60
HISTOEY OF INDIA.
Book IV
AD.
Quality of [xissiou.
Quality of sooduess.
Iliiiiloo heaven.
1 ts limited iluratiou.
middle states caused by the quality of passion ; gandJiarvas or aerial musicians, ghuyacas and yacshas or servants and companions of Cuvera, genii attending superior gods, as the vidyadharas and others ; together with various companies of apsarases or nymphs, are the highest of those forms which the quality of passion attains." 3. " Hermits, religious mendicants, other Brahmins, such orders of demigods as are wafted in airy cars, genii of the signs and lunar mansions, and da'Uyas, are the lowest of the states procured by the quality of goodness ; sacrificers, holy sages, deities of the lower heaven, genii of the Vedas, regents of stars, divinities of years, pi^/'is or progenitors of mankind, and the demigods named sadhyas, are the middle forms to which the good quality conveys; Brahma with four faces, creators of worlds, as Marichi, the genius of virtue, the divinities presiding over Mahat or the Mighty, and Avyacta or Unperceived, are the highest conditions to which, by the good quality, souls are exalted."
In regard to those possessing the quality of goodness, it seems to be held that as soon as the present body dies, the soul rises at once to its destined eleva- tion, and hence goodness in the highest degree exempts its possessor from trans- migration of any kind, and gives him what is conceived to be the greatest of all possible rewards — immediate absorption into the divine essence. Where good- ness is possessed in its middle and lowest, and passion in its highest degree, the reward, though immediate, requires a transmigration. Persons thus qualified are admitted to some kind of celestial mansion, where they either act as ministering servants in the form of aerial musicians, nymphs, and genii, or become demi- gods, wafted in airy cars, occupants of the lunar mansions, regents of stars, deities of the lower heaven, &:c. Here doubtless their happiness is great, for Hindoo imagination has done its best to furnish the habitations of the gods with everything that ministers to enjoyment — with palaces of gold resplendent with gems, magnificent gardens watered by crystal streams and producing all kinds of delicious fruits, lovely flowers and fragrant perfumes, music chanted by aerial choristers, and perpetual feasts, by which the appetite is always grati- fied and never -cloyed. The abode of Yama must indeed be visited before these heavens can be reached; but for tliem it has no terrors, since their path lies along delightful meadows, under the shade of magnificent trees, and by the banks of streams covered with the lotus. The mansions which those possessing only the lower degrees of goodness are taught to anticipate, are in fact far more attractive than the final reward of absorption, which, in any view that can be taken of it, looks very like annihilation. It is not therefore surprising that the number who would be contented with the former is far greater than that of those who aspire to the latter. In the Hindoo system, however, even the happi- ness of heaven has a canker in it. It is not immortal. After a period, which, however long it may be, is so fixed and definite, that its days and years can be counted, a new cycle begins. The inhabitants, in the midst of their enjoy-
ments, cannot forget the fact that they must sooner or later quit them, and be
