of a growing tendency to looking at the self of man as the omnipresent
supreme principle of the universe, the knowledge of which
makes a man sinless and pure.


Conclusion.

Looking at the advancement of thought in the @Rg-Veda we
find first that a fabric of thought was gradually growing which
not only looked upon the universe as a correlation of parts or a

____________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: Macdonell's _Vedic Mythology_, p.166 and R.V. viii.89.]

[Footnote 2: R.V.i. 164. 4 and Deussen's article on Âtman in
_Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

27

construction made of them, but sought to explain it as having
emanated from one great being who is sometimes described as
one with the universe and surpassing it, and at other times as
being separate from it; the agnostic spirit which is the mother
of philosophic thought is seen at times to be so bold as to express
doubts even on the most fundamental questions of creation--"Who
knows whether this world was ever created or not?" Secondly
the growth of sacrifices has helped to establish the unalterable
nature of the law by which the (sacrificial) actions produced their
effects of themselves. It also lessened the importance of deities