RLGA01H3 Lecture : Hindu traditions.docx
Document Summary
The veda divides into four samhitas or collections: Each of these collections in turn consists of four sections: Prana, an internal air current of the body, is often spoken of as the basic animating principle. The aryans thought the world as divided into three levels: triloka . The world was believed to be governed by an abstract impersonal principle called rita . A great primeval sacrifice performed by the gods in which the body of a victim called purusha was dismembered. From his naval came space from his head, the sky from his feet, earth; from his ears, the four directions thus the worlds were created. There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. There was no distinguishing sign of night nor of day. That one breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning; with no distinguishing sign, all this was water.