Most of what we wish to prove is already known to you and if we talk of the subject further, it will be merely restatement of the facts. Svetasvatara Upanishad refers to devatma-sakti (self-power) as the cause of this universe, and goes on to say in verse I.4 that the rope of this devatma sakti is manifold. That is confirming that there are more than one devas.
In this Upanishad, Sage Svetasvatara is asked the question, “What is the cause? Brahman? Whence are we born? By what do we live? And on what are we established?” Svetasvatara replies that the cause is the devatma-sakti, which is presided by the Brahman (God), thereby confirming that Brahman (God) is not involved in the day-to-day affairs of the running of this world. All these affairs, including life and death, creation and destruction, and sending of the Messengers to lead us to the worship of Absolute God are in the hands of the devatma-shakti; thus the Devatas.
Now see this verse from Svetasvatara Upanishad:
I.13. As the form of fire when latent in its source is not seen and yet its seed is not destroyed, but may be seized again and again in its source by means of the drill, so it is in both cases. The self has to be seized in the body by means of the syllable Aum.
The Eternal is very much present in the self inside our body but it cannot be truly known without a sincere effort in the right direction. The syllable Aum helps us in attaining this objective. That merely uttering a word lead us to such a state; it would be naïve to think so! Salvation cannot be attained unless we know the meaning of Aum truly. Most extraordinarily, you will see later, that even syllable Aum is related to the flight towards attaining unity with God, but through a bird composed of fourteen devatas, one of whom is a devi. The vowels of Aum signify the five devas, who were created from the One Self called Life or Prana, and the ardh-matra signify the 9 devatas, also part of the Prana or Life. We are sure you are already aware of the names of these 14 devatas and their inter-relationship by now.
I.14. As oil in sesamum seeds, as butter in cream, as water in riverbeds, as fire in friction sticks, so is the Self seized in one’s own soul if one looks for Him with truthfulness and austerity.
Kausitaki Upanishad is one of those Upanishads that confirms the importance of devatas and leads us back to God. See these verses from Chapter IV.
IV.3: Then Balaki said, ‘The person who is in the sun, on him indeed do I meditate!’ To him, then Ajatsatru said, ‘Do not make me to converse on him. I meditate on him who is the deva, clad in white raiment, the supreme, the head of all beings. He who meditates on him thus becomes indeed supreme, the head of all beings.
IV.4. Then Balaki said: ‘The person who is in the moon, on him indeed do I meditate!’ To him, then, Ajatsatru said, ‘Do not make me to converse on him. I meditate on him as the self of food. He who meditates on him Thus becomes indeed, the self of food.’
IV.5. Then Balaki said, ‘The person who is in the lightning on him, indeed, do I meditate.’ To him then Ajatsatru said, ‘Do not make me to converse on him. I meditate on him as the self of truth. He who meditates on him thus becomes, indeed, the self of truth!’
IV.6. Then Balaki said, ‘The person who is in the thunder, on him, indeed, do I meditate.’ To him then Ajatsatru said, ‘Do not make me to converse on him. I meditate on him as the self of sound. He who meditates on him thus becomes, indeed, the self of sound.
Thereafter, the person who is in the air, space, fire, water, mirror, shadow, echo, sound, body, right eye, left eye are mentioned. In the end Ajatsatru said:
He, verily, O Balaki, who is the maker of these persons (whom you have mentioned in succession), he of whom this is the work, he alone is to be known. And that He is the God.
See IV.9 of Paingala Upanishad:
What is the use of milk to one satiated with nectar? Even so what is the use of the study of Vedas for one who has perceived the Self?
We must salute sages like Yajnavalkya who did all in their power to keep us on the right path. Not only this, they also undertook the task of giving us lead about the true course of life and the true content of various sacred scriptures. Isn’t Yajnavalkya’s words confirming to what we are saying?
And this knowledge is of such importance that it destroys even the gravest sins committed by man. See IV.24:
He who studies this Upanishad everyday… becomes free from the sins of killing a Brahmana, drinking liquor, stealing gold, sharing the bed with the teacher’s wife and associating with those who have committed these sins!
All those who cite the myths associated with Siva and others about drinking take note. They are clearly the work of mischievous minds, otherwise drinking liquor is among one of the five most serious sins from time immemorial. It is akin to killing of a Brahmana or stealing of gold, or adultery with the teacher’s wife. Not only drinking, even association with one who does so is a sin.
At another place Radhakrishnan writes that “The Naiyayikas maintain that the Vedas were composed by God, while the Mimamsakas hold that they were not composed at all either by man or by God, but have existed from all eternity in the form of sounds. It is perhaps a way of saying that the timeless truths of eternity exist from everlasting to everlasting. You will be interested to know that Aristotle too regards the fundamental truths of religion as eternal and indestructible.”
We do not know enough about Aristotle and hence are not in position to comment whether he was an apostle of God or not, but the fact remains that the Straight Path to God – the Sirat-e-Mustaqeem – has always been one and the same.
With reference to the Prophets, Athenagoras says:
While entranced and deprived of their natural powers of reason by the influence of the Divine Spirit, they uttered that which was wrought in them, the spirit using them as its instrument as a flute-player might blow a flute. (Apol. IX.)
It is to be noted that the Svetasvatara Upanishad states that the sage Svetasvatara saw the truth owing to his power of contemplation, tapah-prabhava, and the grace of DEVA, deva-prasada. We are sure that by now you already know a lot about the real identity of these devas or the Divine Spirit of God. It were the devas who had taken it as their duty to lead mankind to the worship of Absolute God, who Himself had nothing to gain from the worship. That is why it is even more logical that the Vedas should be attributed to the devas.
It is evident that the devatas or the spirit of God had a role to play in the revelation of Vedas.
To tell the truth, when we picked up the Vedas for study, we were of the opinion that if it is God’s revealed text, then it must be of the nature of a torchbearer, which would show that path to the human beings that would lead them to the worship of One God and save them from the scourge of sin and troubled existence. The moment we started reading it, it was apparent that this could not be digested, as it is beyond reason that God would use His energy and time, send Prophets and emissaries, to tell that in future there would be airplanes and steam-engines to carry us or tell us what oils to put in ritual fire, what kind of ladle to use during such oblations, and so on.
Our view was further substantiated when we read Manu, who is largely believed to be the first lawgiver after the Vedas, singing the glory of the Vedas in such un-ambiguous terms as:
The Veda is the source of all Dharma i.e. religion, morality, righteousness and good conduct. (Manusmriti 2-6)
Another Upanishad, Amrtanada-Upanishad also talks of the important relationship that exists between God, Self and us and enumerates that the ultimate aim is to reach God, through the recognition of the Self. The devatas are important because they illuminate the path, but there is only a point till then they can lead. Thereafter, it is the relationship between man and God that matters. See what the Upanishad says:
The wise, having studied the Shastras and reflected on them again and again and having come to know Brahman, should abandon them all like a firebrand. Having ascended the car of Aum with Vishnu (the Higher Self) as the charioteer, one wishing to go to the seat of Brahmaloka (the world of Brahma) intent on the worship of Rudra [we have shown in this book that Rudra is Ali], should go in the chariot so long as he can go. Then, abandoning the car, he reaches the place of the Lord of the car.
Later, in the end it says:
That man is never reborn (who has this knowledge).
We hope it is clear by now that the fourteen devatas were created at the beginning and the rest of the creations were made out of them and it is this knowledge that isbeing talked about. Though we tried to make things clearer, some of you may still be having doubts about the veracity of our statement that these devas are none else but the people of Prophet Mohammad’s household, who too had seven names.
Chapter II of Mundaka Upanishad of the Atharva Veda too describes the relationship of the One God, with these devatas and how the five devatas termed as Life (Prana) in Prasna Upanishad that we have already quoted before, are part and parcel of our self; without them there being no life in this world.
II.I.I. This is the truth. As from a blazing fire, sparks of like form issue forth by the thousands, even so, O beloved, many kinds of beings issue forth from the immutable and they return thither too.
Just as sparks from fire have the same properties as fire but are not fire, just as rivers have the same water as oceans but are not called oceans, likewise the devatas have the samecharacteristics as God but are not God.
II.I.2: Divine and formless is the person. He is without and within, unborn, without breath and without mind, pure and higher than the highest immutable.
The Unmanifest Form of the Absolute God is being mentioned here, whose Manifest Form created the devatas.
II.1.3: From him are born life, mind, all the sense-organs (also) ether (akash), air, light, water and earth, the supporter of all.
II.1.4: Fire is His head, His eyes are the sun and the moon, the regions of space are His ears, His speech the revealed Vedas; air is His life and His heart the world. Out of his feet the earth (is born); indeed He is the self of all beings.
Since the God is unborn and formless, fire, sun, space, speech, air – the five devas serve as his head, eyes, etc. They together comprise Life or Prana, in all animate and inanimate beings. Through them, He manifests all beings and becomes the self of all beings. This shows that the self inside us has a direct relationship with these devas.
II.I.5: From him (proceeds) fire whose fuel is the sun; from the moon, the rain; herbs on the earth (nourished by them) the male fire pours seed in the female, thus are creatures produced from the person.
Verse II.I.8 narrates the importance of seven pranas and talk of seven and seven, which become fourteen and who would come to dwell at a secret (unknown) place. See: From him come forth the seven life-breaths (seven pranas), the seven flames, their fuel, the seven oblations, these seven worlds in which move the life-breaths, seven and seven which dwell in the secret place.
We have already given these verses on earlier occasions but are only rewriting them so as to indicate the importance that these verses carry. We have also shown that Sankara has explained the seven pranas (life-breaths) “as the seven organs of sense in the head i.e. two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth’.” The consequence of blindly believing what people like Sankara said was that in our hearts we started disbelievingthat God talks only sense. Is this a small sin?
It is clearly indicated that the seven pranas are the seven flames, their fuel, the seven oblations, and these seven pranas are inherent part of the seven worlds. On the whole there are seven and seven, who will take birth at an unknown place. This again comes to fourteen devatas or pranas, who have seven names and there are seven more having the same name.
If Sankara couldn’t realize that life-breaths cannot be equated with organs of sense in the head, he should have realized that this isn’t true by the last part of this verse, which says that they dwell, not in the head or body, but at a secret place. Yet, he continued with his commentary without admitting even an iota of doubt and without realizing that he would lead many men astray.
II.I.9: From him, all the seas and mountains, from him flow rivers of every kind; from him are all herbs and their juice; by which, together with the elements, the inner soul is upheld.
Unfortunately, as per Sankara – the great commentator - all this talks of the unreal by an unreal author. Hence, there is no reason to take it seriously. How unfortunate indeed that the discussion of the Manifested form of the Absolute God creating the entire cosmos has been made to appear in such a mundane fashion? Read the verses again, and see if the organs of the senses in the head gel with the other things described here.
II.I.10. The person himself is all this, work, austerity and Brahma beyond death. He who knows that which is set in the secret place, he, here on earth, O beloved, cuts asunder the knot of ignorance.
He who knows the seven and seven (equal to fourteen) pranas emanating from the Divine Person or Paramatma – the Manifest form of the Unmanifest God – is removed from ignorance and attains enlightenment. Even Gita says that such a person alone attains to wisdom and gets united with the Divine Spirit. Ultimate goal is to reach the Supreme Brahman, but only through the path of these devatas, which we will prove later are the one’s meant by the word ‘Aum’.
Moreover, note the emphasis on the ‘secret place’ where they would dwell. It is clearly stated one who knows this fact cuts asunder the knot of ignorance. ‘Here on earth’ is againused to emphasize that they would take birth on earth. What nobody knows was that they already took birth at a largely unknown and secluded place, in the
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