Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/313

Rh consisting of the intellect, the consciousness, the mind, and the subtle principles, migrated with the soul. This subtle body, or linga sarīra, forms the personality of an individual, and ascends to a higher region or descends to a lower with the soul, according to the virtues or vices committed in this life, nor does the soul gain final emancipation till it is freed from its subtle body by the knowledge which it acquires through its union with nature.

Even after the soul has obtained complete knowledge, it resides for a time in the body, "as a potter's wheel continues to revolve from the force of the previous impulse." This is the Nirvana of Buddha, a state of quietude, when perfect knowledge has been gained, when all passions have been restrained, all desires have been checked, and the enlightened soul awaits its final emancipation. That separation of soul and matter comes at last. Nature ceases to act, as her purpose has been accomplished, and the soul obtains an abstraction from matter, and both continue to exist eternally isolated from each other and independent of each other.

The great fault of Kapila's philosophy as a creed for the people was its agnosticism, and the Yoga system of philosophy sought to obviate this defect. The Yoga philosophy is ascribed to Patanjali, who probably lived in the second century before Christ. All that we know of the life and history of Patanjali is that his mother was called Gonika, as he himself tells us, and that he resided for a certain time in Kashmir,