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

APPENDIX

THE APPARENT MOVEMENT OF THE SUN AS DISCUSSED IN NOTE 65

Tue spiritual cosmology of the Chandogya Up., III, 6-11, where the Sun is said to rise successively in the East, South, West, North, and Zenith, and finally risen in the Centre to rise and set no more, these orientations corresponding to the types Vasu, Rudra, Aditya, Marut, Sadhya (= Muni), and Gnostic (ya etamevam brahm6panisadam veda), may be better understood if presented in the form of a diagram, the formulation of the diagram in accordance with universal tradition being taken for granted. Here the circle, through the centre of which passes the vertical Axis of the Universe, represents a given World-Wheel, let us say that of the corporeal* mode of existence, as known to us here and now. Let “A” represent the “ position” of any individual on this plane of experience, which position will be in the “middle space” (rajas) between the centre (Heaven, Essence, sativa) and the circumference (Earth, Substance, tamas). From the familiar correlation Devayana, “ by the North,’ and Pitryana, “ by the South,” and other sources, we know that from the point of view of such an individual, ‘‘ North’? represents the centre, “ South ” that of the circumference. The revolution of the Wheel being sunwise, East and West will be in the directions indicated by the diagram. The spiritual condition ot the individual can be indicated in such a diagram in two ways, (1) by his distance from the centre, and (2) by

* The vertical Axis is also the trunk of the Tree of Life, and every radius or spoke of every World-Wheel a branch of the Tree, and

amongst these branches are the “ nests ”’ of individual conscience, Iog