Gods and Saints of flic Great Brnlunaua. 27 



•The most striking of these passages is one that represents the 

 Word as the mediating principle in creation, 20. 14. 2 f. : The 

 Creator verih' was alone here. He had as his own, as a second 

 (self), only the Word. He thought to himself, " I will send forth 

 this Word (create with form), and the Word will go and pervade 

 (become as) the world." ^ He sent forth (created in visible form) the 

 Word and it went pervading (as) the world, and extended on high 

 as (in a cloud) a stream of water goes up on all sides. He took 

 (cut) off a third (saying a) and it became the earth ; another third 

 (saying ka), and it became the interspace (atmosphere) ; another 

 (saying ho) be cast aloft and it became the shining sky. The Word, 

 of one syllable, the Creator thus divided threefold, for the Word 

 is threefold {tryavrt, 10. 4. 9, in three divisions, three in one) and 

 it became the three worlds (represented by three S3'llables).2 



As the scholiast saj^s, it betokens paramatva^ supreniacj^ (e. g. the horse 

 is the highest as he was born of Prajapati's eye, and it is said " only 

 cows and horses are cattle,"' TS. 5. 2. 9. 4). So the proper meaning of 

 Vedanta is not the goal, or conclusion, but the chief (essence) of the Veda. 



^ The scholiast takes this in the later jDhilosophical sense : '• go and 

 return to me.'' but though '• coming and going in the form of Vac," 

 5. 8. 3, it is not here meant [ci^yati^ S. mdm esyati). What is meant is 

 that the divine Word pervading all the universe becomes the visible 

 formed earth, air, and sky. 



* Each part has its god, gandhai-ra^ fire, "uind, and sun being the 

 deities of earth, air, and sky. A passage like this, Kath. 12. 5, makes 

 the (female) Word the consort of the Creator, to bear Creation. In the 

 popular religion the divine Word becomes degraded to a mere Sabali, or 

 granter of wishes, as a "wonder-co^v : " Sabali (the wonder-cow, 21. 1. 5) 

 is the same as the Word '". The worshiper performs a rite, freshty 

 clothed, drinking hot milk, lying on the ground, and after twelve nights, 

 toward morning, upavyusam^ makes an offering, before speaking and 

 when he cannot hear the village animals G-oing apart into the forest 

 he calls three times as he takes holy-grass in hand, '• Sabali," and he 

 ■will get his Avish if he hears any animal reply (except a dog or an ass). 

 The invocation is : " O Sabali, Sabali ; thou art the all-embracing ocean, 

 hrahma of gods, first-born of the holy order, food, seed, glory, immort- 

 alitj^, art thou ; of thee is earth a part, the atinosp)here a part, sky a 

 part, sea a part Such thou art, as such we know thee. Then as such 

 do thou, o wish-cow, milk out for us food, strength, a stream of w-ealth, 

 a stream of chikh'en. Maj" I follow ^fulfil) the vow. Hail ! " Comj)are 

 TS. 4. 3. 11. 5. On the w^ord of one sjdlable, cf. also PB. 4. 3. 3 ; 21. 

 5. 4. Tlu'ee syllables(above) are used in the creation, akaho^ mystically 

 identified as Saman calls with the three w'orlds, and with the aksara " inde- 

 structible " principle. 



