________________
THE PHILOSOPHY OF DUTY
reborn in his sons, just as the Creator is made manifest in the forms and creatures of the world through the magical operation of his own power, his sakti, personified in his goddess. And as the male member of the community is co-ordinated to the whole through the particular religious devotions and services proper to his social position, so the wife is co-ordinated to society as the śakti of her spouse. Her service to him is her religion, just as his religion is the service to his "Fathers" and the deities of his vocation. Thus the whole of life is lived as, and understood to be, a service to the Divinc, all things being known as images of the one and universal Lord.
Every profession has its special tutclary divinity, who embodies and personifies the very skill of the trade, and wields or exhibits its tools as his distinguishing attributes. The tutelary divinity of writers, poets, intellectuals, and priests, for example, is the goddess Sarasvati Väc: the goddess of riverlike, streaming speech. And the patroness of magic priestcraft, Brāhmanhood, is Săvitrī: not the human princess, daughter of King Aśvapati, who, according to the legend, rescued her husband, Prince Satyavān, from the dominion of King Death, but the female counterpart and divine energy, śakti, of Savitar-Brahmā, the Creator of the world; she is the all-moving, all-inspiring, divine principle of creation. Kārna, the Hindu Cupid, is the tutelary divinity of courtesans, and of those who stand in need of the lessons of the kāmaśāstra, the authorized code of traditional revealed wisdom in the lore of love and sex.' While Viśvakarnian, the divine “Expert of All Crafts,” the carpenter, architect, and master craftsman of the gods, is the patron deity of workmen, artisans, and artists.
Each of these, representing the principle and sum total of a certain highly specialized department of knowledge and skill, is a jealous and exclusive god and master. The human creature called by birth to the deity's service is to dedicate all of his
1 Cf. supra, pp. 140-150.
154
