The Puranas says, Pantheism means the identification of God and the Universe. Pantheism means `God is all` and `all is God`. It is believed that everything in this world is of an all-encompassing immanent abstract God or that the Universe, or nature, and God are equivalent.

The Hindu religious texts are the oldest known literature that contains Pantheistic ideas. Lord Vishnu and Shiva, or Shakti, whatever individual they undertake to glorify, is not only the remote and efficient, but also the proximate and substantial cause of the world. Hence in the Linga Purana, Brahma addresses Shiva as the Divine Ground of all things in this Universe.

In the Vishnu Purana, the Pantheism says that this world was produced from Vishnu. The universe exists in him and he is the cause of its persistence and cessation. Thus Vishnu Purana believes that all this Universe indeed Vishnu.

The Kalika Purana suggests that the goddess Kali to be identical with the universe, as well as distinct from it. Further in the Brahma Vaivartta Radha is praised as the mother of the world, and the world itself; as one with primeval nature. Expressions of this tenor occur in every page of the Puranas. Though something may be ascribed to the exaggerations of panegyric, and the obscurities of mysticism, yet the declarations are too positive and reiterated to admit of reasonable doubt. And it cannot be questioned that these writers confound the creature with the Creator and expose themselves justly to the imputation of gross materialism.

The Puranas had received the concept of the materialism from the Vedas. This is the concept that God is of one unity, with the individual personal gods being aspects of the One. Thus it is said that this whole world is Brahma, from Brahma to a clod of earth. Brahma is both the efficient and the material cause of the world. He is the potter by whom the fictile vase is formed. Brahma is the clay of which the whole universe is made-up. it is said that everything proceeds from him without waste or diminution of the source, as light radiates from the sun. All merges into him again, as bubbles bursting mingle with the air, as rivers fall into the ocean, and lose their identity in its waters. Like the web or spider is emitted from and retracted into itself, everything proceeds from and returns to him. This example and other similar illustrations speak the language of materialism too plainly to be misunderstood, although it mar be possible that the full extent of their signification was not intended, that these comparisons are not to be interpreted too literally.

In Vedanta, particularly Advaita is a branch of Hindu philosophy, which believes different deities are seen by different adherents as particularly well suited to their worship. Advaita Vedanta says that multiple expressions of the one God or source of being, a view which is often considered by non-Hindus as being polytheistic.

The chief element of Advaita philosophy is Pantheism. Other sections of Vedanta do not firmly hold this principle. On the contrary the Dvaita school of Madhava holds Brahman to be the external personal Lord Vishnu, whereas the theistic school of Ramanuja supports Panentheism.