Pushkarmuni Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Devendramuni, A D Batra, Shreechand Surana
Publisher: Rajasthankesari Adhyatmayogi Upadhyay Shree Pushkar Muni Abhinandan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 390

Apah : Divine & Purifying Substance
X
narrated in the Jaimini ya Brähmäna247: Oksna-Randhra, son of Kavi, wished to journey through waters (against the direction of waters) to the heaven. He was sure that he would be able to find out the way concealed in the waters. He chanted a particular saman and he was able to do so.' In ritual the relation of heaven with the waters is expressed in a different way. As pointed out above, an oblation of water with the Näsadiya-hymn is offered in a sacrifice for one who desires heaven. So also for one who desires to attain the heaven, the second oblation in the fifth isti is made to the waters, 148 In a daily Grhya-rite, bali is offered on a jar with 'O Parjanya to you, O waters to you'.149 Incidentally, it may also be mentioned that in the ŚBr, 150 waters are enumerated among the various optional doors to Brahman.
Various gods are related to the waters. Varuna is called the ruler of them. 161 It is said that the waters together with him originated from the mind. 252 The moon is described as the flower of waters. 153 The waters are even equated with all the gods 1164 Elsewhere it is said that waters are the abode of all the gods !156 With the waters are connected not only the gods like Agni, but also various plants and animals. They are equated with plants. 266 Darbhas are said to have originated from the sacred and true part of the waters that were mixed with the dead body of Vrtra.167 In ritual waters are found to be connected with Savitr. 168 Notes and References - 1 With Āpah 'waters' (plural) may be compared Uşāsaḥ, the successive Dawns. 2 It is suggested that various meanings of apas, namely, work, food, active, etc., are envolved
from the word apah itself. (Cf. F. Singh, Vedic Etymologies, 82-83). 3 II. 1. also I. 81. 4 Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanişads, 141. Cf. Gangal : Apah in the RV,
typescript, University of Bombay, 1962. 5 Cf. Apte: History and Culture of Indian People, I, 373. 6 Anantacharya, Vedasamiksā, P. 9. 7 BSOS, IV, 706. 8 Secret Lore of India, 161. 9 IV. b.23. 10 IX. 23. 11 P. 423. 12 Sharma, "Āpah in Vedic Cosmogony", Gode Comm. Vol. P. 352. 13 Vedavidyānidarśana, 61. 14 VI.1.1-2. 15 GBr 1.1.2. 16 ŚBr VI.1.3.2-5 : apam taptänäm pheno jāyatel...sa mydamasrjata...sa sikatd'srjata...Foam is
produced in heated water... It produced clay... It produced sand... 17 V 5.5. VI. 2-4. 18 AS XIX.16.17-25 : a cow whose calf is not living to Apah, and subsidiary oblations of water
with the hymn beginning with näsad asit... Cf. Srautakosa (Eng.), 893. 19 III. 2.10.15. 20 Kaus-Br. XXIV. 4. This theory of the cosmic circulation of the waters is not peculiar only
to Indo-Iranian mythology, but is found in Greek and Egyptian mythologies also. Kramer (Expedition) VI, 44-52) is inclined to identify Dilmun with the Indus region. He further points to the significance of the facts that the great Sumerian water-god Enki was most intimately connected with Dilmun, and that the Indus civilization was characterized by
the cult of a water-deity and sea-faring ships. 21 Op. cit., 141-42. 22 ŚBr III.7.4.27. 23 Ibid III. 4.4.19. 24 lbid III. 6.4.20.