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of a person who has been defeated in the world. When even after trying for lives upon lives he has been defeated in the mundane, what capability can he claim in the matters of the sacred and the absolute?
Hence the prayer. Hence the seer has invoked the whole universe to help him. He has invoked the sun, he has invoked Varuna. All these names are symbolic of the powers of the universe. The sun has been invoked first because the sun is our life. Without him, we wouldn't be. Within us, it is the sun that lives, burns. If the sun is extinguished there, we will be extinguished here. The sun is our life, hence he has been invoked.
The seer says: SALUTATIONS TO VAYU, THE GOD OF AIR -- Vayu has been especially saluted in this prayer -- BECAUSE YOU ARE THE BRAHMA MANIFEST. It is a bit strange. Think a little. It is very interesting, because Vayu is absolutely unmanifest; all other things are manifest. Had the seer said to the sun, "You are the manifest Brahma" -- radiant, burning, hot, living -- it would have been understandable. But the seer did not call the sun "manifest Brahma" he said that to Vayu, whom we cannot see at all, who is really unmanifest.
Where is that Vayu manifest? We only infer that it is, we only feel that it is, but it cannot be seen. Where is it available to the eye? Manifest means that which can be seen by the eyes. Now, Vayu is not at all available to the eyes. Rocks, mountains, they are all visible, but not Vayu. But the seer says: OH VAYU! SALUTATIONS TO YOU, BECAUSE YOU ARE THE MANIFEST BRAHMA. He said so because Vayu, the air, is not visible but still is; it is not seen by the eye, nevertheless it is touching the eye each moment -- and the same is the situation with the supreme truth. It is not seen but it is touching us every moment.
Vayu is not seen because we do not have the eyes to see it. Vayu is simply there. Without Vayu we cannot exist. Vayu is in our breath, protecting us, and our very life depends on its inhalation and exhalation. Something which is so near us, which is our very breath, we cannot see, because our eyes are very gross. Whatever is very gross, that is what we see. Whatever is subtle, we are
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