The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

236 The Secret of the Veda
bull they were cast out, they came to know what was Indra
and fled from him down the slopes. O Indra, thou foughtest
them who laughed and wept on the other side of the mid-world
(rajasah. pāre, i.e. on the borders of heaven); thou didst burn
down the Dasyu out of heaven from on high, thou didst foster the
expression of him who affirms thee and gives the Soma. Making
the circle of the earth, they shone in the light of the golden gem
(an image for the Sun); but for all their rushing they could not
pass beyond Indra, for he set spies all around by the Sun. When
thou possessedst earth and heaven all around with thy vastness,
O Indra, by the speakers of the word (brahmabhir) thou didst
cast out the Dasyu, attacking those who can think not (the
Truth) by those who think, amanyamānān abhi manyamānaih. .
They attained not to the end of heaven and earth; Indra, the
bull, made the lightning his helper, by the Light he milked the
shining cows out of the darkness.”
The battle takes place not on earth but on the other shore
of the Antariksha, the Dasyus are driven out of heaven by the
flames of the thunderbolt, they circle round the earth and are cast
out of both heaven and earth; for they can find no place in either
heaven or earth, all being now full of the greatness of Indra, nor
can conceal themselves anywhere from his lightnings because
the Sun with its rays gives him spies whom he sets all round
and in the brightness of those rays the Panis are discovered.
This can be no description of an earthly battle between Aryan
and Dravidian tribes; neither can the lightning be the physical
lightning since that has nothing to do with the destruction of the
powers of Night and the milking of the cows of the Dawn out
of the darkness. It is clear then that these non-sacrificers, these
haters of the word who are incompetent even to think it are not
any human enemies of the Aryan cult. They are the powers that
strive for possession of heaven and earth in man himself; they
are demons and not Dravidians.
It is noteworthy that they strive, but fail to attain the “limit
of earth and heaven”; we may suppose that these powers seek
without the word or the sacrifice to attain to the higher world
beyond earth and heaven which can be conquered only by the