DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.641#0272
THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 265
soul is only something; similar to light, diffused through
the body, which is capable of depression or extension, and
which dies with it.
These philosophers wrote the following works:—the doc-
trines of Vrihusputee; philosophical mysteries ; a treatise
on logic; a work on astrology; another to prove the folly
of religious distinctions and ceremonies; and a history of
the Bouddhu philosophers.
The following are some of the opinions of this sect2, as
charged upon them in the works mentioned at the head of
this article:—There is no such God as the common notions
on this subject would point out; no heaven separate from
present happiness; no hell separate from present sufferings;
neither works of merit nor demerit. There are no such
beings as creator, preserver, and destroyer. The world is
eternal; it exists from itself, and decays of itself, as parents
give birth to children, as an earthen vessel is produced by
the potter, as the centipede arises from cow-dung, blades
of corn from seed, and as insects from fruit: nature gives
birth to every thing. Material things arise out of the four
elements of earth, fire, water, and air. All visible objects
are subject to decay. Man does not possess an immortal
spirit. Spiritual guides are unnecessary. The highest
virtue consists in refraining from injuring sentient crea-
tures. Supreme happiness consists in being free. Every
species of pleasure may be called heaven. Absorption is
realized in death. The entire absence of desire or affec-
tion is the highest state of happiness: as a person is af-
flicted for the death even of a bird he has reared, while
other birds die unnoticed. Death is the same to Brumha
* The atheistical part of these tenets ought not, perhaps, to be charged,
in their foil extent, on all the joinus and bouddhiis.
M m 2
soul is only something; similar to light, diffused through
the body, which is capable of depression or extension, and
which dies with it.
These philosophers wrote the following works:—the doc-
trines of Vrihusputee; philosophical mysteries ; a treatise
on logic; a work on astrology; another to prove the folly
of religious distinctions and ceremonies; and a history of
the Bouddhu philosophers.
The following are some of the opinions of this sect2, as
charged upon them in the works mentioned at the head of
this article:—There is no such God as the common notions
on this subject would point out; no heaven separate from
present happiness; no hell separate from present sufferings;
neither works of merit nor demerit. There are no such
beings as creator, preserver, and destroyer. The world is
eternal; it exists from itself, and decays of itself, as parents
give birth to children, as an earthen vessel is produced by
the potter, as the centipede arises from cow-dung, blades
of corn from seed, and as insects from fruit: nature gives
birth to every thing. Material things arise out of the four
elements of earth, fire, water, and air. All visible objects
are subject to decay. Man does not possess an immortal
spirit. Spiritual guides are unnecessary. The highest
virtue consists in refraining from injuring sentient crea-
tures. Supreme happiness consists in being free. Every
species of pleasure may be called heaven. Absorption is
realized in death. The entire absence of desire or affec-
tion is the highest state of happiness: as a person is af-
flicted for the death even of a bird he has reared, while
other birds die unnoticed. Death is the same to Brumha
* The atheistical part of these tenets ought not, perhaps, to be charged,
in their foil extent, on all the joinus and bouddhiis.
M m 2