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THE ORDERING OF THE UNIVERSE

While it is impossible to reduce the Vedic literature to a systematic statement, certain general characteristics stand out. The argricultural life of the people combined with the special features of the Indian climate - the brilliance of sunshine, the clarity of atmosphere, the easy beneficence quickly altering to harsh malevolence - made the people sensitive to the natural world. Much of the imagery of the poetry and religion can be understood as the response of the imagination to a Nature that seemed living and animate. Related to this response is another characteristic of the literature of the Vedic Age; the sense of a cosmic order or law pervading the universe. The cosmic law was not made by the gods, although they are the guardians of it. It is reflected not only in the physical regularity of the night and day and of the seasons but also in the moral order that binds men to each other and to the gods. The word used for this cosmic law, rita, becomes a synonym for truth, thus opening up possibilities for the development of wide-ranging philosophical and theological speculations as to the nature of the universe.

The concepts of a living nature and a cosmic law find frequent expression in Vedic mythology. The htmns of the Rig Veda are addressed to many gods, most of whom are closely related to the forces of nature, either as controlling the natural phenomena or as identified with their essential nature. But the gods are not personifications of natural forces in the sense that they emerge as clearly defined anthropomorphic beings; with few exceptions, their characters remain vague and shadowy. The same qualities, for example, are assigned to defferent deities, and are given epithets indicating supremacy. Nor is there any fixed hierarchical structure among the gods, even though some are regarded as being of greater importance than others. The lack of clear distinction between the gods probably made possible a belief in multiplicity as representing some more fundamental principle of unity.

The Vedic cosmology pictures the universe divided into three parts - earth, atmosphere, and heaven - and this triad provides an organizing principle for classifying the gods. Among those whose functions are related to heaven are Varuna, one of the greatest of all Vedic deities, Usha, the goddess of dawn, and Surya, the sun. Indra is the most important of all the atmospheric gods, while Soma and Agni are the chief gods among those classified as having a special relationship to earth. Fuller information on these deities is given in the introductory notes to the hymns. There are in addition many divine or semi-divine beings who do not fit into the three-fold classification, such as family deities, forest spirits, demons, wives of the gods, and abstractions derived from human qualities, such as Faith or Anger.

Questions concerning the creation of the universe and the origin of gods and men are related to the cosmic law in a general way, but Vedic literature presents a number of myths, which are not all consistent with each other, to explain divine and human existence. Thus at times the universe is represented as having been created by the gods, after the analogy of the work of a carpenter, but at other times it is suggested that the whole of creation, including the gods, is the product of a process of natural generation. The gods, quite as much as men, are "this side of creation." Sometimes the emphasis is on parentage in the human sense; sometimes a complex and subtle reference is made to the evolution of being from non-being. In all these speculations one sees a willingness to move to new positions, even though this means contadicting themes already entrenched within the tradition.

The concepts and practices of the sacrificial ritual, which was at the heart of Vedic religion, were also linked to the fundamental understanding of the existence of a cosmic law. The central physical feature of the religion was not a temple or an image, but an altar on which the sacred fire was lighted and around which the ritual took place. The sacrifices were mainly things that man himself enjoyed, such as food or the intoxicating soma, a kind of drink whose nature is not now known These offerings came to be surrounded with rites of extrordinary complexity, the correct performance of which was dependent upon the specialized knowledge of the priests. The belief grew up that the sacrifice was necessary for the maintenance of the cosmic order, and that "without regular sacrifice all cosmic processes would cease, and chaos would come again." From this the conclusion was drawn that what was important was not the gods to whom sacrifice was made, nor the materials of the sacrifice, but the sacrificer, who knew the secret formula that held the cosmos together. The word that was used for the sacrificer was brahman, which only by extention of its early meaning came to be used for a whole class of people. Originally brahman seemed to have meant the spoken words of the ritual, but eventually it stood for the power behind the ritual, the principle that lies at the ground of all being, and hence the end of man's spiritual quest.

It might be supposed that the attempt to relate man's existence to the cosmic order would have led to considerable intrest in the significance of death, but in fact speculation concerning death occupies only a minor place in the early texts. The ancient Indian peoples desired death for their enemies and long life on earth for themselves; when a man died, his soul rose with the smoke of the burning body to heaven. In the earliest texts there is no certain indication of any belief in trans migration, that most pervasive of later Indian beliefs. Within the Vedic concepts, however, there was possibility for the elaboration of this belief, particularly in the emphasis on an undeviating cosmic law.

In the following selections: The Ancient Gods, The Origin of the Universe, The Meaning of Sacrifice, and Hinduism on Death; these varied aspects of the ordering of the universe are set forth in the words of the saints and seers of the Vedic Age.