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THE HOLY TRINITY.
669
Satarupa of the Upanishads. The seeds are the archetypes of all species, a pair of each of which is preserved from general destruction in the Cosmic Ovary of Imagination. A similar account is to be found in the Hindu Puranas which agrees with the Biblical legend in almost all particulars, except that while the species are expressly mentioned in place of 'ideas in the Bible, the Hindu account simply refers to the Vedas (literally, knowledge).
To return from the digression, since Satarupa is taken out of, and disengaged from, the embrace of the Prajapati, she is like a daughter unto him, and, with all becoming modesty, naturally reflects over her relations with him, and then flies from form to form (i.e., from type to type), producing a multiplicity of individuals in each species, in consequence of his approach. The reader might here clearly perceive the analogy to the creation of mental forms by Will's dwelling on general concepts. The theory of ideas, thus, is not a feature of the Greek philosophy alone; it was known to the writers of the Old Testament, but is to be found in its most perfect form among the Indians alone, whose mythology, if properly studied, would revolutionize the entire constitution of Religion and Philosophy in the World.
As for the interpretation of these myths and legends, much that is obscure in mythology becomes intelligible with the aid of psychology, for the ancients had a most wonderful knowledge of this department of science, and freely resorted to symbolism to give expression to some
* See the Hindu Mythology by W. J. Wilkins, pp. 137--138,
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