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Seeds of Parinama in the Earliest Literature
like Rta, Tapas or sraddha and even sacrifice which are conceived as cosmogenic principles - as in X. 190 where it is stated :
1.
“From Fervour kindled to its height, Eternal Law and Truth were born
Thence was the Night produced and thence the Billowy flood of sea arose.
I.
From that same billowy flood of sea, the year was afterwards produced,
Ordainer of the days and nights, Lord over all who close the eye.
III. Dhātā, the great creator, then formed in due order
Sun and Moon.
He formed in order Heaven and Earth, the regions of the air, and light”. 19
This idea of sacrifice is carried to its fullest extent in the Puruşa Sūkta of the Rgveda, one of its latest hymns. In it we have the idea of a cosmic being from whom proceeds this whole universe, along with its social order. The act of creation is treated as a sacrifice in which Puruşa is the victim. “Puruşa is all this world, what has been and shall be. He not only pervades the whole universe but transcends it too".' Thus we have the idea of both immanence and transcendence expressed here for the first time in clear terms. Again, the struggle between the two notions of 'permanence' and 'change' seems to have already taken hold of the minds of the vedic thinkers. We see it reflected in-" 97EISET
fãsatt vara faltegiąå fefe 1 - ‘all existing things are a quarter of him and that which is immortal in the sky is three quarters of him'. Here is an attempt to put together as it were the experiences of “permanence and ehange into one entity by saying 12 Griffith, Vol. II, p. 609.
