Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/257

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The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy
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2. "Who gives life's breath and is of strength the giver, At whose behest all gods do act obedient, Whose shadow is immortality and likewise death – What god shall we revere with our oblation?

3. "The king, who as it breathes and as it shuts its eyes, The world of life alone doth rule with might, Two-footed creatures and four-footed both controls – What god shall we revere with our oblation?

4. "Through whose great might arose these snow-capped mountains, Whose are, they say, the sea and heavenly river, Whose arms are these directions of the space – What god shall we revere with our oblation?"


Not until we come to the tenth stanza does this omnipotent god who so far has not betrayed his name, unless we so regard the epithet "Golden Germ" in the first stanza, reveal himself as Prajāpati:


10. "Prajāpati, thou art the one – and there's no other – Who dost encompass all these born entities! Whate'er we wish while offering thee oblations, May that be ours! May we be lords of riches!"

It is easy to feel both the inferiority and the greater convenience of this Creator God who lords it over everything, without exactly having established any particular mental or moral claim to his prerogatives. As compared with the sheer philosophic "That Only," the one thing without humanly

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