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 190 The Religionof the Veda

“ Through Faith the gods obtain their divine quality; Faith, the goddess, is the foundation of the world.

May she pleased come to our sacriﬁce, Bring our wish as her child, and grant us immortality!

“ Faith, the goddess, is the ﬁrstnhorn of divine order,

Upholder of all, foundation of the world, That Faith do we revere with our ohlations;

May she create for us an immortal world.” ('l‘aittiri‘ya Brahmanagg. r2. 3. I, 2.)

“Faith dwells within the gods, Faith dwells upon this world, Faith, the mother of wishes—w-

With oblations do we prosper her.” (Taittiriya Brahmana 2. 8. 8)..

So far so good. All that is still a development of the idea of faith in harmony with a decent belief in personal gods. Unfortunately, the Vedic conception of faith, at least the prominent or average conception sinks to a much lower plane. In the main and in the end, faith expresses itself in works, and the Brahmans who are anything but mealy~mouthed have seen to it that they shall be beneﬁted by these works. In other words, he who gives baksheesh (seesaw) to the Brahmans, he has faith (prodded). In a hymn that: is otherwise not badly pitched the poet requests the personiﬁed goddess Faith to make his poetic work take well with the liberal sacriﬁcer, and to make him