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

A NEW APPROACH TO THE VEDAS

here,’ Eckhart, I, 132, “ Falling into time, they droop and fade,” zbid., 244. The technical equivalent of (wi-) krama (= kramédaya, prasarana) is “ procession,’ with respect to avatavana: as when fejas, the Fiery-Energy, proceeds (utkramya) in the Tree of Life, as it branches forth into space, Maitri Up., VII, 11, or when the Great Yaksa resting on the back of the Waters is described as “by intension proceeding ’’ (tapast kranta) in the worldtree, Atharva Veda, X, 7, 38. That going out, that incarnation of the Year, Prajapati, was the “ first sacrifice.”

Now having taken on flesh in the bodily form of the Cosmic horse or World Tree, incarnate deity would save from its incurred mortality that body which is the sum of all existences. He suffers therefore a Passion, viz., intension and death, that is the “ further sacrifice’; as emphasized in the concluding verse, “ he sacrificed himself to himself,” and Rg Veda, X, 90, 15, where the “ Angels ”’ (Persons of the Trinity), acting as sacrificial priests, “ sacrificed with the sacrifice unto the Sacrifice.” That concept of self-sacrifice and voluntary passion, undertaken or suffered to the end that life may be made more abundant recurs throughout the Vedas and in the traditions of many peoples. Here we need allude only to the Christian parallel, the Crucifixion on the Tree of Life : for the Cross, the Rood, is a “‘ tree,’ the Tree of Life, its trunk the axletree of being, its arms or branches all extension on every plane of being, “ the gift of God is the positive existence of all creatures in the Person of his Son,”’ Eckhart, I, 427. The identity of Cross and Tree is too familiar to need particular demonstration here,’! nevertheless the phraseology of Béhme, Signatura Rerum, XIV, 32, may be remarked, ‘‘ Now the flash, when it is enkindled by the liberty, and by the cold fire, makes in its rising a cross with the comprehension of all properties ; for here arises the spirit in the essence, and it stands thus: If thou hast here understanding, thou needest ask no more; it is