They're a collection of hymns, rituals, but also philosophy. And the subset of the Vedas that are very concerned with the spiritual and the philosophical are known as the Upanishads, which means sitting down or coming near to. Some people say coming near to God. Some people say coming near to the actual reality or coming near to a teacher, as in sitting down to get a lesson or to have a dialogue. Now, the central idea in Hinduism is the idea of Brahman. And Brahman should not be confused with the god Brahma. Brahma is sometimes you could view as a aspect of Brahman, but Brahman is viewed as the true reality of things.