Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/266

 2 50 The Religion of the Veda

praise and nourishing gifts, are of a. spirit very simple. The temper of these things almost goat-am tees beforehand equally simple notions about death and future life. There is a paradise above, conceived oftenest as a solar paradise, where the gods are hav- ing a delightful time. Man would be most happy to have a share in this delight, like the gods immortal. Therefore the gods are implored to let come to them the pious man that has spent his substance freely in their hehalf.‘L Next, this elementary belief is ﬁttingly padded out with simple rites and ancient legends. The bodies of the dead are burned and their ashes are consigned to earth. But this is viewed, symbolic- ally, merely as an act of preparation-“cooking it is called forthrightmfor that other life of joy. Arms and utensils, especially sacriﬁcial utensils, are buried with the corpse. For the occupations and necessi- ties of those “ who have gone forth ” (pram), as the dead are called euphemistically, are the same as upon the earth, sacriﬁcing included. The righteous fore. fathers of old who have gone forth in the pastwthey have found another good place. Especially Yams, the ﬁrst royal man, went forth as a pioneer to the distant heights in the skies. He searched and found a way for all his descendants. He went before and found a dwelling from which no power can debar

1 Rig-Veda. I. 3:. 7; or. I;125. 5, 6; 5. 55. 4.; 63. 2.

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