Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/231

Rh "A mortal who has heard this and embraced it, who has separated from it all qualities, and has thus reached the subtle Being, rejoices because he has obtained what is a cause for rejoicing. The house of Brahma is open. I believe, Nachiketas!"

Who can, even in the present day, peruse these pious inquiries and fervent thoughts of a long-buried past, without feeling a new emotion in his heart, without seeing a new light before his eyes? The mysteries of the unknown future will never be solved by human intellect or by human science; but the first recorded attempts of India to solve them in a pious, fervent, philosophical spirit will ever have an abiding interest for every patriotic Hindu and for every thoughtful man.

By no other has this truth been recognized more fully or felt more deeply than by Schopenhauer when he wrote: "From every sentence deep, original, and sub-lime thoughts arise, and the whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit. Indian air surrounds us, and original thoughts of kindred spirits. In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life; it will be the solace of my death."