"Another eye-opener in this context is Sri Aurobindo's statement:" "It is not with physical weapons but with words that Indra fights the Panis (VI. 39.2), panin vacobhir abhi yodhad indrah", Also in connection with another enemy of the Aryans, Vala who is the "coverer" as Vritra is the "obstructor", Indra uses no weapon. His martial achievement is related to the term brahman in the neuter gender, which, according to Macdonell," signifies in the Rigveda nothing more than "prayer" or "devotion". Sri Aurobindo" explains the term more elaborately along the same lines: "Brahman in the Veda signifies ordinarily the Vedic Word or Mantra in its profoundest aspect as the expression of the intuition arising out of the depth of the soul or being." Thus the Rigveda 11.24.3 in its closing portion tells us of divine action: " ...the firm places were cast down, the fortified places were made weak; up Brihaspati drove the cows (rays), by the hymn (brahmands he broke Vala, he concealed the . . darkness, he made Swar visible.'?' Here the story is linked . with Indra no less than Brihaspati, for the Rishi addresses them jointly. And we may observe that "fortified places" which are the puras that Indra is elsewhere said to destroy are on the scene here. Even when Indra's thunderbolt (vajra) comes in (1.33.10) and his "bow" is mentioned in the same hymn, we soon learn both the nature of the power his weapons really deploy and the way in which he works through his devotees: "0 Indra, by the speakers of the word ' (brahmabhib) thou didst cast down the Dasyu, attacking those who can think not (the Truth) by those who think iamanyamanan abhi manyamanalhs"," As I say towards the end of my book: "To ascribe to the Rigvedic Indra and to his fellow-deities or even to his thinker-proteges physical means of slaughter at any place is to strain the text impermissibly. Whatever weapons are named are symbolic and whatever material-looking objects they demolish are equally symbolisations."