Book Review: Secret of the Veda - Sri Aurobindo

Since the inception of the study of the Vedas, through both Indian and European scholarship, the age and subsequent obscurity of the Rig Veda has caused considerable confusion in attempts to interpret its meaning and this has commonly resulted in either naturalistic/ritualistic interpretations or historical ones. Whilst not denying that these interpretations may possess some exoteric validity, in Secret of the Veda, Sri Aurobindo aims to demonstrate the esoteric psychological/spiritual inner layer of the text.
  
Most of the book consists of Aurobindo employing his philological method to explain the use of symbolism within the Rg Veda. We learn that the Cows of the Rg Veda represent the divine light and that the Pani's who steal them in the text represent it's concealing in an un-purified conciousness, the seven great rivers represent the metaphysical streams that flow to the Superconscient,  and Surya himself represents not just the physical sun but the Superconscient truth itself.

I am not a philologist nor am I in anyway an expert on the Vedas but I found his interpretation compelling and illuminating and it is now easy to consider the Upanishads and Puranas as later developments within the same spiritual philosophy rather than as any kind of spiritual revolt against a ritualistic/materialistic tradition.

I would recommend this text to anyone curious about the Rig Veda and its relationship to the rest of Hinduism as a religious tradition.