30 Mn. CoLEBROOKE on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 



manner, retires into the breath,* attended likewise by all the other vital 

 functions, for they are life's companions; and the same retreat of the 

 mind is observable, also, in profound sleep and in a swoon. Breath, 

 attended likewise by all other vital faculties, is withdrawn into the living 

 soul which governs the corporeal organs, as the attendants of a king as- 

 semble around him when he is setting out upon a journey ; for all vital 

 functions gather about the soul at the last moment when it is expiring.t 

 The living soul, attended with all its faculties, retires within a rudiment 

 of body, composed of light with the rest of the five elements, in a subtile 

 state. " Breath" is, therefore, said to withdraw into " light ;" not mean- 

 ing that element (or fire) exclusively ; nor intending direct transition, for 

 a traveller has gone from one city to another, though he passed through an 

 intermediate town.' 



• This retirement from the body is common to ordinary uninformed 

 people as to the devout contemplative worshipper, until they proceed further 

 on their respective paths ; and immortality (without immediate reunion 

 with the supreme Brahme) is the fruit of pious meditation, though impedi- 

 ments may not be wholly consumed and removed.1: 



» In that condition the soul of the contemplative worshipper remains 

 united to a subtile elementary frame, conjoined with the vital faculties, until 

 the dissolution of worlds, wlien it merges in the supreme deity. That 

 elementary frame is minute in its dimensions as subtile in its texture, and is 

 accordingly imperceptible to bystanders when departing from the body: nor 

 is it oppressed by cremation or other treatment which that body undergoes. 

 It is by its warmth sensible so long as it abides with that coarser frame, 

 which becomes cold in death when it has departed, § and was warm during 

 life while it remained. 



' But he who has attained the true knowledge of Gon does not pass 

 tlu'ough the same stages of retreat, proceeding directly to reunion with 

 the supreme being, with which he is identified, as a river, at its confluence 

 with the sea, merges therein altogether. His vital faculties and the ele- 

 ments of which his body consists, all the sixteen component parts which 

 constitute the human frame, are absorbed absolutely and completely: both 

 name and form cease ; and he becomes immortal, without parts or members.'ll 



* Ch'hdndogya. Br. Sutr. 4. 2. § 1-3. \ Vrihad Aran'yaca. 



% Br. Sutr. 4. 2. § 4. (S. 7.) § Ibid. § 5. (S. 8-11.) Cat'havalli, ^-c. 



H Ibid. § 6-8. (S. 12-16.) Cdiiwa, Mddhyandina, Prasn'a, SfC. 



