Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/185

 Men.

"liransparent and Opaque Gods 169

place is Vishnu’s fount of honey} This place is identical with the highest place of Agni; Vishnu guards the highest, or third place of Agni, the ﬁre on high, the sun.” There the gods and pious men rejoice. Liberal sacriﬁccrs ever look forward to this place; it is ﬁxed like an eye in heaven.” Later Veda texts clearly deﬁne the three steps as earth, atmos~ phcrc, and heaven. Vishnu represents the sun in his ascent from the horizon of the earth, through the atmosphere to the zenith, considered as the solar paradise. His swift climb over the back of the uni. verse through the cosmic triad justly arrested the fancy of the poets, and they name him accordingly. Instead of holding to the proper name of the sun, or to his more familiar functions of giver of light and life, they express in the name Vishnu, and in the fancies connected with it the sufﬁciently remarkable fact that his ascent from earth to the paradisiacal zenith involves but three stations: earth, atmos- phere, and heaven. From the earliest time Hindu records Show the greatest interest in this threefold division of the universe.“ Other notions, such as that Vishnu marks off with his Wide steps for his

1 Rig-Veda I. 154.. 5. “Mia?” 10. I. 3.

3 Mini, I. 22. so. “See above, p. 93:.