History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.4

v7.c95.4

The Upaniṣads speak of the Absolute *brahman* as the creator, preserver and destroyer of the *bhūtas* (beings or elements or both). For example, the Tai. Up. III. 1 (Bhṛgu²⁴³⁰ is instructed by his father Varuṇa) 'desire to know that from which all *bhūtas* spring, by which, after being created, they live (are sustained) and to which they return and are absorbed therein; that is *brahma*'. This is the basic text on which V. S. I. 1. 2 (janmādyasya yataḥ) is based. This means 'from which the creation (sustenance and dissolution) of this (world) proceed' (that is *brahma*). Another passage of the Tai. Up. (II. 1) states that 'from this Ātman Ākāśa sprang, from ākāśa Vāyu, from Vāyu Agni, from Agni waters, from waters the earth, from earth plants, from plants food, from food man'. A passage of the Chān. Up. states²⁴³¹ 'all this, indeed, is brahma; a man, cultivating restraint of the mind, should meditate on that (world) as springing from, ending in and breathing on account of that (brahma)'. This is the basis of V. S. I. 2. 1 (*sarvatra prasiddhopadeśāt*). Here the three attributes of brahma are creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe.