At the Feet of The Mother

The two Oceans

In “Secret of the Vedas”, Sri Aurobindo writes:

The Veda speaks of two oceans, the upper and the lower waters. These are the ocean of the subconscient, dark and inexpressive, and the ocean of the superconscient, luminous and eternal expression but beyond the human mind. Vamadeva in the last hymn of the fourth Mandala speaks of these two oceans. He says that a honeyed wave climbs up from the ocean and by means of this mounting wave which is the Soma (aṁśu) one attains entirely to immortality; that wave or that Soma is the secret name of the clarity (ghṛtasya, the symbol of the clarified butter); it is the tongue of the gods; it is the nodus (nābhi) of immortality.

Samudrād ūrmir madhumān udārad,
upāṁśunā sam amṛtatvam ānaṭ;
Ghṛtasya nāma guhyaṁ yad asti,
jihvā devānām amṛtasya nābhiḥ.

I presume there can be no doubt that the sea, the honey, the Soma, the clarified butter are in this passage at least psychological symbols….

The superconscient, the sea of the subconscient, the life of the living being between the two,—this is the Vedic idea of existence….