Brahma was before the gods were, the Creator of all, the Guardian of the Universe. The vision of Brahman, the foundation of all wisdom, he gave in revelation to his first-born son Atharvan.
That vision and wisdom of Brahman given to Atharvan, he in olden times reveales to Angira. And Angira gave it to Satyavaha, who in succession revealed it to Angiras.
Now there was a man whose name was Saunaka, owner of a great household, who, approaching one day Angiras with reverence, asked him this question:
‘Master, what is that which, when known, all is known?’
The Master replied: Sages say there are two kinds of wisdom, the higher and the lower.
The lower wisdom is in the four sacred Vedas, and in the six kinds of knowledge that help to know, to sing, and to use the Vedas, definition and grammar, pronunciation and poetry, ritual and the signs of heaven. But the higher wisdom is that which leads to the Eternal.
He is beyond thought and invisible, beyond family and colour. He has neither eyes nor ears; he has neither hands nor feet. He is everlasting and omnipresent, infinite in the great and infinite in the small. He is the Eternal whom the sages see as the source of all creation.
Even as a spider sends forth and draws in its thread, even as plants arise from the earth and hairs from the body of man, even so the whole of creation arises from the Eternal.
By Tapas, the power of meditation, Brahman attains expansion and then comes primeval matter. And from this comes life and mind, the elements and the worlds and the immortality of ritual action.
From that Spirit who knows all and sees all, whose Tapas is pure vision, from him comes Brahma, the creator, name and form and primal matter.
📚 Brahma & Brahman
📚 Tapas
This is the truth: The actions of devotion that sages heard in sacred verses were told in many ways in the three Vedas. Perform them always, O lovers of the true: they are your path of holy action in this world.