The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c11.60

c11.60

The two conceptions of *ātman* and *brahma*, in their origin, respectively, the physical and spiritual essences of the universe, are fused into one conception. They are used in general as synonyms. Still there is a tendency to use *brahma*, “Holy Thought,” as the designation of the universal principle in the outer world; *ātman*, “Self,” as the same principle in the inner life of man. The conviction that the *brahma* without and the *ātman* 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 final development; the power that manifests itself in every living thing;—this eternal power is identical with our own innermost and truest self, equally imperishable when stripped of all its external and accidental circumstances. This conviction is embalmed in the famous words, *tat tvam asi*, “Thou art That,” or *aham brahma asmi*, “I am the Brahma.” These are the slogans of higher religious thought; and they contain the corollary that the world of things which we see in space, as we ideally assume it to be with our eyes and bodies, themselves phenomena, are mere shadows cast by the one truth—the innermost Personal Self identical with the outer Universal Self, the *brahma-ātman*.¹