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

A NEW APPROACH TO THE VEDAS

place, Eternity qua place, as an ancient lineage (Charpentier’s alt Geschlecht), or a time beyond time: pirvya yuga is really vyoman, “the motionless heaven, this firmament is the abode of the blest”, Eckhart, I, 170, and that “‘ beyond” is in the lotus of the heart, the locus of space-in-itself (akasa, Maityi Up., VI, 2), “all is contained therein,” Chandogya Up., VIII, 3, “ he who knows Brahman hid (nzhitam) in the cavern-of-the-heart (guhayam), in the uttermost Empyrean (parame vyoman), he wins all desires and therewith also Brahman,” Taittivitya Up., II, 1, cf. brahmam purvyam, Svetdsvatara Up., II, 5 and 7. Other terms having a reference similar to that of “‘ Pleroma”’ include purisa and purtsin in Rg Veda, 1, 163, 1, and I, 164, 12 ; bhiiman in Chandogya Up., VII, 23 and 24; and pitrna apravartin in Kausiiakt Up., IV, 8.

That ancient supercelestial place, kindred, and time are contrasted with the realms of birth and death, the Three Worlds, as enduring not merely for a time, but until the end of time ; there are the Persons, the Angels, and the Saints, an immortal kin, amrta-bandhavah, thence there is no return (punar avyiti), no gliding down (avaprabhramsana, avasarpana) ; though this is not the Unity of the Persons, not an absolute immortality but rather a sthayita of incalculable duration, not out of, but throughout, time. This is in fact Paradise, the Paradise beyond the Sun, accessible to the Comprehensors only : originally Varuna’s (Jaiminiya Brahmana, 1, 42-44), later Brahma’s (Kausitaki Up., I, 2-7), still later also Amitabha’s (Sukhavati Sittra).

Accordingly, at least in passages where this primordial angelic sphere is clearly implied by the context, we ought to render terms such as vyoman, dyauh, divi, naka, and even yugal23 by ‘‘ Empyrean,” “ Paradise” or “ Pleroma,” rather than as “ heaven.’’ For whereas Brahma’s Paradise lies beyond the Sun, beyond the gateway of the worlds (loka-dvava, Chandogya, VIII, 6, 5) whereby there