The Upaniṣhads and Vedanta

Vedic culture also developed many rituals (yajña, often read as 'yagya'), offered to various deities for the good of one person or of everyone. Daily rituals were usually prayers and offerings to Agni, the god of fire, but over time the rituals became more and more complicated. Some seekers began to ask bigger questions: Who am I? What is this universe? Why do we perform these rituals?

A group of texts called the Upaniṣhads built on Vedic ideas and brought in new ones, such as rebirth (being born again and again) and karma (our actions, or their results). Put simply, the Vedic hymns are mostly prayers and rituals, while the Upaniṣhads turn to knowledge and big questions.

According to one school of thought, usually called Vedanta, everything (human life, nature and the universe) is one divine essence called brahman (not the same as the god Brahmā), or sometimes just tat ('that').

Two short mantras say it:

• 'aham brahmāsmi': 'I am brahman' (that is, I am divine).
• 'tat tvam asi': 'You are That'.

The Upaniṣhads also brought in the idea of ātman, the Self: the divine essence that lives in every being and is ultimately one with brahman.

It follows that everything in this world is connected and depends on everything else. If the same essence is in every being, then no being is separate from any other. This explains a well-known prayer that begins 'sarve bhavantu sukhinah', 'May all creatures be happy', and goes on to wish that all be free from illness and sorrow. Not 'may my family be happy': all creatures.

Early in the 1st millennium BCE, more schools of thought grew out of the Vedas. One was Yoga, which developed methods to realise brahman in one's consciousness. (Consciousness is the state of being aware, for instance of something inside yourself. A child sitting in class but dreaming of lunch is not really aware of the lesson!) Together, these schools of thought became the foundations of what we call 'Hinduism' today.