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June 19th, 2005 | #1 |
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'Arya': Its Significance - Sri Aurobindo
http://intyoga.online.fr/signif.htm
The question has been put from more than one point of view. To most Europeans the name [referring to the word 'arya' written in Devanagari characters on the cover of the philosophical monthly 'Arya'] figuring on our cover is likely to be a hieroglyph which attracts or repels according to their temperament. Indians know the word, but it has lost for them the significance which it bore to their forefathers. Western Philology has converted it into a racial term, an unknown ethnological quantity on which different speculations fix different values. Now, even among the philologists, some are beginning to recognise that the word in its original use expressed not a difference of race, but a difference of culture. For in the Veda the Aryan peoples are those who had accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration. The Aryan gods were the supraphysical powers who assisted the mortal in his struggle towards the nature of the godhead. All the highest aspirations of the early human race, its noblest religious temper, its most idealistic velleities of thought are summed up in this single vocable. In later times, the word Arya expressed a particular ethical and social ideal, an ideal of well-governed life, candour, courtesy, nobility, straight dealing, courage, gentleness, purity, humanity, compassion, protection of the weak, liberality, observance of social duty, eagerness of knowledge, respect for the wise and learned, the social accomplishments. It was the combined ideal of the Brahmana and the Kshatriya. Everything that departed from this ideal, everything that tended towards the ignoble, mean, obscure, rude, cruel or false, was termed un-Aryan or anarya (colloq. anari). There is no word in human speech that has a nobler history. In the early days of comparative Philology, when the scholars sought in the history of words for the prehistoric history of peoples, it was supposed that the word Arya came from the root 'ar', to plough, and that the Vedic Aryans were so called when they separated from their kin in the north-west who despised the pursuits of agriculture and remained shepherds and hunters. This ingenious speculation has little or nothing to support it. But in a sense we may accept the derivation. Whoever cultivates the field that the Supreme Spirit has made for him, his earth of plenty within and without, does not leave it barren or allow it to run to seed, but labours to exact from it its full yield, is by that effort an Aryan. If Arya were a purely racial term, a more probable derivation would be 'ar', meaning strength or valour, from 'ar' to fight, whence we have the name of the Greek war-god Ares, areios, brave or warlike, perhaps even arete, virtue, signifying, like the Latin virtus, first, physical strength and courage and then moral force and elevation. This sense of the word also we may accept. "We fight to win sublime Wisdom, therefore men call us warriors." For Wisdom implies the choice as well as the knowledge of that which is best, noblest, most luminous, most divine. Certainly, it means also the knowledge of all things and charity and reverence for all things, even the most apparently mean, ugly or dark, for the sake of the universal Deity who chooses to dwell equally in all. But, also, the law of right action is a choice, the preference of that which expresses the godhead to that which conceals it. And the choice entails a battle, a struggle. It is not easily made, it is not easily enforced. Whoever makes that choice, whoever seeks to climb from level to level up the hill of the divine, fearing nothing, deterred by no retardation or defeat, shrinking from no vastness because it is too vast for his intelligence, no height because it is too high for his spirit, no greatness because it is too great for his force and courage, he is the Aryan, the divine fighter and victor, the noble man, aristos, best, the srestha of the Gita. Intrinsically, in its most fundamental sense, Arya means an effort or an uprising and overcoming. The Aryan is he who strives and overcomes all outside him and within him that stands opposed to the human advance. Self-conquest is the first law of his nature. He overcomes earth and the body and does not consent like ordinary men to their dullness, inertia, dead routine and tamasic limitations. He overcomes life and its energies and refuses to be dominated by their hungers and cravings or enslaved by their rajasic passions. He overcomes the mind and its habits, he does not live in a shell of ignorance, inherited prejudices, customary ideas, pleasant opinions, but knows how to seek and choose, to be large and flexible in intelligence even as he is firm and strong in his will. For in everything he seeks truth, in everything right, in everything height and freedom. Self-perfection is the aim of his self-conquest. Therefore, what he conquers he does not destroy, but ennobles and fulfils. He knows that the body, life and mind are given him in order to attain to something higher than they; therefore they must be transcended and overcome, their limitations denied, the absorption of their gratifications rejected. But he knows also that the Highest is something which is no nullity in the world, but increasingly expresses itself here, - a divine Will, Consciousness, Love, Beatitude which pours itself out, when found, through the terms of the lower life on the finder and on all in his environment that is capable of receiving it. Of that he is the servant, lover and seeker. When it is attained, he pours it forth in work, love, joy and knowledge upon mankind. For always the Aryan is a worker and warrior. He spares himself no labour of mind or body whether to seek the Highest or to serve it. He avoids no difficulty, he accepts no cessation from fatigue. Always he fights for the coming of that kingdom within himself and in the world. The Aryan perfected is the Arhat. There is a transcendent Consciousness which surpasses the universe and of which all these worlds are only a side-issue and a by-play. To that consciousness he aspires and attains. There is a Consciousness which, being transcendent, is yet the universe and all that the universe contains. Into that consciousness he enlarges his limited ego; he becomes one with all beings and all inanimate objects in a single self-awareness, love, delight, all-embracing energy. There is a consciousness which, being both transcendental and universal, yet accepts the apparent limitations of individuality for work, for various standpoints of knowledge, for the play of the Lord with His creations; for the ego is there that it may finally convert itself into a free centre of the divine work and the divine play. That consciousness too he has sufficient love, joy and knowledge to accept; he is puissant enough to effect that conversion. To embrace individuality after transcending it is the last and divine sacrifice. The perfect Arhat is he who is able to live simultaneously in all these three apparent states of existence, elevate the lower into the higher, receive the higher into the lower, so that he may represent perfectly in the symbols of the world that with he is identified in all parts of his being, - the triple and triune Brahman. Sri Aurobindo |
June 20th, 2005 | #2 |
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Excellent:how can anyone fault that?
I would like to add something else on the perceived etymology of the word by Guido von List: "The "ar",the "urfyr"[primal fire,god],the "sun",the "light" will destroy spiritual as well as physical darkness,doubt,and uncertainty. In the sign of the Ar the Aryans-the sons of the sun-founded their law[Rita],the primal law of the Aryans,of which the earn,or eagle[Aar],is the hieroglyph."[The Secret of the Runes{Das Geheimnis der Runen}]. By extension of von List`s thought I would contend that the Arya is the sun initiate. I personally differentiate between "Aryan" which is more of a general and biological term and "Arya" which I associate more with the spiritual Uebermensch.
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http://aryan-myth-and-metahistory.blogspot.co.uk/ |
June 20th, 2005 | #3 |
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arete virtue
agricola farmer related concepts from the PIE! |
June 20th, 2005 | #4 | |
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German ARBEITEN Lithuanian DIRBTI Latin LABOR |
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June 20th, 2005 | #5 |
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more Ur-language
what about this, from Oxford:
arbitrate • verb act as an arbitrator to settle a dispute. — ORIGIN Latin arbitrari, from arbiter ‘judge, supreme ruler’ |
June 21st, 2005 | #6 | |
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For a reason unknown to me, Latin - according to the American Heritage Dicitonary of IE roots - got 'arbitrari' from a Phoenician loan, 'rb. This makes sense to me at least insofar as it establishes the word arbitrari as alien to IE and the concept of work: what shot to mind for the concept of judgement, on the other hand, was the following complex—Lithuanian prõtas, "mind/intelligence"; Latin putare, "to think"; Russian pytat "to divide/to torture"; Tokharian putk-, "to judge/divide".
So this complex represents concepts of thought, judgement, division and for some twisted reason, in Russian, torture. Which would explain the strangeness of arbitrate. I have no idea how it would have got into Latin; I can't imagine the Roman legal system at the time of the last Punic War would have required a Semitic loan to indicate judge or judgement (judico, censor, index all meant "judge" of slightly variant type; verbs pendo - to judge/consider [putare?], probo, puto - to clear up, consider, believe, think, decide, judge; etc.). A tenative guess would be Christian borrowing: many of the early Church fathers were Semites, and St. Augustine and Tertullian were of Phoenician origin. According to my Latin dictionary, arbitro means to judge or "to bear witness". Both of these meanings smack of Christian concepts—God the Supreme Judge; bearing witness to Christ. Quote:
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June 21st, 2005 | #7 | |
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Actually:
ENTRY: er-1 DEFINITION: To move, set in motion. Oldest form *1er-. I. Basic form *er-. 1. Probably Germanic *ar-, *or-, *art(a), to be, exist. are1, art2, from Old English eart and aron, second person singular and plural present of bon, to be. 2. Perhaps Germanic suffixed form *er-n-os-ti-. earnest1, from Old English eornoste, zealous, serious. 3. Uncertain o-grade suffixed form *ori-yo-. orient, origin, original; abort, from Latin orr, to arise, appear, be born. 4. Suffixed o-grade form *or-sm-. hormone, from Greek horm, impulse, onrush. II. Enlarged extended form *rei-s-. 1. rise; arise, from Old English rsan, from Germanic *rsan; 2. Suffixed o-grade (causative) form *rois-ye-. a. rear2, from Old English rran, to rear, raise, lift up; b. raise, from Old Norse reisa, to raise. Both a and b from Germanic *raizjan. (Pokorny 3. er- 326; ergh- 339.) ...the key here in distinguishing this er- from ar- is the "uncertain o-grade" disclaimer, and of course the obviously different concepts behind each root and its descendants. Germanic is often more abstract than earlier Aryan speech; this accounts for an *ar-/or-/Ur complex denoting existence/being itself rather than some kind of morphology. I haven't read List, but on the surface I cannot take him, or any occultist seriously. He seems to have had a pretty impressive beard, though. I find more value in his foot-long white beard than his highly dubious standpoint. And I have no idea what you mean by the sun initiate. I agree however with your categories Aryan/Arya. That is very useful. Quote:
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June 22nd, 2005 | #8 | |
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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...56037?v=glance |
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June 22nd, 2005 | #9 | |
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I'd rather have it in print, I just don't have the $. |
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June 27th, 2005 | #10 |
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hey I just got that book. this will be very well worth it.
one thing that strikes me is the wide geographic range of the Aryan languages and how much smaller "our" territory is today. lo how the mighty have fallen! |
June 27th, 2005 | #11 | |
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June 28th, 2005 | #12 |
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Have you read "Savitri: A Legend and A Symbol"?
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June 29th, 2005 | #13 | |
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