The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c5.s3.t3.5

c5.s3.t3.5

“The names of the Gods, like *Âditya* and so forth, even if “they refer to light etc., compel us, according to the scriptures, “to assume spiritual beings corresponding [to the elements] “gifted with *aiçvaryam* (ruling power); for they are thus “used in the Mantra’s and Brâhmaṇa’s; and the Gods have, in “virtue of their *aiçvaryam*, the power of remaining as the “Self (*âtman*) of light etc., or, according to their pleasure, of “taking this or that individuality (*vigraha*); for the scriptures “say, in explaining the *Subrahmaṇyâ* formula [Shaḍviṅça-br. “1, 1]: ‘*O ram of Medhâtithi,*’—that is as ram he [Indra, as “Çaṅkara adds] once stole Medhâtithi, the scion of *Kâṇva*;’ and as the Smṛiti relates [Mahâbh. 1, 4397], *Âditya*, as a man “visited Kuntî; also the earth etc. have, according to the “scriptures, spiritual overseers, for it is said [Çatap. Br. 6, 1, “3, 2, 4] ‘the earth said’—‘the waters said’; and, even if the “natural elements, as the light in the sun, and so on, are “without spirit, still they have, to judge by the part they play “in the Mantra’s and Brâhmaṇa’s, God-like beings as their “spiritual overseers.”