The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s2.5

v2.c32.s2.5

It is not vitally to be distinguished from the strength of the tiger, which is found in its hair and its skin, and which makes these things suited for use in many magic performances, by which man seeks to attain for himself strength and kingship over men, such as the tiger exercises over animals. The frog and the Avakā plants can be used for cooling, for they have in them the nature of the water, a fact which shows clearly how real the presence of the deity in a symbol was to the Vedic conception. The banished king uses a clod of earth from his home in his desire to regain his kingdom: the lightning¹ leaves its strength in the tree which it blasts, the boar in the earth which it kicks up :² the name, the image, the hair, the very footprints³ of man, are so connected with him as to be suitable modes of injury. Hence we can understand such legends as the theory that in laughing Makha⁴ allowed his brilliance to depart from him, that the gods placed it in the plants, and thus was millet produced. Or again the white Vālakhilyas⁵ practised asceticism : half of it with the resulting power Tārkṣya drank, and thus created the bird Garuḍa. The same idea displays itself in the constant fear of being affected by the mouth, which is one of the motives, no doubt, of the fasting recommended often by the Veda; of being affected by mere inhalation, whence often the holding of the breath is laid down; or of being affected by sight, whence often the eyes must be shut, or the sacrificer must at least not look round. The constant play of fancy between the real substance and the spirit is seen in the treatment of such ideas as Pāpman,⁶ impersonal evil, or the spirit of a thousand eyes, or of Takman, the actual fever disease,⁷ which seizes the patient, and makes him shiver, and the spirit which brings this about.