XIII. 104), was taken by Porphyrius and other

philosophers, such as Numenius and Cronius, as a symbol of the earth with its two doors, —
Svcu Sf re ol Qvpai tiaiv
at /*iv wpos Bo/J«'ao, KaTatfiarai dvOpwiroKTiv, at 8' a.v Trpds NOTOU tiffl Ofwrepaf ovSf rt advy avSpfs lafpxovTcu, d\\' ddai'draiv uSos fanv.
These doors of the cave have been explained as the gates leading from and to the earth. Thus Porphyrius says that there are two extremities in the heavens, viz. the winter solstice, than which no part is nearer to the South, and the summer solstice which is situated next to the North. But the summer tropic, that is the solstitial circle, is in Cancer, and the winter tropic in Capricorn. And since Cancer is the nearest to the earth, it is deservedly attributed to the Moon, which is itself proximate to the earth. But since the southern pole by its greatest distance is incon- spicuous to us, Capricorn is ascribed to Saturn, who is the highest and most remote of all the planets . . . Theologians admitted therefore two gates, Cancer and Capricorn, and Plato also meant these by what he calla the two mouths. Of these they affirm that Cancer is the gate through which souls descend, but Capricorn that
JOURNEY OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH. 145
through which they ascend [and exchange a material for a divine condition of being]. And indeed the gates of the cave which look to the South are with great propriety said to be pervious to the descent of men : but the northern gates are not the avenues of the gods, but of souls ascending to the gods. On this account the poet does not say it is the passage of the gods, but of immortals, which appellation is also common to our souls, which by themselves or by their essence are immortal *.
The idea that the place to which the sun returns, whether in its northward or southward progress, is a door by which the souls may ascend to heaven, is at least conceivable, quite as much as the idea which Macrobius in the twelfth chapter of his comment on Scipio's dream ascribes to Pythagoras, who, as he tells us, thought that the empire of Pluto began downwards with the Milky Way, because souls falling from thence appear already to have receded from the gods.
It should also be stated, as Mr. Bal GangadharTilak in his Researches into the antiquity of the Vedas re- marks, that 'the summer solstice which begins the southern passage of the sun is called the ayana of the Pitris, and that the first month or fortnight in this ayana of the Pit?"is is pre-eminently the month or the fortnight of the Pit?'is or the Fravashis or the Manes. The Hindus, he adds, up to this day regard the dark half of Bhadrapada as the fortnight of the Manes, and likewise the Parsis whose year commenced with the summer solstice, the first month of the year being dedicated to the Manes.' (Geiger, Civilization of East Iranians, vol. i. p. 153.)
1 See Aelian, Porphyrius, Philo, ed. Didot, p. 94, § 21.
146 LECTURE V.
He goes still further and calls attention to the fact that, when the vernal equinox was in Orion, that constellation, together with the Milky Way and Canis, formed, so to speak, the boundary of heaven and hell, the Devaloka and Yamaloka which, in Vedic works, mean the hemispheres North and South of the equator. This would also explain, he thinks, why heaven and hell are separated by a river according to the Parsic, the Greek, and the Indian traditions, and why the four-eyed or three-headed dogs came to be at the gates of hell to guard the way to Yama's regions, these being the constellations of Canis Major and Minor. He undertakes to explain several more of the ancient Vedic traditions by a reference to these constellations, but he has hardly proved that these constellations and their names as Canis Major and Minor were known so early as the time of the poets of the Rig-veda.
Whatever may be uncertain in these speculations, so much seems clear, that originally the place where the sun turned on its northern course was conceived as the place where the soul might approach the world of the Fathers.
But it is the fate that awaits the soul while in the moon that is most difficult to understand. For here in the moon we are told the departed become the food of the gods. The literal meaning is, they are eaten by the gods, but the commentators warn us not to take eating in its literal sense, but in the more general sense of assimilating or enjoying or loving. The departed, they say, are not eaten by the Devas by morsels, but what is meant is that they form the delight of the gods, as food forms the delight of men.
JOURNEY OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH. 147
Nay, one commentator goes still further, and says, ' If it is said that women are loved by men, they are in being loved loving themselves. Thus these souls also, being loved by the gods or Devas love the gods in return, and are happy rejoicing with the Devas.' This seems at first a rational explanation, and we know that in the language of the New Testament also eating and drinking or feeding on must be under- stood in certain well-known passages in the sense of receiving, enjoying, or loving.
Still this does not explain the whole of this legend, and it is clear that some other mythological con- ceptions of the moon must have influenced the thoughts of the poets of the Upanishads. It was evidently a familiar idea with the common people in ancient India that the moon was the source of life and immortality, and that it consisted of something like the Greek nectar which gave immortality to the gods. The waning of the moon was ascribed to this consumption of Soma (moon-juice) by the gods, while its waxing was accounted for by the entrance of the departed spirits into the moon, the recognised abode of the Fathers. If then after the moon was full again, the gods were supposed to feed on it once more, it is conceivable that the gods should be supposed to be feeding on the souls of the departed that had entered into the moon1. I do not mean to say that this explanation is certain, nor is it hinted at by the commentators of the Upanishads, but it is at all events coherent and intelligible, which is more than can be said of Ankara's interpretation.
It is not impossible, however, that some older
1 See Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, vol. i. p. 394. L 2
148 LECTURE V.
mythological conceptions of the moon may have in- fluenced the thoughts of the poets of the Upanishads. It is not in India only that the moon was looked upon as a symbol of life and immortality. When people counted by moons, the moon became naturally the source and giver of life. People asked for more moons, they lived so many moons, so that moon and life became almost synonymous. Next, as to the idea of immortal life after death, this was seen symbolised in the waning or dying of the moon and in the resurrection of the new moon. Traces of this have been discovered even among the lowest races, such as the Hottentots, who have a well-known legend of the moon sending a messenger to men to tell them, ' As I die and dying live, so shall ye also die and dying live V
By combining these two conceptions, people were easily led on to the idea that as the departed went to the moon, and as the moon increased and decreased, they also increased and decreased with the moon. Then again, there was in India another tradition that the moon, the giver of rain and fertility, constituted the favourite food of the gods, so that it required no more than a combination of these traditions to arrive at the saying that, during the waning half, the gods fed on the departed who were dwelling in the moon. Some of these thoughts are expressed in the Rv. X. 85, 19:
Nava/t navaft bhavati f/ayamftnaA Ahnam ketiift ushasam eti agram Bhagam devebhya/t vi dadhati a-yan Pr& A-andrama/t tirate dirgham &yuh.
' He (the moon) becomes new and new when born ; the light of days, he goes at the head of the dawns ; when he arrives, he dis- tributes to the gods their share, the moon prolongs a long life.'
1 Selected Essays, i. p. 610.
JOUBNET OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH. 149
Here it is clear that the moon is considered as the source and giver of life, particularly of a long life, while the share which he distributes to the gods may mean either the sacrificial share for each god, which is determined by the moon, as the regulator of seasons and sacrifices, or the rain as the support of life, which is supposed to come from the moon and to be almost synonymous with it.
I do not maintain that all these ideas were clearly present to the minds of the authors of the Upani- shads. I only suggest that they formed the component elements of that legendary language in which they expressed their doctrines, trusting that they would be understood by the people to whom their doctrines were addressed.
We now come to a new phase of half- legendary, half-philosophical speculation.
The Devayana or Path of the Gods.
The souls of those who form the delight of the gods, or who enjoy the company of the gods and Fathers while dwelling in the moon, are said to have reached this blessedness by their pious works, by sacrifice, charity, and austerity, not by real know- ledge. Hence, when they have enjoyed the full reward of their good works they are supposed to return again to this life, while those who have acquired true knowledge, or what we should call true faith, do not return, but press forward till they reach Brahman, the Supreme God. This they achieve by the Devayana or the Path of the Gods, as distinct from the Pitriyana, or the Path of the Fathers. For those who have discovered this Path of the gods that leads
150 LECTURE V.
to Brahman, and which can be discovered by know- ledge only, there is no return, that is to say, they are not born again. To be born again and to enter once more into the vortex of cosmic existence is to the authors of the Upanishads the greatest misfortune that can possibly be conceived. The chief object of their philosophy is therefore how to escape from this cosmic vortex, how to avoid being born again and again.
It seems to me that, if we take all this into account, we can clearly distinguish three successive stages in the thoughts which the authors of the Upanishads formed to themselves as to the fate of the soul after death. In the Upanishads themselves these different theories stand side by side. No attempt is made to harmonise them, till we come to the Vedanta philo- sophers, who looked upon all that is found in the Veda as one complete revelation. But if we may claim the liberty of historical criticism, or rather of historical interpretation, we should ascribe the simple belief in the so-called Pit?iyana, the path of the Fathers, and the journey of the soul to the moon, as the home of the Fathers, to the earliest period. It is no more than a popular belief, which we find else- where also, that the soul will go where the Fathers went, and that their abode is, not in the sun, but in the moon, the luminary of the dark night.
Then came the new idea that this happy life with the gods and the Fathers in the moon was the reward for good works on earth, and that the reward for these good works must after a time become exhausted. What then ? If in the meantime the concept of One Supreme God, of an objective Brahman, had been gained, and if it had been perceived that true blessed-
JOURNEY OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH. 151
ness and immortality consisted, not in such half- earthly enjoyments as were in store for the departed in the moon, and must after a time come to an end, but in an approach to and an approximative know- ledge of the Supreme Being, the conclusion followed by itself that there must be another path besides that of the Fathers leading to the moon, namely the path of the gods (Devayana), leading through different worlds of the gods, to the throne of Brahman or the Supreme God. That road was open to all who had gained a true knowledge of Brahman, and even those who for a time had enjoyed the reward of their good works in the moon might look forward after having passed through repeated existences to being born once more as human beings, gaining in the end a true knowledge of the One Supreme God, and then proceeding on the path of the gods to the throne of the Supreme Deity, whether they call it Brahman, Hiraiiyagarbha, or any other name, from whence there is no return.
We shall see, however, that even this was not final, but that there followed afterward a third phase of thought, in which even this approach to the throne of God was rejected as unsatisfactory. But before we proceed to consider this, we have still to dwell for a few moments on what was supposed to be the fate of the souls, when they had to leave the moon and to enter on a new course of being born and reborn, till at last they gained complete freedom from cosmic existence through a truer knowledge of God.
Metempsychosis.
This is a curious and important chapter, because we can clearly discover in it the first beginnings of a
152 LECTUKE V.
belief in Metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls. The ancients were convinced that this belief came from the East, and they imagined that Pytha- goras and others could have got their belief in Metempsychosis from India only. We saw how little foundation there was for this, and it can easily be shown that a belief in the transmigration of souls sprang up in other countries also, which could not possibly have been touched by the rays of Indian or Greek philosophy. But it is interesting nevertheless to watch the first beginnings of that belief in India, because we have here to deal with facts, and not with mere theories, such as have been started by recent students of Anthropology as to the origin of Metempsychosis. They consider that a belief in the migration of souls, particularly the migration of human souls into animal bodies, has something to do with what is called Animism. Now Animism is a very useful word, if only it is properly defined. It is a translation of the German Beseelung, and if it is used simply as a comprehensive term for all attempts to conceive inanimate objects as animate subjects, nothing can be said against it. There is, however, a very common mistake which should be carefully guarded against. When travellers meet with tribes that speak of trees or stones as sentient beings, and attribute to them many things which of right belong to animate or human beings only, we are told that it is a case of Animism. No doubt, it is. But is not Animism in this case simply another name for the belief that certain inanimate objects are animate? It may sound more learned, but of course, the ,name explains nothing. What we want to know is huw
JOURNEY OP THE SOUL AFTEB DEATH. 153
human beings, themselves animate, could be so mis- taken as to treat inanimate things as animate. Even animals seldom mistake a lifeless thing for a living thing. I believe that this tendency of the human mind to attribute life and soul to lifeless and soulless objects, can be and has been accounted for by a more general tendency, nay, by what may almost be called a necessity under which the human mind is laid by human language, which cannot form names of any objects except by means of roots, all of which are expressive of acts. It was impossible to name and therefore to conceive the sun or the moon, or a tree or even a stone, except as doers of something, which something- is expressed in one of those four or five hundred roots that formed the capital of language. This, which has been called Energisrn, is the highest generalisation, and comprehends, and at the same time accounts for Animism, Personification, Anthropo- morphism, Spiritism, and several other isms.
But the question now before us is this, Did a belief in Transmigration of souls have anything to do with Animism, or that general belief that not only animals have souls like men, but that inanimate objects also may be inhabited by souls? for it must be remem- bered that from the very first Metempsychosis meant the migration of the souls, not only into animals, but likewise into plants.
Whatever may have been the origin of a belief in Metempsychosis in other parts of the world, in India, at all events so far as we may judge by the Upani- shads, this belief had nothing to do with the ordinary Animism. Its deepest source seems to have been purely ethical. The very reason why the soul, after
154 LECTURE V.
having dwelt for some time in the world of the Fathers, had to be born again was, if you remember, that the stock of its good works had been exhausted. Let us hear then what the ancient Hindus thought would happen to the soul after its descent from the moon. Here we must be prepared again for a great deal of childish twaddle ; but you know that philo- sophers, to say nothing of fond fathers and grand- fathers, are able to discover a great deal of wisdom even in childish twaddle. The soul, we read in the Upanishads, returns through ether or through space, and then descends to the earth in the form of rain. On earth something that has thus been carried down in the rain, becomes changed into food. This food, it is said, is offered in a new altar-fire, namely in man, and thence born of a woman, that is to say, man eats the food and with it the germs of a new life. These germs are invisible, but accordiog to the Upanishads, not the less real.
Reality of Invisible Things.
This belief in invisible realities is fully recognised in the Upanishads. It applied not only to the invisible agents in nature, their Devas or gods, whom they carefully distinguished from their visible manifesta- tions. They believed in a visible Agni or fire who performed the sacrifice, but they carefully distin- guished him from the invisible and divine Agni who was hidden in the dawn, in the morn, nay even in the two fire-sticks, unseen by any human eye, but ready to appear, when the priests had properly rubbed the fire-sticks. The same belief gave them their clear concept of the soul, never to be seen or
JOURNEY OP THE SOUL AFTER DEATH. 155
to be touched, yet more real to them than anything else. Lastly their belief in something invisible that constituted the life of every part of nature, meets us on every page of the Upanishads. Thus we read in the jOandogya-Upanishad a dialogue between a son and his father, who wants to open the eyes of his son as to the reality of the Unseen or the Infinite in nature, which is also the Unseen and Infinite in man, which is in fact both Brahman and Atman, the Self:
The father said : ' My son, fetch me a fruit of the fig-tree.'
The son replied : ' Here is one, sir.'
' Break it,' said the father.
The son replied : ' It is broken, sir.'
The father : ' What do you see there ? '
The son : ' These seeds, almost infinitesimal.'
The father : ' Break one of them.'
The son : ' It is broken, sir.'
The father : ' What do you see there 1 '
The son : ' Not anything, sir.'
The father : ' My son, that subtle essence, which you do not see there, of that very essence this great fig-tree exists.'
' Believe it, my son. That which is the invisible, subtle essence, in it all that exists, has its self. It is the True, it is the Self, and thou, O son, art it.'
If people have once arrived at this belief in subtle, invisible germs, their belief in the germs of living souls descending in rain and being changed into grains of corn, and being, when eaten, changed into seed, and at last being born of a mother, whatever we, as biologists, may think of it, is not quite so un- meaning metaphysically as it seems at first sight.
156 LECTURE V.
But while in. this case we have only a transmigration of the human soul across rain and food into a new human body, we find in another passage (/^Mndogya