At the base of Āryan culture, like many cultures, is a tension about the nature of relationships. What is the basis of a relationship? Is it reciprocity? Or is it unconditional giving? Such questions are timeless, being as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. Ancient Āryans saw their relationships with the various gods as experimental conditions to understand the true nature of relationships. Typically, gods give without asking and also take without asking. However, what would it be like to build a reciprocal relationship with them where humans and gods can make demands on each other and expect each other to fulfill those demands?
The Upaniṣads internalize these sentiments and speak of building a relationship with our inner self, as it is the unmanifested reality that truly reflects the manifested external reality. But in the Ṛgveda, the focus is more on externalization than on internalization. So in order to build a relationship with, say, Araṇyānī, the goddess of Forest Pools, a ṛṣi would typically recede into the forests and materially build that relationship. Such a relationship would be embodied by a mantra, or a special...
