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MYTHOLOGY
(iii) But when they become self-conscious in conse
quence of Brahman Jnana (prayer to Brah. - mâ) their eyes are, as it were, opened. Hence, Brahmâ is said to have converted the ugly spots on the body of Indra into
eyes. (iv) Indra is the father of his own father, because, .(a) the term father is a symbol for what is
termed the material cause of a thing, and (6) because the material cause of a purified
spirit is an impure ego, while the latter is itself the product of union of pure spirit and matter. Hence, is the one conceived
to be the source (father) of the other. Such briefly is the nature of Indra and such the description of bis highly reprehensible adultery with his preceptor's wife. We have no time to go into further details here, but it may be stated that the enemy of this god is the demon of darkness which stands for ignorance, and the rain that is associated with his name is the peaceful shower of shanti (tranquillity) which descends when the heat of passions and mithyâtua (error) has subsided.
Agni, the third member of this most important trio of deities, is the symbolisation of tapas as already stated. We saw how irrelevant and absurd it was to treat this deity as a personification of fire or as the culinary art ; but the relevancy of tapas needs no demonstration.
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