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Heaven is his head, the sun and moon are his eyes, the earth his feet, space is his ears, air is his breath, the Vedas are his speech, and the visible creation is his intellect; for he is the Soul of the Universe.

He by whom the birth, the existence, and the annihilation of the world are regulated is the Supreme Soul. The sun and all the luminaries borrow their light from him.

As a thousand rays emanate from one flame, thus do all souls emanate from One Eternal Soul, and return to him.

As the web proceeds from the spider, and is absorbed again by her, as vegetables proceed from the earth, as hair and nails grow from animate beings, so is the universe evolved from the One Eternal Supreme Soul.

The Supreme Soul dwells in the form of four-footed animals, and in another place he is full of glory. He lives in the form of the slave, he is smaller than the grain of barley. He is the smallest of the small, and the greatest of the great; yet he is neither small nor great.

Without hand or foot he runs rapidly and grasps firmly; without eyes he sees all; without ears he hears all. He knows whatever can be known,; but there is none who knows him. The wise call him the Great, Supreme, Pervading Spirit.

From him emanates the firmament, illustrated by the sun and moon; the moon accumulates clouds iu the sky; the clouds descend in rain, which brings forth vegetables from the earth; the essence derived from nourishment of these vegetables man imparts to woman; through these progressive physical causes numerous offspring proceed from the Omniscient Supreme Soul.

He who considers all beings as existing in the Supreme Spirit as pervading all beings cannot view with contempt any creature whatsoever.

God has created the senses to be directed toward external objects. They can perceive only these objects, and not the eternal spirit. The sage who desires an immortal life withdraws his senses from their natural course and perceives the Supreme Being everywhere present.

This body formed of bones, skin, and nerves, filled with fat and flesh, is a great evil, and without reality. It ought to perish. Of what use is it then for the soul to seek corporeal pleasure?

The inhabitants of this body are cupidity, anger, desire for wealth, error, anxiety, envy, sadness, discord, disappointment, affliction, hunger, thirst, desires, old age, death. Of what use is it then to seck the pleasures of the body?

Through strict veracity, uniform control of mind and senses, abstinence from sexual indulgence, and ideas derived from spiritual teachers, man should approach God, who, full of glory and perfection, works in the heart, and to whom only votaries freed from passion and desire can approximate.

Material objects have no duration. As the fruits of the trees grow and perish, so do these objects. What is there in them worthy to be acquired? Great things and small, commanders of powerful armies, kings who govern the earth, have relinquished their riches and passed into the other world. Nothing could save them. They were men and they could not escape death,

The grand harvas, the Sooras, the stars themselves, do not endure forever. The seas will one day be dried up, the mountains will fall, even the polar star

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will change its place, the earth will be swallowed up in the waves. Such is the world! Of what avail is it to seek its pleasures?

One may perform meritorious works from self-interested motives during his whole life; he may enjoy all pleasures; still he must come back into the world He can only continue passing from one world to another. There is nothing desirable but the science of God. Out of this there is no tranquility and no freedom. To be attached to material things is to be chained; to be without attachment is to be free.

May this soul of mine, which is a ray of perfect wisdom, pure intellect, and permanent existence, which is the inextinguishable light fixed within created bodies, without which no good act is performed, be united by devout meditation with the Spirit supremely blest and supremely intelligent.

O thou, who givest substance to the world, unveil that face of the true sun, which is now hidden by a veil of golden light! so that we may see the truth, and know our whole duty.

He who inwardly rules the sun is the same immortal Spirit who inwardly

rules thee.

That All-pervading Spirit which gives light to the visible sun, even the same in kind am I, though infinitely distant in degree. Let my soul return to the immortal Spirit of God, and then let my body return to dust.

I am in this world like a frog in a dry well. Thou only, O Lord, art my refuge; thou art my only refuge.

By one Supreme Ruler is this universe pervaded; every world in the whole circle of Nature. Enjoy pure delight, O Man, by abandoning all thoughts of this perishable world; covet not the wealth of any creature existing.

God, who is perfect wisdom and perfect happiness, is the final refuge of the man who has literally bestowed his wealth, who has been firm in virtue, and who knows and adores the Great One.

To the regions where evil spirits dwell, and which utter darkness involves, surely go after death all such men as destroy the purity of their own souls.

Preserve thyself from self-sufficiency and do not covet property belonging to another. The way to eternal beatitude is open to him who without omission speaketh truth.

Those who observe religious rites, but attend only to the worship of the sacred fire or offerings to saints, or sacrifices to the souls of the departed ances.. tors, or to men and other creatures, without attending to the worship of the celestial gods, enter into the regions of shadows. But those who habitually adore the celestial gods only, neglecting the sacred fire, offerings to the saints, to the souls of ancestors, to men and other creatures, enter into regions of still deeper shadows.

He who offers sacrifices at the prescribed times is by them transported to the Paradise of Indra. His offerings make entrance for him into this heaven, and say to him: It is the summit of the heavens; there is the fruit of thy good works.

All works ought to be regarded merely as means of purifying the intelligence, as means to guide the traveler to his home.

The ignorant suppose that the digging of wells, and other good works recommended in the Vedas, and the sacrifices therein prescribed, are the most meri

torious. They have no idea of the science of God, which is the only source of true happiness. By excessive desire of reward, they are deprived of this knowledge. They assuredly will obtain the objects they seek by the practice of works and ceremonies; but when the period of their recompense in Paradise has expired, they must descend to the world again, subjecting themselves to new transmigrations into the forms of men, or animals, or plants; liable to birth, sorrow, disease, and death. These foolish ones, plunged in ignorance, believing themselves wise, resemble the blind leading the blind. But men who have maturely considered the perishable nature of all advantages that works can procure, hermits who live in the forests upon alms, fathers of families, endowed with wisdom, worshiping Brahma, practicing austerities, subduing the senses, these are delivered from all sin and ascend to the highest heaven, where reigns the immortal Brahma, as ancient as the world.

Though man finds pleasure in that which he sees, hears, smells, tastes, and touches, he derives no benefit from the pleasure, because the soul, attaching itself to external objects, forgets its high origin, which is the Universal Soul.

When the sage perceives the Eternal Cause everywhere present, then abandoning the consequences of good works and bad works, he becomes perfect and obtains complete absorption. The sage who recognizes that God resides in all creatures, forgets all idea of duality. He is convinced that there is only One real existence, and that is God. He directs all his senses towards God only, the origin of his own consciousness. He concentrates upon him all his love, detaches his spirit from all earthly objects by fixing his soul continually upon God. A person thus devoted to God is esteemed the most perfect among the adorers of the Divinity.

To know that God is, and that all is God, this is the substance of the Vedas.. When one attains to this, there is no need of reading, or of works; they are but the bark, the straw, the envelope. No more need of them when one has the seed, the substance, the Creator. When one knows him by science, he may abandon science, as the torch which has conducted him to the end.

The following is one of the numerous prayers contained in the Vedas:

Where they who know the Great One go, through holy rites and through piety, thither may fire raise me. May fire receive my sacrifices. Mysterious praise to fire! May air waft me thither. May air increase my spirits. Mysterious praise to Air! May sun draw me thither. May the sun enlighten my eye. Mysterious praise to the Sun! May the moon bear me thither. May the moon receive my mind. Mysterious praise to the Moon! May the plant Soma lead me thither. May Soma bestow on me its hallowed milk. Mysterious praise to Soma! May Indra carry me thither. May Indra give me strength. Mysterious praise to Indra! May water lead me thither. May water bring me the stream of immortality. Mysterious praise to the Waters! Where they who know the Great One go, through the holy rites and through piety, thither may Brahma conduct me. May Brahma lead me to the Great One. Mysterious praise to Brahma.

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These exercises, contemplations, and prayers are certainly spiritual enough, religious enough, and devout enough to be suited to the most ultra-religious people who have ever lived on the earth. The sacred writings of the Hebrews or Christians do not surpass them in purity of language and sincerity of sentiment, and they indicate no deeper religious feeling, no more fervent devotion. These latter quotations, as observed, are probably from the fourth Veda. The hymns of the Rig Veda were dedicated to the personified forces of nature, and that period of the Hindoo religion is noted for its deep adoration of the grandeur and beauty of the visible universe as distinguished from the abstract metaphysical views of later times.

Prof. Muller, as already stated, divides the Vedic literature into four periods, namely, those of the Khandas, Mantra, Brahmana, and Sutras. The Khandas period contains the oldest of the Vedas or Rig-Veda, probably the oldest compositions known to man. To the Mantra period belong the later hymns of the same Veda; but the most modern of these are older than the Brahmanas, and are liturgic. The Brahmanas are decidedly theological, and, Muller says, full of pedantry, shallow and insipid grandiloquence, and priestly conceit. They are very numerous. They relate to sacrifices, and contain stories and legends, as of the deluge, etc. They substituted these legends for the simpler poetry of the ancient Vedas. Next to these in the order of time are the Upanishads, of which there are ten in number. They are very philosophical, and are believed to contain the highest authori ties of abstract Hindoo philosophy. They are the most read in modern times of any part of the Vedas. Dr. Rosen consid ered them by far the best of any of the Vedic books. Next came the Sutras, the word Sutra meaning "string;" and they consist of a string of short sentences. Conciseness of style is the aim, and every doctrine is reduced to a skeleton. The numerous Sutras now extant are said to contain the distilled essence of all the knowledge which the Brahmans have collected during centuries of meditation. They are decided to belong to the non-revealed literature, as distinguished from that considered revealed, a distinction made by the Brah

mans before the time of Buddha.

At the time of the Bud

dhist controversy the Sutras were admitted to be of human origin.

Muller concludes that the art of writing was unknown when the Rig-Veda was composed. The thousand and ten hymns contain no mention of writing or books any more than do the Homeric poems. There is no allusion to writing during the Brahmanic period, nor even in the Sutra period. It was the business of every Brahman to learn by heart the Vedas during the twelve years of his student life. The Gurn, or teacher, pronounced a group of words and the pupils repeated them after him. None of the ordinary modern words for book, paper, ink, or writing have been found in any ancient Sanskrit work. This was all before Buddha's time, for he learned to write, and told his teacher, the names of sixty-four alphabets. The first authentic inscription in India is of Buddha's origin. In the most ancient Vedic period the Sanskrit had become complete. There is no growing language in the Vedas.

BRAHMANISM.

A few centuries later than the Vedic period-just how many is not known-when the priests had increased in number and power, the Vedic gods Indra, Varuna, Agni, Mitra, Savitri, Soma, Maruts, etc., who chiefly represented special elements and forces of nature, were partially lost sight of, and a newer class of gods, at the head of which stood Brahma, were introduced to the Hindoo people. The new system of religion lacked the simplicity and directness of the older one, and was more obscure, very mysterious, abstract, and metaphysical. The system is traceable to no individual founder or prophet. There is no personality about it. It is a vast aggregation of abstract ideas, wanting unity and clearness. It is so vast and complicated as to be sometimes contradictory and changeable. It was doubtless the production of many minds, principally Brahmans, and the contributions and additions made to it reached over a period of several centuries.

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