Hindu/Vedic prayer

The Vedic faith system, known today as Hinduism, is known to stretch back to around 3000 BCE. Over its lifetime, it has incorporated all sorts of prayer systems from fire-based rituals to philosophical musings. Prayer was part and parcel of the Vedic lifestyle, and as such permeated its books. Indeed, the highest sacred texts of the Hindus, the Vedas, are a large collection of mantras (sacred hymns of Hindus, later adopted by Buddhists) and prayer rituals extolling a single supreme force, Brahman, that is made manifest in several lower forms as the familiar gods of the Hindu pantheon. Hindus in India have numerous devotional movements. Stemming from the universal Soul Brahman prayer is focused on the personal forms of God, such Shiva, Vishnu, or Vishnu's avatars, Rama and Krishna.