Mr. H. T. CoLEBROOKE on tlie Philosophy of the Hindus. 27 



sufferance, are insufficient to that end ; and the spiritual resources of practi- 

 cal religion are imperfect ; since sacrifice, the most efficacious of obser- 

 vances, is attended with the slaughter of animals, and consequently is not 

 innocent and pure ; and the heavenly meed of pious acts is transitory.* 



In support of these positions, passages are cited from the Vedas declaring 

 in express terms the attainment of celestial bliss by celebration of sacrifices : 

 " Whoever performs an aswa med'ha (or immolation of a horse) conquers all 

 worlds ; overcomes death ; expiates sin ; atones for sacrilege." In another 

 place, Indra and the rest of the subordinate deities, are introduced exult- 

 ing on their acquisition of bliss. " We have drunk the juice of ascle- 

 pias, t and are become immortal ; we have attained effulgence ; we have 

 learned divine truths. How can a foe harm us ? How can age affect the 

 immortality of a deathless being ?"1i Yet it appears in divers parts of the 

 Indian scriptures, that, according to Hindu theology, even those deities, 

 though termed immortal, have but a definite duration of life, perishing with 

 the whole world, at its periodical dissolution. " Many thousands of Indras 

 and of other Gods have passed away, in successive periods, overcome by 

 time : for time is hard to overcome. "§ 



Complete and perpetual exemption from every sort of ill is the beatitude 

 which is proposed for attainment by acquisition of perfect knowledge. 

 *' Absolute prevention of all three sorts of pain," as an aphorism of the 

 Sdm'hya intimates, " is the highest purpose of soul."|| Those three sorts 

 are evil proceeding from self, from external beings, or from divine causes : 

 the first is either bodily, as disease of various kinds ; or mental, as cupidity, 

 anger, and other passions : the two remaining sorts arise from external 

 sources ; one excited by some mundane being ; the other, by the agency of 

 a being of a superior order, or produced by a fortuitous cause. 



True and perfect knowledge, by which dehverance from evil of every kind 

 is attainable, consists in rightly discriminating the principles, perceptible and 

 imperceptible, of the material world, from the sensitive and cognitive princi- 

 ple which is the immaterial soul. Thus the Cdricd premises, that " the 

 inquiry concerns means of precluding the three sorts of pain : for pain is 

 embarrassment. Nor is the inquiry superfluous, because obvious means of 

 alleviation exist : for absolute and final relief is not thereby accomplished. 



* Car. 1. -f Soma; the moon-plant. Asclepias acida. 



X Gaud, on Car. 2. § Ibid. || San. prav. I. I. 



E i: 



