Hymns to the Mystic Fire

16 Hymns to the Mystic Fire VOLUME 16 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2013 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA Hymns To The Mystic Fire Publisher’s Note The present volume comprises Sri Aurobindo’s translations of and commentaries on hymns to Agni in the Rig Veda. It is divided into three parts: Hymns to the Mystic Fire: The entire contents of a book of this name that was published by Sri Aurobindo in 1946, consisting of selected hymns to Agni with a Fore- word and extracts from the essay “The Doctrine of the Mystics”. Other Hymns to Agni: Translations of hymns to Agni that Sri Aurobindo did not include in the edition of Hymns to the Mystic Fire published during his lifetime. An appendix to this part contains his complete translations of the first hymn of the Rig Veda, showing how his approach to translating the Veda changed over the years. Commentaries and Annotated Translations: Pieces from Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts in which he commented on hymns to Agni or provided annotated translations of them. Some translations of hymns addressed to Agni are included in The Secret of the Veda, volume 15 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. That volume consists of all Sri Aurobindo’s essays on and translations of Vedic hymns that appeared first in the monthly review Arya between 1914 and 1920. His writings on the Veda that do not deal primarily with Agni and that were not published in the Arya are collected in Vedic and Philological Studies, volume 14 of THE COMPLETE WORKS. The translations and other texts in this book have been checked against the relevant manuscript and printed materials. Guide to Editorial Notation Most of the material in Parts Two and Three of this volume was not prepared by Sri Aurobindo for publication. Some of it has been transcribed from manuscripts that present certain textual problems. These have been indicated by means of the notation shown below. Notation Textual Problem [note] Situations requiring textual explication; all such information is printed in italics. [ ] Blank left by the author to be filled in later but left unfilled, which the editors were not able to fill. [word] Word(s) omitted by the author or lost through damage to the manuscript that are required by grammar or sense, and that could be supplied by the editors. [......] Word(s) lost through damage to the manuscript. [?word] Doubtful reading. CONTENTS PART ONE HYMNS TO THE MYSTIC FIRE Foreword 3 The Doctrine of the Mystics 24 Hymns of Gritsamada Mandala Two — Suktas 1 – 10 31 Hymns of Bharadwaja Mandala Six — Suktas 1 – 16 53 Hymns of Parashara Mandala One — Suktas 65 – 73 93 Hymn of Paruchchhepa Mandala One — Sukta 127 109 PART TWO OTHER HYMNS TO AGNI Mandala One Madhuchchhandas Vaishwamitra Sukta 1 117 Medhatithi Kanwa Suktas 12 – 14 118 Shunahshepa Ajigarti Suktas 26 – 27 124 Kanwa Ghaura Sukta 36 128 Nodhas Gautama Suktas 58 – 60 133 CONTENTS Gotama Rahugana Suktas 74, 77 138 Kutsa Angirasa Suktas 94 – 97 141 Dirghatamas Auchathya Sukta 140 152 Mandala Three Vishwamitra Gathina Suktas 1 – 7, 9 – 12 156 Rishabha Vaishwamitra Suktas 13 – 14 185 Utkila Katya Suktas 15 – 16 188 Kata Vaishwamitra Suktas 17 – 18 192 Gathin Kaushika Suktas 19 – 22 194 Devashravas and Devavata Bharata Sukta 23 199 Vishwamitra Gathina Suktas 24 – 29 201 Mandala Four Vamadeva Gautama Suktas 1 – 15 213 Mandala Five: The Atris Budha and Gavishthira Sukta 1 252 Kumara Atreya or Vrisha Jana Sukta 2 255 Vasushruta Suktas 3 – 6 258 Isha Suktas 7 – 8 267 CONTENTS Gaya Suktas 9 – 10 271 Sutambhara Suktas 11 – 14 274 Dharuna Angirasa Sukta 15 279 Puru Suktas 16 – 17 281 Dwita Mriktavahas Sukta 18 283 Vavri Sukta 19 284 The Prayaswats Sukta 20 285 Sasa Sukta 21 286 Vishwasaman Sukta 22 287 Dyumna Vishwacharshani Sukta 23 288 Gaupayanas or Laupayanas Sukta 24 289 Vasuyus Suktas 25 – 26 290 Tryaruna Traivrishna, Trasadasyu Paurukutsya, Ashwamedha Bharata Sukta 27 293 Vishwavara Sukta 28 295 Mandala Seven Vasishtha Maitravaruni Suktas 1 – 17 297 CONTENTS Mandala Eight Vatsa Kanwa Sukta 11 329 Sobhari Kanwa Sukta 19 331 Vishwamanas Vaiyashwa Sukta 23 338 Shyavashwa Atreya Sukta 38 343 Nabhaka Kanwa Suktas 39 – 40 345 Virupa Angirasa Suktas 43 – 44 351 Bharga Pragatha Sukta 60 362 Suditi and Purumilha Angirasa Sukta 71 366 Haryata Pragatha Sukta 72 369 Gopavana Atreya Sukta 74 372 Virupa Angirasa Sukta 75 375 Ushanas Kavya Sukta 84 378 Prayoga Bhargava Sukta 102 380 Sobhari Kanwa Sukta 103 384 Mandala Ten Trita Aptya Suktas 1 – 7 388 Trishiras Twashtra Sukta 8 399 CONTENTS Havirdhana Angi Suktas 11 – 12 401 Vimada Aindra or Prajapatya or Vasukrit Vasukra Suktas 20 – 21 406 Vatsapri Bhalandana Suktas 45 – 46 410 Devas and Agni Sauchika Sukta 51 415 Sumitra Vadhryashwa Suktas 69 – 70 417 Agni Sauchika or Vaishwanara or Sapti Vajambhara Suktas 79 – 80 422 Payu Bharadwaja Sukta 87 426 Aruna Vaitahavya Sukta 91 431 Jamadagni Bhargava or Rama Jamadagnya Sukta 110 435 Upastuta Varshtihavya Sukta 115 437 Chitramahas Vasishtha Sukta 122 440 Agni Pavaka Sukta 140 442 Mridika Vasishtha Sukta 150 443 Ketu Agneya Sukta 156 444 Vatsa Agneya Sukta 187 445 Samvanana Angirasa Sukta 191 446 CONTENTS Appendix to Part Two Translations of the First Hymn of the Rig Veda 451 PART THREE COMMENTARIES AND ANNOTATED TRANSLATIONS Mandala One 465 Mandala Two 603 Mandala Three 610 Mandala Four 632 Mandala Five 701 Mandala Six 731 Mandala Seven 743 NOTE ON THE TEXTS 745 Sri Aurobindo, 1950 HMF Part One Hymns to the Mystic Fire Hymns to Agni from the Rig Veda Translated in their Esoteric Sense Foreword N ANCIENT times the Veda was revered as a sacred book of wisdom, a great mass of inspired poetry, the work of IRishis, seers and sages, who received in their illumined minds rather than mentally constructed a great universal, eternal and impersonal Truth which they embodied in Mantras, revealed verses of power, not of an ordinary but of a divine inspiration and source. The name given to these sages was Kavi, which afterwards came to mean any poet, but at the time had the sense of a seer of truth, — the Veda itself describes them as kavayah. satyasrutah´ . , “seers who are hearers of the Truth” and the Veda itself was called sruti´ ,awordwhichcametomean“revealed Scripture”. The seers of the Upanishad had the same idea about the Veda and frequently appealed to its authority for the truths they themselves announced and these too afterwards came to be regarded as Sruti, revealed Scripture, and were included in the sacred Canon. This tradition persevered in the Brahmanas and continued to maintain itself in spite of the efforts of the ritualistic com- mentators, Yajnikas, to explain everything as myth and rite and the division made by the Pandits distinguishing the section of works, Karmakanda, and the section of Knowledge, Jnanakanda, identifying the former with the hymns and the latter with the Upanishads. This drowning of the parts of Knowledge by the parts of ceremonial works was strongly criticised in one of the Upanishads and in the Gita, but both look on the Veda as a Book of Knowledge. Even, the Sruti including both Veda and Upanishad was regarded as the supreme authority for spiritual knowledge and infallible. Is this all legend and moonshine, or a groundless and even nonsensical tradition? Or is it the fact that there is only a scanty element of higher ideas in some later hymns which started this 4 Hymns to the Mystic Fire theory? Did the writers of the Upanishads foist upon the Riks a meaning which was not there but read into it by their imagina- tion or a fanciful interpretation? Modern European scholarship insists on having it so. And it has persuaded the mind of modern India. In favour of this view is the fact that the Rishis of the Veda were not only seers but singers and priests of sacrifice, that their chants were written to be sung at public sacrifices and refer constantly to the customary ritual and seem to call for the outward objects of these ceremonies, wealth, prosperity, victory over enemies. Sayana, the great commentator, gives us a ritualistic and where necessary a tentatively mythical or historical sense to the Riks, very rarely does he put forward any higher meaning though sometimes he lets a higher sense come through or puts it as an alternative as if in despair of finding out some ritualistic or mythical interpretation. But still he does not reject the spiritual authority of the Veda or deny that there is a higher truth contained in the Riks. This last development was left to our own times and popularised by occidental scholars. The European scholars took up the ritualistic tradition, but for the rest they dropped Sayana overboard and went on to make their own etymological explanation of the words, or build up their own conjectural meanings of the Vedic verses and give a new presentation often arbitrary and imaginative. What they sought for in the Veda was the early history of India, its society, institutions, customs, a civilisation-picture of the times. They invented the theory based on the difference of languages of an Aryan invasion from the north, an invasion of a Dravidian India of which the Indians themselves had no memory or tradition and of which there is no record in their epic or classical literature. The Vedic religion was in this account only a worship of Nature- Gods full of solar myths and consecrated by sacrifices and a sacrificial liturgy primitive enough in its ideas and contents, and it is these barbaric prayers that are the much vaunted, haloed and apotheosized Veda.

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