A VEDIC MASTER

THESE men, Sukeshan Bharadvaja, and Shaivya Satyakama, and Sauryayanin Gargya, and Kaushalya Ashvalayana, and Bhargava Vaidarbhi, and Kabandhin Katyayana, full of the Eternal, firm in the Eternal, were seeking after the supreme Eternal.

They came to the Master Pippalada, with fuel in their hands, saying: He verily will declare it all.

And the Sage said to them: Remain yet a year in fervour, service of the Eternal, and faith. Ask whatever questions you will, if we know them, we shall declare all to you.

So Kabandhin Katyayana, approaching, asked: Master, where are all these beings brought forth from?

He answered him: The Lord of beings desired beings. He brooded with fervour; and, brooding with fervour, he forms a Pair. They are the Substance and the Life. These two will make beings manifold for me, said he. The sun verily is the

[paragraph continues] Life, and Substance is the moon. For Substance is all that is formed, and the formless is the Life. Therefore the form is the Substance.

So the sun, rising, enters the eastern space; and thus he gathers all the eastern lives among his rays. As the southern, the western, the northern, the nether, and the upper space, and the spaces between, as he illumines all, so he gathers all lives among his rays. Thus the Life rises as universal, all-formed fire.

And this is declared by the Vedic verse:

The all-formed, golden Illuminer, the supreme way, the light, the fervent one. Thousand-rayed, turning in a hundred ways, the Life of beings, this sun rises.

The year is a Lord of beings. His two paths are the southern and the northern. Therefore they who worship, thinking that it is fulfilled by sacrifice and gifts, win the lunar world. They verily return again. Therefore these sages who desire beings, turn to the south. For this is the path of Substance, the path of the fathers.

But they who by the northern way seek the Self by fervour, service of the Eternal, faith and knowledge, they verily win the sun. This is the home of lives; this is the immortal, fearless, supreme way. From it they do not return again; for this is the end.

And there is this verse:

They call the sun the father in the upper half of heaven, with five steps--seasons--and twelve forms--months--the giver of increase.

But others call him the Seer who rests in the seven-wheeled chariot, of six spokes.

The month is a Lord of beings. The dark half is the Substance; the bright half is the Life. Therefore these Sages offer sacrifice in the bright half; but the others in the other half.

Day-and-night is a Lord of beings. Day verily is the Life, and night is the Substance. They waste their life who find love in the outward; but service of the Eternal finds love in the hidden.

Food also is a Lord of beings. Thence comes this seed, and thence these beings are brought forth. And