The seat of pure mind is a chariot. The chariot signifies movement and it is the emblem of the spiritual journey. The spiritual adventure of the purified mind gradually rises up. The movement of the purified mind is at once free and vast. Division and littleness are not to be found there. It is fully illumined by the light of knowledge. The purified mind is replete with thought-powers, in other words, the Maruts. And it is the Maruts who help the mind in its march towards the Goal.
Spiritual progress takes place by the conjoint force of two powers. They are nothing but the twin horses — life energies — that carry farther and farther the power of Indra. Of the two horses one is the symbol of knowledge, the other is that of power. The more the knowledge and the power of the aspirant increase, the more awakes in him the spiritual mental being in all its virtues. And the pure thought powers or the Maruts turn the flow of knowledge and power towards an inner spiritual discipline.
It is the power of pure thoughts that manifests the light of knowledge in the darkness of ignorance. With the gradual development of such thoughts the true mental being takes birth in the aspirant, i.e., it becomes vivid and real to the aspirant.
The true nature of the pure thought-power is to reveal the mental being by degrees. It is in the true mental being that the real existence and nature of a creature abide. The mental being comes more and more to the fore with the gradual development of the perennial surge of original thoughts. The pure thought-power when manifested presses forth a particular form of the mental being. Then it merges into the heart of the aspirant and comes out from there with a new form and truth. Thus the thought-power reveals the presiding divine Deity of sacrificial fire and spiritual evolution. A 'name' is the manifest power of truth, called 'numen' in Latin. The process of sadhana does not always follow a straight line. At times it goes into the deeper regions of consciousness and emerges from there with a new truth. Hence we notice a play of dissolution and manifestation. The Vedic seers used to express thus the idea: dawn follows night and night follows dawn, dawn then moves forward in a never-ending succession revealing the infinite truth.
In the innermost recesses of consciousness, in the depth of the night, in inert matter lie hidden the rays of knowledge. The divinised mental being penetrates those secret recesses in search of the rays of knowledge imbedded, stolen and stored there and drives the darkness away to rescue the knowledge-rays symbolised by a pair of cows. It is the mental being that turns the twilight of consciousness into the state of full awakening.
What does actually happen when Indra reveals the knowledge-rays after purging out ignorance and darkness? There echoes in the occult hearing the concrete messages of the vast truth. And of what type are those divine messages? They are the divine existences, they follow the divine nature. They infuse the aspirant with a clear and pointed intellect which can discern the quintessence of truth.
The true mental being and his pure thought-powers, Indra and Maruts, are reflected in that pure divine intellect.
Indra is the being of knowledge and delight and Marut is his power manifested in his divine play. On one side is the pure mental existence, on the other there rise and spread the pure thoughts from that mental existence. With their united help the spiritual sacrifice of the aspirant becomes a receptacle of luminous fulfilment.
Then the truth and plenitude of all worlds in all levels make their appearances in the aspirant, starting from the fourth plane which is known in the Upanishad as the asau loka (That world) down to mental world.
The process does not end here. The truth contained in the material earth which is illumined by the mental light as well as the truth of the vital world filled with pure enjoyment and inspiration are concretely apprehended by the aspirant. Earth, air, sky, that is to say, the vast truths of the body, life and mind that are captured by the mental manifest their divine essence in the aspirant. Indra is the divine mental being and Indra is the power that is capable of revealing the truth.
(Concluded)
(Translated by Chinmoy from the original Bengali in "Madhuchchandar Mantramala".)
Translator's note: The remaining suktas of Madhuchchandar Mantramala_ also deal with Indra. So there is hardly any necessity of commentaries. The commentaries given from the fourth sukta to the present one will serve as an aid to make the subsequent suktas comprehensible.From:Sri Chinmoy,The Canvas of Time, Madal Bal, Czech Republic, 2019
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