Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/143
daughters of heaven, the Maidens Dawn, shine upon the morning sky in harmony with ṛta, or when they wake up in the morning they rise from the seat of ṛta. The sun is placed upon the sky in obedience to the ṛta. He is called the wheel of ṛta with twelve spokes. This means that he courses across the sky as the year of twelve months. Even the shallow mystery that the red, raw cow yields white, cooked milk is "the ṛta of the cow guided by the ṛta."[1] The gods themselves are born of the ṛta or in the ṛta (ṛtajāta); they show by their acts that they know the ṛta, observe the ṛta, and love the ṛta.[2]
The religion of the Veda, as we have observed, rests upon the material foundation of cult and sacrifice. These performances are not always regarded merely as merchandise wherewith to traffic for the blessings of the gods. They begin to evolve intrinsic virtues and harmonies. In a later time, the time of the Yajur-Vedas, as we have seen,[3] the technical acts of the sacrifice are imbued with magic and divine power. But even in the Rig-Veda the sacrifice fire is kindled under the "yoking of the ṛta," or, as we should say, under the auspices of world order. Agni, the god of
1 "O sage mir, wie geht es zu, Giebt weisse milch die rote Kuh?" German nursery rhyme.