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

APPENDIX

spoken of as “conversion” and “regeneration ”’ (“ Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God’’). Along this new-won Way he must proceed until he reaches and is centred in the Light of the World* ; then for the first time he sees directly, séksat aparoksat, the Supernal Sun, “risen in the Zenith,’”’ ““ whose Face is Fire”’ (Rg Veda, VII, 88, 2)—#er tal modo che ci¢ ch’i0 dice é un semplice lume, Paradiso, XX XIII, go-

On the other hand, with regard to procession, inasmuch as the extension of any world lies in a plane at right angles to the axis of the universe (cf. JUB., I, 20, vasmi asumaya .. . tivan pratisthatah) any coming into existence is represented by a branching outwards horizontally from the trunk of the Tree of Life or vertical of the Cross. The Several Angels are therefore said to be “* born transversely, from the side’ (Rg Veda, IV, 18, 1-2) and this image survives in the Buddhist legend of the birth of Siddhartha from Mayadevi's side.

* “ Thereof is he the Splendour (s77), the Self (aman) arisen from the Sea (samudrudha), viz. yonder Supernal Sun (@ditya),’” JUB., III, 3.

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