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 The Final Philosophy of the Veda 267

religions and religious IlllilfJSOplliuS. Withaut doubt the Hinduﬁ dial this. before: pussimimn and indepcnu dently of pessimime But when pessimism began to taint the llimlu vicw of life, tlmn the eternal all~ farce, tin: rout (If :11], the: 0m: '1"er {lilti l’m'fuct ’l‘lling ifumtl the: only lugicnl escape {mm the: evils (Jf uxistuucu.

Thu thcm‘y (3f the: limhmu and the: theory of tram» migmthm unimd like: the twu branches (If a. river“. The: wandering of the: 50111 through the realms gov- erned by dcttth must be the consequence of its separation fmm Brahmm As long as lasts the will to live this lift: of death, as; long as; this will means ﬁnite dashes; and ﬁnite dead, 30 lung the soul rem aims separate from Brahn‘la in the: Chain of successsivc lives and deaths, each new life shaped by the karma: of the: preceding life. Escape from this chain can be: accomplishhd only by union with the Single True Being, the Brahma.

Hinduism has again in this matter taken a remark- able tum, if we test it by the normal temper of the Western mind. It is a kind of dualistic pessimism, in. which the good that is in the world as well as the evil that is there are both made to emphasise the evil. It is a. pessimism that is reached through both avenues; the avenue of evil, because it is evil; and the avenue of good, because it suggests by its very