I wander with the Rudras, with the Vasus,[33] with the [=A]dityas, and with all the gods; I support Mitra, Va[’r]una, Indra-Agni, and the twin Acvins ...  I give wealth to him that gives sacrifice, to him that presses the soma.  I am the queen, the best of those worthy of sacrifice ...  The gods have put me in many places ...  I am that through which one eats, breathes, sees, and hears ...  Him that I love I make strong, to be a priest, a seer, a wise man.  ’Tis I bend Rudra’s bow to hit the unbeliever; I prepare war for the people; I am entered into heaven and earth.  I beget the father of this (all) on the height; my place is in the waters, the sea; thence I extend myself among all creatures and touch heaven with my crown.  Even I blow like the wind, encompassing all creatures.  Above heaven and above earth, so great am I grown in majesty.

This is almost Vedantic pantheism with the Vishnuite doctrine of ‘special grace’ included.

The moral tone of this period—­if period it may be called—­may best be examined after one has studied the idea which the Vedic Hindu has formed of the life hereafter.  The happiness of heaven will be typical of what he regards as best here.  Bliss beyond the grave depends in turn upon the existence of the spirit after death, and, that the reader may understand this, we must say a few words in regard to the Manes, or fathers dead.  “Father Manu,” as he is called,[34] was the first ‘Man.’  Subsequently he is the secondary parent as a kind of Noah; but Yama, in later tradition his brother, has taken his place as norm of the departed fathers, Pitaras.

These Fathers (Manes), although of different sort than the gods, are yet divine and have many godly powers, granting prayers and lending aid, as may be seen from this invocation:  “O Fathers, may the sky-people grant us life; may we follow the course of the living” (x. 57. 5).  One whole hymn is addressed to these quasi-divinities (x. 15): 

Arise may the lowest, the highest, the middlemost Fathers, those worthy of the soma, who without harm have entered into the spirit (-world); may these Fathers, knowing the seasons, aid us at our call.  This reverence be to-day to the Fathers, who of old and afterwards departed; those who have settled in an earthly sphere,[35] or among peoples living in fair places (the gods?).  I have found the gracious Fathers, the descendant(s) and the wide-step[36] of Vishnu; those who, sitting on the sacrificial straw, willingly partake of the pressed drink, these are most apt to come hither....  Come hither with blessings, O Fathers; may they come hither, hear us, address and bless us....  May ye not injure us for whatever impiety we have as men committed....  With those who are our former Fathers, those worthy of soma, who are come to the soma drink, the best (fathers), may Yama rejoicing, willingly with them that are willing, eat the oblations as much as is