Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/274

 2 58 The Religion of the Veda

it the following established items of faith: Every living creature is reborn in some organic shape; every living creature had a previous existence ; and every living creature is again and again the prey of death, until in some life all desire and all activity as the outcome of desire shall have been laid aside. This is the Hindu salvation, namely, absolute resig- nation of the ﬁnite, futile, illusory world; cessation of the will to live, and the act of living. This of itself produces union with Brahma. Not until mor- tal man has cast off every desire of his heart does he enter immortal into Brahma. We have now arrived at the thought or the position of the Upanishads, the last in the long line of Vedic texts. Like all Vedic thought, the thought of the Upanishads is not sys- tematic, but tentative, fanciful, and even romantic. It feels its way through misty, wavering, sometimes conﬂicting beginnings. The more rigid conclusions come later on in one or the other of the so~called systems of Hindu philosophy.

Still even in the Upanishads so important a doc“ trine must be established on reason. There are two questions to be asked. First, why must the soul Wander from life to life ; secondly, why does its habi- tation differ from life to life, liable to reincarnation: at one time as an animal high or low ; at another as a human being of various degrees; and at yet an"

u..— Wumm. a _.,.-....__..--..u-_ - "u—