Artic Home of the Aryans by Lokamanya Bal ... - Mandhata Global

426
the scientific and the theological views must stand, as they are,
distinct from each other, for the two methods of investigation are
essentially different. It is for this reason that I have stated the views in
parallel columns for comparison without mixing them up. Whether the
world was produced from the original WORD, or the Divine Logos, is
a question which does not fall within the pale of historical
investigation; and any conclusions based upon it or similar other
doctrines cannot, therefore, be treated in this place. We may,
however, still assert that for all practical purposes the Vedic religion
can be shown to be beginningless even on strict scientific grounds.
A careful examination of the Rig-Vedic hymns will show that the
Vedic يishis were themselves conscious of the fact that the subjectmatter
of the hymns sung by them was ancient or ante-deluvian in
character, though the expressions used were their own productions.
We have already referred before to the two sets of Vedic passages,
the first expressly saying that the hymns were made, generated or
fashioned like a chariot by the يishis to whom they are ascribed, and
the other stating in equally unmistakable terms that the hymns were
inspired, given or generated by gods. Dr. Muir attempts to reconcile
these two contradictory views by suggesting that the different يishis
probably held different views; or that when both of them can be
traced to the same author, he may have expressed the one at the
time when it was uppermost in his mind, and the other at another; or
that the Vedic يishis or poets had no very clearly defined ideas of
inspiration, and thought that the divine assistance of which they were
conscious did not render their hymns the less truly the production of
their own mind.* In short, the existence of a human is not supposed
to be incompatible with that of the super-human element in the
composition of these hymns. But it will be seen that the above
reconciliation is at once weak and unsatisfactory. A better way to
reconcile the conflicting utterances
* See Muir O. S. T. Vol. III, pp. 274-5.