Understanding the multilevel existence of the Vedic deities:

The Rig Veda Mantra Samhitä has 1024 Sūktās assigned to 10 Mandalas. Each Sūkta has several manträs or poetic metric verses, usually about ten on an average. The total number of manträs in RVS

is 10,512. Every mantra is in Vedic Sanskrit (Nirukta). A mantra is not an intellectual composition. It was revealed to a rishi, usually through hearing; the rishi was in a state of deep concentration (samadhi) during the receiving of the revelation. Every mantra is one of the several metres such as Gayatri, Ushnik, trishtup, jagati etc. Every Sūkta is dedicated either to one deity such as Agni, Indra, Soma, etc. or two or more.

As mentioned earlier, each Sūkta has several manträs and all of them describe the powers of the relevant deity and the prayers by the human devotee to that deity.

Agni, Indra are not mere mythological or imaginary beings. Each deity represents a cosmic force with a well-defined function in the operation of Cosmos. In some of the translations of the Rig Veda Samhita, the deities such as Agni, Indra etc. are represented as physical forces. For instance, Agni is regarded as the fire which burns everything; Soma is a creeper; Indra

is the phenomenon by which rain comes out of the rain-bearing clouds etc. However such a summary description ignores all the descriptive epithets to that deity in the many mantrās dedicated to that deity, such as 2000 manträs to Agni and 2500 mantrās to Indra.

In the Hindu tradition, the Veda mantrās in all the four Samhitäs are regarded as wisdom (vidya). It is very difficult to locate any wisdom in most of the current translations of the Veda mantras. It was Sri Aurobindo who revealed the hidden secrets in the Rig Veda. According to him, one must group together all the manträs dedicated to one deity, study all the epithets to that deity in them and thus understand the functions of the deity. Many of the epithets of the deities make no sense if we try to understand them in a purely physical manner.

However when we expand our horizon and view them from the psychological point i.e., the point of view of mind (mana) and präna, the life- energy we clearly understand that every deity has one major

psychological function, i.e., a function dealing with the activities of mind and life-energy. For instance, at a purely physical level, Agni is the fire in the hearth or altar; he is also the fire in the stomach which burns the food and digests it. At a psychological level, it is the power of will, the power which impels a person to do an activity. Similarly Indra is the cosmic mind controlling all the operations of mind and life-energy. Soma is the joy in the performance of work.

Understanding the meaning of a mantra and the aspiration towards the deity helps the relevant cosmic power to manifest in each one of us and guide us from within. The proper chanting is very helpful; but the meaning of the mantra should be in the mind during the oral chanting.

🙏 Jayatu Indra 🙏

🙏 Namo Narasiṁha 🙏