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 21 8 The Religion of the Veda

sion upon which these riddles were let off was the same as with those just cited, namely, the sacriﬁce. The subjects of these riddles are cosmic, that is, per— taining to the nature phenomena of the universe; mythological, that is, referring to the accepted legends about the gods ; psychological, that is, pertaining to the human organs and sensations; or, ﬁnally, crude and tentative philosophy or theosophy. Heaven and earth, sun and moon, air, clouds and rain; the course of the sun, the year, the seasons, months, days and nights; the human voice, self—conscious.— ness, life and death; the origin of the ﬁrst creature and the originator of the universemsuch are the abrupt and bold themes. Here ﬁgures also (stanza 46) that seemingly precocious statement which con- tains the suggestion, symptomatic for all future Hindu thought, namely, that above and behind the great multitude of gods there is one supreme person- ality; behind the gods there is that “ Only Being ” of whom the gods are but various namesmaon‘iv cit/outﬁtter! pro/09:27} afar:

“They call it Indra, Mitra, Varuna, and Agni, or the heavenly bird Garutmant (the sun). The sages call the One Being in many ways; they call it Agni, Yama, Mataricvan. ”

How closely attached to the sacriﬁce theosophic speculations remained as they grew in clearness and

“in: