Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/275

 The Final lihilosoPhy of tho Veda 25g

Wuw‘h W r- «no

other even as n god P For our convenience we may answer the second question ﬁrst. The celebrated Low-Book of Mono, at n timo when this doctrine has become out and dried, touches that n lirnhmnn priost who stools tho substance which has been on... trustod to him for sacrifice to the gods will in his nont onistonco become: :2. vulture or n crmv. ‘ Why? Bocnuso the: vulture and tho crow muko their living by stonling food. Briefly, man is whth he does. Note the superb moral possibilities of this touching. This is the well-known doctrine of frowns, or “ deed,” now famous wherever men are interested in the evolution of the human mind. Deed and the will, or “ desire,” as the Hindus call it, back of the dead, are essentially one and tho sumo thing. On desire man’s nature is founded ; us his desires so are his on- denvors, as his endeavors so are his deeds. By his deeds the character of his next birth in the round of oxistoncos is regulated, for he is himself the sum of his own deeds. If his £22?er in a. given life has accumulated for him a good balance, as it were, tho next life will be delightful and noble; conversely, if his life is evil, the noxtibirth will be, consequently, as a low and degraded being. Life is character—whar- actor inherited and inherent from previous existence,

and character modelled and shaped by the deeds of

1Mann. II. 25.