Aditi (अदिति)

Aditi (Samskrit: अदिति) is one of the outstanding deities of the Veda. Rigveda describes her as the Mother of all Devas, the most luminous possessor of the light of Truth (Rig. Veda. 1.136.3). She is the आद्याशक्ति (ādyāśakti), the Transcendent Mother, पराशक्ति (parāśakti), the Supreme Mother, and the महाशक्ति (mahāśakti), the Mother of the cosmos, as described in the vision of the Tantra.

Introduction

Aditi is commonly regarded as the mother of Devatas.

Etymology

The word अदिति (aditi) is constituted of two components: अ (a) and दिति (diti).

• The sound ‘अ a’ here is a negative prefix meaning ‘not’.
• The word ‘दिति diti’ is derived from a lost root ‘दि di’ which means to cut, split or separate or divide. It is important to note that the fundamental experience associated with the seed-sound द (da) is a forceful motion which splits, divides, separates. So, दिति (diti) refers to division, split, separation, duality etc.
• The word अदिति (aditi) — ‘not diti’ or ‘not divided’ thus refers to that which is indivisible.
• Hence अदिति (aditi) is the undivided consciousness. In the Vedic tradition अदिति (aditi) is identified as the mother of Devas, the infinite mother, the supreme Prakriti, in opposition to दिति (diti) the divided consciousness from whom all the दैत्य (daitya-s) or demons are born.

The word अदिति (aditi) can also be derived from the root अद्(ad) meaning ‘to eat’. ‘To eat’ also means: ‘to swallow’, ‘to envelope’, ‘to encompass’, ‘to embrace’. So, in this sense अदिति (aditi) is ‘the all-encompassing or enveloping consciousness’; the vast infinite consciousness having the power to clothe itself in finite forms.

Esoteric Meaning

As per Sri Aurobindo,

"Aditi is the infinite Light of which the divine world is a formation and the gods, children of the infinite Light, born of her in the Ritam, manifested in that active truth of her movement guard it against Chaos and Ignorance. It is they who maintain the invincible workings of the Truth in the universe, they who build its worlds into an image of the Truth."

The esoteric qualities of Aditi described in Rigveda (8.47.9) are

अदितिर्न उरुश्यत्वदितिः शर्म यच्छतु

May Aditi make us vast ( uruśyatu); May Aditi bestow ( yacchatu) on us ( naḥ) the true happiness ( śarma).

Each female divine form is a form of अदिति (aditi), the infinite Conscious-Force, the executive Energy, the Will or Law, the Maya, the Prakriti, the Shakti which is behind all happenings. This supreme Energy formulates itself in different forms like Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Kali etc. as the Mother of the worlds.