Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c7.s1.t2.6

c7.s1.t2.6

As the foregoing text may apparently resemble those ancient cosmogonies which begin: "In the beginning was Prajâpati"—so, internally also, this naïve conception of the highest being—or of the original being, for it is not the highest yet—scarcely differs from that which a preceding age had conceived in Prajâpati, the creator and ruler of the world. The Âtman here resembles a powerful first man more than a god, not to say the one great bëent, in whom all other being lives and moves. This Âtman is afraid in his loneliness, like a man; he feels desire, like a man; he begets and brings forth like human beings. It is true, gods are among his creatures, but these creatures are higher than the creator; creating greater than himself, he, a mortal, produces from himself immortal deities.