June topic: mAyA in the Vedas: RV. X..177

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Namaste all,

Here is the an example of mAyA in the RgVeda.

Chronologically it is not the first but it examples

much of what has already been presented in the

introduction postings.

In the next posting I will set out all the references

to mAyA in the RgVeda but, as a first major step into

studying can we now turn to my personal favourite hymn

and the one that started off my journey into the

RgVeda. This is a short hymn in the later collection.

 

RV 10.177. I am going to give it all here but may I

recommend that your own study takes you to

www.flaez.ch so that you can trace the meanings in the

dictionary. However please be careful with Monier

Williams especially as his definitions are sometimes

dominated by later thought.

In accordance with earlier postings I note the names

of the rishi and the deity along with the metre at the

outset.

Mandala 10.177

Rishi pataNga Deity mAyAbheda

Metre: 1 JagatI 48 syllables 4 padas 12 syllables

each

2,3, trishtup 4 padas 11 syllables each

 

pataMgamaktamasurasya mAyayA hRdA pashyanti

manasAvipashcitaH |

samudre antaH kavayo vi cakSate marIcInAmpadamichanti

vedhasaH ||

pataMgo vAcaM manasA bibharti tAM gandharvo.avadad

garbheantaH |

tAM dyotamAnAM svaryaM manISAM Rtasya padekavayo ni

pAnti ||

apashyaM gopAmanipadyamAnamA ca parA ca

pathibhishcarantam |

sa sadhrIcIH sa viSUcIrvasAna A

varIvartibhuvaneSvantaH||

 

May I please remind people of my earlier posting, #6,

in this series. Remember the three meanings

Adhibhautic: regarding the external world

Adhidaivic: regarding divine beings

Adhiyatmic: regarding spiritual truths

But remember also that the three meanings are

distinguished solely for the purpose of explanation.

In essence the perception of the physical sun as it

rises, the rising of the sun of inspiration in our

‘inner space’ and the all-pervading spiritual sun is

but a single event known in its fullness or fruition:

Recall too Yaska’s Nirukta; yajnadaivate pushpaphale

devatadhyAtme vA |

 

Griffith’s translation of X.177 is as follows:

 

1. The sapient with their spirit and their mind behold

the Bird adorned with all an Asura's magic might.

Sages observe him in the ocean's inmost depth: the

wise disposers seek the station of his rays.

2 The flying Bird bears Speech within his spirit: erst

the Gandharva in the womb pronounced it:

And at the seat of sacrifice the sages cherish this

radiant, heavenly-bright invention.

3 I saw the Herdsman, him who never resteth,

approaching and departing on his pathways.

He, clothed in gathered and diffusive splendour,

within the worlds continually travels.

 

Now may I please ask the Sanskritists on this site for

help. This is the only hymn in the RgVeda dedicated

to MAyAbheda. Amazingly, to me, I have found very

little interest in this hymn in the books I have read.

Yet to me it is full of possibility; maybe too much

personal interpretation is going on.

 

How should I translate mAyAbheda when sandhi is

considered: is this the mAyA with bheda ( difference)

or with (abheda) ?

 

Now let us take this hymn line by line:

 

‘The sapient with their spirit and their mind behold

the Bird adorned with all an Asura's magic might

(power) (mAyA).’

 

 

Here we have mAyA being translated by Griffith as

‘magic might’ and here it belongs to the asura. The

root of asura is ‘as’ which means ‘breath’, see also

‘asu’ in Monier Williams. Now we need to understand

that in the RV then asura can be godly or demonic as

well as being the title for the Supreme Spirit.

Also we note that power transcends difference. Fire

has the power to burn but whether we use it to light a

ritual candle or torture a victim; whether we use the

power of speech to praise or blaspheme, is not in the

domain of that power.

 

I like the use of the word ‘sapient’ by Griffith for

it has that quality of special wisdom. Discrimination

takes us beyond the problems of opposites and duality

and so the poet says that the sapient perceive this

power, this magic might, with their heart (Griffith

uses spirit) and mind.

Now let us look at the Sanskrit words used here:

 

pataMgamaktamasurasya mAyayA hRdA pashyanti

manasAvipashcitaH |

 

hRdA: (with inst.) the heart, the seat of feelings

and emotions, soul, mind as seat of thought and

intellectual operations.

Pashyanti: they see

manasA: the mind as all mental powers. (Mn vii.6 the

eye, divine eye) (Whoops. That has not been written

yet but the idea is in this text.)

vipashcitaH : expresses difference, distinction or

away from. discernment, right knowledge. MMW directs

us to the root vip for vipashcit. This he gives as

meaning tremble, vibrate.

 

This reminds us of that ‘trembling’ experienced by the

seers when they are known as ‘vipra’. See Key Words

posting of this series.

 

So this first line is telling us that the wise

discriminate and transcend difference when realising

that Supreme power through their own ‘inner eye’ of

the heart/mind.

What is this bird that is observed by the wise?

It is the sun as it follows its pathway across the

heavens.

But remember that this is the physical sun, the sun of

inspiration and of direct knowledge and the Supreme

Light. The wise, through discrimination in mind/heart

perceive the three levels in the one event, not three

discrete events that would be the effect of the

intellect alone, but the directly experienced

continuum. That is how they perceive the magical

might, mAyA, of the asura.

 

‘Sages observe him in the ocean's inmost depth: the

wise disposers seek the station of his rays.’

samudre antaH kavayo vi cakSate marIcInAmpadamichanti

vedhasaH ||

 

In the ocean of the heavens from which the celestial

waters flow, in the depths of the ‘inner space’, the

wise seek out the station, maybe of departure and

destination, that place of stillness, of the sun’s

rays.

 

We may visualise ourselves seated in a gathering at

the edge of a forest, faces brushed by a gentle breeze

as we await the first appearance of the rising sun,

listening to the quiet chant of the village singer and

poet. We are being invited to join the company of the

wise through this hymn..

 

‘The flying Bird bears Speech within his spirit: erst

the Gandharva in the womb pronounced it:

And at the seat of sacrifice the sages cherish this

radiant, heavenly-bright invention.’

 

pataMgo vAcaM manasA bibharti tAM gandharvo.avadad

garbheantaH |

tAM dyotamAnAM svaryaM manISAM Rtasya padekavayo ni

pAnti ||

 

Please take the time to make use of www.flaez.ch to

explore the meanings of the individual words. No

translation can touch the immense vision being offered

here for truly the Vedas are infinite, anantaH vai

vedaH. The Word is borne in the Supreme Sun and hence

inspirational speech emerges out of the rising sun

within the sky of our heart/mind. It emerges here,

shining brighter than the brightest of earth-bound

jewels, in this seat of sacrifice, in this place of

fulfilment of that all-pervading and directing power,

Rta.

 

Hearing the mantras of the Vedas expands dhI, the

imprisoning walls of the limited view crumble, and the

mantras bring wisdom to those that see/hear the Sruti.

They turn the hearer into mantradrasTAs, those who see

the mantras because we become the mantras and

experience them not as the sun outside us, nor as the

sun within us but as the Sun itself.

 

And so the poet who leads our gathering here at the

edge of the forest, as the warmth of the sun permeates

our bodies, states his own personal experience as he

changes from speaking about the wise as other than

himself :

 

apashyaM gopAmanipadyamAnamA ca parA ca

pathibhishcarantam |

sa sadhrIcIH sa viSUcIrvasAna A

varIvartibhuvaneSvantaH||

 

‘I saw the Herdsman, him who never resteth,

approaching and departing on his pathways.

He, clothed in gathered and diffusive splendour,

within the worlds continually travels.’

 

Sound the Sanskrit. Take your time over it, apashyam…I

saw. The poet himself is here united with his

ancestors, the great rishis. He had the same direct

experience of that true light that lights all, he

discerned the magical power, mAyAh, of the asura

through the manifesting Word.

That Word continually is, continually ‘travels’.

 

May we all be mantradrasTAs and seek the station of

its rays.

 

 

I add the following as my own interpretation…as

opposed to translation of this hymn. Hopefully you

will find time to come up with your own.

‘As the sun rises and falls, as though born from the

ocean, its rays emerge like the cows from the barn

being directed by the chief Herdsman. I, (the poet)

observed this. Like a bird it flies, glorious in its

manifestation. It is the source of speech; deep, loud

sounds are born in the womb of the sun which arises

from the unmanifest (symbolised by the ocean as sea

and sky) and its rays or cows are the words which rise

and fall, manifesting in and through the creation but

coming from unseen levels of speech.

The Gandharva, guardian of the Soma, (the moon which

reflects the rays to Earth), regulates the flow of the

words (rays) which terminate well in beautiful speech.

Those who perceive with discrimination through mind

and heart behold the whole glory and power of this

mAyA and its inner meaning.

Those who have this inner sight are the poets (kavis)

who can hear and pronounce those deep sounds and whose

meaning is held in the prescribed ritual action.’

 

 

‘From this Supreme Self are all these, indeed,

breathed forth.’

 

 

 

=====

‘From this Supreme Self are all these, indeed, breathed forth.’