350 ON" THE RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES 



piating fin : as the foregoing explanations of the text 

 are founded cjiiefly on the glois of an ancient philo- 

 fopher and legiflator, Yajvjaicalrya, the following ex- 

 tract will confift of little more than a verbal tranfia- 

 tion of his metrical glois : 



" The parent of all beings produced all fiates of 

 u exiftence, for he generates and preferves all creatures ; 

 " therefore js he called the Generator. Becaufe lie 

 ci mines and fports, becaufe he loves and irradiates, 

 (i therefore "is he called refplendent or divine, and is 

 " praifed by all deities. We meditate on the light 

 c: which, exifting in cur minds, continually governs 

 fs our intellects in the purfuits of virtue, wealth, love, 

 €C and beatitude. Becaufe the being, who mines 

 li with feven rays, ailiiming the forms of time and of 

 c( fire, matures productions, is refplendent,- illumines 

 " all, and finally deftroys the univerfe, therefore, he 

 i: who naturally mines with feven rays, is called Light, 

 c - or the effulgent power. The firft iyllable denotes, 

 **' that he illumines worlds ; the fecond confonant im- 

 plies, that he colours all creatures; the 1 aft fylla- 

 ble fignifies, that he moves without ceafing. From 

 his cheriihing all, he is called the irradiating Pre- 

 ° l itrver. 



Although it appears, from the terms of the text, 

 (" Light of the Generator or Sun/') that the fun and 

 the light fpoken of are difiant, yet, in meditating this 

 fublime text, they are undiftinguifhed ; that light 

 is the fun and the fun is light ; they are identical. 

 " The fame effulgent and irradiating power which 

 animates living beings, as their foul exifts in the 

 fky, as the male being refiding in the midft of the 

 fun." There "is corifequently no diftinction ; but 

 that effulgence, which cxifts in the heart governing 

 the intellects of animals, muft alone be meditated as 

 one and the fame, however, with the luminous 

 power refiding in the orb of the fun. 



;.' 



That 



