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210
THE PRACTICAL PATH.
To revert to the evolution of Hinduism, the validity of our conclusions would be apparent to any one who would give full consideration to the following facts :
(1) The Vedas, if literally interpreted, do enjoin animal and even human sacrifice.
anything other than the science of training horses or heat, and so forth. Agni, as heat, and Indra, as a governing people, can, surely, have no claim to a special importance to be entitled to have a very large number of the Vedic hymns 'dedicated to themselves, especially when their opposites-respectively, cold and a nation that is ruled by another-are given no place in the gallery of the Vedic.gods' (devatas). There are innumerable other sciences, professions, arts and the methods of training animals which are no less important or useful than agni and indra as understood by Mr. Guru Datta, yet we find no hymns dedicated to them in the Vedas. Neither the science of training horses nor a governing people are included in the six categories of things to be known-(i) time, (ii) locality, (iii) force, (iv) human spirit, (v) deliberate activities, and (vi) vital activities -laid down in the Terminology of the Vedas (see pages 53 and 54), notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Guru Datta's classification was made expressly for the purpose of determining the class of the Vedic devatas, and is neither scientific nor philosophically sound by any means. Heat may, indeed, be said to fall in the category of force, as it no doubt does; but as a member of its class its special claim to precedence over the other forces of nature remains to be established.
We, thus, find ourselves forced to acknowledge the fact that Agni and Indra, as two of the devatas of the Vedic hymns, do not signify heat, the science of training horses or a governing people, but must represent certain aspects or faculties of the soul. For similar reasons, Dyaus and Prithivi are not sky and earth, but spirit and matter, respectively. Pushan, the giver of strength, similarly represents ayuh (the force which determines longevity) though he is at times counted among the sun-gods. He is said to be the giver of strength, because physical strength is possible only so long as the ayuh karma is not exhausted,
The fact that he is described as a traveller is a further indication
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