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

- A NEW APPROACH TO THE VEDAS

in the sense of “ abode,” “ dwelling,” having an implied structure, with that which is not an abode, not a dwelling, but without structure, literally ‘‘ devoid of any beam,” avaiiga, and “ unsupported by any pillar,” askambha.

Daivasya dhaman here corresponds to aksava .. . dhama parama, “imperishable, transcendent abode,” Bhagavad Gita, VIII, 21.

20 “ The Self is neither this nor that (neti, neti) : unseizable, indestructible, unrelated, etc.,’’ Brhadavanyaka Up., IV, 4, 22.

Cf. also Dante, Convivio, III, I5, °. .. certain things which our intellect cannot behold . . . we cannot understand what they are except by denying things of them.’

The same argument is developed in Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, 1, 509.

*1 All this exactly corresponds to the Muhammadan conception of the Godhead as al‘Ama, ‘“‘ dark mist,” “ blindness,”’ ‘‘ unconsciousness,’’ immanent negativity,’ “ potentiality,” ‘‘ non-existence,” etc., all logically contrasted with Ahaddiya, the transcendental Unity of

Allah (Nicholson, Studies... pp. 83-97).

22 Franklin Edgerton, The Upanisads: what do they teach, and why ? J.A.O.S., 49, pp. 97-121.

23 In full, “ Not to have gain of any good unto himself, which may not be, but that his splendour, counter-shining, might declare, ‘ I am.’”’ Cf. Plotinus, Enneads, V, 3, 8, “a splendour directed to itself, which at one and the same time illuminates, and is itself illuminated.”

24 Arpitam, “ infixed,”’ “ projected,’’ geometrically, pictorially, and spatially in the Tree of Life. Cf. Dante’s “ trina luce, che in unica stella scintillando.” Paradiso, XXXI, 28: Eckhart, I, 282, “ Everything is pictured in his providence.” The Son is visvarapa.

25 Corresponding to all this is the Islamic doctrine or “‘ metaphor of Allah’s creating by looking (nazar),’”’ for ‘‘ towards everything that Allah created he has a special aspect (wajh = “ face”’), in virtue of which he regards it and preserves it in its appointed place in the order of existence,” see Macdonald, D.B., Development of the Idea of Spirit in Islam, Acta Orientalia, IX, 1931, Pp. 347, and Nicholson, R, A., Studies tn Islamic mysticism, 1921, p. 110, 114.

26 Cf. also Sankaracarya, Daksinadmirtistotra, 1, darpana-drsyamana, “as if reflected in a mirror.’’ Or again, from Jili, Insanw’l Ramil, Ch. LX, “‘ As a mirror in which a person sees the form of himself and cannot see it without a mirror, such is the relation of God to the Perfect Man, who cannot possibly see his own form but in the mirror of the name Allah ; and he is also a mirror to God, for God laid upon himself the necessity that His names and attributes should not be seen save in the Perfect Man,” Nicholson, Studies... p. 106. Or yet again, Eckhart, “ It is as if one stood before a high mountain, and cried, * Art thou there?’ The echo comes back. ‘ Art thou there?’ If one cries, “Come out,’ the echo answers, ‘Come out’” (Claud Field’s Eckhayt’s Sermons, p. 26): as in the Chandogya Up., I, 3, 2, samana « evayan casau .. . svara itimam—dacaksate svara iti pratyasvara ityamum, with double entendre, (1) ‘‘ This is called ‘ Sound,’ That ‘ Sound,’ viz., an ‘Echoing,’ ’’ and (2) “ This is regarded as ‘ Light,’ That ‘ Light,’ viz., ‘ Reflection.’"” It may be observed that the same dual significance is present also in our Upanisad, I, 2, 1, translated above, where arcan acavat can mean either “‘ lauded with lauds,’’ or ‘‘ manifested light.”