A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c4.s1.11.2

c4.s1.11.2

We are told how, once upon a time, Baka Dālbhya, or as he was also called, Glāva Maitreya, had gone to a retired place to recite his Veda, how a white dog appeared before him, how a number of other dogs came to this dog and begged of it to chant certain hymns because they said they were hungry and by its chants the white dog might procure food for them, how the white dog told the other dogs that they might come to it the next morning, how Baka Dālbhya, who was intent upon seeing what this canine recitation of hymns would be like, waited next morning to watch the dogs meet together, how the dogs, as previously settled, came together the next morning, each holding the tail of another in its mouth, as the priests do when they walk in procession at the time of sacrifice each holding the gown of the fore-going priest in his hand, how when they sat down, they began to sing “ Hin! Om, let us eat, Om, let us drink, Om, let the gods procure food for us, O Lord of food, bring food to us, bring it to us, Om.” This seems to us to be a ridicule poured upon the Mantra-singers who went in for their business with the desire of obtaining some material end. It seems to us that this Canine Chant—the Śauva Udgītha as it has been called—may be regarded as a good invective against the Brāhmaṇical belief in externalism, in the interest of the assertion of the supremacy of the spiritual end to any material end whatsoever.