World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 869

pervades the whole universe and all are within it. The magnificent hymn purusasūkta[the hymn of Great Cosmic person) of Rgveda clearly brings out the organic unity of the whole universe.
It states the Cosmic person has thousand heads, thousand eyes, thousand feet. He covered the earth on all sidses and stretched ten fingers length beyond it. The Great Cosmic peason was all that is and all that will be........, such was His greatness and the person was greater still, this whole world is a fourth of Him, three fourth of Him are immortal in the sky. For with three fourths the person went high, but a fourth of Him remained here, and then spread on all sides, over the living and lifeless world.'
[Sahhasrasīrsā purusah sahasrāksah sahasrapāt. Sa bhūmim viśvato vrtvā atyatisthaddśāngulam. Purusa evedam sarvam yabdhūtam yacca bhāvyam. Utāmộtatvasyeśānaḥ yabannenātirohati. Etāvānasya mahimā ato jyāyānsca pūrusah. Pādo asya viśvā bhūtāni tripādasyāmộtam divi. Tripādürdhva udait purusah pādo asyehābhavat punah. Tato viśvam vyakrāmat sāšanānaśne abhi. X.190.13-14).
In this hymn perhaps for the first time in human history, the organic unity of the whole universe is visualized by the Vedic Seers. In this hymn, the Divinity, the ultimate Reality, is symbolically conceived as a Great Cosmic Person [Purusa] and all existence--- the Earth, the sky, the heaven, the stars, Planets, living and non-living things are conceived as manifestations and part of that one Great Cosmic Person, who pervades the whole universe and also remains beyond it. In Him all that is, has been and will be are united. In other words, the ultimate Reality pervades the whole universe and all are within it. It explicitly says that the Divinity or God is not exerior to creation, but expresses itself through natural phenomena.
In Vedic religion, the earth is considered as Mother, not just a material substance, a ball of mud, stone and lava to be exploited. She is a universal mother from whose womb all life forms are born. She is worshipped as Mother, which has nurtured the consciousness from the time immemorial, sustained the human race for countless centuries. The hymn on Earth (Bhūmisūkta] of Atharvaveda, while praising the Mother Earth talks in terms of holistic attitude. It treats Mother Earth as a common abode of all living and non-living, black and white, Easterner or Westerner.It says "The Earth is our Mother and we are all her children [Mātā bhūmih putro aham prthivyah XII.1.12.),irrespective of race, religion, sex and creed.' 'She is the abode of all, though we live in different regions, speak different languages and follow different religions and social
820