Brahman

The word 'Brahman' above all signifies a unitary conception of reality. The origins of this conception can be traced back to the Rigveda, "a  remarkable seeking and enquiring after that one from which, as an eternal, unfathomable, unspeakable unity, all gods, worlds, and creatures originate." The hymn 164 of Rigveda boldly concludes that "there is one being of which the poets of the hymns speak under various names." The path to the attainment of the ideal of monism was essentially different from that traversed by, for instance, the Semitic religions. Whereas the later mainly resorted to violent proscription, in India it was rather a case of a dawning of the realization of the essential philosophical unity underlying the diverse manifestations of the world. Rather than a mechanical identification of the various gods with one, it was a case of the gradual lifting of the philosophical veil from the unity enveloping the disparate elements of the universe - seen and unseen. One can sample hymn 129 as an instance of the Rigvedic inquiry:

"1. In the beginning there was neither Non Being nor Being, neither atmosphere nor the sky beyond - What enveloped all things? Where were they, in whose care? What was the ocean, the unfathomable depth?

2. At that time there was neither mortal nor immortal, neither night nor day. That being the only one, breathed without air in independence. Beyond it nought existed.

3. Darkness was there, by darkness enshrouded in the beginning, an ocean without lights was all this world - but the pregnant germ which was enveloped by the husk was born by the strength of penitence.

The poetic origins of the idea of Brahman in Rigveda was later systematized in the Upanisads. Once this philosophical unity of the universe had been conceived, the further task lay in seeking and understanding the nature of this unity.