240 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
appearances have only an illusive existence; they 
were produced by beings or agencies that emanated 
in the fourth degree from the Supreme Being or Sunya. 
Man attributes to these worldly appearances a reality 
which they do not possess, regards things as good 
which are truly evil, allows himself to be overcome 
by the vicissitudes of life, and recognizes not his 
original destination. He must, then, detach his soul 
from all the objects which excite passions or desires, 
he must devote himself to profound contemplation, to 
arrive at that intuitive science, that state of the soul in 
which it recognizes the nature of those fallacies, and 
thus acquires mastery over the world and its illusions. 
The soul thus divested of worldly passions and affec- 
tions, becomes itself a Buddha. After death it passes 
into the state of nirwana, when it is wholly absorbed 
in the Sunya, and perfectly identified with the Deity. 
This is the best account of Saida’s doctrine that 
can be deduced from the mysticism with which either 
he or his followers have veiled the system, a mys- 
ticism of which the reader may judge from the fol- 
lowing specimen. 
Buddha says, my religion or law consists in 
thinking the unconceivable thought ; my religion con- 
sists in going the unpassable way ; my religion con- 
sists in speaking the ineffable word ; my religion con- 
sists in practising the unpracticable practice.” 
Sakia spent his whole life in diffusing his doctrines, 
but as he seems never to have formally embodied his 
followers into a sect, he escaped persecution. When 
his eightieth year was passed, he assembled his 
principal disciples, and recommended them to form 
