Companion to Hymns to the Mystic Fire
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Companion to Hymns to the Mystic Fire Volume III Word by word construing in Sanskrit and English of Selected ‘Hymns of the Atris’ from the Rig-veda Compiled By Mukund Ainapure i Companion to Hymns to the Mystic Fire Volume III Word by word construing in Sanskrit and English of Selected ‘Hymns of the Atris’ from the Rig-veda Compiled by Mukund Ainapure • Original Sanskrit Verses from the Rig Veda cited in The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo Volume 16, Hymns to the Mystic Fire – Part II – Mandala 5 • Padpātha Sanskrit Verses after resolving euphonic combinations (sandhi) and the compound words (samās) into separate words • Sri Aurobindo’s English Translation matched word-by-word with Padpātha, with Explanatory Notes and Synopsis ii Companion to Hymns to the Mystic Fire – Volume III By Mukund Ainapure © Author All original copyrights acknowledged April 2020 Price: Complimentary for personal use / study Not for commercial distribution iii ॥ी अरिव)दचरणारिव)दौ॥ At the Lotus Feet of Sri Aurobindo iv Prologue Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for education. There he studied at St. Paul's School, London, and at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in Baroda College. In 1906, soon after the Partition of Bengal, Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he soon became one of the leaders of the Nationalist movement. He was the first political leader in India to openly put forward, in his newspaper Bande Mataram, the idea of complete independence for the country. Sri Aurobindo had begun the practice of Yoga in 1905 in Baroda. In 1908 he had the first of several fundamental spiritual realisations. In 1910 he withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in order to devote himself entirely to his inner spiritual life and work. During his forty years in Pondicherry he evolved a new method of spiritual practice, which he called the Integral Yoga. Its aim is a spiritual realisation that not only liberates man's consciousness but also transforms his nature. In 1926, with the help of his spiritual collaborator, the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Among his many writings are The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, The Secret of the Veda, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, Vedic and Philological Studies and Savitri. Sri Aurobindo left his body on 5 December 1950. The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo In 1997, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram began to publish the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA) in a uniform library edition. Each of the 36 published volumes can be viewed and downloaded in PDF format from www.sabda.in. Hymns to the Mystic Fire Volume 16 Hymns to the Mystic Fire (HMF) comprises Sri Aurobindo’s translations of and commentaries on hymns to Agni in the Rig Veda. It is divided into three parts: I - 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 Foreword and extracts from the essay “The Doctrine of the Mystics”. The earlier publication – Companion to Hymns to the Mystic Fire – Vol. I covered this part. II - 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. The earlier publication – Companion to Hymns to the Mystic Fire – Vol. II covered verses from Part II (Mandala 1, 3 & 4). This v publication covers verses (1-28) from Part II (Mandala 5). Remaining Mandalas will be covered in the forthcoming publication. III - Commentaries and Annotated Translations: Pieces from Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts in which he commented on hymns to Agni or provided annotated translations of them. These are extracted as ‘Explanatory Notes’, ‘Commentary’ or ‘Synopsis’ below the respective verses. Companion to Hymns to the Mystic Fire Companion to Hymns to the Mystic Fire is meant as an aid to the systematic study of Hymns to the Mystic Fire (Volume 16 – The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo - CWSA -, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry, 2013) for those interested in Sri Aurobindo’s mystical interpretation of the Veda. It provides the original Sanskrit verses (Riks) from the Rig Veda in Devanagari (without accents), translated and cited by Sri Aurobindo in Hymns to the Mystic Fire. The compiler has provided the Padpātha (in Devanagari as well as Roman Transcription) under each verse in which all euphonic combinations (sandhi) are resolved into the original and separate words and even the components of compound words (samās) indicated; and matched each Sanskrit word in the Padpātha with the corresponding English word in the Translation using superscripts. Footnotes, Explanatory Notes, and Synopsis of every Hymn based on Sri Aurobindo’s writings are given wherever available. The Appendix lists all the ‘Epithets’ of Agni from the Volume. In the Foreword to the first edition of Hymns to the Mystic Fire, (1946) Sri Aurobindo stated that “.…to establish on a scholastic basis the conclusions of the hypothesis (mystical interpretation) it would have been necessary to prepare an edition of the Rig-veda or of a large part of it with a word by word construing in Sanskrit and English, notes explanatory of important points in the text…..” This compilation series is a humble attempt in providing such ‘word by word construing in Sanskrit and English’ of selected verses of the Rig Veda with ‘explanatory notes’. Sri Aurobindo has said that - Throughout the Veda it is in the hymns which celebrate this strong and brilliant deity [Agni] that we find those which are the most splendid in poetic colouring, profound in psychological suggestion and sublime in their mystic intoxication (The Secret of the Veda, Vol.15 p.390). Hope the following pages provide a glimpse of the splendid, the profound and the sublime in these mystic hymns to this brilliant deity. Acknowledgements The compiler has relied on Volume 15 The Secret of the Veda (SV) and Volume 14 Vedic and Philological Studies (VPS) of the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry, 2013) for enlightenment at every step. The compiler is grateful for the elucidation provided by authoritative published works on Hymns to the Mystic Fire by Jagannath Vedalankar (Agni Mantra Maala - Hindi – Sri Aurobindo Society, 1976), by Acharya Abhaydev Vedalankar (Ved Rahasya Part III – Hindi – Pratapnidhi, 1948) and on the Rig Veda by A.B. Purani (Vedic Glossary, theveda.org.in) and T.V. Kapali Sastry (Collected Works of T.V. Kapali Sastry, Dipti Publications, 1981). vi CONTENTS PART TWO OTHER HYMNS TO AGNI MANDALA 5: THE ATRIS BUDHA AND GAVISHTHIRA Sukta 1 .............................................................................................................................................................................. 2 KUMARA ATREYA OR VRISHA JANA Sukta 2 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 19 VASUSHRUTA Sukta 3 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Sukta 4 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 36 Sukta 5 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 43 Sukta 6 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 50 ISHA Sukta 7 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 56 Sukta 8 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 62 GAYA Sukta 9 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 66 Sukta 10 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 70 SUTAMBHARA Sukta 11 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 88 Sukta 12 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 92 Sukta 13 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 96 Sukta 14 ..........................................................................................................................................................................