Practical Path

SR No.: 006703
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1917
Total Pages: 268
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

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THE PRACTICAL PATH.
fact that goat's flesh is still offered to propitiate certain gods and goddesses by a few superstitious men.
(the Terminology of the Vedas, p. 55), and so named because they extract every thing from this world. It is not easy to follow what is precisely meant by the reason given; but it seems more probable that these Adityas represent the primary functions of spirit whose pure essence is symbolised by Surya, the Sun, which is an excellent emblem for jñana (knowledge). Hence the Adityas, whatever be their number--for that depends on human classification -are only the different aspects of the soul with respect to its special function of knowing. Thus, Varuna, who cuts a ludicrous figure as one of the months of a solar year, is the impersonation of perception or memory, for ‘he witnesses men's truth and falsehood' (Pindu Mythology, page 39). His function seems to have been enlarged in another place to embrace the whole range of consciousness, for he knows the flight of the birds in the sky, the course of the far travelling wind, the paths of the ships in the ocean, and beholds all things that have been or shall be done.' Varuna is said to be the presiding deity of the sea probably because of the fluid' nature of memory and mind-stuff.
Other Adityas, similarly, cannot represent the months of a solar year, but ditferent functions of the soul.
There remain Indra and Prajapati to be dealt with. Of these, the former has been described elsewhere, but the latter is the pati (Lord) of projás (progeny, hence the numerous functions of life), and is a symbol for the controlling function of the heart (see the Permanent History of Bharata Varsha, Vol. I, pp. 492 & 499).
The above explanation practically disposes of the Hindu pantheon, though the number of its ‘gods' is said to be no less than thirty three crores (a crore is equal to ten millions); for the remaining members of the divine household are only the metaphysical 'offspring of the more important thirty three, which are reducible to three, and, in the ultimate analysis, to the one supreme divinity, the Soul of the worshipper himself. Our explanation, it will be seen, avoids not only the element of irrelevancy in Mr. Guru Datta's reading and of inconsistency in the European version, but also enables us to catch a full view of the Hindu mind engaged in taking a census of its 'gods'. Many of the conundrums and puzzles connected with the pedigrees of these gods, which have stubbornly defied modern investigation,