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

A NEW APPROACH TO THE VEDAS

43 “* All evils and afflictions as well as all kinds of happiness of man .. . are distributed according to justice,” Maimonides, Guide for ihe Perplexed, 111,17. To be merciful is to be unjust ; “ have the seasons, gravitation, the appointed days, mercy ? no more have I,” Whitman, Chanting the Square Deific.

44 That Self-intention is his knowledge of him-Self, as it were a maithuna, carnal knowledge, of Wisdom, vac: the “cause’’ of the becoming of the world, for what is ‘‘ concept ” therein isa thing begotten and proceeding, after the way of things “ conceived.”

= SankarAcarya, Sudimaniritpana, 95. The concept of a worldpicture is implicit in Rg Veda, I, 164, 44, visvam abhicaste.

46 Cf. also Jili, as cited by Nicholson, Studies . . .p. 113: ‘‘ Allah created Adam in his own image . . . and Adam was one of the theatres in which I displayed myself,’’ and ibid., 108, ‘‘ 1 am that whole, and the whole is my theatre.’ On Indian /ild see SankarAcarya on Vedanta Sutra, II, 1, 33.

47 The “ articulation’ (a + u + m) of the Imperishable-Word, OM, should be observed. See Note 109: cf. also Bhagavan Das, The Science of peace, 1904.

48 A parais often understood to mean “‘ western,” but is here assuredly used in its primary sense, that is just as when we speak of para and apara Brahman. For the upper and the nether Waters in Indian tradition see, e.g., Rg Veda, III, 22, 3, and Tatttiriya Samhita, IV, 2, 4, where the Waters of the Sun are spoken of as parastat, and those below are avastat (= aparastat or apara): and Rg Veda, X, 136, 5, where the two seas are puyva and apara, commonly understood to mean eastern and western. Not forgetting that these are cosmic seas, of which the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea are merely symbols, it is quite intelligible that upper and nether should have been taken alternatively to mean eastern and western: for just as the sidereal sun rises in an actual East and sets in an actual West, so must the Supernal-Sun rise in analogically ‘‘ eastern’ and set in analogically ‘“ western ’’ waters,

Both seas were originally Varuna’s (cf. p. 33). Why then is Varnna later particularly connected with the West, the night, the Moon, and not always with the East and West, the Sun and Moon, the day and night ?_ Because the dual Mitra-Varunau had been originally the personal name of manifested deity conceived under two aspects, viz., as Varuna “‘at birth”’ (ja@yase) and as Mitra “‘when enkindled ” (samiddhvah), Re Veda, V, 3,1, and III, 5, 4: “ at birth,” that would be as the Fiery-Energy (tejas, mahi) of intension (tapas), cf. Rg Veda, X, 129, 2, tapasah, mahina ajavat ; ““ when enkindled,”’ that would bein procession as Light (praka@Sa) manifested by the dark-heat (usna), Maitri Up., VII, II, samirane praka@Sa-praksepausnyasthaniya. In the dual MitraVarunau, Mitra, ‘‘ the Friend,’’ designates the terrestrial Agni, so often spoken of in the same way as the “ Friend’ of man, this terrestrial Agni being the Son or manifested form of Varuna himself; as in the one hymn devoted solely to Mitra, he is the Mouthpiece (bruvanah), the all-seeing Eye in the world (animisa abhicaste, cf. the Buddha as cakkhum loke, Digha Nikaya, II, 158), the common denominator of all men in that he“ unites "’ (ya@tayati) them, and who upholds (dadhara, askambhayat) heaven and earth. That Mitra is commonly thought of as a celestial aspect, viz., solar, as also in the Avesta, though described as terrestrial in Rg Veda, III, 59, presents no difficulty ; _for Agni’s dual birth (dvijanma) is in heaven and on earth (dyaua-prthiviya), both