The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

Chapter XV
The Lost Sun and the Lost Cows
THE CONQUEST or recovery of the Sun and the Dawn
is a frequent subject of allusion in the hymns of the Rig
Veda. Sometimes it is the finding of Surya, sometimes
the finding or conquest of Swar, the world of Surya. Sayana,
indeed, takes the word Swar as a synonym of Surya; but it is
perfectly clear from several passages that Swar is the name of a
world or supreme Heaven above the ordinary heaven and earth.
Sometimes indeed it is used for the solar light proper both to
Surya and to the world which is formed by his illumination.
We have seen that the waters which descend from Heaven or
which are conquered and enjoyed by Indra and the mortals who
are befriended by him, are described as svarvatīr apah. . Sayana,
taking these apah. for physical waters, was bound to find another
meaning for svarvatīh. and he declares that it means saran. avatīh. ,
moving; but this is obviously a forced sense which the word itself
does not suggest and can hardly bear. The thunderbolt of Indra
is called the heavenly stone, svaryam a´smānam; itslight,thatis
to say, is the light from this world of the solar splendours. Indra
himself is svarpati, the master of Swar, of the luminous world.
Moreover, as we see that the finding and recovery of the
Cows is usually described as the work of Indra, often with the aid
of the Angiras Rishis and by the instrumentality of the mantra
and the sacrifice, of Agni and Soma, so also the finding and
recovery of the sun is attributed to the same agencies. Moreover
the two actions are continually associated together. We have, it
seems to me, overwhelming evidence in the Veda itself that all
these things constitute really one great action of which they are
parts. The Cows are the hidden rays of the Dawn or of Surya;
their rescue out of the darkness leads to or is the sign of the
uprising of the sun that was hidden in the darkness; this again
is the condition, always with the instrumentality of the sacrifice,