"The Rig Veda projects before us the Truth of the Supreme Void."
- S.K. Ramachandra Rao
Over the past few years I have read many books on the Rig Veda, [see updated
list]. It may be that I needed to read extensively so that I could appreciate
the writings of S.K. Ramachandra Rao [1927-2006], who speaks clearly into my
Heart, intuitively, his words resonating with what I feel to be true. S.K.R. as
he was called, was [from the Rigveda-Darshana book jacket] “a well-known scholar
who combines traditional learning with modern research. Well versed in Sanskrit,
Pali, Ardhamagadhi and several modern Indian languages, and acquainted with
Tibetan and some European languages, he has written extensively on Vedanta,
Buddhism, Jainism, Indian Culture, Art and Literature.”
In his ‘Rigveda-Darshana, Vol. Thirteen, The First Hymn to Agni’ S.K.R. writes
that in the first cycle of time, the Satya or Krita Yuga, the Veda was only one
undivided spontaneous and “totally bereft of human intervention. Mortal
intelligence and reasoning had no role to play.” The tradition of Hinduism is
that the Veda is eternal and exists in the aether.
In 2006 while intensely studying the Bhagavad Gita and before I began to teach
myself Sanskrit, I had a vision of flaming golden burning lightning-like letters
in the aether. I knew this vision represented the existence of the eternal
Truth, but the letters themselves were more akin to the language that preceded
Sanskrit, the ancient
Brahmi
script rather than Sanskrit. So I have wondered if the knowledge and revelations
revealed in the Rig Veda were originally conceived in Sanskrit at all, or if in
its state of origin there is even a need for words as letters. Perhaps
pictograms or logographic symbols are sufficient, and the verses in the Rig Veda
emerged from a highly compacted and layered form of language familiar to the
Rishis who composed them in the early Vedic Sanskrit, which is said to be very
different from the classical Sanskrit that followed.
S.K.R.: In the Satya or Krita Yuga, the one being ‘many’ is always implied and
thus there is no need or requirement to spell out the many, which were “merged
all in one, without interruption or discrimination.” We knew.
S.K.R.: The Rishis who ‘saw’ the mantras had purified their being through
austerities known in Sanskrit as TAPAS, which means heat. The Veda will not
reveal itself to one who has not “engaged in austerities. Tapas purifies,
thereby making everything lucid, evident and meaningful. It projects before us
the truth of the supreme void.” Tapas comes from the Sanskrit verb-root ‘tap’ to
burn — heat in the sense of a fervour of focused concentrated intensity that
elevates our consciousness and allows us to perceive what is Real. Tapas
“transforms a person into an extraordinary being.”
The divine intrusion of Grace is also involved and for some wisdom insight may
be revealed even to those who have not studied, but who through Grace also
perceive. Grace happens along the way as we seek, so shall we find. The sweet
mystery of God revealing Itself to us on our way Home is one of the greatest
sources of Joy known to all human beings. That moment when we just know, when at
long last we understand deeply profoundly what alluded us for so long a time and
cannot be put into words. The Greeks used the term 'epiphany' to describe
insight through the divine. For those who seek to Return to the One, this Grace
is the elixir that quenches our thirst for wisdom as nothing else will. Grace is
a sign of acknowledgment from the Heart, the God-within that we are moving ever
closer to our goal.
I have come to believe that to truly deeply understand and absorb the Rig Veda,
we must elevate our consciousness ever closer to the frequency of the Rishis who
‘saw’ the mantras. Perhaps with time the few sincere ones can merge with the
sublime energies of the Rishis, these wonderful beings who in the treasure of
the Rig Veda left for us the memory of who we really are. Surely Dirghatamas,
Vishvamitra and others are residing, waiting in the beyond as holographic
energies for the courageous ones who will inundate their consciousness with the
wisdom knowledge of ancient days.
Just as it was revealed in the Hearts of the Rishis, so is the Wisdom-Knowledge
of the creation, support, and destruction of the universe ever residing, written
in the Heart of every man, woman and child. We may Become the One as they did.
Truly there are many ways Home, but for a few the way may be through the Rig
Veda. This is why I feel that the verses in the Rig Veda are far more than
bedside inspirational reading. These praise hymns mantras are to be deeply
studied with an intense dedication. The rewards are unknown — a mystery for
those with courage, perseverance and Will.
S.K.R. often reminds the reader that all the deities in the Vedas are the “many
expressions of the great might of the One.” When the Rishis envisioned the
mantras, these energies that symbolize various aspects of the Oneness appeared
in their Heart. The Heart of the Sage-Seer is indeed the location and Source for
all Wisdom-Knowledge, as the Heart is also our Source, holding the Key that
opens the Door to universal Truth, which is our God-given right as expressions
of the One.
The word for the ‘gods’ in Sanskrit is DEVA, and according to S.K.R. its root
meanings are many: luminosity, enlightenment and residence within the heavenly
realms. The devas are therefore the
lights within the Sage-Seer that illumine Truth. This experience of ‘seeing’
inner light, or even dancing colours as lights, perhaps fountains or the lotus
flowering, happens to many who meditate. However such experiences may not be
understood and made useful without guidance, just as in the west Kundalini
experiences often are seen as an end in themselves and not used to move deeper
into more subtle states of consciousness.
In his discussion of the use of the mantras in ritual, S.K.R. makes a point that
has often occurred to me. The Rishis, Seer-Sages were already enlightened and
would not have needed rituals. He states, “If rituals are what the Veda is
supposed to teach, then the Veda is not worth its while. The Veda is sacred,
holy and ultimate because it can become the effective means of the ultimate
object of human existence, viz. MOKSHA [liberation].”
The mystic, spiritual leader, political activist and poet Sri Aurobindo sheds
light on ritualism in his ‘Secret of the Veda’ in pointing out the many
erroneous conceptions that have been held about the Rig Veda: “These errors
arise inevitably as part of the total misunderstanding of Vedic thought for
which the old Brahmanic ritualism is responsible and to which European
scholarship by the exaggeration of a minor and external element in the Vedic
mythology has only given a new and yet more misleading form.”
The Sanskrit words in the Rig Veda are not used in any conventional sense, but
rather are meant to rouse an inquiry into their “possible but hidden meaning.”
The verses in the Rig Veda were composed by brilliant poets, Seer-Sages,
visionaries possessing mastery over many fields, both wisdom and cosmology. In
the west when we study the great poets such as William Blake, W.B. Yeats, Samuel
Coleridge, T.S. Elliot, etc., we do not expect or even want to understand the
poem fully on first reading. The great poems are full of subtle nuances, hidden
meanings, references to history, myth, and art. Therefore we learn from them
over time, and as we grow older our understanding of these poems often changes
and we feel them in new ways relative to our life experiences.
As S.K.R. says, and in complete agreement with many other Indian scholars, “It
is impossible owning to more reasons than one to give an adequate or valid
English translation for the Vedic passages. The words in [the older] Vedic
Sanskrit do not have their perfect correspondences even in classical [later]
Sanskrit, much less in a language that is distantly removed from Indian
culture.”
My feeling is that we may approach the praise hymns in the Rig Veda in the
spirit of deep reverence and wait for them to reveal their meaning. The journey
to wisdom is never easy, and often fraught with perils and wrong-turns. Somerset
Maugham’s novel ‘The Razor’s Edge’ depicts the inspiring journey of a young man
seeking wisdom to the high Himalayas and many have followed the same path. The
journey into the meaning of the Rig Veda will not be easy or without difficulty
— but I assure you it is worth every effort on our part.
The verses hold a vibration of the higher dimensions, the frequency of Truth [Rta
in Sanskrit], the Real and Right — and all that is so terribly lacking in
our chaotic disintegrating modern world. Diving into the Rig Veda is like
immersing your being in a pool of clear fresh water. The words contain a spring
of cleansing consciousness, sparks of light sprinkling breathing their awakening
powers into our encoded memory. For we are the One and the words of the ancient
Rishis have graciously remained in the old Sanskrit to remind us, to Remember
who we are and always will be.
Thank you, Professor S.K. Ramachandra Rao. I touch your feet in sincere respect
and gratitude. You have generously opened the way for me to understand.
Rigveda-Darshana, Volume Thirteen, The First Hymn to Agni, by S.K. Ramachandra
Rao; Kalpatharu Research Academy, Shanarapuram, Bangalore, 2004.
[available at Exotic India & Amazon]
SECRET OF THE VEDA, (written 1914-20) by Sri Aurobindo; Lotus Press, Twin Lakes,
Wisconsin, 1995.
***
The official website of the Prof. S. K. Ramachandra Rao Memorial Trust
http://www.profskr.com/
Brahmi script
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