206 The Religion of the Veda
The last step, namely that Prayer or Devotion itself becomes divine and assumes a tolerably distinct personality, deserves to hold our attention. The epithet “Goddess” is freely given to numerous designations of prayer and devotion. There is the “ Goddess Devotion ” (Dh'f); the goddess “ Lovely Praise” (Sushtuti); the goddess “Holy Thought ” (Manisha), and c:>1:ln=:rs..ll And by an almost comical tour de form, such as is possible only in India, Devotion, having become divine, turns into a real personage who might in the company of the other gods call out a second layer of the same article: “Drink the some, 0 ye Agvins, in the company of
Agni and Indra, of Varuna and Vishnu . . . in 3:5.
the company of all pious Devotions.
For the history of the human mind this last out» come, present in the ancient literature of this gifted peeple, is of unusual importance. The rather mystic idea of the divinity of Devotion and its expression, the notion that the sacred inspired thought and word can itself be god, will concern us more later on. From the point of view of religious feeling it is'the last and best word of the Hindus as to the nature of the divine. There comes to mind the first verse of the Gospel of John: “ In the beginning was
1 See Rig-Veda 3. 18. 3; 4. 43. I; 7. 34. I and 9; 8. 27. I3. 9 was s. 35. If.
Manama—4F:-
«in:
n 1‘1me n-I-W “.m‘fltm‘t‘v“ M~ :
