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action, “Shreshthatamam karma”. This view is accepted in this
translation too. But in addition, an extended interpretation of the
same view of yajna is incorporated and followed in the light of
Swami Dayananda, and also as warranted by the exhortation in
the opening mantra: “Apply yourself to the highest form of action,
yajna, in the service of Indra, lord of the universe, for the glory of
the human nation”. The highest actions in the world of existence,
the creative evolution of the universe under the immanent
presiding presence of Divinity, and the total corporate action of
humanity for progress, peace and freedom, all this is yajna. And
this idea leads us to discover for ourselves and understand the
science, art and technology of participative living for progress,
from the individual level, through the social, to the cosmic, as
universal Yajna, human, natural and divine.
There may or may not be an escape from Sayana, but there
is no possible escape fromDayananda, and even fromwesterners
especially for the sake of caution and self correction.
I respect the western translators for their clarity and their
art of communication. In addition, I find that they did recognise
that the ideal way to interpret and explain the Sanskrit words of
Indian scriptures such as Vedas was to trace back every word to
its root, deconstruct and reconstruct it with the addition of the
affixes, and then structurally explain its meaning. That precisely
was the approach of Yaska, Panini, Patanjali and Swami
Dayananda. Monier Williams, author of the well known
Sanskrit
English Dictionary,
himself admired the Indians for their scientific
approach to language, specially Sanskrit:
“I draw attention at the very threshold to the fact that
the Hindus are perhaps the only nation, except for the Greeks,
who have investigated, independently and in a truly scientific
manner, the general laws which govern the evolution of
language.” (Introduction, p. xii)
He continues in relation to Sanskrit: “The synthetical
process which comes into operation in the working of those laws
may be well called Samskarana, ‘putting together’, by which I
mean that every single word in the highest type of language (called
Sanskrita) is first evolved out of a primary ‘Dhatu’—a Sanskrit
( xxiv )
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