tman_and_moksa

Author(s): G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University

Page 37

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
The Vedas
horse by which he is borne in battle, the cow which supplies him with nourishment, the dog which keeps watch over his dwelling, the bird which, by its cry, reveals to him his future, together with that more numerous class of creatures which threaten his existence, receive from him the worship of either homage or deprecation. There are parts even of the apparatus used in connection with sacrifice which are more than sacred to purposes of religion; they are regarded as themselves deities."1
The thinkers of the Vedic period personified the natural agencies and things and ascribed to them desires and will, good and bad with which they could affect human life. Naturally out of awe and a desire for security, the powers came to be looked upon as deities. Paul Deussen says --".... they ascribed to them not only will, like that of man, which was perfectly correct, but also human personality, human desires and human weaknesses, which certainly was wrong. These personified natural powers were further considered as the origin, the maintainers and controllers of what man found in himself as the moral law, opposed to the egoistic tendencies, natural to man." 2
The Vedic thinkers attributed power to everything in the world that affected them or impressed them with certain power in some way. They vaguely suspected some 'energising principle'actually investing all the things of the world with energy, and itself remaining imperceptible. The capacity to
1 Barth A. : The Religions of India, p. 7. 2 Deussen Paul : Outlines of Indian Philosophy, p. 9.
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