In the beginning rose Hira@nyagarbha,
  Born as the only lord of all existence. 
  This earth he settled firm and heaven established: 
  What god shall we adore with our oblations? 
  Who gives us breath, who gives us strength, whose bidding
  All creatures must obey, the bright gods even;
  Whose shade is death, whose shadow life immortal: 
  What god shall we adore with our oblations? 
  Who by his might alone became the monarch
  Of all that breathes, of all that wakes or slumbers,
  Of all, both man and beast, the lord eternal: 
  What god shall we adore with our oblations? 
  Whose might and majesty these snowy mountains,
  The ocean and the distant stream exhibit;
  Whose arms extended are these spreading regions: 
  What god shall we adore with our oblations? 
  Who made the heavens bright, the earth enduring,
  Who fixed the firmament, the heaven of heavens;
  Who measured out the air’s extended spaces: 
  What god shall we adore with our oblations?

_______________________________________________________

__________

[Footnote 1:  Macdonell’s Vedic Mythology, p. 17.]

[Footnote 2:  The Rigveda, by Kaegi, pp. 88, 89.]

20

Similar attributes are also ascribed to the deity Vis’vakarma (All-creator) [Footnote ref 1].  He is said to be father and procreator of all beings, though himself uncreated.  He generated the primitive waters.  It is to him that the sage says,

Who is our father, our creator, maker,
Who every place doth know and every creature,
By whom alone to gods their names were given,
To him all other creatures go to ask him [Footnote ref 2]

          
                                                                      R.V.x.82.3.

Brahma.

The conception of Brahman which has been the highest glory for the Vedanta philosophy of later days had hardly emerged in the @Rg-Veda from the associations of the sacrificial mind.  The meanings that Saya@na the celebrated commentator of the Vedas gives of the word as collected by Haug are:  (a) food, food offering, (b) the chant of the sama-singer, (c) magical formula or text, (d) duly completed ceremonies, (e) the chant and sacrificial gift together, (f) the recitation of the hot@r priest, (g) great.  Roth says that it also means “the devotion which manifests itself as longing and satisfaction of the soul and reaches forth to the gods.”  But it is only in the S’atapatha Brahma@na that the conception of Brahman has acquired a great significance as the supreme principle which is the moving force behind the gods.  Thus the S’atapatha says, “Verily in the beginning this (universe) was the Brahman (neut.).  It created the gods; and, having created the gods, it made them ascend these worlds:  Agni this (terrestrial) world, Vayu the air, and Surya the sky....  Then