Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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i.e., O Lord! bestow bliss on our bipeds and quadrupeds.
The most characteristic feature of Vedic bhakti is its genuinely collective and universal spirit. It is therefore that most of the Vedic prayers are in the first person plural like the following ones: (i) Agne naya supathā rāye asmān. (RV, 1/189/1) i.e., O adorable God, may you lead us along the wholesome path for our prosperity, (ii) Suvīryasya patayah syāma. (RV, 10/131/6)
May we be lords of hero vigour !
(iii) i.e.,
Nrbhir nrvantah syāma. (RV, 7/41/3) May we be rich herpes.
Jīvā jyotir aśīmahi. (RV, 7/32/26)
i.e., May we live and have light.
In brief, a seeker in the Vedic view of bhakti is not only eulogizing the divine but is also engaged in his own inner quest for exploring the divinity ; within himself. All his prayers are an expression of the same intense sense of
bonding with the divine which binds him to other manifestations of the divine as also radiates within him and the outside world: Venas tat paśyan nihitam guhā sadyatra viúvam bhavatyekanidam Tasminnidaṁ saṁ ca vi caiti sarvaṁ sa otah protaśca vibhūh prajāsu.
(YV, 32/8) i.e., The loving sage beholds that Mysterious existence
wherein the universe comes to have one home Therein unites and therefrom issues the whole
The lord is wrap and woof in all the created beings.
To sum up, it would be appropriate to quote the following words of a poet critic:
The Rgvedic hymns constitute not only the profoundest expression of the feeling of devotion to a personal Deity, but the wealth of devotional mood and attitude here, as well as their literary expression, far outshines Anything in the best examples of later devotional poetry. Not only did the Vedic poets approach their deities as friends, as sons and as servants, i.e. in sakhya, vatsalya and dāsya as the later devotional schools would say, but they gave expression also to what has been considered as later develop
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