Indian Philosophy v1.c8.s2.78

v1.c8.s2.78

We have already mentioned Aditi from whom the several gods called Ādityas are born. Aditi literally means "unbound or unlimited." It seems to be a name for the invisible, the infinite which surrounds us on all sides, and also stands for the endless expanse beyond the earth, the clouds and the sky. It is the immense substratum of all that is here and also beyond. "Aditi is the sky, Aditi is the intermediate region, Aditi is father and mother and son, Aditi is all the gods and the five tribes, Aditi is whatever has been born, Aditi is whatever shall be born."² Here we have the anticipation of a universal all-embracing, all-producing nature itself, the immense potentiality or the prakṛti of the Sāṃkhya philosophy. It corresponds to Anaximander's Infinite.