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When such riks clearly bring out
the nature of mantrās as being created, how, it may be asked, can
the Veda be said it be eternal, uncreated? The rik quoted
above refers to the original, basic vāk, word, of the
mantra abiding in the paramam vyoma, when it speaks of it
as eternal. The entire Veda came to be understood as eternal on
account of its origin in the paramam vyoma. Consider the
rik (8.75.6) by the seer Virūpa. "O Virūpa, by the eternal
word give now the impulse of the high laud to the Luminous One''.
Even Sāyaņa's commentary on the rik agrees with this. For
he says: "By vāk, is meant speech in the form of mantra,
which is eternal that is to say, not produced''. In this view, as
explained by us, there is no contradiction inconsistency between
the eternality of the Veda and the authorship of the rişhi.
This has been clarified by Patanjali, author of the
mahābhāşhya, while explaining the sūtra (4.3.101) of
Pāņini. Patanjali accepted the eternality of the word and idea
contained in the Veda, but not of the arrangement and order
of syllables, words and sentences. The arrangement of words in the
mantra-verse is of the rişhi's making for the purposes of
making the Veda known. Thus both the statements that the
Vedās are both created and uncreated are compatible. That the
riks are poetry of an extraordinary kind wherein lies their
mantra-character, is evidenced by the hymns of Dīrghatamas and
Virūpa above referred to. There are hundreds of such instances in
the rik samhita which describe the glory of Speech,
but they are not mentioned here for fear of swelling the subject
with details. |
