BRAHMAN

India’s ancient Sanskrit chants have a view of the elephant that is not too different from my own. They are the mother of my elephant story. Sometimes, when I have questions about my Christian beliefs, to see what others have to say expands my own view. Now I see the elephant like a banana tree. The elephant is like a large banana tree leaf, and like a tree. Perhaps imbedded into a wall.

In the beginning there was neither naught nor aught:

Then there was neither sky nor atmosphere above...

Then was there neither day, nor night, nor light, nor darkness,

Only the Existent One breathed calmly, self-contained.

This is the central concept of Hinduism: Brahman, the Supreme Being, the God above all gods, the source of universal life. Each god in the crowded pantheon was but an aspect of all-embracing “thousand-headed” Brahman. “Truth is One,” the Vedas proclaimed. “They call him by different names.”

Footnotes:
1. India’s ancient Sanskrit chants - Compare with Genesis 1:1-2
2. Great Religions of the World - Quest for the Universal One

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