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<b>RISHI DIRGHATAMA </b>
</p>
<p class="paracenter"></p>
<p class="para"> 
Many of the Upanishadic rishis are familiar to you. Vedic rishis are perhaps not 
so.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> 
Today I will speak of one of the Vedic rishis. Some names of great Vedic rishis 
must have reached your ears —Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, Atri, Parasara, Kanwa (I 
do not know if it is the same Kanwa of whom Kalidasa speaks in his <i>
Shakuntala), </i>
Madhuchchanda. 
All 
of them are seers of mantra, 
hearers of mantra, creators of 
mantra; 
all of them occupy a large place in the Veda. 
Each 
one of them has his speciality, 
each one delivers a mantra that is in its tone, temper and style his own 
although the subject matter, the substance, the fundamental realisation is 
everywhere the same. For example, Vashishtha is characterised by a happy 
clarity, Vishwamitra has force and energy, Kutsa 
is 
sweetness, Dirghatama is 
well-known for his oblique utterances, his paradoxical apopthegms.<sup>1</sup></p>
<br>
<p class="para"> 
Today precisely it is of Dirghatama that we will speak. Dirghatama does not mean 
as the word would indicate to the layman, one who is very tall—<i>&#347;&#257;lapr&#257;&#7745;&#347;urmah&#257;-bhuja&#7717; </i>
in Kalidasa's phrase. Tama is not 
the superlative suffix 
(most), 
it is 
tamas, 
darkness. So, from the name 
itself one may naturally expect that the person was not of</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
<sup>1</sup> Sri Aurobindo says: &quot;In the 
deep and mystic style of the Dirghatamas Auchathya as in the melodious lucidity 
of Medhatithi Kanwa, in the puissant and energetic hymns of Vishwamitra as in Vashishtha's even harmonies we have the same firm foundation of knowledge and 
the same scrupulous adherence to the sacred conventions of the Initiates.&quot;
</p>
<br><p class="para">
Page-8</p>
<hr>
<br>
<p class="para">an 
ordinary category. Indeed the amount of stories and legends that have been woven 
around the name is fantastic—queer, odd, unbelievable, impossible in every way. 
I need not open that chapter.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
I shall speak only of what seems to me probable and believable and likely and it 
must be this that he passed a long time in darkness, engulfed in obscurity. The 
legend says that he was in his mother's womb long past the due time and it seems 
it was of his own will. His mother's name was Mamata and his father was 
Uchathya. When he came out of the darkness and saw the light, it was a light 
strangely glimmering with all the vibrations of the long obscurity to which he 
had been accustomed. It was indeed the Light beyond the confines of all 
darkness, nescience, and yet carrying a mystic imprint of the mysteries of 
darkness. So he started his quest with this questioning:
</p>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"><i>
	&quot;</i>I<i> </i>am an innocent babe, my ignorant mind knows nothing, who will 
	tell me of the secret seats of the Godheads?&quot; (Rigveda—I. 164.)
	</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para"> 
Indeed the darkness and the blindness seem to have been the Divine's grace upon 
him, for his eyes turned inward to other domains and saw strange truths and 
stranger facts. We remember in this connection another blind old poet who even 
though fallen on such evil days composed the world famous epic-poem (I am 
referring obviously to Milton and his <i>Paradise Lost).</i>
We remember also here 
the deaf incomparable master of music Beethoven. Many of the sayings of 
Dirghatama have become so current that they
</p>
<br><p class="para">
Page-9</p>
<hr>
<br>
<p class="para">are now 
familiar even to the common man. They are mottos and proverbs we all quote at 
all times. &quot;Truth is one, the wise call it in different ways&quot;—the mantra is from 
Dirghatama. &quot;Heaven is my father, Earth my mother&quot;— this is also from 
Dirghatama. The famous figure of two birds with beautiful wings dwelling on the 
same tree comes also from Dirghatama. There are a good many sayings of this kind 
that have become intimate companions to our lips of which the source we do not 
know. When we read the mantras of Dirghatama we are likely to exclaim even as 
the villager did when he first saw <i>Hamlet </i>
played in London, &quot;It is full of quotations.&quot;</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> 
You must have already noticed that the utterance of Dirghatama carries a 
peculiar turn, even perhaps a twist. In fact his mantras are an enigma, a riddle 
to which it is sometimes difficult to find the fitting key. For example when he 
says, &quot;What is above is moving downward and what is down is moving upward; yes, 
they who are below are indeed up above and they who are up are here below,&quot; or 
again, &quot;He who knows the father below by what is above, and he who knows the 
father who is above by what is below is called the poet (the seer creator)&quot;, we 
are, to say the least, not a little puzzled.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> 
The old delightful rishi—to use the epithets he gives to his Agni—and blind into 
the bargain, continues, the substance and manner in the same way paradoxical and 
enigmatic, perhaps deliberately tantalising and confusing:
</p>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"> 
	&quot;Those who are called feminine are masculine, yes, </p>
	<p class="para">
	only they who have eyes can see, the blind do not know.
	</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para">
Page-10</p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"> 
	&quot;The son is the seer-poet, he knows and he </p>
	<p class="para">
	alone knows these things who is the father of the father.&quot;
	</p>
	<p class="para"> 
	(I. 164-16.)
</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para"> 
Then again look at this picture almost surrealistic in its boldness:
</p>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"> 
	&quot;The cow gazing upward holds with her front legs the hind legs of her calf 
	and the calf with its front legs holds the hind legs of its mother.&quot; 
	(I.164-17.)
	</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para"> 
Needless to say these are signs and symbols and figures of a language seeking to 
express truths and realities of an invisible world, spiritual and occult. We are 
reminded of the &quot;twilight&quot; language of the poet-saints <i>(Siddhacharyas) </i>
of Bengal of much later days.</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> 
There is no end to the problems that face Dirghatama with his almost tormented 
mind. Listen once more to this riddle:
</p>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"> 
	&quot;Even he who has created this does not know it. </p>
	<p class="para">
	Even to him who has seen it, it remains veiled. One who 
	</p>
	<p class="para">
	is shrouded in his mother's womb with his many 
	</p>
	<p class="para">
	progenies has entered into untruth (I. 164-32).</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para"> 
Here are some more of his aspirations, the questions that trouble him, the 
riddles whose solution he needs most. He calls upon the world and asks:
</p>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"> 
	&quot;Tell me where is the end of this earth? Tell me where </p>
	<p class="para">
	is the nodus of this universe? Tell me what is the
	</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para">
Page-11</p>
<hr>
<br>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"> 
	meaning of the energy-flow from the energetic steed? </p>
	<p class="para">
	Tell me again what is the word that is in the highest spaces?&quot; (Rik 34.)
	</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para"> 
To these abstruse questions he himself gives, I am afraid, abstruse answers:
</p>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"> 
	&quot;This sacrificial altar is the extreme end of the earth, </p>
	<p class="para">
	this sacrifice is the nodus of the universe, and this nectar of immortality 
	(Soma)</p>
	<p class="para">
	is the energy-flow of the the steed and this Brahman is the Word 
	</p>
	<p class="para">
	in the supreme heaven.&quot; (Rik 35.)
	</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para"> 
As are the questions so are the answers, equally enigmatic and obscure.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> 
About the Word, the mystery which Dirghatama unveils is an extraordinary 
revelation—so curious, so illuminating. In later times many lines of spiritual 
discipline have adopted his scheme and spread it far and wide. Dirghatama 
himself was an uncommon wizard of words. The truths he saw and clothed in 
mantras have attained, as I have already said, general celebrity. He says: &quot;The 
Word is of four categories. It has four stations or levels or gradations.&quot; The 
Rishi continues: &quot;Three of them are unmanifested, unbodied; only the fourth one 
is manifest and bodied, on the tongue of man.&quot; This terminology embodying a 
fundamental principle has had many commentaries and explanations. Of these the 
most well-known is that given by the Tantras. They have named the fourfold words 
as (1) <i>par&#257;,</i> 
supreme; (2) <i>pa&#347;yant&#299;</i>, 
the seeing<br>
</p><p class="para">
Page-12</p>
<hr>
<br>
<p class="para">
one; (3) <i>madhyam&#257;</i>, 
the middle one or the one within 
and (4) <i>vaikhar</i><i>&#299;</i>,
the articulate word. In 
modem language we may say that the first one is the self-vibration of the 
Supreme Being or Consciousness; the second is the vibration of the higher-mind 
or the pure intelligence; the third is the vibration of the inner heart; and the
fourth 
the vibration of physical sound, of 
voice. In philosophical terms of current English we may name these as 
( 1) 
revelatory, (2) intuitive, (3) 
inspirational and (4) vocal.</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
Now in conclusion I will just speak of the fundamental vision of the rishi. His 
entire realisation, the whole Veda of his life, he has, it appears, pressed into 
one single &#7771;k. 
We have heard it said that the entire range of all scriptures is epitomised in 
the Gita and the Gita itself is epitomised in one sloka<i> 
- sarv</i><i>adharm</i><i>&#257;</i><i>n
</i><i>parityajya</i>
. . . Even so we may say 
that Rishi Dirghatama has summarised his experience, at least the fundamental 
basic one, and put it into a 
sutra. 
It is the famous 
&#7771;k
with which he opens his long 
hymn to Surya:</p>
<blockquote>
	<p class="para"> 
	&quot;Lo, this delightful ancient Priest and Summoner; he has a second </p>
	<p class="para">
	brother who is the devourer. There is a third brother with a 
	</p>
	<p class="para">
	dazzling luminous facet—there I saw the Master of the 
	</p>
	<p class="para">
	worlds along with his seven sons.&quot;
	</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="para"> 
This is again a sphinx puzzle indeed. But what is the meaning? The universe, the 
creation has its fundamental truth in a Trinity: Agni (the Fire-god) upon earth, 
Vayu (the Wind-god) in the middle regions and in heaven the
</p>
<br>
<p class="paracenter">
Page-13</p>
<hr>
<br>
<p class="para">Sun. In 
other words, breaking up the symbolism We may say that the creation is a triple 
reality, three principles constitute its nature. Matter, Life and Consciousness 
or status, motion and Light. This triplicity however does not exhaust the whole 
of the mystery. For the ultimate mystery is imbedded within the heart of the 
third brother, for our rishis saw there the Universal Divine Being and his seven 
sons. In our familiar language we may say it is the Supreme Being, God himself 
(Purushottama) and his seven lines of self-manifestation. We have often heard of 
the seven worlds or levels of being and consciousness, the seven chords of the 
Divine Music. In more familiar terms we say that body and life and mind form the 
lower half of the cosmic reality and its upper half consists of Sat-Chit-Ananda 
(or Satya-Tapas-Jana)</p>
<p class="para">And the 
link, the nodus that joins the two spheres is the fourth principle (Turya), the 
Supermind, Vijnana. Such is the vision of Rishi Dirghatama, its fundamental 
truth in a nutshell. To know this mystery is the whole knowledge and knowing 
this, one need know nothing else.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> 
A word is perhaps necessary to complete the sense of the commentary. Agni has 
been called old and ancient <i>(palita), </i>
but why? 
Agni 
is 
the first among the gods. He has 
come down upon earth, entered into matter with the very creation of the material 
existence. He is the secret energy hidden in the atom which is attracting, 
invoking all 
the other gods to manifest themselves. It is he who drives the material 
consciousness in its evolutionary re-course upward towards the radiant fullness 
in the solar Supra Consciousness at the ·summit. He is 
.however 
not only</p>
<p class="para">
<br>
</p><p class="para">
Page-14</p>
<hr>
<br>
<p class="para">energy, 
he is also delight <i>(v&#257;ma). </i>
For he is the Soma, the 
nectarous flow, occult 
in the Earth's body. For 
Earth is the storehouse of the sap of Life, the source of the delightful growths 
of Life here below.</p>
<br><p class="para">
Page-15</p>
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