Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/203

 THE SOUL'S TRANSMIGRATIONS 163 is dissolved. Separation and dissolution take place, and the soul returns to its home, carrying with itself as much of the bliss of knowledge as sesame develops grains and blossoms, never afterwards separating from its oil. The intelligent being, intelligence and its object, are united and become one. It is now our duty to produce from Hindu literature some clear testimonies as to this subject, together with cognate theories of other nations. In the Bhagavadgita Vasudeva urges Arjuna on to battle, whilst they stand between the two lines, in the following words: " If you believe in predestination, you must know that neither they nor we are mortal, and do not go hence without returning, for souls are immortal and unchangeable. They migrate through the bodies, while man changes from childhood into youth, into manhood, and into infirm age, the end of which is the death of the body. Thereafter the soul proceeds on its return." Further he says: "How can a man think of death and being killed who knows that the soul is eternal, not having been born and not perishing; that the soul is something stable and constant; that no sword can cut it, no fire burn it, no water extin- guish it, and no wind wither it? The soul migrates from its body, after it has become old, into another, a different one, as the body, when its dress has become old, is clad in another. What then is your sorrow about a soul which does not perish? If it were perishable, it would be more becoming that you should not sorrow about a thing which may be dispensed with, which