Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/261

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The Beginnings of Hindu Theosolahy 245

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as Kala, “ Time,” “Father Time” ; of Kama, “Love,” “ Eros ”; of Prana “ Breath of Life ”; and others even more faint and tentative. The conception of Eros

we have met above as the ﬁrst movement in The One after it had come into life ; its dciﬁcation is never very pronounced. Prana, or “Breath of Life,” is an almost universal cosmic principle; it will occupy our attention in connection with the ﬁnal shaping of Hindu theosophy. The most transcendental of these personiﬁcations is that of “ Time”mnamely: Praja- pati, “the lord of creatures,” at ﬁrst an abstraction, is readily associated with the generative power of nature. N ow this generative power is revealed par..- ticularly in the cycle of the year. By easy associan tion Prajapati is next boldly identiﬁed with year: “ Prajapati reﬂected, ‘This verily, I have created as my counterpart, namely, the year.’ Therefore they say, ‘I’rajapati is the year,’ for as counterpart of himself he did create the year.” Thus the prose Brahmana texts naively, yet closely, reason. And out of some such reasoning “Time” itself emerges as a monotheistic conception, in whose praise the AtharvauVeda sings two hymns 1:

“Time runs, a steed with seven reins, thousand-eyed, ageless, rich in seed. The seers thinking holy thoughts, mount him ; all the beings are his wheels.

1 19. 53 and 54.