Brahma@nas and the Early Upani@sads.

The passage of the Indian mind from the Brahmanic to the Upani@sad thought is probably the most remarkable event in the history of philosophic thought.  We know that in the later Vedic hymns some monotheistic conceptions of great excellence were developed, but these differ in their nature from the absolutism of the Upani@sads as much as the Ptolemaic and the Copernican

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[Footnote 1:  Garbha Upani@sad, Atman Upani@sad, Pras’na Upani@sad, etc.  There were however some exceptions such as the Ma@n@dukya, Jabala, Pai@ngala, S’aunaka, etc.]

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systems in astronomy.  The direct translation of Vis’vakarman or Hira@nyagarbha into the atman and the Brahman of the Upani@sads seems to me to be very improbable, though I am quite willing to admit that these conceptions were swallowed up by the atman doctrine when it had developed to a proper extent.  Throughout the earlier Upani@sads no mention is to be found of Vis’vakarman, Hira@nyagarbha or Brahma@naspati and no reference of such a nature is to be found as can justify us in connecting the Upani@sad ideas with those conceptions [Footnote ref l].  The word puru@sa no doubt occurs frequently in the Upani@sads, but the sense and the association that come along with it are widely different from that of the puru@sa of the Puru@sasukta of the @Rg-Veda.

When the @Rg-Veda describes Vis’vakarman it describes him as a creator from outside, a controller of mundane events, to whom they pray for worldly benefits.  “What was the position, which and whence was the principle, from which the all-seeing Vis’vakarman produced the earth, and disclosed the sky by his might?  The one god, who has on every side eyes, on every side a face, on every side arms, on every side feet, when producing the sky and earth, shapes them with his arms and with his wings....Do thou, Vis’vakarman, grant to thy friends those thy abodes which are the highest, and the lowest, and the middle...may a generous son remain here to us [Footnote ref 2]”; again in R.V.X. 82 we find “Vis’vakarman is wise, energetic, the creator, the disposer, and the highest object of intuition....He who is our father, our creator, disposer, who knows all spheres and creatures, who alone assigns to the gods their names, to him the other creatures resort for instruction [Footnote ref 3].”  Again about Hira@nyagarbha we find in R.V.I. 121, “Hira@nyagarbha arose in the beginning; born, he was the one lord of things existing.  He established the earth and this sky; to what god shall we offer our oblation?...  May he not injure us, he who is the generator of the earth, who ruling by fixed ordinances, produced the heavens, who produced the great and brilliant waters!—­to what god, etc.?  Prajapati, no other than thou is lord over all these created things:  may we obtain that, through desire of which we have invoked thee; may we become masters of riches [Footnote ref 4].”  Speaking of the puru@sa the @Rg-Veda