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

A NEW APPROACH TO THE VEDAS

ments of the Self in the heart, mentioned in the Upanisads. For example, the second half of our verse 1 is literally repeated in Svetdsvatara Up., II, 14, preceded by stanzas in which he, Purusa and inner-Self, is said to be avgusthamatrd, “of the measure of a thumb,” cf. Katha Up., lV, 12, and VI, 17, and Chandogya Up., V,18. Again, in the Svetdsvatara Up., III, 20 and V, 9, we find anorantyan mahatomahiyat, “less than atomic, greater than magnitude,” and valdgra-Satabhagasya Satadha, combined with ananta, that is “‘ a hundredth part of the hundredth part of the point of a hair,” and yet “‘ without end.’’ All these fanciful measurements applied to the Self abiding in the heart are tantamount to “‘ undimensioned,” and that is what is really meant: “so subtle is the nature of the soul that space might not exist at all for all it troubles her,’ Eckhart, I, 279.

As to the Perfected, the Saints, s@dhyah, the siddhah of later texts: these are to be understood, as rightly explained by Sayana,?*° to be those who have long ago by knowledge or devotion passed through the gateway of the Three Worlds to the Empyrean paradise there beyond, whence there is no return??? and are now abiding there as Angelic Powers: perhaps to be identified with the Yatis of X, 72, 7, and in any case partaking in the work of creation. Just asin Christianity, ‘‘ men can merit glory in such a degree as to be equal to the angels, in each of the angelic grades; and this implies that men are taken up into the orders of the angels,’ St. Thomas, Swm. Th., I, Q. 108, A.8: and “ the man who is exalted above time into eternity will do with God what he did in the past and also what he does in the next thousand years . . . meaning that in eternity, exalted above time, man does one work with God . .. works wrought by thee there are all living,” Eckhart, I, 150, 151, ‘‘ God made the universe and I with him, standing as I did all undefined albeit substantial in the Father,” I, 398. In Rg Veda, I, 164, 50, the Sadhyas are purve devah, “ Angels from aforetime ”: and as

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