Ethical Orientation

Jyotiṣa served a physical basis to the ideology of Vedic man. The perception of human activity and its future can be termed as the chief objectives of the Correlation. The idea of future in its absolute sense carries an Ethical Orientation in the culture. The world of righteousness shows a connection with light (Ṛgveda-saṃhitā X. 17.4.).

Heaven is the place where the righteous dwell (Ṛgveda-saṃhitā X.16.4.) also a firm belief existed that the Earth was supported by truth (Ṛgveda-saṃhitā X. 85.1). Auspicious omens showed an affinity with pleasantness and light. The anthropomorphized deities in their ordered activity are perceptions of their moral structure which display a certain code of conduct which is to be followed by human. The removal of sin is also an intention behind sacrifices. (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa II.5.2.25.). Earlier the cosmic order Ṛta also exists as a moral law (Ṛgveda-saṃhitā VII. 89.5,11.). The Tripartite pantheon Sūrya, Soma, and Agni depict the connection of order and morality with their physical basis. The path of Sūrya is morality generated evidently prepared for him by Varuṇa (Ṛgveda-saṃhitā I. 24.8, VII. 87.1). Varuṇa is the controller of the law and the order prevailing in the cosmos, he is the moral ruler and is connected with punishment for errors in sacrifices and also with false utterances. (Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa I. 6.5.4, I. 7.2.6.). Prajāpati appears as a cosmic form of desire and is connected with ritual actions in the Brāhmaṇas. Though in the later phase desire and its outcome is the prime topic of scrutiny and is declared as the seed connected with transmigration of human. As Puṇya and Pāpa linked man to his next birth the nature of ritual actions changed to ethically retributive actions focusing on the moral nature of the Jīvātman and the cosmic aspect connected with morality rendered secondary. In spite of which the order and light in the cosmos became metaphoric projections of Brahman the activity perceptible in the cosmos displaying the symbolic connection by means of the correlation serving a perceptible natural basis to knowledge.