A new approach to the Vedas : an essay in translation and exegesis

NOTES

120 Thus, “ He uses the demons for Himself,’ St, Thomas, Sum. Th., T, Q. 109, A. ft.

121 Cf. Rg Veda, Il, 5, 2, manusvat daivyam astamam, “ the eighth angelic being in human guise”; I, 35, 6-9, where it is Savitr that lights the world and eight airts. The best list of eight Adityas occurs in Taittiriya Aranyaka, I, 13, 3, where the eighth (Vivasyat) is identified with Martanda, i.e., Aditya as manifested and existent deity, the others seem to be Mitra, Varuna, Aryaman, Daksa, Bhaga, AmSa, and Agni or Soma, cf. S.B.E., XXXII, 252 f.

122 Aeon, “ a power existing from eternity . . . phase of the supreme deity taking part in the creation and government of the universe,’’ New English Dictionary. Pleroma, in the New Testament, is the “ fullness ” of Deity, cf. p#vna and krytsna in the Upanisads, and akrtsna, ‘‘ not entire,” characterising individual existence, e.g., Brhadaranyaka Up., I, 4, 7; in Valentianian gnosticism, likewise, the Pleroma is the abode of the Angels.

Cf. dela Vallée Poussin’s exegesis of Dharmakaya and Sambhogakaya as primary and secondary “ Aeons,”’ J.R.A.S., 1906, p. 967.

123 Similarly Chinese yu i’ien.

The return of the seven Adityas to the Empyrean recalls Irenaeus, III, 11, 1, “ the Christ from above . . . continued impassible . . . (and after descending upon Jesus) flew back into his Pleroma.’”’

124 Cf. Rg Veda, X, 13, 4, ‘“ He for weal (kam) of the Angels chose death (mrtyu), and for the weal of their begotten chose not immortality (amyta): they sacrificed the Prophet, Brhaspati, Yama yielded up his own dear body.”

Cf. the creative transformation of Dionysos described as a “‘ rending asunder ’’ and “ tearing limb from limb,” Plutarch, de Ei ap. Delph, 1X. Is a scene of this kind to be recognized in the Sumerian seal illustrated by Legrain, Museum Journal, Sept.-Dec., 1929, Pl. XL, No. 111 ?

125 A further argument might perhaps be developed from the fact that in the Sulbasitra, uttara yuga represents a particular measurement, viz., trayodasangulam.

126 “ There in that all-possessing-all-pervading (pydpti-) form of Viraj, in the primordial Empyrean (nake purve) the Saints (sadhyah), who were of old (puyatanah) worshippers (sadhakah) of the Viraj, nowabide (santi tisthantt): they dwell-in (sacanta) that Empyrean, the all-possessing-all-pervading form of Viraj, in Paradise (svargam), as Powers-attendant-thereon (mahimanastadupasakah), as Mighty-Selves (mahGtmanah, ‘ Mahatmas’),” cf. Chandogya Up., 111, 10, and Bhagavad Gita, XK, 15.

127 No “gliding down,” avaprabhramsana in the Atharva Veda, XIX, 39, 8, avasarpana in the Satapatha Brahmana, 1, 8, 1, 7, punar avytti and punar apadana, Upanisads, passim, avytiam punah, Re Veda, V;, 46, i:

128 In Aitareya Brahmana, II, 4, 3 (Ait. Up., I, 3, 13 and 14), Indra (“ Idamdra ”’) is plainly an epithet (essential name) of the Self (Atman). Cf. Rg Veda, V, 3, 1, “‘ Thou (Agni, Varuna, Mitra) art Indra to the mortal worshipper.”

129 Cf. my Yaksas, II, pp. 26, 27.

130 As is often the case in the Rg Veda, eg., III, 23, 2 and 3. Cf, Indra identified with Prajapati and the Person in the Sun,

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