274 DR J. MUIR S ACCOUNT OF THE 



desirous of knowledge, because many objects of desire did not distract thee. Men 

 living in ignorance, but fancying themselves wise and learned, go wandering about 

 deluded, like blind men led by the blind. Futurity does not become manifest to 

 the fool who is careless, and deluded by wealth. He who imagines that this is 

 the only world, and that there is no other, falls again and again under my (Death's) 

 dominion. There are many who have not heard of soul, and many who have 

 heard of it, and yet have not known it. Wonderful is he who declares it, skilful 

 is he who attains it, marvellous is he who knows it, when instructed by a sage." 

 Yama then shortly after proceeds thus : — " Concentrating his thought upon the 

 supreme Soul, and thus conceiving the Deity who is hard to be perceived, who is 

 withdrawn into mystery, who abides in the cavity of the heart, in inaccessible 

 recesses, and who exists of old, the wise man abandons joy and grief. Having 

 heard and embraced this, having by effort attained the subtile substratum of 

 qualities, a mortal rejoices, having obtained a source of gladness." The soul is 

 characterised as follows : — " The intelligent (soul) is not born, nor does it die. It 

 does not spring from any other source, nor does any one begin to be. Unborn, 

 eternal, everlasting, primeval, it is not slain when the body is slain. If the 

 smiter thinks to slay, or the smitten thinks that he is slain, both are ignorant ; 

 the soul neither slays, nor is slain.* The soul, which is minuter than the 

 minutest, and greater than the greatest, is seated in the cavity of this living being. 

 He who is free from desire and grief beholds this greatness of the soul by the 

 grace of the Creator. Sitting, it travels far; sleeping, it reaches everywhere. 

 Who but I should know this deity, who both rejoices and rejoices not? .... 

 This soul is not to be attained by interpretation, nor by understanding, nor by 

 much Scripture. It is to be attained by him whom it chooses. This soul chooses 

 that man's body for its own. He who has not ceased from wickedness, who is 

 not tranquil, whose mind is not concentrated, cannot by knowledge attain the 

 soul." 



In the next section a simile occurs which has been compared with the well- 

 known image in the Phsedrus of Plato. " Know that the body is a chariot, the 

 soul its master, the intellect his charioteer, and the mindf the reins. The senses 

 are the horses, and their objects the roads. When a man is destitute of know- 

 ledge, and his mind is never concentrated, his senses are uncontrollable, like the 

 vicious horses of the charioteer. But when a man possesses knowledge, and his 

 mind is always concentrated, then his senses are submissive, like the charioteer's 

 tractable horses." 



We have no means of ascertaining exactly the age of the Upanishads. Though 

 some are of great antiquity, it is easy to perceive, from the contents of others, that 

 they are comparatively modern, and that the antique style which their authors 



* Compare tlie Bhagavad Gita, 2. 19, 20. 



I The mind (mdnas) is regarded by the Hindus as an internal sense. 



