The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

168 The Secret of the Veda
It has to be won possession of like the Sun itself and the gods
have to give their aid for that possession (arkasya sātau) aswell
as for the possession of the Sun (sūryasya sātau) and of Swar
(svars. ātau).
The Angiras, therefore, is not only an Agni-power, he is
also a Brihaspati-power. Brihaspati is called more than once the
Angirasa, as in VI.73.1, yo adribhit prathamajār.tāvābr.haspatir
ā ˙ngiraso havis.mān, “Brihaspati, breaker of the hill (the cave of
the Panis), the first-born who has the Truth, the Angirasa, he
of the oblation.” And in X.47.6 we have a still more significant
description of Brihaspati as the Angirasa; pra saptagum
r.tadhīti ˙m sumedhā ˙m br.haspati ˙m matir acchā jigāti ya ā ˙ngiraso
namasā upasadyah. . “The thought goes towards Brihaspati the
seven-rayed, the truth-thinking, the perfect intelligence, who is
the Angirasa, to be approached with obeisance.” In II.23.18,
also, Brihaspati is addressed as Angiras in connection with the
release of the cows and the release of the waters; “For the glory
of thee the hill parted asunder when thou didst release upward
the pen of the cows; with Indra for ally thou didst force out, O
Brihaspati, the flood of the waters which was environed by the
darkness.” We may note in passing how closely the release of the
waters, which is the subject of the Vritra legend, is associated
with the release of the cows which is the subject of the legend
of the Angiras Rishis and the Panis and that both Vritra and the
Panis are powers of the darkness. The cows are the light of the
Truth, the true illumining sun, satya ˙mtad...sūryam;thewaters
released from the environing darkness of Vritra are called sometimes
the streams of the Truth, r.tasya dhārāh. and sometimes
svarvatīr apah. , the waters of Swar, the luminous solar world.
We see then that the Angiras is in the first place a power
of Agni the seer-will; he is the seer who works by the light, by
the knowledge; he is a flame of the puissance of Agni, the great
force that is born into the world to be the priest of the sacrifice
and the leader of the journey, the puissance which the gods
are said by Vamadeva (IV.1) to establish here as the Immortal in
mortals, the energy that does the great work (arati). In the second
place, he is a power or at least has the power of Brihaspati, the