Sri Aurobindo on cows in the Vedas

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

"The fruits of the offering were in appearence purely material-cows,

horses, gold, offspring, men, physical strength, victory in battle. Here

the difficulty thickened. But I had already found that the Vedic cow is

an exceedingly enigmatic animal and came from no earthly herd. The word

'go' means both cow and light and in a number of passages evidently meant

light even while putting forward the image of the cow. This is clear

when we have to do with the cows of the sun - the Homeric kine of Helios

- and the cows of the dawn. Psychologically, the physical light might

well be used as a symbol of knowledge and especially the Divine

knowledge. But how could this mere possibility be tested and

established? I found that passages occured in which all the surrounding

text was psychological and only the image of the cow interfered with its

obstrusive material suggestion. Indra is invoked as the maker of perfect

forms to drink the wine of Soma; drinking he becomes full of ecstasy and

a "giver of cows"; then we can attain to his most intimate right

thinkings, then we question him and his clear discernment brings us our

highest good. It is obvious that in such a passage these cows can not be

material herds nor would the giving of physical light carry any sense in

the context. In one instance at least the physiological symbolism of the

Vedic cow was established with certainty in my mind. I then applied it

to other passages in which the word occured and always I saw that it

resulted in the best sense and the greatest possible coherency in the

context." - From Sri Aurobindo's 'On the Veda'