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

BRHADARANYAKA UPANISAD

preferred designation of the First-manifested Principle, on the one hand because of the fiery nature of the SupernalSun, and on the other because of the primary importance of fire in the sacrificial ritual. In our text (2 and 3) the divine Fire is alluded to from two different points of view, first as an undivided principle, as also specifically in Rg Veda, I, 69, 1, where Agni is the “ Father of the Angels ” and V, 3, I, where Agni is Varuna “ at birth,’ and Mitra ‘when enkindled,” “‘in Him’”’ are the Several Angels, and He is Indra to the mortal worshipper: and second, as one member of the Trinity of Agni, Aditya, Vayu. The latter Agni, the Son of God, is commonly called Vaigvanara, ‘“‘ Universal,’’ with reference to his manifestation in the terrestrial, intermediate, and celestial regions ; and is pre-eminently “ First-born” and “ Youngest ” because perpetually brought to birth in the sacrificial fire at the dawn of every temporal cycle and the dawn of every day.

In any case, it is an elemental Fiery Energy (¢ejas) that underlies and typifies all other manifestation: so in procession, “‘ the Fiery-energy (¢ejas), intrinsic-form of the firmament, in the vacance of the inner man, determined as the Trinity of Fire, Supernal-Sun, and Spirit, three factors of the Imperishable-Word, OM, sprouts forth, springs up, and suspires (or blossoms)” as a Burning Bush, the all-pervading Tree of Life, Maztri Up, see pp. 48-51. With this compare Isaiah, XI, 1, 2, Egredietur virga de vadice Jesse et flos de radice ejus ascendet et vequiescet super eum spiritus domini, and Eckhart’s Commentary, “ Root of Jesse is a term for the fiery nature of God. ... Jesse means a fire and a burning ; it signifies the ground of divine love and also, the ground of the soul. Out of this ground the rod grows, i.e., in the purest and highest ; it shoots up out of this virgin soil at the breaking forth of the Son. Upon the rod opens a flower, the flower of the Holy Ghost,” I, 153, 154, 302.7 Likewise Béhme, “ The entire man is in his being the three worlds. The