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The Religion of the Veda

INDIA is the land of religions in more than one sense. It has produced out of its own resources a number of distinctive systems and sects, two of which, at least, are of world-wide interest and importance.

Brahmanism, in its manifold aspects, is to this day the religion of about 200 millions of people in India herself, a matter of interest on the face of it. But its universal importance lies with the Brahmanical systems of religious philosophy, especially the two known respectively as Vedānta and Sānkhya. These are two religio-philosophical, or theosophical systems which essay to probe the twin riddle of the universe and human life. They do this in so penetrating a way as to place them by the side of the most profound philosophic endeavors of other nations. The beginnings of this philosophy are found in the so-called Upanishads, a set of treatises which are part of the Veda. The Upanishads contain the higher religion of the Veda. The essence of higher Brahmanical religion is Upanishad religion. The religion of the Upanishads is part of the theme of these lectures.

Buddhism started in the bosom of Brahmanism. Its radical reforms, concerning both doctrine and practical life, are directed in good part against Brahmanism. Yet Buddhism is a religion genuinely

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