The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

310 Selected Hymns
the nervous activity, is only a first condition of the emergent
Mind. And for man it is the meeting of Life with Mind and the
support given by the former to the evolution of the latter which is
the important aspect of Vayu. Therefore we find Indra, Master
of Mind, and Vayu, Master of Life, coupled together and the
latter always somewhat dependent on the former; the Maruts,
the thought-forces, although in their origin they seem to be as
much powers of Vayu as of Indra, are more important to the
Rishis than Vayu himself and even in their dynamic aspect are
more closely associated with Agni Rudra than with the natural
chief of the legions of the Air.
The present hymn, the forty-eighth of the Mandala, is the
last of three in which Vamadeva invokes Indra and Vayu for
the drinking of the Soma-wine. They are called in conjointly as
the two lords of brilliant force, ´savasaspatī, as in another hymn,
in a former Mandala, they are invoked as lords of thought,
dhiyaspatī. Indra is the master of mental force, Vayu of nervous
or vital force and their union is necessary for thought and for
action. They are invited to come in one common chariot and
drink together of the wine of the Ananda which brings with
it the divinising energies. Vayu, it is said, has the right of the
first draught; for it is the supporting vital forces that must first
become capable of the ecstasy of the divine action.
In the third hymn, in which the result of the sacrifice is
defined, Vayu is alone invoked, but even so his companionship
with Indra is clearly indicated. He is to come in a chariot of
happy brightness, like Usha in another hymn, to drink of the immortalising
wine. 1 The chariot symbolises movement of energy
and it is a glad movement of already illuminated vital energies
that is invoked in the form of Vayu. The divine utility of this
brightly happy movement is indicated in the first three verses.
The god is to manifest — he is to bring into the light of the
conscious activity sacrificial energies which are not yet manifested,
2 are yet hidden in the darkness of the subconscient. In
1 Vāyavā candren. a rathena yāhi sutasya pītaye.
2 Vihi hotrā avītā.