Though the idea of
brahman as the ground of all things is not entirely absent in the Vedas, the primary goal was to search for the power connecting the microcosm with the macrocosm.
Brahman in the Upaniṣads
This sense of power continues in the Upaniṣads (e.g., Kaṭha Upaniṣad), which say that the various devas (gods; literally, "the shining ones") each carry out their respective jobs for fear of the brahman (6.3); Kena Upaniṣad states that the various devas have no power outside the power of brahman residing in them. The brahman of the Upaniṣads is much more than a power; it is the cause of the origination, sustenance, and destruction of the world (Taittiīya Upaniṣad, 3.1.1). In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, when Yājñavalkya is questioned about the number of gods, he initially responds by saying that 3,306 gods were simply manifestations of thirty-three gods, and then successively reduces the number to six, three, two, one and a half, and then one.
