Part 8 (2/2)

s.p.a.ce and time are derived from this subject. It is itself accordingly not in s.p.a.ce and does not belong to time, and therefore from an empirical point of view it is in general non-existent; it has no empirical but only a metaphysical reality [Footnote ref 1].” This however seems to me to be wholly irrelevant, since the [email protected] doctrine cannot be supposed to have any philosophical importance in the [email protected]

The Theory of Causation.

There was practically no systematic theory of causation in the [email protected] [email protected], the later exponent of Vedanta philosophy, always tried to show that the [email protected] looked upon the cause

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[Footnote 1: Deussen's _Philosophy of the Upanishads_, p. 201.]

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as mere ground of change which though unchanged in itself in reality had only an appearance of suffering change. This he did on the strength of a series of examples in the Chandogya [email protected] (VI. 1) in which the material cause, e.g. the clay, is spoken of as the only reality in all its transformations as the pot, the jug or the plate. It is said that though there are so many diversities of appearance that one is called the plate, the other the pot, and the other the jug, yet these are only empty distinctions of name and form, for the only thing real in them is the earth which in its essence remains ever the same whether you call it the pot, plate, or Jug. So it is that the ultimate cause, the unchangeable Brahman, remains ever constant, though it may appear to suffer change as the manifold world outside. This world is thus only an unsubstantial appearance, a mirage imposed upon Brahman, the real _par excellence_.

It seems however that though such a view may be regarded as having been expounded in the [email protected] in an imperfect manner, there is also side by side the other view which looks upon the effect as the product of a real change wrought in the cause itself through the action and combination of the elements of diversity in it. Thus when the different objects of nature have been spoken of in one place as the product of the combination of the three elements fire, water and earth, the effect signifies a real change produced by their compounding. This is in germ (as we shall see hereafter) the [email protected] theory of causation advocated by the [email protected] school [Footnote ref 1].

Doctrine of Transmigration.

When the Vedic people witnessed the burning of a dead body they supposed that the eye of the man went to the sun, his breath to the wind, his speech to the fire, his limbs to the different parts of the universe. They also believed as we have already seen in the recompense of good and bad actions in worlds other than our own, and though we hear of such things as the pa.s.sage of the human soul into trees, etc., the tendency towards transmigration had but little developed at the time.

In the [email protected] however we find a clear development in the direction of transmigration in two distinct stages. In the one the Vedic idea of a recompense in the other world is combined with

[Footnote 1: Cha. VI. 2-4.]

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the doctrine of transmigration, whereas in the other the doctrine of transmigration comes to the forefront in supersession of the idea of a recompense in the other world. Thus it is said that those who performed charitable deeds or such public works as the digging of wells, etc., follow after death the way of the fathers ([email protected]_), in which the soul after death enters first into smoke, then into night, the dark half of the month, etc., and at last reaches the moon; after a residence there as long as the remnant of his good deeds remains he descends again through ether, wind, smoke, mist, cloud, rain, herbage, food and seed, and through the a.s.similation of food by man he enters the womb of the mother and is born again. Here we see that the soul had not only a recompense in the world of the moon, but was re-born again in this world [Footnote ref 1].

The other way is the way of G.o.ds (_devayana_), meant for those who cultivate faith and asceticism (_tapas_). These souls at death enter successively into flame, day, bright half of the month, bright half of the year, sun, moon, lightning, and then finally into Brahman never to return. Deussen says that ”the meaning of the whole is that the soul on the way of the G.o.ds reaches regions of ever-increasing light, in which is concentrated all that is bright and radiant as stations on the way to Brahman the 'light of lights'” ([email protected]@m [email protected]_) [Footnote ref 2].

The other line of thought is a direct reference to the doctrine of transmigration unmixed with the idea of reaping the fruits of his deeds (_karma_) by pa.s.sing through the other worlds and without reference to the doctrine of the ways of the fathers and G.o.ds, the _Yanas_. Thus Yajnavalkya says, ”when the soul becomes weak (apparent weakness owing to the weakness of the body with which it is a.s.sociated) and falls into a swoon as it were, these senses go towards it. It (Soul) takes these light particles within itself and centres itself only in the heart. Thus when the person in the eye turns back, then the soul cannot know colour; (the senses) become one (with him); (people about him) say he does not see; (the senses) become one (with him), he does not smell, (the senses) become one (with him), he does not taste, (the senses) become one (with him), he does not speak, (the senses) become one (with him), he does not hear, (the senses) become one (with him), he does not think, (the senses) become one with him, he does not touch, (the senses) become one with him, he does not know, they say. The

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[Footnote 1: Cha. V. 10.]

[Footnote 2: Deussen's _Philosophy of the Upanishads_, p. 335.]

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tip of his heart s.h.i.+nes and by that s.h.i.+ning this soul goes out.

When he goes out either through the eye, the head, or by any other part of the body, the vital function ([email protected]_) follows and all the senses follow the vital function ([email protected]_) in coming out. He is then with determinate consciousness and as such he comes out. Knowledge, the deeds as well as previous experience (_prajna_) accompany him. Just as a caterpillar going to the end of a blade of gra.s.s, by undertaking a separate movement collects itself, so this self after destroying this body, removing ignorance, by a separate movement collects itself. Just as a goldsmith taking a small bit of gold, gives to it a newer and fairer form, so the soul after destroying this body and removing ignorance fas.h.i.+ons a newer and fairer form as of the [email protected], the Gandharvas, the G.o.ds, of Praj.a.pati or Brahma or of any other being....As he acts and behaves so he becomes, good by good deeds, bad by bad deeds, virtuous by virtuous deeds and vicious by vice. The man is full of desires. As he desires so he wills, as he wills so he works, as the work is done so it happens. There is also a verse, being attached to that he wants to gain by karma that to which he was attached. Having reaped the full fruit (lit. gone to the end) of the karma that he does here, he returns back to this world for doing karma [Footnote ref 1]. So it is the case with those who have desires. He who has no desires, who had no desires, who has freed himself from all desires, is satisfied in his desires and in himself, his senses do not go out. He being Brahma attains Brahmahood. Thus the verse says, when all the desires that are in his heart are got rid of, the mortal becomes immortal and attains Brahma here” ([email protected] IV. iv. 1-7).

A close consideration of the above pa.s.sage shows that the self itself destroyed the body and built up a newer and fairer frame by its own activity when it reached the end of the present life. At the time of death, the self collected within itself all senses and faculties and after death all its previous knowledge, work and experience accompanied him. The falling off of the body at the time of death is only for the building of a newer body either in this world or in the other worlds. The self which thus takes rebirth is regarded as an aggregation of diverse categories.

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