Proceedings and Transactions of All India Oriental Conference Thirteenth Session: Nagpur University October 1946

The.Brahmanas of the 4g and the Yajur Vedas along with the Samhitas of the latter disclose a consciousness of the malevolent spirits by the side of the 4gvedic deities who play a purely mechanical part in the sacrificial frame-work namely that of receiving the offerings and granting the wishes as a matter of course without the exercise of their free will. [...] Only the method of perfection changed with the change of the instrument and of the goal to be achieved; so that the Yoga4astra in its Upanisadic form must be consideed as the legitimate successor of the unnamed Yoga of the Samhitas and the lirahmauas. [...] During the period of the Samhitas of the Yajurveda the sacrificial ritual was perfected and systematized to a large extent with the result that the functions of the main priests were wholly separated from each other. [...] I am aware of the publication of the two volumes of Pandit Gajanansastri Sadhale's Upanisad-vakya-mahiikosa in 1940-4t; but unfortunately in spite of the great labour expended on it by the old Pandit the book is practically useless for a critical study of the contents of the Upanisads. [...] It would serve also as an interlude in the midst of the offering to recall the mind of the spectators to the dangers of gambling and it would thus serve the purpose of a Morality of the middle ages in Europe".11 This is all wishfull thinking and reading the Christian parallels into a harmless monologue of an introspective and didactic value.