Otherwise (were the soul not eternal) there would follow a failure of requital and a fruition (of pleasures and pains) unmerited. It has accordingly been said (in the aphorisms of Gauta?a, iii. 25): Because no birth is seen of one who is devoid of desire. That the soul is atomic is well known from revelation--

"If the hundredth part of a hair be imagined to be divided a hundred times,

"The soul may be supposed a part of that, and yet it is capable of infinity."

And again--

"Soul is of the size of the extremity of the spoke of a wheel. Spirit is to be recognised by the intelligence as atomic."

The visible, unsentient world, designated by the term not-soul, is divided into three, as the object, the instrument, or the site of fruition. Of this world the efficient and substantial cause is the Deity, known under the names Purushottama (best of spirits), Vasudeva (a patronymic of K?ish?a), and the like.

"Vasudeva is the supreme absolute spirit, endowed with auspicious attributes,

"The substantial cause, the efficient of the worlds, the animator of spirits."

This same Vasudeva, infinitely compa.s.sionate, tender to those devoted to him, the Supreme Spirit, with the purpose of bestowing various rewards apportioned to the deserts of his votaries in consequence of pastime, exists under five modes, distinguished as "adoration"

(_archa_), "emanation" (_vibhava_), "manifestation" (_vyuha_), "the subtile" (_sukshma_), and the "internal controller." (1.) "Adoration"

is images, and so forth. (2.) "Emanation" is his incarnation, as Rama, and so forth. (3.) His "manifestation" is fourfold, as Vasudeva, Sa?karsha?a, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. (4.) "The subtile" is the entire Supreme Spirit, with six attributes, called Vasudeva. His attributes are exemption from sin, and the rest. That he is exempt from sin is attested in the Vedic text: Pa.s.sionless, deathless, without sorrow, without hunger, desiring truth, true in purpose. (5.) The "internal controller," the actuator of all spirits, according to the text: Who abiding in the soul, rules the soul within. When by worshipping each former embodiment a ma.s.s of sins inimical to the end of the soul (_i.e._, emanc.i.p.ation) have been destroyed, the votary becomes ent.i.tled to practise the worship of each latter embodiment. It has, therefore, been said--

"Vasudeva, in his tenderness to his votaries, gives, as desired by each,

"According to the merits of his qualified worshippers, large recompense.

"For that end, in pastime he makes to himself his five embodiments;

"Images and the like are 'adoration;' his incarnations are 'emanations;'

"As Sa?karsha?a, Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, his manifestation is to be known to be fourfold; 'the subtile'

is the entire six attributes;

"That self-same called Vasudeva is styled the Supreme Spirit;

"The internal controller is declared as residing in the soul, the actuator of the soul,

"Described in a mult.i.tude of texts of the Upanishads, such as 'Who abiding in the soul.'

"By the worship of 'adoration,' a man casting off his defilement becomes a qualified votary;

"By the subsequent worship of 'emanation,' he becomes qualified for the worship of 'manifestation;' next,

"By the worship thereafter of 'the subtile,' he becomes able to behold the 'internal controller.'"

The worship of the Deity is described in the Pancha-ratra as consisting of five elements, viz., (1.) the access, (2.) the preparation, (3.) oblation, (4.) recitation, (5.) devotion. Of these, access is the sweeping, smearing, and so forth, of the way to the temple. The preparation is the provision of perfumes, flowers, and the like appliances of worship. Oblation is worship of the deities.

Recitation is the muttered e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of sacred texts, with attention to what they mean, the rehearsal of hymns and lauds of Vish?u, the commemoration of his names, and study of inst.i.tutes which set forth the truth. Devotion is meditation on the Deity. When the vision of the visible world has been brought to a close by knowledge acc.u.mulated by the merit of such worship, the infinitely compa.s.sionate Supreme Spirit, tender to his votaries, bestows upon the votary devoted to his lord and absorbed in his lord, his own sphere infinite and endless, marked by consciousness of being like him, from which there is no future return (to the sorrows of transmigratory existence). So the traditionary text--

"When they have come to me, the high-souled no longer undergo future birth, a receptacle of pain, transitory, having attained to the supreme consummation.

"Vasudeva, having found his votary, bestows upon him his own mansion, blissful, undecaying, from whence there is no more return."

After laying up all this in his heart, leaning upon the teaching of the great Upanishad, and finding the gloss on the Vedanta aphorisms by the venerated Bodhayanacharya too prolix, Ramanuja composed a commentary on the Sarirakamimansa (or Vedanta theosophy). In this the sense of the first aphorism, "Then hence the absolute must be desired to be known," is given as follows:--The word _then_ in this aphorism means, after understanding the hitherto-current sacred rites. Thus the glossator writes: "After learning the sacred rites," he desires to know the absolute. The word _hence_ states the reason, viz., because one who has read the Veda and its appendages and understands its meaning is averse from sacred rites, their recompense being perishable. The wish to know the absolute springs up in one who longs for permanent liberation, as being the means of such liberation. By the word _absolute_ is designated the Supreme Spirit, from whom are essentially excluded all imperfections, who is of illimitable excellence, and of innumerable auspicious attributes. Since then the knowledge of sacred rites and the performance of those rites is mediately through engendering dispa.s.sionateness, and through putting away the defilement of the understanding, an instrument of the knowledge of the absolute; and knowledge of sacred rites and knowledge of the absolute being consequently cause and effect, the former and the latter Mimansa const.i.tute one system of inst.i.tutes. On this account the glossator has described this system as one with the sixteenfold system of Jaimini. That the fruit of sacred rites is perishable, and that of the knowledge of the absolute imperishable, has been laid down in virtue of Vedic texts, such as: Scanning the spheres gained by rites, let him become pa.s.sionless; Not wrought by the rite performed, accompanied with inference and disjunctive reasoning. Revelation, by censuring each when unaccompanied by the other, shows that it is knowledge together with works that is efficacious of emanc.i.p.ation, in the words: Blind darkness they enter who prefer illusion, and a greater darkness still do they enter who delight in knowledge only; knowledge and illusion, he who knows these both, he pa.s.sing beyond death together with illusion, tastes immortality by knowledge. Conformably it is said in the Pancharatra-rahasya--

"That ocean of compa.s.sion, the Lord, tender to his votaries,

"For his worshipper's sake takes five embodiments upon him.

"These are styled Adoration, Emanation, Manifestation, the Subtile, the Internal Controller,

"Resorting whereto souls attain to successive stages of knowledge.

"As a man's sins are worn away by each successive worship,

"He becomes qualified for the worship of each next embodiment.

"Thus day by day, according to religion, revealed and traditional,

"By the aforesaid worship Vasudeva becomes propitious to mankind.

"Hari, when propitiated by devotion in the form of meditation,

"At once brings to a close that illusion which is the aggregate of works.

"Then in souls the essential attributes, from which transmigration has vanished,

"Are manifested, auspicious, omniscience, and the rest.

"These qualities are common to the emanc.i.p.ated spirits and the Lord,

"Universal efficiency alone among them is peculiar to the Deity.

"Emanc.i.p.ated spirits are ulterior to the infinite absolute, which is unsusceptible of aught ulterior;

"They enjoy all beat.i.tudes together with that Spirit."

It is therefore stated that those who suffer the three kinds of pain must, for the attainment of immortality, investigate the absolute spirit known under such appellations as the Highest Being. According to the maxim: The base and the suffix convey the meaning conjointly, and of these the meaning of the suffix takes the lead, the notion of desire is predominant (in the word _jijnasitavya_), and desired knowledge is the predicate (in the aphorism, Then hence the absolute must be desired to be known). Knowledge is cognition designated by such terms as meditation, devotion; not the merely superficial knowledge derived from verbal communication, such being competent to any one who hears a number of words and understands the force of each, even without any predication; in conformity with such Vedic texts as: Self indeed it is that is to be seen, to be heard, to be thought, to be pondered; He should meditate that it is self alone; Having known, let him acquire excellent wisdom; He should know that which is beyond knowledge. In these texts "to be heard" is explanatory, hearing being understood (but not enounced) in the text about sacred study (viz., _sha?a?gena vedo'dhyeyo jneyascha_, the Veda, with its six appendages, is to be studied and known); so that a man who has studied the Veda must of his own accord, in acquiring the Veda and its appendages, engage in "hearing," in order to ascertain the sense by examining it and the occasion of its enouncement. The term "to be thought" (or "to be inferred") is also explanatory, cogitation (or inference) being understood as the complementary meaning of hearing, according to the aphorism: Before its signification is attained the system is significant. Meditation is a reminiscence consisting of an unbroken succession of reminiscences like a stream of oil, it being revealed in the text, in continuity of reminiscence there is a solution of all knots,--that it is unintermittent reminiscence that is the means of emanc.i.p.ation. And this reminiscence is tantamount to intuition.

"Cut is his heart's knot, solved are all his doubts,

"And exhausted are all his works, when he has seen the Highest and Lowest,"

because he becomes one with that Supreme. So also in the words, Self indeed is to be seen, it is predicated of this reminiscence that it is an intuition. Reminiscence becomes intuitional through the vivacity of the representations. The author of the Vakya has treated of all this in detail in the pa.s.sage beginning Cognition is meditation. The characters of this meditation are laid out in the text: This soul is not attainable by exposition, nor by wisdom, nor by much learning; Whom G.o.d chooses by him G.o.d may be attained. To him this self unfolds its own nature. For it is that which is dearest which is choice-worthy, and as the soul finds itself most dear, so the Lord is of Himself most dear, as was declared by the Lord Himself--

"To them always devoted, who worship me with love,

"I give the devotion of understanding whereby they come to me."

And again--

"That Supreme Spirit, Arjuna, is attainable by faith unwavering."