Rig-Veda __________ Veda is eternal (ina%yama\), unperceivable (Ad`oSyama\), all pervading (ivaBauma\), all-comprehensive (sava-gatma\), exceedingly subtle (sausaUxmama\), un-decaying (Avyayama\), without beginning (Anaaid) and without end (Anantma\) entirety of Wisdom (iva&anaGanama\) through receptivity (Eawa), reflection (mantvyama\) and constant meditation (inaiQaqyaaisatvyama\). It is what Dr. Whitehead designates ‘as something which is real and yet waiting to be realized; something which is remote possibility and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet alludes apprehension; something whose possession is the final good and yet beyond all reach; something which is ultimate ideal and the hopeless quest’ (Science and the Modern World). Veda is Wisdom of the unknown and not the Knowledge of the known. The vedic scriptures are the aggregate &ana, Knowledge of fragments of Wisdom ‘seen’, ‘heard’, experienced through mediation and action - ‘yaaina man~oYau kmaa-iNa kvayaao ApSyana\’ by different seers, during different periods, in different places and expressed in mystical language without human effort ‘puruYap`ya%naivanaa p`kiTtBaUt’. The hymns are known as Cndsa\, that which conceals – Cndiyait to Cndsa\ because they are recorded in mystical language. Wisdom is constant and continuous awareness like an ocean, vast, deep yet ever turbulent; whereas Knowledge is momentary and transient like a river, not independent of the ocean from which it is sourced, ever in motion, sometimes concealed and sometimes revealed, no part lost though appearing as lost, ever changing in forms and names, perceptions, views, opinions and expressions. Wisdom is supernal, immutable, eternal, universal - kalaatIt, transcending Time; Knowledge is Time bound by and circumscribed by impression, perceptions, ideas, memories of the Past, influencing the Present and creating aspirations in the Future. To reach out to Wisdom, philosophy uses Knowledge as its foot stool, to take a leap from the known to the unknown. One needs to be receptive, reflective and meditative of Knowledge to have access to Wisdom, which then reveals in the present moment in solitude of silence, in fraction of a moment, the past having died and the future not yet born. Knowledge can never be a substitute for Wisdom, because part can never be the whole. One has to wipe out the last vestiges of Knowledge if one has to be wise of Wisdom. When Wisdom dawns, Knowledge ceases to be effective, even as the stick used to stir fire on the funeral pyre becomes useless once the body is reduced to the ashes. There is much difference between what one experiences spiritually and what one expresses empirically. No prudent man would ever aver that vedic scriptures in themselves represent sa%ya, at best they speak about sa%ya, validating the statement - ‘ekM sad\ ivap`a bahuQaa vadaint’. ?iYa is not the author of the hymns but the ‘seer’ ‘dRYTa’ of the Prime Existence as impersonal wisdom. The vedic hymns are also known as ‘Eauit’, because they are heard in revelation of the pra vaak\ , supreme speech, seeping from the inner source of the heart and passing through layers of the mind. Through words, terms and figures used by Seers, one substratum of all that is communicated is maintained by them, some giving voice to rich, subtle and profound while others may in language which is ordinary and conventional in sense. Yet as pointed out by Sri Aurobindo “. we have the same firm foundation of knowledge and the same scrupulous adherence to the sacred conventions of the Initiates”. The seers 3 and prophets claim to reiterate to the new generation the Wisdom which has become obscure due to diversity of perceptions, using new vocabulary, new symbols and practices relevant to the times when they are called upon to do speak, re-establishing the balance and concordance between what the new generations know and what they should be aware of. In vedic scriptures, therefore, there is nothing absolute in expression, idea, concept, view or opinion recorded in hymns, though claims are made the vedic scriptures represent nothing short of truth. Therefore, no one can blame if there appears seeming divergence in hymns which are but attempts to express the supra-sensory experiences, since every expression depends to lesser or greater degree on the receptivity of the Seer and his ability to express and communicate the experience, through language which is primarily and predominantly the speech of common masses. It is one thing to experience and quite another to give expression to that experience, since what flashes in mind can rarely be expressed in Speech. Therefore, seers keep their organs of sense as well as those of action well equipped, well energized and well disposed to be receptive to the resonance of the eternal sound - !. ‘iva mao kNaa- ptyatao iva vaxau:iva- [dM jyaaoit)-dya AaihtM yat\ | iva mao manaSvarit dUrAaiQa: ikM isvad\ vaxyaaima ikmau naU mainaYyao ||’ – Keeping his ears open to hear, my eyes to see the light within my self which shines beyond; my mind roams with thoughts afar, what shall I speak, verily, what shall I think? ‘va`tona dIxaMa AaPnaaoit, dIxayaaPnaaoit dixaaama\ | dixaNaa EawaM AaPnaaoit, Eawyaa sa%yaM AaPyato ||’ (Yajurveda.19.30) - it is through self-discipline that one attains consecration; through consecration one attains benevolence, through benevolence one becomes receptive and through receptivity does the Primal Existence become luminous. ‘ivaSvaodoto jainamaa saM ivaiva>ao mahao dovaana\ ibaBa`t Ina vyaqaoto | ejad\ qa`uvaM p%yato ivaSvamaokM cart\ pti~ ivaYauNaM iva jaatma\ || sanaa puraNamaQyaomyaaranmah: iptuja-inajaa-ima tnna: | dovaasaao ya~ pinatar eavaO$raoO piqa vyato tsqaurnt: ||’ (III.54.8-9) – All living creatures part and also keep themselves asunder, though bearing the mighty god within they are not confused. One common is the Lord of what is constant and one what is moving that walks, that flies this multitude of creation. I ponder over the ancient person and find kinship with the mighty Lord our father, singing whose praises the divinities stand duly around on the spacious and expansive pathway. ‘]Yasa: pUvaa- AQa yad\ vyaUYauma-hd\ iva ja&o AcarM pdo gaao: | va`ta dovaanaamaup nau p`BaUYana\ mahd\ dovaanaamasaur%vamaokma\ || maao Yau Naao A~ jauhurnt dovaa maa pUvao- Agnao iptr: pd&a: | puraNyaao: sad\manaaio: koturntma-hd\ dovaanaamasaur%vamaokma\ || iva mao pu$~a ptyaint kamaa: SamyacCa dIVo pUvyaa- iNa | saimawo AgnaavaRtimad\ vadoma mahd\ dovaanaamasaur%vamaokma\ ||’ (III.55.1-3) – Prior to the time it dawned, in the luminous enlightened home was born the great Immutable. Now will the divine statutes be validated? Great is the God’s supreme and sole dominion. Let not the Gods here injure us, O Agni, nor the ancient fathers who know that abode. Nor the sign b fixed between the two ancient dwelling places. Great is the God’s supreme and sole dominion. My thoughts fly to far off places, as I glance over the ancient acts performed. Let us declare even as the energy is kindled in us, great is the God’s supreme and sole dominion. In ancient civilizations we see similarities in spiritual perceptions. In ancient Egypt, while Siduri asks Gilgamesh,‘ . Whither are you wandering? Life, which you look for, you will never find, for when the gods created man, they let death be his share and life. they withheld in their own hands’ in later Pyramid Texts we find men of wisdom speaking of the time, ‘When heaven had not yet come into existence, when men had not yet come into existence, when gods had not yet been born, when death had not yet come into existence . .’ We find the symbolism k: ihrNyagaBa- used in the vedic scriptures also used by Egyptians as the alter-ego of the guardian spirit: ‘Thou didst spit what was Shu; thou didst sputter out what was Tefnut ; Thou didst put thy arms about them as the arms of a ka, for thy ka was in them’. The Sun-god Atum is said to have created the names which symbolized the different parts of his body, ‘thus arose these gods who are in his following’. Mesopotamians saw the powers of nature as awe inspiring and Cosmos as order and not anarchy, not as something given but something attained, through continual integration of many individual cosmic wills, powerful and frightening, which therefore, need to be integrated in terms of social order, family, community and the state. They spoke of the time: ‘In the days of yore, the days when the sky had been separated from earth, in the nights of yore, and the nights when sky had been separated from earth. .’ Sumerian records spoke of the time, ‘When a sky above had not yet been mentioned, The name of the firm ground below had not yet been thought of, When only primeval Apsu, their begetter, and Mummu 4 and Tiamat – she who gave birth to them all were mingling their waters in one ; when no fog was found and no island could be found ; when no god whosoever had appeared or had been named by name, had been determined as to his lot, then their gods formed within them . .’ The Book of the Dead speaks of the creator god, ‘I am Atum when I was alone in Nun (the primordial waters); I am Re in his first appearances when he began to rule that which he has made. What does that mean? This ‘Re’ when he began to rule that which he had made, means that Re began to appear as a King, as one who existed before (the air god) Shu had (even) lifted (heaven and earth), when he (Re) was on the primeval hillock which was in Hermopolis, the place where there were some gods were in being before the creation’.