The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c28.s1.1

v1.c28.s1.1

T<mark style="font-variant:small-caps;">he</mark> Dīkṣā is a rite which has to be performed by the sacrificer and his wife before the Soma sacrifice.¹ It is carried out in a hut near the fire: the sacrificer bathes, has his hair cut, is anointed, puts on a fresh garment, is girded with the sacred cord, and sits down on a black antelope hide, in which there resides, in the view of the tradition, holy power. His head is covered, an antelope horn is tied to his garment, and it is prescribed that, when he suffers from itch, he is to use that only with which to scratch himself. He sits in this condition in silence until night comes, when he drinks cooked milk, which is the food appropriate for the consecration, and then keeps awake all the night, or goes to sleep after commending himself to Agni to preserve him from evil spirits. He is also enjoined to stammer when he speaks, and to keep the three last fingers closed into his hand. Some authorities insist that he is to remain in this condition, until he is reduced to skin and bone and until the black in his eyes disappears: he is to be pure for the sacrifice only when he is reduced to complete exhaustion. The loneliness, the silence, the lack of food, are not however the only elements in the prescription: the heat is also indicated by the provision regarding scratching, reference to the sweating of the performer is made, and it is said that water will spoil the consecration, Tapas; the last term clearly means the process of heating, which is also said to be affected by any breach of the rules imposed. This Tapas is one of the earliest conceptions of the Rigveda:² the power produced by it is great in the extreme, and it marks out seers like the Aṅgirases; through it a poet can behold the old creations of the Fathers, speech is born of Tapas, which procures dreams and which elevates man to the state that gods may enter in. If the king wrong a Brahman, then the Tapas of the Brahman is capable of ruining him. Indra was borne by Aṣṭakā by practising Tapas, by it also Indra won immortality. Prajāpati before creation practises Tapas to bring about the desired result of power to create; it is a significant case that once the stars come from him in this condition. Already in the Jaina literature,¹ the common feature of modern Indian thought, the ascetic who presents himself to the heat of four fires and the sun, is found, and the idea of the connexion² of heat with creative power and ecstasy is clearly one of the most assured ideas of Indian thought.