Page 3 - BHĀRATA –THE LAND OF SEERS AND SAGES

Rishi (ऋषि) - seer

The Sanskrit word ‘Rishi’ It comes from the root ‘Rish’, which

according to Sanskrit grammarians has two meanings, one

being ‘to go, to move’, and the other being ‘to flow, to move

near by flowing’.

The Rishi is thus someone who ‘flows or moves or in tune

with the rhythmic flow or movement of the universe’. He is

one with the movement. He vibrates with the vibration of the

movement. He knows the whole of the movement.

The Rishi is the one through whom the secret words of the

Veda were revealed. He is the one who had the inner sight to

see the Mantra.

According to Sri Aurobindo, the Rishi was not the individual

composer of the hymns but the seer (draṣṭā) of an eternal

truth and an impersonal knowledge. The Rishi does not

merely see, he also hears. To his inner audience‚ the divine

word comes vibrating out of the Infinite. So, he is also called

Kavi, the hearer of Truth.

A Rishi is the possessor of great spiritual and occult

knowledge, the complete inner knowledge.