We observe everywhere this practice of language conquering the word Vedic hymns. It was the extraordinary device with which the ancient mystics overcame the difficulty of their task. For lay worshipers the word “Agni” may have merely deduced the Vedic deity of fire, or it may have meant the principle of heat and light in physical nature, or it may have meant, to the greatest extent, a mere superhuman figure, one of many “wealth givers”, Which satisfies human desire.
How do you suggest to those who are able to have a deep belief in God’s psychological functions? The word itself performed that service. For Agni, it was referring to the strong, it was denoting bright brilliance, or even strength. So for beginners, wherever it takes place, the belief in the luminous energy that unites the worlds and lifts man to the Most High can be easily remembered, doing great work, the Purohit of human sacrifice.
Or how do we maintain it in the listener’s sense that all these deities are identities of the one universal deva? The names of the gods in their expression are only titles, meaningful names, and definitions, not personal designations. Mitra is Deva as the lord of affection and peace, Bhaga as the lord of pleasure, Surya as the lord of illumination, and Varuna as the reigning greatness and virtue of divine support and purification.
As Rishi Dirghatamas says, “The Existent is One,” “but the sages express It differently; they describe Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Agni; they call It Agni, Yama, Matarishwan.” The ideas in the earlier days of the Vedic knowledge had no requirement of this distinct opinion. The names of the gods carried to him their importance recalled the great crucial truth which persisted with him always.