Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    58/474 (page 44)
    The Nyaya of Gotama declares, “ The seat of knowledge is the soul (atman). It is twofold, the living soul (jivat- man), and the supreme soul (paramatman). The superior soul is Lord, omniscient, one only, subject to neither plea- sure nor pain, infinite and eternal.” The Vedantists speak of the karana-sarira, or latent embryo of body with the soul. Other Hindoo writings mention five case.s, as it were, of the soul: viz., organs of perception, organs of action, breath, gross body, and the innermost. This reminds one of Plato’s envelope or vehicle, and his imago or simidacrum. The Todas and others think they all go ultimately to amndr, whence all things proceed. Max Muller says of the Vedas, “ Their life was a yearn- ing after eternity.” Even Kapila, the Hindoo atheist, taught the immortality of the soul. Prof. Monier Williams thought the Bralimanas expressed belief in the future more positively than the Mantras, or hymns. “ They also,” said he, “ assert that a recompense awaits all beings in the next world according to their conduct in this.” Some of these Vedic sentences are strikingly parallel to Egyptian declarations. Thus : “ He who through know- ledge, or religious works, henceforth attains to immortality, shall first present his body. Death, to thee;” and, “ Having left behind the infirmities of the body, free from lameness, there let us behold our parents and our children;” also, “That everlasting and unchanging world.” A hymn runs as follows: “ Place me, O Purifier, in that divine, unchanging region, where perpetual light and sunshine abide. Make me immortal where Yama (Death) reigns. Make me im- mortal in the third heaven, where action is unrestrained, where the shining regions exist. Make me immortal in the world where all enjoyments exist.” The following hymn, from the Upanishads of Hindoo