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

THREE VEDIC HYMNS

“real”’), or “actually existing,’ is that of sattva as tension in relation to famas as relaxation, and also that of sativa as equivalent to bhiita, “ living being,” “ mortal” (whose existence depends on the maintenance of a tension). Yat prameyam tat sat.

In the Rg Veda generally, satya = yta, the Law or Way of Heaven, and hence also “ Truth.” In the same way in Taittirzya Up., Il, 6, satya is contrasted with anyta, and quite consistently, in Maity1 Up., VI, 3, asatya corresponds to sat in Brhadavanyaka Up., Ul, 3, In the Upanisads passim, satya is equated with Brahman, Prathama Yaksa, Atman. Purusa, Prajapati, Prana, Aditya, Arka, etc., that is to say with God as he is in himself and as he manifests: e.g., Maztri Up., VI, 6, where Prajapati as satya thence proceeds to utterance of the grosser world-forms. The symbol] satya has thus a reference quite distinct from that of sat; but it will be found that its reference includes and further illuminates that of sat1°®, That is evident from Byrhadaranyaka Up., V, 5, I, “The Waters (a@pah) poured forth (asyjata) Essence (satya); Essence, Brahman; Brahman, Prajapati; Prajapati; Prajapati, the (Several) Angels’ ; and is developed even more clearly when the reference is analysed, as in iid. Il, 3, where -tya corresponds to the notion of asat: here the Brahman in a likeness (miiria) 11° mortal (martya), existent (sthita)411 is sat, “ actual,” while the imageless (amarta) Brahman, not-mortal (amyta), immanent-and-universal (yat), is “yonder” or “ infinite (-tya), cf. Ramanuja’s glosses yaduyapakam and tyattaditaradityarthah. In some cases the meaning is emphasized by the use of the expression satyasya satyam, e.g., ibid., II, 3, 6, and Aitareya Avanyaka, Il, 1, 5, and II, 3, 8, where That (Brahman) “in which is yoked the ultimate reality, there it is that all the Angels become One.” It would appear then that sat must be distinguished from a@sat not as “ Being” from “ Non-being,” but rather as “‘ Existence’’ from “ Non-existence”’ ;