Here is one passage out of multitudes similar:
"Hurl thy hottest thunder-bolt upon them! Uproot them! Cleave them
asunder! O, Indra, overpower, subdue, slay the demon! Pluck him up!
Cut him through the middle! Crush his head!"
[Sidenote: Deterioration begins early.]
Indra, if provided with Soma, is always indulgent to his votaries; he
supports them _per fas et nefas_. Varuna, on the other hand, is grave,
just, and to wicked men severe.[12] The supersession of Varuna by Indra,
then, is easily understood. We see the principle on which it rests
stated in the Old Testament. "Ye cannot serve the Lord," said Joshua to
the elders of Israel; "for he is a holy God." Even so Jeremiah points
sorrowfully to the fact that the pagan nations clung to their false
gods, while Israel was faithless to the true. As St. Paul expresses it,
"they did not like to retain God in their knowledge." Unless this
principle is fully taken into account we cannot understand the
historical development of Hinduism.
[Sidenote: Varuna the only divinity possessed of pure and elevated
attributes.]
The Veda frequently ascribes to the gods, to use the language of Max
Mueller, "sentiments and passions unworthy of deity.
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