________________
THE HERITAGE OF ARYAN PEOPLES 153 world was very large to them, engaging the whole attention of the Deities. To us, it is smaller than a grain of sand, compared to the whole Universe ; and God is not exclusively engaged with our affairs. But we are as ignorant as they were of what God and matter, and light and heat, and the other forces of Nature ate. Of electricity, heat and light, in their essence, we know nothing at all, and, after all, in God we only worship either an infinite human intellect, or a force of a nature utterly unknown to us, to which we ascribe two human faculties, will and intelligence, as our ancestors ascribed them to fire.”
Admitting this as true, it may be conceded that in the course of the ages that have passed since the Vedic hymns were chanted or recited, the Aryan mind has so far widened its horizon to include an immense realm lying beyond what is visible and tangible.
The primitive worship of the earliest races passed from change to change as time went on, until we reach the worship of the Creator of all that is and can be known, and all that lies behind what is known. This is exemplified in the hymn of prayer, the "Japji”, repeated daily by every Sikh, of which an extract is given :
There is but one God, whose name is true, the Creator, the all-pervading, devoid of fear and enmity, immortal, unborn, self-begotten.
