From 'History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.' Copyright
1876, by Harper & Brothers
The Vedas, which are the Hindu Scriptures, and of which there are
four,--the Rig, Yagust, Saman, and Atharvan,--are asserted to have
been revealed by Brahma. The fourth is however rejected by some
authorities, and bears internal evidence of a later composition, at a
time when hierarchical power had become greatly consolidated. These
works are written in an obsolete Sanskrit, the parent of the more
recent idiom. They constitute the basis of an extensive literature,
Upavedas, Angas, etc., of connected works and commentaries. For the
most part they consist of hymns suitable for public and private
occasions, prayers, precepts, legends, and dogmas. The Rig, which is
the oldest, is composed chiefly of hymns; the other three of
liturgical formulas. They are of different periods and of various
authorship, internal evidence seeming to indicate that if the later
were composed by priests, the earlier were the production of military
chieftains. They answer to a state of society advanced from the nomad
to the municipal condition. They are based upon an acknowledgment of a
universal Spirit, pervading all things. Of this God they therefore
necessarily acknowledge the unity: "There is in truth but one Deity,
the Supreme Spirit, the Lord of the universe, whose work is the
universe." "The God above all gods, who created the earth, the
heavens, and waters." The world, thus considered as an emanation of
God, is therefore a part of him; it is kept in a visible state by his
energy, and would instantly disappear if that energy were for a moment
withdrawn. Even as it is, it is undergoing unceasing transformations,
everything being in a transitory condition. The moment a given phase
is reached, it is departed from, or ceases. In these perpetual
movements the present can scarcely be said to have any existence, for
as the Past is ending, the Future has begun.
In such a never-ceasing career all material things are urged, their
forms continually changing, and returning as it were through revolving
cycles to similar states. For this reason it is that we may regard our
earth and the various celestial bodies as having had a moment of
birth, as having a time of continuance, in which they are passing
onward to an inevitable destruction; and that after the lapse of
countless ages similar progresses will be made, and similar series of
events will occur again and again.
But in this doctrine of universal transformation there is something
more than appears at first. The theology of India is underlaid with
Pantheism. "God is One because he is All." The Vedas, in speaking of
the relation of nature to God, make use of the expression that he is
the material as well as the cause of the universe, "the clay as well
as the Potter." They convey the idea that while there is a pervading
spirit existing everywhere, of the same nature as the soul of man,
though differing from it infinitely in degree, visible nature is
essentially and inseparably connected therewith; that as in man the
body is perpetually undergoing changes, perpetually decaying and being
renewed,--or as in the case of the whole human species, nations come
into existence and pass away,--yet still there continues to exist what
may be termed the universal human mind, so forever associated and
forever connected are the material and the spiritual. And under this
aspect we must contemplate the Supreme Being, not merely as a
presiding intellect, but as illustrated by the parallel case of man,
whose mental principle shows no tokens except through its connection
with the body: so matter, or nature, or the visible universe, is to be
looked upon as the corporeal manifestation of God.