The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c20.s1.1

v1.c20.s1.1

It is unfortunate that no term has yet been found which can be used to describe the gods, who do not rest on the basis of some natural phenomenon or some activity which is taking place in external nature, without conveying the false impression which is created by the adoption of the current term 'abstract'.¹ The idea of the deification of an abstraction inevitably suggest that the god was the production of priestly speculation; that he, therefore, could never be a really popular god; and that it could not be felt that the god was active and powerful to help in the same way as a god based on some phenomenon of nature. This is clearly far from being the case: whatever the origin of the gods which are called abstract, many of them attained in India to genuine and real popular belief, and were every whit as much living to the popular mind as gods for whom we can see a basis in nature.