BENGALI WRITINGS

III. 1. The Secret of the Veda31the Upanishads in the Veda. They held the opinion that theboon of light for which the Rishis prayed to God was notthe light of the material sun but the light of the Sun ofKnowledge, the Sun which is mentioned in the mantra of‘Gayatri’, the Sun which Vishwamitra had seen. This lightis tatsavitur-vareÍyam devasya bhargaÕ, that power andlight of the Divine Sun, this god is yo no dhiyaÕ pracodayÀt,he who impels all our thoughts towards the principlesof the Truth. The Rishis feared tamaÕ, darkness, butnot the darkness of night; they feared the dense obscurityof ignorance. Indra is jÈvÀtmÀ, the soul or the life; Vritra isneither cloud nor the demon imagined by the poets but theone who impedes the growth of our manhood by coveringit up with the thick night of ignorance, in whom the gods,at first, remain concealed and lost, then rise delivered bythe bright light of knowledge emanating from the DivineWord. Sayanacharya has given to these Rishis the name of‘atmavids’ or knowers of the Self and he often cites theirexplanation of the Veda.As an example we can quote the explanation of the ‘atmavids’given for the hymn addressed by Gotama Rohuganato the ‘maruts’ the Winds. In this Sukta, Gotama invokesthe Maruts and prays to them for light:yÓyaÌ tatsatyaÙavasa ÀviØkarta mahitvanÀvidhyatÀ vidyutÀ rakØaÕ (1-86-9)gÓhatÀ guhyaÌ tamo vi yÀta viÙvamatriÍamjyotiØkartÀ yaduÙmasi (I-86-10)According to the Ritualists, the light mentioned in thetwo Riks is the light of the physical sun. “The Rakshasa,devourer who has covered up the light of the sun by darkness,O Maruts, destroy that Rakshasa and reveal again thelight of the Sun to our eyes.” According to the ‘atmavids’,a different meaning should be given: “O ye who are mightywith the strength of the Truth, manifest that supreme knowledgeby your greatness; pierce with your lightning the