Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/144

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
128
The Religion of the Veda

fire, is "scion of the ṛta," or "first-born of the ṛta." He performs his work with ṛta, carries oblations to the gods "on the path of ṛta." Prayers, lowing like cattle, "longing for the soma-drink," take effect in accordance with ṛta.[1] A figure of speech, bold to the point of grotesqueness, turns prayer into "ṛta-fluid, distilled by the tongue."[2] Holy sacrifice, in distinction from foul magic, is performed with ṛta: "I call upon the gods, undefiled by witchcraft. With ṛta I perform my work, carry out my thought." Thus exclaims a poctic mind conscious of its own rectitude.[3]

Finally in man's activity the ṛta manifests itself as the moral law. Here it takes by the hand the closely kindred idea of truth, satya. Untruth, on the other hand, is anṛta, more rarely asatya, the same two words with prefix of negation. The two words satya and anṛta form a close dual compound, "truth and lie," "sincerity and falsehood," both zealously watched over by God Varuna.[4] They remain the standard words for these twin opposites for all Hindu time. Varuna is the real trustee of the ṛta. When God Agni struggles towards the ṛta he is said in a remarkable passage to become for the time being God Varuna."[5]

  1. ↑ Rig-Veda 9. 94. 2.
  2. ↑ Ibid., 9. 75. 2.
  3. ↑ Ibid., 7. 34. 8.
  4. ↑ Ibid., 7. 49. 3.
  5. ↑ Ibid., 10. 8. 5.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.