Four-Dimensional Man: Meditations Through the Rg Veda

304 Pages·1976·2.674 MB·English

by  Antonio T. de Nicolas

MEDITATIONS THROUGH
THE RG VEDA

Antonio T. de Nicolas
Four-Dimensional
Mian
Meditations Through
the Rg Veda
Nicolas Hays Ltd.
Copyright (c) 1976by Nicolas Hays Ltd.
Allrights reserved. No part ofthispublication may be
reproduced or transmitted inany form or byany means,
electronicor mechanical, includingphotocopy, recording,
or any information storage and retrieval system,without
permission inwriting from the publisher.
NicolasHays Ltd.
P. O. Box596
Stony Brook, N.Y. 11790
Library of CongressCatalog Card Number 76-39692
International Standard BookNumber 0-89254-004-4
Printed inthe United StatesofAmerica
Contents
Acknowledgements Vil
Abbreviations
1X
Pronunciation ofSanskrit Words X1
Foreword
X111
Prologue XV
Introduction: Cautionary Notes
1. Interpretation and the RgVeda
2. The Way of Critical Philosophy 17
Part I: Rg VedicLife
3. Culture and Meaning: The Hymns and The Sacrifice 49
Part II: TheRg VedicIntentional Life
Introduction: TheProblemof Intentionality 77
4. The Language of Non-Existence (Asat) 89
5. The Language of Existence (Sat) 109
6. The Language of Images and Sacrifice(Yajfia) 139
7. The Language of Embodied (Rta) Vision (Dhih): 155
Appendix I: On Reading the RgVeda: The Formal Logical
Structure of the
Languages inthe
Rg Veda 181
vi
Contents
Appendix II: SomeTerms, Definitions, Axiomsand Formulae 189
Textual Appendix III: SelectedChants from the RgVeda 193
Footnotes 235
Index 278
Acknowledgements
All those I acknowledged and thanked in Four-Dimensional Man: The
Philosophical Methodology of the Rg Vedaare hereby remembered and
thanked again. Though the book in which they appeared is and will
remain out of print, their names and their influencesare not forgotten.
This version of Four-Dimensional Man: Meditations Through the Rg
Vedahas been completely rewritten from cover to cover, and these are
the people more directly responsible for it.
My own students of the State University of New York at Stony
Brook, who with innocence and generosity, uncovered for me the raw
flesh of these meditations. The only way I know to thank them is to
continue journeying with them.
Ernest McClain, who more than anyone else, forced me to travel the
winding tunnels ofmyownthoughts into the musicgarden. Hecan sing
this manuscript by heart, and had henot written a book inspired bymy
early version of Four-Dimensional Man, I would have never sung this
new song.
Patrick A.Heelan, whoconsidered myeffortimportant enough to help
it grow from childhood to maturity, and introduced it to the reader.
Linda Wallace,who for four yearstyped everyword Iwrote, including
this manuscript, and isrushing to finishtyping this page to moveforever
under thesunofCalifornia. For herpatience,understanding anddedica­
tion, I am deeply grateful.
My deep gratitude goes to the staff of Nicolas Hays Ltd., especially
to those fearlessbody/souls whodirectlycontributed to this manuscript:
Susan Greenleaf for easing the pain of proofreading and manuscript
coordination; Rosemary B. Zeman, on whose weight and imagination
the whole book’s production rested; and Neil Litt for his brilliant help
in editing the manuscript.
Thejourney and the blunders ofthesemeditations are allmine,I have
no one to blame.

ABORI Annalsofthe Bhandarkar ResearchInstitute
Ait. Ar. Aitareya Aranyaka
Ait. Br. Altareya Brahmana
AO Acta Orientalia
A. V. (or AV) Atharvaveda
BEFEO Bulletin de Il’EcoleFrancaise d’Extreme Oriente
BG BhagavadGita
Br. Up. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad
Comy. Commentary
ERE Encyclopaedia of Religionand Ethics
EVP Etudes Védiqueset Paninéennes
HIP Historyof Indian Philosophy
HOS Harvard Oriental Series
THQ Indian HistoricalQuarterly
IP Indian Philosophy
JAOS Journal ofthe American Oriental Society
JRAS Journal ofthe Royal Asiatic Society
Kaus. Kausitaki Upanisad
OUP Oxford University Press
PU ThePrinciple Upanisads,ed. S.Radhakrishnan
R. V. (or RV) Rg Veda(When no abbreviation precedes numbers in
the text,theseshould beunderstood asbeingfrom the
Rg Veda)
SB Satapatha Brahmana
SBE SacredBooks ofthe East
Tait. Br. Taittirtya Brahmana
ix