This Is A
Collection Of Mantrams Sung During The Sacrifices To The Gods,
That Is To Say, To The Elements.
Our ancient priests were hardly
acquainted with the modern methods of chemistry and physics; but,
to make up for it, they knew a good deal which has not as yet been
thought of by modern scientists.
So it is not to be wondered at
that, sometimes, our priests, so perfectly acquainted with natural
sciences as they were, forced the elementary gods, or rather the
blind forces of nature, to answer their prayers by various portents.
Every sound of these mantrams has its meaning, its importance,
and stands exactly where it ought to stand; and, having a raison
d'etre, it does not fail to produce its effect. Remember Professor
Leslie, who says that the science of sound is the most subtle,
the most unseizable and the most complicated of all the series
of physical sciences. And if ever this teaching was worked out
to perfection it was in the times of the Rishis, our philosophers
and saints, who left to us the Vedas."
"Now, I think I begin to understand the origin of all the mythological
fables of the Greek antiquity," thoughtfully said the colonel; "the
syrinx of Pan, his pipe of seven reeds, the fauns, the satyrs, and
the lyre of Orpheus himself. The ancient Greeks knew little about
harmony; and the rhythmical declamations of their dramas, which
probably never reached the pathos of the simplest of modern recitals,
could hardly suggest to them the idea of the magic lyre of Orpheus.
I feel strongly inclined to believe what was written by some of our
great philologists:
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