to him to have a sufficient engagement with the substance of experience to make a difference. Therefore, he says: It is the integrative power of vision-logic, I believe, and not the indissociation of tribal magic or the imperialism of mythic involvement that is desperately needed on a global scale. For it is vision-logic with its centauric/planetary worldview that, in my opinion, holds the only hope for the integration of the biosphere and noosphere, the supranational organization of planetary consciousness, the genuine recognition  of ecological balance, the unrestrained and unforced forms of global discourse, the nondominating and noncoercive forms of federated states, the unrestrained flow of worldwide communicative exchange, the production of genuine  world citizens, and the enculturation of female agency (ie., the integration of male and female in both the noosphere and the biosphere) – all of which, in my opinion, is nevertheless simply the platform for the truly interesting forms of higher and transpersonal states of consciousness lying yet in our collective future – if there is one. (SES, p. 187) …Centaur/vision logic – the languages of depth and development …tend to be dialectical, dialogical, network oriented, developmental (evolutionary in the broadest sense) – in short, the languages of depth and development. As I indicated, this volume is intentionally written in these languages (p. 622).

It is at this point that the sharp contrast becomes most evident between what might be called the weak or intermediate form of integral nondualism put forward by Wilber, and the much stronger and more radical form of integral nondualism of Sri Aurobindo. For the latter, only the highest spiritual evolution of consciousness can bring about a substantial, lasting and integral transformation of the life of humanity on earth. And such an evolution is possible because that highest divine Supermind is also the basis of existence, the resolution of the Purusha/Prakriti enigma, and can not only be reached through the process of a spiritual ascent of consciousness, but also can then descend through a higher spiritualized mind into life and matter to transform every aspect of existence.

It is evident that Wilber has not accepted this principle or integrated it into his theory of the evolution of consciousness and, therefore, that the theory remains inadequate with respect to both the metaphysics of Conscious-Being and the possibility of a further, supramental evolution of that consciousness on earth as envisioned by Sri Aurobindo. At the same time, Sri Aurobindo’s point of view, which appears always to be looking from Supermind down the ladder of involution, rather than up from a position of higher psychic or spiritualized mind, sees the position defined by Wilber as a valid standpoint within the emergent framework of our evolving mentality. For example, he says:

“A line divides Supermind and Overmind which permits a free transmission, allows the lower Power to derive from the higher Power all it holds or sees, but automatically compels a transitional change in the passage. The integrality of the Supermind keeps always the essential truth of things, the total truth and the truth of its individual self-determinations clearly knit together; it maintains in them an inseparable unity and between them a close interpenetration and a free and full consciousness of each other: but in Overmind  this integrality is no longer there. …Purusha and Prakriti, Conscious Soul and executive Force of Nature, are in the supramental harmony a two-aspected single truth, being and dynamis of Reality; there can be no disequilibrium or predominance of one over the other. In Overmind we have the origin of the cleavage, the trenchant distinction made by the philosophy of the Sankhyas in which they appear as two independent entities, Prakriti able to dominate Purusha and cloud its freedom and power, reducing it to a witness and recipient of her forms and actions, Purusha able to return to its separate existence and abide in a free self-sovereignty by rejection of her original overclouding material principle. … Our human mental consciousness sees the world in sections cut by the reason and sense and put together in a formation which is also sectional; the house it builds is planned to accommodate one or another generalized formulation of Truth, but excludes the rest or admits some only as guests or dependents in the house. Overmind  Consciousness is global in its cognition and can hold any number of seemingly fundamental differences together in a reconciling vision. …What to the mental reason are irreconcilable differences present themselves to the Overmind intelligence as coexistent correlatives; what to the mental reason are contraries are to the Overmind intelligence complimentaries. …The Overmind is a principle of cosmic Truth and a vast and endless catholicity is its very spirit; its energy is an all-dynamism as well as a principle of separate dynamisms; it is a sort of inferior Supermind, – although it is concerned predominantly not with absolutes, but with what might be called the dynamic potentials or pragmatic truths of Reality, or with absolutes mainly  for their power of generating pragmatic or creative values, although, too, its comprehension of things is more global than integral, since its totality is built up of global wholes or constituted by separate independent realities uniting or coalescing together, and although the essential unity is grasped  by it and felt to be basic of things and pervasive in their manifestation, but no longer as in the Supermind their intimate and ever-present secret, their dominating continent, the overt constant builder of the harmonic whole of their activity and nature.” (LD, 1949, p. 256-259)

It would seem that Wilber has a clear intuition of this higher plane of reality, which in Sri Aurobindo’s psychology is to be found above a highest intuitive mind, and that it would be possible for Wilber’s subtle psychic and vision-logic inspiration to pass upward into the Higher Mind and Overmind planes easily and naturally. It also appears that his theory of psychological development is borne out to a considerable extent by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as exemplars of superconscious evolution, the premise with which the Atman Project began. But, let us note, Sri Aurobindo is as yet the only spiritual visionary to have outlined in detail the nature of a divine consciousness, life, and society to be realized as the result of the descent of the Supermind, and to have developed a Yoga for hastening that descent. The Mother is as yet the only Yogi to have deliberately facilitated that descent and transformation, and focused its creative energy on the establishment of a secular township based on the philosophy of spiritual transformation and its promise of the evolution of a new species. It is not unlikely that Ken Wilber, in his pursuit of the integral spiritual vision, will at some point access the higher planes of consciousness of which he is already vaguely aware, and that his concern for humanity as a whole, in all its many levels and modes of expression, will translate into pragmatic applications to further the general project of human evolution. We may look forward with positive anticipation for signs of that development in the “later works,” some of which have already been announced. As yet, however, it is to Sri Aurobindo that we must turn for a definite indication of both the process and the likely outcome of this highest and noblest human endeavor:

“When there is a complete silence in the being, either a stillness of the whole being or a stillness behind unaffected by surface movements, then we can become aware of a Self, a spiritual substance of our being, an existence exceeding even the soul individuality, spreading itself into universality, surpassing all dependence on any natural form or action, extending itself upward into a transcendence of which the limits are not visible. It is these liberations of the spiritual part in us which are the decisive steps of the spiritual evolution in Nature. …or the nature may obey the psychic entity’s intimations, move in an inner light, follow an inner guidance. This is already a considerable evolution and amounts to a beginning at least of a psychic and spiritual transformation. But it is possible to go farther; for the spiritual being, once inwardly liberated, can develop in mind the higher states of being that are its own natural atmosphere and bring down a supramental energy and action which are proper to the Truth-consciousness; the ordinary mental instrumentation, life instrumentation, physical instrumentation even, could then be entirely transformed and become parts no longer of an ignorance however much illumined, but of a supramental creation which would be the true action of a spiritual truth-consciousness and knowledge.” (LD, 761-762)

1. Conclusion

Wilber is right when he says that the ultimate resolution of the mind-body problem, and the ultimate understanding of spiritual nondualism, can only be achieved by a higher than rational, contemplative thought. But there are different levels of transrational and transpersonal consciousness, which result in different conceptions of nondualism. The conceptions of the Vedanta and of Vajrayana are important examples of such differing views. Textual comparisons such as those undertaken here indicate the need for further research into these transpersonal realms of experience, and into the traditions that have systematically developed such knowledge. It appears that the work of Ken Wilber and of Sri Aurobindo diverges along fairly traditional lines of psychological and spiritual development: the one ending in “liberation” and the other in “transformation.” This is a distinction that has been emphasized throughout his writings by Sri Aurobindo and constitutes the most prominent contrast between his and Wilber’s work.

Intrinsic to Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of the Brahman, with Supermind as the Conscious Force of the Brahman, and therefore both the creative energy and the immortal self of all creation, is the principle of involution. But in this view, involution entails the descent of infinite and eternal principles – Supermind, Overmind, Mind, Life, Matter. These are therefore eternally self-existent planes of Divine Being, not only involved in the evolving universe as potential, but, more importantly, as the overseeing and underlying universal support of the evolving planes, pressing down upon them from above to bring forth their evolving forms in Time and Space. Without these essential, universal divinities, so fundamental to the Vedic knowledge, how could the infinite diversity and integrality of the forms of life and mind have emerged?  And how could the embodied soul become cosmically conscious of universal life and mind and of the eternal forms of Truth, Beauty, and the Good, and the Godheads of the Overmind – Divine Love, Power, Joy, without entering into such ideal, divine planes? Even Plato would consider these Ideal Forms self-existent and therefore irreducible to a quadrant or to any or all of the particular forms of temporal unfolding. Without these principles, how would a psychic transformation of consciousness be possible, by which we might look out over the commons and witness, not merely a myriad of sensorimotor instruments performing rational-scientific operations in order to manifest substitute gratifications, nor an essential emptiness of being in the soul, but divine force embodying, however imperfectly, through minds, lives, and bodies the vibrations of an all-creative divine love and light? And yet, the Atman-project does not take this principle of descent into account, and therefore relies upon a linear, bipolar, and mechanical process of expansion and contraction to bring forth the infinite diversity of being in space and time. This is the second major contrast that we find when comparing the theories of involution and evolution of Ken Wilber and Sri Aurobindo.

The third important contrast in the critical perspective that a textual comparison of the works of these authors provides is found in the form of thought and language that each uses to express his vision. Wilber’s is, as he points out, dialogical, analytical, and contemplative, and aims at a psychological interpretation of existence from a synthesizing mental perspective. Sri Aurobindo’s is metaphysical and supramental, and attempts the spiritual interpretation of existence, on the basis of thought and language that originate on a spiritual plane of consciousness beyond mind. As he says in a chapter of The Life Divine, “…the intellect must consent to pass out of the bounds of a finite logic and accustom itself to the logic of the Infinite. On this condition alone, by this way of seeing and thinking, it ceases to be paradoxical or futile to speak of the ineffable: but if we insist on applying a finite logic to the Infinite, the omnipresent reality will escape us and we shall grasp instead an abstract shadow, a dead form petrified into speech or a hard incisive graph which speaks of the Reality but does not express it. Our way of knowing must be appropriate to that which is to be known…”(p.293). This characterization is especially true of the language of Savitri, but it is also evident in many passages of The Life Divine which have the clear intention to express the vast and integral truth of the Brahman.

Vedic tradition designed many different epistemological frameworks. Some of them were depicted in the Brahmanic literature as adhilokam, ‘from the point of view of the worlds or levels of consciousness’, or adhijyautiṣam, ‘from the point of view of their energies’; or adhividyam, ‘from the point of view of dissemination of knowledge’; adhiprajam, ‘from the point of view of generations’;[2] etc. etc. But the most famous of them were only three known as adhibhūta, adhidaiva and adhyātma.

Sri Aurobindo explains them in his essays on the Upanishads:

“In the ancient conception of the universe our material existence is formed from the five elemental states of Matter, the ethereal, aerial, fiery, liquid and solid; everything that has to do with our material existence is called the elemental, adhibhuta.

In this material there move non-material powers manifesting through the Mind-Force and Life-Force that work upon Matter, and these are called Gods or Devas; everything that has to do with the working of the non-material in us is called adhidaiva, that which pertains to the Gods.

But above the non-material powers, containing them, greater than they is the Self or Spirit, Atman, and everything that has to do with this highest existence in us is called the spiritual, adhyatma.”[3]

In the Gita Sri Krishna also briefly defines them, introducing one more category for himself: adhiyajña, the ‘secret Divine who receives the sacrifice’ in the heart of man:

akṣaraṃ brahma paramaṃ svabhāvo ’dhyātmam ucyate/

bhūtabhāvodbhavakaro visargaḥ karmasaṃjñitaḥ// 8.3

adhibhūtaṃ kṣaro bhāvaḥ puruṣaš cādhidaivatam/

adhiyajño ‘ham evātra dehe dehabhṛtāṃ vara// 8.4

“The Imperishable is the Transcendental Brahman. Adhyātma is of the Self-nature, svabhāva. Karma creates [all] in terms of past, present and future.

Adhibhūta is of Perishable nature; Puruṣa is [central in the perception] of Adhidaiva. But I am here in the body of those who are born here: Adhiyajña.”

Sri Aurobindo comments on this text in the Essays of the Gita:

“Akshara is the immutable Brahman, spirit or self, Atman; swabhava is the principle of the self, adhyātma, operative as the original nature of the being, “own way of becoming”, and this proceeds out of the self, the Akshara; Karma proceeds from that and is the creative movement, visarga, which brings all natural beings and all changing subjective and objective shapes of being into existence; the result of Karma therefore is all this mutable becoming, the changes of nature developed out of the original self-nature, kṣara bhāva out of svabhāva; Purusha is the soul, the divine element in the becoming, adhidaivata, by whose presence the workings of Karma become a sacrifice, yajña, to the Divine within; adhiyajña is this secret Divine who receives the sacrifice.”[4]

To comprehend the relations between these epistemological frameworks we must look into their origin.

The Self, Ātman, according to the Aitareya Upanishad, was alone at the beginning. It projected out of itself the worlds for its future habitation in the form of Purusha.[5] Then it created the dwellers within this habitat, – the faculties of consciousness of the Supreme Purusha, such as Word, Breath, Sight, Hearing, Mind etc., were projected into it. Literally they plunged into the Ocean of Inconscient mahaty arṇave prāpatan, and gradually recreated the individual form of Purusha.[6] This plunge into the material Inconscient, this Sacrifice of the Purusha, created the division within the One Self of what was known as true, satyam, became double in nature: true and untrue, satyam anṛtaṃ ca satyam abhavat. [7] On one side it was perceived as infinite and eternal, (indicating adhyātmic epistemology),  and on the other side as finite and mortal (indicating adhibhautic epistemology). So when the faculties turn towards the inner Self of Being, svabhāva, they define the adhyātmic epistemology, and when they turn towards the outer self of becoming, kṣara bhāva, developed out of svabhāva, they represent adhibhūta approach to knowledge.  But fundamentally these two are the Self (inner or outer, svabhāva and kṣara bhāva) and the Consciousness (puruṣa with his major faculties) perceiving it.

Sri Aurobindo explains that all phenomena of existence whether they are of the outer material universe or of the inner realms of the Self have corresponding faculties of consciousness to cognize them: “The Unknown is not the Unknowable, it need not remain the unknown for us, unless we choose ignorance or persist in our first limitations. For to all things that are not unknowable, all things in the universe, there correspond in that universe faculties which can take cognisance of them, and in man, the microcosm, these faculties are always existent and at a certain stage capable of development. We may choose not to develop them; where they are partially developed, we may discourage and impose on them a kind of atrophy. But, fundamentally, all possible knowledge is knowledge within the power of humanity.”[8]

Thus we can call the education of faculties of consciousness Adhidaiva Education, where mind, life and body aim at and work for the realization of the Self (adhyātma) in its manifestation (adhibhūta).

Adhyātma Epistemology is the paradigm of our spiritual self-finding, of our higher nature of Consciousness, svabhāva.

Adhibhūta Epistemology is the scientific, materialistic paradigm of knowledge, related to the outer phenomena of becoming, kṣara bhāva.

Here we will not deal with the adhibhūta epistemology, for it is already quite clear what it actually represents. All the knowledge about the material universe and its functions by the means of the materialistic methods is a framework of this epistemology, when the senses are turned outside.

Here we will deal with other two frameworks: adhidaiva and adhyātma epistemologies.

Adhidaiva Epistemology

Sri Aurobindo writes in his essay on the Kena Upanishad:

“And when we have gone on thus eliminating, thus analysing all forms into the fundamental entities of the cosmos, we shall find that these fundamental entities are really only two, ourselves and the gods.”[9]

“Well, but what then of the Brahman is myself? and what of the Brahman is in the Gods?[10] The answer is evident. I am a representation in the cosmos, but for all purposes of the cosmos a real representation of the Self; and the gods are a representation in the cosmos—a real representation since without them the cosmos could not continue—of the Lord. The one supreme Self is the essentiality of all these individual existences; the one supreme Lord is the Godhead in the gods.”[11]

Thus we have two fundamental entities: the Self and the Lord, Being and Consciousness perceiving it, or Atman and Purusha. The faculties of Consciousness of the Lord were sacrificed and cast down into the lower hemisphere in order to precipitate it with the higher consciousness and thus to start the process of its Redemption, which we call evolution.

“The gods of the Upanishad, – says Sri Aurobiindo, – have been supposed to be a figure for the senses, but although they act in the senses, they are yet much more than that. They represent the divine power in its great and fundamental cosmic functionings whether in man or in mind and life and matter in general; they are not the functionings themselves but something of the Divine which is essential to their operation and its immediate possessor and cause.”

The gods, says Sri Aurobindo are “… positive self-representations of the Brahman leading to good, joy, light, love, immortality as against all that is a dark negation of these things. And it is necessarily in the mind, life, senses, and speech of man that the battle here reaches its height and approaches to its full meaning. The gods seek to lead these to good and light; the Titans, sons of darkness, seek to pierce them with ignorance and evil. Behind the gods is the Master-Consciousness [Purusha] of which they are the positive cosmic self-representations.”[12]

Thus the Vedic Psychology makes a clear proposition to a seeker of knowledge, how to proceed and what to do in order to come out of this situation of being trapped in the midst of ignorance, suffering and death. One has to train ones own faculties of consciousness: senses, mind, vital and body to become perceptive and open to their own higher realms, to become simply a channel of light descending from their own greater source.

“The cosmic functionings through which the gods act, mind, life, speech, senses, body, must become aware of something beyond them which governs them, by which they are and move, by whose force they evolve, enlarge themselves and arrive at power and joy and capacity; to that they must turn from their ordinary operations; leaving these, leaving the false idea of independent action and self-ordering which is an egoism of mind and life and sense they must become consciously passive to the power, light and joy of something which is beyond themselves. What happens then is that this divine Unnameable reflects Himself openly in the gods. His light takes possession of the thinking mind, His power and joy of the life, His light and rapture of the emotional mind and the senses. Something of the supreme image of Brahman falls upon the world-nature and changes it into divine nature.”[13]

So, “they must become consciously passive to the power, light and joy of something which is beyond themselves.”

“All this is not done by a sudden miracle, – says Sri Aurobindo. - It comes by flashes, revelations, sudden touches and glimpses;[14] there is as if a leap of the lightning of revelation flaming out from those heavens for a moment and then returning into its secret source; as if the lifting of the eyelid of an inner vision and its falling again because the eye cannot look long and steadily on the utter light. The repetition of these touches and visitings from the Beyond fixes the gods in their upward gaze and expectation, constant repetition fixes them in a constant passivity; not moving out any longer to grasp at the forms of the universe mind, life and senses will more and more be fixed in the memory, in the understanding, in the joy of the touch and vision of that transcendent glory which they have now resolved to make their sole object; to that only they will learn to respond and not to the touches of outward things. The silence which has fallen on them and which is now their foundation and status will become their knowledge of the eternal silence which is Brahman; the response of their functioning to a supernal light, power, joy will become their knowledge of the eternal activity which is Brahman. Other status, other response and activity they will not know. The mind will know nothing but the Brahman, think of nothing but the Brahman, the Life will move to, embrace, enjoy nothing but the Brahman, the eye will see, the ear hear, the other senses sense nothing but the Brahman.”[15]

“For the limit of ego, the wall of individuality will break; the individual Mind will cease to know itself as individual, it will be conscious only of universal Mind one everywhere in which individuals are only knots of the one mentality; so the individual life will lose its sense of separateness and live only in and as the one life in which all individuals are simply whirls of the indivisible flood of Pranic activity; the very body and senses will be no longer conscious of a separated existence, but the real body which the man will feel himself to be physically will be the whole Earth and the whole universe and the whole indivisible form of things wheresoever existent, and the senses also will be converted to this principle of sensation so that even in what we call the external, the eye will see Brahman only in every sight, the ear will hear Brahman only in every sound, the inner and outer body will feel Brahman only in every touch and the touch itself as if internal in the greater body. The soul whose gods are thus converted to this supreme law and religion, will realise in the cosmos itself and in all its multiplicity the truth of the One besides whom there is no other or second.

Moreover, becoming one with the formless and infinite, it will exceed the universe itself and see all the worlds not as external, not even as commensurate with itself, but as if within it.”[16]

The Faculties of Consciousness as they are seen in the old Vedanta.

The concept of Brahma is defined by the faculties of consciousness by Rishi Bhrigu as annam prāṇam cakṣuḥ śrotram mano vācam iti. (TaitUp 3.1.2)

If we try to examine these faculties, we will find that they correspond to higher cognitive capacities of Consciousness as well to our ordinary level.

Seeing and Hearing

cakṣuḥ śrotraṃ  ka u devo yunakti: “Who is the God who unites Seeing and Hearing?” [17]

Seeing, Dṛṣṭi, Cakṣus, was perceived as a faculty of consciousness which puts a seer into a direct contact with the object, which can be translated in terms of a “direct evidence of the truth”. Dṛṣṭi in the Vedas is the ultimate faculty of Consciousness, as a direct revelation of the Truth. It is of direct and self-evident nature, direct contact with the Self.

Hearing, Śruti, Śrotram. If Cakṣus is direct (Revelation) then Śrotram is of indirect nature (as Inspiration), without this faculty we may not know the relation of the object we see with the objects we don’t see. So everything which is intended but not yet manifest, realised, understood, is falling into the domain of Hearing, or “indirect evidence of the Truth”. It is of nature of all-pervading Space, connecting all in Oneness.

Manas and Vak.

Manas and Vāk, is another constant dvandva in the Vedānta. As it is declared in Aitareya Upanishad these two are the foundations of the Veda: vāṅ me manasi pratiṣṭhitā mano me vāci pratiṣṭhitam, “My Speech is established in my Mind, and my Mind is established in my Speech.”[18]

Manas, Mind, was perceived by the Vedic seers as one of the faculties of consciousness, equal to Seeing and Hearing and not as their master and synthesiser, as it was categorised later in Sāṃkhya and Yoga. It was considered to be equal to the Word-faculty also, which later, in the mental structure of consciousness, was completely submitted to the Mind, fully depending on it. In the Vedic Vision Manas was perceived as the active counterpart of the Seeing-faculty of the self-existent subject, Self, creative of form.

Vāk, Speech, was considered to be an independent faculty of Consciousness also, having its own power and character. It was considered to be an active part of the All-pervading Spirit: Hearing.  Brahman was referred to as mantra in RV, and only later it came to denote spirit.

Thus on all the levels of Consciousness we have the Word, later known as Parā, Paśyantī, Madhyamā and Vaikharī Vāk. Similarly other faculties of Consciousness have their representatives on all the levels of being, as for instance Manas, Mind, can be viewed as Supermind, Mental Mind, Vital Mind and Physical Mind (and even further down as Subconscious Mind etc). So the faculties of Consciousness can be seen as pervading the whole hierarchy of all planes of Being, from the Superconscient to the Inconscient.

Brahma Chatushpad

Thus, these four cakṣus and śrotram, manas and vāk, according to Upanishads, constitute brahma catuṣpād,  Spirit on four legs or pillars,[19] through which Brahman is manifested in the world. Prāṇa very often symbolised the embodiment of Brahman itself, especially in the old Upanishads.[20] It was also understood as the offspring of Manas, its father, and Vāk, its mother. [21] In this way the process of manifestation of the Spirit in matter was conceived, which made matter animated, annam (“eatable”). It gives us one more dvandva Prāṇa-Apāna, Breathing in and Breathing out, or Prāṇa-Anna, Life and Matter.[22]

There are three constant dvandvas in the Upanishads:

1) Manas-Vāk

2) Cakṣuḥ-Śrotra,

3) Prāṇa-Apāna, or Prāṇa-Anna

There are also three major streams of cognition, according to Sri Aurobindo: Seeing, Hearing and Touch as three basic cognitive accesses to Reality. In Vedic terminology “…for the truth-consciousness there are corresponding faculties,—dṛṣṭi, śruti, viveka, the direct vision of the truth, the direct hearing of its word, the direct discrimination of the right.”[23]

Seeing and Hearing are perceptive faculties (marked (-)), whereas Mind and Word are their active counterparts (marked (+)). These four are neutralised or, better to say, realised in the Manifestation of Life and Matter. In other words, Mind and Seeing (manas and cakṣus) are related to Rūpa, Form, as the expression of the aspect of Power, whereas Word and Hearing (śrotra and vāc) to Nāma, Name, as the expression of the aspect of Knowledge. These Knowledge and Power symbolised by Nāma and Rūpa, constitute the phenomenon of Consciousness in the Manifestation. It is by these Nāma and Rūpa that Brahman could enter in this creation.

Application of Adhidaiva Epistemology to the studies of the Humanities.

If we examine the faculties of our cognitive consciousness we will find that they are only few, which are fundamental faculties, as in the field of the Humanities there are only few fundamental subjects. What determines this limited number of faculties and subjects is the very nature of our cognitive consciousness, that we have only three accesses to reality: Seeing, Hearing and Touch, with their active counterparts Thinking, Speaking and Feeling.

At first we have to study our individual faculties of consciousness (including senses). Here we will have to learn how we actually see, hear, speak, think, feel etc., and also how we could do it better. Such courses as: “How to Think and to be conscious in our thoughts”, “How to Speak and to be conscious in speech”, “How to improve visual memory”, “How to improve mental concentration” etc., etc., could be prepared and offered to all. The major object of these studies is to train our consciousness to act within its faculties.

A hint to such an approach we have taken from Vedanta, where the cognitive faculties (to see, to think, to hear, to speak, to breath and to touch) were seen as main functions of consciousness. Such approach to our faculties sheds some light on the profundities of their nature. The major subjects of Humanities also bear their own distinct features which can be identified as those belonging to a particular faculty of consciousness.

The six faculties of our consciousness have essential correspondence with the main subjects of the Humanities:

1) Psychology deals with our subjective processes of thinking and self-evaluation;

2) Philosophy deals with our mental ability to overview and conceptualize;

3) Linguistics deals with our faculty of Speech, as a device of communication and self-expression;

4) Sociology and History deal with relationship as such: how the individual and collective relate to one another, on the scale of space (Sociology, Ethnography etc.) or time (History);

5) Art and Culture deal with the refinement of our feelings and senses.

6) Science of Nature deals with Matter as such, the Physical in objective way.

Every key subject can be combined with another subject, giving it a new dimension, like for instance: Philosophy of Science, Psychology of Art, History of Philosophy, History of Linguistics, etc. These key disciplines, of course, may include other subjects and topics into their field of concern, for instance, History of Psychology could include Mythology of Self-discovery (Vedic Mythology, Egyptian Myths, etc.), History of Occultism and Yoga, History of Religion; etc.

The map of major key-disciplines:

So the basic requirements for the development of human consciousness can be defined as follows:

1)    Philosophy. Everyone has to have a metaphysical picture of the world, as a system of mental views or beliefs – a metaphysical paradigm. It includes a hidden hierarchy of understanding of what is first and what is next, what is important and what is less important, and how it constitutes one reality, without which the reality cannot be approached in a rational manner.

2)    Psychology. Everyone has to know oneself to a certain extent and to have a certain personal attitude towards the world. This knowledge of oneself is not in full accordance with one’s own metaphysical paradigm. There is a constant ongoing interaction between the two, which correlates, corrects and even changes the mental picture of the world, and vice versa. Without it the reality cannot be approached in a truthful (sincere) manner.

3)    Philology. Everyone has to use some language (outwardly and inwardly). To become conscious of our speech (as an expression of oneself) and the language (as a system of mental categories by which we think), to know how they function is indispensable for building a metaphysical picture of the world and understanding ourselves psychologically:  how our thoughts and feelings relate to our Speech-faculty and how it influences them. Without this knowledge no serious research is possible in any field, and the reality cannot be dealt with in a correct (precise) manner.

4)    Sociology. One has to know one’s roots: history, religion, social and national heredity: what state one belongs to, what nation, what community etc., – to know one’s own past in order to understand one’s present and future. This knowledge is wider than our individual psychology or even philosophical paradigm. It introduces knowledge about relations between individuals and groups in time and space, beyond our reach. It draws our consciousness to a larger reality of community, country, earth, and finally to the universal and cosmic existence. It brings the aspect of the Spirit into picture, – a larger reality inside and outside of ourselves. It indicates to us a unifying phenomenon of Space and Time, in which we all live. Without this knowledge man will not be able to understand fully the growth and the purpose of his life.

5)    Art and Culture.  Cultural phenomenon can be defined as a refinement of all our activities in life in its aspect of Beauty, Harmony, and Perfection.  It is what the Spirit has already manifested, conquered, so to say, in Life as a result of a long period of evolution. It is what makes us cultured, without which we will be simply barbarians. It is the aim of creation and it is its path. To develop ourselves fully individually and collectively, we have to learn to manifest Beauty and Harmony, to seek after it, to be it.

6)    Science of Nature. The knowledge of matter is indispensable for the understanding of Manifestation. All the changes: philosophical, psychological, philological, social, cultural are possible only in matter. Matter is a foundation and embodiment of any change. It is fixing everything to certain stability, so that another change can take place. If matter would not be able to fix it, the next step would have no meaning, for it would have no ground to manifest a new change.

Such an approach to knowledge, where all major cognitive functions and capacities of our consciousness could be integrally exercised, is needed for modern education. Having identifying the nature of different studies with their cognitive faculties of consciousness, the scholars themselves in their subjective approach could become the field of research. The self-education then would be direct and effective. The division on subjective and objective approach to knowledge would have only a classifying value within the field of studies and the humanitarian disciplines would become a means for self-education, necessary to develop Metaphysical, Psychological, Social (Historical), Artistic, Linguistic and Scientific modes of Consciousness, tuning them to the One Consciousness beyond. Such integral approach might prepare a wider ground for a truer perception of our life, and lead us eventually to a perception of universal faculties, opening them up to higher possibilities.

Integral Paradigm of Knowledge and  Adhidaiva Education.

1)     The faculties of consciousness are properties of every individual; they do not reflect any cultural, national, philosophical, religious or social characteristics. Training and educating these faculties can be considered as a part of universal education for all, leading eventually to the discovery of the innermost being.

Sri Aurobindo explains: “…the thought of India has always maintained that a human being is a portion of the Divinity enwrapped in mind and body, a conscious manifestation in Nature of the universal self and spirit. Always she has distinguished and cultivated in him a mental, an intellectual, an ethical, dynamic and practical, an aesthetic and hedonistic, a vital and physical being, but all these have been seen as powers of a soul that manifests through them and grows with their growth, and yet they are not all the soul, because at the summit of its ascent it arises to something greater than them all, into a spiritual being, and it is in this that she has found the supreme manifestation of the soul of man and his ultimate divine manhood…” [24]

2)     It introduces all the Humanities, and all fields of objective knowledge, into the subjective studies of individual consciousness. It brings the disciplines of the Humanities, which at present exist in themselves, as it were, closer to the individual self-studies. It is as if the Humanities are not being studied as such but the consciousness of the individual through the Humanities, which makes all the subjects a means for knowing oneself and therefore interesting.

“Those systems of education, – says Sri Aurobindo, – which start from an insufficient knowledge of man, think they have provided a satisfactory foundation when they have supplied the student with a large or well-selected mass of information on the various subjects which comprise the best part of human culture at the time. The school gives the materials, it is for the student to use them, — this is the formula. But the error here is fundamental. Information cannot be the foundation of intelligence, it can only be part of the material out of which the knower builds knowledge, the starting-point, the nucleus of fresh discovery and enlarged creation. An education that confines itself to imparting knowledge, is no education.” [25]

3)      It also introduces Spirituality in the most concrete way, making it less abstract, imaginative and therefore altogether a doubtful exercise, but a concrete experience of every moment of our life.

“An integral education which could, with some variations, be adapted to all the nations of the world, – says the Mother – must bring back the legitimate authority of the Spirit over a matter fully developed and utilised.” [26]

Part II

Adhyātmic Epistemology

The distinction between Faculties and Verities of Consciousness.

There are two different approaches to the studies of consciousness, two different Epistemologies.  One is about the faculties (sight, hearing etc.) on all possible levels: the Transcendental, Universal and Individual levels of Consciousness. The other approach is about the Soul and its influence through the faculties on the world.[27] The Soul which is involved in the process of evolution, trying to emerge and to guide all the other members of consciousness, it is called the Psychic Being. It is using all the members of Consciousness to express itself and to build up “a passage” through them to the surface of consciousness, where it should bring its influence and light, for that was the original purpose of it coming down into the material Inconscient with the help of these very faculties.

On the highest level the Lord (Puruṣa) and the Self (Ātman) are one and the same Conscious Being.[28] It is in the lower hemisphere that they tend to differ for the purposes of manifestation. But both of them are present on all the levels of Consciousness and Being, from Matter to Spirit.

The distinction is very subtle between the two. Taittirīya Upaniṣad speaks about the Self, ātman, on all the levels of being: annamaya, prāṇamaya, manomaya, vijñānamaya and ānandamaya ātmā, the self made of Matter, Vital Force, Mind, Supermind and Bliss, and again it says in the form of Purusha, puruṣavidha eva, implying the identity of the Self with the Lord on all the levels of Consciousness and Being.[29]

Since the power of the Self is present on all the levels of the Mind, Vital and Body, it can sustain the form of itself as it is known to its own consciousness.

THE SELF

“The other entity which represents the Brahman in the cosmos is the self – says Sri Aurobindo – of the living and thinking creature, man. This self also is not an external mask; it is not form of the mind or form of the life or form of the body. It is something that supports these and makes them possible, something that can say positively like the gods, “I am” and not only “I seem”.”

“The Self and the Lord are one Brahman, whom we can realise through our self and realise through that which is essential in the cosmic movement. Just as our self constitutes our mind, body, life, senses, so that Self constitutes all mind, body, life, senses; it is the origin and essentiality of things. Just as the gods govern, supported by our self, the cosmos of our individual being, the action of our mind, senses and life, so the Lord governs as Mind of the mind, Sense of the sense, Life of the life, supporting His active divinity by His silent essential self-being, all cosmos and all form of being.”[30]

The Adhyātmic approach to knowledge consists of two distinctly different parts. One is about the Psychic being, Antarātman, and its qualities, the Soul which is conscious of itself, which is involved in manifestation, and the other is about the Self which is beyond manifestation, Ātman.

The Education  of Psychic qualities.

The qualities of the Psychic being, which are emerging by its own power of growth, are the eternal verities, or the eternal dharmas, as Sri Aurobindo calls them, the powers which are constantly transforming our mind, life and body into a perceptive and suitable instrument of the Spirit. These qualities differ from the faculties, and are essential for the transformation of the lower consciousness and being into their higher prototypes; they must build up a new consciousness within individual and channel all power and knowledge of the Transcendental into the material frame of consciousness.

The perception by the faculties (adhidaiva) oriented either within, towards its Universal prototypes (adhyātma), or without, to the surface of consciousness (adhibhūta), is insufficient to realise integral Consciousness, for it is different from Knowledge, as Īśopaniṣad says, and it is different from Ignorance: anyad eva tad vidyayā, anyad āhur avidyayā (Īśopaniṣad 9). The faculties have to channel the light of the higher realms into the lower hemisphere and be simultaneously present on all the levels.[31]

This kind of integral consciousness is totally new even for the Divine, for this was the reason, according to the Upanishads, why this creation was set into motion.[32] The Supreme wanted to experience himself anew in consciousness of Unity.

There are many Eternal Dharmas of Consciousness, but essentially they can be brought down to a few quintessential ones, which are only twelve, according to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.  12 qualities of the Divine Mother are clearly corresponding with the Four powers of the Divine Śakti: Maheśvarī, Mahākālī, Mahālakṣmīḥ, Mahāsarasvatī.

The Mother defines them in this order:

Psychic qualities towards Divine are:

1. Sincerity,           Satyam[33]
2. Humility,           Namaḥ, Natiḥ
3. Gratitude,          Bhaktiḥ
4. Perseverance,  Dhṛtiḥ
5. Aspiration,       Iṣṭiḥ, Abhīpsā
6. Receptivity,      Buddhiḥ, Samjñānam
7. Progress,           Ṛddhiḥ, Pragatiḥ
8. Courage,            Vīryam, Śaktiḥ

Psychic qualities towards Humanity are:

9.     Goodness,        Svasti

10.  Generosity,      Dānam

11.   Equality,          Samam, Samatā

12.   Peace,              Śāntiḥ, Śamam

Psychic qualities in the words of the Mother.

Sincerity, Satyam

Simple sincerity: the beginning of all progress.

An uncompromising sincerity is the surest way to spiritual achievement.

Do not pretend – Be.

Do not promise – Act.

Do not dream – Realise.

Do you know what perfect sincerity is?

Never to try to deceive oneself, never let any part of the being try to find out a way to convincing the others, never to explain favourably what one does in order to have an excuse for what one wants to do, never to close one’s eyes when something is unpleasant, never to let anything pass, telling oneself, “This is not important, next time it will be better.”

Oh, it is very difficult.  Just try for one hour and you will see how very difficult it is.  Only one hours, to be totally, absolutely Sincere. To let nothing pass. That is, all one does, all one feels, all one thinks, all one wants, is exclusively the Divine.

“I want nothing but the Divine.  I think of nothing but the Divine.  I do nothing but what will lead me to the Divine. I love nothing but the Divine.”

Humility,  Natiḥ

True humility consists in knowing that the Supreme Consciousness, the Supreme Will alone exists,  and that the I is not.

To be humble means for the mind, the vital and the body never to forget that – without the Divine they know nothing, are nothing and can do nothing; without the Divine they are nothing but ignorance, chaos and impotence. The Divine alone is Truth, Life, Power, Love, Felicity. Therefore the mind the vital and the body must learn and feel, one and for all, that they are wholly incapable of understanding and judging the Divine, not only in his essence but also in his action and manifestation.

This is the only true humility, and with it come Quiet and Peace. This is also the surest shield against all hostile attack.  Indeed, in the human being it is always the door of pride at which the Adversary knocks, for it is this door which opens to let him enter.

Gratitude,   Bhaktiḥ

A loving recognition of the Grace received from the Divine. A humble recognition of all that the Divine has done and is doing for you.

The spontaneous feeling of obligation to the Divine, which makes you do your best to become less unworthy of what the Divine is doing for you.

The nobility of a being is measured by its capacity of Gratitude.

Perseverance, Dhṛtiḥ

A persevering will surmounts all obstacles.

Perseverance – the decision to go to the very end.

Perseverance is patience in action

What you are not able to do today, you will achieve tomorrow.  Persevere and you shall conquer.

Persevere in your aspiration and effort, do not allow yourself to be discouraged by set backs.  This always happens in the beginning. But if you continue to fight without paying any attention to them, a day will come when the resistances give way and the difficulties vanish.

It is by persevering that one conquers difficulties, not by running away from them.

One who perseveres is sure to triumph.  Victory goes to the most enduring.

Always do your best and the Lord will take care of the results.

Aspiration, Iṣṭiḥ

True aspiration is not a movement of the mind but of the psychic.

It is to the sincerity of your aspiration that the Love answers spontaneously.

Let your aspiration leap forward, pure and straight,

towards the supreme consciousness which is all joy and all beatitude.

Beyond words, above thoughts,

the flame of an intense aspiration must always burn, steady and bright.

Receptivity, Buddhiḥ

It is with the widening of the consciousness and the one-pointedness of the aspiration that the receptivity increases.

Surely you are trying more or less consciously to draw the forces and divine love towards you.  The method is bad.   Give yourself without calculating and without expecting anything in return, and then you will become capable of receiving.

How can we know that we are receptive?

When we feel the urge to give and the joy of giving to the Divine’s work,

then we can be sure that we have become receptive.

Progress, Ṛddhiḥ

Try to enjoy doing everything you do.

When you are interested in what you do, you enjoy doing it.

To be interested in what you do, you must try to do it better and better.

In progress lies true joy.

It is true that my force is always with him to help him to do his work; but my force is essentially a force for perfection, and to be able to allow it to work fully, one must have a constant will for progress in the work.

Open yourself more and more to the Divine’s force

and your work will progress steadily towards perfection.

Courage, Vīryam, Śaktiḥ

Courage is a sign of the soul’s nobility.

But courage must be calm and master of itself, generous and benevolent.

In true courage there is no impatience and no rashness.

Never mistake rashness for courage, nor indifference for patience.

A noblest courage is to recognise one’s faults.

There is no greater courage than to be always truthful.

Have the courage to be completely frank with the Divine.

Goodness, Svasti

Indeed the good will hidden in all things reveals itself everywhere to the one who carries good will in his consciousness.

This is a constructive way of feeling which leads straight to the Future.

One should keep goodwill and love constantly in his heart

and let them pour out upon all with tranquility and with equanimity.

Good will for all and good will from all is the basis of peace and harmony.

A tireless benevolence, clear-seeing and comprehensive, free from all personal reaction,  is the best way to love God and serve Him upon earth. I mean a benevolence sincere and spontaneous in thought and speech and not a supposed benevolence in acts which is accompanied most often by a dreadful sense of condescending superiority serving chiefly as a platform for human vanity.

Generosity, Dānam

The effect of the ego… is to shrivel the being. This is the cause of aging, it shrivels you up like a fading flower, it dries you up…. (There is) the difference between the two states, between the person, the individual personal being, turning towards the Lord, imploring Him to reveal His Will, and then this experience of becoming – by extending oneself, by opening, enlarging, merging into the creation – of becoming the Lord’s Will, the Supreme Will.

Equanimity, Samam

Equanimity: immutable peace and calm.

Tolerance is only the first step towards wisdom. The need to tolerate indicates the presence of preferences. He who lives in the Divine Consciousness regards all things with a perfect equanimity.

In the deep peace of equanimity the love will grow to its full blossoming

in a sense of pure and constant unity.

Peace, Śāntiḥ

The peace must be immense, the quietness deep and still, the calm unshakable,

and the trust in the Divine ever-increasing.

It is by a quiet, strong and persistent peace that the true victories can be won.

It is only in tranquility and peace that one can know what is the best thing to do.

If  you ask from within for peace, it will come.

There is no greater peace than that of a pure mind.

The vast peace and calm are there, ready for you to open to them and receive them. Let the vast peace of the divine penetrate you entirely and initiate all your movements.

In peace and inner silence you will more and more become conscious of the constant Presence. It is in peace that knowledge and power are truly effective.

It is in the most complete peace, serenity and equality that all is the Divine even as the Divine is all.

The Higher Studies of Consciousness.

In the essays on the Kena Upanishad Sri Aurobindo defines the four major operations of consciousness: Samjñāna, Ājñāna, Vijñāna, Prajñāna, as they are depicted in the Aitareya Upanishad (3.2). He says that they are secret operations of consciousness present on all the levels of its functioning, from the innermost to the most external operations.

“Everything begins with vibration or movement, the original kshobha or disturbance.” – explains Sri Aurobindo. – “If there is no movement of the conscious being, it can only know its own pure static existence. Without vibration or movement of being in consciousness there can be no act of knowledge and therefore sense; without vibration or movement of being in force there can be no object of sense. Movement of conscious being as knowledge becoming sensible of itself as movement of force, in other words the knowledge separating itself from its own working to watch that and take it into itself again by feeling,—this is the basis of universal Samjnana. This is true both of our internal and external operations.” [34]

So here Sri Aurobindo gives his definition of what is samjnana, “as essential sense”.

“I become anger by a vibration of conscious force acting as nervous emotion and I feel the anger that I have become by another movement of conscious force acting as light of knowledge. I am conscious of my body because I have become the body; that the same force of conscious being which has made this form of itself, this presentation of its workings knows it in that form, in that presentation. I can know nothing except what I myself am; if I know others, it is because they are also myself, because my self has assumed these apparently alien presentations as well as that which is nearest to my own mental center. All sensation, all action of sense is thus the same in essence whether external of internal, physical of psychical.” [35]

“Vijnana is the original comprehensive consciousness which holds an image of things in its essence, totality and parts and properties; it is the original, spontaneous, true and complete view of it which belongs properly to the supermind and of which mind has only a shadow in the highest operations of the comprehensive intellect.

Prajnana is the consciousness which holds as image of things before it as an object with which it has to enter into relations and possess by apprehension and analytic and synthetic cognition.

Samjnana is the contact of consciousness with an image of things by which there is a sensible possession of it in its substance; if Prajnana can be described as the outgoing of apprehensive consciousness to possess its object in conscious energy, to know it, Samjnana can be described as the inbringing movement of apprehensive consciousness which draws the object placed before it back to itself so as to possess it in conscious substance, to feel it.

Ajnana is the operation by which consciousness dwells on an image of things so as to govern and possess it in power. These four, therefore, are the basis of all conscious action.

…There are secret operations in us, in our subconscient and superconscient selves, which precede this action, but of these we are not aware in our surface being and therefore for us they do not exist. If we knew of them, our whole conscious functioning would be changed.”[36]

So let us again look into these four:

“Samjnana, the sense of an object in its image; inbringing movement of apprehensive consciousness… as to possess it in conscious substance, to feel it.” (That is to be it, to have an experience of it, to be directly identified with it in the Self).

“Prajnana, the apprehension of it in knowledge; the outgoing of apprehensive consciousness (of Knowledge) to possess its object in conscious energy, to know it;”

(to understand it, to see it, to be aware of it in ones Consciousness).

“Vijnana, the comprehension of it in knowledge; holds an image of things at once in its essence, its totality and its parts and properties;” (to be one in Consciousness with it in the totality of its relations).

“Ajnana, the possession of it in power; it dwells on an image of things so as to hold, govern and possess it in power;” (to become one with it in the Self).

What is interesting here is that there are two apprehensive and two comprehensive operations of consciousness:

saṃjñāna, apprehensive knowing by becoming one with the object of knowing or by making it part of oneself (= a process of in-bringing the image of things into the field of perception in order to know it by identity/ to feel it); (“objective possession”).

vijñāna, comprehensive simultaneous knowing of all the parts in their relations and essence; (supramental subjective and comprehensive knowledge); (“subjective knowing”).

ājñāna, dwelling on the image of things by the power of the Self in order to rule it and to make it one’s own,  a part of one’s own identity; it is the power of concentration; (“subjective possession”).

prajñāna, apprehensive knowing by dwelling on the image of things bit by bit through the analytical and synthetic cognition; (“objective knowing”).[37]

Etymological significances
Let’s have a closer look at the etymological meaning of these four words.
Pra-jñā is derived from the root ‘jñā’ to know (cp. to ‘gnosis’); and prefix pra-, ‘forward’, denotes an objective operation.

Vi-jñā, on the other hand, gets its significance from the prefix vi-, which has several meanings ‘to divide in two’ or ‘to hold two parts in one, together’, ‘through’, ‘in-between’. It is a comprehensive knowledge, which includes the opposites, and all the parts, mediating between them as a common awareness. In the later Prakritic traditions including Buddhism, it came to denote a ‘discrimination’ or ‘discernment’ only; when the knowledge of the Supermind was completely lost.

The root jñā-, by the way, does not really mean ‘to know something’. It means rather ‘to know oneself’, ‘to realize oneself as’, it does not have an objective connotation of knowing something but knowing oneself in a particular state; for instance, one cannot say in Sanskrit: “granthasya jñānam”, “knowledge of the book”, but only ‘granthena jñānam’ “the knowledge by the book”, where ‘knowledge’ refers to a subjective state of the knower, to his self-realized particular state of being. The root vid-, on the other hand, from which ‘veda’ is derived, means ‘to know objectively’, ‘to discover’, ‘to find out’, it has a kind of objective connotation of knowledge existing outside the knower.

Therefore, sam-jñā, would rather mean ‘to realize oneself as one with, to become one with, to feel’, where the prefix sam- means “joining with’, ‘together’, ‘completely’.
Pra-jñā, is ‘to realize oneself forward, toward’, where the direction away from the subject is clearly denoting an object.

Vi-jñā, is ‘to realize oneself in all the parts and properties and essence’, it does not have any object or even a direction towards an object, it only includes into oneself all the parts as mediator-knower.

Ā-jñā, is ‘to realize oneself toward or extending to’, as the comprehensive application of oneself in power, imposing oneself on something, expanding one’s own presence or being onto another being. The prefix ā- means ‘up to’, ‘towards’.

According to Aitareya Upanishad, where all these operations are listed, prajñāna is considered to be the key to all of them, for prajñāna is the objective apprehensive operation of consciousness in knowledge, which was seen to be the reason of this creation. It is through Prajñāna the higher Consciousness could engage itself with its own image of things in analytic and synthetic cognition, and know itself and its workings as another.[38]

All other three operations provide prajñāna with their instant support, as it were, for without them and their constant and integral support in the depth of the being, the separate and objective knowledge (of oneself as another) cannot be maintained? Samjñāna provides it with the sensible subject-oriented apprehension, Ājñāna holds the image of things in a still and powerful arrest of its will, imposing on it the presence of the Self; Vijñāna provides a comprehensive and all-inclusive presence of Knowledge throughout, coordinating all the elements, far and near, into one all comprehending perception. Without them the operation of Prajñāna would be simply impossible and the creation of the world of the distinct material multitude would not take place.

Sri Aurobindo gives interesting examples of how these operations of consciousness work in the Essays on the Kena Upanishad:

“Modern psychology has extended our knowledge and has admitted us to a truth which the ancients already knew but expressed in other language. We know now or we rediscover the truth that the conscious operation of mind is only a surface action. There is a much vaster and more potent subconscious mind which loses nothing of what the senses bring to it; it keeps all its wealth in an inexhaustible store of memory, akshitam shravah. The surface mind may pay no attention, still the subconscious mind attends, receives, treasures up with an infallible accuracy. The illiterate servant-girl hears daily her master reciting Hebrew in his study; the surface mind pays no attention to the unintelligible gibberish, but the subconscious mind hears, remembers and, when in an abnormal condition it comes up to the surface, reproduces those learned recitations with a portentous accuracy which the most correct and retentive scholar might envy. The man or mind has not heard because he did not attend; the greater man or mind within has heard because he always attends, or rather sub-tends, with an infinite capacity. So too a man put under an anaesthetic and operated upon has felt nothing; but release his subconscious mind by hypnosis and he will relate accurately every detail of the operation and its appropriate sufferings; for the stupor of the physical sense-organ could not prevent the larger mind within from observing and feeling.

Similarly we know that a large part of our physical action is instinctive and directed not by the surface but by the subconscious mind. And we know now that it is a mind that acts and not merely an ignorant nervous reaction from the brute physical brain. The subconscious mind in the catering insect knows the anatomy of the beetle it intends to immobilize and make a food for its young and it directs the sting accordingly, as unerringly as the most skilful surgeon, provided the mere limited surface mind with its groping and faltering nervous action does not get in the way and falsify the inner knowledge or the inner will-force.

These examples point us to the truth which Western psychology, hampered by past ignorance posing as scientific orthodoxy, still ignores or refuses to acknowledge. The Upanishads declare that the Mind in us is infinite; it knows not only what has been seen but what has not been seen, not only what has been heard but what has not been heard, not only what has been discriminated by thought but what has not been discriminated by thought… That conscious senses what has not been sensed by the surface mind has not learned by its acquisitive thought. That in the insect knows the anatomy of its victim; that in the man outwardly insensible not only feels and remembers the action of the surgeon’s knife, but knows the appropriate reactions of suffering which were in physical body inhibited by the anaesthetic and therefore non-existent; that in the illiterate servant-girl heard and retained accurately the words of an unknown language and could, as Yogic experience knows, by a higher action of itself understand those superficially unintelligible sounds.

To return to the Vedantic words we have been using, there is a vaster action of the Sanjnana which is not limited by the action of the physical sense-organs; it was this which sensed perfectly and made its own through the ear the words of the unknown language, through the touch the movements of the unfelt surgeon’s knife, through the sense-mind or sixth sense the exact location of the centres of locomotion in the beetle. There is also associated with it a corresponding vaster action of Prajnana, Ajnana and Vijnana not limited by the smaller apprehensive and comprehensive faculties of the external mind. It is this vaster Prajnana which perceived the proper relation of the words to each other, of the movement of the knife to the unfelt suffering of the nerves and of the successive relation in space of the articulations in the beetle’s body. Such perception was inherent in the right reproduction of the words, the right narration of the sufferings, the right successive action of the sting. The Ajnana of Knowledge-Will organising all these actions was also vaster, not limited by the faltering force that governs the operations directed by the surface mind. And although in these examples the action of the vaster Vijnana is not so apparent, yet it was evidently there working through them and ensuring their co-ordination.

… Here we should note, first of all, that there is an action of the sense-mind which is superior to the particular action of the senses and is aware of things even without imagining them in forms of sight, sound, contact, but which also as a sort of subordinate operation, subordinate but necessary to completeness of presentation, does image in these forms.” [39]

Thus these studies of operations of Consciousness could become the foundation of the higher studies constituting a new science of Integral Psychology of Adhyātmic Education.

The foundation of the deepest integral and most intimate self-knowledge and world-knowledge.

In the Synthesis of Yoga (p.293) Sri Aurobindo writes:

“Neither the universe nor the individual are what they seem to be, for the report of them which our mind and our senses give us is, so long as they are unenlightened by a faculty of higher supramental and suprasensuous knowledge, a false report, an imperfect construction, an attenuated and erroneous figure. And yet that which the universe and the individual seem to be is still a figure of what they really are, a figure that points beyond itself to the reality behind it. Truth proceeds by a correction of the values our mind and senses give us, and first by the action of a higher intelligence that enlightens and sets right as far as may be the conclusions of the ignorant sense-mind and limited physical intelligence; that is the method of all human knowledge and science. But beyond it there is a knowledge, a Truth-consciousness, that exceeds our intellect and brings us into the true light of which it is a refracted ray. There the abstract terms of the pure reason and the constructions of the mind disappear or are converted into concrete soul-vision and the tremendous actuality of spiritual experience. This knowledge can turn away to the absolute Eternal and lose vision of the soul and the universe; but it can too see this existence from that Eternal. When that is done, we find that the ignorance of the mind and the senses and all the apparent futilities of human life were not a useless excursion of the conscious being, an otiose blunder. Here they were planned as a rough ground for the self-expression of the Soul that comes from the Infinite, a material foundation for its self-unfolding and self-possessing in the terms of the universe. It is true that in themselves they and all that is here have no significance and to build separate significances for them is to live in an illusion, Maya; but they have a supreme significance in the Supreme, an absolute Power in the Absolute and it is that that assigns to them and refers to that Truth their present relative values. This is the all-uniting experience that is the foundation of the deepest integral and most intimate self-knowledge and world-knowledge.”

[2] TaitUp 1.1-2.

[3] The Upanishads, p.114

[4] Volume: 13 [SABCL] (Essays on the Gita), Page: 110

[5] lokānnu sṛjā iti, AitUp1.1.1-2, ‘May I create the worlds”, the root sṛj, to take out of oneself, indicates the separation with the Ātman. These worlds heaven and earth and space in-between become the separate habitat (adhibhūta). See also ‘puruṣa-vidhaḥ’ of Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.3

[6] AitUp 1.1.1-6.

[7] Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.6-7 so ‘kāmayata / bahu syāṃ prajāyeyeti / sa tapo ‘tapyata / sa tapastaptvā / idaṃ sarvam asṛjata / yad idaṃ kimca / tat sṛṣñvā / tad evānuprāvišat / tad anupravišya / sac ca tyac cābhavat / niruktaṃ cāniruktaṃ ca nilayanaṃ cānilayanaṃ ca / vijñānaṃ cāvijñānaṃ ca / satyaṃ cānṛtaṃ ca / satyam abhavat /  yad idaṃ kiṃca / tat satyam ityācakṣate /… 6

“He (Atman) wished: “May I become Many! May I procreate!” He flamed in Tapas, having flamed in Tapas, he created All This, whatever exists. Having created it, He indeed entered it. Having entered it, this and that came into being, spoken and unspoken, located and not located, discerned and not discerned, true and untrue, thus the (one) Truth has become, whatever exists.”

[8] The Life Divine, p.13

[9] The Upanishads, p. 167

[10] Kena Upanishad 4.4 yad asya tvam yad asya deveùv atha nu mimàsyàm eva te manye viditam

[11] The Upanishads, p. 168

[12] The Upanishads, p. 167

[13] The Upanishads, p. 177

[14] Kena Upanishad 4.5 tasyaiṣa ādeśah  yad etad vidyuto vyadyutad ā itīn nyamīmiṣad ā ity adhidaivatam

[15] The Upanishads, pp 177-178

[16] ibid. 178

[17] Kena Up 1.1.1, the answer is implied: it is Brahman.

[18] AitUp 1.1.1

[19] ChUp 3.18; KauUp 2.1-2

[20] KauUp 2.1  prāno brahmeti ha smāha kauṣitakiḥ

[21] BrhUp 1.5.7

[22] PrUp 1.4;  TaitUp 3.7.1 prāṇe śarīram pratiṣṭhitam śarīre prāṇaḥ pratiṣṭhitaḥ

[23] The Secret of the Veda, p. 65

[24] Sri Aurobindo, (SABCL, Vol.17, part 6, p.199)

[25] Sri Aurobindo, (SABCL, Vol.17, part 6, p.331)

[26] The Mother, (1965 in reference to the Education Commission, quoted in India and Her Destiny, p.18)

[27] In Gebserian terms these are two different structures of consciousness: magic and mythical.

[28] The Archaic structure of consciousness of Gebser.

[29] TaitUp 2.2-5

[30] Up 167

[31] Vidyām cāvidyām ca yas tad vedobhayaṃ saha, avidyayā mṛtyuṃ tīrtvā vidyayāmṛtam aśnute/ ĪśUp 10.

See also TaitUp 3.10: etam annamayam ātmānam upasamkramya/ etam prāṇamayam ātmānam upasaṃkramya/ etaṃ manomayam ātmānam upasamkramya…

[32] bahu syām, ‘May I be Many’, TaitUp 2.6, etc.

[33] Here the Sanskrit names are introduced by us, there can be also other words. These names we found best representing the essential qualities; we are not following the customary usage of the words here. For instance for the Gratitude the common word is kṛtajñatā, ‘acknowledgement’, we do not follow this literal translation, but find a deeper sense of the word in another term as ‘bhakti’, etc.

[34] Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, p.195-96

[35] Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, p. 196

[36] Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, pp. 188-89

[37] See: The Upanishads –II  Kena and Other Upanishads, by Sri Aurobindo, p.54-58, also AitUp 3.2.

[38] “The Supreme”, says the Mother, – “decided to exteriorise himself, objectivise himself, in order to have the joy of knowing himself in detail,… to be able to see Himself.”

[39] Sri Aurobindo, The Upansihads, pp. 192-93

(For Sri Aurobindo’s detailed comments on verses 4 – 7 of this hymn see the Appendix
below.)
ṛṣi: gṛtsamada (āṅgirasa śaunahotra paścād) bhārgava śaunaka; devatā:
brahmaṇaspati, 1,10 bṛhaspati, 12 indrābrahmaṇaspatī; chanda: jagatī, 12,16
triṣṭup.

Metrically Restored Text.

sémā́m aviḍḍhi prábhr̥ tiṃ yá ī́śiṣe ayā́ vidhema návayā mahā́ girā́
yáthā no mīḍhvā́n stávate sákhā táva bŕ̥haspate sī́ṣadhaḥ sótá no matím |1|
yó nántuvāni ánaman ní ójasā utā́dardar manyúnā śámbarāṇi ví
prā́cyāvayad ácyutā bráhmaṇas pátir ā́ cā́viśad vásumantaṃ ví párvatam |2|
tád devā́nāṃ devátamāya kártuvam áśrathnan dr̥̄ḷhā́ ávradanta vīḷitā́
úd gā́ ājad ábhinad bráhmaṇā valám ágūhat támo ví acakṣayat súvaḥ |3|
áśmāsiyam avatám bráhmaṇas pátir mádhudhāram abhí yám ójasā́tr̥ṇat
tám evá víśve papire suvardŕ̥ śo bahú sākáṃ sisicur útsam udríṇam |4|
sánā tā́ kā́ cid bhúvanā bhávītuvā mādbhíḥ śarádbhir dúro varanta vaḥ
áyatantā carato anyád-anyad íd yā́ cakā́ra vayúnā bráhmaṇas pátiḥ |5|
abhinákṣanto abhí yé tám ānaśúr nidhím paṇīnā́m paramáṃ gúhā hitám
té vidvā́ṃsaḥ praticákṣyā́nr̥ tā púnar yáta u ā́yan tád úd īyur āvíśam |6|
r̥ tā́vānaḥ praticákṣyā́nr̥ tā púnar ā́ta ā́ tasthuḥ kaváyo mahás patháḥ
té bāhúbhyāṃ dhamitám agním áśmani nákiḥ ṣó asti áraṇo jahúr hí tám |7|
r̥ tájyena kṣipréṇa bráhmaṇas pátir yátra váṣṭi prá tád aśnoti dhánvanā
tásya sādhvī́r íṣavo yā́bhir ásyati nr̥ cákṣaso dr̥ śáye kárṇayonayaḥ |8|
sá saṃnayáḥ sá vinayáḥ puróhitaḥ sá súṣṭutaḥ sá yudhí bráhmaṇas pátiḥ
cākṣmó yád vā́ jam bhárate matī́ dhánā ā́d ít sū́ryas tapati tapyatúr vŕ̥ thā |9|
vibhú prabhú prathamám mehánāvato bŕ̥haspáteḥ suvidátrāṇi rā́dhiyā
imā́ sātā́ni veniyásya vājíno yéna jánā ubháye bhuñjaté víśaḥ |10|
yó ávare vr̥ jáne viśváthā vibhúr mahā́m u raṇváḥ śávasā vavákṣitha
sá devó devā́n práti paprathe pr̥ thú víśvéd u tā́ paribhū́r bráhmaṇas pátiḥ |11|
víśvaṃ satyám maghavānā yuvór íd ā́paś caná prá minanti vratáṃ vām
áchendrābrahmaṇaspatī havír no ánnaṃ yújeva vājínā jigātam |12|
utā́śiṣṭhā ánu śr̥ṇvanti váhnayaḥ sabhéyo vípro bharate matī́ dhánā
vīḷudvéṣā ánu váśa rṇám ādadíḥ sá ha vājī́ samithé bráhmaṇas pátiḥ |13|
bráhmaṇas páter abhavad yathāvaśáṃ
satyó manyúr máhi kármā kariṣyatáḥ
yó gā́ udā́jat sá divé ví cābhajan mahī́va rītíḥ śávasāsarat pŕ̥ thak |14|
bráhmaṇas pate suyámasya viśváhā rāyáḥ siyāma rathíyo váyasvataḥ
vīréṣu vīrā́m̐ úpa pr̥ndhi nas tuváṃ yád ī́śāno bráhmaṇā véṣi me hávam |15|
bráhmaṇas pate tuvám asyá yantā́ sūktásya bodhi tánayaṃ ca jinva
víśvaṃ tád bhadráṃ yád ávanti devā́ br̥hád vadema vidáthe suvī́rāḥ |16|

Text, Translations and Vocabulary.

sémā́m aviḍḍhi prábhr̥ tiṃ yá ī́śiṣe, ayā́ vidhema návayā mahā́ girā́
yáthā no mīḍhvā́n stávate sákhā táva, bŕ̥haspate sī́ṣadhaḥ sótá no matím |1|

Interpretation:
You who are (the) Lord (yá ī́śiṣe), unfold this, what is being brought forward (sémā́m
aviḍḍhi prábhr̥ tiṃ). With this new mighty word (of expression) (ayā́ návayā mahā́ girā́)
we want to consecrate ourselves (vidhema). As your bounteous friend affirms (you) for
us (yáthā no mīḍhvā́n stávate sákhā táva), O Brihaspati, accomplish then this thought
for us (bŕ̥haspate sī́ṣadhaḥ sótá no matím). (1)

Comment:
That, what is being brought forward, prabhṛti, may relate to the emergence of the light
and force of the soul when, with the help of Brihaspati, it is piercing the veil of the
subconscient. The bounteous friend of Brihaspati could therefore as well be our own
soul when it expresses its creative word. But there is also another possibility, as was
confirmed in the last session (30.3.2010) at IPI Puducherry; and that is that mīḍhvas
could relate as well to Indra, who in most hymns to Brihaspati-Brahmanaspati is at some
point invoked. I fact in this hymn itself it is said in verse 12 to both great godheads
together “yours (or, in you both) indeed is the universal (or, whole) Truth”. And if, like
the old German translator we take stavate in a passive sense, we would then get the
sense “that your friend, the bountiful, is affirmed by us, O Brihaspati, therefore
accomplish this thought for us”. Already in our past sessions we have seen how the
powers of the word (versus heart and soul) and of the mind support each other.

Vocabulary:
av, cl. I .P. avati, Imper. aviṣṭu, 2. sg. aviḍḍhi; to drive, impel, animate (as a car or horse) RV.;
Ved. to promote, favour, (chiefly Ved.) to satisfy, refresh;
prabhṛti, f. bringing forward, offering (of sacrifice or praise) RV. AV.;
īś, 1 cl. 2. A. īṣṭe, or Ved. īśe (2. sg. īśiṣe and īkṣe RV.) to own, possess RV. MBh. Bhatt.; to
belong to RV.; to dispose of, be valid or powerful to; be master of (with gen., or Ved. with gen.
of an inf., or with a common inf., or the loc. of an abstract noun) RV. AV. TS. SBr. MBh. Ragh.
&c.; to rule, reign RV. AV. SBr. &c.;
vidh, 1 cl. 6. P. -vidhati (in RV. also -te), to worship, honour a god (dat. loc., or acc.) with (instr.)
RV. AV. TBr. BhP.; to present reverentially, offer, dedicate RV. AV.;
nava, 1 mf(ā)n. (prob. fr. 1. nu) new, fresh, recent, young, modern (opp. to sana, purāṇa) RV.
&c.;
gir, 1 mfn. (1. gṝ) addressing, invoking, praising RV.; (gīr) f. invocation, addressing with praise,
praise, verse , song RV. (the Maruts are called “sons of praise”‘) AV.;
yathā, ind. (in Veda also unaccented ; fr. 3. ya, correlative of tathā) in which manner or way,
according as, as, like, (Ved. also eva) RV. &c.;
that, so that, in order that (with Pot. or Subj., later also with fut. pres., imperf. and aor.; in
earlier language yathā is often placed after the first word of a sentence; sometimes with ellipsis
of syāt and bhavet) RV. &c.;
mīḍhvas, mf(uṣi)n. (declined like a pf. p.; nom, mīḍhvan voc. mīḍhvas dat. mīḍhuṣe- or mīḷhuṣe,
bestowing richly, bountiful, liberal R.V. &c.;
stu, 1 cl. 2. P. A. stauti or stavīti, stute or stuvīte (in RV. also stavate, to praise, laud, eulogize,
extol, celebrate in song or hymns (in ritual, “to chant”, with loc. of the text from which the
Saman comes) RV. &c.;
sadh, 1 (connected with 2. sidh) cl. 1. P. A. sādati, -te, to go straight to any goal or aim, attain
an object, to be successful, succeed, RV.; to being straight to an object or end, further, promote,
advance, accomplish, complete, finish ib.; aor. asīṣadhat;Ved. also sīṣadhati;
uta, 2 ind. and, also, even, or RV. AV. SBr. ChUp. &c.;
mati, f. devotion, prayer, worship, hymn, sacred utterance RV. VS.; thought, design, intention,
resolution, determination, inclination, wish, desire (with loc. dat. or inf.) RV. &c.;

Old Translators:
1. BE pleased with this our offering, thou who art the Lord; we will adore thee with this new and
mighty song.
As this thy friend, our liberal patron, praises thee, do thou, Brhaspati, fulfil our hearts’ desire.
1. Gib dieser Darbringung den Vorzug, der du Herr darüber bist. Mit dieser neuen großen
Lobrede wollen wir dir huldigen und laß unsere Absicht in Erfüllung gehen, daß unser Belohner,
dein Freund, gepriesen werden soll, o Brihaspati.

yó nántuvāni ánaman ní ójasā utā́dardar manyúnā śámbarāṇi ví
prā́cyāvayad ácyutā bráhmaṇas pátir ā́ cā́viśad vásumantaṃ ví párvatam |2|

Interpretation:
He who with his luminous force (yó ójasā) bent down all that should be bent (nántuvāni
ánaman ní) and made to burst apart with his mental power (utā́dardar manyúnā ví) the
formations of Shambara (śámbarāṇi), – Brahmanaspati made to fall the things that were
unshakeable (prā́cyāvayad ácyutā) and entered entirely (ā́ cā́viśad ví) the mountain full
of the shining treasure (vásumantaṃ párvatam). (2)

Comments:
The two terms “ojas” and “manyu” could perhaps be seen as the necessary conditions
for overcoming the powers of ignorance and falsehood. The former became in the later
Yoga-tradition the term for the transmuted physical-vital energy. And the latter word,
although in the previous hymn it was used in the negative as a kind of wrong mental
power or action, which needs to be diminished or arrested, relates here to the right and
necessary measure of mental growth and capacity.
(Sri Aurobindo translated here manyu “by force of heart” and śambarāṇi as “the illusions
that destroy”.)

Vocabulary:
nantva, mfn. to be bent RV. ii,24,2.
nam, cl. 1. P. namati, -te, to bend or bow (either trans. or oftener intr.) to bow to, subject or
submit one’s self (with gen. dat. or acc.) RV. &c.;
ojas, n. (vaj, or uj; cf. ugra), bodily strength, vigour, energy, ability, power RV. AV. TS. AitBr.
MBh. &c.;
dṝ, to burst, break asunder, split open RV. impf. 2. 3. sg. adardar, 3. pl. adardirur = Caus. RV.;
śambara, m. N. of a demon (in RV. often mentioned with Sushna, Arbuda, Pipru &c.; he is the
chief enemy of Divo-dasa Atithigva, for whose deliverance he was thrown down a mountain and
slain by Indra; in epic and later poetry he is also a foe of the god of love) RV. &c.; n. water
Naigh. i,12 (but Sah. censures the use of sambara in this sense)
(pl.) the fastnesses of Sambara RV.;
śamba, m. (derivation doubtful) a weapon used by Indra (accord. to some
“Indra’s thunderbolt”, but cf. zambin) RV. x,42,7 (= vajra Naigh. iv,2) the iron head of a pestle
L.; an iron chain worn round the loins W.;
śamb, cl. 1. P. śambati, to go (Vop.), cl. 10. P. śambayati, to collect ib.;
(This root might in a negative context perhaps mean “to attack” or “to block, prevent”;)
cyu, 2 cl. i. cyavate (ep. also –ti); to move to and fro, shake about RV.;
pra-cyu, Caus. -cyāvayati, to move, shake RV.;
acyuta, mfn. not fallen, firm, solid, imperishable, permanent;
viś, 1 cl. 6. P. visati, to enter, enter in or settle down on, go into (acc. loc., or antar with gen.),
pervade RV. &c.;
vi-ā-viś, P. viśati, to enter, penetrate, pervade (acc. or loc.) RV. S3Br.
vasumat, mfn. having or possessing or containing treasures, wealthy, rich, RV. SankhGr. MBh.
&c.; attended by the Vasus TS. Kath. AitBr. &c.;

Old Translators:
2 He who with might bowed down the things that should be bowed, and in his fury rent the holds
of Sambara:
Who overthrew what shook not, Brahmapaspati,-he made his way within the mountain stored
with wealth.
2. Der das Biegsame mit Kraft niederbog und er zersprengte im Grimm die Sambarafesten. Das
unbewegliche brachte Brahmanaspati ins Wanken, da er in den schätzereichen Berg ein und
hindurch drang.

tád devā́nāṃ devátamāya kártuvam, áśrathnan dr̥̄ḷhā́ ávradanta vīḷitā́
úd gā́ ājad ábhinad bráhmaṇā valám, ágūhat támo ví acakṣayat súvaḥ |3|

Interpretation:
That was the work (to be accomplished) (tád kártuvam) for the most divine of the divine
powers (devā́nāṃ devátamāya): the fixed things loosened (áśrathnan dr̥̄ḷhā́) and all that
was hard became soft (ávradanta vīḷitā́). With the Word of the Soul (bráhmaṇā) he
broke the concealing power (of the subconscient) (ábhinad valám) and drove upwards
the Herds of the Light (úd gā́ ājad). He hid the darkness and made visible (or, clearly
perceptible) the Sun-world (ágūhat támo ví acakṣayat súvaḥ). (3)

Comment:
In our exploration of IV.50 we have seen, that to the symbol of the “Herds of the Light”
(also seen as the lights of the Dawn or rays of the Sun) relate psychologically the
intuitions that arise from the heart (through the cry of Brihaspati). And by holding them
in their mind the ancient seers became illumined, which in turn allowed Brihaspati to
come in front of their consciousness and taste the bliss of existence.

Vocabulary:
kartva, mfn. to be done or accomplished RV. (am) n. obligation, duty, task ib.;
śrath, śranth (cf. ślath) cl. 9. P. śrathnāti, to be loosened or untied or unbent, become loose or
slack, yield, give way RV.; to make slack, disable, disarm RV. i,171, 3 (A.) to loosen one’s own
(bonds &c.) AV.;
dṛḷha, mfn. fixed, firm, hard, strong, solid, massive RV. AV. SBr. MBh. &c.;
vrad, (or vrand) A. -vradate (only impf. avradanta), to soften, become soft RV. ii,24,3 (cf. Nir.
v,16).
vīḷita, mfn. made strong, strengthened, firm, hard RV.;
ud-aj, P. A. -ajati, -te (impf. -ājat RV. ii,12,3 &c., and ud-ājat RV. ii,24,3) to drive out, expel RV.
BrArUp.;
bhid, 1 cl. 7, P. bhinatti, A. bhintte, (impf. 2. sg. abhinat RV.); to split, cleave, break, cut or rend
asunder, pierce, destroy RV. &c.;
vala, 1 m. “enclosure”, a cave, cavern RV. AV. Br.; N. of a demon (brother of Vritra, and
conquered by Indra; in later language called bala q.v.);
guh, 1 cl. 1. P. A. gūhati, -te; to cover, conceal, hide, keep secret RV. &c.;
vi-cakṣ, A. –caṣṭe (Ved. inf. –cakṣe), to appear, shine RV.; to see distinctly, view, look at,
perceive, regard RV. AV. BhP.; to make manifest, show RV.

Old Translators:
3 That was a great deed for the Godliest of the Gods: strong things were loosened and the firmly
fixed gave way.
He drave the kine forth and cleft Vala through by prayer, dispelled the darkness and displayed
the light of heaven.
3. Das war die Aufgabe für den Göttlichsten der Götter: Das feste lockerte sich, das Harte gab
nach. Er trieb die Kühe heraus, spaltete mit dem Zauberwort den Vala, er beseitigte das Dunkel,
ließ die Sonne scheinen.

sánā tā́ kā́ cid bhúvanā bhávītuvā mādbhíḥ śarádbhir dúro varanta vaḥ
áyatantā carato anyád-anyad íd, yā́ cakā́ra vayúnā bráhmaṇas pátiḥ |5|

Sri Aurobindo’s Translation:
(That the making visible of Swar to the eyes of the Swarseers, suvardŕ̥śaḥ, their drinking
of the honeyed well and their outpouring of the divine waters amounts to the revelation
to man of new worlds or new states of existence is clearly told us in the next verse,
II.24.5.)
“Certain eternal worlds (states of existence) are these which have to come into being
(sánā tā́ kā́ cid bhúvanā bhávītuvā), their doors are shut to you (or, opened) (dúro
varanta vaḥ) by the months and the years (mādbhíḥ śarádbhir); without effort one
(world) moves in the other (áyatantā carato anyád-anyad), and it is these two forms
that Brahmanaspati has made manifest to knowledge (yā́ cakā́ra vayúnā).” (5)
From Sri Aurobindo’s Commentary:
… vayúnā means knowledge, and the two forms are divinised earth and heaven which
Brahmanaspati created. These are the four eternal worlds hidden in the guhā, the
secret, unmanifest or superconscient parts of being which although in themselves
eternally present states of existence (sánā … bhúvanā) are for us non-existent and in
the future; for us they have to be brought into being, bhávītvā, they are yet to be
created. Therefore the Veda sometimes speaks of Swar being made visible, as here (ví
acakṣayat súvaḥ), or discovered and taken possession of, vidat, sanat, sometimes of its
being created or made (bhū, kṛ). These secret eternal worlds have been closed to us,
says the Rishi, by the movement of Time, by the months and years; therefore naturally
they have to be discovered, revealed, conquered, created in us by the movement of
Time, yet in a sense against it. This development in an inner or psychological Time is, it
seems to me, that which is symbolised by the sacrificial year and by the ten months that
have to be spent before the revealing hymn of the soul (brahma) is able to discover the
seven-headed, heaven conquering thought which finally carries us beyond the harms of
Vritra and the Panis.
In regard to the doors here another verse (taken out of Sri Aurobindo’s detailed analysis
of hymn III.31, which forms part of the Appendix):
“… The Vritra-slayer [Indra], the Master of the Cows, showed (to men) the cows; he has
entered with his shining laws (or lustres) within those who are black (void of light, like
the Panis); showing the truths (the cows of truth) by the Truth he has opened all his
own doors;” that is to say, he opens the doors of his own world, Swar, after breaking
open by his entry into our darkness the “human doors” kept closed by the Panis.

Vocabulary:
sana, 2 mf(A)n. (derivation doubtful) old, ancient (am, ind. “of old, formerly”) RV. AV.; lasting
long BhP.;
mās, 2 in , (3. mā; pl. instr. mādbhis RV.) the moon RV. (cf. candra and sūrya-mās) a month ib.
&c;
śarad, f. (prob. fr. śrā, śṝ) autumn (as the time of ripening) a year (or pl. poetically for “years” cf.
varṣa) ib.;
dur, 1 f. (only duras acc. nom., and duras. pl.) = dvār, a door (cf. 2. dura).
vṛ, 1 cl. 5. 9. 1. P. A. varati, varate (mostly cl. 5 and with the prep. apa or vi) to cover, screen,
veil, conceal, hide, surround, obstruct RV. &c.; to close (a door) AitBr.;
ayat, mfn. (yam), not making efforts Bhatt.;
yat, 2 cl. 1. 1. (prob. connected with yam and orig. meaning “to stretch”) yatate (Ved. and ep.
also P. -ti; (P.) to place in order, marshal, join, connect RV.; to exert one’s self, take pains,
endeavour, make effort, persevere, be cautious or watchful ib.;
car, cl. 1. carati, to move one’s self, go, walk, move, stir, roam about, wander RV. AV. &c.;
vayuna, mfn. (rather fr. vī than fr. ve) moving, active, alive SBr.; a path, way (= mArga also fig.
either – “means expedient”, or “rule, order, custom”) RV. AV. VS. (instr., according to rule RV.
i,162,18) distinctness, clearness, brightness RV. ii,19,3; knowledge, wisdom BhP.;

Old Translators:
5 Ancient will be those creatures, whatsoe’er they be; with moons, with autumns, doors unclose
themselves to you.
Effortless they pass on to perfect this and that, appointed works which Brahmanaspati ordained.
5. “Diese Geschöpfe müssen teilweise alt sein; durch Monate und Jahre waren euch die Tore
verschlossen”. Ohne Eifersucht gehen beide je eine andere Richtung nach den Richtungen, die
Brahmanaspati bestimmt hat.

abhinákṣanto abhí yé tám ānaśúr nidhím paṇīnā́m paramáṃ gúhā hitám
té vidvā́ṃsaḥ praticákṣyā́nr̥ tā púnar yáta u ā́yan tád úd īyur āvíśam |6|

Sri Aurobindo’s Translation:
“They who travel towards the goal (yé abhinákṣanto) and attain that treasure of the
Panis (abhí tám ānaśúr nidhím paṇīnā́m), the supreme treasure hidden in the secret
cave (paramáṃ gúhā hitám), they, having the knowledge and perceiving the falsehoods
(té vidvā́ṃsaḥ praticákṣyā́nr̥ tā), rise up again thither whence they came (púnar yáta u
ā́yan tád úd īyur) and enter into that world (tád āvíśam).” (6)
From Sri Aurobindo’s Commentary:
In Gritsamada’s hymn … the Angirases attain to Swar,—the Truth from which they
originally came, the “own home” of all divine Purushas,—by the attainment of the truth
and by the detection of the falsehood.
In addition here another relevant verse from SV:
“The cows who were in the strong place (of the Panis) the thinkers clove out; by the
mind the seven seers set them moving forward (or upwards towards the supreme), they
found the entire path (goal or field of travel) of the Truth; knowing those (supreme
seats of the Truth) Indra by the obeisance entered into them.” This is, as usual, the
great birth, the great light, the great divine movement of the Truth knowledge with the
finding of the goal and the entry of the gods and the seers into the supreme planes
above.” (III.31.5)

Vocabulary:
abhi-nakṣ, to approach, come to, arrive at RV. AV.;
abhi-naś, 1. to attain, reach RV.;
nidhi, a place for deposits or storing up, a receptacle MBh. Kav. &c.; a store, hoard, treasure RV.
&c.;
paṇi, m. a bargainer, miser, niggard (esp. one who is sparing of sacrificial oblations) RV. AV.; N.
of a class of envious demons watching over treasures RV. (esp. x,108) AV. SBr.;
parama, mf(ā)n. (superl. of para) most distant, remotest, extreme, last RV. &c.; chief, highest,
primary, most prominent or conspicuous;
guha, (2. guhā) f. a hiding-place, cave, cavern VS. xxx ,16; TBr. I; MBh. &c.; (fig.) the heart
SvetUp. iii,20; MBh. xii; BhP. ii,9,24;
(3. guhā), Ved. instr. ind., in a hiding-place, in secret, secretly (opposed to āvis, and especially
with dhā, ni-dhā, kṛ, “to conceal, remove”) RV. AV. SBr. xi, xiii.;
hita, 2 mf(ā)n. (p.p. of 1. dhā cf. dhita) put, placed, set, laid, laid upon, imposed, lying or
situated or contained in (loc.) RV. AV. Up.; set up, established, fixed (as a prize) RV.;
prati-cakṣ, to see, perceive RV. BhP.;
anṛta, mf(ā)n. not true, false;(am) n. falsehood, lying, cheating;
ā-viś, P. A. -viśati, -te (inf. ā-viśam RV. ii,24,6) to go or drive in or towards; to approach, enter;
to take possession of RV. AV. VS. SBr. MBh. BhP. R. Mn. &c.;

Old Translators:
6 They who with much endeavour searching round obtained the Panis’ noblest treasure hidden in
the cave,-
Those sages, having marked the falsehoods, turned them back whence they had come, and
sought again to enter in.
6. Sie, die bei ihrer Ankunft den im Versteck verborgenen fernsten Schatz der Pani´s antrafen,
die kundig die Täuschungen entdeckt hatten, sind wieder dahin ausgezogen, von woher sie
gekommen waren, um in den Berg einzudringen.

r̥ tā́vānaḥ praticákṣyā́nr̥ tā púnar, ā́ta ā́ tasthuḥ kaváyo mahás patháḥ
té bāhúbhyāṃ dhamitám agním áśmani, nákiḥ ṣó asti áraṇo jahúr hí tám |7|
Interpretation:
Possessed of the Truth, having perceived the untruths (r̥ tā́vānaḥ praticákṣyā́nr̥ tā), from
here the seers have again ascended the great path (púnar ā́ta ā́ tasthuḥ kaváyo mahás
patháḥ). They with both arms (placed) the kindled Fire in the Rock (té bāhúbhyāṃ
dhamitám agním áśmani) … (7)
From Sri Aurobindo’s comment on the first half of this verse:
“Possessed of the truth, beholding the falsehoods they, seers, rise up again into the
great path …” mahas pathaḥ, the path of the Truth, or the great and wide realm, Mahas
of the Upanishads.

Comments:
The meaning of the last quarter of this verse is not yet clear. One way to translate it
could be, “he is the fighter (ṣó asti áraṇo), therefore none have abandoned him (nákiḥ
jahúr hí tám)” and another, perhaps more fitting to the context, “none (but) he is the
fighter (nákiḥ ṣó asti áraṇo), therefore they have left (or, discharged) him (there) (jahúr
hí tám)”.

Vocabulary:
atas, ind. (ablative of the pronom. base a, equivalent to asmāt;) from this, than this, hence;
ā-sthā, 1 P. A. –tiṣṭhati, -te, to stand or remain on or by; to ascend, mount; to stay near, go
towards, resort to RV. AV. SBr. AsvGr. MBh. R. BhP. Kum. &c.;
dhamita, mfn. blown, kindled RV.;
SA: blown up to greatness;
aśman, 2 (ā) m. a stone, rock RV. &c.; a precious stone RV. v,47,3; SBr.; any instrument made
of stone (as a hammer &c.) RV. &c.; thunderbolt RV. &c.; a cloud Naigh.; the firmament RV.
v,30,8;
nakis, (na-) ind. no one, nobody RV.;
kis, ind, (fr. 1. ki cf. nakis, mākis), a particle of interrogation, “whether” [= kartṛ, "a doer" Nir.
vi,34] RV. x,52,3.
araṇa, 1 mf(ī) n. (ṛ), foreign, distant RV. AV. SBr.; (am) n. (only for the etym. of araṇi) being
fitted (as a piece of wood) Nir.;
SA: also fighter, warrior, labourer;
araṇi, 1 f. “being fitted into” or “turning round”; the piece of wood (taken from the Ficus
Religiosa or Premna Spinosa) used for kindling fire by attrition RV. &c.;
hi, 2 ind. (used as a particle [cf. ha and gha] and usually denoting) for, because, on account of
RV. &c.; just, pray, do (with an Impv. or Pot. emphatically) ib.; indeed, assuredly, surely, of
course, certainly ;
hā, 3 cl. 3. P. jahāti (rarely cl. 1. jahati) pf. jahau, jahuḥ RV. &c.; to leave, abandon, desert, quit,
forsake, relinquish; to discharge, emit ib.;

Old Translators:
7 The pious ones when they had seen the falsehoods turned them back, the sages stood again
upon the lofty ways.
Cast down with both their arms upon the rock they left the kindled fire, and said, no enemy is he.
7. Die wahrhaften Seher, die die Täuschungen entdeckt hatten, machten sich wieder von da auf
die großen Wege. Sie fanden das mit den Armen angefachte Feuer im Fels: “Es ist ja kein
fremdes”, denn sie hatten es zurückgelassen.

r̥ tájyena kṣipréṇa bráhmaṇas pátir yátra váṣṭi prá tád aśnoti dhánvanā
tásya sādhvī́r íṣavo yā́bhir ásyati nr̥cákṣaso dr̥śáye kárṇayonayaḥ |8|

Interpretation:
With his quick-shooting bow (kṣipréṇa dhánvanā), that has the dynamic truth as its
string (r̥ tájyena), Brahmanaspati reaches there (prá tád aśnoti) where he wants (yátra
váṣṭi). Effective are the arrows with which he shoots (sādhvī́r íṣavo yā́bhir ásyati); they
originate from the ear (of inspired hearing) (kárṇayonayaḥ), with the eye of the heroic
soul for sight (nr̥cákṣaso dr̥śáye). (8)
Comments:
What could be the connection of the thought from the previous verse to this one? The
suggestion could be that Brahmanaspati, whose action from here onward is again
described, is a manifestation of this divine Flame in the rock. And, in fact, in the next
verse Brahmanaspati is even called Purohita, the one who is being placed in front, which
is usually a name of Agni.

Vocabulary:
ṛtajya, (ṛta-) mfn. one whose string is truth, truth-strung (said of Brahmanas-pati’s bow) RV.
ii,24,8.
kṣipra, mf(ā)n. springing, flying back with a spring, elastic (as a bow) RV. ii,24,8; quick, speedy,
swift SBr.vi; (am) ind. (Naigh ii,15) quickly, immediately, directly AV. SBr. iv;
vaś, cl. 2. P. vaṣṭi, to will, command RV. AV.; to desire, wish, long for, be fond of, like (also with
inf.) RV. &c.;
aś, 1 (in classical Sanskrit only) A. aśnute; Vedic forms are: aśnoti &c.; to reach, come to, reach,
come to, arrive at, get, gain, obtain RV. &c.;
dhanvan, n. a bow RV. &c.;
sādhu, mf(vī)n. straight, right RV. AV. BhP.; leading straight to a goal, hitting the mark, unerring
(as an arrow or thunderbolt) RV. SBr.; successful, effective efficient (as a hymn or prayer) RV.
Kam., (u) ind. straight, aright, regularly RV. AV.;
iṣu, mf. an arrow RV. AV. VS. MBh. Ragh. Sak. &c.; N. of a particular constellation VarBr. xii,7.
[According to Dayananda iṣu may mean "ray of light";
as, 2 cl.4. P. asyati, to throw , cast, shoot at (loc. dat., or gen) RV. &c.;
nṛcaksa, mfn. beholding or watching men (said of gods) RV. AV. VS. TS. looking after men i.e.
leading or guiding them (as a Rishi) RV. iii.53,9;
Sri Aurobindo takes this term never in the above sense but instead as “divine vision” or “strong
vision” and “eye of the soul”; since the term nṛ (and its derative nara) are applied to gods and
men SA says it means the power of the Purusha, the conscious Soul;
karṇayoni, (karṇa-) mfn. having the ear as a source or starting-point, going forth from the ear
(said of arrows, because in shooting the bow-string is drawn back to the ear) RV. ii,24,8.

Old Translators:
8 With his swift bow, strung truly, Brahmanaspati reaches the mark whate'er it be that he
desires.
Excellent are the arrows wherewithal he shoots, keen-eyed to look on men and springing from
his ear.
8. Mit seinem schnellschießenden Bogen, dessen Sehne die Wahrheit ist, trifft Brahmanaspati
dahin, wohin er will. Vortrefflich sind seine Pfeile, mit denen er, der das Herrenauge hat, schießt;
sie sind anzuschauen, als ob sie aus dem Ohre entsprungen seien.

sá saṃnayáḥ sá vinayáḥ puróhitaḥ sá súṣṭutaḥ sá yudhí bráhmaṇas pátiḥ
cākṣmó yád vā́jam bhárate matī́ dhánā, ā́d ít sū́ryas tapati tapyatúr vŕ̥ thā |9|

Interpretation:
Established in front and perfectly affirmed in the battle (puróhitaḥ súṣṭutaḥ yudhí),
Brahmanaspati leads (all) together and leads (each one) separate (sá saṃnayáḥ sá
vinayáḥ). When manifested in the vision he brings the plenitude (cākṣmó yád vā́jam
bhárate) and by the thought the riches (matī́ dhánā), then indeed the heat-yielding Sun
burns at will (ā́d ít sū́ryas tapati tapyatúr vŕ̥ thā). (9)

Comment:
The following selection from V.45 (taken from SV) refers also to the context of the
earlier verses and gives us perhaps a hint what by the Sun now burning at will, could be
meant:
“With a mind that sought the Light (the cows) they entered their seats by the illumining
words, making the path towards Immortality. This is that large seat of theirs, the Truth
by which they took possession of the months (the ten months of the Dashagwas).
Harmonised in vision (or, perfectly seeing) they rejoiced in their own (abode, Swar)
milking out the milk of the ancient seed (of things). Their cry (of the Word) heated all
the earth and heaven (created, that is to say, the burning clarity, gharma, taptaṃ
ghṛtam, which is the yield of the solar cows); they established in that which was born a
firm abiding and in the cows the heroes” (that is, the battling force was established in
the light of the knowledge).

Vocabulary:
saṃnaya, mfn. leading or bringing together RV.;
vinaya, 2 mfn. leading away or asunder, separating RV. ii,24,9; leading, guidance, training (esp.
moral training), education, discipline, control MBh. Kav. &c.;
cākṣma, mfn. (kṣam) forbearing, gracious (Brahmanaspati) RV. ii,24,9.
SA: manifested in the vision;
tapyatur, mfn. hot RV. ii,24,9.
vṛthā, ind. (prob. connected with 2. vṛ, at will, at pleasure, at random, easily RV. Br. Gobh. Mn.
Yajn. MBh.;

Old Translators:
9 He brings together and he parts, the great High Priest; extolled is he, in battle Brahmapaspati.
When, gracious, for the hymn he brings forth food and wealth, the glowing Sun untroubled sends
forth fervent heat.
9. Er ist der Bevollmächtigte, der die Kämpfer zusammenbringt und auseinanderbringt, der
vielgepriesene, der Herr des Gebets im Kampfe. Wenn der ..... durch Einsicht den Sieg, die
Gewinne davonträgt, dann brennt nach Lust die brennende Sonne.

vibhú prabhú prathamám mehánāvato, bŕ̥haspáteḥ suvidátrāṇi rā́dhiyā
imā́ sātā́ni veniyásya vājíno, yéna jánā ubháye bhuñjaté víśaḥ |10|
Interpretation:
Foremost (prathamám) manifesting in front and pervading (the consciousness) (prabhú
vibhú) are the fulfilling perfect knowings of Brihaspati (rā́dhiyā suvidátrāṇi), who
possesses the abundance (mehánāvato). These are the gains of the Lord of delight and
rich energy (imā́ sātā́ni veniyásya vājíno), by which the creatures (yéna víśaḥ) enjoy
both the births (human and divine) (jánā ubháye bhuñjaté). (10)

Comment:
Both the births relates most likely to the three human and the four divine principles,
whose union Brihaspati as the sevenfold Angirasa represents.

Vocabulary:
prabhu, mfn. (Ved. also ū f. vī) excelling, mighty, powerful, rich, abundant RV. &c.;
vibhū, mf(ū or vī)n. being everywhere, far-extending, all-pervading, omnipresent, eternal RV. VS.
Up. MBh. &c.;
Sri Aurobindo explains in SV these two terms as manfesting in front of – and pervading the
consciousness;
mehanāvat, mfn. bestowing abundantly;
suvidatra, mfn. very mindful, benevolent, propitious RV. AV.; n. grace, favour ib.; wealth,
property Nir. vii,9;
SA: perfections of knowledge;
rādhya, mfn. to be accomplished or performed RV.; to be obtained or won ib.; to be appeased or
propitiated ib.;
sāta, 1 mfn. gained, obtained RV. Br.; granted, given, bestowed RV.; n. a gift, wealth, riches ib.;
venya, mfn. to be loved or adored, lovable, desirable RV.;
SA takes vena always in the sense of delight.
vājin, mfn. swift, spirited, impetuous, heroic, warlike RV. &c.; m. a warrior, hero, man RV. (often
applied to gods, esp. to Agni, Indra, the Maruts &c.)
SA: lord of substance;
bhuj, 3 cl. 7 P. A. bhunakti, bhuṅkte, 3. pl. A. bhuñjate RV.; to enjoy, use, possess, (esp.) enjoy
a meal, eat;

Old Translators:
10 First and preeminent, excelling all besides are the kind gifts of liberal Brhaspati.
These are the boons of him the Strong who should be loved, whereby both classes and the
people have delight.
10. Ausreichend, reichlich, an erster Stelle ist die Gabe des gern schenkenden; des Brihaspati
Gewinne sind leicht zu erlangen, dankenswert, diese Gewinne des schauwürdigen Siegers, von
dem beiderlei Geschlechter, alle Stämme nutzen haben.

yó ávare vr̥ jáne viśváthā vibhúr mahā́m u raṇváḥ śávasā vavákṣitha
sá devó devā́n práti paprathe pr̥ thú víśvéd u tā́ paribhū́r bráhmaṇas pátiḥ |11|

Interpretation:
You, who pervade everywhere (yó vibhúr viśváthā) in the lower enclosure (or, place of
crookedness) (ávare vr̥ jáne), have grown by your bright force (vavákṣitha śávasā),
rejoicing now among the great ones (mahā́m u raṇváḥ). This god has spread out wide
towards the gods (sá devó devā́n práti paprathe pr̥ thú); all these (worlds?) indeed now
Brahmanaspati encompasses with his being (víśvéd u tā́ paribhū́r). (11)
(Or: … rejoicing, you have grown by the bright force of the great ones.)
Comment:
The expression “the great ones” could here already relate to the rivers in their
unrestricted flow. For in the next verse it is said they do not diminish the working of
Indra and Brihaspati. Therefore the other expression “all these” could relate to the full
manifestation of the worlds, of all planes of existence (as suggested in brackets in the
interpretation above). In the following verses of V.45 we can see how Sri Aurobindo
relates the “great ones” to the rivers. And their supreme birth there might also relate to
the enjoyment of the double birth of our previous verse:
“… The rivers became rushing floods, floods that cleft (their channel), heaven was made
firm like a well-shaped pillar. To this word the contents of the pregnant hill (came forth)
for the supreme birth of the Great Ones (the rivers or, less probably, the dawns); the hill
parted asunder, heaven was perfected (or, accomplished itself); they lodged (upon
earth) and distributed the largeness.”

Vocabulary:
avara, mf(ā)n. (fr. 2. ava), below, inferior RV. AV. VS.;
vṛjana, (once vṛj-) n. an enclosure, cleared or fenced or fortified place (esp. "sacrificial
enclosure"; but also "pasture or camping ground, settlement, town or village and its inhabitants")
RV.; crookedness, wickedness, deceit, wile, intrigue ib.;
SA: crookedness
viśvatha, ind. in every way, at all times.
mah, 2 mf(ī or = m.)n. great, strong, powerful; mighty, abundant RV. VS.;
ranva, 1 mf(ā)n. pleasant, delightful, agreeable, lovely RV.; joyous, gay ib.;
śavas, n. (orig. "swelling, increase") strength, power, might, superiority, prowess, valour,
heroism; (-sā ind. mightily, with might) RV. AV.;
vakṣ, (cf. 1. ukṣ) cl. 1. P. vakṣati, (pf. vavakṣitha), to grow, increase, be strong or powerful RV.;
Goth. wahsja; Germ. wahsan, wachsen; Angl. Sax. weaxan, Eng. wax;
prath, 1 cl. 1. A. prathate, mostly A. pf. paprathe; to spread, extend (intrans. P. trans. and
intrans.); become larger or wider, increase RV. &c.;
pṛthu, mf(vī or u)n. broad, wide, expansive, extensive, spacious, large ample, abundant; copious,
numerous, manifold RV. &c.; (pṛthu ind.)
pari-bhū, mfn. surrounding, enclosing, containing, pervading, guiding, governing RV. AV. TS. TBr.
IsUp.;
Old Translators:
11 Thou who in every way supreme in earthly power, rejoicing, by thy mighty strength hast
waxen great,-
He is the God spread forth in breadth against the Gods: he, Brahmanaspati, encompasseth this
All.
11. Der du dem diesseitigen Opferbund zu allen Dingen tüchtig, groß und erfreulich an Macht
gewesen bist - der Gott hat sich den anderen Göttern gleichkommend weit ausgedehnt: alle diese
Welten umspannt Brihaspati.

víśvaṃ satyám maghavānā yuvór íd, ā́paś caná prá minanti vratáṃ vām
áchendrābrahmaṇaspatī havír no, ánnaṃ yújeva vājínā jigātam |12|

Interpretation:
O you two Possessors of fullness (maghavānā), yours (or, in you both) indeed is the
universal (or, whole) Truth (yuvór íd víśvaṃ satyám). And the Waters do not diminish
the law (or, way) of working of you both (ā́paś caná prá minanti vratáṃ vām). O Indra
and Brahmanaspati, come to our offering (ácha havír no jigātam) like two allies rich in
energy to the food (ánnaṃ yújeva vājínā). (12)

Vocabulary:
maghavan, (magha-) mfn. possessing or distributing gifts, bountiful, liberal, munificent (esp. said
of Indra and other gods;) RV. AV. TS. SBr. Up.;
cana, ind., and not, also not, even not, not even;
pra-mi, P. –mināti, to frustrate, annul, destroy, annihilate RV. AV. BhP.; to change, alter RV.;
vrata, n. (ifc. f. ā; fr. 2. vṛ) will, command, law, ordinance, rule RV.;
havis, n. an oblation or burnt offering, anything offered as an oblation with fire (as clarifled
butter, milk, Soma, grain;) RV. &c.;
anna, mfn. (ad), eaten L.; n. food or victuals, especially boiled rice; food in a mystical sense (or
the lowest form in which the supreme soul is manifested, the coarsest envelope of the Supreme
Spirit)

Old Translators:
12 From you, twain Maghavans, all truth proceedeth: even the waters break not your
commandment.
Come to us, Brahmanaspati and Indra, to our oblation like yoked steeds to fodder.
12. Euch beiden geht alles in Erfüllung, ihr Gabenreiche. Auch die Gewässer übertreten nicht euer
Gebot. Kommt, Indra und Brahmanaspati, zu unserem Opfer wie zwei siegreiche Verbündete zum
Mahle!

utā́śiṣṭhā ánu śr̥ṇvanti váhnayaḥ sabhéyo vípro bharate matī́ dhánā
vīḷudvéṣā ánu váśa rṇám ādadíḥ sá ha vājī́ samithé bráhmaṇas pátiḥ |13|
Interpretation:
After the most swift carriers (utā́śiṣṭhā váhnayaḥ) hear and follow (ánu śr̥ṇvanti), the
illumined seer, who belongs to the assembly (of the wise) (sabhéyo vípro) brings by the
(soulful) thought the riches (bharate matī́ dhánā). Averse to hardness (vīḷudvéṣā), at will
he takes upon himself the rectification (ánu váśa rṇám ādadíḥ); indeed this
Brahmanaspati is full of energy in the encounter (sá ha vājī́ samithé). (13)

Comments:
With the “swiftest carriers” all the different capacities of our physical, vital and mental
being could be meant. When they are open to the inspiration and at the same time are
able to hold it and to fully carry it out, then Brahmanaspati himself as the illumined seer
brings by the psychic thought (mati) the higher “holdings” or riches into life. The
hardness which he rejects and nullifies or rather sets right, relates (as in verse 2) to the
unconsciousness. The last phrase could perhaps also mean: “Indeed this Brahmanaspati
is the Lord of fullness (or, Possessor of the highest plenitude) in the collective
gathering”.

Vocabulary:
āśiṣṭha, mfn. (superl.) quickest, very quick RV.;
āśu, mfn. (1. āś Un. i,1), fast, quick, going quickly RV. AV. SBr. &c.;
anu-śru, cl. 5. P. śṛṇoti, to hear repeatedly (especially what is handed down in the Veda);
SA: have audience of knowledge;
vahni, m. any animal that draws or bears along, a draught animal, horse, team RV. AV. VS. TBr.;
any one who conveys or is borne along (applied to a charioteer or rider, or to various gods, esp.
to Agni, Indra, Savitri, the Maruts &c.) RV. AV.; the conveyer or bearer of oblations to the gods
(esp. said of Agni, "fire", or of the three sacrificial fires; see agni) RV.;
SA: pl. carriers (of the sacrifice); sg. carrier-flame;
sabheya, mfn. fit for an assembly or council, civilized, clever, well-behaved, decent RV. VS.
SankhSr.;
SA: in its hall of the wisdom; fit for the wisdom;
sabhā, f. (of unknown derivation, but probably to be connected with 7. sa; ifc. also sabha n.; cf.
Pan. 2-4.23 &c., and eka-sabha) an assembly, congregation, meeting, council, public audience
RV. &c.;
vīḍudveṣas, mfn. hating the strong or hating strongly ib.;
SA: a foe to strong fixities;
anu vaśa, 1 m. will, wish, desire RV. &c.; (also pl. vaśānanu or anuvaśa, "according to wish or
will, at pleasure"); authority, power, control, dominion (in AV. personified) ib.;
ṛṇa, mfn. going, flying, fugitive (as a thief) RV. vi,12,5; having gone against or transgressed,
guilty [cf. Lat. reus]; (am) n. anything wanted or missed; anything due, obligation, duty, debt;
SA: motion;
ādadi, mfn. procuring RV. viii,46,8; obtaining, recovering RV. i,127,6; ii,24,13.
samitha, sam-itha, m. hostile encounter, conflict, collision RV.;
mithas, ind. together, together with (instr.), mutually, reciprocally, alternately, to or from or with
each other RV. &c.; privately, in secret Mn. Kalid. Das.; by contest or dispute BhP.;

Old Translators:
13 The sacrificial flames most swiftly hear the call: the priest of the assembly gaineth wealth for
hymns.
Hating the stern, remitting at his will the debt, strong in the shock of fight is Brahmanaspati.
13. Auch die schnellsten Zugtiere gehorchen ihm. Als Wortführer in der Versammlung beliebt
trägt er durch Einsicht die Gewinne davon. In der Feindschaft zäh, nach Wunsch die Schuld
einziehend, ist Brahmanaspati im Kampfe Sieger.

bráhmaṇas páter abhavad yathāvaśáṃ
satyó manyúr máhi kármā kariṣyatáḥ
yó gā́ udā́jat sá divé ví cābhajan mahī́va rītíḥ śávasāsarat pŕ̥ thak |14|

Interpretation:
The true mental power (satyó manyúr) of Brahmanaspati, who desired to do a mighty
work (máhi kármā kariṣyatáḥ), turned out according to his will (abhavad yathāvaśáṃ).
He who drove upwards the Herds of the Light (yó gā́ udā́jat), also apportioned (them)
for Heaven (divé ví cābhajan), – like a great stream (that) by his force flowed forward,
widely spreading (mahī́va rītíḥ śávasāsarat pŕ̥ thak). (14)
Comment:
Here we have the double image of the stream and the rays of light as the description of
the dual aspect of power of existence and light of knowledge of the unified seven
principles. In verse two of this hymn we met the term “manyu” already as a power of
Brahmanaspati, and now we even hear of his “satya manyu”, his true mental action or
power. (Sri Aurobindo translated it as “the true heart’s motion”.)

Vocabulary:
ud-aj, P. A. -ajati, -te (impf. -ājat RV. ii,12,3 &c., and ud-ājat RV. ii,24,3 and 14) to drive out,
expel RV. BrArUp.;
kariṣyat, mfn. (fut. p. of 1. kṛ q.v.) about to do;
bhaj, cl. I. P. A. bhajati, -te; to divide, distribute, allot or apportion to (dat. or gen.), share with
(instr.) RV. &c.;
rīti, f. going, motion, course RV.; a stream, current ib.;
sṛ, (cf. sal) cl. 1. 3. P. sarati (ep. also –te), to run, flow, speed, glide, move, go RV. &c.;
pṛthak, ind. (pṛth or prath + añc) widely apart, separately, differently, singly, severally, one by
one (often repeated) RV. &c.;

Old Translators:
14 The wrath of Brahmanaspati according to his will had full effect when he would do a mighty
deed.
The kine he drave forth and distributed to heaven, even as a copious flood with strength flows
sundry ways.
14. Des Brahmanaspati Eifer ging ganz nach Wunsch in Erfüllung, wenn er ein großes Werk
vollbringen wollte, der die Kühe heraustrieb, und er teilte sie der Himmelswelt aus. Mächtig wie
ein großer Strom lief die Herde auseinander.

bráhmaṇas pate suyámasya viśváhā rāyáḥ siyāma rathíyo váyasvataḥ
vīréṣu vīrā́m̐ úpa pr̥ṅdhi nas tuváṃ yád ī́śāno bráhmaṇā véṣi me hávam |15|

Interpretation:
O Brahmanaspati, at all times may we be the charioteer(s) (viśváhā siyāma rathíyo) of a
well-controlled shining wealth, full of expansive growth (suyámasya rāyáḥ váyasvataḥ).
Pour (or, fill) your heroic energy into our heroic energies (vīréṣu vīrā́m̐ úpa pr̥ṅdhi nas),
when you, the Lord, (tuváṃ yád ī́śāno) through the Word of the Soul come to my call
(bráhmaṇā véṣi me hávam). (15)
Vocabulary:
suyama, mf(ā)n. easy to be guided, tractable (as a horse &c.) RV. TBr.; easy to be restrained or
controlled or kept in order, well regulated RV. AV. VS.;
rai, 3 m. rarely f. (fr. rā, rāyas sg. abl. & gen.; pl. nom. & acc.); property, possessions, goods,
wealth, riches RV. AV. Br. SrS. BhP.;
rathya, mfn. belonging or relating to a carriage or chariot, accustomed to it &c. RV. SBr.; m. a
carriage or chariot-horse RV. Sak.;
(also conveyer or charioteer;)
vayasvat, (vayas-) mfn. possessed of power or vigour, mighty, vigorous ib.;
SA: having the wideness;
upa pṛc, 1 P. A. (Impv. 2. sg. –pṛṅdhi RV. ii,24,15) to add RV.; to enlarge, increase RV. i,40,8;
to approach, come near AV. xviii,4,50;
īśāna, mfn. owning, possessing, wealthy; reigning RV. AV. VS. SBr. &c.; m. a ruler, master, one
of the older names of Siva-Rudra AV. VS. SBr. MBh. Kum. &c.;
vī, 1 cl. 2. P. veti (accord. to some in the conjug. tenses substituted for aj); 2. sg. veṣi also as
Impv. RV.; to go, approach, (either as a friend i.e. “seek or take eagerly, grasp, seize, accept,
enjoy”, or as an enemy i.e. “fall upon, attack, assail, visit, punish, avenge”) RV. AV. TS. Br.;
Old Translators:
15 O Brahmanaspati, may we be evermore masters of wealth well-guided, full of vital strength.
Heroes on heroes send abundantly to us, when thou omnipotent through prayer seekest my call.
15. O Brahmanaspati, wir wollen allezeit die Lenker eines leicht zu regierenden Besitzes sein.
Häufe du uns Söhne auf Söhne, wenn du, durch Zauberwort mächtig, meinem Rufe
nachkommst!

bráhmaṇas pate tuvám asyá yantā́ sūktásya bodhi tánayaṃ ca jinva
víśvaṃ tád bhadráṃ yád ávanti devā́ br̥hád vadema vidáthe suvī́rāḥ |16|
Interpretation:
O Brahmanaspati, you are the controller (or, conductor) of this perfectly uttered hymn
(tuvám asyá yantā́ sūktásya) awake (or, become conscious) and animate our selfextension
(bodhi tánayaṃ ca jinva). Universal is that highest Good (víśvaṃ tád
bhadráṃ), which the Gods unfold (yád ávanti devā́). Full of heroic power (suvī́rāḥ), may
we speak out the Vast in the finding of knowledge (br̥hád vadema vidáthe). (16)
(Or: … awake and enliven our embodiment.)
Vocabulary:
yantṛ, mfn. restraining, limiting, withholding from (loc.) Apast.; fixing, establishing RV. AV. VS.;
(f. yantrī) granting, bestowing RV.; m. (ifc. also –tṛka) a driver (of horses or elephants),
charioteer ib. &c.; a ruler, governor, manager, guide RV. Hariv.;
sūkta, mfn. (5. su + ukta) well or properly said or recited RV. &c.; (am) n. good recitation or
speech, wise saying, song of praise RV. &c.; a Vedic hymn (as distinguished from a Ric or single
verse of a hymn) Br. SrS Mn. BhP.
tanaya, mfn. propagating a family, belonging to one’s own family (often said of toka) RV. AitBr.
ii,7; m. a son Mn. iii,16; n. posterity, family, race, offspring, child (“grandchild”, opposed to toka,
“child” Nir. x,7; xii,6) RV. VarBrS. (ifc. f. ā, ciii,1 f.)
jinv, cl.1.P. jinvati, to move one’s self; be active or lively (Naigh.ii,14) RV. AV.; to urge on, cause
to move quickly, impel, incite RV. AV. SankhSr.; to refresh, animate RV. VS. AV. AitBr.; to
promote, help, favour RV. AV.;
bhadra, mf(ā)n. blessed, auspicious, fortunate, prosperous, happy RV. &c.; n. prosperity,
happiness, health, welfare, good fortune (also pl.) RV. &c.;
av, cl. I .P. avati, to drive, impel, animate (as a car or horse) RV.; Ved. to promote, favour,
(chiefly Ved.) to satisfy, refresh;
bṛhat, mf(atī)n. (in later language usually written vṛhat) lofty, high, tall, great, large, wide, vast,
abundant, compact, solid, massy, strong, mighty RV. &c.;
vidatha, n. knowledge, wisdom (esp.) “knowledge given to others” i.e. instruction, direction,
order, arrangement, disposition, rule, command (also pl.) RV. AV. VS.; (vidatham ā-vad, to
impart knowledge, give instruction, rule, govern); a meeting, assembly (either for deliberating or
for the observance of festive or religious rites i.e.) council, community, association, congregation
ib.;
Sri Aurobindo translates this important term always as finding (or, discovery) of knowledge, or
simply knowledge;
suvīra, mf(ā)n. very manly, heroic, warlike RV. AV. VS.; m. a hero, warrior RV.;
Old Translators:
16 O Brahmanaspati, be thou controller of this our hymn, and prosper thou our children.
All that the Gods regard with love is blessed. Loud may we speak, with heroes, in assembly.
16. O Brahmanaspati, sei du der Lenker dieses Liedes und erwecke Nachkommenschaft! Alles das
ist löblich, was die Götter begünstigen. – Wir möchten das große Wort führen als Meister in
weiser Rede.
Appendix:
Sri Aurobindo’s comments in “The Secret of the Veda” on
verses 3 – 7 of hymn II.24.

… But that this idea of Time, of the months and years is used as a symbol seems to be
clear from other passages of the Veda, notably from Gritsamada’s hymn to Brihaspati,
II.24.
In this hymn Brihaspati is described driving up the cows, breaking Vala by the divine
word, bráhmaṇā, concealing the darkness and making Swar visible [verse 3]. The first
result is the breaking open by force of the well which has the rock for its face and
whose streams are of the honey, madhu, the Soma sweetness, áśmāsiyam avatám …
mádhudhāram [verse 4].This well of honey covered by the rock must be the Ananda or
divine beatitude of the supreme threefold world of bliss, the Satya, Tapas and Jana
worlds of the Puranic system based upon the three supreme principles, Sat, Chit-Tapas
and Ananda; their base is Swar of the Veda, Mahar of the Upanishads and Puranas, the
world of Truth1. These four together make the fourfold fourth world and are described
in the Rig Veda as the four supreme and secret seats, the source of the “four upper
rivers”. Sometimes, however, this upper world seems to be divided into two, Swar the
base, Mayas or the divine beatitude the summit, so that there are five worlds or births
of the ascending soul. The three other rivers are the three lower powers of being and
supply the principles of the three lower worlds. This secret well of honey is drunk by all
those who are able to see Swar and they pour out its billowing fountain of sweetness in
manifold streams together, tám evá víśve papire suvardŕ̥śo bahú sākáṃ sisicur útsam
udríṇam.
These many streams poured out together are the seven rivers poured down the hill by
Indra after slaying Vritra, the rivers or streams of the Truth, ṛtasya dhārāḥ; and they
represent, according to our theory, the seven principles of conscious being in their
divine fulfillment in the Truth and Bliss. This is why the seven-headed thought,—that is
to say, the knowledge of the divine existence with its seven heads or powers, the sevenrayed
knowledge of Brihaspati, saptagum, has to be confirmed or held in thought in the
waters, the seven rivers, that is to say the seven forms of divine consciousness are to be
held in the seven forms or movements of divine being; dhiyaṃ vo apsu dadhiṣe
svarṣām, I hold the Swar-conquering thought in the waters [V.45.11].
That the making visible of Swar to the eyes of the Swarseers, suvardŕ̥śaḥ, their drinking
of the honeyed well and their outpouring of the divine waters amounts to the revelation
1In the Upanishads and Puranas there is no distinction between Swar and Dyaus; therefore a fourth
name had to be found for the world of Truth, and this is the Mahar discovered according to the
Taittiriya Upanishad by the Rishi Mahachamasya as the fourth Vyahriti, the other three being Swar,
Bhuvar and Bhur, i.e. Dyaus, Antariksha and Prithivi of the Veda.
to man of new worlds or new states of existence is clearly told us in the next verse,
II.24.5, sánā t ā́k ā́ cid bhúvanā bhávītuvā mādbhíḥ śarádbhir dúro varanta vaḥ, áyatantā
carato anyád-anyad íd y ā́cak ā́

ra vayúnā bráhmaṇas pátiḥ, “Certain eternal worlds
(states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are shut2 to
you (or, opened) by the months and the years; without effort one (world) moves in the
other, and it is these that Brahmanaspati has made manifest to knowledge”; vayúnā
means knowledge, and the two forms are divinised earth and heaven which
Brahmanaspati created. These are the four eternal worlds hidden in the guhā, the
secret, unmanifest or superconscient parts of being which although in themselves
eternally present states of existence (sánā … bhúvanā) are for us non-existent and in
the future; for us they have to be brought into being, bhávītvā, they are yet to be
created. Therefore the Veda sometimes speaks of Swar being made visible, as here (ví
acakṣayat súvaḥ), or discovered and taken possession of, vidat, sanat, sometimes of its
being created or made (bhū, kṛ). These secret eternal worlds have been closed to us,
says the Rishi, by the movement of Time, by the months and years; therefore naturally
they have to be discovered, revealed, conquered, created in us by the movement of
Time, yet in a sense against it. This development in an inner or psychological Time is, it
seems to me, that which is symbolised by the sacrificial year and by the ten months that
have to be spent before the revealing hymn of the soul (brahma) is able to discover the
seven-headed, heavenconquering thought which finally carries us beyond the harms of
Vritra and the Panis.
We get the connection of the rivers and the worlds very clearly in I.62 where Indra is
described as breaking the hill by the aid of the Navagwas and breaking Vala by the aid
of the Dashagwas. Hymned by the Angiras Rishis Indra opens up the darkness by the
Dawn and the Sun and the Cows, he spreads out the high plateau of the earthly hill into
wideness and upholds the higher world of heaven. For the result of the opening up of
the higher planes of consciousness is to increase the wideness of the physical, to raise
the height of the mental. “This, indeed,” says the Rishi Nodha, “is his mightiest work,
the fairest achievement of the achiever,” dasmasya cārutamam asti daṃsaḥ , “that the
four upper rivers streaming honey nourish the two worlds of the crookedness,” upahvare
yad uparā apinvan madhvarṇaso nadyaś catasraḥ. This is again the honey-streaming
well pouring down its many streams together; the four higher rivers of the divine being,
divine conscious force, divine delight, divine truth nourishing the two worlds of the mind
and body into which they descend with their floods of sweetness. These two, the
Rodasi, are normally worlds of crookedness, that is to say of the falsehood,—the ṛtam or
Truth being the straight, the anṛtam or Falsehood the crooked,—because they are
exposed to the harms of the undivine powers, Vritras and Panis, sons of darkness and
division. They now become forms of the truth, the knowledge, vayunā, agreeing with
outer action and this is evidently Gritsamada’s carato anyad anyad and his yā cakāra
vayunā brahmaṇaspatiḥ. The Rishi then proceeds to define the result of the work of
Ayasya, which is to reveal the true eternal and unified form of earth and heaven. “In
their twofold (divine and human?) Ayasya uncovered by his hymns the two, eternal and
2 Sayana says varanta is here “opened”, which is quite possible, but vṛ means ordinarily to shut,
close up, cover, especially when applied to the doors of the hill whence flow the rivers and the cows
come forth; Vritra is the closer of the doors. Vi vṛ and apa vṛ mean to open. Nevertheless, if the
word means here to open, that only makes our case all the stronger.
in one nest; perfectly achieving he upheld earth and heaven3 in the highest ether (of
the revealed superconscient, paramaṃ guhyam) as the Enjoyer his two wives.” The
soul’s enjoyment of its divinised mental and bodily existence upheld in the eternal joy of
the spiritual being could not be more clearly and beautifully imaged.
These ideas and many of the expressions are the same as those of the hymn of
Gritsamada. Nodha says of the Night and Dawn, the dark physical and the illumined
mental consciousness that they new-born (punarbhuvā) about heaven and earth move
into each other with their own proper movements, svebhirevaiḥ . . . carato anyā anyā
(cf. Gritsamada’s áyatantā carato anyád-anyad, áyatantā bearing the same sense as
svebhir evaiḥ, i.e. spontaneously), in the eternal friendship that is worked out by the
high achievement of their son who thus upholds them, sánemi sakhyáṃ suapasyámānaḥ
sūnúr dādhāra śávasā sudáṃsāḥ. In Gritsamada’s hymn as in Nodha’s the Angirases
attain to Swar,—the Truth from which they originally came, the “own home” of all divine
Purushas,—by the attainment of the truth and by the detection of the falsehood. “They
who travel towards the goal and attain that treasure of the Panis, the supreme treasure
hidden in the secret cave, they, having the knowledge and perceiving the falsehoods,
rise up again thither whence they came and enter into that world. Possessed of the
truth, beholding the falsehoods they, seers, rise up again into the great path,” mahas
pathaḥ, the path of the Truth, or the great and wide realm, Mahas of the Upanishads.
We begin now to unravel the knot of this Vedic imagery. Brihaspati is the seven-rayed
Thinker, saptaguḥ, saptaraśmiḥ, he is the seven-faced or seven-mouthed Angiras, born
in many forms, saptāsyas tuvijātaḥ, nine-rayed, ten-rayed. The seven mouths are the
seven Angirases who repeat the divine word (brahma) which comes from the seat of the
Truth, Swar, and of which he is the lord (brahmaṇaspatiḥ). Each also corresponds to
one of the seven rays of Brihaspati; therefore they are the seven seers, sapta viprāḥ,
sapta ṛṣayaḥ, who severally personify these seven rays of the knowledge. These rays
are, again, the seven brilliant horses of the sun, sapta haritaḥ , and their full union
constitutes the seven-headed Thought of Ayasya by which the lost sun of Truth is
recovered. That thought again is established in the seven rivers, the seven principles of
being divine and human, the totality of which founds the perfect spiritual existence. The
winning of these seven rivers of our being withheld by Vritra and these seven
rays withheld by Vala, the possession of our complete divine consciousness
delivered from all falsehood by the free descent of the truth, gives us the
secure possession of the world of Swar and the enjoyment of mental and
physical being lifted into the godhead above darkness, falsehood and death
by the in-streaming of our divine elements. This victory is won in twelve periods of
the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial
year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth,
until the tenth secures the victory. What may be the precise significance of the nine rays
and the ten, is a more difficult question which we are not yet in a position to solve; but
the light we already have is sufficient to illuminate all the main imagery of the Rig Veda.
3 This and many other passages show clearly, conclusively, as it seems to me,
that the anyad anyad, the two are always earth and heaven, the human based
on the physical consciousness and the divine based on the supraphysical,
heaven.
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, as a battle against hostile nations. But these three images are not
kept separate. The sacrifice is also a journey; indeed the sacrifice itself is described as
travelling, as journeying to a divine goal; and the journey and the sacrifice are both
continually spoken of as a battle against the dark powers. The legend of the Angirases
takes up and combines all these three essential features of the Vedic imagery. The
Angirases are pilgrims of the light. The phrase nákṣantaḥ or abhinákṣantaḥ is constantly
used to describe their characteristic action. They are those who travel towards the goal
and attain to the highest, abhinákṣantaḥ abhí yé tám ānaśúr nidhím paramáṃ, “they
who travel to and attain that supreme treasure” (II.24.6).
Additional material from the chapter “The Hound of Heaven”
(where Sri Aurobindo deals with a similar imagery and also the realisation of the
Angirases.)
“… V.45. The first three verses summarise the great achievement.
“Severing the hill of heaven by the words he found them, yea, the radiant ones of the
arriving Dawn went abroad; he uncovered those that were in the pen, Swar rose up; a
god opened the human doors. The Sun attained widely to strength and glory; the
Mother of the Cows (the Dawn), knowing, came from the wideness; the rivers became
rushing floods, floods that cleft (their channel), heaven was made firm like a wellshaped
pillar. To this word the contents of the pregnant hill (came forth) for the
supreme birth of the Great Ones (the rivers or, less probably, the dawns); the hill parted
asunder, heaven was perfected (or, accomplished itself); they lodged (upon earth) and
distributed the largeness.” It is of Indra and the Angirases that the Rishi is speaking, as
the rest of the hymn shows and as is indeed evident from the expressions used; for
these are the usual formulas of the Angiras mythus and repeat the exact expressions
that are constantly used in the hymns of the delivery of the Dawn, the Cows and the
Sun. We know already what they mean. The hill of our already formed triple existence
which rises into heaven at its summit is rent asunder by Indra and the hidden
illuminations go abroad; Swar, the higher heaven of the superconscient, is manifested
by the upward streaming of the brilliant herds. The sun of Truth diffuses all the strength
and glory of its light, the inner Dawn comes from the luminous wideness instinct with
knowledge …, the rivers of the Truth, representing the outflow of its being and its
movement (ṛtasya preṣā), descend in their rushing streams and make a channel here for
their waters; heaven, the mental being, is perfected and made firm like a well-shaped
pillar to support the vast Truth of the higher or immortal life that is now made manifest
and the largeness of that Truth is lodged here in all the physical being. The delivery of
the pregnant contents of the hill, parvatasya garbhaḥ, the illuminations constituting the
seven-headed thought, ṛtasya dhītiḥ, which come forth in answer to the inspired word,
leads to the supreme birth of the seven great rivers who constitute the substance of the
Truth put into active movement, ṛtasya preṣā.
Then after the invocation of Indra and Agni by the “words of perfect speech that are
loved of the gods”, —for by those words the Maruts4 perform the sacrifices as seers
who by their seer-knowledge do well the sacrificial work, —the Rishi next puts into the
mouth of men an exhortation and mutual encouragement to do even as the Fathers and
attain the same divine results. “Come now, today let us become perfected in thought, let
us destroy suffering and unease, let us embrace the higher good, far from us let us put
always all hostile things (all the things that attack and divide, dveṣāṃsi); let us go
forward towards the Master of the sacrifice. Come, let us create the Thought, O friends,
(obviously, the seven-headed Angiras-thought), which is the Mother (Aditi or the Dawn)
and removes the screening pen of the Cow.” The significance is clear enough; it is in
such passages as these that the inner sense of the Veda half disengages itself from the
veil of the symbol. Then the Rishi speaks of the great and ancient example which men
are called upon to repeat, the example of the Angirases, the achievement of Sarama.
“Here the stone was set in motion whereby the Navagwas chanted the hymn for the ten
months, Sarama going to the Truth found the cows, the Angiras made all things true.
When in the dawning of this vast One (Usha representing the infinite Aditi) all the
Angirases came together with the cows (or rather, perhaps by the illuminations
represented in the symbol of the cows or Rays); there was the fountain of these
(illuminations) in the supreme world; by the path of the Truth Sarama found the cows.”
Here we see that it is through the movement of Sarama going straight to the Truth by
the path of the Truth, that the seven seers, representing the seven-headed or sevenrayed
thought of Ayasya and Brihaspati, find all the concealed illuminations and by force
of these illuminations they all come together, as we have been already told by
Vasishtha, in the level wideness, from which the Dawn has descended with the
knowledge or, as it is here expressed, in the dawning of this vast One, that is to say, in
the infinite consciousness. There, as Vasishtha has said, they, united, agree in
knowledge and do not strive together, that is to say, the seven become as one, as is
indicated in another hymn; they become the one seven mouthed Angiras, an image
corresponding to that of the seven-headed thought, and it is this single unified Angiras
who makes all things true as the result of Sarama’s discovery (verse 7). The
harmonised, united, perfected Seer-Will corrects all falsehood and crookedness and
turns all thought, life, action into terms of the Truth. In this hymn also the action of
Sarama is precisely that of the Intuition which goes straight to the Truth by the straight
path of the Truth and not through the crooked paths of doubt and error and which
delivers the Truth out of the veil of darkness and false appearances; it is through the
illuminations discovered by her that the Seer-mind can attain to the complete revelation
of the Truth. The rest of the hymn speaks of the rising of the sevenhorsed Sun towards
his “field which spreads wide for him at the, end of the long journey”, the attainment of
the swift Bird to the Soma and of the young Seer to that field of the luminous cows, the
Sun’s ascent to the “luminous Ocean”, its crossing over it “like a ship guided by the
thinkers” and the descent upon man of the waters of that ocean in response to their
call. In those waters the sevenfold thought of the Angiras is established by the human
seer. If we remember that the Sun represents the light of the superconscient or truthconscious
knowledge and the luminous ocean the realms of the superconscient with
4 The thought-attaining powers of the Life as will appear hereafter.
their thrice seven seats of the Mother Aditi, the sense of these symbolic expressions5
will not be difficult to understand. It is the highest attainment of the supreme goal which
follows upon the complete achievement of the Angirases, their united ascent to the
plane of the Truth, just as that achievement follows upon the discovery of the herds by
Sarama.
Another hymn of great importance in this connection is the thirty-first of the third
Mandala, by Vishwamitra. “Agni (the Divine Force) is born quivering with his flame of
the offering for sacrifice to the great Sons of the Shining One (the Deva, Rudra); great is
the child of them, a vast birth; there is a great movement of the Driver of the shining
steeds (Indra, the Divine Mind) by the sacrifices. The conquering (dawns) cleave to him
in his struggle, they deliver by knowledge a great light out of the darkness; knowing the
Dawns rise up to him, Indra has become the one lord of the luminous cows. The cows
who were in the strong place (of the Panis) the thinkers clove out; by the mind the
seven seers set them moving forward (or upwards towards the supreme), they found
the entire path (goal or field of travel) of the Truth; knowing those (supreme seats of
the Truth) Indra by the obeisance entered into them.” This is, as usual, the great birth,
the great light, the great divine movement of the Truth knowledge with the finding of
the goal and the entry of the gods and the seers into the supreme planes above. Next
we have the part of Sarama in this work. “When Sarama found the broken place of the
hill, he (or perhaps she, Sarama) made continuous the great and supreme goal. She, the
fair-footed, led him to the front of the imperishable ones (the unslayable cows of the
Dawn); first she went, knowing, towards their cry.” It is again the Intuition that leads;
knowing, she speeds at once and in front of all towards the voice of the concealed
illuminations, towards the place where the hill so firmly formed and impervious in
appearance is broken and can admit the seekers.
The rest of the hymn continues to describe the achievement of the Angirases and Indra.
“He went, the greatest seer of them all, doing them friendship; the pregnant hill sent
forth its contents for the doer of perfect works; in the strength of manhood he with the
young (Angirases) seeking plenitude of riches attained possession, then singing the
hymn of light he became at once the Angiras. Becoming in our front the form and
measure of each existing thing, he knows all the births, he slays Shushna”; that is to
say, the Divine Mind assumes a form answering to each existing thing in the world and
reveals its true divine image and meaning and slays the false force that distorts
knowledge and action. “Seeker of the cows, traveller to the seat of heaven, singing the
hymns, he, the Friend, delivers his friends out of all defect (of right self-expression).
With a mind that sought the Light (the cows) they entered their seats by the illumining
words, making the path towards Immortality. This is that large seat of theirs, the Truth
by which they took possession of the months (the ten months of the Dashagwas).
Harmonised in vision (or, perfectly seeing) they rejoiced in their own (abode, Swar)
milking out the milk of the ancient seed (of things). Their cry (of the Word) heated all
5 It is in this sense that we can easily understand many now obscure
expressions of the
Veda, e.g. VIII.68.9, “May we conquer by thy aid in our battles the great wealth
in the
waters and the Sun,” apsu sūrye mahad dhanam.
the earth and heaven (created, that is to say, the burning clarity, gharma, taptaṃ
ghṛtam, which is the yield of the solar cows); they established in that which was born a
firm abiding and in the cows the heroes (that is, the battling force was established in the
light of the knowledge). “Indra, the Vritra-slayer, by those who were born (the sons of
the sacrifice), by the offerings, by the hymns of illumination released upward the shining
ones; the wide and delightful Cow (the cow Aditi, the vast and blissful higher
consciousness) bringing for him the sweet food, the honey mixed with the ghṛta, yielded
it as her milk. For this Father also (for Heaven) they fashioned the vast and shining
abode; doers of perfect works, they had the entire vision of it. Wide-upholding by their
support the Parents (Heaven and Earth) they sat in that high world and embraced all its
ecstasy. When for the cleaving away (of evil and falsehood) the vast Thought holds him
immediately increasing in his pervasion of earth and heaven,—then for Indra in whom
are the equal and faultless words, there are all irresistible energies. He has found the
great, manifold and blissful Field (the wide field of the cows, Swar); and he has sent
forth together all the moving herd for his friends. Indra shining out by the human souls
(the Angirases) has brought into being, together, the Sun, the Dawn, the Path and the
Flame.”
And in the remaining verses the same figures continue, with an intervention of the
famous image of the rain which has been so much misunderstood. “The Ancient-born I
make new that I may conquer. Do thou remove our many undivine hurters and set Swar
for our possessing. The purifying rains are extended before us (in the shape of the
waters); take us over to the state of bliss that is the other shore of them. Warring in thy
chariot protect us from the foe; soon, soon make us conquerors of the Cows. The Vritraslayer,
the Master of the Cows, showed (to men) the
cows; he has entered with his shining laws (or lustres) within those who are black (void
of light, like the Panis); showing the truths (the cows of truth) by the Truth he has
opened all his own doors;” that is to say, he opens the doors of his own world, Swar,
after breaking open by his entry into our darkness the “human doors” kept closed by the
Panis.