CHAPTER XXIII Summary of Conclusions WE HAVE now closely scrutinised the Angirasa legend in the Rig-veda from all possible sides and in allits main symbols and are in a position to summarise firmly theconclusions we have drawn from it. As I have already said, theAngirasa legend and the Vritra mythus are the two principalparables of the Veda; they occur and recur everywhere; theyrun through the hymns as two closely connected threads of symbolic imagery, and around them all the rest of the Vedic symbolism is woven. Not that they are its central ideas, but they aretwo main pillars of this ancient structure. When we determinetheir sense, we have determined the s

HYMN TO INDRA 1.7 Indra the Udgathins, Indra the masters of Rik with their thoughts of substance, Indra the voices desired. Indra is made one with our being by the love of the two Bright Ones yoked to speech, Indra of the brilliance, the wielder of the thunderbolt. Indra for far vision ascends in Heaven up to the sun, he manifests the mountain to all sides with those lustres. Indra protect us in our store of strength and in our strong possessions, fierce with fierce raptures.¹ Indra we call in great wealth, Indra in little, the thunderer assailing th

THE FIFTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE SUMMONING OF THE GODS [The hymn calls to the sacrifice by the summons of the divine Flame the principal godheads. Each is described or invoked in that capacity and functioning in which he is needed and helpful to the perfection of the soul and its divine growth and attaining.] To the Will that knoweth all the births, to the Flame highly kindled, purely luminous offer a poignant clarity. This is he that expresses the powers of the gods, the untameable who speeds on its way this our sacrifice, this is the seer who comes with the wine of sweetness in his hands. O Strength, we hav

THE SIXTEENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN TO THE BRINGER OF ALL DESIRABLE GOOD [The Rishi affirms the Divine Will in man as the offering and representative priest who brings light and strength and inspired knowledge and every desirable good; for he is the aspirer by works in whom is the puissance of all the gods and the full plenitude of their force.] Sing thou out by the word a vast manifestation for the shining Light, for the divine, for the Will whom mortals by their expressions of his godhead as the Friend¹ put in their front. The Will is the priest of offering of the peoples; by the illuminations of the discerning mind he bears abro

VI THE DIVINE DAWN Rig-veda III.61 Dawn, richly stored with substance, conscious cleave to the affirmation of him who expresses thee, O thou of the plenitudes. Goddess, ancient, yet ever young thou movest many-thoughted following the law of thy activities, O bearer of every boon. Dawn divine, shine out immortal in thy car of happy light sending forth the pleasant voices of the Truth. May steeds well-guided bear thee here who are golden-brilliant of hue and wide their might. Dawn, confronting all the worlds thou standest high-uplifted and art their perception of Immortality; do thou move

IV AGNI, THE ILLUMINED WILL Rig-veda 1.77 1. How shall we give to Agni? For him what Word accepted by the Gods is spoken, for the lord of the brilliant flame ? for him who in mortals, immortal, possessed of the Truth, priest of the oblation strongest for sacrifice, creates the gods? 2. He who in the sacrifices is the priest of the offering, full of peace, full of the Truth, him verily form in you by your surrenderings; when Agni manifests¹ for the mortals the gods, he also has perception of them and by the mind offers to them the sacrifice. 3. For he is the will, he is the strength, he is the eff

XII VISHNU, THE ALL-PERVADING GODHEAD Rig-veda 1.154 Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out the earthly worlds and that higher seat of our self- accomplishing he supports, he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement. That Vishnu affirms on high by his mightiness and he is like a terrible lion that ranges in the difficult places, yea, his lair is on the mountain-tops, he in whose three wide movements all the worlds find their dwelling-place. Let our strength and our thought go forward to Vishnu the all-pervading, the wide-moving

CHAPTER V The Philological Method of the Veda NO interpretation of the Veda can be sound which does not rest on a sound and secure philological basis; and yet this Scripture with its obscure and antique tongue of which it is the sole remaining document offers unique philological difficulties. To rely entirely on the traditional and often imaginative renderings of the Indian scholars is impossible for any critical mind. Modern philology strives after a more secure and scientific basis, but has not yet found it. In the psychological interpretation of the Veda there are, especially, two difficulties which can only be met by a satisfactory phi

CHAPTER XIII Dawn and the Truth USHA is described repeatedly as the Mother of the Cows. If then the cow is a Vedic symbol for the physical light or for spiritual illumination the phrase must either bear this sense that she is the mother or source of the physical rays of the daylight or else that she creates the radiances of the supreme Day, the splendour and clarity of the inner illumination. But we see in the Veda that Aditi, the Mother of the gods, is described both as the Cow and as the general Mother; she is the Supreme Light and all radiances proceed from her. Psychologically, Aditi is the supreme or infinite Consciousness, mother of the gods, in opposition

THE FOURTEENTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN OF THE FINDER OF LIGHT AND TRUTH [The Rishi declares Agni as the Priest of the sacrifice, the slayer of the powers of Darkness, the finder of the world of the Sun of Truth, of his radiant herds and of his luminous waters; he is the seer in us who is increased by the clarities of right thought and speech.] Awaken the Flame by the word that affirms him, kindle high the Immortal; let him place our offerings in the godheads. Him in their pilgrim sacrifices mortal men desire and adore, the divine, the immortal, who is strongest for sacrifice in the human creature. Him, the godhead, man's contin