The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c10.103

c10.103

It is easy to feel both the inferiority and the greater convenience of this Creator God who lords it over everything, without exactly having established any particular mental or moral claim to his prerogatives. As compared with the sheer philosophic “That Only,” the one thing without humanly definable quality, Prajāpati cuts a sorry figure, and marks a backward movement. There are, as we have said, many other monotheistic conceptions, symbolic, ritualistic, and philosophic, which make a short spurt and fall by the way. The supreme being is conceived as Viçvakarman, “fabricator of the universe”; as Parameshthin, “he who occupies the highest summit”; as Svayambhū, “the self-existing being”; as Skambha, “Support”; as Dhātar, “Maker”; as Vidhātar, “Arranger”; and others. These are mere symbolism.