Continuing with the theme of Tapa. It may be illuminating to meditate on how the Vedic seer approaches it. Its origin is in the eternal simultaneousness that was embedded in primal night manifested as seminal ocean of oceans. The epiphany continues and in examining the origin of Tapas and seeking to participate in its nature and attributes.

samudrād arṇavād adhi saṃvatsaro ajāyata |

ahorātrāṇi vidadhad viśvasya miṣato vaśī ||

Rig Veda 10.190.2

Samudrat arnavat adhi the primal ocean of oceans/ or the fecund seminal ocean, therefrom, samvatsara the year or cyclical time (that repats itself year after year) ajayata emerged, originated as indestructible was generated.

Ahoratrane vidhodhad This verily was the cause for ordaining or generating night (and consequently day) visvasya the whole /complete/ unexceptional misato wasi powerful and omniscient ruler, arbiter of each moment.

The ocean of oceans is seen by commentators to imply both the primal oceans and the original firmament and therefore the origin of space. Thus while on the one hand the Vedic seer meditates on Tapas and intuitively locates in the first cause of space as well as the first predication; she also imputes to tapas the origin of time a co-primordiality along with the other two. In locating the origin in tapas, whether it be the original penance, ardour, energy or heat; tapas is seen as a first cause. Elsewhere in the Rig Veda tapas generally refers to heat, burning ascetic practices and spiritual discipline. Through tapping the inner tapas the Vedic seer intuited that she could connect with creation, origin and the co-primordialities of time space and the first cause and therefore to the ‘divine’ both within herself and in creation without. The divine defies predication but its artefacts can be gleaned through the self-less surrender that underlies tapas at the human level. (contd)

( The writer is a 1993-batch IRS officer who is presently posted in Punjab )