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

NOTES

of footprints of the Law and may be followed on a homeward course, just as a lost animal is tracked. It is from this standpoint of a return from existence to its sources in pure Being and Non-being that the Vedic texts are considered in the Upanisads.

98 Cf. Visnu Purana, I, 8, 23, padma svadha sasvatapustida, “ the Lotus-Lady (= Sr-Laksmi = Prakrti = Maya) is intrinsic-power, constant giver of increase’; also the discussion of Aditi, Maya, Viraj, above, p. 31f. Rg Veda, X, 129, 5, corresponds exactly to Dante, Paradiso, XXIX, 31-36, “‘ Co-created and in-wrought with the Substances was Order; which were the summit of the world, wherein pure Act was put forth. Pure Potentiality held the lowest place; in the midst Potentiality twisted such a withy with Act as shall ne’er be unwithied,” where also nel cima del mondo, mezzo, and infime parte correspond to Vedic “celestial,” ‘‘ atmospheric,’’ and “ terrestrial.” Sustanzie, ‘‘ substances,” here refers to the Angels, cf. Paradiso, “XIX, 76-78, who primarily fulfil the act of being: concreato and construito correspond to the ekajatatva, salokyatva, etc., of the Brhad Devata, cited above, pp. 64, 65, and Note 113.

98 “‘ Neither can exist without the other, so neither can originate the other,’ Eckhart, I, 479.

Cf. Jili, ‘““ I am convinced that It is non-existence, since by existence It was manifested, thought hath beheld it from afar as a power exerting itself in existence. . . . It is the hidden treasure,’ Nicholson, Studies ... p- 89.

100 Cf. Keith, Religion and philosophy of the Veda, pp. 539, 549. For the view that the guna theory is substantially of much greater antiquity, and extra-Vedic origin, see Przyluski, J., La théorte des guna, Bull. Sch. Or. Studies, VI, pp. 24-35.

Rajas in Pancavimsa Brahmana, XVIII, 7, 11, is again simply “ antariksa’’: Sayana very rightly speaks of the meaning here as “ obvious,’ and Caland’s discussion in his Pancavimsa Brahmana, 1931, p- 488, is quite superfluous. In Rg Veda, V, 47, 3, unquestionably, vyajas = antaviksa: for Heaven and Earth are its limits (antah).

101 For tejas = sattva, see Sénart, E., La théorie des gunas, Etudes Asiatiques, II, pp. 287-292. Further, as has been shown by Hertel in particular, tejas = varenya (= hvarena) = brahma.

102 See above, pp. 32, 57,and my On translation : maya, deva, tapas, in Isis, No. 55. ‘‘ The Godhead is contained in the Father as essence, wherefore he 1s omnipotent . , . the potentiality of the essence lies in not being a rational Person: in persisting in its essential unity,’’ Eckhart, I, 373 and 393, italics mine. The pertinence of these considerations to modern therapeutic psychology and the resolution of ‘‘ conflicts ’’ will not be overlooked. Virtuosity and spontaneity in action (agibile and factibile, Skr. karma), better than obedience to rules externally imposed, better than to obey the “ dictates ’’ of the “‘ conscience,’ are commonly exemplified in the shining of the sun, who shines only because that is its nature, and not for any “sake.’’ Such a virtuosity and spontaneity can only be realised to the extent that we abandon purpose and let the divine nature work in us: ‘‘ Let go thyself and let God work in thee,” Eckhart, I, 308. That is the principle of ww wei, Chuang Tzu’s “ Do nothing, and all things shall be done”’; that is the doctrine of the Bhagavad Gita with respect to works. In bhaktivada terms that is called the resignation of the will, asaktatva, islém:; resulting in a “‘ grace”? or power which robs the ego of self-willing and self-thinking and substitutes therefor His will who is without potentiality (in the sense