A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s2.159

v1.c8.s2.159

In most of the philosophical hymns of the Ṛgveda the idea certainly comes to the foreground of a creator who is named now Prajāpati, now Brahmaṇaspati, or Bṛhaspati, or again Viśvakarman, but who is still always thought of as a personal god. But already in the above-quoted verse it appears doubtful to the poet whether the creation was "made" or whether it came into being by some other means, and the creative principle receives no name in this poem, but is called "the One." Thus already in the hymns the great idea of Universal Unity is foreshadowed, the idea that everything which we see in Nature and which the popular belief designates as "gods," in reality is only the emanation of the One and Only One, that all plurality is only imaginary—an idea which is really already expressed clearly and distinctly in the verse Ṛv. I, 164, 46: