-07_The Bride of Brahman

 

RIGVEDA

 Mandala X: Sukta 109

 

(1)

 

      OF the stain in Brahman the first to speak were: God Varuna the Vast (shoreless), the Wind-God Matarishvan, Vayu, who blows away even a stronghold,

The violent God, Agni, the Goddess Water (Apah), mother of Delight: these are the first-born by their power of Truth.

 

(2)

 

King Soma was the first to lead out Brahman's bride once again, – he had no hesitation.

Varuna and Mitra followed suit. And Agni as the su­preme priest took her hand and led on.

 

(3)

 

“You can seize her body by the hand, she is the bride of Brahman”, they said:

"She was not meant for the missioned messenger; ever she is protected even like the kingdom of a king."

 

(4)

 

Of this the ancients spoke, the seven seers engaged in tapas.

 

The mighty bride stood by the side of the Brahmana, He who has the divine Word: she takes up and places the den­sest material into the highest heaven.

 

(5)

 

One who lives and moves in Brahman enters into all the domains and becomes one limbed with all the Gods.

The Master of the Word followed in that way and found the Supreme bride led by the God Soma, even as the Gods found and possessed the oblation.

 

(6)

 

Once again the Gods gave away and men also

And royal beings also who create the Truth gave back to Brahman his bride.

 

(7)

 

The bride of Brahman is given back to him, made stainless by the Gods.     

It is for the mighty fulfilment of earth that they have taken their seat near unto the vast-ranging Divine-Sun.

 

NOTE

 

It is the story of Redemption of Maya, the Lower Nature (Apara Prakriti), its purification or uplifting into the higher Divine Nature (Para Prakriti). The question is always asked how did Maya enter into and possess Brahman, how did darkness envelope and eclipse Light? It was the result of a separation, a rift between Brahman and his Shakti. Originally it was one unique indivisible Reality. But this rift came and the Supreme Prakriti was thrown down into

 

the ignorance of densest matter (and the Supreme Brahman went off into mere Sat or Asat, Shunyam). 

 

The Rishi says here that this fall and eclipse was for a greater Rising, this eclipse was for a supreme Revelation. It is for a sovereign Fulfilment, a mighty Enjoyment (urjam prthivya bhaktvaya) of earth, upon earth. The Rishi speaks of how the ignorant dark material nature is raised, trans­muted step by step into the supreme nature and unified with the Supreme Reality, Brahman. The agents, the powers that help and operate the process are the high Gods who belong to the Super-nature, God's own pure nature. The principal Gods mentioned here are Varuna which means Infinite Consciousness, Mitra, Supreme Harmony and Love, Agni, the Fiery Force of ascension or Tapas, Soma, the supreme Delight and Vayu, the Lord of the vital who breaks down all barriers and difficulties and forges on. Now the pro­cess of redemption is a sacrificial journey, the image of the progressive forward and upward march of the consciousness profusely described in the Vedas and so dear to the Rishis. The process here described is also a process of re-marriage. Brahman's dark bride is the fallen dark Nature: She is being taken back to him led by the Gods, each bringing his own gift and pouring into and securing the ascent and Redemp­tion. In secular marriage seven steps are spoken of which the couple has to take and go forward towards the complete union. Here the bride is made to take three major steps, and at each step she is married to a higher and diviner mode of being. The first transformation is done when she is united with Brahmana.

Brahmana is Brahman as the Divine Word, the expres­sion or embodiment of the soul-truth. In the ordinary nor­mal path of sadhana, it is the stage when one has got the mantra and inner initiation, and starts on the journey. The Divine Bride has now the firm stand and reveals herself as the mighty traveller on the path; even the basest material she can handle and turn into the divine stuff.

 

Thenceforth one is living and moving in Brahman – is Brahmachari in active life: it is the Brahman-consciousness that expresses itself in all movements. That is the stage where the Shakti arrives: she is now one with all the Gods and she enters into all their domains and movements, she becomes universalised. Finally the Divine aspirant is not only the possessor but the master of the Word, Brahmanas­pati or Brihaspati, the embodiment of the vast dynamic Truth. Now on there is no shade of darkness or eclipse here in the being or consciousness; the Bride is one with the Brahman and regains her original unity and identity with the Supreme.

This separation and division is a play through which a higher union is effected – a panorama of gradual mani­festation of the infinite riches that Brahman enshrines in his bosom. The creation of inconscient earth and material nature has to be accepted so that nature is purified and re­created and a divine race of beings is established upon earth for a richer and a glorious fulfilment here below.