Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/262

 246 The Religion of the Veda

“Time beget yonder heaven, Time also these earths. That which was and that which shall be, urged forth by

Time, spreads out.” (Atharva—Veda 19. 53. I and 5.)

After a survey of these manifold, all of them more or less shaky attempts to account for the universe and man, one impression, which I have Spoken of be” fore, grows mightily. I mean the presence of inteh lectual subtlety, the absence of sentiment. Anything like a practical bearing of all these earlier monothe— istic and monistic creations upon the Hindu mind and heart seem as yet almost altogether wanting. In a sense they are not religious, but crudely philo~ sophical. That is, if we deﬁne religion as the inti- mate, mutual, personal relation between man and the higher powers that surround him. In so far as they are religious in this sense these monotheistic and monistic creations do not advance perceptibly be yond the stage of the polytheistic nature gods, the ritual, and the sorcery of earlier times. The extrava- gant power of Prajapati is still nothing more than a

cause for cajolery :

“ Prajapati thou art the onewand there ’5 no other—~— Who dost encompass all these born entities! Whate’er we wish, While offering thee oblations,

May that be ours ! May we be lords of riches ! ” (Rig-Veda Io. 121:.10.)

All this is far from being the ﬁnal form of the