Ved Darshan- 100

In submitting the 100th meditation, I repeat that the Rig Vedic epiphanies speak to the Sadhak who humbly submit to the verses, lets the words peal their layers of meanings rather than those who attribute preconceived contexts. In contrast, commentators like Sayana mention that each epiphany needs necessarily to be contextualised to the Rishi /Seer who partook or visualised the epiphany, the Chhanda (metre) through which it is expressed, the Deva or deity invoked and Viniyoga or the occasion where the verse is uttered.

The attribution while important is not central; while the Rig Veda harks back 4000- 7000 years; the indexing attributing the Rishi (seer) and Devata are based on much later indexing traditions such as the Shaunka’s Anukramanī (6th Century BCE) or the more popular Sarvānukramaṇī of Katyāyana (2nd century BCE). The Viniyoga traditionally recited before a Vedic mantra, states the Rishi, Devatā, and Chandas. The Gāyatrī (RV 3.62.10), for example invokes Viśvāmitra Rishi Savitur devatā (Deity is Savitā), and the Gāyatrī chandaḥ (Meter is Gāyatrī).

The Seers as emphasised, are mantra-dashta (seers) rather than authors, of these apaurishya (not attributable to human) verses or primordial insights ‘revealed’. Nearly 400 seers including thirty female seers are sited that include Vaak Ambrihni the seer(es) of the Devi Suktam.

The Suktam states in a manner unusual to the Vedic tradition, that those unaware of the Devi shall “perish”. Vaak in meditating achieves a state of oneness (later termed Taadaatmya bhaava) with Devi uses feminine first person in revealing her meditation of the all-pervading primordial mother. Perhaps in her oneness and ecstasy she finds no gap difference between herself and the devi and suggests that any one unaware of this experience ‘perishes’ or is a denuded being, a hollow lesser person interpreted by Sayana as “samsara ena heenaa bhavanti (lesser being). (contd.) / DAILY WORLD /

( The writer is a 1993-batch IRS officer who is presently posted in Punjab.)