The Vedas, at the highest level, stands for the concept of supramental consciousness which leads the devotee to immortality and beatitude, but at lower levels, it wishes the individual to get the first hand acquaintance with the ever changing dynamic world in which the soul has been placed in an ever changing and highly complex corporeal system of sheaths (annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya). Let us first take Yajur Veda. Yajur Veda has two major divisions viz. Krishna Yajur Veda and Shukla Yajur Veda. The difference between the two is that Shukla Yajur Veda is not mixed with brahmana texts. This has 2000 mantras placed in 40 chapters, the last chapter being the famour Ishavasya Upanishad. Out of this 2000 mantras, almost about half of them find place in Krishna Yajur Veda, whereas the Krishan Yajur Veda has seven kandas. These kandas are again divided into several prapathakas and then into 651 anuvakas. Pandits call Krishna Yajur veda as polluted and Shukla Yajur Veda is unpolluted. They cite two reasons for this. One is that names of rishis who have the revelation of the mantras do not find a place in the text. Scondly, insertion of brahmana passages in the original text.
Such discussions are still going on and this is not the subject of our discussions here. Now, let us briefly look into the various devatas referred to in Vedas. The devatas can be interpreted in two ways. First, they can be interpreted with external meaning and another is deeper inner meaning. As far as possible our discussions will be based on the deeper meaning of the deity concerned. The inner meanings are given by Aurobindo. Agni: This is frequently used in all the Vedas. The inner meaning can be interpreted this way. The divine will perfectly inspired by divine wisdom. It is the active power of the truth consciousness. Agni is called satya. It is compared to the shining sun and gives enlightenment. It is also the cosmic energy. In ritualistic sense, Agni is termed as the carrier of the mantras while performing Havana. Varuna: Varuna in association with Mitra gives water to the mother earth. Agni, Mitra and Varuna are called triads. Mitra and Varuna when used together are called dyads. The inner meaning of Varuna can be defined as the one who selects out, chooses and thus favours them only who are virtuous and deserving to follow the path to freedom from bondage. He chooses selected souls who are dedicated and make them virtuous and spiritual. Indra: One who possessed with highest glory. A lot is said about Indra in Vedas. He is described as the eldest of maruts. Indra along with Varuna send down the rains. In one of the verses of Rik Veda, Indras says to Agasthya rishi “It is not now, nor is it tomorrow.
Who knows that which is Supreme and wonderful. It has motion and action in consciousness of another, but when It is approached by the thought, It vanishes. Agasthya rishi replies and it goes on like this. I am mentioning here about this conversation because Agasthya rishi hails from Southern part of India. At that time southern part of India, had a number of highly evolved souls. Here maruts represent the progressive illumination of human mentality, until from the first obscure movements of mind which only just emerge out of darkness of subconscient , they are tansformed into an image of luminous consciousness of which Indra is the purusha , the representative being. Maruts are the purushas of the separate thought energies, while Indra, the purusha of all thought energy. Further discussions on Vedas are being continued in the subsequent postings.
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