Rudra
(Mother:) “... You know, there are not many whom I usually scold; moreover, there are very few who can bear it. And no one can look directly into my eyes when the form of Rudra enters into me. No one. They will be as if petrified. It is very dangerous. It is very rare. Very, very rare that this aspect of Rudra has descended into me. I do not want it because I know the consequences. It can ruin someone, disbalance his life entirely and make him mad. It is very powerful, this aspect – no one can stand before me. That is why I do not like to be harsh, to do things violently in order to bring about a change. With this form, this method of shaking violently, penetrating the consciousness, I could do everything so rapidly. With him there is no compromise – accept, yes; if not, be destroyed.
This is the only method – when I see that the things are going from bad to worse, I have only to take a semblence of this form, not even the form, and things will be arranged as they should be. All the same, I have always this compassion and this love behind, in my consciousness, even during these moments of anger, otherwise it would be a real fire, like a fire which burns everything. I do not get angry so easily, I have a patience which could be stretched, very long like rubber … I remember, it was once or twice I think … that this force of Rudra descended in me. It was a very minute part. It had descended in me partially, because at the moment I noticed it descending in me, I refused it ...
I usually do not get angry, otherwise it would be the end of the world.”[1]
(Sri Aurobindo:) “Certainly, rudra must have meant at one time, ‘shining, deep-coloured, red’ like the roots ruṣ and ruś, rudhira, ‘blood’, ‘red’, the Latin ruber, rutilus, rufus, all meaning red. Rodasī, the dual Vedic word for heaven and earth, meant probably, like rajas and rocana, other Vedic words for the heavenly and earthly worlds, ‘the shining’. On the other hand the sense of injury and violence is equally inherent in this family of words and is almost universal in the various roots which form it. ‘Fierce’ or ‘violent’ is therefore likely to be as good a sense for rudra as ‘red’. The Ashwins are both hiraṇyavartanī and rudravartanī, because they are both powers of Light and of nervous force; in the former aspect they have a bright gold movement, in the latter they are violent in their movement. In one hymn (V.75.3) we have the combination rudrā hiraṇyavartanī, violent and moving in the paths of light...”[2]
“For the upward movement of Brahmanaspati’s formations Rudra supplies the force. He is named in the Veda the Mighty One of Heaven, but he begins his work upon the earth and gives effect to the sacrifice on the five planes of our ascent. He is the Violent One who leads the upward evolution of the conscious being; his force battles against all evil, smites the sinner and the enemy; intolerant of defect and stumbling he is the most terrible of the gods, the one of whom alone the Vedic Rishis have any real fear. … But this violent and mighty Rudra who breaks down all defective formations and groupings of outward and inward life, has also a benigner aspect. He is the supreme healer. Opposed, he destroys; called on for aid and propitiated he heals all wounds and all evil and all sufferings. The force that battles is his gift, but also the final peace and joy.”[3]
“Rudra is the Divine as the master of our evolution by violence and battle, smiting and destroying the Sons of Darkness and the evil they create in man.”[4]
- ↑ Blessings of the Grace: Conversations with the Mother Recollected by Mona Sarkar and Some of Her Written Answers, p.74
- ↑ The Secret of the Veda, p.82, “The Ashwins—Indra—the Vishwadevas”
- ↑ Ibid., p.346, “Vishnu, the All-Pervading Godhead”
- ↑ Ibid., p.541, “The Ninth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna”, footnote
See also