Discoveries of The Vedic Rishis - Discoveries of The Vedic Rishis 403

As a result we come to the fourth discovery. They found that "this fourth one", what we call now the supermind in the light of Sri Aurobindo, this supermind is the universal action of reality, -- Ultimate reality. This world that we see is not the ultimate reality. It is not ultimate, it is not the original. It is not the cause of itself. It is caused by something else. Whatever is caused by something else is not ultimate. It is a result of a cause and if that cause again is a result of another cause, you go behind it too. And if that is also a result of another cause, you go behind it. You must have seen in many conversations between a mother and a child, the child goes on asking the question: why? Then you give the answer, then he says why, then you say, this is the reason, then the child says why, then the mother says alright this is the answer, then the child says why, and very often mothers are tired and say; now I won't answer you. This happens very often because we have not gone ourselves to the ultimate. So we cannot say why, then we say, it is like that. And there ends the conversation. But if you are a real seeker of the truth, you really find out why, the ultimate why, the final why, beyond which there is no question arising at all. Why, because it is the cause of itself. What you find if it is the cause of itself. In Latin it is called sui generis. ‘Sui generis’. Generis means the result, what is the cause which produces a result, and sui is oneself. If the result is produced by oneself, then it is the end of the query. It is final. So having reached this point, having seen the supermind, they discovered that there is still something behind it. It is still not the end. Behind the supermind there is still a further why, because supermind itself is preceded as it were by an ultimate reality. Now that discovery of the ultimate reality is what may be called the greatest victory of the Vedic Rishis. Sri Aurobindo has said the Vedic Rishis arrived at the loftiest realisation, this is Sri Aurobindo's own words, loftiest realisation which cannot be surpassed. If you have really reached the ultimate, how can the ultimate be surpassed? Therefore they reached the ultimate, Ultimate reality in all its splendour. It is the highest discovery they made. That discovery is one in which you find the explanation of everything else, you find the explanation of the supermind, of the mind, of life, of matter, and that which is below matter, inconscience. You find all explanations by realising that reality. That was the discovery made, -- Loftiest realisation. Now what is the description of that reality given in the Veda? It is ekam, it is one, ekam sat.

It is One that exists, that can never been rubbed out. It exists. Many of the things that we see exist for some time and then they vanish. Most of the things that we see in the world are of this kind. We see this flower here, after some time it will wither away. And then it will turn into dust in due course. It will no more remain the flower. Most of the things that we see in the world, even if they remain for years and years, hundred years, two hundred years, five hundred years, thousand years, like big mountains, even they can be wiped out, but That Ultimate Reality can never, never, never be wiped out. Therefore they described it as shashwatam, it is eternal. Ekam sat shashwatam. It is one reality which is eternal.

I told you last time a story of Indra and Agastya. There is a story between Agastya and Indra. Agastya is the name of a great Rishi, great sage. He was in search of the truth. He wanted to know what is the ultimate reality. He wanted to become that reality. He was making sacrifices and he found that he was being obstructed. Now normally it is Vritra who obstructs. But here he found that no; it was not Vritra who was obstructing. Indra was obstructing, the God, the benign god was obstructing. And I told you last time what Indra means. Indra is illumined intelligence, one who has got thousand eyes. So one who was having thousand eyes, he was obstructing the path of Agastya. So Agastya complains and says, "Oh Indra, I am your brother, I am your friend, why do you obstruct me?" So Indra now replies — this is a dialogue between Indra and Agastya — Sri Aurobindo has described this dialogue (it is a very short dialogue, five verses) and then Sri Aurobindo has also given an illuminating commentary on it, one day you should read it. So Indra, first of all, to show that he is not obstructing, immediately discusses the ultimate reality. He says, "Look, you are complaining, but what you are looking for, I know. You want the ultimate reality, and I am telling you now what is the ultimate reality". Right from the beginning, the very first verse, is a description of the ultimate reality: I am revealing to you what is the ultimate reality. And he says: "It is neither yesterday, nor today". This is the first description of that reality. It will be neither tomorrow, neither yesterday nor today, nor tomorrow. That is the first expression of that ultimate reality. Meaning thereby that it is not something which is yesterday and which will not be today. It is something that is na nunamasti na shwah, neither today nor tomorrow. It is eternal. This is the first description. It is eternal. And then he says, "Who knows That reality, that reality which is wonderful?" Kastadveda yadadbhutam. Who knows that reality which is wonderful? Then with the very next sentence he gives the description, why it is wonderful. How to describe the wonderful? It is one and yet it has a motion in another. It is one. There is beside it no other one. And yet it is such a reality that has a motion in the other one. It is a very difficult sentence to understand, one reality which has a motion in the other, -- Anyasya chittamabhi samcharenyam. It is one which has a motion abhisamcharenyam, which has a motion, that which has samchar, which moves in what? Anyasya chittam : that other one is consciousness. It is itself existence. But that other one is consciousness. There is a distinction between existence and consciousness, which are both one. And yet you can distinguish between existence and consciousness. That is why it is adbhutam, it is wonderful, something that you cannot grasp, that which is one and yet different from itself, such is the reality. Reality is really that. It is itself and yet different from itself. It exists, it is existence, it is also consciousness, and there is a difference between existence and consciousness. It is in consciousness that it has a movement. In existence it has no motion. It moves, it does not move, therefore adbhutam, it is strange, -- ‘That which does not move and yet it moves’. Therefore it is very strange. Very often you ask the question, what is this statement? In fact some of the people, who don't understand the profundities of reality, will dismiss it away, saying that this is written by somebody who does not understand, primitive, barbaric man. One which is different from itself; one which is static and yet dynamic; that which moves and moves not — what is this?