=The New Religion of Brahma.=—­The Brahmans did not discard the ancient gods of the Vedas, they continued to adore them.  But by sheer ingenuity they invented a new god.  When prayers are addressed to the gods, the deities are made to comply with the demands made on them, as if they thought that prayer was more powerful than the gods.  And so prayer (Brahma) has become the highest of all deities.  He is invoked with awe:[24] “O god, I behold in thy body all the gods and the multitudes of living beings.  I am powerless to regard thee in thine entirety, for thou shinest like the fire and the sun in thine immensity.  Thou art the Invisible, thou art the supreme Intelligence, thou art the sovereign treasure of the universe, without beginning, middle, or end; equipped with infinite might.  Thine arms are without limit, thine eyes are like the moon and the sun, thy mouth hath the brightness of the sacred fire.  With thyself alone thou fillest all the space between heaven and earth, and thou permeatest all the universe.”  Brahma is not only supreme god; he is the soul of the universe.  All beings are born from Brahma, all issue naturally from him, not as a product comes from the hands of an artisan, but “as the tree from the seed, as the web from the spider.”  Brahma is not a deity who has created the world; he is the very substance of the world.

=Transmigration of Souls.=—­There is, then, a soul, a part of the soul of Brahma, in every being, in gods, in men, in animals, in the very plants and stones.  But these souls pass from one body into another; this is the transmigration of souls.  When a man dies, his soul is tested; if it is good, it passes into the heaven of Indra there to enjoy felicity; if it is bad, it falls into one of the twenty-eight hells, where it is devoured by ravens, compelled to swallow burning cakes, and is tormented by demons.  But souls do not remain forever in heaven or in the hells; they part from these to begin a new life in another body.  The good soul rises, entering the body of a saint, perhaps that of a god; the evil soul descends, taking its abode in some impure animal—­in a dog, an ass, even in a plant.  In this new state it may rise or fall.  And this journey from one body to another continues until the soul by degrees comes to the highest sphere.  From lowest to highest in the scale, say the Brahmans, twenty-four millions of years elapse.  At last perfect, the soul returns to the level of Brahma from which it descends and is absorbed into it.

=Character of this Religion.=—­The religion of the Aryans, simple and happy, was that of a young and vigorous people.  This is complicated and barren; it takes shape among men who are not engaged in practical life; it is enervated by the heat and vexatious of life.