Mr. Colebrooke on the Philosophij of the Hindus. 31 



In course of expounding the text, some of the commentators compare 

 the ultimate absorption of the vital faculties to the disappearance of water 

 sprinkled on a hot stone.* They seem to be unaware of its evaporation, 

 and consider it to have sunk into the stone. 



' The soul, together with the vital faculties absorbed in it, having retired 

 within its proper abode, the heart, the summit of that viscus flashes, and 

 lightens the passage by which the soul is to depart : the crown, of the 

 head in the case of the wise ; and any other part of the body, in the in- 

 stance of the ignorant. A hundred and one arteries issue from the heart, 

 one of which passes to the crown of the head : it is named sushumna. By 

 that passage, in virtue of acquired knowledge, and of recollection of the 

 meditated way, the soul of the wise, graced by the favour of Brahme, 

 whose dwelling is in the heart, issues and meets a solar ray ; and by that 

 route proceeds, whether it be night or day, winter or summer.t The 

 contact of a sunbeam with the vein is constant, as long as the body 

 endures : rays of light reach from the sun to the vein, and conversely 

 extend from this to the sun. The preferableness of summer, as exempli- 

 fied in the case of Bhishma, who awaited the return of that auspicious 

 season to die, does not concern the devout worshipper, who has practised 

 religious exercises in contemplation of Brahme, as inculcated by the vedas, 

 and has consequently acquired knowledge. But it does concern those who 

 have followed the observances taught by the Sdnc'hi/a Yoga ; according to 

 which, the time of day and season of the year are not indifferent. 



The further pi'ogress of the soul, from the termination of the coronal 

 artery communicating with a solar ray to its final destination, the abode of 

 Brahme, is variously described in divers texts of the veda ; some specifying 

 intermediate stations which are omitted by others, or mentioned in a differ- 

 ent order.t The seeming discrepancies of those passages are reconciled, 

 and all are shown to relate to one uniform route, deduced from the text, 

 for the divine journey {deva-ydna) which the liberated soul travels. A 

 question arises, whether the intermediate stations, which are mentioned, be 

 stages of the journey, or scenes of fruition to be visited in succession, or 



* Ranganatha on Br. Sulr. i. 2. 6. (S. 12.) 



t Br. Sulr. 4 2. § 9-11. (S. 17-21.) Vrl. Aran'. Ch'hatMgya, &c. 



I Ch'hdndogyii, CauMtaci, Vr'ihad Aranyaca, &c. 



