Essays on the Gita (The Mother’s Institute of Research) - Session 3 (08 January 1998)

We are actually still on the first chapter, and we were trying to see in what way the Gita needs to be studied. There are many ways in which the Gita has been studied and is being studied and there are many scholarly studies, very academic studies, but this particular book [Essays on the Gita] deals with what may be called the living experience of the message of Sri Krishna in practical problems of human life. The question is: in what way the Gita is contemporarily relevant. We all who belong to the present days, we are all confronted with certain specific problems and we are in search of the solution of these problems.

One of the problems with which Sri Aurobindo has started is the question of the conflict of religions. Whether we like it or not, we are already in a field where different religions are in conflict with each other, and every religion comes forward to give a message and say that this message is 'the message'. Or else, even if there are other messages, this message is a better message or the most superior message. Are we therefore also to say that this Bhagavad Gita is 'the message' or it is a superior message to any other message? At the very beginning Sri Aurobindo makes it clear that this is not the spirit in which we are going to turn to the Gita, nor has the Gita any pretension of making such a claim. In fact the Gita has been presented as no other religious book has been presented in the world. The Gita is an episode, it is a part not of any religious scripture like the Bible or the Koran or even like the Vedas and the Upanishads which are exclusively composed for a specific purpose which we may call 'scriptural', but the Bhagavad Gita has been passed into a framework of a battle, and a scene also of a battlefield where the hero comes to a sudden crisis, and it was in search of a solution to that crisis that the entire teaching of the Gita emanates. Therefore, it is not the spirit of the Bhagavad Gita, or at least it is not the spirit in which we are approaching the Gita, to see in it 'the message' or the supreme message. But we can say that we also belong to that category of people who, like Arjuna, are beset with a crisis. In fact all of us, in our own times, are facing a very big crisis and knowingly or unknowingly, we are a part of that crisis. So, like Arjuna, we also need to turn to somebody who can enlighten us and give us a guiding light. So it is in that spirit that we are turning to the Gita, not to make a scholastic study in which we ask questions as to what this particular word means, and what that scholar has said... We are trying to go to the Gita with our practical problem and try to find out if there is a living light that can give us the message that we require.

It is as if we are going to meet Sri Krishna himself. And Sri Krishna himself does not deal with this problem in a scholastic manner. Whatever opinions of other people He refers to, are referred to only in the sense that they are a necessary help. But the Bhagavad Gita itself is not a book of scholarship. So it is like meeting Sri Krishna himself in our own present day, and turn to him to find out in what way He can elevate us, uplift us, and give us a new light. Therefore this entire book does not try to show that this is 'the message', the supreme, the final message.

Secondly, Sri Aurobindo points out that we are actually in need of a synthesis. Our first point was that we are in a crisis and we are turning to the Gita to get some kind of an upliftment from this crisis. Not necessarily that we shall find a complete answer in it, because it is only an episode which is addressed to a particular situation. But we are open whether it gives us a complete message or no message or partial message or the relevant message or the guiding or the helpful message. And the second point is that we are all today in a state not only of conflict of religions but conflicts of various kinds. Even in the field of philosophy there is a conflict, different philosophical standpoints have come to a sharp conflict. In the field of philosophy and science there is a conflict, science and religion, there is a conflict. In fact all disciplines of knowledge today are in need of some kind of synthesis. And we are living in an age where this problem of synthesis has to be faced. So this is a second context in which we are turning to the Gita. The need of synthesis of today, in what way can it be fulfilled by the Bhagavad Gita? So we shall turn to the Gita also with this question: can the Gita help us in arriving at a synthesis, resolution of conflict not only of religions but of all disciplines of knowledge? And this is where we were last time.

Sri Aurobindo describes the present stage of mankind as that it stands at a threshold ‒ a threshold of a 'new synthesis'. Because there could be a need to go back to this synthesis of the past in which case our look at Gita would be quite different. As Sri Aurobindo says in the last paragraph of the first chapter which is extremely important, "We do not belong to the dawns of the past, but to the noons of the future."

There is today, He says, a need to synthesise all the theistic religions of the world, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism. Then, there is a need to synthesise religions with Buddhism which is not a theistic religion ‒ so even religions which are not theistic have to be synthesised.

Then, there is a new material which is flowing upon us, the new knowledge of science. That also has to be absorbed and assimilated. And ancient systems of knowledge and religions which have been put into the background for a long period are now being recovered. The meaning of the Veda, for example, which has been lost over age or even since ages, is now getting recovered. So even the revelation of the Vedic knowledge and similar other knowledge of other traditions are also coming upon us. Therefore in the search of a new synthesis, our question is: can the Bhagavad Gita help us in arriving at a new synthesis of knowledge? Our very need is such that it cannot confine us to any kind of dogmatism. Right from the beginning we are asking new questions and we are in need of new answers where the knowledge of the past or past systems of knowledge can help us. But they will not be able to give us the final answer because we are in need of new knowledge.

That is why Sri Aurobindo says that we have to recognise that in the past also there had been syntheses. Just as we are in need of a new synthesis today, in the past ages also there were periods when a new synthesis was necessary and new syntheses did come into existence which were all passed over by new syntheses. And Sri Aurobindo himself describes at least four syntheses of the past which came one after the other in the Indian tradition itself.

The first is the Vedic synthesis, the second is the synthesis that we find in the Upanishads, the third is the synthesis of the Gita, the fourth is the synthesis of the Tantra. And now, we are standing again at the edge of a new synthesis, but just as in the past any new synthesis took into account the syntheses of the past, similarly, for building up a new synthesis today, we need to study all the past syntheses. We have to learn the synthesis that was made in the Veda, the Upanishadic synthesis, the Gita synthesis, the Tantric synthesis. But Sri Aurobindo says that among all these syntheses, the synthesis made by the Gita takes the most important place. There is a speciality of the Gita which gives us a kind of a new perception of the Gita. Among all the syntheses of the past, the synthesis which we find in the Bhagavad Gita is going to be most helpful to us and it is for that reason that we are turning to the Gita.

There are many contexts also in which we are turning to the Gita and we shall see as we move forward, but for the moment let us pause here, and this is where we were last time, I had described the synthesis of the Veda to some extent, and we were about to enter into the synthesis of the Upanishads. But let us revise a little and see what we did last time with regard to the synthesis that we find in the Veda.

As we know, the Veda is reputed to be "veda" which means "Knowledge". Therefore we might say that the Veda is a book of knowledge. The Veda is also reputed to be karmakand. Now this karmakanda gradually came to be only a practice of ritualism, but basically, veda is karmakanda in the sense that it uses the 'secret of work'. What is work? As Sri Krishna will tell us in the Bhagavad Gita, we have to distinguish between karma, akarma, and vikarma. Actually, we find this distinction in the Veda itself. The greatness of some of the Vedic Rishis was that they declared: "We have now achieved perfection in works". So they reached a climax. So, what is 'work', what is the 'secret of work', and what is the 'perfection of works'? What is the meaning of it? When can we say that "We have reached the perfection of works"? This is a knowledge the secret of which is also in the Veda.

The Veda is also a book of prayers. Every hymn is a hymn of prayer. It is upasana, worship. Therefore in the Veda we find the earlier synthesis of Knowledge, Works and Devotion: bhakti, karma, jnana. But that is not all. There are some great peculiarities of the Vedic search and the Vedic synthesis. The Veda discovered the presence of 'gods'. Now when we speak of gods, the present modern mind gets repelled, because belief in gods in modern times is supposed to be the result of a primitive mentality. That is because as the religions developed in history, what is called polytheism got surpassed, or overpassed, and there came gradually what is called 'monotheism'. So it has come to be believed that monotheism is a superior religion, and polytheism is a kind of a superstition: 'only ignorant people can believe in gods'; only ignorant people can have what is called: anthropomorphism. It comes from the word which deals with man, anthropology, for example, is the study of man. So anthropomorphism is to regard God in terms of man; to believe that God behaves like human beings: you flatter Him you will get some good results from Him, and God will be very pleased if you offer Him lots of offerings to obtain His promise to protect you whether you are right or wrong. Because you approach God, therefore He is bound to be your advocate and He will defend you as human beings do. Now, this kind of belief in God or gods is what is called anthropomorphism and polytheism is believed to be fundamentally anthropomorphism.

Human beings who are afraid of all kinds of things in the world came to believe that there are forces, beings, gods, behind these things: behind the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the tides and the ocean and rains and everything. That there are so many spirits, so many gods and you can approach them: if it rains, you can say to the Rain God, "Please don't rain because I have to cross the ocean now!" So if you approach Indra and if you give good gifts to him, then he will stop the rains for you. This is an 'anthropomorphic' view of gods.

So in the history of religions, as people became wiser and wiser, became more and more refined, they came to the conclusion that God is not of that kind—God is not anthropomorphic ‒ that there is certainly a question of worship of God, but you worship God not because you want certain rewards or you want through His instrumentality punishment for your enemies. Not for that reason, but God is to be worshipped because He is himself worthy of worship, He is admirable, He is wonderful. As Mohamed says, to see God and not to fall in love with Him is impossible. He is such a Reality! If you just approach Him, not for any particular benefit or anything of the kind, just to be with Him is delight. So here you do not see God as anthropomorphic; but God as He is in Himself something that is supreme, wonderful, most beneficent, merciful, by His very nature. Even if you do not pray, it is not as if He is going to punish you, even without prayers, He will do the best for you. This is called a more refined concept of God. Therefore in the light of this new monotheistic belief, polytheism has been discarded, or has been conceived as something very inferior. That is why if you now tell the modern mentality that Vedas have this distinctive feature that it had discovered the gods, then many people might tell you that you are talking of something primitive, barbaric, and something that has to be over-passed.

But the kind of the discovery that Vedic Rishis had made was not anthropomorphic. They had also discovered not only many 'gods', but also 'God'. Veda is not polytheistic only, it is also at the same time monotheistic, ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti,(Rig Veda 1.164.46) "The Reality is only One", but it is spoken of as 'many', in 'many ways'. Therefore, the concept of many gods is not as if there were several prime ministers in the world, and who are in conflict with each other, and all of them are sovereign, ultimate authorities, but all these gods are cosmic powers of 'One Divine'. This is the discovery of the Veda—that there are many gods—and one does not need to be afraid of maintaining that there is no doubt such a reality of many gods and that these gods are all cosmic powers of 'One supreme Reality'. That is why Veda is not rightly called polytheistic, although many people who read it cursorily might say that it is only polytheistic, barbaric, primitive. But if you read the Veda as a whole, the kind of knowledge of the gods that we get is quite different.

Again, these gods are not anthropomorphic in the sense that they are not 'purchasable' by all kinds of 'bribes'. If you worship the gods it is again for the glory of the gods, their greatness in themselves, their powers. There is another peculiarity of the gods of the Veda which is that each one of them can perform the function of another god. And each god is the supreme God himself. This is the complexity of the idea of the gods in the Veda. There are many gods, all of them are manifestations of one cosmic and supreme and transcendental Reality of one God. Each god can do the functions of another, gods can work together collectively, vishve deva; they may work individually, they may work one for the other, and each can stand for the Supreme God Himself. Now, these are the special discoveries of the Vedic search. Such is the kingdom of the gods. It is not an ordinary kind of polytheism.

The Veda goes even beyond, and says that the Divine is not only 'One', but He is 'the only One'. It is not as if God is the one Reality, the Ruler of the world which is another reality, but even the world itself is 'that' very reality. This is called: 'monism', a very peculiar kind of monism. So in the Veda there is 'polytheism', 'monotheism', even 'monism'. And you will find also in the Bhagavad Gita the same; we shall come to it later on. Even the Bhagavad Gita speaks of 'many gods'; it speaks of 'one God' as the Ruler; it also speaks of the 'one Reality' of which all in the world is a manifestation. So there is only one Reality, there is not other at all. This was the discovery of the Vedic Rishis.

Now having made this discovery, they found out that individuals can come into contact with 'gods', with 'one supreme God', and with 'one reality' that is the 'only Reality. Therefore, the interrelationship between man and gods, and one god and the supreme one single reality, the synthesis of all these is the Vedic synthesis. There is no book in the world which gives you this kind of synthesis. It is a very peculiar and unique synthesis which is to be found in the Veda although it has been put into the background in the history of the world. Even the Upanishads which came later on and which, in a certain sense, continue the tradition, even the Gita which continues that tradition to some extent, do not have that richness of the Veda where all these are described in so much of detail. It is again when you come back to the Puranas that something of this 'polytheism', and 'monotheism', and 'monism' is again to be found. But still, the height at which, the loftiness at which this synthesis was done is not to be found in the Puranas either. The supreme experiences, the highest experiences, the completeness of the experience of 'The Reality', has never been surpassed anywhere in the world. Now this again is not a statement to show that this is 'the' best, and 'the' highest, and 'the' most superior, it is a scientific fact! And it does not say therefore that there is nothing further to be done, or there can be no other formulation, or there cannot be another revelation which is not in the Veda. We speak of the 'loftiness' but not of the depth, subtlety, complexity. The kind of subtlety and synthesis of knowledge that you find in the Upanishads is not in the Veda. The Upanishads have something more to give us which is not in the Veda. Therefore you cannot count the Veda alone and nothing else and say that other things have not much value. This is not true either.

The kind of synthesis that you find in the Gita is not in the Veda, although the Gita is supposed to be the summary of the Veda, the quintessence of the Veda. As a quintessence it is true, but the kind of synthesis that the Bhagavad Gita gives you even of karma, jnana, and bhakti, that kind of formulation, that kind of depth, the supreme manifestation of Karma Yoga particularly, you don't find anywhere in the world as far as 'that particular point' is concerned—'the supreme manifestation of Karma Yoga'. So the peculiarity of the Gita is the knowledge of the integral Karma Yoga. That kind of synthesis is neither in the Upanishads nor in the Veda, therefore it is inevitable that if you really want to make a good grand synthesis, you have got to turn to the Gita because that is the knowledge which is given in the Gita.

So, in the Veda particularly what you find is the synthesis of man with 'gods', supreme 'God' and the 'Reality', and the highest and loftiest experiences of the Divine. This is the peculiarity and speciality of the Veda. There is a further speciality of the Veda which is that the human faculties, the faculties of the body, of the life, of the mind, of reasoning, ethicality, aesthesis, each different faculty of man is related to a corresponding godhead in which that faculty is most manifestly perfect. If for example you are in search of perfecting your power of inspiration then it is to be connected with Sarasvati, one of the goddesses of the Vedic pantheon, because Sarasvati is perfect in inspiration, not perfect in revelation, not perfect in intuition, not perfect in discrimination, but perfect in inspiration. So if you want to develop your power of inspiration, then you need to synthesise yourself with Sarasvati, although it is also true that Sarasvati can function for intuition, if necessary. It is not as if Sarasvati is so exclusive that she keeps only one shop! She can also open up the doors for sarama, for daksha, for Illa.

What is relating to a god? How do you relate to yourself?

What does it mean?

All relations can ultimately be spoken of in terms of threads. Every individual may be conceived as a knot of threads and out of that knot several threads spread out. Now these threads go on, and on, and on, until they reach another knot, and there are so many knots, actually each one of us is a kind of a knot from which many threads are spreading out, and they are in turn tied up with another knot. If I am to be related to you, the threads that are passing through me or from me meet the threads that are passing from you and the junction of these two create a special relationship. Now similarly, the threads of my power of inspiration which are very feeble in my case, if they are allowed to spread out by an effort and reach where the threads of Sarasvati are moving downwards towards the whole world and if I can really tie up my threads with the threads that are coming from Sarasvati then the force of Sarasvati will descend into me much more clearly, much more powerfully. And then with this infusion of the powers from Sarasvati, I will become more and more inspired. So relating means only this: threads of powers coming out of your personality, out of your character, out of your aspiration, whatever you are that 'complex', if these threads are spread more and more powerfully, then they can reach. This was the discovery of the Veda: how to relate yourself to the 'gods'. And then: how to receive from the gods the corresponding powers so that you can be united with them. Is it clear so far?

Question: What does it mean that when one is connected with those powers, then the other knots or other relations also get loosened or straightened out?

It depends, yes. But the more you are with some other forces, then other things suffer also, therefore, there is a need for a synthesis. There is a whole science as to how to tie up yourself with all the gods and then similarly how to tie up yourself with other human beings, with the creatures of the world. Maybe your love for your cow is very great, your thread of relationship with your cow is very great; and how to harmonise your relationship with the cow? Even while you are developing many other relationships with so many other forces, it's also a problem of human lives, and that also has to be considered, has to be solved. So there has to be from a given individual a very vast network and ultimately you reach a point of perfection where you become like a musician where so many notes can be played by your hands and you can combine, recombine, 'discombine', you can create new kinds of tunes and so on. So you become a musician in the world as it were. Like Sri Krishna in the Mahabharata, you can see what a great 'musician' he was. He could play upon any note of the world, there was not a single problem of the world which baffled him. He knew the right connections, he knew when Karna had to be approached, at what time, and he had found out all the knowledge that was regarding Karna. What is the secret of Bhishma? How should Bhishma be approached? He knew it very well.

In fact Mahabharata regards Sri Krishna both as a human figure and as an Avatar, the Supreme Being in a human form, and you find both these elements mingled very beautifully in it. So if you see Mahabharata simply from the human point of view, how Sri Krishna works upon many fields and he baffles everybody actually, but He is not baffled. But whenever something happens He is able to bring out the right knowledge which is appropriate at that moment. That is why His enemies actually were extremely troubled by Him, He was even criticized as a diplomat, as an intriguer, as a 'manoeuvrer', as somebody who tells one thing here and another there, who manipulates people, manipulates things, events, and so on. But that is because He is such a great musician, wherever there is a need for anything He is able to bring out the right tune at the right moment. He knows each one intimately, He knows Yudhishthira very well, where is his weakness, where is his greatness, why he is obstinate, where he will not agree, where he will agree, and so on. Even from a human point of view you can see that Sri Krishna had the widest and deepest knowledge of every important figure in Mahabharata. He knew each one very well and how to deal with that person. That is because of the capacity of relationships. How to relate oneself with others?

In a certain sense you might say that human life is nothing but a problem of relationships. And harmonizing relationships may be regarded as 'the' problem of human life. In fact, Sri Aurobindo in The Life Divine, in the third paragraph of the first chapter says: "...all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony".

As I said in the sense of relationships the whole world can be regarded as nothing but a network of relationships. The knowledge of this network is what we may call the 'cosmic knowledge'. If you know the network of all the knots in the world, all the threads, how they are related, interrelated, it is a cosmic knowledge. And in fact there is a kind of a consciousness which is called 'cosmic consciousness', and if you enter into that consciousness you don't need to learn little by little as we now learn: to be in that state of consciousness automatically brings you the perception of cosmic harmonies, and enables you also, to work on this cosmic harmony. So what may seem extremely difficult now at a mental level, may seem to be simple and straightforward once you enter into that consciousness. If somebody were to describe to you how a huge landscape appears, and you read separate descriptions of all these landscapes, you find it so complex, so baffling, that you may not understand the complexity of so many descriptions put together. But the moment you rise to the top of the hill and you look around, in a few seconds you know the whole. Then nothing looks so difficult. Similarly today if we are to be told, "Look Indra has such and such threads of consciousness and such and such powers of relationships, Ashwins have got others, and Varuna, Mitra, Bhaga, have others", we become so intrigued. But once you realise that cosmic consciousness everything becomes so simple.

This is the knowledge that we find in the Veda; this is the greatness of the Veda. The Veda discovered varieties of complexities of gods, goddesses, human beings and all the creation, entire interrelationship, an entire network and this network is not to be found anywhere in the world. Therefore you might say that if you want to know the network, Veda is supreme. That is a scientific fact and let us see what the book gives you, you will salute it, there is no question! It is not as if we are dogmatic and say, "Oh, no, it's my Veda, therefore it must be the best." It's not that. In the Veda, you find this knowledge but if any other book happened to be there, we'd be very happy. Let us read that also. So our attitude is not that this is 'the' only thing and the best and the highest, and now nothing more! It's not that attitude at all. But if you find this knowledge in the Veda, you have got to say that there is no other book in the world which gives you these descriptions, so what can you do about it? You have got to see that it is the best and the highest!

But as far as this network of the cosmos is concerned, you can say that the Veda gives the most complex knowledge and also tells you the secret by which you can come into contact with various gods, with various important centres of network and how you can relate yourself with them, and how you can derive the power from that network. And it says there are two ways by which you can relate—that secret, very simple, is given in words, although difficult to implement.

The first word is that each god can be invoked; there is a secret of invocation. Now, what is that invocation? They found it very simple actually. These gods have given names to themselves, these gods have names of their own: if I want to meet Sarita, I can say her name and immediately get into contact with her. This secret is only to call the name to establish contact. It's so simple as that basically. It is true even in the human world. If you know the name of somebody, it's easy to contact him. Even supposing, for example, I want to deal with a certain Ministry of Foreign Relations because I want my visa very quickly, then normally I say, "Whom shall I contact?" But if you find the name of the person, it's a great gain; you can more easily contact him. Now similarly in the Vedas you have the names. For example, the word "Indra'' is not an arbitrary name: it is a sound. Sound has vibrations; these vibrations are of a certain nature that they really bring Indra 'himself connected with 'this' name. The powers or the capacities that Indra possesses have a vibration, and this vibration in terms of 'sound', is 'Indra'. The very word 'Indra' is therefore a significant name.

Now this was the discovery of the Vedic Rishis. They did not arbitrarily decide that this is Indra, this is Varuna, this is Bhaga. No! The words themselves have sound notations, and sound power and when you utter those words they immediately bring you into contact with the corresponding god. Therefore, Veda is called a book of 'secret knowledge'. Today because we don't believe, we all throw it out in our modern arrogance and pride. It's only at our price actually. But if you really want to come into contact, the Veda gives us those mantras which are addressed to Indra. Similarly, if you really want to come into contact with Agni, the word "Agni" itself is an invocatory word. The Vedic Rishis were so great that they found out what are the sound vibrations of these powers and having got the sound vibrations, they gave the names accordingly. So the Vedic gods do not have arbitrary names. They have got 'real' names, you might say, which are the 'real' sounds. That is the first secret of the Veda.

The second is that every god demands a 'sacrifice'. This is another method—not only 'invocation' but also 'sacrifice'. Actually sacrifice is not properly understood. Sometimes it is said the sacrifice is a kind of a bribe—which is an 'anthropomorphic interpretation' of sacrifice. It is said that if you make a sacrifice then God will be pleased and will give you in return something that is 'his province'. But actually, it is not true. Sacrifice means the loosening of our threads of connections. If you want to connect yourself with Indra, for example, Indra is the power of Light, just as Agni is the power of aspiration, just as Varuna is the power of wideness, so if you are in search of Light, then the treads which are in you, which are so confusedly set in your being, which prevent the entry of Light, to such an extent that even if Indra wants to enter into you, you will prevent his entry into you, because of the threads which are in a very confuse network in your own being. So sacrifice means that you loosen your cobwebs and your present limitations and simply expand them out, and as you go on expanding them out, the higher force should be able to enter into you. It's not a bribe that you give, "Oh God, I'm giving you this kind of sacrifice; I'll take five cows and give you in." It's not that sort of thing! It may have a symbolic meaning but that is not the 'real' sacrifice.

Question: But, uncle the fasting, does it come in the category of sacrifice?

It depends. Supposing somebody is very obese and eats a lot, then fasting may be very necessary for him. But not for you and for me, it may not be necessary at all, because already the threads are loosened, we are not eating so much, the threads are not thick at all and there is no cobweb, so we don't need to do it. All so called 'sacrifice' is nothing but a 'process of loosening our hard networks of threads' which prevent the entry of the corresponding reality. So you need not do a lot of things in fact. There are certain states which are so intense that within a second your cobwebs can be loosened. It depends upon 'intensity'. That is why the secret of Yoga is: 'develop intensity', because intensity is the power of loosening very quickly. If the child really needs the mother's help and the child really weeps bitterly, intensely, the mother is bound to come. Even the lost mother can come and that is possible because the intensity is so great that the threads immediately open out and call down the power. In fact that is the whole secret of the Veda. The whole world is nothing but a network of threads and relationships and if you know the right way, even if you don't know the name, mere intensity is sufficient. And let the intensity of cry go forth. Even if you don't know the word "Indra", Indra will come out. You yourself will discover Indra; you don't need to read the Veda that is why it is said that Veda is not a book, Veda itself is an ocean of knowledge which is already in the heart of everyone. You may not know it, but each one of us has an internal Veda.

As Sri Aurobindo says, "The Shastra of integral Yoga is the eternal Veda...(SABCL The Synthesis of Yoga, vo1.20, P.46, Part I, first page of the Ch. 1) eternal Veda which is already in the heart of every human being. It is because we do not know how to open that 'internal' book that we may need to open this 'outer' book to find out the secrets. But even without it, you don't need to refer to 'that' book of Veda in which all the mantras are given; you can even develop 'new' mantras according to your intensity, and they will also be called Vedas, that is why it is called: anantah vedah. Veda is not these four volumes: anantah vedah, the Vedas are infinite because according to the need of your being, you can just cry out, and the real cry will take you to the right mantra by itself. You will be yourself d??b, you will yourself write a new mantra. That is also possible. But the Vedic Rishis had done so much that they had discovered all this which they wrote down, and then told us that for connecting ourselves to a particular power, we need to do such and such a sacrifice.

If you want, for example, the aspiration to reach the highest point where the response of God can come to you very clearly, one of the things that is required is ghritam tivram, this is another secret of the Veda, ghritam tivram ghrita means the clarified butter, tivrameans absolutely refined. Now ghritam tivram is actually a symbolic word which means clarified intelligence. If your aspiration is connected or is fuelled by pouring into it clarified intelligence – in fact all that we are now doing –, is a yajya of that kind, we are clarifying our intelligence. This is a process of ghritam tivram. So, if you put this ghritam tivram in our process of our aspiration then the response will be much more clear, much more readily available. So it is this kind of secret, this kind of sacrifice that we find in the Veda. It also tells you the period of sacrifice, intensity, the length, the duration, because you know that every intensity increases with duration. A pinch which is only for a second does not give you that much of pain, but the same pinch if it lasts for one hour, it really intensifies itself and it becomes very painful or somewhat painful. So duration and intensity, both are necessary. But both these can be overcome actually you don't even need either intensity or this, if He himself is in need of you. It may be that in the work of gods themselves, they need you! That is also possible. It may be that in the work of gods themselves, they need you!

Question: When will that be?

That also would be possible. Like for example, Parvati wanted Shiva very much and she was doing all kinds of austerities but Shiva was inaccessible. But the gods, they found it necessary to have one great warrior who can defeat all the demons. And as they looked around, made a survey, they found there is not a single one here. Then they came to the conclusion that only if Shiva and Parvati meet, then a child can be produced, kumarasambhava, who will have that power by which the demands can be vanquished. Here gods were in need! So they came in search of Parvati, they went to Kamadeva, they themselves arranged for Shiva's awakening from his meditation, and he was disturbed. They had to sacrifice even Kamadeva's body in the meantime! And so Shiva opened his third eye and the outer body of Kamadeva was burnt to ashes. But Parvati herself was the beneficiary. Because of the needs of gods she who was doing Tapasya for such a long time was not able to fulfil herself, she got it directly. So there can also be moments of that kind. The point is that we need to prepare ourselves that we might be needed, so keep yourselves ready all the time. That is why one of the lessons of the Yoga is: "kindle you light every day", dive, dive, every day, daily, and again, and again, and every moment in fact, that it is not lost at all. So if you keep yourself in that condition you'll be needed and He will lift you up.

It is because Arjuna was so dear to Sri Krishna that he lived with Sri Krishna all the time, that was his intensity, he prepared himself to be worthy of the company of Sri Krishna. Then he very wisely chose that Sri Krishna should be his sarathi, his charioteer. Therefore, automatically when he was in difficulty Sri Krishna Himself came forward and began to give him the knowledge, poured it on him, because he was needed by Sri Krishna Himself. If he did not find out about the consequences, he was so powerful an instrument that Sri Krishna came immediately and gave him the knowledge.

In any case this is the secret aspect of the Vedic knowledge that it gives you the threads of the cosmos, the important knots of these threads and how these threads can be related with. This is another synthesis that we find in the Veda: the synthesis of the human powers with the cosmic powers by means of 'invocation' and means of 'sacrifice'. And then finally, there is another point in the Veda and that is the idea of 'perfectibility' of man and attainment of 'immortality', amritam. The Veda gives these two important concepts that when you synthesise yourselves with gods and with the supreme God and you become one, realise the Supreme, and put your body, life and mind in such a beautiful condition of preparedness and brightness and readiness, then you have 'perfection' and 'immortality'. Now, these are the aspects of the Vedic synthesis.

Now if you read these four or five lines that Sri Aurobindo has written which are the most difficult lines in that chapter to explain the Vedic synthesis. [On page 7 of the Essays on the Gita]

There have been other syntheses in the long history of Indian thought. We start with the Vedic synthesis of the psychological being of man in its highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory with the cosmic existence of the gods, pursued behind the symbols of the material universe into those superior planes which are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality. The crown of this synthesis was in the experience of the Vedic Rishis something divine, transcendent..

...not only cosmic but transcendent...

..and blissful in whose unity the increasing soul of man and the eternal divine fullness of the cosmic godheads meet perfectly and fulfil themselves.

Now, these are very difficult words but maybe with what I have said, it will become much more clear. The various kinds of perfection that I spoke of, are all now summarised in these four lines. 1 shall read again.

We start with the Vedic synthesis of the psychological being of man in its highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory with the cosmic existence of the gods, pursued behind the symbols of the material universe into those superior planes which are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality. The crown of this synthesis was in the experience of the Vedic Rishis something divine, transcendent and blissful in whose unity the increasing soul of man and the eternal divine fullness of the cosmic godheads meet perfectly and fulfil themselves.

That is our powers of various kinds which have to be developed. Then:

We start with the Vedic synthesis of the psychological being of man in its highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory with the cosmic existence of the gods, pursued behind the symbols of the material universe into those superior planes which are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality. The crown of this synthesis was in the experience of the Vedic Rishis something divine, transcendent and blissful in whose unity the increasing soul of man and the eternal divine fullness of the cosmic godheads meet perfectly and fulfil themselves.

You speak the word 'surya' is a symbol, but actually it represents us Surya as a god, a cosmic god. It is not only this outer Surya which we see. So they are pursued behind the symbols of the material universe...

We start with the Vedic synthesis of the psychological being of man in its highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory with the cosmic existence of the gods, pursued behind the symbols of the material universe into those superior planes which are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality. The crown of this synthesis was in the experience of the Vedic Rishis something divine, transcendent and blissful in whose unity the increasing soul of man and the eternal divine fullness of the cosmic godheads meet perfectly and fulfil themselves.

So yourself, uniting yourself with the cosmic gods and perfecting yourself by this connection. Now:

We start with the Vedic synthesis of the psychological being of man in its highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory with the cosmic existence of the gods, pursued behind the symbols of the material universe into those superior planes which are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality. The crown of this synthesis was in the experience of the Vedic Rishis something divine, transcendent and blissful in whose unity the increasing soul of man and the eternal divine fullness of the cosmic godheads meet perfectly and fulfil themselves.

Actually the Veda does not use the word Satchidananda, but these three words are used divine, transcendent and blissful. So it is actually a translation of Satchidananda.

"...in whose unity..."

That is Satchidananda, is also unity.

We start with the Vedic synthesis of the psychological being of man in its highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory with the cosmic existence of the gods, pursued behind the symbols of the material universe into those superior planes which are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality. The crown of this synthesis was in the experience of the Vedic Rishis something divine, transcendent and blissful in whose unity the increasing soul of man and the eternal divine fullness of the cosmic godheads meet perfectly and fulfil themselves.

... perfection and immortality...

We start with the Vedic synthesis of the psychological being of man in its highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory with the cosmic existence of the gods, pursued behind the symbols of the material universe into those superior planes which are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality. The crown of this synthesis was in the experience of the Vedic Rishis something divine, transcendent and blissful in whose unity the increasing soul of man and the eternal divine fullness of the cosmic godheads meet perfectly and fulfil themselves.

The perfection of the gods attains a relationship with you and you become as perfect as the gods in each domain. This is, you might say, the synthesis that you find in the Veda.

I think we can stop here now again although I thought that I shall complete the whole paragraph today but I went astray and I spoke at length on these things which I thought we shall just pass over as an introduction. But anyway, it does not matter, those four lines are perhaps now better explained. So we shall continue next time and we shall go to the synthesis of the Upanishads and then the synthesis of the Gita, then the synthesis of Tantra, and then the nature of the synthesis that we are looking for in the new world. That will complete our first chapter.

That will complete only the first chapter?

Only the first chapter because this whole page 7 is so difficult. It summarises the entire history of Indian thought in a few lines. Those four lines on the Veda are the summary of how many volumes! It is a kind of a quintessence of the whole Vedic domain He has described here. So it is so difficult that I have got to take some time with you and ask you to be patient with this page itself.