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) tells how the universe arose from Purusha, "Man," that is, an ideal human sacrifice offered by the gods. For as, to the Vedic mind, a sacrifice is a power controlling Nature, and the human sacrifice is the most powerful of all, then the greatest of all forces, the cosmogonic energies, must have arisen from an ideal offering of this kind made by the highest agents, the gods. To the demand of philosophy for a final and absolute Reality beyond the temporary and merely relative reality of phenomenal experience [p. 15] the Vedic poets thus gave almost the same answer as the early Greek thinkers. They asserted, in very diverse and often very mystic terms, the existence of a single cosmic matter or World-Spirit, whom they styled variously Praja-pati, Brahma (masculine), Purusha, Hiranaya-garbha, etc. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 5. BRAHMA AND PRanA.--This conception, however it might be disguised in cosmogonic and mythopoeic forms, was in essence strictly materialistic. But by its side there arose in the schools of the Brahmanas two somewhat different currents of thought--the doctrines of Brahma and of Prana. Brahma, in the earlier Vedic books, is a neuter noun, meaning the spell or prayer of the priest and the magic power which it exerts over gods, men, and the universe. Prana, again, is properly the breath of the body, hence the incorporeal forces or functional energies on which depends the existence of material life. Thus arose the idea of Force, cosmic power, Brahma, as the ultimate reality and origin of phenomenal being, the knowledge of which brought with it the knowledge of all the phenomena evolved from it. Often the Upanishads, especially the older texts, identify Brahma (and the individual Self which is one with Brahma), with the "life-breath" in the microcosm and its analogue, the wind of the macrocosm. On the supremacy of [p. 16] the breath over the other functions, see B.A. I. v. 14, Ch. I. xi. 5, v. i. 6 f., VI. vii., VII. xv., Pra. VI. 3 f.; breath or wind the guiding force of nature, B.A. I. v. 21 f., III. iii. 2, vii. 2 f.; first principle of nature, Kau. II. 12 f. In the same mythological fashion Brahma is often symbolised by the manas, or organ of determinate sense-perception and will (see section 18), and by the ether, the macrocosmic analogue of the manas. The earlier Upanishads often also speak of the cosmic principle as Purusha, literally "man." This term, as we have seen, arises from the Vedic hymn which mystically describes the origin of the world from the body of an ideal man sacrificed by the gods; hence it often denotes the Demiurge, or first principle of cosmic life (with a false etymology from puri-s'aya, "lying in the city," viz. in the microcosmic and macrocosmic body), and sometimes is used loosely for spirit generally. As the sun is sometimes mentioned as a symbol of Brahma, so also Brahma is sometimes typified macrocosmically by the purusha in the sun and microcosmically by the purusha in the eye (i.e. the reflected figure in the pupil). Another symbol of Brahma as identified with the individual soul is the bodily heat (Ch. III. xiii. 7 f.). In Ch. IV. x.-xv. the sacred fires are identified with Brahma, to which are given the especial attributes of space (kham) and joy (kam). See further section section 8, 22. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com [p. 17] section 6. DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION AND WORKS.--At this point we may note two new ideas which henceforth dominated Indian thought--transmigration of the soul (samsara, literally "wandering") and the influence of works (karma). The Vedic Hindu was passionately convinced of the joy of life, the Hindu of a later generation no less impressed by its misery. This pessimism finds expression in two ideas. The first is that the only life worth living is that vouchsafed to the few elect--union of the soul with the transcendent Brahma; all other existence, whatever it may seem, is wretched, an infinite number of souls flitting in constant sorrow and blindness through every degree of organic embodiment. The second idea is that every instant of experience is the rigidly predetermined resultant of a previous act; a present pleasure is the requital of a relatively good deed, a present sorrow the repayment of an ill deed, in a previous life; and every act whatsoever, whether of deed, thought, or speech, is absolutely evil, as attaching the soul still further to the fetters of embodiment. Gloomy and impracticable as is this attitude, it is simply a phase of extreme idealism. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 7. ATMa, SELF OR SPIRIT.--The word atma is several times used in the Rig-veda with the meaning of "breath," "spirit," in the literal sense; and so far there was little to distinguish it from the word prana ( section 5). But from this [p. 18] sense was further evolved the meaning "self." Then we can imagine that men began to reflect upon their own words. What, they doubtless asked, is the "self" of which we speak when we use sentences like "he finds it out by [him]self," "he goes by [him]self," "he sees [him]self"? It must be the inmost essence, the indwelling reality, the ayto of each agent, the informing eidos of subjecthood. Therefore it must be thought itself. For subjecthood is a mode of thought; and to thought or will all action is finally traceable. And the Atma, the Self, the consciousness of self-identity on which is based all further ideation of the thinking subject, is one with Brahma, the universal Power. My Idea is the World-Idea; "I am Brahma." There is another link in this chain. The Vedic poets speak now and then of a god Daksha, who, as his name implies, is simply the abstract idea of "skill" or "intelligence" rather vaguely personified; and twice (x. v. 7, lxxii. 4, 5) Daksha is regarded as primal Being and universal father, from whom sprang the great gods and the universe. Thus Vedic mythology furnished two fruitful ideas--that the objective universe sprang from Intelligence, Daksha, and from an ideal Man, Purusha; and hence grew up gradually the idealistic conception of the universe as arising from, and existing in, the Thought of man. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 8. UPANISHADIC PRINCIPLES.--These conceptions, [p. 19] which are conveyed by the Upanishads in very diverse and often mystic and contradictory utterances, may be summed up in three propositions. Firstly, the whole of finite or phenomenal being is evolved from an infinite and unconditioned substrate of absolute reality, Brahma. Secondly, Brahma is pure Thought, absolute Spirit. Thirdly, Brahma is one with the essential thought of each individual subject of thought, the Soul or Atma. S'ankara, in following these principles, lays down a broad distinction between Brahma as absolute, unqualified, and indeterminate (nirguna), and Brahma as secondary, determined by self-imposed limitations of space, time, and causality (saguna). The former is real, and object of real knowledge; the latter is essentially unreal, an illusion arising from the congenital error of the subject of thought, and vanishing away as soon as the latter by enlightenment ceases to conceive the Absolute in forms of determinate thought, and realises his essential unity with it. Thus all objects of thought must be regarded from two standpoints: the first is that of empiric experience, determined by conditions of space, time, and causality; the second is transcendental, admitting the existence of nothing but an absolute unqualified One. Sankara argues from both standpoints without much regard for consistency. He justifies the Upanishadic habit of describing Brahma under [p. 20] the qualified forms of empirical thought, or as represented by a symbol, as a concession to feebler intellects, which cannot comprehend an abstract and unqualified principle, and are by these representations induced to worship Brahma in his qualified character, and thereby to attain freedom from ignorance and sin, worldly welfare, and "gradual release," krama-mukti (see section 25), whereas the true essence of Brahma is conveyed only by those passages which deny of him all qualification (see especially his commentary on Ch. VIII. i. and on Brahma-sutra, I. iii. 14 f., III. ii. 11 f.). Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 9. ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE FROM BRAHMA.--I. Upanishads.--The Upanishads, being the work of Brahmans, are naturally influenced to a great extent by the naturalism of Vedic myth, especially in their conception of the origination of the universe from Brahma. As we saw ( section 4), the Veda already speaks of a primal Being that created a phenomenal world from itself and became its indwelling soul; and thus, by its empiric distinction between the first Being as cause and the world as its effect, the Veda has arrived at a pantheistic standpoint. From this the Upanishadic authors started, and struggled slowly towards the strictly idealistic position from which the universe, organic and inorganic, subjects and objects, is regarded as a single Idea which is the same as the Idea of the [p. 21] individual subject of thought. In this progress they still made frequent use of the Vedic ideas and the mythical forms embodying them; they admitted their distinction of Brahma as cause and the world as effect, but admitted it as a mode of empiric thought of merely relative validity, while from the standpoint of transcendental reality they asserted the identity of the two. Brahma (Atma), causing the hitherto unconditioned universe to become conditioned as Name and Form (the elements of cogitable being), entered into it "up to the nail-tips" as immanent soul, B.A. I. iv. 7; cf. Ch. VI. ii. 3, iii. 3, Ait. I. i. 11 f., Taitt. II. 6.