Brhmanism and Hindism Author:Monier Monier-Williams Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Brahmanism. THE second phase of Indian religious thought maybe suitably called Brahmanism. The Brahmans themselves would reject such a title. T... more »hey call their religion Arya-dharma, 'the religion of the Aryas' (or Vaidika-dharma, or Rishi-sam- pradayo dharmah, Patanjali I. i. i). They of course regard it as the only true religion, and have no difficulty in including all other religions—such as Muhammadanism and even Christianity—under it. As Brahmanism was the outgrowth of Vedism, so it cannot be separated from Vedism. Its development was gradual, just as the development of Hinduism out of it was. Vedism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism are all closely inter-connected. It is interesting to trace the crystallization of the rudimentary doctrines of Brahmanism into definite shape. In Vedic times there was, as we have seen, a feeling after one Supreme Being, if haply He might be found. The hymn- composers gave expression to man's craving for some perception of the Infinite. To satisfy this craving they turned to personifications of the Sky, Sun, Fire, Air, Water, Earth. What the deepest thinkers, even at that early period, felt with ever-increasing intensity was that a Spirit (Atman), beyond the cognizance of sense, permeated and breathed through all material things. They bethought them with awe of this same Spirit vivifying their own bodies with the breath of life—of this mysterious Presence enshrined in their own consciences. Then they identified this same Spirit with the divine afflatus thrilling through the imaginations of their own hymn-composers—with the spiritual efficacy of the hymns themselves, with the mystic power inherent in divine knowledge and prayer. This mysterious, all-pervading.vague spiritual Power and Presence, which was wholly unbound by limitati...« less