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It is to be noted that though the
sacredness and power of the Vedic mantra lies in its inner
and spiritual meaning of the revealed word, it lends itself - even
in the outer sense - to users other than sacrificial. This is the
basis of the traditional belief that common objects in life also
can be achieved by uncommon means. This is also the basis of works
like Rig vidhāna of Shaunaka that deal with the use of the
hymns for the fulfillment of varied objects in life. Yāska refers
to this truth when he says: "The mantrās of the rişhis are
uneven, high and low, in their ideas''. The bŗhad devata
also says as much: "Desiring the attainment of objects the
rişhis of yore hurried towards the deities with the mantrās,
so say the great seers themselves in the Veda" BD (8.137). If thus
there are also mantrās, which aim at the achievement of worldly
objects, it may be asked, how could the Veda be described as the
highly sacred store of spiritual disciplines and secrets? There is
no inconsistency whatever. We have made it clear that the inner
meaning alone is the supreme truth of the Vedās and that the
external or gross sense is of use for purposes of sacrifice or
fulfillment of objects in life. Looked at on the surface there is
a manifest unevenness in the ideas of the rişhis. Yet on
scrutiny of the inner meaning, it will become clear that the
swearing, curse, censure, praise and the rest are related to the
history of spiritual discipline in the inner life. It is no wonder
that to those who look only at the outer garb or who follow the
western scholars the rişhis present a picture of simple
idiocy. We do not say that all the seers lived at the same time,
led the same identical inner life and perceived the mantrās.
But this is the Truth we maintain: the same symbolic sense of the
words, the sacrifice - both inner and outer - the cosmology of the
worlds, the truth of the Gods, the supreme object in life - all
these formed one common knowledge which the rişhis drew
upon for worshipping and communing with the Gods and to achieve
the end by means needed for and suited to the particular state of
inner development (individually). This should be clear to all
diligent students of the symbolic and esoteric meaning of the Veda. |
