from the Ancient Books of the Hindus. 



373 



creatures, they are involved at firft in the gloom of Maya, and fubject to va- 

 rious taints from attachment to worldly affections j but they can never be re- 

 united to their fource, until they difpel the illufion by feif-denial, renunciation 

 of the world, and intellectual ab fractions, and until they remove the impurities, 

 which they have contracted, by repentance, mortification, and fucceffive 

 paffages through the forms' of animals or vegetables according to their deme- 

 rits : in fuch a reunion confifts their final beatitude, and to effect it by the beft 

 poffible means is the object of their fupreme ruler j who, in order to reclaim 

 the vicious, to punifh the incorrigible, to protect the oppreffed, to deftroy the 

 opprerlbr;, , to encourage and reward the good, and to mow all fpirits the path 

 to their ultimate happinefs, has been, pleafed, fay the Brdhmens, to manifeft 

 himfclf in a variety of ways, from age to age, , in all parts of the habitable 

 world. When He acts immediately, without affuming a fhape, or fending 

 forth a new emanation, as when a divine found is heard from the fky, that 

 manifestation of himfelf is called A'cdfavant, or an ethereal voice : when the 

 voice proceeds from a meteor, or a flame, at is faid to be agniruvi, or formed of 

 fre} but an avatdra is a defcent of the deity in the fhape of a mortal ; . and an 

 avdntara is a fimilar incarnation of an inferiour kind intended to anfwer fome 

 purpofe of lefs moment. The fupreme being, and the celeflial emanations 

 from him j are nirdcara, or bodilefs, in which flate they muft be invifible to 

 mortals; but, when they, are pratyacjl?d, or obvioics to fight, they become 

 facdrd, or embodied,, either in fhapes different from that of any mortal, and ex- 

 premve of the divine attributes, as Crishna revealed .him to Arjun, or in 

 a human form, which Crishna ufually bore; and, in that mode of appearing, 

 the deities are generally fuppofed to be born of women, but without any carnal 

 intercourfe. Thofe, who follow the Ptlrva Mimdnfd, or philoibphy of Jai- 

 mini, admit no fuch -incarnations of deities, but infift, that the Divas were 

 mere mortals, whom the Supreme Being was pleafed to endue with qualities 



