284 The Religion of the Veda
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affections, and common companionship, until all that remains of a man is the impassive attenuated men.- dicant monk, self-hypnotised into cataleptic trances which the deluded mystic takes for forctastcs of final union with Brahma. Professor Huxley has in mind the extreme case of Yogin of the later time, who confounds hocus~pocus and humbug with re— ligion. As a matter of fact the Upanishad religion is a religion of perfect freedom, and equally as a matter of fact the religious of the Upanishacls do find it advisable as a rule to retire from active life after having done their duty in active life. Yajnavalkya’s step marks not only the new order of thought but also the new order of life which the religion of the armors-brethren imposes upon India. In fact we may say that henceforth India leads a double life. The first is the life of every day. The fragile human creature enters through the mother’s womb, where it has been protected by the pious prayers and ceremonies of its parents, into the be» wildering sunshine of this world. If it only knew it, it would be glad that the lemma: of its former exist- ence entitles its soul in the present existence to the shelter of a human body, howsoever lowly. Worse might have happened in the hazard of the lottery of transmigration. Birth means that the soul in ques- tion has not yet joined Brahma. He who has not
