ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the visions of self and reality contained in the earliest literature, the Rig Veda and the early Upanishads, texts composed between 2000 and 600 bce. Indus civilization probably began shortly after 3000 bce in the lower Indus River Valley in what is today Pakistan. Archaeological studies of one of its largest cities, Mohenjo Daro, reveal something of this civilization's sophistication. The Vedas are verses of wisdom that form the core of a sacred liturgy. The Rig Veda, probably dating from sometime before 1500 bce, is the oldest collection of these verses of wisdom. Vedic India had a powerful ritual orientation. The quest for immortality, central to the Upanishads, is a departure from the Vedic quest for happiness in this life. The Upanishads are much more philosophical and focused on knowledge than the Vedas. The search for Brahman is recorded in the Upanishads as the search for the ultimate reality of the external world.
