Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/226

 210 The Religion of the Veda

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Atharva~Veda it even shows signs of at least tern- porary going to seed. 1 We cannot expect the family»books of the Rig-Veda, or the ninth, same: book to break out in theosophy. These books are collections of hymns addressed to the gods at a deﬁnite sacriﬁce: to that business they attend. It does not follow that what they do not mention does not exist at that time. We must beware of too straightulined a View of these matters, one type fol- lowing another like a row of bricks, or like different troops of the same army. I am not Wise enough to say when the following stanza was pronounced: “They call (it) Indra, Mitra, Varuna, and Agni, or the heavenly bird Garutmant (the Sun). The sages call the One Being in many ways; they call it Agni, Yama, Matarigvan.”

This verse states that the great gods of the Veda are but One Being; therefore it at once takes a high stand in the range of possible human thought. And yet it occurs in a hymn of the Rig-Veda, namely, the famous riddle—hymn of Dirghatamas, in the ﬁrst book of that collection.“ Another statement in the tenth book‘ll is as follows: “That One breathed

1 Some stanzas of the Atharvan occupy the most advanced position of the Upanishads. For instance, 10. 8. 44 : “ Free from desire, true, eternal, self-begotten, full of joy, subject to none, he no longer fears death who knows the Wise, ageless Altman.”

9 Ringeda I. 164. 46. 3 Rig-Veda 10. I29. 2.

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