Book Title: Philosophies of India
Author(s): Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 28
________________ THE MEETING OF EAST AND WEST gold; in the waters, in cattle, and in men shall be ours! May the lovely goddess who bore Indra come to us, endowed with luster! "The brilliancy that is in the chariot, the dice, and the strength of the bull; in the wind, in Parjanya (Indra as the lord of rain), and the fire of Varuņa (lord regent of ocean and of the western quarter) shall be ours! May the lovely goddess who bore Indra come to us, endowed with luster! "The brilliancy that is in the man of royal caste, in the stretched drum, in the strength of the horse, and in the shout of men shall be ours! May the lovely goddess who bore Indra come to us, endowed with luster!". The fully developed Adhyātmam-adhidaivam system of the period of the Upanişads utilized as a means for arriving at absolute detachment a thorough-going scheme of correspondences between subjective and objective phenomena. As an instance: “The divinities of the world having been created, they said to Ātman (the Self as the Creator): ‘Find out for us an abode wherein we may be established and may eat food.' He led up a bull to them. They said: 'Verily, this is not sufficient for us.' He led up a horse to them. They said: “Verily, this not sufficient for us.' He led up a person to them. They said: 'Oh! Well * Atharva Veda VI. 38. (Translated by Maurice Bloomfield, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XLII, pp. 116-117; cf. also, Harvard Oriental Series, Cambridge, Mass., 1905, Vol. VII, p. 309.) "The lovely goddess who bore Indra" is Aditi, mother of the gods of the Vedic pantheon, corresponding to Rhea, mother of the Greek Olympians. Indra, the chief and best beloved of her sons, corresponds to the Greco-Roman lord of the gods, Zeus-Jove, while Varuņa is comparable to the Greek Ouranos (heaven), and Surya to Phoebus-Apollo. • Adhyātmam (ndhi = "over"; åtman = "self or spirit"): the Supreme Spirit manifest as the Self of the individual; adhidaivam (daivam, from deva = "divinity"): the Supreme Spirit operating in material objects. These two are equated in this system as the dual aspects of one sole Imperishable, known respectively from the subjective and the objective points of view. 10

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 ... 709