Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/267

 The Final Philosophy of the Veda 251

mortal man. The Fathers of old have travelled it, and this path leads every earth-~born mortal thither. There in the midst of highest heaven, in the lap of the Goddess Dawn, beams unfading light, there eternal waters ﬂow. There Yama sits under a tree of beautiful foliage, engaged in an everlasting bout in the company of the gods; there mortals gather after death at Yuma’s cell to behold Varuna. They have left all imperfections behind them on returning to their true home, the rich meadows of which no one can rob them. In that place there are no lame nor crooked of limb; the weal: no longer pay tribute to the strong; all alike share with Yama and the gods the feast of the gods.

Underneath the coat of sugar the pill of death is bitter after all. Fitfully the Vedic Hindu regales himself with the hope of paradise, but his real cram ing is expressed in Vedic literature countless times: “May we live a hundred autumns, surrounded by lusty sons! ” On the way to Yams. the dead must pass the two broadmosed, four-eyed dogs, the speckled and the dark; according to another turn of this myth these same dogs, originally sun and rnoon,‘l wander among men and pick the daily candidates that are to go on their last pilgrimage. Soon we hear of the foot-snare of Yams... Think or do what

1 See above, p. 105.