June topic: mAyA in the Vedas: Indra

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--- "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk wrote:

>

>'idam drAvayati iti indraH' -- the one who

>pulverises this visible

>everything.

>This means that 'indra' stands for the Ultimate

>Supreme Reality. I

>have many times heard my father say this in his

>expositions. Though

>I do not propose that this is the meaning of 'indra'

>every time the

>word occurs, I have a feeling that whenever we are

>at a dead end in

>interpreting vedic statements, we have to take this

>into

>consideration.

 

Namaste Professor-ji,

This is interesting because when Indra releases the

cows, as you know, he cracks open the 'rock' with his

lightning shaft:

VI.43.3

yásya gaá antár áshmano máde dRLhaá avaásRjaH |

 

‘In whose wild joy thou settest free the kine held

fast within the rock,’

 

We can now understand that to mean that when the

immediate impact of intuited knowledge strikes the

bonds of ignorance the words of truth are released and

knowledge dawns.

Now that same stanza is sometimes interpreted as

showing the essential function of Indra to cause the

sat to appear out of the asat…..the rock being a

symbol of asat.

 

All of which takes us yet again to the appearance of

difference; we cannot have difference as a process of

explanation unless its aim is a solution that

transcends difference.

This examples the problem of paradox. Reminiscent of

Shiva’s roles as creator and destroyer, we can find

Indra taking many forms to play these various roles.

 

Here are some notes on Indra that may be of interest

to people.

Indra personifies Rta as the ordering and harmonising

intelligence in the inner and outer spaces. He

unfolds the spiritual world into the physical by

commanding the inner space. He brings light out of

darkness, out of the hidden depths:

RV.III.39.6-7

gúhaa hitáM gúhyaM guuLhám apsú háste dadhe dákSiNe

dákSiNaavaan |

 

‘That which lay secret, hidden in the waters, he held

in his right hand, the rich rewarder.’

 

jyótir vRNiita támaso vijaanánn aaré syaama duritaád

abhiíke |

 

'He took the light, discerning it from darkness: may

we be far removed from all misfortune.’

 

He direct those rays of the sun that we heard about in

X.177

 

sá ít támo .avayunáM tatanvát suúryeNa vayúnavac

cakaara |

 

‘He hath made pathways, with the Sun to aid him,

throughout the darkness that extended pathless.’

 

Not only is he ‘aided by sUrya’ he is indeed

identified with sUrya in RV.X.89.2:

 

sá suúryaH páry uruú váraaMsy éndro vavRtyaad ráthyeva

cakraá |

átiSThantam apasyàM ná sárgaM kRSNaá támaaMsi tvíSyaa

jaghaana ||

 

‘Surya is he: throughout the wide expanses shall Indra

turn him, swift as car-wheels, hither,

Like a stream resting not but ever active he hath

destroyed, with light, the blackhued darkness.’

 

It is through his might…......this may be related back

to the releasing of the cows but I am trying not to

interpret too wildly…. ....He provides space for the

gods:

 

mahó mahaáni panayanty asyéndrasya kárma súkRtaa

puruúNi |

vRjánena vRjinaán sám pipeSa maayaábhir dásyuuM+r

abhíbhuutyojaaH ||

 

‘They laud the mighty acts of him the Mighty, the many

glorious deeds performed by Indra.

He in his strength, with all-surpassing prowess,

through wondrous arts crushed the malignant Dasyus.’

 

yudhéndro mahnaá várivash cakaara devébhyaH sátpatish

carSaNipraáH |

 

 

‘Lord of the brave, Indra who rules the people gave

freedom to the Gods by might and battle.’

 

We then have this might and power reminiscent of the

teaching given by Professor Krishnamurthy’s

illustrious father:

 

sháMsaa mahaám índraM yásmin víshvaa aá kRSTáyaH

somapaáH kaámam avian |

 

yáM sukrátuM dhiSáNe vibhvataSTáM ghanáM vRtraáNaaM

janáyanta devaáH ||

 

‘Great Indra will I laud, in whom all people who drink

the Soma have attained their longing;

Whom, passing wise, Gods, Heaven and Earth,

engendered, formed by a Master's hand, to crush the

Vrtras.’

 

In all this outward activity we may understand that he

became somewhat proud of his powers and so we have to

turn once more to the Kena Upanishad when the Yaksha

disappears when approached by Indra full of bluster:

Swami GambhirAnanda gives in his commentary on Kena

Up.III.11:

 

'Brahman (Yaksha) did not so much as grant him an

interview so that Indra’s pride may be totally

eradicated.'

I read in this that the intellect, proud of its

achievement in understanding something will,

doubtless, in due course, be faced by that which it

cannot understand, in order that its pride be removed.

 

Then at the beginning of the next chapter, Kena Up

IV.1, after umA had taken the place of the disappeared

Yaksha, she says:

 

‘ “It was Brahman. In Brahman’s victory, indeed, you

became elated thus.”

>From that (utterance) alone, to be sure, did Indra

learn it was Brahman.’

 

That is so important ‘tataH ha eva’!!!!! That is about

as strongly emphasised as it can be. Indra heard the

words of umA. But if he was all bluster he would not

have heard a word.

The reason for this is in Kena Up. III. 12.

‘tasmin eva AkASe…in that very space.’

 

So Indra stands….Sanskrit verbal root ‘sta’……in that

very place where the Yaksha disappeared.

In my interpretation of all this….......so it is open

to many challenges…......this Upanishadic teaching

relates us back to the Rgveda and the quality of Indra

as that one who re-unites.

He is described as the ‘meditating god’ , prá sú

gmántaa dhiyasaanásya sakSáNi (see full stanza below.

 

 

In order to perceive the ropeness of the rope we must

not run away from the snake. This requires austerity,

tapas, or meditation, which is again reminiscent of

the nasadIya sUkta.

In X.167.1 we read:

tvám tápaH paritápya ajayaH svàr ||

‘thou, having glowed with Fervour, worthiest heavenly

light’

 

In an earlier hymn, RV.II. 12.1 we read that Indra is

the ‘first to possess mind’, prathamo manasvAn:

In case it has been forgotten, the nasadIya sUkta,

RV.X 129.3 reads:

táma aasiit támasaa guuLhám ágre .apraketáM saliláM

sárvam aa idám |

tuchyénaabhv ápihitaM yád aásiit tápasas tán

mahinaájaayataíkam ||

‘Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness

this All was indiscriminated chaos.

 

All that existed then was void and form less: by the

great power of Warmth was born that first germ of

mind.’

 

 

Several times recently I have suggested that it is the

function of the intellect to divide for the purpose of

explanation and tried to relate this to Yaska’s simple

statement on ‘bilma.’ I would also point to the full

stanza of that above quote and would suggest that

Griffith’s translation misses the mark a bit:

yó jaatá evá prathamó mánasvaan devó devaán krátunaa

paryábhuuSat |

yásya shúSmaad ródasii ábhyasetaaM nRmNásya mahnaá sá

janaasa índraH ||

 

‘He who, just born, chief God of lofty spirit by power

and might became the Gods' protector,

Before whose breath through greatness of his valour

the two worlds trembled, He, O men, is Indra.’

 

It is through this ability to be still and silent, to

stay in ‘that place’,like Arjuna when he prostrates

before Lord Krishna, that Indra is able to enter the

‘third heaven’ to discover amRta:

 

ayám akRNod uSásaH supátniir ayáM suúrye adadhaaj

jyótir antáH |

ayáM tridhaátu diví rocanéSu tritéSu vindad amR'taM

níguuLham ||

 

‘The Dawns he wedded to a glorious Consort, and set

within the Sun the light that lights him.

He found in heaven, in the third lucid regions, the

threefold Amrta in its close concealment.’

 

So, although we began our meeting with Indra when

considering his mAyA power to appear in many forms we

can see in the above picture of him in the Rgveda that

he is central to both the outward and the inward flow.

 

Hope the above is not too disjointed b ut it has been

written 'on the hoof' as it were.

 

Ken KNight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

=====

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

 

 

 

 

 

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