The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

Varuna-Mitra and the Truth 71
power. In favour of the former sense we have a similar passage
in the Veda in which Varuna and Mitra are said to attain to or
enjoy by the Truth a mighty sacrifice, yajña ˙m br.hantam ā´sāthe.
But this parallel is not conclusive; for while in one expression
it is the sacrifice itself that is spoken of, in the other it may
be the power or strength which effects the sacrifice. The verse
may be translated, literally, “By Truth Mitra and Varuna, truthincreasing,
truth-touching, enjoy (or, attain) a mighty work” or
“a vast (effective) power.”
Finally in the third Rik we have again daks.a; we have the
word kavi, seer, already associated by Madhuchchhandas with
kratu, work or will; we have the idea of the Truth, and we
have the expression uruks.aya, whereuru, wide or vast, may be
an equivalent for br.hat, thevast,whichisusedtodescribethe
world or plane of the truth-consciousness, the “own home” of
Agni. I translate the verse, literally, “For us Mitra and Varuna,
seers, multiply-born, wide-housed, uphold the strength (or, discernment)
that does the work.”
It will at once be evident that we have in this passage of
the second hymn precisely the same order of ideas and many
of the same expressions as those on which we founded ourselves
in the first Sukta. But the application is different and
the conceptions of the purified discernment, the richly-bright
understanding, dhiya ˙m ghr.tācīm, and the action of the Truth in
the work of the sacrifice, apas, introduce certain fresh precisions
which throw further light on the central ideas of the Rishis.
The word daks.a, which alone in this passage admits of some
real doubt as to its sense, is usually rendered by Sayana strength.
It comes from a root which, like most of its congeners, e.g. da´s,
di´s, dah, suggested originally as one of its characteristic significances
an aggressive pressure and hence any form of injury,
but especially dividing, cutting, crushing or sometimes burning.
Many of the words for strength had originally this idea of a
force for injury, the aggressive strength of the fighter and slayer,
the kind of force most highly prized by primitive man making
a place for himself by violence on the earth he had come to
inherit. We see this connection in the ordinary Sanskrit word for