Not that those
ancients supposed themselves to be without a revelation. For the Vedas,
at least, were considered to be of divine authority, and their words,
metres, and grammar were regarded with a superstitious awe, such as
reminds us of what has been called the "bibliolatry" of the Jewish
Rabbis. But subject to this verbal veneration, the Rishis, or learned
divines, used the utmost freedom in regard to the forced and fanciful
interpretations extorted from the sacred text, a freedom which again
reminds us of the paradoxical caprice shown by some schools of Jewish
Rabbis in their treatment of the volume they professed to regard with
awe. The various finite gods, such as Vishnu, Indra, Krishna, Marut, or
Varuna, were not the subjects of any church creed chanted every day, and
carefully stereotyped in the tender minds of children. On the contrary,
various roles were assigned by successive generations to these
divinities. So that, for instance, Varuna was at one time the god of the
ocean, and at another of the sky. But the uniform tendency of all poets
and Rishis alike was to seek, beyond all these gods, one unbeginning,
unending, and all comprehensive Being, from whom these "devas" emerged,
and into whom they must return. Not only so, but it is clearly suggested
in many passages, of which an instance will presently be quoted, that
the Eternal, called Brahma who was the true Self of all gods, was also
the true Self of man and bird and beast.
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