384 The CharvdJcc System of Philosophy. [No. 4*, 



Fie on those who boast of the purity of their race and jealously keep their wo- 

 men secluded, 

 And yet keep not their men secluded, though each sex is equally blinded by 



passion. 

 That s'astra which forbids adultery, — idle illusion as it is, — 

 Was itself disregarded by Indra when he wooed Ahalya.* 

 Oh Brahmans, cease to attribute sin to approaching a guru's wife, 

 Since your Master,f the Moon, plunged reckless into this snare. 

 " The dead hath torment from his sins and joy from his merits," thus saith the 



Veda, 

 But sense-evidence attesteth the contrary, — it is for you to determine which is 



the stronger. 

 If sin is to be avoided, from the possibility that we may attain another body af- 

 ter death, 

 Then, Brahmans, cease to sacrifice from the possibility of the sin of injuring 



living animals. 

 How can you put faith in good actions (suTcr'da) and not in good enjoyments 



(suratq) ? 

 Let a man do that action by which at the end his happiness is increased. 

 Commit sins as forced by your passions, and then they will be as not done, 

 Manu said that those actions were as not done which were committed by force.J 

 Oh ye followers of tradition, dispute not this passage of your own s'astras, 

 But follow every pleasure which your heart may desire. 

 Where is there union among the learned in the interpretation of S'ruti and 



Smriti ? 

 Interpretation depends on the interpreter's power of mind, — wherefore despise 



not ours which leads to happiness. 

 When the body is once burned, which is the true subject of the thought ' I am,' 



what becomes of sin ? 

 If the soul, which is separate and the witness, is to suffer, then why not any 



other unconnected thing ? 

 The dead man remembers his former births, — the successive waves of the fruits of 



actions affect the dead, — 

 The dead hath pleasure in food eaten by Brahmans, — enough of this talk of 



knaves ! 

 By men who feel that they are only body, — when told that they are something 



else, 

 This very body is disregarded and some other object accepted, through the all- 

 deceiving Veda's influence ! 



* May we not compare Terence (Eun. III. 5), a3 exemplified in St. Augustine's 

 confessions (I. 16) ? The same argument recurs in the Das'akumara Charitra. 



t Soma is the king of the Brahmans as Indra of the Kshatriyas (Taitt. Sanhi- 

 ta, 1.8. 10). 



% Manu, viii. 1G8.— Cf. Aristotle, Nic. Ethics. III. 1, 23. 



