soma the gandharva

गन्धर्व इत्था पदमस्य रक्षति पाति देवानां जनिमान्यद्भुतः |
गर्भ्णाति रिपुं निधया निधापतिः सुक्र्त्तमा मधुनो भक्षमाशत || 

4. As the Gandharva he guards his true seat; as the supreme and wonderful One he keeps the births of the gods; Lord of the inner setting, by the inner setting he seizes the enemy.
Those who are utterly perfected in works taste the enjoyment of his honey-sweetness.

हविर्हविष्मो महि सद्म दैव्यं नभो वसानः परि यास्यध्वरम |
राजा पवित्ररथो वाजमारुहः सहस्रभ्र्ष्टिर्जयसि शरवो बर्हत || 

5. O Thou in whom is the food, thou art that divine food, thou art the vast, the divine home; wearing heaven as a robe thou encompassest the march of the sacrifice. King with
the sieve of thy purifying for thy chariot thou ascendest to the plenitude; with thy thousand burning brilliances thou conquerest the vast knowledge.

Soma is the Gandharva, the Lord of the hosts of delight, and guards the true seat of the Deva, the level or plane of the Ananda; gandharva ittha padam asya raksati. He is the Supreme, standing out from all other beings and over them, other than they and wonderful, adbhuta, and as the supreme and transcendent, present in the worlds but exceeding them, he protects in those worlds the births of the gods, pati devanam janimani adbhutah. . The “births of the gods” is a common phrase in the Veda by which is meant the manifestation of the divine principles in the cosmos and especially the formation of the godhead in its manifold forms in the human being. In the last
verse the Rishi spoke of the Deva as the divine child preparing for birth, involved in the world, in the human consciousness. Here he speaks of Him as the transcendent guarding the world
of the Ananda formed in man and the forms of the godhead born in him by the divine knowledge against the attacks of the enemies, the powers of division, the powers of undelight (dvisah , aratıh. ), against the undivine hosts with their formations of a dark and false creative knowledge, Avidya, illusion, (adevırmayah ).

For he seizes these invading enemies in the net of the inner consciousness; he is the master of a profounder and truer setting of world-truth and world-experience than that which is formed by the senses and the superficial mind. It is by this inner setting that he seizes the powers of falsehood,
obscurity and division and subjects them to the law of truth, light and unity; grbhnati ripum nidhaya nidhapatih . Men therefore protected by the lord of the Ananda governing this inner nature are able to accord their thoughts and actions with the inner truth and light and are no longer made to
stumble by the forces of the outer crookedness; they walk straight, they become entirely perfect in their works and by this truth of inner working and outer action are able to taste the entire sweetness of existence, the honey, the delight that is the food of the soul. Sukrttama madhuno bhaksamasata.

Soma manifests here as the offering, the divine food, the wine of delight and immortality, havih. , and as the Deva, lord of that divine offering (havismah ), above as the vast and divine seat, the superconscient bliss and truth, br.hat, from which the wine descends to us. As the wine of delight he flows about and enters into this great march of the sacrifice which is the progress
of man from the physical to the superconscient. He enters into it and encompasses it wearing the cloud of the heavenly ether, nabhas, the mental principle, as his robe and veil. Havir havis.mo
mahi sadma daivyam , nabho vasanah pari yasi adhvaram. The divine delight comes to us wearing the luminous-cloudy veil of the forms of mental experience. In that march or sacrificial ascent the all-blissful Deva becomes the King of all our activities, master of our divinised nature and its energies and with the enlightened conscious heart as his chariot ascends into the plenitude of the infinite and immortal state. Like a Sun or a fire, as Surya, as Agni, engirt with a thousand blazing energies he conquers the vast regions of the inspired truth, the superconscient knowledge; raja pavitraratho vajamaruhah , sahasrabhrstir jayasi sravo brhat. The image is that of a victorious king, sun-like in force and glory, conquering a wide territory. It is the immortality that he wins for man in the vast truth-consciousness, ´sravas, upon which is founded the immortal state. It is his own true seat, ittha padam asya, that the God concealed in man conquers ascending out of the darkness and the twilight through the glories of the Dawn into the solar
plenitudes.

Soma - the divine personality

अरूरुचदुषसः पर्श्निरग्रिय उक्षा बिभर्ति भुवनानि वाजयुः |
मायाविनो ममिरे अस्य मायया नर्चक्षसः पितरो गर्भमा दधुः || ( RV 9.83.3)

This is the supreme dappled Bull that makes the Dawns to shine out, the Male that bears the worlds of the becoming and seeks the plenitude; the Fathers who had the forming knowledge made a form of him by that power of knowledge which is his; strong in vision they set him within as a child to be born.

So far the Rishi has spoken of Soma in his impersonal manifestation, as the Ananda or delight of divine existence in the human being’s conscious experience. He now turns, as is the habit of the Vedic Rishis, from the divine manifestation to the divine Person and at once Soma appears as the supreme Personality, the high and universal Deva. Arurucad usasah prsnir agriyah ; the supreme dappled One, he makes the dawns to shine: uksabibharti bhuvanani vajayuh. ; he, the Bull, bears the worlds, seeking the plenitude. The word prsnih , dappled, is used both of the Bull, the supremeMale, and of the Cow, the female Energy; like all words of colour, sveta, sukra, hari, harit, krsna, hiranyaya, in the Veda it is symbolic; colour, varna, has always denoted quality, temperament, etc., in the language of the Mystics. The dappled Bull is the Deva in the variety of his manifestation, many-hued. Soma is that first supreme dappled Bull, generator of the worlds of the becoming, for from the Ananda, from the all-blissful One they all proceed; delight is the parent of the variety of existences. He is the Bull, uksan, a word which like its synonym vrsan, means diffusing, generating, impregnating, the father of abundance, the Bull, the Male; it is he who fertilises Force of consciousness, Nature, the Cow, and produces and bears in his stream of abundance the worlds. He makes the Dawns shine out,—the dawns of illumination, mothers of the radiant herds of the Sun; and he seeks the plenitude, that is to say the fullness of being, force, consciousness, the plenty of the godhead which is the condition of the divine delight. In other words it is the Lord of the Ananda who gives us the splendours of the Truth and the plenitudes of the Vast by which we attain to Immortality.

The fathers who discovered the Truth, received his creative knowledge, his Maya, and by that ideal and ideative consciousness of the supreme Divinity they formed an image of Him in man, they established Him in the race as a child unborn, a seed of the godhead in man, a Birth that has to be delivered out of the envelope of the human consciousness. Mayavino mamire asyamayaya, nrcaksasah. pitaro garbhama dadhuh. . The fathers are the ancient Rishis who discovered the Way of the Vedic mystics and are supposed to be still spiritually present presiding over the destinies of the race and, like the gods, working in man for his attainment to Immortality. They are the sages who received the strong divine vision, nrcaksasah. , the Truth-vision by which they were able to find the Cows hidden by the Panis and to pass beyond the bounds of the Rodasi, the mental and physical consciousness, to the Superconscient, the Vast Truth and the Bliss (R.V. I.36.7, IV.1.13-18, IV.2.15-18 etc.).

from - the secrets of vedas by aurobindo ghosh. 

Soma - alcohol or inner delight

Rig Veda 9.83

पवित्रं ते विततं बरह्मणस पते परभुर्गात्राणि पर्येषिविश्वतः |
अतप्ततनूर्न तदामो अश्नुते शर्तास इद वहन्तस्तत समाशत || 

1. Wide spread out for thee is the sieve of thy purifying, O Master of the soul; becoming in the creature thou pervadest his members all through. He tastes not that delight who is unripe and whose body has not suffered in the heat of the fire; they alone are able to bear that and enjoy it who have been prepared by the flame.

तपोष पवित्रं विततं दिवस पदे शोचन्तो अस्य तन्तवो वयस्थिरन |
अवन्त्यस्य पवीतारमाशवो दिवस पर्ष्ठमधितिष्ठन्ति चेतसा ||

2. The strainer through which the heat of him is purified is spread out in the seat of Heaven; its threads shine out and stand extended. His swift ecstasies foster the soul that purifies him; he ascends to the high level of Heaven by the conscious heart.

The hymn begins with an imagery which closely follows the physical facts of the purifying of the wine and its pouring into the jar. The strainer or purifying instrument spread out in the seat of Heaven seems to be the mind enlightened by knowledge (cetas); the human system is the jar. Pavitramte vitatam brahmanaspate, the strainer is spread wide for thee, O Master of the soul; prabhur gatrani paryesi visvatah. , becoming manifest thou pervadest or goest about the limbs everywhere. Soma is addressed here as Brahmanaspati, a word sometimes applied to other gods, but usually reserved for Brihaspati, Master of the creative Word. Brahman in the Veda is the soul or soul-consciousness emerging from the secret heart of things, but more often the thought, inspired, creative, full of the secret truth, which emerges from that consciousness and becomes thought of the mind, manma. Here, however, it seems to mean the soul itself. Soma, Lord of the Ananda, is the true creator who possesses the soul and brings out of it a divine creation. For him the mind and heart, enlightened, have been formed into a purifying instrument; freed from all narrowness and duality the consciousness in it has been extended widely to receive the full flow of the sense-life and mind-life and turn it into pure delight of the true existence, the divine, the immortal Ananda.

So received, sifted, strained, the Soma-wine of life turned into Ananda comes pouring into all the members of the human system as into a wine-jar and flows through all of them completely in their every part. As the body of a man becomes full of the touch and exultation of strong wine, so all the physical system becomes full of the touch and exultation of this divine Ananda. The words prabhu and vibhu in the Veda are used not in the later sense, “lord”, but in a fixed psychological significance like pracetas and vicetas or like prajnana and vijnana in the later language. “Vibhu” means becoming, or coming into existence pervasively, “prabhu” becoming, coming into existence in front of the consciousness, at a particular point as a particular object or experience. Soma comes out like the wine dropping from the strainer and then pervading the jar; it emerges into the consciousness concentrated at some particular point, prabhu, or as some particular experience and then pervades the whole being as Ananda, vibhu.

But it is not every human system that can hold, sustain and enjoy the potent and often violent ecstasy of that divine delight. Ataptatanur na tad amo asnute, he who is raw and his body not heated does not taste or enjoy that; srtasa id vahantas tat samasata, only those who have been baked in the fire bear and entirely enjoy that. The wine of the divine Life poured into the system is a strong, overflooding and violent ecstasy; it cannot be held in the system unprepared for it by strong endurance of the utmost fires of life and suffering and experience. The raw earthen vessel not baked to consistency in the fire of the kiln cannot hold the Soma-wine; it breaks and spills the precious liquid. So the physical system of the man who drinks this strong wine of Ananda must by suffering and conquering all the torturing heats of life have been prepared for the secret and fiery heats of the Soma; otherwise his conscious being will not be able to hold it; it will spill and lose it as soon as or even before it is tasted or it will break down mentally and physically under the touch. 

This strong and fiery wine has to be purified and the strainer for its purifying has been spread out wide to receive it in the seat of heaven, tapos pavitram vitatam divas pade; its threads or fibres are all of pure light and stand out like rays, socanto asya tantavo vyasthiran. Through these fibres the wine has to come streaming. The image evidently refers to the purified mental and emotional consciousness, the conscious heart, cetas, whose thoughts and emotions are the threads or fibres. Dyaus or Heaven is the pure mental principle not subjected to the reactions of the nerves and the body. In the seat of Heaven,— the pure mental being as distinguished from the vital and physical consciousness,—the thoughts and emotions become pure rays of true perception and happy psychical vibration instead of the troubled and obscured mental, emotional and sensational reactions that we now possess. Instead of being contracted and quivering things defending themselves from pain and excess of the shocks of experience they stand out free, strong and bright, happily extended to receive and turn into divine ecstasy all possible contacts of universal existence. Therefore it is divas pade, in the seat of Heaven, that the Soma-strainer is spread out to receive the Soma.

Thus received and purified these keen and violent juices, these swift and intoxicating powers of the Wine no longer disturb the mind or hurt the body, are no longer spilled and lost but foster and increase, avanti, mind and body of their purifier; avantyasya pavıtaram asavo. So increasing him in all delight of his mental, emotional, sensational and physical being they rise with him through the purified and blissful heart to the highest level or surface of heaven, that is, to the luminous world of Swar where the mind capable of intuition, inspiration, revelation is bathed in the splendours of the Truth (rtam), liberated into the infinity of the Vast (brhat). Divas prstham adhi tisthanti cetasa. 

from - "secrets of vedas" by aurobindo ghosh. 

Vedic Monotheism

It is a marked, an essential feature of the Vedic hymns that, although the Vedic cult was not monotheistic in the modern sense of the word, yet they continually recognise, sometimes quite openly and simply, sometimes in a complex and difficult fashion, always as an underlying thought, that the many godheads whom they invoke are really one Godhead,—One with many names, revealed in many aspects, approaching man in the mask of many divine personalities. Western scholars, puzzled by this religious attitude which presents no difficulty whatever to the Indian mind, have invented, in order to explain it, a theory of Vedic henotheism. The Rishis, they thought, were polytheists, but to each God at the time of worshipping him they gave preeminence and even regarded him as in a way the sole deity. This invention of henotheism is the attempt of an alien mentality to understand and account for the Indian idea of one Divine Existence who manifests Himself in many names and forms, each of which is for the worshipper of that name and form the one and supreme Deity. That idea of the Divine, fundamental to the Puranic religions, was already possessed by our Vedic forefathers.

The Veda already contains in the seed the Vedantic conception of the Brahman. It recognises an Unknowable, a timeless Existence, the Supreme which is neither today nor tomorrow, moving in the movement of the Gods, but itself vanishing from the attempt of the mind to seize it (R.V. I.170.1). It is spoken of in the neuter as That and often identified with the Immortality, the supreme triple Principle, the vast Bliss to which the human being aspires. The Brahman is the Unmoving, the Oneness of the Gods. “The Unmoving is born as the Vast in the seat of the Cow (Aditi), . . . the vast, the mightiness of the Gods, the One” (III.55.1). It is the one Existent to whom the seers give different names, Indra, Matarishwan, Agni, (I.164.46).

This Brahman, the one Existence, thus spoken of impersonally in the neuter, is also conceived as the Deva, the supreme Godhead, the Father of things who appears here as the Son in the human soul. He is the Blissful One to whom the movement of the Gods ascends, manifest as at once the Male and the Female, vrsan, dhenu. Each of the Gods is a manifestation, an aspect, a personality of the one Deva. He can be realised through any of his names and aspects, through Indra, through Agni, through Soma; for each of them being in himself all the Deva and only in his front or aspect to us different from the others contains all the gods in himself.

Thus Agni is hymned as the supreme and universal Deva in rig veda 5.3.
1."Thou O Agni, art Varuna when thou art born, thou becomest Mitra when thou art perfectly kindled, in thee are all the Gods, O Son of Force, thou art Indra to the mortal who gives the sacrifice."

 2."Thou becomest Aryaman when thou bearest the secret name of the Virgins. They make thee to shine with the radiances (the cows, gobhih. ) as Mitra well-established when thou makest of one mind the Lord of the house and his consort."

3."For the glory of thee, O Rudra, the Maruts brighten by their pressure that which is the brilliant and varied birth of thee. That which is the highest seat of Vishnu, by that thou protectest the secret Name of the radiances" (the cows, gonam). 

4."By thy glory, O Deva, the gods attain to right vision and holding in themselves all the multiplicity (of the vast manifestation) taste Immortality. Men set Agni in them as the priest of the sacrifice when desiring (the Immortality) they distribute (to the Gods) the self-expression of the being."

Indra is similarly hymned by Vamadeva and in this eighty-third Sukta of the ninth Mandala, as in several others, Soma too emerges from his special functions as the supreme Deity.

from : "the secrets of vedas" by aurobindo ghosh. 

vishnu - the all pervading godhead

विष्णोर्नु कं वीर्याणि पर वोचं यः पार्थिवानि विममेरजांसि |
यो अस्कभायदुत्तरं सधस्थं विचक्रमाणस्त्रेधोरुगायः || 

Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out the earthly worlds and that higher seat of our self-accomplishing he supports, he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement. ( RV 1.154.1)

पर तद विष्णु सतवते वीर्येण मर्गो न भीमः कुचरो गिरिष्ठाः | 
यस्योरुषु तरिषु विक्रमणेष्वधिक्षियन्ति भुवनानि विश्वा || 

That Vishnu affirms on high by his mightiness and he is like a terrible lion that ranges in the difficult places, yea, his lair is on the mountain-tops, he in whose three wide movements
all the worlds find their dwelling-place. ( RV 1.154.2)

Vishnu is the wide-moving one. He is that which has gone abroad—as it is put in the language of the Isha Upanishad, sa paryagat,—triply extending himself as Seer, Thinker and Former, in the superconscient Bliss, in the heaven of mind, in the earth of the physical consciousness, tredha vicakramanah. 

In those three strides he has measured out, he has formed in all their extension the earthly worlds; for in the Vedic idea the material world which we inhabit is only one of several steps leading to and supporting the vital and mental worlds beyond. In those strides he supports upon the earth and mid-world,— the earth the material, the mid-world the vital realms of Vayu, Lord of the dynamic Life-principle,—the triple heaven and its three luminous summits, trıni rocana. These heavens the Rishi describes as the higher seat of the fulfilling. Earth, the midworld and heaven are the triple place of the conscious being’s progressive self-fulfilling, trisadhastha, earth the lower seat, the vital world the middle, heaven the higher. All these are contained in the threefold movement of Vishnu.

But there is more; there is also the world where the selffulfilment is accomplished, Vishnu’s highest stride. In the second verse the seer speaks of it simply as “that”; “that” Vishnu, moving yet forward in his third pace affirms or firmly establishes, pra stavate, by his divine might. Vishnu is then described in language which hints at his essential identity with the terrible Rudra, the fierce and dangerous Lion of the worlds who begins in the evolution as the Master of the animal, Pashupati, and moves upward on the mountain of being on which he dwells, ranging through more and more difficult and inaccessible places, till he stands upon the summits. Thus in these three wide movements of Vishnu all the five worlds and their creatures have their habitation.

Earth, heaven and “that” world of bliss are the three strides. Between earth and heaven is the Antariksha, the vital worlds, literally “the intervening habitation”. Between heaven and the world of bliss is another vast Antariksha or intervening habitation, Maharloka, the world of the superconscient Truth of things.

from - "the secrets of vedas" by aurobindo ghosh. 

aurobindo ghosh on swami dayanand saraswati

It is the remarkable attempt by Swami Dayananda, the founder of the Arya Samaj, to re-establish the Veda as a living religious Scripture. Dayananda took as his basis a free use of the old Indian philology which he found in the Nirukta. Himself a great Sanskrit scholar, he handled his materials with remarkable power and independence. Especially creative was his use of that peculiar feature of the old Sanskrit tongue which is best expressed by a phrase of Sayana’s,—the “multi-significance of roots”. We shall see that the right following of this clue is of capital importance for understanding the peculiar method of the Vedic Rishis.

Dayananda’s interpretation of the hymns is governed by the idea that the Vedas are a plenary revelation of religious, ethical and scientific truth. Its religious teaching is monotheistic and the Vedic gods are different descriptive names of the one Deity; they are at the same time indications of His powers as we see them working in Nature and by a true understanding of the sense of the Vedas we could arrive at all the scientific truths which have been discovered by modern research.

Such a theory is, obviously, difficult to establish. The Rig Veda itself, indeed, asserts that the gods are only different names and expressions of one universal Being who in His own reality transcends the universe; but from the language of the hymns we are compelled to perceive in the gods not only different names, but also different forms, powers and personalities of the one Deva. The monotheism of the Veda includes in itself also the monistic, pantheistic and even polytheistic views of the cosmos and is by no means the trenchant and simple creed of modern Theism. It is only by a violent struggle with the text that we can force on it a less complex aspect.

That the ancient races were far more advanced in the physical sciences than is as yet recognised, may also be admitted. The Egyptians and Chaldeans, we now know, had discovered much that has since been rediscovered by modern Science and much also that has not been rediscovered. The ancient Indians were, at least, no mean astronomers and were always skilful physicians; nor do Hindu medicine and chemistry seem to have been of a foreign origin. It is possible that in other branches also of physical knowledge they were advanced even in early times. But the absolute completeness of scientific revelation asserted by Swami Dayananda will take a great deal of proving.

The hypothesis on which I shall conduct my own enquiry is that the Veda has a double aspect and that the two, though closely related, must be kept apart. The Rishis arranged the substance of their thought in a system of parallelism by which the same deities were at once internal and external Powers of universal Nature, and they managed its expression through a system of double values by which the same language served for their worship in both aspects. But the psychological sense predominates and is more pervading, close-knit and coherent than the physical. The Veda is primarily intended to serve for spiritual enlightenment and self-culture. It is, therefore, this sense which has first to be restored.

To this task each of the ancient and modern systems of interpretation brings an indispensable assistance. Sayana and Yaska supply the ritualistic framework of outward symbols and their large store of traditional significances and explanations. The Upanishads give their clue to the psychological and philosophical ideas of the earlier Rishis and hand down to us their method of spiritual experience and intuition. European scholarship supplies a critical method of comparative research, yet to be perfected, but capable of immensely increasing the materials available and sure eventually to give a scientific certainty and firm intellectual basis which has hitherto been lacking. Dayananda has given the clue to the linguistic secret of the Rishis and reemphasised one central idea of the Vedic religion, the idea of the One Being with the Devas expressing in numerous names and forms the many-sidedness of His unity.

With so much help from the intermediate past we may yet succeed in reconstituting this remoter antiquity and enter by the gate of the Veda into the thoughts and realities of a prehistoric
wisdom.

- aurobindho ghosh, from book - "the secret of the veda"

animal sacrifice

animal sacrifice is very vast subject in vedas, in fact it's in the foundation of vedas. so when it is said horse or cow is sacrificed, it's easy for people to declare on that basis that vedas support animal killing. but they don't see other aspects of animal. first and most difficult question is what is animal (pashu) in vedas? and we find numerous opinions about it here. for example in krishna yajur veda 1.2.3 8, soma is called cow, horse, goat, and gold too. 

1.2.3.6 O Soma, give so much, and bear more hither.
7. May he that filleth never miss of fullness. Let me not be parted with life.
8. Thou art gold; be for my enjoyment. Thou art raiment; be for my enjoyment. Thou art a cow; be for my
enjoyment. Thou art a horse; be for my enjoyment. Thou art a goat; be for my enjoyment. Thou art a ram;
be for my enjoyment.

this could be confusing. so to avoid confusion, when we read few more verses which is for the animal to be sacrificed, it almost looks like it is said about the soul. like krishna yajur veda 1.2.5.1 says, " Thou art a Vasvi, thou art a Rudra, thou art Aditi, thou art an Aditya, thou art Çukra, thou art Candra."

purusha sukta itself describes how devtas performed yajna by making purusha as sacrificial animal ( details are here, http://inthevedas.blogspot.in/2013/10/the-purusha-medha.html ) . whatever name we take, or whatever functions we describe in purusha that makes it different animal to be sacrificed like gau, ashwa, aja etc. as purusha is one who dwells the entire universe.  and only purusha is the one which can be termed as all devtas too not any physical animal.

as purusha is all in all of gods, so above confusion of soma being called as animals is also cleared. another thing is how this animal sacrifice is done. for that again KYV gives clear definition, that's by meditation. devtas are also described as born in mind, and thus awakening is desired. awakening from dream of the world. 

1.2.3.1 The thought divine we meditate,
Merciful, for our help,
That giveth glory, and carrieth the sacrifice.
May it guide us safely according as we will.
2. The gods, mind−born, mind−using,
The wise, the sons of wisdom,
May they guard us, may they protect us,
To them honour! to them hail!
3. O Agni, be thou wakeful;
Let us be glad;
Guard us to prosperity;
Grant to us to wake again.

then who does the sacrifice? it's agni, the hotr.
and what are we? a carrier, medium. as the sacrifice is done in body. 

1.1.14.11 Let wise Agni sacrifice , let him be Hotr
Let him arrange the offerings him the seasons.
l What carrieth best is for Agni;
Sing aloud, O thou of brilliant radiance.
From thee wealth, like a cow,

and being more specific here, pranayama is involved. 

1.2.6.3 For offspring thee! For expiration thee! For cross−breathing thee! Breathe thou after offspring. Let
offspring breathe after thee. 

one phrase taittirya samhita repeats, " rakshasas are burnt, evil spirits are burnt". so the conclusion is, soul is the sacrificial animal which is offered in inner fire, agni. that agni purifies the soul and burn the avil spirits, thus leading to awakening.