The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c7.50

c7.50

Let us not, by any means, imagine that the Mother here is the unselfish human mother who sees to it that her boy Devadatta, or whatever his name may be, has a substantial breakfast. No, it is the Mother Dawn whose Son Agni would as a matter of fact get the largest share anyway, because all oblations are poured into the fire. We must, I think, acknowledge that never has sacrifice had such genuine poetry to serve it. But the reverse of the coin is, that never has poetic endowment strayed so far from wholesome theme as to fritter itself away upon the ancient hocus-pocus of the fire-priest and medicine-man. Of course, what finally saves this poetry from banality is the presence in it of those same luminous gods whose brilliance is obscured but not extinguished by such childish treatment.