Who proclaimed it here ?
Whence this manifold creation sprang ?
The Gods themselves came later into being ...
~ Rig Veda ~
The abyss, the unlimited space, is the ultimate veil ... this veil of the unknowable became, for many peoples, the archetype of the Mother Goddess. But it was in the early Vedas that 'she' as 'Aditi' received her most poetically lofty description.
Etymologically, the Sanskrit word 'aditi' means 'the infinite' . There are two ways of analysing the root of the term : first by isolating the stem 'adi' meaning 'the first', and second, by separating 'a' (meaning 'not') from 'diti' (meaning limit' or 'binding'), yielding the idea of 'boundlessness'... the infinte ! In the Rig Veda, Aditi is described as the 'Primordial Vastness' identified with boundless heaven, endless night and the essence of divinity. Brahma himself therein prays to the great goddess, saying : "Thou art the pristine spirit, the nature of which is bliss; thou art the ultimate nature and clear light of heaven which illuminates and breaks the self-hypnotism of the terrible round of rebirth, and thou art the one that muffles the universe, for all time, in thine own very darkness." The Vedas establish Aditi as the female generative force ... the progenitrix of cosmic creation.
However another aspect of Aditi is suggested by her more limited identifications as the consort of Brahma, the mother of the Adityas, Vach, the cow of plenty or even the earth. In the later times, she eventually came to be regarded as a guardian goddess who helped her worshippers find a smooth path to what they were looking for.
The great difference between the lofty designations of the 'Vedas' and the later descriptions in the 'Puranas' seems to suggest the earth-bound reincarnation of the first feminine principle itself. The more materialistic men became in consciousness, the more concretized and literal became their comprehension of words and symbols. One may also see this as an advanced stage in the process of conscious externalization which accompanied the separation of the sexes as well as the understanding of spirit and matter. As a result, in course of time, the principle of eternal potentiality belonging to Aditi was lost forever ...
Etymologically, the Sanskrit word 'aditi' means 'the infinite' . There are two ways of analysing the root of the term : first by isolating the stem 'adi' meaning 'the first', and second, by separating 'a' (meaning 'not') from 'diti' (meaning limit' or 'binding'), yielding the idea of 'boundlessness'... the infinte ! In the Rig Veda, Aditi is described as the 'Primordial Vastness' identified with boundless heaven, endless night and the essence of divinity. Brahma himself therein prays to the great goddess, saying : "Thou art the pristine spirit, the nature of which is bliss; thou art the ultimate nature and clear light of heaven which illuminates and breaks the self-hypnotism of the terrible round of rebirth, and thou art the one that muffles the universe, for all time, in thine own very darkness." The Vedas establish Aditi as the female generative force ... the progenitrix of cosmic creation.
However another aspect of Aditi is suggested by her more limited identifications as the consort of Brahma, the mother of the Adityas, Vach, the cow of plenty or even the earth. In the later times, she eventually came to be regarded as a guardian goddess who helped her worshippers find a smooth path to what they were looking for.
The great difference between the lofty designations of the 'Vedas' and the later descriptions in the 'Puranas' seems to suggest the earth-bound reincarnation of the first feminine principle itself. The more materialistic men became in consciousness, the more concretized and literal became their comprehension of words and symbols. One may also see this as an advanced stage in the process of conscious externalization which accompanied the separation of the sexes as well as the understanding of spirit and matter. As a result, in course of time, the principle of eternal potentiality belonging to Aditi was lost forever ...
The Primordial Vastness is the sky,
the Primordial Vastness is the sphere of space;
the Primordial Vastness is the mother, the father, the son;
the Primordial Vastness is all the gods, the five sorts of men, all that was born and shall be born.
~ Rig Veda ~