troubled water. Soul, eternal, omnipresent, undisturbed, pure, one, is multiplied by the power of delusion, not of its own na

ture."

Laws of Menu, ch. 12, § 124. "It is He, who, pervading all beings in five elemental forms, causes them by the gradations of birth, growth, and dissolution, to revolve in this world like the wheels of a car."

Ib. ch. 1, § 52. "When that power wakes, then has this world its full expansion; but when he slumbers with a tranquil spirit, then the whole system fades away."

Vishnu Pur., p. 132.

"This whole world is but a manifestation of Vishnu, who is identical with all things; and it is therefore to be regarded by the wise as not differing from, but as the same with themselves."

The distinctness of things from God being unreal, God, or Reality, is the negation or transience of the Finite :

Time.

Ib. p. 335. "Glory to thee, O lotus-eyed, who art one with Time, the form that devours, without remorse, all created things."

Ib.

p. 12. "The two forms which are other than the essence of unmodified Vishnu, are Pradhana (Matter) and Purusha (Spirit); and his other form, by which those two are connected or separated, is called Kála (Time).”

Ib. p. 519. "At the end of all, the universe disappears in thee; upheld by thee, this earth sustains living and inanimate things in the character of uncreated time, with its divisions. of ages, developed from an instant, thou devourest the world."

Not only all positive qualities, all virtues and powers, but also weakness, imperfection, and foulness are embraced in the One Soul, since otherwise independent Reality must be attributed to them:

Vishnu Pur., p. 154. "He (Vishnu) is the creator, who creates the world; he, the eternal, preserves it in existence; and he, the destroyer, destroys it; invested severally with the attributes of foulness, goodness, and gloom."

Ib. p. 139. "Thou (Vishnu) art knowledge and ignorance, truth and falsehood, poison and ambrosia."

Ib. p. 335. "Glory to thee, Govinda (Vishnu), who art all demons, whose essence is arrogance and want of discrimination, unchecked by patience or self-control. Glory to thee, who art the Yaksas, whose nature is charmed with sounds, and whose frivolous heart perfect knowledge cannot pervade. Glory to thee who art all fiends, that walk by night, sprung

from the quality of darkness; fierce, fraudulent, and cruel. . . Glory to thee who art one with the saints, whose perfect nature is ever blessed, and traverses, unobstructed, all permeable elements. Glory to thee who art one with the serpent race, double-tongued, impetuous, cruel, insatiate of enjoyment, and abounding in wealth. Glory to thee who art one with the Rishis, whose nature is free from sin or defect, and is identified with wisdom and tranquillity."

Here, very evidently, a subsistence of all things in God is not meant, but merely an absorption of all in him. The power and greatness of God is not shown as embracing and upholding the vast variety of the Universe, but as reducing it to his own undivided essence. God is the whole of Reality, and thus all that is not God is unreal. All distinction, therefore, is unreal. All diversity of things, and all finite existence, is a delusion. The outward world has only the reality conferred on it by human imagination, which in its blindness so conducting itself as if the Outward were real, confers upon it a subjective reality, an existence for Man, by making it an object and motive for action.

Vishnu Pur., p. 242. "How can reality be predicated of that which is subject to change, and reassumes no more its original character? Earth is fabricated into a jar; the jar is divided into two halves; the halves are broken to pieces; the pieces become dust; the dust becomes atoms. Say, is this reality? though it be so understood by man, whose self-knowledge is impeded by his own acts. Hence, Brahman, except discriminative knowledge, there is nothing anywhere, or at any time, that is real."

Ib. p. 258. 258. "Even as the same sky is apparently diversified as white or blue, so Soul, which is in truth but one, appears to erroneous vision distinct in different persons."

Ib. p. 251. "As one diffusive air, passing through the perforations of a flute, is distinguished as the notes of the scale, so the nature of the great spirit is single, though its forms be manifold, arising from the consequences of acts. When the difference of the investing form, as that of good, or the rest, is destroyed, then there is no distinction."

Moral distinctions also, as appertaining to individuality, and thus to bodily existence, belong merely to the sphere of Nature, which it is the aim of the wise man to transcend. His aim, therefore, is not action, whether virtuous or otherwise, but liberation from existence, since as long as he exists, as

long as he is under the dominion of Nature, he is necessarily impure:

Vishnu Pur., p. 335. "As long as man lives he is immersed in manifold afflictions, like the seed of the cotton amidst its down."

Sankh. Kar., XX. "By reason of union with it (soul,) insensible body seems sensible; and though the qualities be active, the stranger (soul) appears as the agent."

Ib. XLII. "For the sake of soul's wish, that subtile person exhibits (before it), like a dramatic actor, through relation of means and consequences, with the aid of nature's influence."

Ib. LIV. et seq. "Above there is prevalence of goodness; below, the creation is full of darkness; in the midst is the predominance of foulness, from BRAHMA to a stock. There does sentient soul experience pain, arising from decay and death, until it be released from its person; wherefore pain is of the essence (of bodily existence)."

Bhag. Gita, p. 59. "The Almighty createth neither the powers nor the deeds of mankind, nor the application of the fruits of action: nature prevaileth. The Almighty receiveth neither the vices nor the virtues of any one."

Ib. p. 105. "He who beholdeth the Supreme Being alike in all things, whilst corrupting, itself uncorrupting; and conceiving that God in all things is the same, doth not of himself injure his own soul, goeth the journey of immortality. He who beholdeth all his actions performed by Prakriti (nature), at the same time perceiveth that the Atma or soul is inactive in them."

Vishnu Pur., p. 649. "The ill-judging embodied being, bewildered by the darkness of fascination, situated in a body composed of the five elements, loudly asserts, 'This is I:" but who would ascribe spiritual individuality to a body in which soul is distinct from the ether, air, fire, water, and earth? What man of understanding assigns to disembodied spirit corporeal fruition, or lands, houses, and the like, that it should say, 'These are mine?' Man performs all acts for the purpose of bodily fruition, and the consequence of such acts is another body; so that their result is nothing but confinement to bodily existence. In the same manner as a mansion of clay is plastered with clay and water, so the body, which is of earth, is perpetuated by earth and water. The

body, consisting of the five elements, is nourished by substances equally composed of those elements; but since this is the case, what is there in this life that man should be proud of? Travelling the path of the world for many thousands of births, man attains only the weariness of bewilderment, and is smothered by the dust of imagination. When that dust is washed away by the bland water of real knowledge, then the weariness of bewilderment sustained by the wayfarer through many births is removed. When that weariness is relieved, the internal man is at peace, and he obtains that supreme felicity which is unequalled and undisturbed. This soul is pure, and composed of happiness and wisdom. The properties of pain, ignorance, and impurity, are those of nature, not of soul. There is no affinity between fire and water, but when the latter is placed over the former in a cauldron, it bubbles and boils, and exhibits the properties of fire. In like manner, when soul is associated with nature it is vitiated by Egotism and the rest, and assumes the qualities of grosser nature, although essentially distinct from them, and incorruptible.”

Ib. p. 137. "He who inflicts pain upon others, in act, thought, or speech, sows the seed of future birth, and the fruit that awaits him after birth is pain."

Ib. p. 139. "Let him who covets the goods of fortune be assiduous in the practice of virtue; - let him who hopes for final liberation learn to look upon all things as equal and the same."

Bhag. Gita, p. 47. "The man whose mind is led astray by the pride of self-sufficiency, thinketh that he himself is the executor of all those actions which are performed by the principles of his constitution. But the man who is acquainted with the nature of the two distinctions of cause and effect, having considered that principles will act according to their natures, giveth himself no trouble."

A

Ib. p. 48, et seq. "But the wise man also seeketh for that which is homogeneous to his own nature. All things act according to their natures, what then will restraint effect? In every purpose of the senses are fixed affection and dislike. wise man should not put himself in their power, for both of them are his opponents. A man's own religion, though contrary to, is better than the faith of another, let it be ever so well followed. It is good to die in one's own faith, for another's faith beareth fear. Arjoon: By what, O

Kreeshnă, is man propelled to commit offences? He seems as if, contrary to his wishes, he was impelled by some secret force.' Kreeshna: Know that it is the enemy lust, or passion, offspring of the carnal principle, insatiable and full of sin, by which this world is covered as the flame by the smoke, as the mirror by rust, or as the foetus by its membrane. The understanding of the wise man is obscured by this inveterate foe in the shape of desire, who rageth like fire, and is hard to be appeased.""

Soul being the only reality, material existence is possible only so far as it is established by the soul. Thus the body is a product of the action of the soul. But as the finite soul is again unreal, its action is not properly its own, but God's; being conformed by him to the disposition manifested by the individual in his imaginary action :

Brahme-Sútra. (Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays,* I., 354.) "Blind in the darkness of ignorance, the soul is guided in its actions and fruition, in its attainment of knowledge, and consequent liberation and bliss, by the supreme ruler of the Universe, who causes it to act conformably with its previous resolves; The supreme soul makes the individuals act relatively to their virtuous or vicious propensities, as the same fertilizing rain-cloud causes various seeds to sprout multifariously, producing diversity of plants according to their kind."

The cares and interests of the world are therefore ridiculous to one who has attained true wisdom:

Vishnu Pur., p. 487. "How great is the folly of princes, who are endowed with the faculty of reason, to cherish the confidence of ambition, when they themselves are but foam upon the wave. Before they have subdued themselves, they seek to reduce their ministers, their servants, their subjects, under their authority: they then endeavour to overcome their foes. Thus,' say they, will we conquer the ocean-encircled earth;' and intent upon their project, behold not death, which is not far off. But what mighty matter is the subjugation of the sea-girt earth to one who can subdue himself. Emancipation from existence is the fruit of self-control. It is through infatuation that kings desire to possess me (the earth), whom their predecessors have been forced to leave, whom their fa

*Miscellaneous Essays. By H. T. Colebrooke. 2 vols. London. 1837.