What is the exact meaning/significance of this?

[ken knight]

--- kalyan chakravarthy <kalyan_kc at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Namaskaaram,
>
> What is the exact meaning or significance of the
> following verse?- Rig Veda
> 10.129.7.

Namaste,
I am not the expert that you need for this one but as
this most beautiful hymn is on my desk at the moment I
should maybe give you the little I can.
I will put below the sanskrit transliteration and the
Griffith translation of the whole hymn. I am not a fan
of Griffith's translations of the Vedas but he is a
good starting point for those of us not fluent with
the Sanskrit.
The whole hymn is dealing with the paradoxes that
inevitably arise when we try to perceive or point to
unity from duality (see verse 5). Language is
essentially dualistic and paradox is the necessary
escape route.

Verse 7, being the last verse, echoes the first: 'Then
what is not, was not; what is, was not'.
You can see the Griffith translation below but here is
another for the seventh verse:
'Whence this detailed Self-radiance came,
Whether created or not, only He
In Highest heaven, Who is of this the
Witness, knows whether He knows or not.'

For my own interpretation of this: direct knowledge is
only available to that which 'perceives' and cannot be
transferred 'to another'.  In order to understand the
questions of the first verse we let go of the unreal,
even let go of the gods ( verse 6)and so 'be the Self,
the Witness'.

I know that others will have more for you but that is
my contribution,

Ken Knight
Mandala 10 Hymn 129
nAsadAsIn no sadAsIt tadAnIM nAsId rajo no vyomAparo
yat
kimAvarIvaH kuha kasya sharmannambhaH kimAsId gahanaM
gabhIram
na mRtyurAsIdamRtaM na tarhi na rAtryA ahna
AsItpraketaH
AnIdavAtaM svadhayA tadekaM tasmAddhAnyan na paraH kiM
canAsa
tama AsIt tamasA gULamagre.apraketaM salilaM
sarvamAidam
tuchyenAbhvapihitaM yadAsIt tapasastanmahinAjAyataikam

kAmastadagre samavartatAdhi manaso retaH prathamaM
yadAsIt
sato bandhumasati niravindan hRdi pratISyAkavayo
manISA
tirashcIno vitato rashmireSAmadhaH svidAsI.a.a.at
retodhAAsan mahimAna Asan svadhA avastAt prayatiH
parastAt
ko addhA veda ka iha pra vocat kuta AjAtA kuta
iyaMvisRSTiH
arvAg devA asya visarjanenAthA ko veda yataAbabhUva
iyaM visRSTiryata AbabhUva yadi vA dadhe yadi vA na
yo asyAdhyakSaH parame vyoman so aN^ga veda yadi vA
naveda

HYMN CXXIX. Creation.
1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was
no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was
water there, unfathomed depth of water?
2 Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no
sign was there, the day's and night's divider.
That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own
nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
3 Darkness there was: at first concealed in darknew
this All was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less: by the
great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
4 Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the
primal seed and germ of Spirit.
Sages who searched with their heart's thought
discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.
5 Transversely was their severing line extended: what
was above it then, and what below it?
There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free
action here and energy up yonder
6 Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence
it was born and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world's production. Who
knows then whence it first came into being?
7 He, the first origin of this creation, whether he
formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he
verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.





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