English
There are five other kinds of persoijg fit to j become such candidates; namely, i. The man of action: ii. The man who is free from mere human feelings, iii. The well-taught man : iv. The man of j | experience: and, v. The exalted man. ! Digitized by LjOoq le 33 i. Of these, the man of action is he who clings exclusively to the deeds accustomed to be performed by persons of his class in the community, and who may become beatified after not less than a hundred successive births. ii. The man who is free frpra human feelings is he who acknowledges the body to be unreal, but nevertheless clings to spiritual actions, aud who be¬ comes beatified after three births. iii. The well-instructed man is he who knows that the world is only a delusion, and of the nature of a dream, and who is able to perform religious ab¬ straction and other similar religious acts without distraction, and who attains beatitude after two births. iv. The man of experience is he who has put away the desire of this world’s things and is pos¬ sessed of discriminating wisdom, and who attains beatitude after a single birth. v. The exalted man is he to whom the world does not appear distinct from the deity aud who by means of the soul’s knowledge is at the present moment a beatified man. Apart from all the above there are three descrip¬ tions of persons who arrive at beatitude by paths different from the established mode, and through the mere will of the deity. i. One of these is he who acknowledges that the world is a delusion, and approaches the priest ~~ Digitized by LjOoq le 34 | enquiring wbat heaven may be and who may obtain (beatitude, after having previously arrived at the knowledge of the elementary substances of nature. ii. Another is he who acknowledges that the j body and other objective things are non-eternal, and j who approaches the priest for guidance after all his j i desires for present enjoyment have been obliterated. This man obtains beatitude as one who has arrived at the true knowledge of the deity. j iii. The third of this last group is he who arrives at the knowledge of the nature of the soul through accidentally hearing the priest expounding his doc¬ trine to his disciples • and who thus obtains bea- I titude. I The Priest. j Of the religious teachers above referred to there i are eight distinct kinds, who differ from each other according to the subject-matter of the instruction which they are capable of bestowing upon the serf- ! ously disposed disciple; namely, i. The teacher of I instruction; ii. The teacher of the vedas: iii. The j teacher of the black art: iv. The teacher of true \ / > (desire: v. The regenerating teacher; vi. The teacher j of aphorisms: vii. The transforming teacher: and [ viii. The teacher proper. | > S i. The teacher of instruction is he who teaches j | the meaning of scientific books. \ Digitized by LjOoq le 35 ii. The teacher of the vedas is he who teaches the nature of the elementary substances. iii. The teacher of the black art is he who con¬ fers happiness in the present life followed by misery in the life to come, through the arts of subjecting persons to one’s will, and of compelling the presence of distant objects, &b. iv. The teacher of true desire is he who con¬ fers happiness in both worlds, by teaching the true nature of good works. v. The regenerating teacher is he who confers upon the disciple the six spiritual states of mind. vi. The teacher of truth is he who induces desire for the things of the soul by showing that the things of the world are only a delusion. vii. The transforming teacher is he who bestows the unity of the deity and the soul. viii. The teacher proper is he who confers eternal happiness by teaching the method of casting away all doubt. The Disciple’s hose of approach to the Priest. When a man of either of the above named classes of enquirers is afflicted with any one of the three kinds of affliction which have their origin respective¬ ly in personal, circumstantial, or divine causes, and is depressed in mind on account of it, and is led Digitized by LjOoq le 36 to ask himself the questions. What am IP For what reason am I thus burdened? By what means may I be relieved? let him put away every high thought, and taking in his hand offerings of leaves, flowers, and fruits, let him enquire for a teacher skilled in knowledge, and endowed with humility, patience, and other similar attributes of excellency of character. Then, when he has come into the pre¬ sence of such a priest, let him commence by ad¬ dressing him with the appointed eight-fold salutation, and say, ‘ O beneficent teacher! I adore thee as the omniscient one, illimitable, without passions, dwelling | beyond the sky, yet present everywhere, and distinct j from the three kinds of delusion, from the lord, from j the atomic germ of the material world, and from all I objective knowledge.’ Then let him make the saluta- j tion of the eight members of the body, namely, with j his two feet, his two hands, his two shoulders, j his forehead, and his chest, touching the , earth. Hav- j ing risen from the ground, piously and humbly j joining together bis hands in the form of a closed ; lotus-flower, let him make known the distress of his i soul. He must then utter the praises of the teacher j in this form, ‘ 0 holy teacher! Thou art possessed j of the six attributes of deity, knowledge, absence j of passions, power, riehes, honour, and happiness. | Thou art therefore the perfect one. I pray thee ! fully and clearly to teach me in what manner I j may be relieved of this bondage, which I have in- ! herited through the misfortune of being bora.’ Digitized by LjOoq le Such is the manner of a disciple’s first approach to his teacher, according to the rules established for such an occasion. The Priest’s duty in return. The teacher will then decide in his mind to which class of enquirers the candidate so approaching him belongs; and casting upon him a benignant look, and laying his hand upon his bead to give him confidence, he will thus address him, ‘ Be not afraid. Thou thyself art the supreme god, if by the assistance of the scriptures and religious meditations, thou cast from thee the unspiritual thoughts con¬ nected with the body and other material things.’ To declare these things at large with sincerity of heart constitutes the substance of the priest’s instruction. The Modes of Teaching. That instruction in detail will embrace three things; i. a motto; ii. a definition: and iii. a test. i. The motto must be the name of some familiar object, which he may fix upon according to his pleasure and ability. ii. The definition consists in stating the chief characterizing feature of such an object: for instance, ‘An animal with a dew-lap is a cow.’ Digitized by LjOoq le 38 iii. The test consists in an examination whether the object so defined possesses that characteristic : mark or not. The Modes of Proof. There are eight modes of proof by means of which such an examination may be made; namely, i. Ex¬ perience : ii. Inference: iii. Testimony : iv. Reason: i v. Comparison : vi. Negation ; vii. Probability: and i viii. Tradition. i. Experience is available in cases when a matter | can be ascertained by the use of the senses : as, for instance, when he sees an earthen vase. | ii. Inference consists in ascertaining the existence : of a cause from seeing the effect of that cause: for i instance, you see smoke ascending, and you infer : that there is a fire in that place. Inference contains three members i. an assertion: : ii. a reason : and, iii. an illustration. (1.) For the assertion take the following example, * There is a fire on the mountain.’ (2.) For the reason, • Because I see smoke there.’ (3.) For the illustration, ‘Just as we see it in the kitchen. . i iii. Testimony ascertains the existence of a thing | upon the evidence of a trustworthy witness: for j Digitized by ^ooQle instance, * I know that fruit &c. grows on the banks of a certain river from the testimony of my friend who told me that he had seen it there.’ iv. Reason is of two kinds, namely, (1.) Reason from visible data, as for instance, ‘ I see Devadatta in a state of rotundity, and yet am aware that he has not eaten anything during the present morning; I conclude therefore that he must have partaken of food on the preceding evening.’ (2.) Reason from audible data: for instance, when I am told that Devadatta is not at his own house, I conclude that he is somewhere else. v. Comparison ascertains a thing from the agreement of the object which meets the sight with the de¬ scription of it previously received: for instance, when I go into a forest after hearing that a wild cow is like the domestic cow in certain respects, I know the animal standing before me to be the wild cow on account of that resemblance. vi. Negation ascertains the non-existence of a thing .• for instance, when I am told that there is no potter, I know there can be no potter’s vessels. vii. Probability, or comprehension, ascertains the existence of a thing from the fact of the existence of something else of which it forms a part; for in¬ stance, I know that a hundred things exist where there are a thousand. Digitized by 40 viii. Tradition ascertains the existence of a thing on the evidence of unvarying rumour; for instance, I know that such a being as a goblin exists, be¬ cause it is universally reported that a goblin haunts a certain banyan tree.