A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.599

c5.599

Wilson observes of it: “The commentators admit some variety of interpretation; but it probably meant, in its original use, a simple invocation of the sun to shed a benignant influence upon the customary offices of worship; and it is still employed by the unphilosophical Hindus with merely that signification. Later notions, and especially those of the Vedānta, have operated to attach to the text an import it did not at first possess, and have converted it into a mystical propitiation of the spiritual origin and essence of existence, or Brahma.” It is considered so holy that copyists often refrain from transcribing it.