The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

The Lost Sun and the Lost Cows 153
illumining, finding, bringing to birth of the light out of the darkness
by the true hymn, the satya mantra. This is done by Indra
and the Angirases, and numerous are the passages that allude
to it. Indra and the Angirases are described as finding Swar or
the Sun, avindat, illumining or making it to shine, arocayat,
bringing it to birth, ajanayat, (we must remember that in the
Veda the manifestation of the gods in the sacrifice is constantly
described as their birth); and winning and possessing it, sanat.
Often indeed Indra alone is mentioned. It is he who makes light
from the nights and brings into birth the Sun, ks.apā ˙m vastā
janitā sūryasya (III.49.4), he who has brought to their birth the
Sun and the Dawn (II.12.7), or, in a more ample phrase, brings
to birth together the Sun and Heaven and Dawn (VI.30.5). By
his shining he illumines the Dawn, by his shining he makes to
blaze out the sun, haryann us.asam arcayah. sūrya ˙m haryann
arocayah. (III.44.2). These are his great achievements, jajāna
sūryam us.asa ˙m suda ˙msāh. (III.32.8), that with his shining comrades
he wins for possession the field (is this not the field in which
the Atri saw the shining cows?), wins the sun, wins the waters,
sanat ks.etra ˙m sakhibhih. ´svitnyebhih. sanat sūrya ˙m sanad apah.
suvajrah. (I.100.18). He is also he who winneth Swar, svars. ā,as
we have seen, by bringing to birth the days. In isolated passages
we might take this birth of the Sun as referring to the original
creation of the sun by the gods, but not when we take these and
other passages together. This birth is his birth in conjunction
with the Dawn, his birth out of the Night. It is by the sacrifice
that this birth takes place, — indrah. suyajña us.asah. svar janat
(II.21.4), “Indra sacrificing well brought to birth the Dawns and
Swar”; it is by human aid that it is done, — asmākebhir nr.bhih.
sūrya ˙m sanat, by our “men” he wins the sun (I.100.6); and in
many hymns it is described as the result of the work of the
Angirases and is associated with the delivering of the cows or
the breaking of the hill.
It is this circumstance among others that prevents us from
taking, as we might otherwise have taken, the birth or finding of
the Sun as simply a description of the sky (Indra) daily recovering
the sun at dawn. When it is said of him that he finds the light