SALVATION AFTER MANY BIRTHS 165 dead person been buried. Now they sought for such a spot, but could not find it; finally, on finding a rock projecting out of the ocean, they thought they had found what they wanted. But then Vasudeva said unto them: " This king has already been burned on this identical rock many times. But now do as you like; for the king sought only to give you a lesson, and his aim has now been attained." Vasudeva says: " He who hopes for salvation and strives to free himself from the world, but whose heart is not obedient to his wish, will be rewarded for his action in the worlds of those who receive a good re- ward; but he does not attain his last object on account of his deficiency, therefore he will return to this world, and will be found worthy of entering a new shape of a kind of beings whose special occupation is devotion. Divine inspiration helps him to raise himself in this new shape by degrees to that which he already wished for in the first shape. His heart begins to comply with his wish; he is purified more and more in the different shapes, until at last he obtains salvation in an unin- terrupted series of new births." Further, Vasudeva says: " If the soul is free from matter, it is knowing; but as long as it is clad in mat- ter, the soul is not-knowing, on account of the turbid nature of matter. It thinks that it is an agent, and that the actions of the world are prepared for its sake. Therefore it clings to them, and it is stamped with the impressions of the senses. When, then, the soul leaves the body, the traces of the impressions of the
