Sri Aurobindo
The Secret of the Veda
with Selected Hymns
Chapter VII. Varuna-Mitra and the Truth
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If the idea of the Truth that we have found in the very opening hymn of the Veda really carries in itself the contents we have supposed and amounts to the conception of a supramental consciousness which is the condition of the state of immortality or beatitude and if this be the leading conception of the Vedic Rishis, we are bound to find it recurring throughout the hymns as a centre for other and dependent psychological realisations. In the very next Sukta, the second hymn of Madhuchchhandas addressed to Indra and Vayu, we find another passage full of clear and this time quite invincible psychological suggestions in which the idea of the Ritam is insisted upon with an even greater force than in the hymn to Agni. The passage comprises the last three Riks of the Sukta.
mitraṁ huve pūtadakṣaṁ varuṇaṁ ca riśādasam
dhiyaṁ ghṛtācīṁ sādhantā (1.2.7)
ṛtena mitrāvaruṇāv ṛtāvṛdhāv ṛtaspṛśā
kratum bṛhantam āśāthe (1.2.8)
kavī no mitrāvaruṇā tuvijātā urukṣayā
dakṣaṁ dadhāte apasam (1.2.9)
In the first Rik of this passage we have the word dakṣa usually explained by Sayana as strength, but capable of a psychological significance, the important word ghṛta in the adjectival form ghṛtācī and the remarkable phrase dhiyaṁ ghṛtācīṁ. The verse may be translated literally “I invoke Mitra of purified strength (or, purified discernment) and Varuna destroyer of our foes perfecting (or accomplishing) a bright understanding.”
In the second Rik we have Ritam thrice repeated and the words bṛhat and kratu, to both of which we have attached a considerable importance in the psychological interpretation of the Veda. Kratu here may mean either work of sacrifice or effective 
power. In favour of the former sense we have a similar passage in the Veda in which Varuna and Mitra are said to attain to or enjoy by the Truth a mighty sacrifice, yajñaṃ bṛhantam āśāthe. But this parallel is not conclusive; for while in one expression it is the sacrifice itself that is spoken of, in the other it may be the power or strength which effects the sacrifice. The verse may be translated, literally, “By Truth Mitra and Varuna, truth-increasing, truth-touching, enjoy (or, attain) a mighty work” or “a vast (effective) power.”
Finally in the third Rik we have again dakṣa; we have the word kavi, seer, already associated by Madhuchchhandas with kratu, work or will; we have the idea of the Truth, and we have the expression urukṣayā, where uru,
wide or vast, may be an equivalent for
bṛhat, the vast, which is used to describe the world or plane of the truth-consciousness, the “own home” of Agni. I translate the verse, literally, “For us Mitra and Varuna, seers, multiply-born, wide-housed, uphold the strength (or, discernment) that does the work.”
It will at once be evident that we have in this passage of the second hymn precisely the same order of ideas and many of the same expressions as those on which we founded ourselves in the first Sukta. But the application is different and the conceptions of the purified discernment, the richly-bright understanding, dhiyaṁ ghṛtācīṁ, and the action of the Truth in the work of the sacrifice, apas, introduce certain fresh precisions which throw further light on the central ideas of the Rishis.
The word dakṣa, which alone in this passage admits of some real doubt as to its sense, is usually rendered by Sayana strength. It comes from a root which, like most of its congeners, e.g. daś, diś, dah suggested originally as one of its characteristic significances an aggressive pressure and hence any form of injury, but especially dividing, cutting, crushing or sometimes burning. Many of the words for strength had originally this idea of a force for injury, the aggressive strength of the fighter and slayer, the kind of force most highly prized by primitive man making a place for himself by violence on the earth he had come to inherit. We see this connection in the ordinary Sanskrit word for 
strength, balam, which is of the same family as the Greek ballō, I strike, and belos, a weapon. The sense, strength, for dakṣa has the same origin.
But this idea of division led up also in the psychology of language-development to quite another order of ideas, for when man wished to have words for mental conceptions, his readiest method was to apply the figures of physical action to the mental movement. The idea of physical division or separation was thus used and converted into that of distinction. It seems to have been first applied to distinguishing by the ocular sense and then to the act of mental separation,– discernment, judgment. Thus the root vid, which means in Sanskrit to find or know, signifies in Greek and Latin to see. Dṛś, to see, meant originally to rend, tear apart, separate; paś, to see, has a similar origin. We have three almost identical roots which are very instructive in this respect,– pis, to hurt, injure, be strong; piṣ, to hurt, injure, be strong, crush, pound; and piś, to form, shape, organise, be reduced to the constituent parts,– all these senses betraying the original idea of separation, division, cutting apart,– with derivatives, piśāca, a devil, and piśuna, which means on one side harsh, cruel, wicked, treacherous, slanderous, all from the idea of injury, and at the same time “indicatory, manifesting, displaying, making clear” from the other sense of distinction. So kṝ, to injure, divide, scatter appears in Greek krinō, I sift, choose, judge, determine. Dakṣa has a similar history. It is kin to the root daś which in Latin gives us doceo, I teach, and in Greek dokeō, I think, judge, reckon, and dokazō, I observe, am of opinion. So also we have the kindred root diś meaning to point out or teach, Greek deiknumi. Almost identical with dakṣa itself is the Greek doxa, opinion, judgment, and dexios, clever, dexterous, right-hand. In Sanskrit the root dakṣ means to hurt, kill and also to be competent, able, the adjective dakṣa means clever, skilful, competent, fit, careful, attentive; dakṣiṇa means clever, skilful, right-hand, like dexios, and the noun dakṣa means, besides strength and also wickedness from the sense of hurting, mental ability or fitness like other words of the family. We may compare also the word daśā in the sense of 
mind, understanding. All this evidence taken together seems to indicate clearly enough that dakṣa must have meant at one time discernment, judgment, discriminative thought-power and that its sense of mental capacity is derived from this sense of mental division and not by transference of the idea of physical strength to power of mind.
We have therefore three possible senses for dakṣa in the Veda, strength generally, mental power or especially the power of judgment, discernment. Dakṣa is continually associated with kratu; the Rishis aspire to them together, dakṣāya kratve, which may mean simply, “capacity and effective power” or “will and discernment”. Continually we find the word occurring in passages where the whole context relates to mental activities. Finally, we have the goddess Dakshina who may well be a female form of Daksha, himself a god and afterwards in the Purana one of the Prajapatis, the original progenitors,– we have Dakshina associated with the manifestation of knowledge and sometimes almost identified with Usha, the divine Dawn, who is the bringer of illumination. I shall suggest that Dakshina like the more famous Ila, Saraswati and Sarama, is one of four goddesses representing the four faculties of the Ritam or Truth-consciousness,– Ila representing truth-vision or revelation, Saraswati truth-audition, inspiration, the divine word, Sarama intuition, Dakshina the separative intuitional discrimination. Daksha then will mean this discrimination whether as mental judgment on the mind-plane or as intuitional discernment on the plane of the Ritam.
The three riks with which we are dealing occur as the closing passage of a hymn of which the first three verses are addressed to Vayu alone and the next three to Indra and Vayu. Indra in the psychological interpretation of the hymns represents, as we shall see, Mind-Power. The word for the sense-faculties, indriya, is derived from his name. His special realm is Swar, a word which means sun or luminous, being akin to sūra and sūrya, the sun, and is used to indicate the third of the Vedic vyāhṛti and the third of the Vedic worlds corresponding to the principle of the pure or unobscured Mind. Surya represents the illumination 
of the Ritam rising upon the mind; Swar is that plane of mental consciousness which directly receives the illumination. Vayu on the other hand is always associated with the Prana or Life-Energy which contributes to the system all the ensemble of those nervous activities that in man are the support of the mental energies governed by Indra. Their combination constitutes the normal mentality of man. These two gods are invited in the hymn to come and partake together of the Soma-wine. This wine of Soma represents, as we have abundant proof in the Veda and especially in the ninth book, a collection of more than a hundred hymns addressed to the deity Soma, the intoxication of the Ananda, the divine delight of being, inflowing upon the mind from the supramental consciousness through the Ritam or Truth. If we accept these interpretations, we can easily translate the hymn into its psychological significance.
Indra and Vayu awaken in consciousness (cetathaḥ) to the flowings of the Soma-wine; that is to say, the mind-power and life-power working together in human mentality are to awaken to the inflowings of this Ananda, this Amrita, this delight and immortality from above. They receive them into the full plenitude of the mental and nervous energies, cetathaḥ sutānāṁ vājinīvasū.2 The Ananda thus received constitutes a new action preparing immortal consciousness in the mortal and Indra and Vayu are bidden to come and swiftly perfect these new workings by the participation of the thought, ā yātam upa niṣkṛtam, makṣv itthā dhiyā.3 For dhī is the thought-power, intellect or understanding. It is intermediate between the normal mentality represented by the combination of Indra and Vayu and the Ritam or truth-consciousness.
It is at this point that Varuna and Mitra intervene and our passage begins. Without the psychological clue the connection between the first part of the hymn and the close is not very clear, nor the relation between the couple Varuna-Mitra and the couple Indra-Vayu. With that clue both connections become obvious; 
indeed they depend upon each other. For the earlier part of the hymn has for its subject the preparation first of the vital forces represented by Vayu who is alone invoked in the three opening Riks, then of the mentality represented by the couple Indra-Vayu for the activities of the Truth-consciousness in the human being; the close has for its subject the working of the Truth on the mentality so as to perfect the intellect and to enlarge the action
. Varuna and Mitra are two of the four gods who represent this working of the Truth in the human mind and temperament.
In the style of the Veda when there is a transition of this kind from one movement of thought to another developing out of it, the link of connection is often indicated by the repetition in the new movement of an important word which has already occurred in the close of the movement that precedes. This principle of suggestion by echo, as one may term it, pervades the hymns and is a mannerism common to all the Rishis. The connecting word here is dhī, thought or intellect. Dhī differs from the more general word, mati, which means mentality or mental action generally and which indicates sometimes thought, sometimes feeling, sometimes the whole mental state. Dhī is the thought-mind or intellect; as understanding it holds all that comes to it, defines everything and puts it into the right place,5 or often dhī indicates the activity of the intellect, particular thought or thoughts. It is by the thought that Indra and Vayu have been called upon to perfect the nervous mentality, niṣkṛtaṃ dhiyā. But this instrument, thought, has itself to be perfected, enriched, clarified before the mind can become capable of free communication with the Truth-consciousness. Therefore Varuna and Mitra, Powers of the Truth, are invoked “accomplishing a richly luminous thought,” dhiyaṃ ghṛtācīṃ sādhantā.
This is the first occurrence in the Veda of the word ghṛta, in a modified adjectival form, and it is significant that it should occur as an epithet of the Vedic word for the intellect, dhī. In other passages also we find it continually in connection with the words manas, manīṣā or in a context where some activity of thought is 
indicated. The root ghṛ conveys the idea of a strong brightness or heat such as that of fire or the summer sun. It means also to sprinkle or anoint, Greek chriō. It is capable of being used to signify any liquid, but especially a bright, thick liquid. It is the ambiguity of these two possible senses of which the Vedic Rishis took advantage to indicate by the word outwardly the clarified butter in the sacrifice, inwardly a rich and bright state or activity of the brain-power, medhā, as basis and substance of illuminated thought. By dhiyaṃ ghṛtācīṃ is meant, therefore, the intellect full of a rich and bright mental activity.
Varuna and Mitra who accomplish or perfect this state of the intellect, are distinguished by two several epithets. Mitra is pūtadakṣa, possessed of a purified judgment; Varuna is riśādas, he destroys all hurters or enemies. In the Veda there are no merely ornamental epithets. Every word is meant to tell, to add something to the sense and bear a strict relation to the thought of the sentence in which it occurs. There are two obstacles which prevent the intellect from being a perfect and luminous mirror of the truth-consciousness; first, impurity of the discernment or discriminative faculty which leads to confusion of the Truth, secondly the many causes or influences which interfere with the growth of the Truth by limiting its full application or by breaking up the connections and harmony of the thoughts that express it and which thus bring about poverty and falsification of its contents. Just as the Gods in the Veda represent universal powers descended from the Truth-consciousness which build up the harmony of the worlds and in man his progressive perfection, so the influences that work against these objects are represented by hostile agencies, Dasyus and Vritras, who seek to break up, to limit, to withhold and deny. Varuna in the Veda is always characterised as a power of wideness and purity; when, therefore, he is present in man as a conscious force of the Truth, all that limits and hurts the nature by introducing into it fault, sin and evil is destroyed by contact with him. He is riśādas, destroyer of the enemy, of all that seek to injure the growth. Mitra, a power like Varuna of Light
and Truth, especially represents Love, Joy and Harmony, the foundations of Mayas, the Vedic beatitude. Working with the purity of Varuna and imparting that purity to the discernment, he enables it to get rid of all discords and confusions and establish the right working of the strong and luminous intellect.
This progress enables the Truth-consciousness, the Ritam, to work in the human mentality. With the Ritam as the agency, ṛtena, increasing the action of the Truth in man,
ṛtāvṛdhā, touching or reaching the Truth, enabling, that is to say, the mental consciousness to come into successful contact with and possession of the Truth-consciousness, ṛtaspṛśā, Mitra and Varuna are able to enjoy the use of a vast effective will-power, kratum bṛhantam āśāthe. For it is the Will that is the chief effective agent of the inner sacrifice, but a will that is in harmony with the Truth, guided therefore by a purified discernment. The Will as it enters more and more into the wideness of the Truth-consciousness becomes itself wide and vast, free from limitation in its view and of hampering impediments in its effectivity. It works urāv anibādhe, in the wideness where there is no obstacle or wall of limitation.
Thus the two requisites on which the Vedic Rishis always insist are secured, Light and Power, the Light of the Truth working in the knowledge, dhiyaṃ ghṛtācīm, the Power of the Truth working in the effective and enlightened Will, kratuṃ bṛhantam. As a result Varuna and Mitra are shown to us in the closing verse of the hymn working in the full sense of their Truth, kavī tuvijātā urukṣayā. Kavī, we have seen, means possessed of the Truth-consciousness and using its faculties of vision, inspiration, intuition, discrimination. Tuvijātā is “multiply born”, for tuvi, meaning originally strength or force, is used like the French word “force” in the sense of many. But by the birth of the gods is meant always in the Veda their manifestation; thus tuvijātā signifies “manifested multiply”, in many forms and activities. Urukṣayā means dwelling in the wideness, an idea which occurs frequently in the hymns; uru is equivalent to bṛhat, the Vast, and indicates the infinite freedom of the Truth-consciousness. Thus we have as the result of the increasing
activities of the Ritam the manifestation in the human being of the Powers of wideness 
and purity, of joy and harmony, a manifestation rich in forms, seated in the wideness of the Ritam and using the faculties of the supra-mental consciousness.
This manifestation of the Powers of the Truth upholds or confirms the discernment while it does the work, dakṣaṃ dadhāte apasam. The discernment, now purified and supported, works in the sense of the Truth, as a power of the Truth and accomplishes the perfection of the activities of Indra and Vayu by freeing the thought
and the will from all defect and confusion in their working and results.
To confirm the interpretation we have put on the terms of this passage we may quote a Rik from the tenth Sukta of the fourth Mandala.
adhā hy agne krator bhadrasya dakṣasya sādhoḥ
rathīr ṛtasya bṛhato babhūtha (4.10.2)
“Then indeed, O Agni, thou becomest the charioteer of the happy will, the perfecting discernment, the Truth that is the Vast.” We have here the same idea as in the first hymn of the first Mandala, the effective will that is the nature of the Truth-consciousness, kavikratuḥ, and works out therefore in a state of beatitude the good, bhadram. We have in the phrase dakṣasya sādhoḥ at once a variant and explanation of the last phrase of the second hymn, dakṣam apasam, the discernment perfecting and accomplishing the inner work in man. We have the vast Truth as the consummation of these two activities of power and knowledge, Will and Discernment, kratu and dakṣa. Always the hymns of the Veda confirm each other by this reproduction of the same terms and ideas and the same relation of ideas. This would not be possible unless they were based on a coherent doctrine with a precise significance for standing terms such as kavi, kratu, dakṣa, bhadram,ṛtam, etc. The internal evidence of the Riks themselves establishes that this significance is psychological, as otherwise the terms lose their fixed value, their precise sense, their necessary
connection, and their constant recurrence in relation to each other has to be regarded as fortuitous and void of reason or purpose.
We see then that in the second hymn we find again the same governing ideas as in the first. All is based on the central Vedic conception of the supra-mental or Truth-consciousness towards which the progressively perfected mentality of the human being labours as towards a consummation and a goal. In the first hymn this is merely stated as the aim of the sacrifice and the characteristic work of Agni. The second hymn indicates the preliminary work of preparation, by Indra and Vayu, by Mitra and Varuna, of the ordinary mentality of man through the force of the Ananda and the increasing growth of the Truth.
We shall find that the whole of the Rig Veda is practically a constant variation on this double theme, the preparation of the human being in mind and body and the fulfilment of the godhead or immortality in him by his attainment and development of the Truth and the Beatitude.