274 The Religion of the Veda
minded and gifted people that becomes for a while personal god, and at last the divine essence of the universe. The conception is intellectually not as subtle and abstract as the monistic philosophical conception of “ That Only True Being,” which comes entirely from the head. But from the point of view of heart~felt emotion it is the most exalted divine conception of gentile folk. Such is 2/13 era/ram, used in the neuter gender, not yet the mas- culine God Brahma who, after a renewed personificafl tion is placed at the head of the later Hindu so—called trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and ina: “ The fire/272m is the word, the truth in the word is rim/272m. Through fire/lama heaven and earth are held together.”
The two conceptions of dimers and ore/55mg, in their origin, respectively, the physical and spiritual essences of the universe, are fused into one concep- tion. They are used in general as synonyms. Still there is a tendency to use (Emirate, “ Holy Thought,” as the designation of the universal principle in the outer world; inane, “Self,” as the same principle in the inner life of man. The conviction that the fire/{area without and the cinema within are one and the same, that is the real religion of the Upanishads. The power which operates in the universe, creating, sustaining, and destroying, the power behind this imperfect world that perchance moves on to some
