Page 3 - Seers and Sages of India
P. 3
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.
