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versal parents, and parentage is sometimes attributed to Aditi and Dak@sa. Under this philosophical aspect the semi-pantheistic Man-hymn [Footnote ref 5] attracts our notice. The supreme man as we have already noticed above is there said to be the whole universe, whatever has been and shall be; he is the lord of immortality who has become diffused everywhere among things animate and inanimate, and all beings came out of him; from his navel came the atmosphere; from his head arose the sky; from his feet came the earth; from his ear the four quarters. Again there are other hymns in which the Sun is called the soul (_atman_) of all that is movable and all that is immovable [Footnote ref 6]. There are also statements to the effect that the Being is one, though it is called by many names by the sages [Footnote ref 7]. The supreme being is sometimes extolled as the supreme Lord of the world called the golden egg (Hira@nyagarbha [Footnote ref 8]). In some passages it is said "Brahma@naspati blew forth these births like a blacksmith. In the earliest age of the gods, the existent sprang from the non-existent. In the first age of the gods, the existent sprang from the non-existent: thereafter the regions sprang, thereafter, from Uttanapada [Footnote ref 9]." The most remarkable and sublime hymn in which the first germs of philosophic speculation ___________________________________________________________________ [Footnote 1: Macdonell's _Vedic Mythology_, p. 11.] [Footnote 2: R.V.x. 81. 4.] [Footnote 3: Taitt. Br. II. 8. 9. 6.] [Footnote 4: Macdonell's _Vedic Mythology_, p. 11; also R.V. II. 15 and IV. 56.] [Footnote 5: R.V.x. 90.] [Footnote 6: R.V.I. 115.] [Footnote 7: R.V.I. 164. 46.] [Footnote 8: R.V.X. 121.] [Footnote 9: Muir's translation of R.V.x. 72; Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, vol. v.p. 48.] 24 with regard to the wonderful mystery of the origin of the world are found is the 129th hymn of R.V.x. 1. Then there was neither being nor not-being. The atmosphere was not, nor sky above it. What covered all? and where? by what protected? Was there the fathomless abyss of waters? 2. Then neither death nor deathless existed; Of day and night there was yet no distinction. Alone that one breathed calmly, self-supported, Other than It was none, nor aught above It. 3. Darkness there was at first in darkness hidden; The universe was undistinguished water. That which in void an
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