Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/234

Rh Kapila, Akshapâtha, Kanâda, and Jaimini respectively. Only six of the above mediums of knowledge are recognised in the above systems.

“She then met the Saiva-vati who holds that Isa is the Lord (of the universe) and asked him to explain the nature of his deity. ‘He governs the two luminaries (Sun and Moon) life, and the five elements; He unites the soul and body: and created this world as a pastime. His form is made of rays of light. Mighty is he to remove all sorrows by death. There is nothing else beside him. He is our God, said he. the Brahmavati said that the whole universe was an egg laid by a God. The earnest believer in Vishnu said that Narayana preserves the whole world. The Vedic Brahmin said that the Veda had the Kalpa as its hands, the Chhandas as its legs, Jyotiṡh as its eyes, Nirukta as its ears, Siksha as its nose and Vyakarna as its face: and that it is self-existent and has neither beginning nor end.

“Finding that those statements were neither true nor accepted as such by the world, she went to the Professor of the Ajivaka religion, and asked him to state who was his God and what was taught by his Sacred Books. The supreme Intelligence which is found associated with every thing and for ever, through the boundless universe, is God. Our Book teaches of five things, that is, the soul and the four kinds of eternal atoms. These atoms will collect and separate, so that the soul may mix with them, and see and feel them. The atoms are of four kinds: those of the earth, water, fire and wind. They may collect and form mountains, trees or bodies, or they may separate and expand through space: and what recognises these is called the soul. the atoms of earth collect and become hard and form the ground. The atoms of water are heavy and cool and rest on the earth, and can be tasted. The atoms of fire are hot and ascend: and the atoms of wind spread and move. Under special conditions they may exhibit other phenomena. The eternal atoms never cease to exist, nor do they newly come into existence: nor can one atom enter another. An atom of water cannot change into an atom of earth: nor can one atom be split into two: nor flattened out of its shape. They may move and fall or rise. They may collect and form a mountain, or disperse and resume their shape