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176 is heard; that which does not breathe by breath, and by which breath is drawn—that alone know as Brahma—not that which people here adore."

And the joy of him who has comprehended, however feebly, the incomprehensible God, has been well described:—

"He who beholds all beings in the Self, and Self in all beings, he never turns away from it.

"When, to a man who understands, the Self has become all things, what sorrow, what trouble can there be to him who once beheld that unity?

"He, the Self, encircled all, bright, incorporeal, scatheless, without muscles, pure, untouched by evil, a seer, wise, omnipresent, self-existent, he disposed all things aright for eternal years."

Lastly, in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad we are told that all gods are the manifestation of Self, or Purusha, "for he is all gods"; and likewise that he exists in all men, in the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra.

Our extracts on this subject have been somewhat lengthy, but the reader will not regret it. For the doctrine of a Universal Soul is the very keystone of the Hindu religion, and it is necessary to know how this idea was first developed in India in the Upanishads. We will now pass on to another important teaching, the doctrine of creation.

The creation of the world was still a mystery to those early thinkers, and the attempts to solve it were necessarily fanciful. A few passages may be quoted:—