The Seers of Truth

Meanwhile, among the Vedic Aryans a very different tradition was arising. Here and there certain persons, tiring of the daily round of fires and muttered prayers, the hundred hopes for birth of sons and healthy cattle, and the hundred terrors if the gods should be displeased, went off alone into the forests that lay round about the valley of the Ganges, where they were now living. Living on nature's bounty they thought deep within themselves about life, the world, God and man. Who made the universe and how? Who makes us breathe and hear and think? Are Indra, Varuna and the rest mere pictures of One who surpasses all the gods? These were India's first philosophers. Some got so lost in meditation that anthills grew up around them! Slowly answers came, schools of thought grew up, and certain men and women were recognized whose meditation had been long and deep. Rishis they were called -- seers, because they claimed they had seen these truths, and that they were eternal truths, revealed to men anew in every cycle of creation. Then ashramas, forest schools, grew up where the people of the great valley could have their children taught, by living with the seer, serving him and sitting beside him for instruction.
The questions these sages asked and the answers revealed to them you will find in the Upanishads or Vedanta (end of the Veda). Upanishad means "sit down beside". In the pages to come you will be hearing some of these insights of the Upanishads.