CHAPTER IX

HINDU CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL AND ITS IMMORTALITY

THOUGH during recent years Europe and America have been flooded with Oriental teachers, and translations of Sanskrit literature have been industriously and widely disseminated, the enormous variety of views entertained in eastern Asia concerning all spiritual problems is so bewildering that India and Ceylon, chief centres respectively of Brahmanism and Buddhism, are still storehouses of an immense amount of knowledge as yet unappropriated and uncomprehended in the West. Max Müller styled the “ Rig Veda ” the oldest book in the world, and it may be clearly seen by all who are attempting to fathom Oriental philosophy, that Vedic teachings lie at the root of almost every modern philosophic system. India has always been a land of entrancing mystery which only the very keenest among Anglo-Indians have ever sought to penetrate.

British rule in India has been something of a blessing, and it may have saved the country from a far worse fate; but the average Briton, until quite recently, even when fairly, and sometimes highly educated, has taken so contemptuous a view of the religion of all “ heathen ” peoples that he has regarded India only as a field for missionary effort, not as a school in which all peoples may profitably study the foundations of religion and philosophy.

The Sacred Books of the East are now fairly accessible to the reading public the world over, and ever since Max

Müller lectured in Westminster Abbey, by invitation of Dean Stanley in 1870, the stupid prejudice which formerly existed against Oriental doctrines and religious practices has, in some measure, subsided even among the most conservative Christians. Much more recently the work of the Theosophical Society, and in a very marked degree the lectures and writings of Annie Besant, who always commands a large and attentive hearing, has served to dispel much of the gloom and misrepresentation which formerly hung like a funeral pall over the spiritual and intellectual treasures of the mighty East.

Brahmanism and Buddhism are the two great aspects and embodiments of Oriental religion and philosophy which naturally receive the largest share of popular attention. These are not at root antagonistic; for, as Sir Edwin Arnold clearly proved in his magnificent poem “The Light of Asia,” Gautama the Buddha was not an iconoclast who sought to destroy the Brahmanic faith, but a reformer whose sole aim was to purify it. The caste system, which seems an integral part of Brahmanism, is not the wholly objectionable thing which many of its traducers still imagine it to be. It is indeed essentially quite reasonable, though liable to gross corruptions; and against perversions of it, and against such only, did the hero of “the Great Renunciation” forcibly protest. The Absolute Being Para-Brahm, being beyond all related definition,—and all peoples demand some concrete views of Deity,—we find three expressions of Infinite Life, called Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, prominent in Indian theology; as we find Osiris, Isis and Horus in Egypt, and Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Christendom. “Three Persons and one God” seems to be the first endeavor on the part of religious leaders to put into something like intelligible phrase the idea of one Supreme Being manifesting in a threefold manner—as Creator, Preserver and Transformer.

The ancient symbols of the Circle and the Triangle are common alike to India and Egypt; indeed we find them everywhere, the former intended to denote the Infinite-Eternal and the absolute immortality of life itself; the latter intended to deal with manifested Being in measure comprehensible by human faculties.

Sir Monier Williams, whose work on Hinduism has been published by the British Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, has very frankly stated that the primal doctrine of Brahmanism is one Infinite Eternal Spirit. All that seemingly exists separate from that Spirit is illusion. This statement should not be taken to mean that there can be no individual existences distinct one from the other; but, though they are distinct, they are essentially inseparable one from the other and are all derived from the Infinite One. We may well remember the words of Mabel Collins in “Light on the Path” where she informs her readers that “Kill out the sense of separateness” is a direction given to all who are seeking to enter within the charmed circle of Eastern (esoteric) wisdom.

Annie Besant, in “A Study in Consciousness,” throws much light on the true significance of such a precept, and employs many telling illustrations to elucidate the Oriental idea of unity expressed in multiplicity. Readers of Swedenborg will be quite familiar with this distinction between “separateness” and “distinctness” upon which the illumined seer and sage of Sweden voluminously dwells. “God is the First (original) of every man” is one of Swedenborg’s highly important declarations; and we must not forget that he tells us that many thousands of years before his time there were those on earth who knew and treasured the holy truths which he was commissioned to redeliver to mankind in the eighteenth century in Europe. In Great Tartary he says a portion of the “Ancient Word” remains concealed, and he informs us that as the world grows more and more enlightened, as a new dispensation of truth advances on its way, long hidden mysteries will be revealed for the edification of humanity at large.

Brahmans and Buddhists alike conceive of the universe on a gigantic scale, and not only are their ideas of size, but also their ideas of time, magnificent. Mount Meru rises to a height of two million miles from the centre of the earth. On its summit is the abode of Brahma, occupying a space of fourteen thousand leagues, surrounded by the splendid dwellings of celestial regents. Between Meru and the extreme circumference of the earth are seven concentric circles of rock; between these are continents and seas. We might easily go on to paint a wondrous picture of glories and horrors, all contained within this vast expanse, were it our purpose to give to our readers a detailed account of how Oriental imagination has pictured forth its concepts of this universe (one out of a countless multitude of universes) in which we are now abiding,—and through it all a moral purpose runs. But we have no space for such enormous wealth of detail, nor do we undertake to decipher so many graphic hieroglyphics or attempt to point the special lesson which each sublime romantic tale is designed to teach. Suffice it to say that the cosmology and cosmogony of India are so intricate and wonderful, and withal so well in keeping with the latest findings of Western astronomers, that when stripped of picturesque imagery and translated into the sober prose of English speech, we might well accept the claim to supernal wisdom made for the original authors of the Vedas by those who firmly believe that India's sacred literature and immensely ancient traditions embody a system of science and philosophy unequaled elsewhere on earth.

Brahmans and Buddhists alike, sharing faith in an illimitable cosmos, declare that gods, men, demons and every form of animal life occupying a countless host of worlds, all constitute one family. The totality of animated existences, from glorious Indra to the most insignificant insect, constitutes one vast fraternal race. We read in the Vishnu Parana: “The Universe, this whole egg of Brahma, is everywhere teeming with living creatures, all captives in the chain of acts.” “Elder Brethren of the Race” is the appropriate title often given to Masters and even to Devas (the shining ones) by modern students of Asiatic philosophy, which, when delivered from the shackles of repugnant superstitions with which it is even yet deeply shrouded, will be found to contain a doctrine of Cosmic Consciousness satisfactory to head and heart alike.

The vexed question of the transmigration of souls from body to body until Nirvana is attained, must be considered under two widely differing aspects. With popular credulity, we are all measurably familiar, and we can well credit the tale told by H. P. Blavatsky, in her book of travels entitled “In the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan,” where she describes an ignorant family mourning over the incarnation of the soul of a member of that family in the body of a vampire bat. Wild, foolish, and repugnant though such superstitions are,—and no one works to abolish them more earnestly than intelligent Theosophists who make a special study of Oriental philosophy,—even such a fate for a human soul is mild and merciful indeed when contrasted with belief in endless misery; for a bat will die in a few years, if it be not killed prematurely, and then the temporarily imprisoned human soul is liberated and allowed another opportunity to pursue an onward way. Such beliefs are, however, exclusively the property of the ignorant and form not any portion of the faith of the learned in Hindustan. This H. P. Blavatsky most positively declares, and Colonel Olcott, president of the Theosophical Society, whose headquarters are at Adyar, has many times confirmed this declaration. James Freeman Clarke, in his splendid treatise on "Ten Great Religions," suggested that the right interpretation of transmigration was evolution. In a "backward cipher" the scientific knowledge of Eastern Asia has been often written; so that when we reverse the order of the literal statement we shall not look forward to incarceration in the bodies of lower creatures, but shall look backward down the ages and trace the life-tide ever rising higher and higher through the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms up to man; then on from stage to stage in human development till at length the progressing spiritual entity clothes itself in garments of celestial glory and manifests as a bright shining Deva, as far beyond the highest human stage with which we are acquainted on earth as that stage is superior to the lowest type of savage.

India's ancient philosophy is indeed intricate, but its intricacies are practically unavoidable, for it aims at nothing less than a definition of the universal Cosmos. We advise our readers to peruse "The Ancient Wisdom" and "A Study in Consciousness," two wonderful books by Annie Besant, if they are desirous of gaining further insight into the mysteries of Oriental philosophy. Mrs. Besant’s works are quite profound, and at the same time sufficiently popular in style to commend her writings to the attention of all seriously disposed people, particularly to all such as wish to know how a studious Englishwoman, who was for many years a public exponent of Materialism, has found in Indian lore a satisfactory answer to all her doubts and cavilings. We do not wonder that many travelers in the East, not excepting some who are highly intelligent, have supposed that Brahmans and Buddhists alike look forward to the ultimate obliteration of all individualized existence; but such a view is not taken by those who penetrate deeply into Oriental doctrine. A single Sanskrit term, Para-Nirvana, is sufficient to prove that Nirvana cannot mean extinction of individual life, or there could be no state beyond; and Para means a higher state. When, in the Christian Scriptures, we read of a condition of blissful existence in Paradise which “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not conceived,” we are confronted with a truly Oriental concept, and a thoroughly reasonable one; for nothing can be more absurd than to suppose that those spheres of existence which immediately encircle, and also interpenetrate, this earth, and are the present dwelling places of the vast multitude of excarnated human entities who constitute the unseen population of this globe, are the ultimate abiding places of humanity, or that they represent or can make manifest anything higher or larger than the next state, the immediately succeeding link in the mighty chain of progressive individual existence which follows directly upon physical disbodiment.

Though the idea of reincarnation pervades all Hindu literature, there is no mistaking the fact that all Hindu philosophers have spoken of a glorious condition when the soul shall be no longer chained to the "wheel of change." Births and deaths and rebirths are necessary until all lessons have been learned which incarnations can teach, until the soul has become so fully purified from carnal desires and selfish purposes that it is no longer attracted earthward.

But, even when it has fulfilled its allotted tasks, assigned to it by those benevolent "Fires of the Kosmos" and "Lords of Karma" who superintend all the winding paths of man's terrestrial existences, the soul may then, if it so wills, incarnate voluntarily on a mission of good will to humanity, making a voluntary renunciation of the bliss to which it is entitled, and plunging again into the vortex of the earthly maelstrom that it may teach, heal and bless those who are yet struggling on lower rungs of the ladder of attainment. Such is the motive which brings to earth a Messiah or Avatar. Christ, "emptying himself of his glory" and descending to earth to save humanity, is a very familiar thought among all who are diligent students of Asia's profound philosophies. Christians, particularly if they are intelligent Universalists, may do much good in India and help to lift the native populations out of the dreary apathy into which millions have sunk, and out of the superstitions which a degraded form of religion has tolerated if not actually fostered; but missionaries from the West must never forget that they are ministering among a people whose traditions are filled with the noblest ethical precepts, which need only to be revived and restated, not to be supplanted by the jargon of an alien creed.

When perusing much of the accessible literature which attempts to explain Hindu philosophy and makes quotations from the Vedas, Puranas, and other venerable tomes, we are reminded of beautiful pictures executed by truly great masters (such as we often find in Italy), blackened by candle-smoke, festooned with cobwebs, overlaid with dust and grime, but only needing restoration by a cleansing process which shall remove accumulated débris to show themselves anew in pristine glory, as they first appeared when the great artists who produced them had finished their exquisite work. Slowly, but surely, the West is beginning to understand the East, and with the certain downfall of sacerdotal assumptions and ecclesiastical fallacies in Christendom, revised philosophies which do indeed interpret the universe both spiritually and rationally will come prominently into view and take the places now being left vacant by the decline of dogmas which the intelligence of Europe and America has certainly outgrown. We need not attempt to vouch for figures, all of which may have a symbolic and esoteric meaning, but even when we are told that four billion, three hundred and twenty millions of years constitute a day of Brahma, during which a manifested universe exists, and that this is followed by a Night of Brahma, during which it sleeps, we can only exclaim that such stupendous periods agree far more with the findings of modern astronomers than did the ridiculously small numbers, extending only to a few thousand years, which our forefathers believed marked correctly the duration of a solar system, because they took every word in Genesis literally and had no knowledge whatever of the figurative style in which all Oriental books are written.

Hindu philosophy is centred in the idea of Karma, which is relentless equity, allowing no place for such pardon, forgiveness or vicarious atonement as the orthodox Christian world delights to picture; but stern and unrelenting though the Karmic law appears, it is truly described by Sir Edwin Arnold in those memorable words—“ the heart of it is love,” which should never be forgotten by any who seek to penetrate its august mysteries. The most orthodox of Christians love the beautiful text from the first of John’s Epistles—“ God is love,” but such words are a mockery in the ears of heart-stricken mourners, who have been newly bereft of some beloved friend who has passed into the unseen state “unconverted ” or “ unregenerate,” for a wicked belief in endless misery does not tolerate even a hope that such poor souls shall ever be released from misery. “ God has decreed otherwise ” is the blasphemous utterance of many a deluded and deluding preacher, who controverts what Tennyson expressed as “ the larger hope.” Though so frightful a doctrine is not nearly so common as it used to be, it is still preached, particularly at revival and mission services, but never with any permanently good effect. If all Christians were Universalists we could listen in complacent silence to their attacks on some aspects of Oriental philosophy, and even then we would mildly suggest that there is something yet to be learned from Asia, but the most savage attacks upon the allied doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation have come from types of missionaries into whose darkened minds the light of Universalism has never shone. It may not be pleasant, while the suffering lasts, to pay the penalty due to one’s misdeeds, but the result is well worth all that it has cost to reach it; this the Christian New Testament, equally with Hindu Scriptures, unequivocally declares.

Many Spiritualists antagonize the thought of reëmbodiment, while others fervently proclaim it, but all teach retribution and progressive elevation. We may dispute over ways and means, but we can all agree on one point, viz., that as we sow we reap. The law of sequence (Karma) does not permit of inequity in the universe. All is adjusted perfectly throughout the immensely complicated scheme of worlds of which this earth is one. This is a teaching common to Spiritualism and to Theosophy, and its roots are deeply grounded in ancient Oriental doctrines.

Our attention having frequently been called to the necessity of having clear English equivalents for Sanskrit terms which are now often freely mentioned among students of spiritual philosophy, and wishing to present our readers with as clear and concise an outline as possible of Hindu teaching, we have drawn the following interpretations from “A Study in Consciousness” by Annie Besant (Theosophical Publishing Society) in the hope that the few extracts we have taken the liberty to make from that erudite volume will lead many of our readers to procure and study it themselves. Though the sub-title of the book is “A contribution to the Science of Psychology,” it is widely different, alike in tone and subject matter, from works on psychology in general, as it is based on Hinduism, and then branches out into all the many fields which Materialists equally with Theosophical psychologists seek to study. Mrs. Besant says “We have learned that the matter in a solar system exists in seven great modifications, or planes. On three of these, the physical, emotional (astral) and mental—often spoken of as the three worlds—the well-known Trilokî or Tribhunanam of the Hindu cosmogony is proceeding the normal evolution of humanity. On the next two planes, the spiritual—those of wisdom and power, the Buddhic and the Atmic—goes on the specific evolution of the Initiate, after the first of the Great Initiations. These five planes form the field of the evolution of consciousness, until the human merges in the divine. The two planes beyond the five represent the sphere of divine activity, encircling and enveloping all, out of which pour forth all the divine energies which unify and sustain the whole system. They are at present entirely beyond our knowledge, and the few hints that have been given regarding them probably convey as much information as our limited capacity is able to grasp. We are taught that they are the planes of Divine Consciousness, wherein the Logos, or the divine trinity of Logoi, is manifested and wherefrom He shines forth as the Creator, the Preserver, the Dissolver; evolving a universe, maintaining it during its life-period, withdrawing it into Himself at its ending. We have been given the names of these two planes: the lower is the Anupadâka, that wherein no vehicle has yet been formed; the higher is the Adî; the first, the foundation of a universe, its support, the fount of its life. We have thus the seven planes of a universe, a solar system, which, as we see by this brief description, may be regarded as making up three groups: 1. The field of Logoic manifestation only. 2. The field of super-normal human evolution, that of the Initiate. 3. The field of elemental, mineral, vegetable, animal and normal human evolution. We may tabulate these facts thus:

1. Adî	I. The field of Logoic manifestation only.
2. Anupadâka
3. Atmic	II. The field of super-normal human evolution.
4. Buddhic
5. Mental	III. The field of elemental, mineral,
6. Emotional	vegetable, animal, and normal human
7. Physical	evolution.

As we are indebted to Mrs. Besant for this summary of Hindu teaching concerning the system of worlds in which we are at present living, she in turn acknowledges indebtedness to a Sanskrit manuscript called Pranava-vâda. Here we have a very ancient and truly profound exposition of the seven states, or spheres, which are continually being mentioned in connection with spiritual existence. The number seven is the number of the system to which this earth belongs, and throughout all sacred literature, and persistently in spiritualistic statements does this number appear. In the first chapter of Genesis the work of Elohim is accomplished in six periods of activity followed by a seventh period of sublime repose. In the Apocalypse there are seven spirits of God or divine emanations from the Ineffable One, seven seals which have to be broken before the contents of the mystic book can be made known, also a rainbow about the throne, another allusion to the number seven. The Beast and the False Prophet can never attain to a higher numeral than six; therefore six hundred sixty-six, denoting imperfection of statement and failure to attain to completeness in any direction, is given as the number of all that is doomed in time to pass away. Whoever will study the Christian Scriptures side by side with Sanskrit documents will find a wonderful agreement between them, and it is surely not presumptuous to suggest that the younger have more likely drawn from the elder than that the more ancient have been copied from those of later date. Investigations of Hindu documents reveal the roots of every doctrine which has been set forth as original with Christianity, and though perversions are found in India as well as in Europe, and we should be foolish indeed did we bow slavishly to all the theories we might pick up in India, the venerable sources whence Brahmanical and Buddhistic doctrines and institutions have sprung are truly wells of living water at which thirsty travelers may refresh themselves to-day, even as did the ancient Aryans long before that decadence set in under which degraded India has suffered for so many centuries. Though it is continually asserted by opponents of Hindu philosophy that its inculcations are mainly responsible for India’s degradation, we answer emphatically no ! though we admit that a corrupted priesthood has had much to do with the servility and despondency of a large section of India’s teeming population. But Christendom cannot boast of freedom from the same blight, seeing that the beautiful teachings of the New Testament have been equally travestied and perverted, and nowhere have people been kept in greater ignorance than during some periods in Christian countries even when a dominant church has had the power in its hands to change conditions at its dictation.

Prophets and priests have always been at variance. It was Buddha the enlightened prophet who revolutionized the religion of India in his day, from 500 to 600 B. C. Not against the Vedas did he utter protest, but only against perverse practices and a falsification of the ancient faith.

The caste system of India can easily be justified and it can as easily be condemned, for there are two diametrically opposite views of caste still extant. The four great castes are all said to proceed from Brahma. The highest or ruling caste proceeds from Brahma’s head; the two intermediary castes from Brahma’s body; the lowest caste from Brahma’s feet. At first sight it seems that such a classification necessarily leads to the exaltation of some and the humiliation of others, but a deeper study of the statement serves to dispel that illusion, because we are at once reminded that a divine body is equally good in all its parts, therefore to proceed from divine feet is to be intrinsically as holy as though one had issued from the divine head. The four great castes are intended to do distinct kinds of work in the world, and are qualified accordingly; and as all useful work is honorable, no one can be degraded or should any one be despised because he does any portion of it.

Then again, when the doctrine of reincarnation is considered it may be fairly argued that those now in the highest caste have come up through a succession of lives from the very lowest, and those now in the lowest are destined to make their way upward even to the highest. Such a doctrine is consistent with the claim of universal brotherhood, and has no connection whatever with Calvin’s misconceptions of election which made the teaching of Paul hideous through such gross perversions of its meaning. We hear much of the inferior place assigned to women in India, and we are told that the Hindu Scriptures sanction female degradation. Here again we protest that only degraded notions and practices have obscured the primitive faith and practice, for if we but remember that the same soul is said to live alternately on earth in male and female bodies, it is ridiculous to assume that either man or woman can be the higher of the two. Sir Monier Williams has told us that all the gods of India have wives, and that goddesses hold equal rank with gods in Hindu mythology. This is so, and it is equally the case with Egyptian, Greek and all other mythologic systems, though, as in the history of Judaism and Christianity, there have been times when an exclusively male priesthood has monopolized all religious functions, and never without introducing barbarity and bloodshed. There are no venerable Scriptures extant which do not give abundant evidence that men and women, in days of pristine purity, were regarded as of equal rank and dignity in the eyes of heaven and earth; we therefore rejoice in every effort made in India, as in other lands, to reinstate woman in her rightful place as man's coequal, neither higher nor lower than her brother. If we find practices in India which are revolting to our sense of equity, let us protest against them, but let us not fall into the foolish popular error of confounding decadent beliefs and customs with the original sublimities of Vedanta philosophy.

It is a noteworthy fact that the Theosophical Society, which soon after its formation in New York, in 1875, established its headquarters in India, depended more upon a woman (H. P. Blavatsky) than upon any man for the introduction of Eastern philosophy to the West, and to-day another remarkable woman (Annie Besant) is unveiling the ancient Hindu doctrines to the Occident. We are quite well aware that there are Hindus who resent and oppose the work of a woman, born in another land, who gathers disciples around her in ancient India and unfolds to them some of the mysteries of their own most venerated books; but it has never occurred in the history of any renaissance and reform that some self-interested and ultra-conservative element has not arisen to put obstacles in the path of the reformer. We must not judge Hindu philosophy in its original purity by the encrustations which have long obscured it; and considering the attitude of the average Briton to the native population of India, we need not wonder that suspicion is aroused in some quarters whenever a member of the invading and conquering race appears as a friend of the ancient religion which Christian missionaries have sought in vain to overthrow. To purify from foul accretions is a noble work, and one in which enlightened people of all nations can unitedly engage; but to substitute orthodox Christianity for Hinduism will prove an impossible attempt, as the philosophic Hindu mind can never be induced to accept it. In Ceylon, where the Theosophical Society long ago established an excellent school for Buddhist girls at Colombo, the same kindly feeling has been spreading between the British and the Cinghalese which was largely promoted by Sir Edwin Arnold, whose “Light of Asia” was accepted by the chief representatives of Southern Buddhism as a truthful exposition of the Buddhist faith. To the Western intellect that well-known and greatly admired poem fails to make quite clear what Buddhists really believe concerning the destiny of the soul; but this at least is clear that they have a distinct conception of an ever-ascending life, and though there are agnostics and pessimists among them, their real faith is quite in harmony with the Unitarian declaration concerning the progress of humanity onward and upward forever. Tradition declares that Gautama reached Nirvana while yet he lived on earth, and as Nirvana only means conquest over every selfish appetite and personal desire apart from the life of others, we can readily see how easily one may believe that a true Master may have entered a state of serene blessedness, at one with all life, and still retain individual self-consciousness in this or in any other sphere of Spiritual activity.

In the next chapter we present the views of one of the Hindu delegates to the World’s Parliament of Religions, expressed in a lecture presented to us by its author, the genial Swami Vivekananda, who after returning to his native India soon peacefully quitted his earthly condition and passed into the ranks of those unseen ministers who keep faithful watch over the progress of incarnate humanity and, oftener than any of us think, inspire our efforts to reach the goal that they, with us, are still pursuing.