The Hindoos passed from crude views to more abstract and refined
concepts just as the Egyptians and Greeks did. In the Vedic period,
there are many contradictory statements about the creation of the world
and of the gods. Heaven and earth are spoken of as the parents of the
gods, and at the same time the gods are said to have built, or woven,
the whole world. When we remember that there was little distinction at
first between nature and the gods, we are not surprised at this
contradiction. Moreover, as one writer suggests, this contradiction
seems only to have enhanced the mystery of the conception. When
religion enters, logic is not always desired.

Another conception which we find in Hindoo thought is that of a
world-egg. This analogy is so natural that we are not surprised to
discover it. Let us glance at one of the accounts given in the
Satapatha Brahmana: "In the beginning this universe was water, nothing
but water. The waters desired, 'How can we be reproduced?' So saying,
they toiled, they performed austerity. While they were performing
austerity, a golden egg came into existence. Being produced, {36} it
then became a year. Wherefore this golden egg floated about for the
period of a year. From it in a year a male came into existence, who
was Prajapati.... He divided this golden egg.... In a year he desired
to speak. He uttered 'bhur,' which became this earth; 'bhuvah,' which
became this firmament; and 'svar,' which became that sky.... Desiring
progeny, he went on worshiping and toiling. He conceived progeny in
himself; with his mouth he created the gods...."

This account of the creation is characteristic of Hindoo thought as it
passes from the frank admiration of nature, which distinguishes the
Vedic period, to what more nearly approaches theosophic speculation.
Yet there is no genuine break with the animism of primitive times. The
waters are thought of as desiring, that is, they are held to be alive
and vaguely conscious. The belief that words are inseparable from
things should again be noted. "Bhur" becomes the earth, and "svar"
becomes the sky.

In the course of time, Hindoo thought became more abstract and
sophisticated without having achieved any method which would lead to
tested knowledge. An analogy may make clearer to the reader the
vicious intellectual situation. Imagine the subtle minds of the
Mediaeval scholastics, without the material furnished them by the Greek
philosophy,