Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/15

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Contents
xv

PAGES

LECTURE THE SIXTH.

THE FINAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE VEDA.

Death and future life in paradise – Early notions of Hell – The idea of retribution – Limit of reward for good deeds – The notion of "death-anew," or "re-death" – How comes the belief in transmigration – Hindu doctrine of transmigration – The method of transmigration – The doctrine of karma, or spiritual evolution – How transmigration and karma appear to Western minds – The pessimist theory of life – Cause of Hindu pessimism – Pessimism and the perfect principle (Brahma) – Dualistic pessimism – Salvation through realisation of one's own Brahmahood – The conception of the ātman, "breath," as life principle – Ātman, the soul of the Universe – Brahma, the spiritual essence of the Universe – Fusion of Ātman and Brahma – Māyā, or the world an illusion – The unknowableness of Brahma – Emerson's poem on the Brahma – The fulness of Brahma: a story of Yājnavalkya and his wife Maitreyī – Transition from philosophy to piety – Hindu asceticism – Professor Huxley's critique of ascetiism – Pilgrim's progress under the religion of Brahma – Investiture and disciplehood – The life of the householder – The life of the forest-dweller and wandering ascetic – Ultima Thule 249-289

INDEX 291

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