Usha - The Goddess of the Rig Veda

If you catch the light just before the sun appears, early in the morning, be sure to greet her. Her name is Usha. The Goddess of Dawn.

Usha is a Rig Vedic deity who is the most beautiful maiden personifying the charm of dawn. Since she precedes light, she is also called the Mother Goddess. In the Rig Veda the description of the break of dawn, of the emergence of Ushas, is perhaps the most beautiful passage. She is described as the one who untiringly rises every morning as though born anew to bring life to mankind, to satisfy all their longings and give new strength to every spirit.

Usas in Sankrit means Dawn, Eos in Greek.

Usha is the most important goddess in Rig Veda (sometimes viewed as representing several goddesses). She is celebrated in twenty hymns and mentioned more than three hundred times. She is delicate, shy, luminous and beautifully adorned. Usha is compared to a graceful dancer. Daughter of sky (Dayus), consort of Sun and mother of Ashwins. She arrives each day in a chariot drawn by her sons. She leads Surya and reveals to the world his brilliance and fire.

In the Rig Veda the goddess Usha is consistently associated with and often identified with the dawn. She reveals herself in the daily coming of light to the world. She has been described in the Rig Veda as a young maiden drawn by one hundred horses. She brings forth light and is followed by the sun who urges her onwards. She is praised for driving away, or is petitioned to drive away, the oppressive darkness. She is asked to chase away evil demons. As the dawn she is said to rouse all life, to set all things in motion and to send people off to do their duties. 

In the Rig Veda she is also called 'the mother of cows' and like a cow that yields its udder for the benefit of people, so Usha bares her breasts to bring light for the benefit of human kind. Although she is usually described as a young and beautiful maiden, she is also called 'the mother of the gods and the ashwins'.

In the first book of the Rigveda in the hymns it is said that one who wakes up and worships at dawn, he becomes as bright and radiant as Agni.  He who gets up at dawn and follows the path of intellectuals is knowledgeable (Rigveda 2/61/1).  In praise of dawn, it is also said that dawn makes the best food, it is good at heat, and best amongst all, radiant, and intelligent, young and living by its rules.  Dawn gives the knowledge of gaining immortality.  In Rigveda 3/539/61, it is said dawn is the goddess who destroys darkness - Dawn you fill the whole world with light.  You take away darkness with your light, increase your determination and protect it.

The Usha Sukta about dawn is the most ancient in Rigveda.  The goddess dawn appears in front of the world each and every day.  The morning time, which throws light towards all four directions and gives new life, appears in the form of a godess..

Ushas is like a Celestial Yogini, a Goddess in her own right, and yet even more spiritual than the term "Devi" implies - something deeper that awakens within the deeper recesses of the human psyche and spiritual being. She impels all the Gods to action, and is also the force of power (shakti, shachi) behind the Ashwin gods of the Vedas, which are sought to for healing, boons and siddhis as well as grace and knowledge of all kinds

This is the force of the descending Ushas in the Vedas, that is represented as the Dawn - the rays of the Morning Light that radiate upon us and blind us from this manifest world, which is all but an Illusion, and gives us a glimpse into the Transcendental Consciousness that is our own Reality. 

The Vedic hymns to the Goddess and all deities are clever compositions of inner mechanical Psychological and (Tantric) Yogic workings, as well as showering forth the Descent of Grace and Consciousness and acting as Kavachas (protection mantras) for the sadhaka or spiritual aspirant. In any given Vedic hymn or mantra, it possesses these powers, and hence what can be attained in later times through all Yogas, rituals of Tantra and lengthy symbolism, discussions and metaphoric meditations, is contained in these hymns. So clever the ancient Rishis were, with their language, by the Mother's inspirations!

Source:  Sri Aurobindo, Swami Niranjananda Saraswati

Notes From the Shakta Tantra Asrama