The History of Indian Literature c8.467

c8.467

The Atharvopanishads, which are also distinguished externally by the fact that they are mostly composed in verse, may themselves be divided into three distinct classes, which in their beginnings follow the earlier Upanishads with about equal closeness. Those of the first class continue directly to investigate the nature of Átman, or the Supreme Spirit; those of the second deal with the subject of absorption (*yoga*) in meditation thereon, and give the means whereby, and the stages in which, men may even in this world attain complete union with Átman; and lastly, those of the third class substitute for Átman some one of the many forms under which Śiva and Vishṇu, the two principal gods, were in the course of time worshipped.