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INHABITANTS OF THE WORLDS
The worlds are inhabited by countless grades of beings, ranging from the highest Devas (of whom there are many classes and degrees) to the lowest animal life. The scale of beings runs from the shining manifestations to the spirit of those in which it is so veiled that it would seem almost to have disappeared in its material covering. There is but one Light, one Spirit, whose manifestations are many. A flame enclosed in a clear glass loses but little of its brilliancy. If we substitute for the glass, paper, or some other more opaque yet transparent substance, the light is dimmer. A covering of metal may be so dense as to exclude from sight the rays of light which yet burns within with an equal brilliancy. As a fact, all such veiling forms are maya. They are none the less true for those who live in and are themselves part of the mayik world. Deva, or " heavenly and shining one "—for spirit is light and self-manifestation—is applicable to those descending yet high manifestations of the Brahman, such as the seven S'ivas, including the Trinity (trimurti), Brahma, Vişņu, and Rudra. Devi again, is the title of the Supreme Mother Herself, and is again applied to the manifold forms assumed by the one only Maya, such as Kali, Sarasvati, Laksmi, Gauri, Gayatri, Sarhdhya, and others. In the sense also in which it is said,1 " Verily, in the beginning
1. Brhadāranyaka Up. (ix, 2-3-2). there was the Brahman. It created the Devas " ; the latter term also includes lofty intelligences belonging to the created world intermediate between Isvara (Himself a Purusa) and man, who in the person of the Brāhmana is known as Earth-deva (bhudeva).1 These spirits are of varying degrees. For there are no breaks in the creation which represents an apparent descent of the Brahman in gradually lowered forms. Throughout these forms play the divine currents of pravrtti and nivrtti, the latter drawing to Itself that which the former has sent forth.2
Deva, jiva and jada (inorganic matter) are, in their real, as opposed to their phenomenal and illusory being, the one Brahman, which appears thus to be other than Itself through its connection with the upādhi or limiting conditions with which ignorance (avidyā) invests it. Therefore all being which are the object of worship are each of them but the Brahman seen though the veil of avidyā.. Though the worshippers of Devas may not know it, their worship is in reality the worship of the Brahman, and hence the Mahanirvāna-Tantra says3 that, " as all streams flow to the ocean, so the worship given to any Deva is
1. In like manner, the priest of the Church on earth is called by Malachi (ii. 7) " angel ", which is as Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagitae says : " From his announcement of the truth and from his desire and office of purifying, illuminating, and perfecting those committed to his charge " ; the brahmanical office, in fact, when properly understood and given effect to. 2. The hierarchies have also their reason and uses in Christian theology : '* Totus conatus omnium spirituum est referee Deum. Deus in_ primis potenter assimilāt quod vicina sunt ei ; assimilata deinceps assimilant. Ita pergit derivatis deitatis ab ordine in ordinem et ab hierarchia in hierar-chiam et a melioribus creaturis in détériores pro capacitate cujusque in deificationem omnium. " (" Coletus dc Ccelesti Hierarchia Dionysii Areopa-gitœ, " chap, iii). 3. Chapter II, verse 50, a common statement which appears in the Bhagavadglta and elsewhere. received by the Brahman." On the other hand, those who, knowing this, worship the Devas, do so as manifestations of Brahman, and thus worship It mediately. The sun, the most glorious symbol in the physical world, is the mayik vesture of Her who is " clothed with the sun. "
In the lower ranks of the celestial hierarchy are the Devayonis, some of whom are mentioned in the opening verses of the first chapter of the text. The Devas are of two classes: " unborn " (ajata)—that is, those which have not, and those which have (sadhya) evolved from humanity as in the case of King Nahusa, who became Indra. Opposed to the divine hosts are the Asura, Danava, Daitya, Raksasa, who, with other spirits, represent the tamasik or demonic element in creation. All Devas, from the highest downwards, are subordinate to both time and karma. So it is said, "Salutation to Karma, over which not even Vidhi (Brahma), prevails " Namastat karmabhyovidhirapi na yebhyah prabhavati) .x The rendering of the term " Deva" as " God "2 has led to a misapprehension of Hindu thought. The use of the term " angel" may also mislead, for though the world of Devas has in some respects analogy to the
1. And again:
Ye samasta jagatsrstisthitisamhara kārinah Te'pi kalesu Hyante kalo hi balavattarah.
(Even all those who are the cause of the creation, maintenance, and destruction of the world disappear in time because time is more strong than they). 2. Though, also, as Coletus says (" De Goelesta Dionysii Hierarchia chap. xii. 8) the Angels have been called " Gods "; " Quod a utern angeli Dii vocantur testatur illud geneseos dictum Jacob a viro luctatore," etc. angelic choirs,1 the Christian conception of these Beings, their origin and functions, does not include, but in fact excludes, other ideas connoted by the Sanskrit term.
The pitrs, or " Fathers," are a creation (according to some) separate from the predecessors of humanity, and are, according to others, the lunar ancestry who are addressed in prayer with the Devas. From Brahma, who is known as the "Grandfather", Pita Maha of the human race, issued Marichi, Atri, and others, his "mental sons": the Agnisvattah, Saumsaya, Havis-mantah, Usmapah, and other classes of Pitrs, numbering, according to the Markandeya Purana, thirty-one. Tarpanam, or oblation, is daily offered to these pitrs. The term is also applied to the human ancestors of the worshipper generally up to the seventh generation to whom in sraddha (the obsequial rites) pinda and water are offered with the mantra " svadha ".
The Rsis are seers who know, and by their knowledge are the makers of Śāstra and " see " all mantras. The word comes from the root rs;2 Rsati-prapnoti sarvam man train jnanena pasyati sangsaraparangva, etc. The seven great Rsis or saptarsis of the first manvantara are MaricI, Atri, Angiras, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulastya, and Vasistha. In other manvantaras there are other saptarsis. In the present manvantara the
1. Particularly, as I have elsewhere shown, with such conception of the celestial hierarchies as is presented by the work of the Pseudo-Dionysius on that subject written under the influence of Eastern thought (Stephen Bar Sudaili and others). As to the Christian doctrine on the Angels, see Suarez, " De Angelis." The patristic doctrine is summarised by Petavius " De Angelis, " Dogm. torn. III. The cabalistic names of the nine orders as given by Archangelus at p. 728 of his " Interpretationes in artis Cabalistice scrip-tores" 1587). 2. S'abdakalpadruma. seven are Kasyapa, Atri, Vasistha, Visvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja. To the Rsis the Vedas were revealed. Vyasa taught the Rgveda so revealed to Paila, the Yajurveda to Vaisampayana, the Samaveda to Jaimini, Atharvaveda to Sumantu, and Itihasa and Purana to Suta. The three chief classes of Rsis are the Brahmarsi, born of the mind of Brahma, the Devarsi of lower rank, and Rajarsi or Kings who became Rsis through their knowledge and austerities, such as Janaka, Rtaparna, etc. The S rutarsi are makers of S astras, as S'usruta. The Kandarsi are of the Karmakanda, such as Jaimini.
The Muni, who may be a Rsi, is a sage. Muni is so called on account of his mananam (mananat munirucyate). Mananam is that thought, investigation, and discussion which marks the independent thinking mind. First there is S ravanam, listening; then Mananam, which is the thinking or understanding, discussion upon, and testing of what is heard as opposed to the mere acceptance on trust of the lower intelligence. These two are followed by Nididhyāsanam, which is attention and profound meditation on the conclusions (siddhānta) drawn from what is so heard and reasoned upon. As the Mahābhārata says, " The Vedas differ, and so do the Smrtis. No one is a muni who has no independent opinion of his own (nāsau muniryasya matam na bhinnam)."
The human being is called jiva1—that is, the embodied Ātmā possessed by egoism and of the notion that it directs the puryastaka, namely, the five organs of action (karmendriya), the five organs of perception
1. That is specially so as all embodiments, whether human or not, of the Paramātmā are jiva. (jnanendriya), the fourfold antahkarana or mental self (Manas, Buddhi, Ahamkara, Citta), the five vital airs (Prana), the five elements, Kama (desire), Karma (action and its results), and Avidya (illusion). When these false notions are destroyed, the embodiment is destroyed, and the wearer of the mayik garment attains nirvana. When the jiva is absorbed in Brahman, there is no longer any jiva remaining as such.
Ordinarily there are four chief divisions or castes (varna) of Hindu society—viz.: Brahmana (priesthood; teaching); Ksattriya (warrior); Vaisya (merchant); Sudra (servile) said to have sprung respectively from the mouth, arm, thigh, and foot of Brahma. A man of the first three classes becomes on investiture, during the upanayana ceremony of the sacred thread, twice-born (dvija). It is said that by birth one is sudra, by samskara (upanayana) dvija (twice born); by study of the Vedas one attains the state of a vipra; and that he who has knowledge of the Brahman is a Brahmana.1 The present Tantra, however, speaks of a fifth or hybrid class (samanya), resulting from intermixture between the others. It is a peculiarity of Tantra that its worship is largely free of Vaidik exclusiveness, whether based on caste, sex or otherwise. As the Gautamlya-Tantra says, " The Tantra is for all men, of whatever caste, and for all women" (Sarvavarnadhikarasca narinam yogya eva ca).
1. Janmana jayate S'udrah Sarhskarad dvija ucyate Veda-pathat bhavet viprah Brahma jnānati brShmanSh. |
