BENGALI WRITINGS

The Secret of the VedaTHE Veda Samhita is the eternalsource of the dharma, culture and spiritual knowledge ofIndia. But the fountain-head of this source is lost in thecave of an inaccessible mountain and even its initial courseis hidden under the strange vines, bushes and flowering treesof a thorny forest, deep and very ancient. The Veda ismysterious. The language, the manner of expression andthe form of thinking have been created by another age; theyare the product of a different type of mentality. On onehand, it is extremely simple like the flow of a pure and swiftmountain stream; yet, on the other, this process of thinkingappears so complex to us, the meaning of its language souncertain that from very ancient times disagreements anddiscussions have continued regarding its essential thoughtand even regarding the simple words used in every line.Upon reading the commentary of the great scholar Sayanacharya,one gets the impression that a coherent sense ofthe Veda never did exist, or else what was there got submergedin the sea of oblivion of all-devouring Time evenlong before the Brahmanas, which came after the Vedas,were composed.Sayana was in a quandary when he undertook to findthe significance of the Veda. It was like some one who, weariedof pursuing a false light through darkness, stumbled oftenand fell into holes full of mire and filthy water, yet was unableto abandon the pursuit. The meaning of the fundamentalScripture of the Aryan dharma had to be found but the wordswere so enigmatic, the synthesis was made up of so manymysterious and profound entangled thoughts that in a thousandplaces it had no sense at all and, where somehow a