26 Mr. Colebrooke on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 



nature and attributes of the supreme being. ' He is described in many 

 passages of the veda, as diversified and endued with every quahty and 

 particular character ; but in other and very numerous texts, as without 

 form or quahty. The latter only is truly applicable, not the former, nor 

 yet both. He is impassible, unaffected by worldly modifications ; as the 

 clear crystal, seemingly coloured by tlie red blossom of a liibiscus, is not the 

 less really pellucid. He does not vary with every disguising form or designa- 

 tion, for all diversity is expressly denied by explicit texts ; and the notion 

 of variableness relative to him is distinctly condemned in some s'dc'hds of the 



•veda.* 



' He is neither coarse nor subtile, neither long nor short, neither audible 

 nor tangible ; amorphous, invariable.' 



' This luminous immortal being, who is in this earth, is the same with the 

 luminous, immortal, embodied spirit, which informs the corporeal self, and 

 is the same with the [supreme] soul.' ' He is to be apprehended by mind 

 alone, there is not here any multiplicity. Whosoever views him as manifold 

 dies death after death.'t 



' He is amorphous, for so he is explicitly declared to be ; but seemingly 

 assuming form, as sunshine or moonlight, impinging on an object, appears 

 straight or crooked.'t 



' He is pronouced to be sheer sense, mere intellect and thought : as a 

 lump of salt is wholly of an uniform taste within and without, so is the soul 

 an entire mass of intelligence.' This is affirmed both in the mdas and in 

 the smrttis : and, as such, he is compared to the reflected images of sun 

 and moon, which fluctuate with the rise and fall of the waters that reflect 

 them.§ ' The luminous sun, though single, yet reflected in water, becomes 

 various ; and so does the unborn divine soul by disguise in divers modes.' 



The veda so describes him, as entering into and pervading the corporeal 

 shapes by himself wrought.il ' He framed bodies, biped and quadruped j 

 and becoming a bird, he passed into those bodies, filling them as their 

 informing spirit.' 



In the Vrihad aran'yaca, after premising two modes of Brahme, morphous 

 and amorphous ; one composed of the three coarser elements, earth, water. 



* Br. Sutr. 3. 2. § 5. (S. 11-13.) 



f Passages of the veda cited among others by the scholiasts commenting on the above. 



X Br. Sutr. 3. 2. (S. U.) § Ibid. S. 13-20. || Ibid. S. 21. 



