A new approach to the Vedas : an essay in translation and exegesis

NOTES

involved in our ‘‘ dust to dust.” To the arms of the Cross corresponds the rope of the sacrificial Post; both correspond to “‘ felly ’’ in the symbolism of the World-wheel. The details of these symbolisms are more fully discussed in my Elements of Buddhist Symbolism.

For representations of the Christian Cross as the Tree of Life, see Hildburgh, W. L., A medigval brass pectoral Cross, Art Bulletin, XIV, 1932, pp. 79-102.

72 Whether or not the Comprehensor act-ually per-forms the ritual is a matter of indifference.

The concept of life itself (the ‘“daily round ”) as a ritual is expounded in Chandogya Up., U1,-17, concluding “‘ Death is an ablution after the ceremony (avabhria).”

73 For abhisambhava see, e.g., Chandogya Up., VIM, 13, “asa self perfected I am con-formed (abhisambhavyamt) to the unmade world of Brahman.” For pardavriti, e.g., of maithuna, ef. Brhadaranyaka Up., Vi, 4, and Maitreya-Asanga, Mahayana Sitraélamkara, 1X, 46, also my Paravrtli = transformation, vegeneration, anagogy, in Festschrift Ernst Winternitz, 1933.

Paravrtti, “ transformation,’ “ re-versal,’’ should not be confused with paryinama, “ permutation,’’ which takes place in the order of nature.

To illustrate exactly what is meant by sublimation, transubstantiation ortransformation ‘“‘ I see the lilies in the field, their gaiety, their colour, all their leaves . . . my outward man relishes creatures, as wine and bread and meat. But my inner man relishes things not as creature but as the gift of God. And again to my innermost man they savour not of God’s gift but of ever and aye,” Eckhart, T, 143. The change from one to another of these modes of perception constitutes a death of the soul.

74 No importance need be attached here to the “ etymology ’’ by which the word aéva, “ horse,’”’ is connected with the root $va, “ to swell.’ More plausible derivations are from aé, “ to pervade,’’ “* wander wide,’ “‘range”’; or less probably, as, “‘ to eat,” hence pre-eminently “to live.”

75 “ And so with works in God; he thinks them and they are... . he stays with creatures to keep them in being,’”’ Eckhart, I, 238 and 427. Cf. Agni lokasmrta, “ who remembers the worlds,” Maitri Up., VI, 35. See also Note 59.

76 That would be in Sanskrit literally prdpasya nirvana, “ despiration of the breath of life’: a re-turn (nivyiti) to His modeless mode who “ breathes without breathing,’ anit avata, Rg Veda, X, 129, 2. Cf. aprana, “* spirit-less,’’ or “ despirited,”’ Mundaka Up., 100. a5, 2,

77 Yukta, the yogi, “ one who is uniformly-poised in heat and cold, pleasure and pain, repute and disrepute, etc.,’’ Bhagavad Gita, V1, 7 and 8, the same as Eckhart’s “ reasonable man » _** ne who is controlled in joy and sorrow, him T call a reasonable man,” I, 460, ‘“‘ unmoved by weal or woe or wealth or want,” I, 56.

For the use of yuj in this sense, cf. Rg Veda, V, 46,1,‘ Likea knowing horse I yoke myself (suayam ayujr) to the chariot pole, coveting neither liberation nor a coming back again’’: a striking ‘‘ anticipation ” of “later ’’ modes of thought.

78 Ya evar veddham brahmdsmiti sa idam sarvam bhavati . . . yo'nyam

devatamupaste nyo savanyo'hamasmitt na sa veda, yatha pasurevam sa devanam.