Let's start today's discussion of the Rig Veda's seventh Sukta with a relevant quote from the Course -- a quote so central to the process of awakening, I recently added it to my profile to serve as a constant reminder. Because, as Jesus explains somewhere in the Text, we can not be too often reminded of the Truth of our Being. And that Truth, as he states in Workbook Lesson 95 (I am One Self, united with my Creator), is essentially this:
You are one Self, in perfect harmony with all there is, and all that there will be. You are one Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in that Self; united with your Father in His Will. Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions and your doubts. This is your Self, the Son of God Himself, sinless as Its Creator, with His strength within you and His Love forever yours. You are one Self, and it is given you to feel this Self within you, and to cast all your illusions out of the one Mind that is this Self, the holy truth in you. (ACIM, W-95.13:1-5)
It is given us to FEEL this Self within us, he says. And, in my experience, we FEEL that Self as a radiantly energetic fullness in the center of our chest. That energetic "fullness" is known as "pleroma" in Christian theology.
And it is this "fullness" or "pleroma" to which St. Paul refers in Ephesians 4:13, which reads:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the FULNESS of Christ.
Listening to the Living Water for extended periods feeds that glorious radiant fullness, and that glorious radiant fulness, in turn, feeds the Living Water. In this way, the two Great Rays work in symbiotic partnership to "cast all your illusions out of the one Mind that is this Self, the holy truth in you."
This is both HOW the Holy Spirit engineered the At-one-ment process to work and WHY "drinking" or "absorbing" the Living Water (the Om vibration or Song of Wholeness) for long periods of time (in deep meditation) is an absolutely essential practice for sincere enlightenment-seekers. There is no other way, as all advanced Teachers of God will attest.
What's this got to do with the Rig Veda's seventh Sukta? Everything. Not that we'd get that from Ralph T. H. Griffith's rather absurd contortion of its illuminating prose. What Griffith gets right is that the Rik concerns King Indra, who is (unbeknownst to Griffith) the Red Ray of the One Self we FEEL more and more FULLY as we progress around "the radiant circle of the spiritual journey." What he gets wrong is pretty much everything else. First and foremost, the Sukta is NOT an ingratiating hymn of praise addressed TO King Indra; it's a teaching ABOUT what King Indra represents in Hindu theology -- and how to tap into that glorious radiant fullness to hasten our circular sojourn toward remembrance of God.
Yes, I know. I said I wouldn't quote Griffith and his Oxford cohorts any more, but it feels at times like I'm walking the high-wire without a balance-pole. So, I'll share Griffith's translation for equilibrium's sake, and let you decide whether to read, skim, or scroll on by.
INDRA the singers with high praise, Indra reciters with their lauds,
Indra the choirs have glorified.
Indra hath ever close to him his two bay steeds and word-yoked car,
Indra the golden, thunder-armed.
Indra hath raised the Sun on high in heaven, that he may see afar:
He burst the mountain for the kine.
Help us, O Indra, in the frays, yea, frays, where thousand spoils are gained,
With awful aids, O awful One.
In mighty battle we invoke Indra, Indra in lesser fight,
The Friend who bends his bolt at fiends.
Unclose, our manly Hero, thou for ever bounteous, yonder cloud,
For us, thou irresistible.
Still higher, at each strain of mine, thunder-armed Indra's praises rise:
I find no laud worthy of him.
Even as the bull drives on the herds, he drives the people with his might,
The Ruler irresistible:
Indra who rules with single sway men, riches, and the fivefold race
Of those who dwell upon the earth.
For your sake from each side we call Indra away from other men:
Ours, and none others', may he be.
Having spent the past few days investigating the original Sanskrit, I can understand how he arrived at some of these definitions. The trouble is, he was rowing with only one oar because he had no guiding understanding of higher truth. Moreover, he wasn't interested in uncovering whatever Great Truths the Vedas might reveal, because he regarded them not as timeless sacred teachings to be mined for wisdom, but as historical recordings of ancient "heathen" hymns and ritual-practices. He was, in fact, bound by the terms of the Bowden Professorship to convert as many Hindus as possible to Anglicanism. Never mind that the Church of England was established rather nefariously (in 1524) so King Henry VIII could divorce his legitimate wife and install his mistress as queen. Hinduism, in comparison, dates back to at least 5,000 BCE. Not that Hinduism is without its distortions and obscurations, of course. They are, in fact, rampant. How could they not be when Vritra has had so many millennia to work his evils?
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An obvious symbol for the Ego Mind, Vrtra is the snake-demon King Indra destroyed with his thunderbolt-throwing Vajra in the puranic legends of Hinduism. |
Luckily, we have two oars in the water. We have the framework understanding and the Lamp of Truth to shine away those pesky distortions and obscurations. So, let's pull hard on those paddles as we continue through the Great Ocean of Vedic wisdom.
We'll start by reviewing the whole of Rv 1.7 in transliterated Sanskrit, so we can see all the variations of the word-name "indra." We find "indram," "indrah," "indra," and "indrasya" -- all of which have slightly different meanings. Insensitive to these nuances, Griffith (among others) rendered them all as plain-old "Indra." So, right off the bat, we know his translation aren't trustworthy.
indram it gāthinaḥ bṛhat indram arkebhiḥ arkiṇaḥ indram vāṇīḥ anūṣata
indraḥ it haryoḥ sacā sam-miślaḥ ā vacaḥ-yujā indraḥ vajrī hiraṇyayaḥ
indraḥ dīrghāya cakṣase ā sūryam rohayat divi vi gobhiḥ adrim airayat
indra vājeṣu naḥ ava sahasra-pradhaneṣu ca ugraḥ ugrābhiḥ ūti-bhiḥ
indram vayam mahā-dhane indram arbhe havāmahe yujam vṛtreṣu vajriṇam
saḥ naḥ vṛṣan amum carum satrā-dāvan apa vṛdhi asmabhyam aprati-skutaḥ
tuñje-tuñje ye ut-tare stomāḥ indrasya vajriṇaḥ na vindhe asya su-stutim
vṛṣā yūthā-iva vaṃsagaḥ kṛṣṭīḥ iyarti ojasā īśānaḥ aprati-skutaḥ yaḥ ekaḥ carṣaṇīnām vasūnām irajyati indraḥ pañca kṣitīnām
indram vaḥ viśvataḥ pari havāmahe janebhyaḥ asmākam astu kevalaḥ
Let's now go line by line. By my calculations, the first line (indram it gāthinaḥ bṛhat indram arkebhiḥ arkiṇaḥ indram vāṇīḥ anūṣata) translates along these lines:
King Indra animates the song of Brahspati (the Lord of the Song of Prayer) -- King Indra, the Lesser Light descended from the Greater Light of Wholeness; King Indra, the one who embodies Anu's essence.
My definitions:
indram (King Indra) it (animates) gāthinaḥ (the song or singers of) bṛhat (Brhaspati, the Lord of the Song of Prayer and/or Guru Word, which is Om) indram (King Indra) arkenhi (the Lesser Light) arkiṇaḥ (descended from the Greater Light of Wholeness) indram (King Indra) vāṇīḥ (the one who embodies) anū-ṣata (Anu's essence, substance, or reality)
My notes:
In an earlier post, I explained what Brhaspati actually represents in the Vedas. I also translated part of a Vedic teaching about Brhaspati to back up my assertions. In case you missed those posts, Brhaspati is the one modern-day Hindus call Ganapati, Ganpati, and/or Ganesha. He is, in short, the personified Living Water or Om vibration -- the "little brother" of Airavata, the "vahana," "vehicle," "shakti," or "special atonement power" of King Indra. And, as we discover later in this verse, the "big brother" of the Living Water is the Call to Joy.
Make sense, right?
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Ganesha (the Living Water), the "offspring" of Shiva and Parvati, is the "little brother" (metaphorically speaking) of Airavati (the Call to Joy). |
So, this verse tells us (among other things) that it's King Indra, the Red Ray of the One Self, who "animates" or "enlivens" the Om vibration/Living Water through his "shakti," the Call to Joy or Call to Awaken. It also tells us that King Indra personifies the Lesser Light embodying Anu's true essence, which is God's Perfect Love or Agape -- as in "God is but Love, and therefore so am I," the lead affirmation for the fifth review section of the Course's Workbook for Students. And that just happens to be where I landed in the Workbook today.
Coincidence? I think not.
Let's move on to the second line (indraḥ it haryoḥ sacā sam-miślaḥ ā vacaḥ-yujā indraḥ vajrī hira-ṇyayaḥ), which translates more or less as follows:
Indra's radiance animates Hari, the holy spirit-souls of God's Word, joined together. Indra's radiance wields the Vajra's diamond of higher reason.
My definitions:
indraḥ (Indra's love, radiance, or splendor ) it (animates) haryoḥ (Hari) sacā (the true, holy, or eternal) sammiślaḥ (spirit-soul) ā (of God's) vacaḥ-yujā (Word joined together) indraḥ (Indra's love, radiance or splendor) vajrī (wields the Vajra's) hira-ṇyayaḥ (diamond of higher reason)
My notes:
Most of this is self-explanatory, with the possible exception of the word "hiranyayah." While it might be a compound of "hiran" (golden) and "yayah" (??), it's more likely a marriage of "hira" (diamond) and "nyayah" -- a word found pretty often in the Hindu scriptures. Moreover, "nyaya" -- which supposedly means "method," "rules," "judgment," or "logic" -- is one of the six darshans (world-views) in Hindu philosophy. I've defined it herein as "higher reason," because that elevates the "judgment" or "logic" the word describes from the low-level human intellect to the high-level God Mind, which King Indra indeed represents.
Our next line (indraḥ dīrghāya cakṣase ā sūryam rohayat divi vi gobhiḥ adrim airayat) translates roughly as follows:
King Indra's radiance dwells in the holy place of the Holy Teachers of God -- the holy singers rising toward the celestial realm, away from the (ego) mind feeding the consciousness of separation.
My definitions:
indraḥ (King Indra's radiance) dīrghāya (dwells in the holy place of) cakṣase (the Holy Teachers) ā (of God) sū-ryam (the holy singers) rohayat (rising toward) divi (the celestial realm) vi (away from) gobhiḥ (the mind) adrim (feeding the consciousness of) airayat (breaking apart, dividing, or separation)
This brings us to Rv 1.7.4, which reads: indra vājeṣu naḥ ava sahasra-pradhaneṣu ca ugraḥ ugrābhiḥ ūti-bhiḥ). Using my two metaphoric "oars," I've translated that verbiage as follows:
Indra, the holy vibration of wholeness, brings down that powerful radiance to advance the holy treasures connected to Shiva's strong arms of protection.
My definitions:
Indra (Indra) vājeṣu (the holy vibration) naḥ (of wholeness) ava (brings down) sahas-ra-pra-dhaneṣu (that powerful radiance to advance the holy treasures) ca (connected to) ugraḥ (Shiva's) ugrābhiḥ (strong arms) ūti-bhiḥ (of protection)
My notes:
Don't believe anyone who tells you that Shiva (who is Shesha and Ishana) isn't mentioned in the Rig Veda, because he absolutely is. Ditto for Ishana, whose name crops up again in this very Sukta. Shiva, "the auspicious one," has many epithets in Hinduism, including "Ugrah" (the one found herein). And Ugrah's "strong arms of protection" are, of course, the Everlasting Arms mentioned in the Bible and the Course. As explained in a previous post, Everlasting Arms is a scriptural metaphor for the two Great Rays (a fact affirmed in the very next line).
Proceeding apace, Rv 1.7.5 (indram vayam mahā-dhane indram arbhe havāmahe yujam vṛtreṣu vajriṇam) translates something akin to this:
King Indra's auspicious twins produce these two arms: Indra's fear-slaying Call to Joy, coupled with the enveloping spirit of the indestructible Name of God.
My definitions:
indram (King Indra's) vayam (auspicious twins) mahādhane (produce these two arms) indram (indra's) marbhe (fear-slaying) havāmahe (call to joy) yujam (coupled with) vṛtreṣu (the enveloping spirit) vajri-ṇam (of the indestructible Name of God)
My notes:
Herein we are told very specifically what the two Everlasting Arms represent. Assuming my translations are accurate, they are the Call to Joy and the "enveloping spirit" of the indestructible Name of God.
Jesus mentions the Call to Joy many times in the Course. In one place, he says:
The principle of Atonement and the separation began at the same time. When the ego was made, God placed in the mind the Call to Joy. This Call is so strong that the ego always dissolves at Its sound. That is why you must choose to hear one of two voices within you. One you made yourself, and that one is not of God. But the other is given you by God, Who asks you only to listen to it. The Holy Spirit is in you in a very literal sense. His is the Voice that calls you back to where you were before and will be again. It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn. It is the final lesson that I learned, and God’s Sons are as equal as learners as they are as Sons. (ACIM, T-5.II.3:1-11)
Let's proceed to the sixth line, which reads: saḥ naḥ vṛṣan amum carum satrā-dāvan apa vṛdhi asmabhyam aprati-skutaḥ. In English, those words translate more or less as follows:
The Supreme Lord of Wholeness rains down that one's blessed offering on the faithful -- Living Water to inflame the fearless Self to make full the utmost (spiritual) body underneath.
My definitions:
saḥ nah (The Supreme Lord of Wholeness) vṛṣan (rains down) amum (that one's) carum (blessed offering) satrādāvan (on the faithful) -- apa (living water) vṛdhi (to inflame) asm-abhyam (the fearless "I am") apr-ati (to make full the utmost) sku-taḥ (spiritual body underneath)
My notes:
As I interpret this passage, the Supreme Lord of Wholeness is King Indra, whilst "that One" refers back to "the enveloping spirit" mentioned in the previous line. The Holy Spirit, in other words. And that "enveloping spirit" is the source of the Living Water.
This line also affirms what I explained before about the Living Water "inflaming" or "swelling" the One Self that "makes full" the spiritual body "underneath" (not within!) the physical body. As I explained several posts back, the spiritual body and the physical body exist on two separate planes of perception. In Judeo-Christian terms, the spiritual body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit housing the Menorah (the inner-instrument), the seven Mansions and/or Churches (the Lunar Mansions or chakras), and the Holy of Holies (the inner-altar or Heart-Cave). St. Paul also differentiates these two bodies in 1 Corinthians 15, wherein he writes:
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
In Hinduism and Buddhism, these two bodies are often erroneously conflated. The chakras and primary nadis are not, for example, part of the flesh-body; they are located in the spiritual body "underneath" the flesh-body.
Our next line (Rv 1.7.7) reads: tuñje-tuñje ye ut-tare stomāḥ indrasya vajriṇaḥ na vindhe asya su-stutim. In English, the line reads more or less as follows:
Sing! Sing! those who are on the northern side (the upper half of the Prabha Mandala), the songs of praise from Indra's mouth: the indestructible wholeness unblocking the mouth of the holy glorification.
My definitions:
tuñje-tuñje (sing, sing) ye (those who are) uttare (on the northern side) stomāḥ (the songs of praise) indrasya (from Indra's mouth) vajriṇaḥ (the indestructible wholeness) na-vindhe (unblocking) asya (the mouth) sustutim (of the holy glorification).
My notes:
I love it when the rishis use terms found in the Course. I love it even more when they use terms found in the Judeo-Christian scriptures -- like "su-stuti," which literally translates as "holy glorification." As Christianity rightly teaches, "glorification" is the final stage of spiritual purification. Some sects confuse "glorification" with "canonization" -- the granting of sainthood by church authorities -- but they are not the same thing at all.
As the Catholic Church correctly espouses (but doesn't fully apprehend), "at the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed [...] The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, 'so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just,' sharing their glorification in the glorification of the risen Jesus Christ."
The Catholic Church also correctly teaches that glorification takes place in Purgatory. What they fail to understand is that Purgatory isn't a place good-but-imperfect Souls are sent after physical death to be "cleansed of sin" before entering Heaven. The English word "Purgatory" derives from the Latin word "Purgatorium," which means "to purge," "to cleanse," or "to purify."
The Sanskrit word "vishuddha" likewise means "final purification." And Vishuddha is the name assigned to the fifth or throat chakra -- the chakra wherein we experience Self-Realization. To enter Vishuddha Consciousness, we have to "undo" the Vishnu Granthi -- the second of three "psychic knots" our Souls bump up against as they move around the circle. Like the chakras and nadis, these "knots" are located in the spiritual body, rather than in the physical body.
The Vishnu Granthi -- the "knot" of individual ego and power -- resides in or around the Anahata or Heart Chakra, the "energy center," "wheel," or "window" just below the Vishuddha Chakra. The Vishnu Granthi represents, therefore, "the door" into the Hiranyagarbha -- the third quadrant of the journey presided over by Ishana (Shiva), the water-palanquin of Ishvara (Vishnu).
,And that "door" is also the "mouth of the holy glorification" mentioned in this Vedic verse. To unblock that "mouth," the rishis tell us, we have to "sing" the Song of Wholeness in the Northwest quadrant. We must, in other words, meditate on the "unstruck sound" we begin to hear after reaching the Anahata Chakra. And that sound, as Course-Jesus affirms, will purify our minds enough to unblock the mouth, untie the knot, or pass through the door into the Golden Egg (choose your preferred metaphor).
From all of this we can glean that what Christians call Purgatory is, in actuality, the Golden Egg wherein our Souls experience the final stage of purification that prepares them to enter the fourth quadrant of Moksha -- the "heaven on earth" Course-Jesus calls the Real World.
Rv 1.7.8, which reads: vṛṣā yūthā-iva vaṃsagaḥ kṛṣṭīḥ iyarti ojasā īśānaḥ aprati-skutaḥ, should translate as follows:
The Bull of Heaven (God's Will) unites the separated family of Christ in this world to brighten the radiant energy of Ishana to make full the utmost spiritual body underneath sustaining the one shining circle -- the dwelling place of Iravati (the well or fountain) springing up to awaken the five realms of identity.
My definitions:
vṛṣ-ā (the Bull of Heaven, Nandi, Shiva's vahana, or God's Will) yūthāiva (unites the separated) vaṃsagaḥ (family of) kṛṣṭīḥ (Christ or Creation in this world ) iyarti (to brighten) ojasā (the radiant energy of) īśānaḥ (Ishana) aprati-skutaḥ (to make full the utmost spiritual body underneath) yaḥ (sustaining) ekaḥ (the one) carṣaṇīnām (shining circle) -- vasūnām (the dwelling place of) irajyati (Iravati, the wellspring or fountain) indraḥ (springing up to waken) pañca (the five) kṣitī-nām (worlds of identity = the five lokas in Hinduism)
My notes:
When I came upon the phrase "panca-kstinam" a few days ago, I was a stranger to the Hindu concept of the five "lokas," worlds, or planets. And I still have only a Wikipedia-level understanding of what these five symbolic "planets" represent. But, that will suffice for now, because Wikipedia tells us that "loka" can be translated as "planet," "plane," or "realm of existence." And I've suspected for some time that the planets we perceive "out there" -- like the sun, moon, and stars -- are actually outward projections of components within the spiritual mind-body. So, the lokas presumably represent the planes of consciousness we fell down and must now climb back up to return to Heaven, Knowledge, Superconsciousness, or Omniscience. In some schools of thought there are seven lokas; in others, there are twelve or fourteen. But this verse mentions only five, so let's stick with that number for now.
According to Google, the five lokas are Bhur-loka (the earthly plane), Bhuvar-loka (the atmospheric plane), Svar-loka (the celestial realm), Mahar-loka (the great realm), and Satya-loka (the realm of truth). In terms of the Soul's Journey, this makes perfect sense. The first four "realms" represent the four quadrants of the circle-journey, while the fifth -- the Realm of Truth -- represents Heaven, Knowledge, or Omniscience.
So ...
Bhur-loka = the first quadrant occupied by Bhumi-Lakshmi (Dharma)
Bhuvar-loka = the second quadrant occupied by Dhana-Lakshmi (Artha)
Svar-loka = the third quadrant occupied by Dhyana-Lakshmi (Kama)
Mahar-loka = the fourth quadrant occupied by Gaja-Lakshmi (Moshka)
Satya-loka = the God Mind Bubble, which reabsorbs or "lifts us up" after we complete our service to the Great Crusade (Brahman)
Before we move on, let's talk briefly about "the one shining circle -- the dwelling place of Iravati." Because that has to be a reference to the same fiery circle with the well in the middle seen and described by the prophet Ezekiel. So, once again, the Rig Veda and the Bible are in perfect concordance (when both are translated and interpreted accurately).
The Sukta's final line (indram vaḥ viśvataḥ pari havāmahe janebhyaḥ asmākam astu kevalaḥ) translates more or less as follows:
Indra's vehicle in the world underneath the circle, the Call to Joy generates for all of us the grace of omniscience.
My definitions:
indram (indra's) vaḥ (vehicle) viśvataḥ (in the world underneath) pari (the circle) havāmahe (the call to joy) janebhyaḥ (generates for all) asmākam (of us) astu (the grace) kevalaḥ (of omniscience)
My notes:
Indra's vehicle underneath the circle is the Call to Joy. Indra's vehicle in Hinduism's mystical mythology is Airavata -- the big white elephant with three heads and seven trunks. Airavata was born from Iravati, the sacred naga symbolizing the wellspring "in the midst" of the circle. Ergo, Airavata symbolizes the Call to Joy -- King Indra's "special atonement power." King Indra delegated that power to Lord Krishna, "the enveloping spirit" of the indestructible Name of God, in the form of Nandi and Kamdhenu, the miracle-cow, after Jesus activated the Atonement Plan by opening the door to the fifth loka (i.e., ascending into Heaven). And that is why Lord Krishna is generally depicted playing a flute in the presence of a white bull or cow (as seen below).
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