CHAPTER XVI
THE RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES OF THE UPANISHADS
FROM the ritual and legends of the Brahmanas the mind of India passed to the more vigorous speculations of the Upanishads. Some impatience appears to have been felt with the elaborate but unmeaning rites, the dogmatic but childish explanations, and the mystic but grotesque reasoning which fill the voluminous Brahmanas; and thinking men asked themselves if this was all that religion could teach. While still conforming to the rites laid down in the older texts, they began to speculate on the destination of the Soul and on the nature of the Supreme Being, and even after the lapse of nearly three thousand years, we must marvel still at the vigour, the earnestness, and the philosophy which characterize the Upanishads, whose most important doctrines are the universal soul, creation, transmigration, and final beatitude.
We begin with the doctrine of a universal soul, an all-pervading Breath, which is the keystone of the philosophy and thought of the Upanishads. This idea is somewhat different from monotheism as it is now understood, for monotheism generally recognizes a Creator
