Discoveries of The Vedic Rishis - Discoveries of The Vedic Rishis 503

What is the process by which they set about their task? First of all they went upwards. In fact, what we call Yoga, you have heard the word “Yoga” very often, it is a movement of uniting ourselves with the Light we possessed once, but have lost. It’s a re-union, in fact. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word “yug”, “to join”. In English you have the word “yoke”; when you have a bull, you yoke it to the cart, - this is the same word. So Yoga is a joining. Now, the Angirasa Rishis had lost the cows and they wanted to unite with the cows. This is a process of Yoga, and the Veda is therefore regarded as the origin of Yoga. The whole yogic process throughout the world ultimately can be traced to this great discovery made by the Vedic Rishis. They gave the first design of Yoga that we find anywhere. And what is the Yogic process? Go upwards first, you climb up. It is called the process of ascent.

As you make an effort upwards, there is a response. This is the law of this world. This also was discovered by the Vedic Rishis: If you try to go upwards, a help will always come from above to lift you up. This is the law which Sri Aurobindo has written down in a small book called The Mother. It’s a very short book. In the first paragraph you will find: “Aspiration from below and Grace from above, when the two unite, gives you accomplishment.” Whenever there is aspiration the Grace will come from above. The junction of the two gives you accomplishment; you realize what you are looking for. Yoga is nothing but the movement of aspiration, you just aspire.

This law of aspiration was given by the Vedic Rishis. This was the discovery: that if you want to go upwards, you just aspire. All the mantras of the Veda are mantras of aspiration. It’s a call from below. As a result of it the Higher Light descends.

As to this Higher Light, I have told you the algebraic terms: Surya, the sun, is the Supermind.

Below Supermind is another region, above our mind and below Supermind, which is the domain of Indra, the Illumined Intelligence. So when the Vedic Rishis began to aspire, began to make sacrifice, -- because the sacrifice is nothing but an expression of aspiration, -- the first thing that happened was that Indra came down. It is said in a legend that Indra came on horseback with his lightning, tremendous force. Indra is supposed to be tremendously powerful. He comes down from above with the force of lightning, thunder and rain. And as soon as he came down to help these Rishis, it was found that Sarama was proceeding forward.

Now Sarama is a very interesting term in the Veda; it’s also an algebraic term. If you read the description of Sarama, from the external point of view, just as “cow” means Light, the word sarama means “a dog”. But the inner meaning of this “dog” is that it is the power of Intuition. The Illumined Intelligence comes down, but that which leads this Illumined Intelligence is Intuition, the intuitive power of consciousness. This Intuition has a tremendous force of penetration. The special power of Intuition is that it always penetrates. Illumination reveals, does not penetrate, but Intuition penetrates and brings out from below. It is the specialty of intuition. It can go into the darkest corners, penetrate the darkness, and bring out the Light. The Veda says therefore, “Indra was preceded by Sarama, and as she went down...” The power of Intuition went down; it was a process of descent now. Going up to Indra was a process of ascent, the coming down of Indra a process of descent, and now Sarama descends into lower and lower levels to penetrate, to find out where the lost cows are. So they come down.

And then Sarama meets the Panis. I have already spoken to you of the Panis earlier; I said that there are Asuras, Rakshasas, Pishachas, Panis, Vritra. The Panis are merchants, traffickers or bargainers who work on behalf of the adverse forces. They saw that Sarama was a powerful intuitive Light, and that if she were allowed to go into the cave, into the descending movement, then she would find the lost cows. So the Panis came forward and said to Sarama, “Stop! Stop! We have something to talk to you about.”

So Sarama had a dialogue with the Panis. They said, “Join us, become our ambassador. We are very powerful, we know you. Become our ambassador and don’t go farther; be with us.”

But Sarama belonged to the Divine Force, to Indra, so she spurned the offer. They offered a lot, saying, “We shall give you this, we shall give you that. We have got tremendous wealth!” The Panis have a lot of wealth; they are merchants of wealth but Sarama refused all that and went ahead into the deep darkness of a hill. She cut across the caves, and in the deepest cavern the Shining Cows were found.

And then Indra came down with his power of thunder and lightning, broke everything open the cave was fully broken and the lost cows were discovered. That was the achievement.

If you read the Veda you will very often find references to this story. Not the full story that I told you just now sometimes it’s one part and sometimes another but if you put it all together you get this connected story: how the lost cows were found with the help of Sarama, who spurned the Panis’ offer and cleared the way for Indra to come down and break open the hill and deliver the cows. That which was lost was regained.

This was supposed to be the great victory of the Veda, of the Vedic Rishis. This was not philosophy, not speculation, but realization; concretely realized. The Vedic Rishis had really repossessed the Light that had been lost. In fact, it is the story of all of us. We have all lost the cows and now we are all searching, we are looking for the cows. Therefore, the Yoga done by the Angirasa Rishis is also that which they prescribe to us. The Yoga is very simple, we know the whole process: You aspire, make a sacrifice, attain the Illumined Intelligence, develop the power of Intuition, rise even up to Supermind; and as you rise upwards you will be better and better able to go downwards. Possess the Supermind, come down with Indra, and Intuition will always help you it will go forward, ahead of you, so develop the intuitive power.

Don’t leave the earth: Go down, you have reached the heights, but you must also go down, descend and then by persistent effort, very difficult effort… A big battle takes place here. In the Agenda the Mother speaks of this battle with the Inconscience. As you go down into the cave of darkness of the Inconscience, (the Inconscient is nothing but the lost Light itself, so actually speaking the Inconscience is a reversal of Light), by the power of Intuition you go down and you illumine it. That is where you find the lost cows, the lost Light, and then you bring it out. You possess it now fully in your self-consciousness.

This is the simple formula of the Yoga of the Veda. All the Yogic processes that have been developed in the world (there are many such processes) have ultimately, behind them, this basic experience. All are different formulations, partial formulations, inadequate formulations, exclusive formulations but this is the basic formulation. All the others do not follow exactly everything given here, but only follow partially, and therefore some yogas are exclusive, some are partial, some are narrow and give narrow results, not all the results. They don’t give all the results which the Vedic Rishis obtained by following this entire process.

This process consisted of three parts: aspire, make a sacrifice; then there will be a descent from above; the Intuitive power will come with you, will come down and fight in the Inconscience, and then will draw out the Light. This is the general formula.