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Writer's pictureShrikant Soman

Our Eternal Quest for Answer - Part 1




She follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming, - Usha widens bringing out that which lives, awakening someone who was dead.... What is her scope when she harmonises with the dawns that shone out before and those that now must shine? She desires the ancient mornings and fulfils their light; projecting forwards her illumination she enters into communion with the rest that are to come.

Kutsa Angirasa - Rig Veda.1 1. 113. 8, 10


Threefold are those supreme births of this divine force that is in the world, they are true, they are desirable; he moves there wide-overt within the Infinite and shines pure, luminous and fulfilling.... That which is immortal in mortals and possessed of the truth, is a god and established inwardly as an energy working out in our divine powers.... Become high-uplifted, O Strength, pierce all veils, manifest in us the things of the Godhead.

Vamadeva - Rig Veda.- IV. 1. 7; IV. 2. 1; IV. 4.5


The quest for answers to fundamental aspects of life has always been the same since eternity. This quest does have its ups and downs as well as moments of scepticism and banishment. But it rebounds with vigour to again reach the height of enquiry. It is also the highest range which the human mind is capable of rising to. It manifests itself in various forms at different times. We can visualise it

  • in the divination of Godhead,

  • in the impulse towards perfection,

  • in the search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss,

  • in the sense of a secret immortality

The Vedic seers have embodied it in the ancient scriptures.


This is metaphorically explained as ‘the ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration’.

We witness this quest in these scriptures as partially reproduced at the beginning of this chapter.


Thus we see : “She follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming”. (Kutsa Angirasa—Rig Veda)

We also see :”She desires the ancient mornings and fulfils their light” These mystical uttering’s have a profound meaning. It indicates the quest after the higher knowledge as a continuum in time – without beginning and without an end. It also indicates the heights of knowledge scaled in ancient times are the same heights we are scaling again and again – there is no ‘higher’ height to be scaled. The same quest is taking in different forms and shapes. Therefore it is said : “ She desires the ancient mornings and fulfils their light; projecting forwards her illumination she enters into communion with the rest that are to come “(Kutsa Angirasa—Rig Veda)


Today we are witnessing an explosion of knowledge, particularly with the proliferation of the internet. We have our friend Google, Wikipedia, Quora, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp and many more to satisfy our thirst for knowledge. The human enquiry is taking all directions across the globe with full vigour and interest.


Inspite of having a sea of knowledge, we are still not satisfied. We have made great progress in the ‘victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature’. Interestingly, we are still getting drawn by our ancient longing after the True Knowledge hidden behind these externalities of Nature.

Inspite of going to great length with our scientific discovery of the microcosm of atoms and electrons and the cellular life and the macrocosm of the stars and planets and galaxies and the cosmos, we are realising that the earliest formula of knowledge is also its last, and that is : God, Light, Freedom, Immortality. Therefore, we, the modern age humanity, join the Vedic seer Rishi Vamdeva in Rigveda, in his invocation : “Become high-uplifted, O Strength, pierce all veils, manifest in us the things of the Godhead. “ (Vamadeva—Rig Veda)


We see here that our normal day to day experience is anything but these deeper revelations of higher and true reality. Our normal experiences of life are full of strife and discord, division, violence and darkness of ignorance and selfish motives. These higher experiences are therefore appearing to be ‘abnormal’ for the humanity at large. We can hope to reach the heights by a revolutionary individual effort, in a direct and speedy manner or by a very slow progress through the normal ‘evolution’ of humanity.


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