The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

Chapter VII
Varuna-Mitra and the Truth
IF THE idea of the Truth that we have found in the very
opening hymn of the Veda really carries in itself the contents
we have supposed and amounts to the conception of a
supramental consciousness which is the condition of the state of
immortality or beatitude and if this be the leading conception of
the Vedic Rishis, we are bound to find it recurring throughout
the hymns as a centre for other and dependent psychological
realisations. In the very next Sukta, the second hymn of Madhuchchhandas
addressed to Indra and Vayu, we find another passage
full of clear and this time quite invincible psychological
suggestions in which the idea of the Ritam is insisted upon with
an even greater force than in the hymn to Agni. The passage
comprises the last three Riks of the Sukta.
Mitra ˙m huve pūtadaks.a ˙m, varun. a ˙m cari´sādasam;
dhiya ˙m ghr.tācī ˙m sādhantā.
R. tena mitrāvarun. āv, r.tāvr.dhāv r.taspr. ´sā;
kratu ˙m br.hantam ā´sāthe.
Kavī nomitrāvarun. ā, tuvijātā uruks.ayā;
daks.a ˙m dadhāte apasam.
In the first Rik of this passage we have the word daks.a
usually explained by Sayana as strength, but capable of a psychological
significance, the important word ghr.ta in the adjectival
form ghr.tācī and the remarkable phrase dhiya ˙m ghr.tācīm. The
verse may be translated literally “I invoke Mitra of purified
strength (or, purified discernment) and Varuna destroyer of our
foes perfecting (or accomplishing) a bright understanding.”
In the second Rik we have Ritam thrice repeated and the
words br.hat and kratu, to both of which we have attached a considerable
importance in the psychological interpretation of the
Veda. Kratu here may mean either work of sacrifice or effective