Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/140

 121 with the eye, nor such as the sun or fire, but God is with them the Word, — by which term they do not mean articulate speech, but the discourse of reason, whereby the hidden mysteries of know- ledge are discerned by the wise. This light, how- ever, which they call the Word, and think to be God, is, they say, known only by the Brachhmans themselves, because they alone have discarded vanity, li which is the outermost covering of the soul. The members of this sect regard death with contemptuous indifference, and, as we have seen already, they always pronounce the name of the Deity with a tone of peculiar reverence, and adore him with hymns. They neither have wives nor beget children. Persons who desire to lead a Ufe like theirs cross over from the other side of the river, and remain with them for good, never returning to their own country. These also arc called Brachhmans, although they do not follow the same mode of life, for there are women in the country, from whom the native inhabitants are sprung, and of these women they beget off- spring. With regard to the Word, which they call God, they hold that it is corporeal, and that it wears the body as its external covering, just as (I Kevobo^ia, which probably translates ahamMray literally ' egotism/ and hence * self-conscionsness/ the peculiar and api>ropriate function of which is selfish conviction ; that is, a belief that in perception and meditation * V am concern- ed J that the objects of sense concern Me — in short, that I AM. The knowledge, however, which comes from com- prehending that Being which has self -existence completely destroys the ignorance which says * I am.'