It is generally accepted that the Rig Veda (more properly the Rg Veda) is the oldest book on the planet. Rig Vedic scholars are a select club, fighting furiously over each riddle in that mysterious old book. My prince among Vedic scholars is Professor Roberto Calasso of Milan, because he gives so much back to us, using real lines from the Vedic slokas as dialogue in books like Ka.When you think about it, power languages like Persian and English gave us a bigger world, they gave us law, commerce, literature, philosophy and livelihood. These languages have worked hard in every area of human endeavour, from the highest metaphysical ideas to the most ribald verse. As indeed, has Sanskrit. Sanskrit’s biggest service to India is that it is our link language. There would be no cultural ties between Kashmir and Kanyakumari, or India and South-east Asia otherwise. So it’s time to stop trashing Sanskrit as the power language of past priests. It’s time to take the ownership so freely offered since so many decades and enjoy its benefits. They say that learning Sanskrit from a good teacher develops the power of concentration and analysis. There’s also the slight matter of its confident beauty. It is the only language on earth that dares to call itself “the perfected tongue”.In that spirit, let’s savour the first line in the world: The first sukta of the first mandala in the Rig Veda 1:1:1. Agnim eeley purohitam yagnasya devam rutvijam/ hotaaram ratna dhaatakaam ‘I pray to Thee, Supreme Lord, the First One, Chief of all deities, Beneficient to all, Receiver of all sacrifice, Bestower of all fruit of sacrifice, Absorber of all that is in all sacrifice, Wearer of all that is beautiful and precious’. A Vedic sloka has four parts. Rishi, or seer who offers the prayer. Devata, the name by which God is prayed to. Chandas: the form of prayer. Viniyoga: the purpose of prayer. Here, the rishi is Madhuchhandas, the ‘deity’ is none but the Parabrahman or Almighty God represented as fire, the chandas (metre) is the Gayatri and the purpose is to beg for enlightenment — to evolve from not-knowing to knowledge, symbolised by the transformative energy of fire: Heat and light. Pursuing this, the Veda further says: Ko agnim eetey havisha ghrutena srucha yajata rutubhir dhruvebhih/ Kasmai deva-a vahanashu homa ko mansate vitahotra sudeva (Rig Veda 1:84:18). To one who knows God well, living by justice and truth, how is it useful to offer butter to the fire with spoons and ladles, each season? One to whom Divinity speedily grants the blessings asked? The Veda’s resplendent point: Rituals are a discipline, but don’t really matter to the Great Giver. A clean heart does.
