He is the same in prosperity and adversity; and although he acteth, he is not confined in the action. The work of him who hath lost all anxiety for the event, who is freed from the bonds of action, and standeth with his mind subdued by spiritual wisdom, and who performeth it for the sake of worship, cometh altogether unto nothing."

Ib. p. 116. [The evil and foolish] "trust to their carnal appetites, which are hard to be satisfied; are hypocrites, and overwhelmed with madness and intoxication. Because of their folly they adopt false doctrines, and continue to live the life of impurity. They abide by their inconceivable opinions, even unto the day of confusion, and determine within their own minds that the gratification of the sensual appetites is the supreme good. Fast-bound by the hundred cords of hope, and placing all their trust in lust and anger, they seek by injustice the accumulation of wealth, for the gratification of their inordinate desires. This, to-day, hath been acquired by me. I shall obtain this object of my heart. This wealth I have, and this shall I have also. This foe have I already slain, and others will I forthwith vanquish. I am Eeswar, and I enjoy; I am consummate, I am powerful, and I am happy; I am rich, and I am endued with precedence amongst men; and where is there another like unto me? I will make presents at the feasts and be merry.' In this manner do those ignorant men talk, whose minds are thus gone astray. Confounded with various thoughts and designs, they are entangled in the net of folly; and being firmly attached to the gratification of their lusts, they sink at length into the hell of impurity."

Bodily existence and individuality being unreal, the individual is in reality a part of the Infinite: there is no qualitative distinction:

Brahme-Sútra. (Colebrooke's Essays, I., 354.) "The soul is a portion of the supreme ruler, as a spark is of fire. The relation is not as that of master and servant, ruler and ruled, but as that of whole and part. He does not, however, partake of the pain and suffering of which the individual soul is conscious, through sympathy, during its association with body; so solar or lunar light appears as that which it illumines, though distinct therefrom. As the sun's image reflected in water is tremulous, quaking with the undulations of the pool, without, however, affecting other watery images, nor the solar orb itself; so the sufferings of one individual affect not another, nor the supreme ruler."

In truth, however, there is no real distinctness, even quantitative. The individual, then, is God:

Vishnu Pur., p. 258. "Do thou, O king, who knowest what duty is, regarding equally friend and foe, consider yourself as one with all that exists in the world. . That One, which here is all things, is Achyuta (Vishnu); than whom there is none other. He is I: he is thou: he is all: this universe is his form. Abandon the error of distinction."

Ib. p. 255. "Man (the soul of man) goeth everywhere, and penetrates everywhere, like the ether; and is it rational to inquire where it is? or whence or whither thou goest? I am neither going nor coming; nor is my dwelling in any one place; nor art thou, thou; nor are others, others; nor am I, I.”

Ib. p. 247. "The pure, imperishable soul, tranquil, void of qualities, preeminent over nature, is one, without increase or diminution, in all bodies."

Ib. p. 139. "Gods, men, animals, birds, reptiles, all are but forms of one eternal Vishnu, existing as it were detached from himself. It were idle to talk of friend

or foe in Govinda (Vishnu), who is the supreme soul, lord of the world, consisting of the world, and who is identical with all beings. The divine Vishnu is in thee, father, in me, and in all everywhere else; hence how can I speak of friend or foe, as distinct from myself? By him who knows

this, all the existing world, fixed or movable, is to be regarded as identical with himself, as proceeding alike from Vishnu, assuming a universal form. When this is known, the glorious god of all, who is without beginning or end, is pleased; and when he is pleased, there is an end of affliction.'

Ib. p. 251, et seq. "The great end of all is Soul: One, pervading, uniform, perfect, preeminent over nature, exempt from birth, growth and decay, omnipresent, undecaying, made up of true knowledge, independent, and unconnected with unrealities, with name, species, and the rest, in time present, past, or to come. The knowledge that this spirit, which is essentially one, is in one's own and in all other bodies, is the great end, or true wisdom, of one who knows the unity and the true principles of things."

By study and devotion the wise man may arrive at the truth of this identity with God, and then, all the reason of his finiteness being removed, he becomes in truth God.

Ib. p. 139, et seq. [A young man, son of the king of the Daityas, a race of Titans continually at war with the gods,

became devoted to the worship of Vishnu. His father, after trying various expedients to detach him from the hostile faith, at last becoming excessively enraged, commanded them to bind him with strong bands and cast him into the ocean. This being done,]" as he floated on the waters, the ocean was convulsed throughout its whole extent, and rose in mighty undulations, threatening to submerge the earth." [Then the king ordered them to pile rocks upon him. Accordingly they hurled upon him] "ponderous rocks, and piled them over him for many thousand miles; but he still, with mind undisturbed, thus offered daily praise to Vishnu. • Glory

me;

to that Vishnu from whom this world is not distinct. May he, ever to be meditated upon as the beginning of the Universe, have compassion upon me; may he, the supporter of all, in whom every thing is warped and woven, have compassion on glory to him who is all; to him whom I also am; for he is everywhere, and through whom all things are from me. I am all things; all things are in me, who am everlasting. I am undecaying, ever enduring, the receptacle of the spirit of the supreme. Brahma is my name; the supreme soul, that is before all things, that is after the end of all.' Thus meditating upon Vishnu, Prahláda became as one with him, he forgot entirely his own individuality, and was conscious of nothing else than his being the inexhaustible, eternal, supreme soul. As soon as, through the force of his contemplation, Prahláda had become one with Vishnu, the bonds with which he was bound burst instantly asunder; the ocean was violently uplifted; the monsters of the deep were alarmed; earth with all her forests and mountains trembled; and the prince, putting aside the rocks which the demons had piled upon him, came forth out of the main." Thus the whole duty of man, all philosophy, both practical and theoretical, is embraced in the single requirement of absolute Skepticism; a skepticism which does not doubt, but is absolutely certain of the unreality of all things; which recognizes only pure negation, and seeks only liberation from existence :

ceases.

Vishnu Pur., p. 658. "Liberation, which is the object to be effected, being accomplished, discriminative knowledge When endowed with the apprehension of the nature of the object of inquiry, then there is no difference between it and supreme spirit; difference is the consequence of the absence of true knowledge. When that ignorance which is the

cause of the difference between individual and universal spirit is destroyed, finally and for ever, who shall ever make that distinction between them which does not exist ?"

Vishnu Pur., p. 654. "Until all acts which are the causes of notions of individuality, are discontinued, spirit is one thing, and the universe is another, to those who contemplate objects as distinct and various; but that is called true knowledge, or knowledge of Brahma, which recognizes no distinctions, which contemplates only simple existence, which is undefinable by words, and is to be discovered solely in one's own spirit.'

Bhag. Gita, p. 55 et seq. "In wisdom is to be found every work without exception. Seek then this wisdom, ** which having learnt, thou shalt not again, O son of Pandoo, fall into folly; by which thou shalt behold all nature in the spirit; that is, in me. Although thou wert the greatest of all offenders, thou shalt be able to cross the gulf of sin with the bark of wisdom. As the natural fire, O Arjoon, reduceth the wood to ashes, so may the fire of wisdom reduce all moral actions to ashes. . Children only, and not the learned, speak of the speculative and the practical doctrines as two. They are but one, for both obtain the self-same end. That man seeth, who seeth that the speculative doctrines and the practical are but one. Mankind are led astray by their reasons being obscured by ignorance; but when that ignorance of their souls is destroyed by the force of reason, their wisdom shineth forth again with the glory of the sun, and causeth the Deity to appear.'

Vishnu Pur., p. 251. "Best of all is the identification of soul with the supreme spirit. The knowledge that this spirit, which is essentially one, is in one's own and in all other bodies, is the great end, or true wisdom, of one who knows the unity and the true principles of things."

Ib. p. 139. "That is active duty, which is not for our bondage; that is knowledge, which is for our liberation: all other duty is good only unto weariness: all other knowledge is only the cleverness of an artist."

The object of creation, and the end of existence, is the exclusion and negation of the Outward. By relinquishing and casting off his false being, Man attains again his true state.

Ib. p. 649. " "The mind of man is the cause both of his bondage and his liberation: its addiction to the objects of sense is the means of his bondage; its separation from the objects of sense is the means of his freedom."

Vedas: (cited in Colebrooke's Essays, I., 237.) "Soul is to be known, it is to be discriminated from nature: thus it does not come again, it does not come again."

Sankh. Kar., LVI. et seq. This evolution of nature, from intellect to the special elements, is performed for the deliverance of each soul respectively; done for another's sake as for self. As a dancer, having exhibited herself to the spectator, desists from the dance, so does nature desist, having manifested herself to soul. Generous Nature, endued with qualities, does by manifold means accomplish, without benefit (to herself) the wish of ungrateful soul, devoid as he is of qualities. Nothing, in my opinion, is more gentle than Nature; once aware of having been seen, she does not again expose herself to the gaze of soul. Verily not any soul is bound, nor is released, nor migrates; but Nature alone, in relation to various beings, is bound, is released, and migrates. By seven modes Nature binds herself by herself; by one, she releases (herself) for the soul's wish. So, through study of principles, the conclusive, incontrovertible, one only knowledge is attained, that neither I AM, nor is aught mine, nor do I exist. Possessed of this (self-knowledge), soul contemplates at leisure and at ease Nature, (thereby) debarred from prolific change, and consequently precluded from those seven forms. He desists, because he has seen her; she does so because she has been seen. In this (mere) union there is no motive for creation. By attainment of perfect knowledge, virtue and the rest become causeless; yet soul remains awhile invested with body, as the potter's wheel continues whirling from the effects of the impulse previously given to it. When separation of the informed soul from its corporeal frame at length takes place, and nature in respect of it ceases, then is absolute and final deliverance accomplished."

Commentary to Sankh. Kār., LVI. "Nature is like a utensil; having fulfilled soul's object it ceases."

Bhag. Gita, p. 106. "They who, with the eye of wisdom, perceive the body and the spirit to be thus distinct, and that there is a final release from the animal nature, go to the Supreme."

In this all-absorbing nihilism we have the first attempt at speculation. It cannot be called the earliest philosophical system, for it does not get as far as a system; but it is the earliest distinct endeavour to grasp the idea of the Universe.