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The Terminology of the Vedas and European Scholars 41
world as revealed by the senses finds its purpose and object and
therefore absorption in this central being. The
indriyas
or the senses
are called the
devas,
because they have their play in the external
phenomenal world and because it is by them that the external world
is revealed to us. Hence
Atmd,
the human spirit is the
brahma
devanam,
the conscious entity that presents to its consciousness all
that the senses reveal. Similarly, the senses are called the
kavayas,
because one learns by their means. The
Atmd,
then, is
padavHcavinam,
or the true sentient being that understands the working of the senses.
Further, the
Atmci is rishir vipriinam,
the cognizor of sensations;
vipra
meaning the senses as the feelings excited by them pervade the whole
body. The senses are also called the
mrigas,
for they hunt about their
proper ailment in the external world.
Atmd is mahisho mriganam, i.e.,
the great of all the hunters. The meaning is that it is really through
the power of
Atmd
that the senses are enabled to find out their proper
objects. The
Atmd
is called
shyena, as
to it belongs the power of
realization; and
gridhras
are the
indriyas,
for they provide the material
for such realization. The
Atmd,
then, pervades these senses. Further,
this
Atinci is swadhitir vananam,
or the master, whom all
indriyas
serve.
Swadhiti
means
Atmd,
for the activity of
Atmd
is all for itself, man
being an end unto himself. The senses are called
vana,
for they serve
their master, the human spirit. It is this
Atmd
that being pure in its
nature, enjoys all. Such, then, is the
yaugika
sense which Yaska
attaches to the mantra. Not only is it all consistent and intelligible,
unlike Sayana's, which conveys no actual sense; not only is each
word clearly defined in its
yaugika
meaning, in contradistinction with
Sayana who knows no other sense of the word than the popular one;
but there is also to be found that simplicity, naturalness and
truthfulness of meaning, rendering it independent of all time and
space, which, contrasted with the artificiality, burdensomeness and
localisation of Sayana's sense, can only proclaim Sayana's complete
ignorance
of principles of Vedic interpretation.
This is Sayana, upon whose commentaries of the Vedas are
based the translation of European scholars.
We leave now Max Muller and Sayana with their
rurhi
translations and come to another question, which though remotely
connected with the one just mentioned, is yet important enough to
be separately treated. It is the question concerning the
Religion of