The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c9.s1.75

c9.s1.75

The last step, namely that Prayer or Devotion itself becomes divine and assumes a tolerably distinct personality, deserves to hold our attention. The epithet "Goddess" is freely given to numerous designations of prayer and devotion. There is the "Goddess Devotion" (Dhī); the goddess "Lovely Praise" (Sushtuti); the goddess "Holy Thought" (Manīshā), and others.¹ And by an almost comical *tour de force*, such as is possible only in India, Devotion, having become divine, turns into a real personage who might in the company of the other gods call out a second layer of the same article: "Drink the soma, O ye Açvins, in the company of Agni and Indra, of Varuna and Vishnu . . . in the company of all pious Devotions."²