Meaning -
The theme of this hymn is Brahma-Jaya, the Jay a of eternal Brahma, the Creator. Jaya means that by which one creates, manifests, and thus finds self-expression and self-fulfilment. Ordinarily it means wife. Husband and wife both find fulfilment of their conjugal life through the birth of progeny. The husband cannot find this fulfilment except through the wife. So the wife is Jaya. In the cosmic context, Brahma being the creator, He creates through Prakrti, Nature. So Prakrti is Jaya (Brhadaranya- kopanishad, 1, 4, 17. But natural creation is not the all of divine creation. The Vedic voice too is the self-expression of divine omniscient consciousness. Thus Vedic voice too is Jaya. Seven mantras of this hymn (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10 and 11) are the same as Rgveda 10, 109, 1-7. In mantra 5, Brahma Jaya is compared to “Juhu’, the yajna ladle. Sayana in his commentary on Rgveda interprets Juhu as Brahma-vadini, self-expressive voice of Brahma. Thus Jaya in this hymn is the Divine Voice. The Voice is Ila in the absolute sense, Sarasvati in the existential sense of the cosmic flow, and Mahi or Bharati in the local context of the global sense. In the beginning, to express and reveal the joyous manifestation (Leela) of the creativity of Supreme Brahma, those first horns of the dynamics of divine law, Akupara, boundless light principle or Aditya Rshi, Salila, liquid principle or Angira Rshi, Matarishva, energy principle or Vayu Rshi, and Viduhara, fiery principle or Agni Rshi, all like yajna fire, burning and creative, illustrious, soothing, flowing, divine souls and spirits, express and reveal the divine voice of the Veda. (The voice they reveal is Ila.) (The word Kilvisham has been interpreted in two senses: joyous expression as above, and sinful violation. As joyous expression we have the divine Veda through the voice of nature and the voice of the Rshis. If the word is interpreted in the sense of sinful violation, then on violation of the divine voice by humanity, and on violence against nature’s beauty and creativity by human pride and ambition for power and luxury, the forces of nature and divine souls in humanity would raise their voice of protest. The result of the joyous voice is happiness, and the result of the voice of protest is bound to be suffering. At the level of comparative literature, especially for Christian readers, we may refer to the Bibical story of creation: When humanity in Paradise violated the divine commandment then: “Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe, That all was lost.” (Milton, Paradise Lost 9,780- 784.) Remember: Both Nature and the Divine Voice are Brahma Jaya. Violence against Nature and the Divine Voice is violence against the creator.)