A real answer to this great question is attempted, however, by the theologians who explained the "mysterious doctrine," held in the utmost reverence by all Hindus, and laid down in the writings known under the name of Upanishads. It must Suffice here to state that the object of these important works is to explain, not only the process.of creation, but the nature of a supreme being, and its relation to the human soul. In the Upanishads, Agni, India, Vayu, and the other deities of the Vedic hymns, become symbols to assist the mind in its attempt to understand the true nature of one absolute being, and the manner in which it manifests itself in its worldly form. The human soul itself is of the same nature as this'supreme or great soul: its ultimate destination is that of becoming reunited with the supreme soul, and the means of attaining that end is not the performance of sacrificial rites, but the comprehension of its own self and of the great soul. The doctrine which at a later period became the foundation of the creed of the educated—the doctrine that the supreme soul, or (the neuter) Brahman, is the only reality, and that the world has a claim to notice only in so far as it emanated front this being, is already clearly laid down in these Upanishads, though the language in which it is expressed still adapts itself to the legendary and allegorical style which characterizes the Brahmana portion of the Vedas. The Upanishads became thus the basis of the enlightened faith of India. They are not a system of philosophy, but they contain all the germs whence the three great systems of Hindu philosophy arose; and like the latter, while revealing the struggle of the Hindu mind to reach the comprehension of one supreme being, they advance sufficiently far to express their belief in such a being, but at the same time acknowledge the inability of the human mind to comprehend its essence. For the different periods which must be distinguished in the composition of these works, and for the gradual development of the general ideas briefly adverted to here, we refer the reader to the article UPA2;ISIIAD.
The EPIC period of Hinduism is marked by a similar development of the same two creeds, the general features of which we have now traced in the Vedic writings. The popular creed strives to find a center round which to group its imaginary gods, whereas the philosophical creed finds its expression in the groundworks of the Sdnlehya, Nyciya, and Veddnta systems of philosophy.. In the former. we find two gods in particular who are rising to the highest rank, Vishnu and Siva; for as to Brahma (the masculine form of Brahman), though lie was looked upon, now and then, as superior to both, he gradu ally disappears, and becomes merged into the philosophical Brahma (the neuter form of the same word), which is a further evolution of the great soul of the Upanishads. In the Ibinulyana, the superiority of Vishnu is admitted without dispute; in the great epos, the Malaiblairata, however, which, unlike the former epos. is the product of successive ages, there is an apparent rivalry between the claims of Vishnu and Siva to occupy the highest rank in the pantheon; but Sanskrit philology will first have to unravel the chronological position of the various portions of this work, to lay bare its groundwork, and to show the gradual additions it received, before it will he able to determine the successive formation of the legends which are the basis of classical Hindu mythology. Yet so much seems to be clear even already that there is a predilection during this epic period for the supremacy of Vishnu; and that the policy of incorporating rather than combating antagonistic creeds, led more to a quiet admission than to a warm support of Siva's claims to the highest rank. For the character of these gods, for the relation in which the conception of these beings stands to that of the Vedic time, for the new ideas which they impersonate at the epic period, and for the group of mythological beings connected with both of them. we refer the reader to the respective articles. We
will point, however, to one remarkable myth. as it will illustrate the altered position of the gods during the epic period. In the Vedic hymns, the immortality of the gods is never matter of doubt; most of the elementary beings are invoked and described as everlasting, as liable neither to decay nor death. The offerings they receive may add to their comfort and strength; they may invigorate them, but it is nowhere stated that they are indispensable for their existence. It is. on the contrary, the pious sacrificer himself who. through his offerings, secures to himself long life, and, as it is sometimes hyperbolically eillied,iminottality.- And Of shine notionveValls throughout the oldest Brahmanas. It is only in the latest work of this class, the Satapathu-Briamana, and more especially in the epic poems, that we find the inferior gods as mortal in the beginning, and as becoming immortal through exterior agency. Iu the SalapaMa Brahmana, the juice of the soma plant, offered by the worshiper, or at another time clarified butter, or even animal sacrifices, impart to them this immortality. At the epic period, Vishnu teaches them how to obtain the anzrita, or beverage of immor tality, without which they would go to destruction; and this epic amrita itself is merely a compound, increased by imagination, of the various substances which in the Vedic writings are called or likened to antrik, i.e., a "substance that frees from death." It is obvious, therefore, that gods like these could not strike root in the relimious mind of the nation. We must look upon them more as the gods of poetry than of real life; nor do we find that they enjoyed any of the worship which was allotted to the two principal gods, Vishnu and Siva.
The philosophical creed of this period adds little•to the fundamental notions con tained in the Upanishads; but it frees itself from the legendary dross which still imparts to those works a deep tinge of mysticism. On the other hand, it conceives and develops the notion that the union of the individual soul with the supreme spirit may be aided by penances, such as peculiar modes of breathing, particular postures, protracted fast ing, and the like; in short, by those practices which are systematized by the Yoga doctrine. The most remarkable epic work which inculcates this doctrine is the cele brated poem Bhagavadgita, which has been wrongly considered by European writers as a pure Sankhya work, whereas &miaow, the . greot Hindu theologian, who com mented on it, and other native commentators after him. have proved that it is founded on the Yoga belief. The doctrine of the reunion of the individual soul with the supreme soul, was necessarily founded on the assumption that the former must have become free from all guilt affecting its purity before it can be reme•ged into the source whence it proceeded; and since one human life is apparently too short for enabling the soul to attain its accomplishment, the mind concluded that the soul, after thedeath of its temporary owner, had to be born again, in order to complete the work it had left undone in its previous existence, and that it must submit to the same fate until its task is fulfilled. This is the doctrine of metempsychoss, which; in the absence of a belief in grace, is a logical consequence of a system which holds the human soul to be of the same nature as that of an absolute God. The beginning of this doctrine may be dis covered in some of the oldest Upanishads, but its development belongs to the epic time, where it pervades the legends, and affects the social life of the ration. See METEMPSYCHOSIS.