Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 4. In the beginning, the Self: I am Brahman
New to these pages?
Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
The creation of the commons
Still he did not flourish. He created the Vis, those classes of gods who are named in groups: the Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Visvedevas, the Maruts.
Even then he did not thrive, so he created the common order, the Vis (the producer class), corresponding to those groups of gods who are always named collectively: the Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Visvedevas, and the Maruts.