-20_The Second Sukta

The upward spirit, the conscious energising power, the aspiration-fire that resides at the root of all spiritual disci­plines as their fount and primal inspiration has been invoked in the first sukta. The present sukta throws light upon the different steps and rungs of that upward spiritual discipline.

The Vedic spiritual discipline aims at Truth, the Right and the Vast. The ordinary life consists of body, life and mind. The trivial work, the insignificant inspiration

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and enjoyment of life, the limited knowledge of the mind - man is aware of nothing beyond. But there is something above the body, life and mind. When one reaches that higher plane, one becomes full of truth-consciousness, that is to say, one owns the nature and the law of conduct of, the Gods. Body, life and mind stand in the way of the aspi­rant to the realm of the Gods. However, for that we are not to deny the existence of or do away with body, life and mind. What is actually needed is the purification and transforma­tion of these three instruments. There are three stages of pu­rification and transformation; accordingly the present sukta has been divided into three parts each containing three riks.

The first three riks deal with the purification and trans­formation of life-energy. Vayu is the presiding Deity of life-energy. Vayuh pranah (Vayu is life), says the Mundaka Upanishad. In the Rigveda too there is a clear indication of it. It says, pratnat vayurajayata (Vayu came into existence from the Supreme as Life). This Vayu or life energy is the raison d’être of all the activities of the ordinary human life. Life abounds with desires and enjoyments of earthly objects. The ordinary life is blind and ignorant. It hankers after the satisfaction of desires. It gets satisfaction even in fleeting pleasures. But what an aspirant needs in life is to taste the pure and unalloyed nectar which is the perpetual divine delight inherent in each object.

The Somarasa is the transcendental Delight, and this De­light is nothing rather than Immortality. It is also an im­mensely conscious and luminous exhilaration of the divine existence of the Gods. Truth must be revealed with the rhythm and words of direct knowledge, and the delight of the realised truth must be made manifest in life. Those who have done it are called "Aharvida". It means they have now the light of the day. No more do they crave for trivial enjoyments. All the parts of their being are vibrant, con­scious and filled with the immortal delight.

Luminous delight in profusion must be established in life.

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And for that the mind must first be purified and made perfect. Indra is the presiding Deity of pure and perfect mind. Indra gives pure intelligence and with that pure intelligence the aspirant establishes a pure enjoyment of the quintessence of truth, rich delight and fulfilment in life. Therefore in the second three riks Indra and Vayu are in- voked together.

The last three riks deal with the full realisation and the goal of the aspirant. When life is purified, when mind is purified, the aspirant will be established in that vast and luminous Heaven. Varuna is the presiding Deity of vastness. The harmony and the union that came into existence from the infinite expanse of Varuna are the gifts of Mitra. Lord Varuna removes the limitation, isolation and disunion of our ordinary knowledge. He tears away the hostile force that compels us to remain narrow and small. Hence -he is called Risadasam. And Mitra is our divine Guide. With his clear vision he unites all the objects together in perfect har­mony. When an aspirant attains to the level of indivisible harmony in the infinite, in the limitless, he arrives at the fundamental Truth and his action then becomes the in­fallible manifestation of that Truth. Indra possesses pure intelligence. Behind him stand the two powers of the Infinite Varuna and Mitra. It is they who have made intelligence full or Knowledge and Energy. They are also called poets, i.e., the seers of Truth. It is because of their infinite expanse, eternal rhythm, and inborn power of truth that the aspirant is able to draw the stupendous inspiration of energising power and an unobstructed pure genuine capacity to carry on all his activities in life.