The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

The Foundations of the Psychological Theory 39
immediate intention of a close or serious study. It did not take
long to see that the Vedic indications of a racial division between
Aryans and Dasyus and the identification of the latter
with the indigenous Indians were of a far flimsier character than
I had supposed. But far more interesting to me was the discovery
of a considerable body of profound psychological thought and
experience lying neglected in these ancient hymns. And the importance
of this element increased in my eyes when I found, first,
that the mantras of the Veda illuminated with a clear and exact
light psychological experiences of my own for which I had found
no sufficient explanation either in European psychology or in the
teachings of Yoga or of Vedanta, so far as I was acquainted with
them, and, secondly, that they shed light on obscure passages
and ideas of the Upanishads to which, previously, I could attach
no exact meaning and gave at the same time a new sense to
much in the Puranas.
I was helped in arriving at this result by my fortunate ignorance
of the commentary of Sayana. For I was left free to
attribute their natural psychological significance to many ordinary
and current words of the Veda, such as dhī, thought or
understanding, manas, mind, mati, thought, feeling or mental
state, manīs. ā, intellect, r.tam, truth; to give their exact shades
of sense to kavi, seer, manīs. ī, thinker, vipra, vipa´scit, enlightened
in mind, and a number of similar words; and to hazard a
psychological sense, justified by more extensive study, for words
like daks.a which for Sayana means strength and ´sravas which he
renders as wealth, food or fame. The psychological theory of the
Veda rests upon our right to concede their natural significance
to these vocables.
Sayana gives to the words dhī, r.tam, etc., very variable
significances. R. tam, which is almost the key-word of any psychological
or spiritual interpretation, is rendered by him sometimes
as “truth”, more often “sacrifice”, occasionally in the sense of
water. The psychological interpretation gives it invariably the
sense of Truth. Dhī is rendered by Sayana variously “thought”,
“prayer”, “action”, “food”, etc. The psychological interpretation
gives it consistently the sense of thought or understanding.