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SWAM I ABHEDAXAXDA 
 
VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY 
 
 FIVE LECTURES 
 
 ON 
 
 REINCARNATION 
 
 BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 yluthcr of "India and her People, " "Self-Knowledge, " ''How to be c 
 Yogi," "Divine Heritage oj Man," etc. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE VEDANTA ASHRAMA 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
 
Copyright, 1902, 
 
 BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
/4a3^37 
 
 COX T KN XS 
 
 I . — Reincarnation 
 II, — Heredity and Reincarnation 
 III. — Evolution and Reincarnation 
 
 IV. — Which is Scientific, Resurrection or 
 Reincarnation? 
 
 V. — Theory of Transmigration 
 
 153 
 
REINCARNATION 
 
 I. 
 
 The visible phenomena of the universe are bound 
 by the universal law of cause and effect. The effect 
 is visible or perceptible, while the cause is invisible 
 or imperceptible. The falling of an apple from a 
 tree is the effect of a certain invisible force called 
 gravitation. Although the force cannot be perceived 
 by the senses, its expression is visible. All percepti- 
 ble phenomena are but the various expressions of 
 different forces which act as invisible agents upon 
 the subtle and imperceptible forms of matter. These 
 invisible agents or forces together with the imper- 
 ceptible particles of matter make up the subtle states 
 of the phenomenal universe. When a subtle force 
 becomes objectified, it appears as a gross object. 
 Therefore, we can say, that every gross form is an 
 expression of some subtle force acting upon the sub- 
 tle particles of matter. The minute particles of 
 
2 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 hydrogen and oxygen when combined by chemical 
 force, appear in the gross form of water. Water 
 can never be separated from hydrogen and oxygen, 
 which are its subtle component parts. Its exist- 
 ence depends upon that of its component parts, 
 or in other words, upon its subtle form. If the 
 subtle state changes, the gross manifestation will 
 also change. The peculiarity in the gross form of a 
 plant depends upon the peculiar nature of its subtle 
 form, the seed. The peculiar nature of the gross 
 forms in the animal kingdom depends upon the 
 subtle forms which manifest variously in each of the 
 intermediate stages between the microscopic unit of 
 living matter and the highest man. The gross 
 human body is closely related to its subtle body. 
 Not only this, but every movement or change in the 
 physical form is caused by the activity and change of 
 the subtle body. If the subtle body be affected or 
 changed a little, the gross body will also be affected 
 similarly. The material body being the expression 
 of the subtle body, its birth, growth, decay and 
 death depend upon the changes of the subtle body. 
 As long as the subtle body remains, it will continue 
 to express itself in a corresponding gross form. 
 Now let us understand clearly what we mean by a 
 
Reincarnation. 3 
 
 subtle body. It is nothing but a minute germ of a 
 living substance. It contains the invisible particles 
 of matter which are held together by vital force, and 
 it also possesses mind or thought-force in a potential 
 state, just as the seed of a plant contains in it the 
 life force and the power of growth. According to 
 Vedanta, the subtle body consists of Antahkaranam, 
 that is, the internal organ or the mind substance 
 with its various modifications, mind, intellect, egoism, 
 memory, the five instruments of perception: the 
 powers of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and 
 touching; the five instruments of action, such as the 
 powers of seizing, moving, speaking, evacuating, and 
 generating, and the five Prdnas. Prdna is a Sanskrit 
 word which means vital energy or the life-sustaining 
 power in us. Although Prdna is one, it takes five 
 different names on account of the five different func- 
 tions it performs. This word Prdna includes the five 
 manifestations of the vital force: First, that power 
 which moves the lungs and draws the atmospheric 
 air from outside into the system. This is also called 
 Prdna. Second, that power which throws out of 
 the system such things as are not wanted. It is 
 called in Sanskrit Apdna. Third, it takes the name 
 of Samdna, as performing digestive functions and 
 
4 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 carrying the extract of food to every part of the 
 body. It is called Uddna when it is the cause of 
 bringing down food from the mouth through the 
 ahmentary canal to the stomach, and also when it is 
 the cause of the power of speech. The fifth power 
 of Prdna is that which works in every part of the 
 nervous system from head to foot, through every 
 canal, which keeps the shape of the body, preserves 
 it from putrefaction, and gives health and life to 
 every cell and organ. These are the various mani- 
 festations of the vital force or Prdna. These subtle 
 powers together with the non-composite elements of 
 the gross body, or the ethereal particles of subtle 
 matter, and also with the potentialities of all the 
 impressions, ideas and tendencies which each indi- 
 vidual gathers in one life, make up his subtle body. 
 As a resultant of all the different actions of mind 
 and body which an individual performs in his present 
 life, will be the tendencies and desires in his future 
 life; nothing will be lost. 
 
 Every action of body or mind which we do, every 
 thought which we think, becomes fine, and is stored 
 up in the form of a Samskdra or impression in our 
 minds. It remains latent for some time, and then it 
 rises up in the form of a mental wave and produces 
 
Reincarnation. 5 
 
 new desires. These desires are called in Vedanta, 
 Vdsands. Vasanas or strong desires are the manu- 
 facturers of new bodies. If Vasana or longing for 
 worldly pleasures and objects remains in anybody, 
 even after hundreds of births, that person will be 
 bom again. Nothing can prevent the course of strong 
 desires. Desires must be fulfilled sooner or later. 
 
 Every voluntary or involuntary action of the body, 
 sense or mind must correspond to the dormant im- 
 pressions stored up in the subtle body. Although 
 growth, the process of nourishment and all the 
 changes of the gross physical body take place accord- 
 ing to the necessarily acting causes, yet the whole 
 series of actions, and consequently every individual 
 act, the condition of the body which accomplishes it, 
 nay, the whole process in and through which the 
 body exists, are nothing but the outward expressions 
 of the latent impressions stored up in the subtle 
 body. Upon these rests the perfect suitableness of 
 the animal or human body to the animal or human 
 nature of one's impressions. The organs of the 
 senses must therefore completely correspond to the 
 principal desires which are the strongest and most 
 ready to manifest. They are the visible expressions 
 of these desires. If there be no hunger or desire to 
 
6 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 eat, teeth, throat and bowels will be of no use. If 
 there be no desire for grasping and moving, hands 
 and legs will be useless. Similarly it can be shown 
 that the desire for seeing, hearing, etc., has pro- 
 duced the eye, ear, etc. If I have no desire to use 
 my hand, and if I do not use it at all, within a few 
 months it will wither away and die. In India there 
 are some religious fanatics who hold up their arms 
 and do not use them at all; after a few months their 
 arms wither and become stiff and dead. A person 
 who lies on his back for six months loses the power 
 of walking. There are many such instances which 
 prove the injurious effects of the disuse of our limbs 
 and organs. 
 
 As the human form, generally, corresponds to the 
 human will, generally, so the individual bodily struc- 
 ture corresponds to the character, desires, will and 
 thought of the individual. Therefore the outer 
 nature is nothing but the expression of the inner 
 nature. This inner nature of each individual is what 
 re-incarnates or expresses itself successively in vari- 
 ous forms, one after another. When a man dies the 
 individual ego or Jtva (as it is called in Sanskrit), 
 which means the germ of life or the living soul of 
 man, is not destroyed, but it continues to exist in an 
 
Reincarnation. 7 
 
 invisible form. It remains like a permanent thread 
 stringmg together the separate lives by the law of 
 cause and effect. The subtle body is like a water- 
 globule which sprang in the beginningless past from 
 the eternal ocean of Reality; and it contains the 
 reflection of the unchangeable light of Intelligence. 
 As a water-globule remains sometimes in an invisi- 
 ble vapory state in a cloud, then in rain or snow or 
 ice, and again as steam or in mud, but is never 
 destroyed, so the subtle body sometimes remains 
 unmanifested and sometimes expresses itself in gross 
 forms of animal or human beings, according to the 
 desires and tendencies that are ready to manifest. It 
 may go to heaven, that is, to some other planet, or 
 it may be born again on this earth. It depends on 
 the nature and strength of one's life-long tendency 
 and bent of mind. This idea is clearly expressed in 
 Vedanta. "The thought, wiU or desire which is 
 extremely strong during lifetime, will become pre- 
 dominant at the time of death and will mould the 
 inner nature of the dying person. The newly 
 moulded inner nature will express in a new form." 
 (Bhagavad Gita.) The thought, will or desire which 
 moulds the inner nature has the power of selecting 
 or attracting such conditions or environments as will 
 
8 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 help it in its way of manifestation. This process 
 corresponds in some respects to the law of ' ' natural 
 selection." 
 
 We shall be better able to understand that process 
 by studying how the seeds of different trees select 
 from the common environments different materials, 
 and absorb and assimilate different quantities of 
 elements. Suppose two seeds, one of an oak and 
 the other of a chestnut, are planted in a pot. The 
 power of growth in both the seeds is of the same 
 nature. The environments, earth, water, heat and 
 light are the same. But still there is some peculi- 
 arity in each of the seeds, which will absorb from the 
 common environments different quantities of ele- 
 ments and other properties which are fit to help the 
 growth of the peculiar nature and form of the fruit, 
 flower, leaves of each tree. Suppose the chestnut 
 is a horse-chestnut. If, under different conditions, 
 the peculiar nature of the horse-chestnut changes 
 into that of a sweet chestnut, then, along with the 
 changes in the seed, the whole nature of the tree, 
 leaves, fruits will also be changed. It will no more 
 attract, absorb or assimilate those substances and 
 qualities of the environments which it did when it 
 was a horse-chestnut. Similarly, through the law of 
 
Reincarnation. 9 
 
 ** natural selection" the newly moulded thought-body 
 of the dying person will choose and attract such 
 parts from the common environments as are helpful 
 to its proper expression or manifestation. Parents 
 are nothing but the principal parts of the environment 
 of the re-incarnating individual. The newly moulded 
 inner nature or subtle body of the individual will by 
 the law of "natural selection" involuntarily choose, 
 or be unconsciously drawn to, as it were, its suitable 
 parents and will be born of them. As, for instance, 
 if I have a strong desire to become an artist, and 
 if after a life-long struggle I do not succeed in being 
 the greatest, after the death of the body I will be 
 born of such parents and with such environments 
 as will help me to become the best artist. 
 
 The whole process is expressed in Eastern philoso- 
 phy by the doctrine of the Reincarnation of the indi- 
 vidual soul. Although this doctrine is commonly re- 
 jected in the West, it is unreservedly accepted by 
 the vast majority of mankind of the present day, as 
 it was in past centuries. The scientific explanation of 
 this theory we find nowhere except in the writings 
 of the Hindus; still we know that from very ancient 
 times it was believed by the philosophers, sages and 
 prophets of different countries. The ancient civiliza- 
 
10 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 tion of Egypt was built upon a crude form of the 
 
 doctrine of Reincarnation. Herodotus says: "The 
 
 Egyptians propounded the theory that the human 
 
 soul is imperishable, and that where the body of any 
 
 one dies it enters into some other creature that may 
 
 be ready to receive it." Pythagoras and his disciples 
 
 spread it through Greece and Italy. Pythagoras 
 
 says: "All has soul; all is soul wandering in the 
 
 organic world, and obeying eternal will or Jaw." 
 
 In Dryden's Ovid we read: — 
 
 "Death has no power the immortal soul to slay, 
 That, when its present body turns to clay, 
 Seeks a fresh home, and with unlessened might 
 Inspires another frame with life and light." 
 
 It was the keynote of Plato's philosophy. Plato 
 says: "Soul is older than body. Souls are contin- 
 ually bom over again into this life." The idea of Re- 
 incarnation was spread widely in Greece and Italy by 
 Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid. 
 It was known to the Neo-Platonists, Plotinus and 
 Proclus. Plotinus says: "The soul leaving the 
 body becomes that power which it has most devel- 
 oped. Let us fly then from here below and rise to 
 the intellectual world, that we may not fall into a 
 purely sensible life by allowing ourselves to follow 
 sensible images. ..." It was the fundamental 
 
Reincarnation. 11 
 
 principle of the religion of the Persian Magi. Alex- 
 ander the Great accepted this idea after coming in 
 contact with the Hindu philosophers. Julius Caesar 
 found that the Gauls had some belief regarding the 
 pre-exist ence of the human soul. The Druids of old 
 Gaul believed that the souls of men transmigrate 
 into those bodies whose habits and characters they 
 most resemble. Celts and Britons were impressed 
 with this idea. It was a favorite theme of the Arab 
 philosophers and many Mahomedan Sufis. The 
 Jews adopted it after the Babylonian captivity. 
 Philo of Alexandria, who was a contemporary of 
 Christ, preached amongst the Hebrews the Platonic 
 idea of the pre-existence and rebirth of human souls. 
 Philo says: "The company of disembodied souls 
 is distributed in various orders. The law of some of 
 them is to enter mortal bodies, and after certain pre- 
 scribed periods be again set free." John the Baptist 
 was according to the Jews a second Elijah; Jesus 
 was believed by many to be the re-appearance of 
 some other prophet. (See Matt, xvi, 14, also 
 xvii, 12.) Solomon says in his Book of Wisdom: 
 "I was a child of good nature and a good soul came 
 to me, or rather because I was good I came into an 
 undefiled body.*' 
 
12 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 The Talmud and Cabala teach the same thing. 
 In the Talmud it is said that Abel's soul passed into 
 the body of Seth, and then into that of Moses. 
 Along with the spread of the Cabala this doctrine 
 (which was know^n as Transmigration and Metem- 
 psychosis) "began to take root in Judaism and then 
 it gained believers even among men who were little 
 inclined towards Mysticism. Juda ben Asher 
 (Asheri) for instance, discussing this doctrine in a 
 letter to his father endeavored to place it upon a 
 philosophical basis." (Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 
 XII, p. 232.) We also read, "The Cabalists eagerly 
 adopted the doctrine on account of the vast field it 
 offered to mystic speculations. Moreover it was 
 almost a necessary corollary of their psychological 
 system. The absolute condition of the soul is, 
 according to them, its return, after developing all 
 those perfections, the germs of which are eternally 
 implanted in it, to the Infinite Source from which 
 it emanated. Another term of life must therefore 
 be vouchsafed to those souls which have not fulfilled 
 their destiny here below, and have not been suffi- 
 ciently purified for the state of union with the Pri- 
 mordial Cause. Hence if the soul, on its first as- 
 sumption of a human body and sojourn on earth, 
 
Reincarnation. 13 
 
 fails to acquire that experience for which it descended 
 from heaven and becomes contaminated by that which 
 is polluting, it must reinhabit a body till it is able 
 to ascend in a purified state through repeated trials." 
 This is the theory of the Zohar, which says: "All 
 souls are subject to transmigration; and men do not 
 know the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He! 
 They do not know that they are brought before the 
 tribunal both before they enter into this world and 
 after they leave it; they are ignorant of the many 
 transmigrations and secret probations which they 
 have to undergo, and of the number of souls and 
 spirits which enter into this world and which do not 
 return to the palace of the Heavenly King. Men 
 do not know how the souls revolve like a stone which 
 is thrown from a shng. But the time is at hand 
 when these mysteries will be disclosed." (Zohar, 
 
 11,996.) 
 
 Like many of the Church Fathers the Cabalists 
 used as their main argument in favor of the doctrine 
 of metempsychosis the justice of God. But for the 
 belief in metempsychosis, they maintained, the 
 question why God often permits the wicked to lead 
 a happy life while many righteous are miserable 
 would be unanswerable. Then too the infliction of 
 
14 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 pain upon children would be an act of cruelty unless 
 it is imposed in punishment of sin committed by the 
 soul in a previous state. Isaac Abravanel sees in 
 the commandment of the Levirate a proof of the 
 doctrine of metempsychosis for which he gives the 
 following reasons: (i) God in His mercy willed that 
 another trial should be given to the soul, which 
 having yielded to the sanguine temperament of the 
 body had committed a capital sin, such as murder, 
 adulteiy , etc. ; (2 ) it is only just that when a man dies 
 young a chance should be given to his soul to execute 
 in another body the good deeds which it had not 
 time to perform in the first body; (3) the soul of 
 the wicked sometimes passes into another body in 
 order to receive its deserved punishment here below 
 instead of in the other world where it would be 
 much more severe. (Commentary on Deuteronomy, 
 
 XXV, 5.) 
 
 Christianity is not exempt from this idea. Origen 
 and other Church Fathers beheved in it. Origen 
 says: "For God, justly disposing of his creatures 
 according to their desert, united the diversities of 
 minds in one congruous world, that he might, as it 
 were, adorn his mansion (in which ought to be not 
 only vases of gold and silver, but of wood also and 
 
Reincarnation. 15 
 
 clay, and some to honor and some to dishonor) with 
 these diverse vases, minds or souls. To these causes 
 the world owes its diversity, while Divine Provi- 
 dence disposes each according to his tendency, mind 
 and disposition." He also says: "I think this is a 
 question how it happens that the human mind is 
 influenced now by the good, now by the evil. The 
 causes of this I suspect to be more ancient than this 
 corporeal birth." The idea of Reincarnation spread 
 so fast amongst the early Christians that Justinian 
 was obliged to suppress it by passing a law in the 
 Council of Constantinople in 538 A.D. The law 
 was this: "Whoever shall support the mythical 
 presentation of the pre-existence of the soul, and the 
 consequently wonderful opinion of its return, let him 
 be Anathema." The Gnostics and Manichaeans prop- 
 agated the tenets of Reincarnation amongst the 
 mediaeval sects such as the Bogomiles and Pauli- 
 cians. Some of the followers of this so-called erron- 
 eous belief were cruelly persecuted in 385 A.D. 
 
 In the seventeenth century some of the Cambridge 
 Platonists, as Dr. Henry More and others, accepted 
 the idea of rebirth. Most of the German philoso- 
 phers of the middle ages and of recent days have 
 advocated and upheld this doctrine. Many quota- 
 
16 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 tions can be given from the writings of great think- 
 ers, like Kant, Scotus, Schelling, Fichte, Leibnitz, 
 Schopenhauer, Giardano Bruno, Goethe, Lessing, 
 Herder and a host of others. The great skeptic 
 Hume says in his posthumous essay on "The Im- 
 mortahty of the Soul," "The metempsychosis is 
 therefore the only system of this kind that philos- 
 ophy can hearken to." Scientists like Flammarion 
 and Huxley have supported this doctrine of Reincar- 
 nation. Professor Huxley says: "None but hasty 
 thinkers will reject it on the ground of inherent 
 absurdity. Like the doctrine of evolution itself, 
 that of transmigration has its roots in the world of 
 reality." ("Evolution and Ethics," p. 6i.) 
 
 Some of the theological leaders have preached it. 
 The eminent German theologian Dr. Julius Miiller 
 supports this theory in his work on "The Christian 
 Doctrine of Sin." Prominent theologians, such as 
 Dr. Dorner, Emesti, Riickert, Edward Beecher, 
 Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks, preached 
 many a time touching the question of the pre-exist- 
 ence and rebirth of the individual soul. Sweden- 
 borg and Emerson maintained it. Emerson says in 
 his essay on Experience, "We wake and find our- 
 selves on a stair. There are stairs below us which 
 
Reincarnation. 17 
 
 we seem to have ascended; there are stairs above 
 us, many a one, which go upward and out of sight." 
 Almost all of the poets, ancient or modem, profess 
 it. William Wordsworth says in "Intimations of 
 Immortality:" — 
 
 "The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
 And Cometh from afar." 
 
 Tennyson writes in the "Two Voices;" 
 
 * ' Or, if through lower lives I came — 
 Tho' all experience past became, 
 Consolidate in mind and frame — 
 I might forget my weaker lot ; 
 For is not our first year forgot ? 
 Tha haunts of memory echo not." 
 
 Walt Whitman says in "Leaves of Grass:" 
 
 "As to you, Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many 
 deaths, 
 No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before." 
 
 Similar passages can be quoted from almost all 
 the poets of different countries. Even amongst the 
 aboriginal tribes of Africa, Asia, North and South 
 America, traces of this belief in the rebirth of souls 
 is to be found. Nearly three-fourths of the popula- 
 tion of Asia believe in the doctrine of Reincarnation, 
 and th'-ough it they find a satisfactory explanation 
 
18 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 of the problem of life. There is no religion which 
 denies the continuity of the individual soul after 
 death. 
 
 Those who do not believe in Reincarnation try 
 to explain the world of inequalities and diversities 
 either by the one-birth theory or by the theory of 
 hereditary transmission. Neither of these theories, 
 however, is sufficient to explain the inequalities that 
 we meet with in our everyday life. Those who 
 believe in the one-birth theory, that we have come 
 here for the first and last time, do not understand 
 that the acquirement of wisdom and experience is 
 the purpose of human life; nor can they explain 
 why children who die young should come into 
 existence and pass away without getting the oppor- 
 tunity to learn anything or what purpose is served 
 by their coming thus for a few days, remaining in 
 utter ignorance and then passing away without 
 gaining anything whatever. The Christian dogma, 
 based on the one-birth theory, tells us that the 
 child which dies soon after its birth is sure to be 
 saved and will enjoy eternal life and everlasting 
 happiness in heaven. The Christians who really 
 believe in this dogma ought to pray to their heavenly 
 Father for the death of their children immediately 
 
Reincarnation. 19 
 
 after their birth and ought to thank the merciful 
 Father when the grave closes over their little forms. 
 Thus the one-birth theory of Christian theology 
 does not remove any difficulty. 
 
 Two great religions, Judaism with its two off- 
 spring — Christianity and Mahomedanism — and Zo- 
 roastrianism, still uphold the one-birth theory. 
 The followers of these, shutting their eyes to the 
 absurdity and unreasonableness of such a theory, 
 believe that human souls are created out of nothing 
 at the time of the birth of their bodies and that they 
 continue to exist throughout eternity either to suffer 
 or to enjoy because of the deeds performed during 
 the short period of their earthly existence. Here 
 the question arises why should a man be held re- 
 sponsible throughout eternity for the works which 
 he was forced or predestined to perform by the will 
 of the Lord of the universe? The theory of pre- 
 destination and grace, instead of explaining the 
 difficulty, makes God partial and unjust. If the om- 
 nipotent personal God created human souls out of 
 nothing, could He not make all souls equally good 
 and happy? Why does He make one to enjoy all 
 the blessings of Hfe and another to suffer all miseries 
 throughout eternity? Why is one bom with good 
 
20 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 tendencies and another with evil ones? Why is 
 one man virtuous throughout his hfe and another 
 bestial? Why is one bom inteUigent and another 
 idiotic? If God out of His own will made all these 
 inequalities, or, in other words, if God created 
 one man to suffer and another to enjoy, then how 
 partial and unjust must He be! He must be worse 
 than a tyrant. How can we worship Him, how 
 call Him just and merciful? 
 
 Some people try to save God from this charge of 
 partiality and injustice by saying that all good 
 things of this universe are the work of God, and all 
 evil things are the work of a demon or Satan. God 
 created everything good, but it was Satan who 
 brought evil into this world and made everything 
 bad. Now let us see how far such a statement is 
 logically correct. Good and evil are two relative 
 terms; the existence of one depends upon that of the 
 other. Good cannot exist without evil, and evil can- 
 not exist without being related to good. When God 
 created what we call good, He must have created 
 evil at the same time, otherwise He could not 
 create good alone. If the creator of evil, call him 
 by whatever name you like, had brought evil into 
 this world, he must have created it simultaneously 
 
Reincarnation. 21 
 
 with God; otherwise it would have been impossible 
 for God to create good, which can exist only as 
 related to evil. As such they will have to admit 
 that the Creators of good and evil sat together at the 
 same time to create this world, which is a mixture 
 of good and evil. Consequently, both of them are 
 equally powerful, and limited by each other. There- 
 fore neither of them is infinite in powers or om- 
 nipotent. So we cannot say that the Almighty 
 God of the universe created good alone and not 
 the evil. 
 
 Another argument which the Vedantists advance 
 in support of the theory of Reincarnation is that 
 '* Nothing is destroyed in the universe." Destruc- 
 tion in the sense of the annihilation of a thing is 
 unknown to the Vedantic philosophers, just as it is 
 unknown to the modem scientists. They say "non- 
 existence can never become existence and existence 
 can never become non-existence; " or, in other words, 
 that which did not exist can never exist, and con- 
 versely that which exists in any form can never 
 become non-existent. This is the law of nature. 
 As such, the impressions or ideas which we now 
 have, together with the powers which we possess, 
 will not be destroyed but will remain with us in some 
 
( 
 
 22 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 form or other. Our bodies may change, but the 
 powers, Karma, Samskaras or impressions and the 
 materials which manufactured our bodies must re- 
 main in us in an unmanifested form. They will 
 never be destroyed. Again science tells us that that 
 which remains in an unmanifested or potential state 
 must at some time or other be manifested in a kinetic 
 or actual form. Therefore we shall get other bodies, 
 sooner or later. It is for this reason said in the 
 "Bhagavad Gita": "Birth must be followed by 
 death and death must be followed by birth." Such 
 a continuously recurring series of births and deaths 
 each germ of hfe must go through. Another 
 consideration is that the beginning, ending and con- 
 tinuing are conceptions of the human mind; their 
 significance depends entirely upon our conception 
 of time. But we all know that time has no absolute 
 existence. It is merely a form of our knowledge of 
 our own existence in relation to that of nature. 
 The conception of time vanishes at the sleep of death, 
 just as it does every night when we are in sound 
 sleep. Death resembles the state of our sound 
 sleep. The soul wakes up from the sleep of death 
 just in the same manner as the insects awake in 
 spring after sleeping the long and rigid winter-sleep, 
 
Reincarnation. 23 
 
 as a chrysalis in the bed of a cocoon spun by itself 
 in autumn. Nature teaches us the great lesson of 
 rebirth and the similarity between sleep and death 
 by the rejuvenation of the chrysalis in the spring. 
 After death the soul wakes up and puts on or manu- | 
 factures the garment of a new body, just in the same 
 manner as we put on new clothes after throwing away 
 the old and worn-out ones. Thus the soul continues 
 to manifest itself over and over again either on the 
 human or any other plane of existence, being bound 
 by the Law of Karma or of Cause and Sequence. 
 
 /"Death, so called, is but older matter dressed 
 / In some new form. And in a varied vest, 
 I From tenement to tenement though tossed, 
 ' The soul is still the same, the figure only lost." 
 
 Poem on Pythagoras, Drydens Ovid. 
 
 Here it may be asked, if we existed before our 
 birth why do we not remember? This is one of the 
 strongest objections often raised against the belief 
 in pre-existence. Some people deny the existence 
 of the soul in the past simply because they cannot 
 remember the events of their past. Others, again, 
 who hold memory as the standard of existence, say, 
 if our memory of the present ceases to exist at the 
 time of death, with it we shall also cease to be; we 
 cannot be immortal; because they hold that memory 
 
24 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 is the standard of life, and if we do not remember 
 then we are not the same beings. 
 
 Vedanta answers these questions by saying that it 
 is possible for us to remember our previous exist- 
 ences. Those who have read "Raja Yoga" will 
 recall that in the i8th aphorism of the third chapter 
 it is said: "By perceiving the Samskaras one ac- 
 quires the knowledge of past hves." Here the Sams- 
 karas mean the impressions of the past experience 
 which lie dormant in our subhminal self, and are 
 never lost. Memory is nothing but the awakening 
 and rising of latent impressions above the threshold 
 of consciousness. A Raja Yogi, through powerful 
 concentration upon these dormant impressions of 
 the subconscious mind, can remember all the events 
 of his past lives. There have been many instances 
 in India of Yogis who could know not only their own 
 past hves but correctly tell those of others. It is 
 said that Buddha remembered five hundred of his 
 previous births. 
 
 Our subhminal self, or the subconscious mind, is 
 the storehouse of all the impressions that we gather 
 through our experiences during our hfetime. They 
 are stored up, pigeon-holed there, in the Chitta, as 
 it is called in Vedanta. "Chitta" means the same 
 
Reincarnation. 25 
 
 subconscious mind or subliminal self which is the 
 storehouse of all impressions and experiences. And 
 these impressions remain latent until favorable con- 
 ditions rouse them and bring them out on the plane 
 of consciousness. Here let us take an illustration: 
 In a dark room pictures are thrown on a screen by 
 lantern-slides. The room is absolutely dark. We 
 are looking at the pictures. Suppose we open a win- 
 dow and allow the rays of the midday sun to fall 
 upon the screen. Would we be able to see those 
 pictures? No. Why? Because the more powerful 
 flood of light will subdue the light of the lantern and 
 the pictures. But although they are invisible to our 
 eyes we cannot deny their existence on the screen. 
 Similarly, the pictures of the events of our previous 
 lives upon the screen of the subhminal self may be 
 invisible to us at present, but they exist there. 
 Why are they invisible to us now? Because the more 
 powerful light of sense-consciousness has subdued 
 them. If we close the windows and doors of our 
 senses from outside contact and darken the inner 
 chamber of our self, then by focusing the light of 
 consciousness and concentrating the mental rays we 
 shall be able to know and remember our past lives, 
 and all the events and experiences thereof. Those 
 
26 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 who wish therefore to develop their memory and re- 
 member their past should practice Raja Yoga and 
 learn the method of acquiring the power of con- 
 centration by shutting the doors and windows of 
 their senses. And that power of concentration must 
 be helped by the power of self-control, that is, by 
 controlling the doors and windows of our ovm 
 senses. 
 
 These dormant impressions, whether we remember 
 them or not, are the chief factors in moulding our 
 individual characters with which we are bom, and 
 they are the causes of the inequalities and diversities 
 which we find around us. When we study the charac- 
 ters and powers of geniuses and prodigies we cannot 
 deny the pre-existence of the soul. Whatever the soul 
 has mastered in a previous life manifests in the 
 present. The memory of particular events is not so 
 important. If we possess the wisdom and knowledge 
 which we gathered in our previous lives, then it 
 matters very little whether or not we remember the 
 particular events, or the struggles which we went 
 through in order to gain that knowledge. Those 
 particular things may not come to us in our memory, 
 but we have not lost the wisdom. Now, study your 
 own present life and you will see that in this life you 
 
Reincarnation. 27 
 
 have gained some experience. The particular events 
 and the struggles which you went through are passing 
 out of your memory, but the experience has moulded 
 your character, and the knowledge, which you have 
 gained through that experience, has shaped you in a 
 different manner. You will not have to go through 
 those different events again to remember how you 
 acquired that experience. It is not necessary, the 
 wisdom gained is quite enough. 
 
 Then, again, we find among ourselves persons who 
 are bom with some wonderful powers. Take, for in- 
 stance, the power of self-control. One is bom with 
 the power of self-control highly developed, and that 
 self-control may not be acquired by another after 
 years of hard struggle. Why is there this difference? 
 Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna was bom with God- 
 consciousness, and he went into the highest state of 
 Samadhi when he was four years old; but this state 
 is very difficult for other Yogis to acquire. There 
 was a Yogi who came to see Ramakrishna. He was 
 an old man and possessed wonderful powers, and he 
 said: "I have struggled for forty years to acquire 
 that state which is natural with you." There are 
 many such instances which show that pre-existence is 
 a fact, and that these latent or dormant impressions 
 
2S Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 of previous lives are the chief factors in moulding 
 the individual character without depending upon the 
 memory of the past. Because we cannot remember 
 our past, because of the loss of memory of the par- 
 ticular events, the soul's progress is not arrested. 
 The soul will continue to progress further and fur- 
 ther, even though the memory may be weak. 
 
 Each individual soul possesses this storehouse of 
 previous experiences in the background, in the sub- 
 conscious mind. Take the instance of two lovers. 
 What is love? It is the attraction between two 
 souls. This love does not die with the death of the 
 body. True love survives death and continues to 
 grow, to become stronger and stronger. Eventually 
 it brings the two souls together and makes them one. 
 The theory of pre-existence alone can explain why 
 two souls at first sight know each other and be- 
 come attached to each other by the tie of friend- 
 ship. This mutual love will continue to grow and 
 will become stronger, and in the end will bring these 
 lovers together, no matter where they go. Therefore, 
 Vedanta does not say that the death of the body 
 will end the attraction or the attachment of two 
 souls; but as the souls are immortal so their relation 
 will continue forever. 
 
Reincarnation. 29 
 
 The Yogis know how to develop memory and how 
 to read past lives. They say, time and space exist 
 in relation to our present mental condition; if we 
 can rise above this plane, our higher mind sees the 
 past and future just as we see things before our 
 eyes. Those who wish to satisfy the idle curiosity 
 of their minds may spend their energy by trying 
 to recollect their past lives. But I think it will 
 be much more helpful to us if we devote our time 
 and energy in moulding our future and in trying 
 to be better than we are now, because the recollec- 
 tion of our former condition would only force us 
 to make a bad use of the present. How unhappy 
 he must be who knows that the wicked deeds of 
 his past life will surely react on him and will bring 
 distress, misery, unhappiness or suffering within a 
 few days or a few months. Such a man would be so 
 restless and unhappy that he would not be able to 
 do any work properly; he would constantly think in 
 what form misery would appear to him. He would 
 not be able to eat or even sleep. He would be 
 most miserable. Therefore we ought to regard it 
 as a great blessing that we do not recollect our 
 past lives and past deeds. Vedanta says, do not 
 waste your valuable time in thinking of your past 
 
30 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 lives, do not look backward during the tiresome 
 journey through the different stages of evolution, 
 always look foi-ward and try first to attain to the 
 highest point of spiritual development; then if you 
 want to know your past lives you will recollect 
 them all. Nothing will remain unknown to you, 
 the Knower of the universe. When the all-knowing 
 Divine Self will manifest through you, time and 
 space will vanish and past and future will be changed 
 into the eternal present. Then you will say as Sri 
 Krishna said to Arjuna, in the "Bhagavad Gita:" — 
 *'Both you and I have passed through many 
 lives; you do not recollect any, but I know tbem 
 aU." (Ch.iv.,5.) 
 
II. 
 
 HEREDITY AND REINCARNATION. 
 
 Those who accept the theory of heredity deny the 
 existence of the human soul as an entity separable 
 from the gross physical organism. Consequently 
 they do not discuss the question whether the indi- 
 vidual soul existed in the past or wiU continue to 
 exist after the death of the body. This kind of 
 question does not disturb their minds. They gener- 
 ally maintain that the individual soul is inseparable 
 from the body or the brain or nervous system; con- 
 sequently what we call soul or the conscious entity 
 or the thinker is produced along with the birth of the 
 organism or brain, lasts as long as the body lasts and 
 dies when the organism is dissolved into its elements. 
 But those, on the other hand, who accept the theory 
 of Reincarnation admit the existence of soul as a 
 
 conscious entity which is independent of the physical 
 
 31 
 
32 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 organsim, that it continues to live after death and 
 that it existed before the birth of the body. 
 
 The theory of heredity has always been supported 
 by the materialistic scientists, atheists and agnostics 
 of all ages and also by those who believe in the special 
 creation of the first man and woman at a certain defi- 
 nite time and that their qualities, character, life 
 and soul have been transmitted to all humanity 
 through successive generations. The commonly ac- 
 cepted meaning of the theory of heredity is that all 
 the well-marked peculiarities, both physical and 
 mental, in the parents are handed on to the children; 
 or, in other words, heredity is that property of an 
 organism by which its peculiar nature is trans- 
 mitted to its descendants. 
 
 In the whole history of humanity there has never 
 been a time when this question of heredity has been 
 discussed so minutely and in so many different ways 
 as it has been in the present century. Although 
 this theory was known in the East by the ancient 
 Vedanta philosophers, by the Buddhists of the pre- 
 Christian era and by the Greek philosophers in the 
 West, still it has received a new impetus and has 
 grown with new strength since the introduction of 
 the Darwinian theory of the evolution of species. 
 
Heredity and Reincarnation. 33 
 
 Along with the latest discoveries in physiology, 
 biology, embryology and other branches of modern 
 science, the popular simple meaning of heredity — 
 that the offspring not only resemble their parents 
 among animals as well as among men, but inherit 
 all the individual pecuharities, life and character 
 of their parents — has taken the shape of the most 
 comphcated and difficult problem which it is almost 
 impossible to solve. Our minds are no longer satis- 
 fied with Haeckel's definition that heredity is simply 
 an overgrowth of the individual, a simple continuity 
 of growth; but we want to know the particular 
 method by which hereditary transmission takes place. 
 We ask, how can a single cell reproduce the whole 
 body of the offspring, its mind, character and all 
 the pecuharities of an organism? Out of the myriads 
 of cells of which a body is composed, what kind of 
 cell is that which possesses the power of reproducing 
 the peculiarities, both mental and physical, which 
 are to be found in the form of the new-born babe? 
 This is the most puzzling of all the problems which 
 the scientific mind has ever encountered. The 
 fundamental question connected with the theory of 
 heredity is: How can a single cell of the body contain 
 within itself all the hereditary tendencies of the 
 
34 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 whole organism and the nature, mind and soul of 
 the parents? Darwin's theory of Pangenesis,* which 
 is only a renewed form of a similar old theory started 
 by the Greek philosopher Democritus,t does not 
 explain the problem satisfactorily. On the other 
 hand, Professor Galton, Professor Roth, August 
 Weismann and others of the same school have dis- 
 proved it. These scientists, after closer observation 
 and experiment, have raised strong objections against 
 the commonly accepted theory of heredity, and 
 have said that "acquired characters" are never 
 transmitted. The parents may acquire certain 
 characters by their individual efforts, but they can- 
 not transmit them to their children. August Weis- 
 mann says: "an organism cannot acquire anything 
 unless it has the predisposition to acquire it." 
 ("Heredity,"Vol. I, p. 171.) 
 
 * Darwin's provisional hypothesis of Pangenesis teaches: 
 ' ' Particles of an excessively minute size are continually 
 given off from all the cells of the body; these particles collect 
 in the reproductive cells, and hence any change arising in 
 the organism, at any time during its life, is represented in 
 the reproductive cell." — Darwin, "The Variation of Animals 
 and Plants under Domestication," Vol. II, pp. 349-399. 
 
 t According to Democritus, the sperm is secreted from 
 all parts of the body of both sexes during intercourse and is 
 animated by a bodily force; that is, the sperm from each 
 part of the body reproduces the same part. 
 
Heredity and Reincarnation. 35 
 
 Many of you are already familiar with Weismann's 
 theory of the "continuity of the germ-plasm." He 
 denies the old theory that we inherit everything 
 from our parents, or that the hereditary tendencies 
 of the parents predominate in one child, of the 
 grandfather in another, those of the grandmother in 
 a third, and of the great-grandfather, or great-great- 
 grandmother in the fourth; but he has simphfied 
 this whole problem by admitting the existence of 
 a substance which he calls "germ-plasm." He says 
 that heredity is brought about by the transference 
 from one generation to another of a substance with 
 a definite chemical and, above all, molecular con- 
 stitution, and he calls this substance "germ-plasm." 
 
 Dr. Weismann believes that this germ-plasm con- 
 tains the potentialities of all the tendencies which 
 are developed in an individual and that the proto- 
 plasmic molecules possess the power of growing, 
 that is, of assimilating food and of increasing by 
 means of division. These germ-cells or germ- 
 plasms continue from one generation to another. 
 "They possess the same molecular constitution, 
 and they would therefore pass through exactly the 
 same stages under certain conditions of development 
 and would form the same final product. The 
 
36 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 hypothesis of the continuity of the germ-plasm gives 
 an identical starting-point to each successive genera- 
 tion, and thus explains how it is that an identical 
 product arises from all of them. In other words, 
 the hypothesis explains heredity as part of the under- 
 lying problems of assimilation and of the causes 
 which act directly during ontogeny." (Vol. I, 
 p. 170.) 
 
 According to Weismann, all the peculiarities 
 which we find in an organism are not inherited by 
 the organism from that of the parents, but he says: 
 *' Nothing can arise in an organism unless the pre- 
 disposition to it is pre-existent, for every acquired 
 character is simply the reaction of the organism upon 
 a certain stimulus." (Vol. I, p. 172.) Therefore 
 the germ-cells do not inherit all the peculiarities of 
 the parents, but possess the predisposition or a po- 
 tentiality of the tendencies which gradually develop 
 into individual characters. 
 
 We shall be able to understand his theory better 
 from the following quotations, which give his own 
 words. He says: "I have called this substance 
 'germ-plasm,' and have assumed that it possesses a 
 highly complex structure, conferring upon it the 
 power of developing into a complex organism." 
 
Heredity and Reincarnation. 37 
 
 ("Heredity," Vol. I, p. 170.) Again he says: 
 "There is, therefore, continuity of the germ- 
 plasm from one generation to another. One might 
 represent the germ-plasm by the metaphor of a 
 long, creeping rootstock from which plants arise at 
 intervals, these latter representing the individuals of 
 successive generations. Hence it follows that the 
 transmission of acguired characters is an impossi- 
 bihty, for if the germ-plasm is not formed anew in 
 each individual, but is derived from that which pre- 
 ceded it, its structure, and, above all, its molecular 
 constitution, cannot depend upon the individual in 
 which it happens to occur, but such an individual 
 only forms, as it were, the nutritive soil at the ex- 
 pense of which the germ-plasm grows, while the lat- 
 ter possessed its characteristic structure from the 
 beginning, viz., before the commencement of growth. 
 But the tendencies of heredity, of which the germ- 
 plasm is the bearer, depend upon this very molecu- 
 lar structure, and hence only those characters can be 
 transmitted through successive generations which 
 have been previously inherited, viz., those characters 
 which were potentially contained in the structure 
 of the germ-plasm. It also follows that those other 
 characters which have been acquired by the influ- 
 
38 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 ence of special external conditions, during the life- 
 time of the parent, cannot be transmitted at all." 
 (Vol. I, p. 273.) In conclusion, Weismann writes: 
 *'But at all events we have gained this much, 
 that the only facts which appear to directly prove 
 a transmission of acquired characters have been re- 
 futed, and that the only firm foundation on which 
 this hypothesis has been hitherto based has been 
 destroyed." (Vol. I, p. 461.) 
 
 Thus we see how far the theory of heredity has 
 been pushed by the great scientific investigators of 
 the present age. We have no longer any right to be- 
 lieve in the old oft-refuted hypothesis which assumes 
 that each individual organism produces germ-cells 
 afresh again and again and transmits all its powers 
 developed and acquired by the parents; but, on the 
 contrary, we have come to know to-day that parents 
 are nothing but mere channels through which these 
 germ-plasms or germ-cells manifest their peculiar 
 tendencies and powers which existed in them from 
 the very beginning. The main point is that the 
 germs are not created by the parents, but that they 
 existed in previous generations. 
 
 Now, what are those germs like? Wherefrom do 
 they acquire these tendencies, these peculiarities? 
 
Heredity and Reincarnation. 39 
 
 That is another very difficult problem. Dr. Weis- 
 mann and his followers say that these peculiarities are 
 gained or inherited "from the common stock," but 
 what that common stock is they do not explain. 
 Where is that common stock and why will certain 
 germs acquire certain tendencies and other germs 
 retain other peculiarities? What regulates them? 
 These questions are not solved. So far we have 
 gathered from Dr. Weismann's explanation that the 
 parents are not the creators of the germs but, on 
 the contrary, that the germs existed before the birth 
 of the body, before the growth of the body, in pre- 
 vious generations, or in the common stock of the 
 universe. The previous generations are dead and 
 gone, so we may say that they existed in the universe. 
 We cannot now believe the old, crude, often-refuted 
 idea that God creates the germ at the time of birth 
 and puts into it all the powers and peculiarities of 
 the parents. This theory makes God unjust and 
 partial, so it does not appeal to us any more. We 
 need better and more rational explanations. The 
 one-birth theory, which has been preached by Chris- 
 tian ministers and other religionists for so many 
 years, does not remove the difficulties, does not ex- 
 plain the cause of the inequalities and diversities, does 
 
40 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 not answer the question whether we acquire all the 
 tendencies and peculiarities of the parents or whether 
 acquired characters cannot be transmitted. We have 
 already seen that these questions are left unsolved 
 by the one-birth theory of Christianity and of 
 Judaism. But this theory of "continuity of the 
 germ-plasm " pushes the question of heredity to the 
 door of Reincarnation. If modem science can ex- 
 plain what that common stock is and why and how 
 these germs retain those peculiarities and tendencies, 
 then the answer will be complete and not until then. 
 The Vedanta philosophy, however, has already ex- 
 plained the cause of the potentiality in the germ of 
 life or "germ-plasm" or germ-cell. 
 
 Vedanta solves this difficulty by saying that each 
 of these germ-plasms or germ-cells is nothing but the 
 subtle form of a reincarnating individual, containing 
 potentially all the experiences, characters, tendencies, 
 and desires which one had in one's previous life. It 
 existed before the birth of the body and it will con- 
 tinue after the death of the body. This germ or 
 subtle body is not the same as the astral body of the 
 Theosophists, or the double of the metaphysical 
 thinkers or the disembodied spirit of the Spiritualists; 
 but it is an ethereal center of activity — physical, 
 
Heredity and Reincarnation. 41 
 
 mental and organic. It is a center which possesses 
 the tendency to manifest these powers on different 
 planes of existence. It contains the minute particles 
 of matter or ethereal substance and the life principle 
 or vital energy by which we live and move. It also 
 possesses the mental powers and sense powers; but 
 all these remain latent, just as in a seed we see that 
 the powers of growth, of assimilation and of pro- / 
 ducing flowers and fruits are latent. 
 
 At the time of death the individual soul contracts 
 and remains in the form of a germ of life. It is for 
 this reason, Vedanta teaches, that it is neither the 
 will of God nor the fault of the parents that forms 
 the characters of children, but each child is respon- 
 sible for its tendencies, capacities, powers and char- 
 acter. It is its own "Karma" or past actions that 
 make a child a murderer or a saint, virtuous or sinful. 
 The stored-up potentialities in a subtle body manifest 
 in the character of an individual. 
 
 The argument advanced by the supporters of the 
 theory of hereditary transmission does not furnish 
 a satisfactory explanation of the cause of the in- 
 equalities and diversities of the universe. Why is it 
 that the children of the same parents show a marked 
 dissimilarity to their parents and to each other? 
 
 y 
 
42 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 Why do twins develop into dissimilar characters and 
 possess opposite qualities, although they are born of 
 the same parents at the same time and brought up 
 under similar conditions and environments? How 
 can heredity explain such cases? Suppose a man 
 has five children; one is honest and saintly, another 
 is an idiot, the third becomes a murderer, the fourth 
 a genius or prodigy, and the fifth a cripple and dis- 
 eased. Who made these dissimilarities? They can- 
 not be accidents. There is no such thing as an 
 accident. Every event of the universe is bound by 
 the law of cause and effect. There must be some 
 cause of these inequalities. Who made one honest 
 and saintly, another an idiot, and so forth? Parents? 
 That cannot be. They never dreamed that they 
 would beget a murderer or a villain or an idiot. On 
 the contrary, all parents wish their children to be the 
 best and happiest. But in spite of such desires they 
 get such children. Why? What is the cause? Does 
 the theory of heredity explain it? No, not at all. 
 
 Suppose a man, twenty-four years old, who has 
 certain traits, like musical or artistic talents, such 
 as painting and so on, has a crooked nose and other 
 pecuharities, like cross-eyes, which resemble those of 
 his grandfather. Suppose his grandfather died six 
 
Heredity and Reincarnation. 43 
 
 years before he was born. Now, those who beheve 
 in the theory of heredity will say that this young man 
 inherited all these pecuHarities from his grandfather. 
 When did he inherit? His grandfather had died six 
 years before he was bom. He inherited, of course, 
 in the form of that germ. What is that germ hke? 
 A minute protoplasm, a jelly-Hke substance, and if 
 you examine it with a powerful microscope you will 
 hardly find any difference between it and the proto- 
 plasmic germ of a dog, or of a cat, or of a tree. It is 
 smaller than a pin's head. And in that state this 
 young man inherited all these pecuharities from 
 his grandfather; or, in other words, before he had a 
 nose, he got a crooked nose; before he had eyes, he 
 inherited cross-eyes, and before he had any brain, 
 he inherited all the wonderful powers — his musical 
 and artistic talents. Does it not seem absurd to you? 
 Even if we admit this theory of heredity, then what 
 do we understand? That the whole of this youn§ 
 man existed in the form of a protoplasm before he 
 was born. His cross-eyes, his crooked nose, his 
 artistic talents — all these pre-existed in the form of 
 a protoplasmic cell. This leads up to the same thing 
 which is taught by the theory of Reincarnation, or, 
 in other words, if it be possible for this young man 
 
44 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 to remain in the form of a protoplasm and inherit all 
 these things before his birth, why cannot we believe 
 that the soul or the subtle body of this young man 
 possessed them from the very beginning? According 
 to Vedanta this young man was not the creature of 
 his grandfather, but he had his own independent 
 existence; only by coming through the channel of 
 his parents he had received certain characteristic 
 impressions, just as a tree in its process of growth 
 will receive from the environments certain peculiar- 
 ities when it assimilates those properties. 
 
 The doctrine of Reincarnation alone can explain 
 satisfactorily and rationally the diversities among 
 children and the reason of the many instances of un- 
 common powers and genius displayed in childhood. 
 The theory of heredity has up to this time failed to 
 give any good reason for them. Why is it that 
 Pascal, when twelve years old, succeeded in dis- 
 covering for himself the greater part of plane geom- 
 etry. How could the shepherd Mangiamelo, when 
 five years old, calculate like an arithmetical machine. 
 Think of the child Zerah Colbum: when he was 
 under eight years of age he could solve the most 
 tremendous mathematical problems instantly and 
 without using any figures. '*In one instance he 
 
Heredity and Reincarnation. 45 
 
 took the number 8 and raised it up progressively 
 to the si: teenth power and instantly mentioned the 
 result wliich contained 15 figures — 281,474,976,710,- 
 656." Of course he was right in every figure. 
 When asked the square root of numbers consisting 
 of six figures, he would state the result instantly 
 with perfect accuracy. He used to give the cube 
 root of numbers in the hundreds of millions the very 
 moment when it was asked. Somebody asked him 
 once how many minutes there were in 48 years, he 
 answered, 25,288,800. 
 
 Mozart, the great musician, wrote a sonata when he 
 was four years old and an opera in his eighth year. 
 Theresa Milanolla played the violin with such skill 
 that many people thought that she must have played 
 before her birth. There are many such instances of 
 wonderful powers exhibited by artists and painters 
 when they were quite young. Sankaracharya, the 
 great commentator of the Vedanta philosophy, 
 finished his commentary when he was twelve years 
 old. How can such cases be explained by the theory 
 of hereditary transmission? Many of you have 
 heard of the wonderful musical talents of Blind 
 Tom. This bhnd negro slave was born on his master's 
 plantation and was brought up as a typical negro. 
 
46 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 He received no training in music or in any other 
 line. One day when his master's fcimily were at 
 dinner he happened to come into his master's parlor 
 and displayed his marvelous musical power for the 
 first time by playing on his master's piano. After- 
 wards he was exhibited in different states of this 
 country. Physically he was nothing but a typical 
 negro. His intellect was very poor, but in music 
 he was a master. His musical talents were so great 
 that he composed music for himself and played his 
 own compositions. Sometimes after hearing a* new 
 piece of rapid music once, he could reproduce it note 
 for note. Where did he get all these powers? From 
 whom did he inherit them? His parents perhaps 
 never heard of a piano. He never had a lesson in his 
 life, and he could not have understood even if he 
 had had any. Not long ago I saw a girl of about 
 six years, who played the piano most beautifully 
 and who could reproduce the most difficult music 
 after hearing it once. It seems to me that she must 
 have played the piano in her previous incarnation. 
 This is the only explanation that we can give. 
 
 Does heredity explain such cases? No. These 
 illustrations are sufficient to disprove the theory of 
 ' ' cumulative heredity." ' ' Cumulative ' ' means grad- 
 ualness. The believers in this theory say that a 
 
Heredity and Reincarnation. 47 
 
 genius is the result of cumulative heredity, that is, it 
 presents itself by degrees from less genius to greater 
 and still greater and so on. In the whole history 
 of the genealogy of geniuses, like Homer, Plato, 
 Shakespeare, Goethe, Raphael, there never was in 
 their families almost Plato, almost Shakespeare, or 
 almost Goethe. Neither is it possible to trace the 
 extraordinary powers of any of these back to any 
 member of their ancestral line. Therefore we can 
 say that no other theory than that of Reincarnation 
 can explain satisfactorily the causes which produce 
 geniuses and prodigies in this world. 
 
 Those who accept the truth of Reincarnation do 
 not blame their parents for their poor talents, or for 
 not possessing extraordinary powers, but they remain 
 content with their own lot, knowing that they have 
 made themselves as they are to-day by their own 
 thoughts and deeds in their previous incarnations. 
 They understand the meaning of the saying "what 
 thou sowest thou must reap," and always endeavor 
 to mould their future by better thoughts and better 
 deeds. They explain all the inequalities and di- 
 versities of life and character by the law of " Karma,'* 
 which governs the process of Reincarnation as well 
 as the gradual evolution of the germs of life from 
 lower to higher stages of existence. 
 
III. 
 
 EVOLUTION AND REINCARNATION. 
 
 The amazing achievements of modem science 
 have been opening every day new gates of wisdom 
 and slowly bringing human minds nearer and nearer 
 to the ultimate reality of the universe. The fire of 
 knowledge kindled by science has already burnt 
 down many dogmas and beliefs, held sacred by the 
 superstition of the past, which stood in the way of 
 truth-seeking minds. In the first place science has 
 disproved the theory of the creation of the universe 
 out of nothing by the action of some supernatural 
 power. It has shown that the universe did not 
 appear in its present form or come into existence 
 all of a sudden only a few thousand years ago, but 
 that it has taken ages to pass through different 
 stages before it could reach its present condition. 
 
 Each of these stages was directly related to a pre- 
 
 48 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 49 
 
 vious stage by the law of causation, which ahvays 
 operates in accordance with definite rules. The 
 phenomena of the universe, according to science, 
 are subject to evolution, or gradual change and 
 progressive development from a relatively uniform 
 condition to a relative complexity. From the 
 greatest solar system down to the smallest blade 
 of grass, everything in the universe has taken its 
 present shape and form through this cosmic process 
 of evolution . Our planet earth has gradually evolved, 
 perhaps out of a nebulous mass which existed at 
 first in a gaseous state. The sun, moon, stars, satel- 
 lites and other planets have come into existence by 
 going through innumerable changes produced by 
 the evolutionary process of the Cosmos. Through 
 the same process plants, insects, fishes, reptiles, 
 birds, animals, man, and all living matter that in- 
 habit this earth have evolved from minute germs of 
 life into their present forms. The theory of Evolu- 
 tion says that man did not come into existence all 
 of a sudden, but is related to lower animals and to 
 plants, either directly or indirectly. The germ of 
 life had passed through various stages of physical 
 form before it could appear as a man. That branch 
 of science which is called Embryology has proved 
 
50 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 the fact that "man is the epitome of the whole cre- 
 ation." It tells that the human body before its birth 
 passes through all the different stages of the animal 
 kingdom — ^such as the pol}^, fish, reptile, dog, ape, 
 and at last, man. If we remember that nature is 
 always consistent, that her laws are uniform and that 
 whatever exists in the microcosm exists also in the 
 macrocosm, and then study nature, we shall find 
 that all the germs of life which exist in the universe 
 are bound to pass through stages resembUng the 
 embryonic types before they can appear in the form 
 of man. 
 
 In explaining the theory of Evolution, science says 
 that there are two principal factors in the process of 
 evolution; the first is the tendency to vary, which 
 exists in all living forms whether vegetable or 
 animal; the second is the tendency of environment 
 to influence that variation, either favorably or un- 
 favorably. Without the first, evolution of any kind 
 would be absolutely impossible. But the cause of 
 that innate tendency to vary is still unknown to 
 science. Upon the second depends the law of 
 natural selection. The variation must be adapted to 
 favorable conditions of life; consequently either the 
 germ of life will select suitable environments or 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 51 
 
 vary itself in order to suit the surrounding conditions, 
 if they are unfavorable. But the agent of this 
 selective process is the struggle for existence, which 
 is a no less important factor. Thus Evolution de- 
 pends on these three laws: Tendency to vary, or 
 variation, natural selection, and struggle for exist- 
 ence. Science tries to explain through these three 
 laws the physical, mental, intellectual, moral and 
 spiritual evolution of mankind. But the theory of 
 Evolution will remain unintelligible until science can 
 trace the cause of that innate "tendency to vary" 
 which exists in every stage of all living forms. 
 
 If we study closely we find that man's "self" 
 consists of two natures, one animal and the other 
 moral or spiritual. Animal nature includes all the 
 animal propensities, desire for sense enjoyments, 
 love of self, fear of death and struggle for existence. 
 Each of these is to be found in lower animals as well 
 as in human beings, the difference being only in 
 degree and not in kind. In a savage tribe the ex- 
 pression of this animal nature is simple and natural, 
 while in a highly civihzed nation it is expressed not 
 in a simple and straightforward manner, but in an 
 artful and refined way. In a civihzed community 
 the same nature working through varied device, 
 
52 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 policy and plan brings the same results in a more 
 polished form. In the struggle for existence 
 amongst lower animals and savage tribes, those who 
 are physically strong survive and gain advantage 
 over those who are physically weak; while in the 
 civilized world the same result is obtained, not by 
 displaying physical force, but by art, diplomacy, 
 policy, strategy and skill. Various kinds of de- 
 fensive and offensive weapons have been invented 
 to conquer those who are less skillful in using them, 
 although they may be physically stronger. The 
 simple expression of animal nature which we notice 
 in savages and lower animals, by the natural process 
 of evolution has gradually become more and more 
 complex, as we find in the civihzed nations of the 
 world. The energy of the lower human nature is 
 spent chiefly in the struggle for material existence. 
 But there is another nature in man which is higher 
 than this. It expresses itself in various ways, but 
 on a higher plane. Love of truth, mastery over pas- 
 sion, control of the senses, disinterested self-sacri- 
 fice, mercy and kinaness to aU creatures, desire to 
 help the distressed, forgiveness, faith in a Supreme 
 Being and devotion; all these are the expressions 
 of that higner moral and spiritual nature. They 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 53 
 
 cannot be explained as developed from animal 
 nature by means of the struggle for material exist- 
 ence. For these qualities are not to be found in 
 lower animals, although the struggle for existence 
 is there. The moral and spiritual nature of human 
 beings cannot be traced as the outgrowth or gradual 
 development of the animal nature. There is a dis- 
 pute among the Evolutionists as to the method of 
 explaining their cause. Some say that these higher 
 faculties have evolved out of the lower ones and 
 have developed by variation and natural selection; 
 while others hold that some other higher influence, 
 law or agency is required to account for them. 
 
 Professor Huxley says: "As I have already urged, 
 the practice of that which is ethically best — what we 
 call goodness or virtue — involves a course of conduct 
 which in all respects is opposed to that which leads 
 to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In 
 place of ruthless self-assertion, it demands self- 
 restraint; in place of thrusting aside or treading 
 down all competitors, it requires that the individual 
 shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows; 
 its influence is directed not so much to the survival 
 of the fittest as to the fitting of as many as possible 
 to survive. It repudiates the gladiatorial theory of 
 
54 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 existence. It demands that each man who enters 
 into the enjoyment of the advantages of a polity 
 shall be mindful of his debt to those who have 
 laboriously constructed it, and shall take heed that 
 no act of his w^eakens the fabric in which he has been 
 permitted to hve. Laws and moral precepts are 
 directed to the end of curbing the cosmic process, 
 and reminding the individual of his duty to the com- 
 munity, to the protection and influence of which he 
 owes, if not existence itself, at least the hfe of some- 
 thing better than a brutal savage." {" Evolution and 
 Ethics," pp. 81-82.) 
 
 Prof. Calderwood says: "So far as human organ- 
 ism is concerned, there seem no overwhelming 
 obstacles to be encountered by an evolution theory, 
 but it seems impossible under such a theory to 
 account for the appearance of the thinking, self- 
 regulating hfe distinctly human." Thus, according 
 to some of the best thinkers, the explanation of the 
 moral and spiritual nature of man as a development 
 of the animal nature, is quite insufficient and unsatis- 
 factory. The theory of natural selection in the 
 struggle for existence cannot explain the cause of 
 the higher nature of man. We cannot say that a 
 theory is complete because it explains many facts. 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 55 
 
 On the contrary, if it fails to explain a single fact, 
 then it is proved to be incomplete. As such, the 
 theory that cannot explain satisfactorily the cause 
 of the moral and spiritual nature of man cannot 
 be accepted as a complete theory. That explana- 
 tion will be considered as complete which will ex- 
 plain most satisfactorily all the various manifesta- 
 tions of the animal, moral and spiritual nature. 
 Moreover, supposing the "tendency to vary" has 
 evolved into the moral and spiritual nature of man, 
 science does not explain the cause of that tendency 
 to vary, nor how animal nature can be transformed 
 into moral and spiritual nature. Is that "tendency 
 to vary" indefinite, or is it limited by any definite 
 law? Science does not say anything about it. 
 
 The explanation of the theologians, that the 
 spiritual nature has been superadded to the animal 
 nature by some extra-cosmic spiritual agency is not 
 scientific, nor does it appeal to our reason. 
 
 Now let us see what Vedanta has to say on this 
 point. Vedanta accepts evolution and admits the 
 laws of variation and natural selection, but goes 
 a step beyond modem science by explaining the 
 cause of that "tendency to vary." It says, "there 
 is nothing in the end which was not also in the 
 
56 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 beginning." It is a law which governs the process 
 of evolution as well as the law of causation. If we 
 admit this grand truth of nature, then it will not be 
 difficult to explain by the theory of Evolution the 
 gradual manifestation of the higher nature of man. 
 The tendency of scientific monism is towards that end. 
 Some of the modem scientists who hold the mon- 
 istic position have found out the same truth which 
 was discovered long ago by the Vedantic philosophers 
 in India. J. Arthur Thomson, an eminent English 
 scientist of the present day, in his book on "The 
 Study of Animal Life," says: "The world is one, not 
 two-fold, the spiritual influx is the primal reality and 
 there is nothing in the end which was not also in the 
 beginning." But the evolutionists do not accept 
 this truth. Let us understand it clearly. It means 
 that that which existed potentially at the time of the 
 beginning of evolution has gradually manifested 
 in the various stages and grades of evolution. If we 
 admit that a unicellular germ of life or a bioplasm, 
 after passing through various stages of evolution, 
 has ultimately manifested in the form of a highly 
 developed human being, then we shall have to admit 
 the potentiality of all the manifested powers in that 
 germ or bioplasm, because the law is "that which 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 57 
 
 exists in the end existed also in the beginning." 
 The animal nature, higher nature, mind, intellect, 
 spirit, all these exist potentially in the germ of hfe. 
 If we do not admit this law then the problem will 
 arise: How can non-existence become existent? 
 How can something come out of nothing? How 
 can that come into existence which did not exist 
 before? Each germ of life, according to Vedanta, 
 possesses infinite potentialities and infinite possibili- 
 ties. The powers that remain latent have the 
 natural tendency to manifest perfectly and to be- 
 come actual. In their attempt they vary according 
 to the surrounding environments, selecting suitable 
 conditions or remaining latent as long as circum- 
 stances do not favor them. Therefore variation, 
 according to Vedanta, is caused by this attempt of 
 the potential powers to become actual. When life 
 and mind began to evolve, the possibilities of action 
 and reaction hitherto latent in the germ of life became 
 real and all things became, in a sense, new. Nobody 
 can imagine the amount of latent power which a 
 minute germ of life possesses until it expresses in gross 
 forni on the physical plane. By seeing the seed of 
 a Banyan tree, one who has never seen the tree can- 
 not imagine what powers lie dormant in it. WTien a 
 
58 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 baby is bom we cannot tell whether he will be a 
 great saint, or a wonderful artist, or a philosopher, 
 or an idiot, or a villain of the worst type. Parents 
 know nothing about his future. Along with his 
 growth certain latent powers gradually begin to 
 manifest. Those which are the strongest and most 
 powerful will overcome others and check their course 
 for some time; but when the powers that remain 
 subdued by stronger ones get favorable conditions 
 they will appear in manifested forms. As, for in- 
 stance, chemical forces may slumber in matter for a 
 thousand years, but when the contact with the re- 
 agents sets them free, they appear again and produce 
 certain results. For thousands of years galvanism 
 slumbered in copper and zinc, which lay quietly 
 beside silver. As soon as all three are brought 
 together under the required conditions silver is 
 consumed in flame. A dry seed of a plant may pre- 
 serve the slumbering power of growth through two 
 or three thousand years and then reappear under 
 favorable conditions. Sir G. Wilkinson, the great 
 archaeologist, found some grains of wheat in a her- 
 metically sealed vase in a grave at Thebes, which 
 must have lain there for three thousand years. When 
 Mr. Pettigrew sowed them they grew into plants. 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 59 
 
 Some vegetable roots found in the hands of an 
 Egyptian mummy, which must have been at least 
 two thousand years old, were planted in a flower-pot, 
 and they grew and flourished. Thus, whenever the 
 latent powers get favorable conditions, they manifest 
 according to their nature, even after thousands of 
 years. 
 
 Similarly, there are many instances of slumber- 
 ing mental powers. After remaining dormant for 
 a long period in our normal condition, they may, 
 in certain abnormal states — such as madness, deUr- 
 ium, catalepsy, hypnotic sleep and so forth — flash 
 out into luminous consciousness and throw into abso- 
 lute oblivion the powers that are manifesting in the 
 normal state. Talents for eloquence, music, paint- 
 ing, and uncommon ingenuity in several mechanical 
 arts, traces of which were never found in the ordinary 
 normal condition, are often evolved in the state 
 of madness. Somnambulists in deep sleep have 
 solved most difficult mathematical problems and per- 
 formed various acts with results which have surprised 
 them in their normal waking states. Thus we can 
 understand that each individual mind is the store- 
 house of many powers, various impressions and ideas, 
 30me of which manifest in our normal state, while 
 
60 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 others remain latent. Our present condition of mind 
 and body is nothing but the manifested form of 
 certain dormant powers that exist in ourselves. If 
 new powers are roused up and begin to manifest the 
 whole nature will be changed into a new form. The 
 manifestation of latent powers is at the bottom of 
 the evolution of one species into another. This idea 
 has been expressed in a few words by Patanjali, the 
 great Hindu evolutionist who lived long before the 
 Christian era.* In the second aphorism of the 
 fourth chapter (see " Raja Yoga," by Swami Vive- 
 k^nanda, p. 210) it is said, "The Evolution into 
 another species is caused by the in-filling of nature." 
 
 * The reader ought to know that the doctrine of Evolution 
 was known in India long before the Christian era. About 
 the seventh century, B. C, Kapila, the father of Hindu 
 Evolutionists, explained this theory for the first time through 
 logic and science. 
 
 Sir Monier Monier Williams says : * ' Indeed if I may be 
 allowed the anachronism, the Hindus were Spinozites more 
 than 2,000 years before the existence of Spinoza; and Dar- 
 winians many centuries before Darwin; and Evolutionists 
 many centuries before the doctrine of Evolution had been 
 accepted by the scientists of our time and before any word 
 like Evolution existed in any language of the world." 
 (P. 12, "Hinduism and Brahminism.") Prof. Huxley says: 
 " To say nothing of Indian Sages to whom Evolution was 
 a familiar notion ages before Paul of Tarsus was bom." 
 (P. 150, "Science and Hebrew Tradition.") 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 61 
 
 The nature is filled not from without but from within. 
 Nothing is superadded to the individual soul from 
 outside. The germs are already there, but their de- 
 velopment depends upon their coming in contact 
 with the necessary conditions requisite for proper 
 manifestation. We sometimes see a wicked man sud- 
 denly become saintlike. There are instances of 
 murderers and robbers becoming saints. A relig- 
 ionist will explain the cause of their sudden change, 
 by saying that the grace of the Almighty has fallen 
 upon them and transformed their whole nature. 
 But Vedanta says that the moral and spiritual powers 
 that remained latent in them have been roused up, 
 and the result is the sudden transformation. None 
 can tell when or how the slumbering powers will 
 wake up and begin to manifest. The germ of life, or 
 the individual soul as it is ordinarily called, possesses 
 infinite possibilities. Each germ of hfe is studying, 
 as it were, the book of its own nature by unfolding 
 one page after another. When it has gone through 
 all the pages, or, in other words, all the stages of 
 evolution, perfect knowledge is acquired, and its 
 course is finished. We have read our lower nature 
 by turning each page, or, in other words, by passing 
 through each stage of animal life from the minutest 
 
62 Vedanta Phil'osophy. 
 
 bioplasm up to the present stage of existence. Now 
 we are studying the pages which deal with moral 
 and spiritual laws. If any one wants to read any 
 page over again he will do it. Just as in reading a 
 book, if anybody feels particularly interested in any 
 page or chapter he will read it over and over again 
 and will not open a new page or a new chapter until 
 he is perfectly satisfied with it. Similarly, in reading 
 the book of life, if the individual soul likes any pai 
 ticular stage, he will stay there until he is perfectly 
 satisfied with it; after that he will go forward an 
 study other pages. One may read very slowly, and 
 another very fast; but whether we read slowly or 
 rapidly each one of us is bound to read the whole 
 book of nature and attain to perfection sooner or 
 later. 
 
 According to Vedanta, the end and aim of Evolu- 
 tion is the attainment of perfection. Physical evo- 
 lution of animal life reached its perfection in human 
 form. There cannot be any other form higher than 
 human on this earth under present conditions. It 
 is the perfection of animal form. From this we can 
 infer that the tendency of the law of Evolution is 
 to reach perfection. When it is attained to, the whole 
 purpose is served. Do we see in nature any other 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 63 
 
 higher form evolved out of the human body? No. 
 Shall we not be justified if we say that the end of 
 physical evolution is the attainment of the perfec- 
 tion of animal form? Again as the purpose and 
 method of natural laws are uniform throughout the 
 universe, the end of intellectual, moral and spiritual 
 evolution will be attained when intellectual, moral 
 and spiritual perfection are acquired. Intellectual 
 perfection means perfection of intellect; and intellect 
 is perfect when we understand the true nature of 
 things and never mistake the unreal for the real, 
 matter for spirit, non-eternal for eternal, or vice 
 versa. Moral perfection consists in the destruction 
 of selfishness; and spiritual perfection is the mani- 
 festation of the true nature of spirit which is im-~ 
 mortal, free, divine and one with the Universal Spirit 
 or God. Evolution attains to the highest fulfilment 
 of its purpose when the spirit manifests perfectly. 
 The tendency of nature is to have perfect mani- 
 festation of all her powers. When certain powers 
 predominate they manifest first while the others 
 remain dormant. As we find in the process of evo- 
 lution, when animal nature manifests perfectly the 
 morad and spiritual nature remain latent. Again 
 when moral and spiritual nature manifest fully, the 
 
64 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 animal is in abeyance. It is for this reason we do 
 not find expressions of moral and spiritual nature in 
 lower animals or in those human beings who live like 
 them. Man is the only animal in whom such perfect 
 expressions of moral and spiritual nature are possible. 
 When the individual soul begins to study its 
 spiritual nature, its lower or animal nature is gradu- 
 ally eclipsed. As the higher nature becomes power- 
 ful the lower nature dwindles into insignificance; 
 its energy is transformed into that of the higher 
 nature, and ultimately it disappears altogether and 
 rises no more. Then the soul becomes free from the 
 lower or animal nature. There are many stages in 
 the higher nature, as well as in the lower. Each 
 of these stages binds the individual soul so long as it 
 stays there. As it rises on a higher plane the lower 
 stages disappear and cease to bind. But the moment 
 that any individual, after passing through all the 
 stages of the spiritual nature, reaches the ultimate 
 point of perfection, he realizes his true nature which 
 is immortal and divine. Then his true individuality 
 manifests. For lack of true knowledge, he identified 
 himself with each stage successively and thought 
 that his individuality was one with the powers which 
 were manifested in each stage. Consequently he 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 65 
 
 thought by mistake that he was affected by the 
 changes of each stage. But now he reahzes that 
 his real individuahty ahvays remained unaffected. 
 He sees that his true individuahty shines ahvays in 
 the sam.e manner, although the limiting adjuncts 
 may vsiry. As the light of a lamp appears of differ- 
 ent colors if it passes through glasses of different 
 colors, so the light of the true individual appears 
 as animal or human when it passes through the 
 animal or human nature of the subtle body. The 
 subtle body of an individual changes from animal 
 nature through moral and spiritual into divine. As 
 this gradual growth cannot be expected in one life 
 we shall have to admit the truth of Reincarnation, 
 which teaches gradual evolution of the germ of life 
 or the individual soul through many lives and various 
 forms. Otherwise the theory of Evolution will re- 
 main imperfect, incomplete and purposeless. The 
 doctrine of Reincarnation differs from the accepted 
 theory of Evolution in admitting a gradual but con- 
 tinuous evolution of the subtle body through many 
 gross forms. The gross body may appear or disap- 
 pear, but the subtle body continues to exist even 
 after the dissolution of the gross body and re-mani- 
 fests itself in some other form. 
 
66 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 The theory of Reincarnation when properly under- 
 stood will appear as a supplement to the theory of 
 Evolution. Without this most important supple- 
 ment the Evolution theory will never be complete and 
 perfect. Evolution explains the process of life, while 
 Reincarnation explains the purpose of life. There- 
 fore, both must go hand in hand to make the ex- 
 planation satisfactory in every respect. 
 
 James Freeman Clarke says: "That man has come 
 up to his present state of development by passing 
 through lower forms, is the popular doctrine of 
 science to-day. What is called Evolution teaches 
 that we have reached our present state by a very 
 long and gradual ascent from the lowest animal 
 organizations. It is true that the Darwinian theory 
 takes no notice of the evolution of the soul, but only 
 of the body. But it appears to me that a combina- 
 tion of the two views would remove many difficulties 
 which still attach to the theory of natural selection 
 and the survival of the fittest. If we are to beheve 
 in Evolution let us have the assistance of the soul 
 itself in this development of new species. Thus 
 science and philosophy will co-operate, nor will 
 poetry hesitate to lend her aid." (P. 190, ''Ten 
 Great Religions," II.) Evolution of the body de- 
 
Evolution and Reincarnation. 67 
 
 pends upon the evolution of the germ of hfe or the 
 individual soul. When these two are combined the 
 explanation becomes perfect. 
 
 The theory of Reincarnation is a logical necessity 
 for the completion of the theory of Evolution. If we 
 admit a continuous evolution of a unit of the germ of 
 life through many gross manifestations then we un- 
 consciously accept the teachings of the doctrine of 
 Reincarnation. In passing through different forms 
 and manifestations the unit of life does not lose its 
 identity or individuality. As an atom does not lose 
 its identity or individuality (if you allow me to 
 suppose an atom has a kind of individuality ) although 
 it passes from the mineral, through the vegetable, 
 into the animal, so the germ of life always preserves 
 its identity or individuality although it passes through 
 the different stages of evolution. 
 
 Therefore it is said in the " Bhagavad Gita," as in 
 our ordinary life the individual soul passes from a 
 baby body to a young one and from a young to an 
 old, and carries with it all the impressions, ideas and 
 experience that it has gathered in its former stage 
 of existence and reproduces them in proper time, so 
 when a man dies the individual soul passes from an 
 old body into a new one, and takes with it the subtle 
 
 !t 
 
 I 
 
68 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 body wherein are stored up all that it experienced 
 and gathered during its past incarnations. Knowing 
 this, wise men are never afraid of death. They 
 know that death is nothing but a mere change from 
 one body into another. Therefore, if any one does 
 not succeed in conquering the lower nature by the 
 higher, he will try again in his next incarnation, 
 after starting from the point which he reached in his 
 past life. He will not begin again from the very 
 beginning, but from the last stage at which he 
 arrived. Thus we see that Reincarnation is the 
 logical sequence of evolution. It completes and 
 makes perfect that theory and explains the cause 
 of the moral and spiritual nature of man. 
 
IV. 
 
 WHICH IS SCIENTIFIC— RESURRECTION 
 OR REINCARNATION? 
 
 The students of history are interested to know 
 where the idea of resurrection first arose and how it 
 was adopted by other nations. If we read carefully 
 the writings ascribed to Moses and other writers of 
 the Old Testament we find that the ancient Israelites 
 did not believe in the Christian heaven or hell, nor 
 in reward or punishment after death. It is doubt- 
 ful whether they had any clear conception of the ex- 
 istence of soul after the dissolution of the human 
 body. They had no definite idea of the hereafter. 
 They did not believe in the resurrection either of 
 the soul or body. Job longed for death thinking 
 that it would end his mental agony. In Psalms 
 we read, "Wilt Thou shew wonders to the dead? 
 Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? " (Ps. Ixxxviii, 
 10.) "In death there is no remembrance of Thee; 
 
 in the grave who shall give Thee thanks?" (Ps. vi, 
 
 69 
 
70 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 5.) Again (Ps. cxlvi, 4) it is said about princes and 
 the son of man, — "His breath goeth forth, he re- 
 tumeth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts 
 perish." "The dead praise not the Lord, neither 
 any that go down into silence." (Ps. cxv, 17.) 
 
 Solomon speaks boldly: "All things come alike to 
 all; there is one event to the righteous and to the 
 wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the 
 unclean ... as is the good, so is the sinner." 
 (Eccl. ix, 2.) "Go thy way, eat thy bread with 
 joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. . . . 
 Live joyfully with thy wife ... for there is no 
 work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the 
 grave, whither thou goest." (Eccl. ix, 7, 9, 10.) 
 Again in verse 5 it is said: "The dead know not any- 
 thing, neither have they anymore a reward, for the 
 memory of them is forgotten." Solomon says: 
 "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth 
 beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one 
 dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one 
 breath, so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a 
 beast." "All go into one place; all are of the dust 
 and all turn to dust again." "Who knoweth the 
 spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the 
 beast that goeth downward to the earth?" (Eccl. 
 
Resurrection or Reincarnation? 71 
 
 iii, 19-21.) There are many such passages which 
 show clearly that before the Babylonian captivity the 
 Israelites had no belief in reward or punishment, 
 neither in heaven nor hell nor in the resurrection of 
 the soul. Some say that they had a belief in a sheol 
 or pit where departed souls remained after death, 
 but were never resurrected. But when the ancient 
 Jews were conquered by the Persians, 536 B.C., they 
 came in contact with a nation which had developed a 
 belief in one God, in a heaven and a hell, in the resur- 
 rection of the dead, in reward and punishment after 
 death, and in the last day of judgment. Under the 
 dominion of Persia, whose rule began with the cap- 
 ture of Babylon and lasted from 536-333 B.C., the 
 Jews were greatly influenced by the Persian religion. 
 They gave up their idolatry, gradually developed 
 social organization and had considerable liberty. 
 About that time the Jews were divided into two 
 classes, the Pharisees and Sadducees. Those who 
 adopted the religious ideas of the Parsees were called 
 Pharisees (according to some authorities the word 
 Pharisee was the Hebrew form of Parsee), and those 
 who followed strictly the Jewish ideas, ceremonies, 
 rituals and beliefs were called Sadducees. The 
 former were sharply opposed to the latter in their 
 
72 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 doctrinal beliefs. They believed in angels and 
 spirits, they expected the resurrection of the dead 
 and beUeved in future reward and punishment and 
 also in Divine pre-ordination. The Sadducees did 
 not step beyond the bounds of ancient Judaism. 
 They were Orthodox and very conservative in their 
 views. They denied the existence of angels and 
 spirits, the resurrection of the dead, and reward and 
 punishment after death. In Matt, xxii, 23, we read, 
 ''The same day came to him the Sadducees which 
 say that there is no resurrection." The Sadducees 
 were fewer in number than the Pharisees. Gradually 
 the latter grew very powerful and after the death of 
 Jesus their doctrines of the resurrection of the dead, 
 and of reward and punishment after death, and the 
 belief in angels and spirits, became the cardinal 
 principles of the new Christian sect. 
 
 Thus we see that the idea of resurrection first 
 arose in Persia and afterwards took a prominent 
 place in the writings of the New Testament, and 
 since then it has been largely accepted by the Chris- 
 tians of the Western countries. The Zoroastrians 
 believed that the soul of the dead hovers about the 
 body for three nights and does not depart for the 
 other world until the dawn after the third night. 
 
Resurrection or Reincarnation? 73 
 
 Then the righteous go to heaven and the wicked to 
 hell. There the wicked remain until the time of 
 renovation of the universe, that is, the judgment 
 day. After the renovation, when Ahriman or Satan 
 is killed, the souls of the wicked will be purified and 
 have everlasting progress.* The question was asked, 
 '*How shall they produce resurrection?" Ahura 
 Mazda says: "The reply is this, that the preparation 
 and production of the resurrection are an achieve- 
 ment connected with miracle, a sublimity, and after- 
 wards also a wondrous appearance unto the crea- 
 tures uninformed. The secrets and affairs of the 
 persistent Creator are like every mystery and secret." f 
 The Zoroastrians believed in the resurrection, not 
 of the physical body, but of the soul, and that it was 
 an act of miracle. Similarly miraculous was the 
 resurrection of Jesus. Although Jesus Himself never 
 mentioned what kind of resurrection, whether of 
 body or of soul that He meant and believed in, the 
 interpretation of the writers of the Gospels shows 
 that His disciples understood Him to mean bodily 
 resurrection and the re-appearance of His physical 
 form. The three days remained, just as the Zoro- 
 
 * "Sacred Books of the East," Vol. xvii, pp. 27, 34, 46. 
 t Ibid., p. 80. . 
 
74 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 astrians believed. The miraculous and wondrous 
 appearance of Jesus before His disciples was preached 
 most vigorously by Paul. In his Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, Paul declares emphatically that the 
 whole of the Christian religion depends upon the 
 miraculous resurrection and re-appearance of Jesus. 
 Although Paul said the spiritual body of the risen 
 dead is not the same as flesh and blood body (i Cor., 
 XV ), still that important point is generally over- 
 looked, and the result is the belief which we find 
 amongst some of the Christian sects; that at the 
 call of the angels, the body will rise from the grave 
 and the mouldering dust of bones and flesh will be 
 put together by the miraculous power of the Al- 
 mighty God. Paul says: "But now is Christ risen 
 from the dead, and become the first fruits of them 
 that slept" (I Cor., xv, 20). He preached that 
 Christ was the first bom from the dead, that those 
 who believe in Christ would rise as He did and that 
 those who would not believe in Him or in His resur- 
 rection should not rise. 
 
 We have already noticed that the Parsees believed 
 in a miraculous resurrection; that the same miracle 
 became more definite in the case of Jesus; and that 
 the Christian faith was afterw^ards founded upon that 
 
Resurrection or Reincarnation? 75 
 
 miraculous event. Both the Parsees and the fol- 
 lowers of Christ did not mean by resurrection any 
 universal law, but a miracle done by certain super- 
 natural powers. They did not give any scientific 
 reasons for such a miracle. 
 
 But modem science denies miracles. It teaches 
 that this universe is guided, not by miracles as the 
 old thinkers used to believe, but by definite laws 
 which are always consistent and universal. There 
 cannot be any exception to those laws which are 
 uniform throughout. If resurrection be one of those 
 laws, then it must have existed before the birth of 
 Jesus; as such, how could He be the first bom from 
 the dead, as described by Paul. Conversely, if Jesus 
 was the first who rose from the dead, then resurrec- 
 tion cannot be a universal law. Scientists would 
 not believe in anything which is not based upon 
 universal laws. Some of the agnostics and material- 
 ists have gone so far as to say that Jesus did not die 
 on the cross, but his animation was suspended when 
 his body was taken down from the cross by Joseph 
 of Arimathaea. When Joseph went to Pilate and 
 craved the body of Jesus, Pilate marvelled if He were 
 dead (Mark xv, 44), because it was only six hours 
 after the cmcifixion. Some of the modem physiolo- 
 
76 Yedanta Philosophy. 
 
 gists are of opinion that temperate and strong men 
 might Hve for several days on the cross. These 
 heretical agnostics and skeptical scientists say that 
 the body of Jesus revived after a few hours in the 
 cool, rock-cut tomb, that he walked out of the tomb, 
 went to Galilee and appeared before his disciples.* 
 Whatever the facts may be (nobody can now tell 
 exactly what actually happened), it is clear that the 
 scientists are not ready to take anything upon 
 authority. They do not care to beheve in anything 
 because it is written in this book or that. They 
 must have convincing proofs and a rational explana- 
 tion of every phenomenon of nature. They want to 
 penetrate into miracles in order to discover the 
 universal laws that govern them. If they do not 
 find any such laws, they will surely reject every 
 event that is supposed to be caused by miraculous 
 or supernatural powers. 
 
 The theory of a miraculous resurrection is attended 
 with the belief that the individual soul does not exist 
 before birth. The supporters of this theory hold 
 that at the time of birth, the individual, being 
 created out of nothing, comes fresh into exist- 
 
 * Vide "Science and Christian Tradition," by Prof. Hux- 
 ley, pp. 279-280. 
 
V 
 
 Resurrection or Reincarnation? 77 
 
 ence. But science tells us that sudden creation out 
 of nothing and a total destruction of anything are both 
 impossible. Matter and force are indestructible. 
 Science teaches evolution and not creation, and denies 
 the intervention of any supernatural being as the 
 cause of phenomenal changes. The theory of Resur- 
 rection ignores all these ultimate conclusions of 
 modem science. On the contrary, the doctrine of 
 Reincarnation, after accepting all the truths and laws 
 of nature that have been discovered by modern 
 science, carries them to their proper logical con- 
 clusions. Reincarnation is based upon evolution. 
 It means a continuous evolution of an individual 
 germ of life, and a gradual re-manifestation of all the j 
 powers and forces that exist in it potentially. More- 
 over, the doctrine of Reincarnation is founded on 
 the law of cause and effect. It teaches that the cause 
 is not outside of the effect, but lies in the effect. The 
 cause is the potential or unmanifested state of the 
 effect, and effect is the actual or manifested cause. 
 There is one current of infinite force or power con- 
 stantly flowing in the ocean of reality of the uni- 
 verse, and appearing in the innumerable forms of 
 waves. We caU one set of waves the cause of 
 another set, but in fact that which is the cause is the 
 
78 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 potentiality of the future effect and the actuaUty of 
 a previous potential cause. The underlying current 
 is one and the same throughout. Reincarnation 
 denies the idea that the soul has come into existence 
 all of a sudden or has been created for the first time, 
 but it holds that it has been existing from the begin- 
 ningless past, and will exist all through eternity. 
 The individual soul enjoys or suffers according to 
 the acts it performs. All enjoyment and suffering 
 are but the reactions of our actions. Actions are the 
 causes and the reactions are the results. Our pres- 
 ent life is the result of our past actions, and our 
 future will be the result of the present. The actions 
 which we are now doing will not be lost. Do you 
 think that the thought-forces of one life-time will end 
 suddenly after death? No. They will be conserved 
 and remain potentially in the center and re-manifest 
 under suitable conditions. Each human soul is 
 nothing but a center of thought-force. This center 
 is called in Sanskrit Sukshma Sartra or the subtle 
 body of an individual. The subtle germ of life or, 
 in other words, the invisible center of thought-forces, 
 will manufacture a ph^'sical vehicle for expressing 
 the latent powers that are ready for manifestation. 
 This process will continue until the germ can express 
 
Resurrectiox or Reincarnation? s^9 , 
 
 most perfectly all the powers that are coiled up in its 
 invisible form. As the doctrine of Reincarnation is 
 in agreement with all the physical laws, so it is based 
 upon psychical, moral and ethical laws. As on the 
 objective plane the law of action and reaction governs 
 the objective phenomena, so on the subjective plane 
 of consciousness, if the mental action or thought be 
 good, the reaction will be good, and the reaction 
 will be evil if the mental action be evil, because every 
 action produces a similar reaction. A good reac- 
 tion is one which makes us happy and brings pleas- 
 ant sensations or peace of mind, while an evil re- 
 action brings suffering, unpleasant sensations, and 
 makes one miserable. Thus Reincarnation makes 
 us free agents for action, as well as for reaping the 
 results or reactions of those actions. In fact, we 
 mould our own nature, according to our desires, ten- 
 dencies and works. 
 
 The theory of Resurrection, as commonly under- 
 stood, does not explain why one man is bom with a 
 sinful nature and another with a virtuous one. It 
 contents itself with saying as Luther said: "Man is 
 a beast of burden who only moves as his rider orders; 
 sometimes God rides him and sometimes Satan.'* 
 But why God should allow Satan to ride His own 
 
80 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 creature nobody can tell. At any rate, man must 
 suffer eternally for the crimes which he is forced by 
 Satan to commit. Moreover this theory pre-supposes 
 predestination and that the individual soul is fore- 
 doomed to go either to heaven or to hell. St. 
 Augustine first started this doctrine of Predestina- 
 tion and Grace to explain why one is born sinful and 
 another sinless. According to this theory, God, the 
 merciful, favors somebody with His grace at the time 
 of his birth and then he comes into this world ready 
 to be saved, but the mass of humanity is bom sinful 
 and destined for eternal damnation. Very few 
 indeed receive the gift of grace and are predestined 
 to be saved. Moreover, this doctrine tells us that 
 God creates man out of nothing, forbids him some- 
 thing, but at the same time He does not give him 
 the power to obey His commands. Ultimately God 
 punishes him with eternal torture on account of his 
 weakness. The body and soul will not be separated. 
 He will not be set free from his body, because, if it 
 be so, there will be the end of his suffering, which 
 God does not like. All these sufferings and punish- 
 ments are predestined before his birth. Thus, St. 
 Augustine's dogma of Predestination and Grace in- 
 stead of explaining the difficulty satisfactorily brings 
 
Resurrection or Reincarnation? 81 
 
 horror and dread to human minds, while the doctrine 
 of Reincarnation teaches gradual progress from 
 lower to higher, through ages until the individual 
 reaches perfection. It holds that each individual 
 will become perfect like Jesus or Buddha or like the 
 Father in heaven and manifest divinity either in 
 this life or in some other. One span of life is too 
 short for developing one's powers to perfection. 
 If you should try to train an idiot to become a great 
 artist or a philosopher, w^ould you ever succeed in 
 your attempt to make him so during his lifetime? 
 No. And will you punish him because he cannot 
 become so? Can a man who possesses the slightest 
 common sense be so unreasonable? Similarly what 
 would you think if God punishes a man because he 
 cannot become perfect within a lifetime? It is a poor 
 argument to say that God has given us free-will to 
 choose between right and wrong, and we are respon- 
 sible for our choice; if we choose wrongly we must 
 be punished. The advocates of such an argument 
 forget that at the same time God has let loose His 
 powerful Satan to corrupt His creatures. 
 
 It reminds me of an old story. Once on a time 
 at a certain place a prisoner was released and set 
 free through the kindness of a tyrant. The tyrant 
 
82 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 said to the prisoner " Look here, wicked man, I give 
 you freedom, you can go to any place; but there is 
 one condition; if you are attacked by any wild 
 animal you will be put in the dungeon and there will 
 be no end to your torture." So saying he gave him 
 freedom, but at the same time ordered his serv^ants 
 to let loose a hungry wolf to chase the man. You 
 can imagine what became of the prisoner. Can we 
 call this an act of mercy! 
 
 The doctrine of Reincarnation says that each 
 individual soul is potentially perfect and is gradually 
 unfolding its powers and making them actual through 
 the process of Evolution. At every step of that 
 process it is gaining different experiences which 
 last only for a time. Therefore neither God nor 
 Satan is responsible for our good or e\'il actions. 
 Good and evil are like the up and down or the crest 
 and hollow of a wave in the sea. A wave cannot 
 rise without making a hollow somewhere in the sea. 
 So in the infinite ocean of reality inmmierable waves 
 are constantly rising. The summit of each wave is 
 called good, while the hollow beside it is evil or 
 misery and the current of each individual life is con- 
 stantly flowing towards the ultimate destination 
 which we call perfection. \Mio can tell how long it 
 will take to reach that goal? If anybody can attain 
 
Resurrection or Reincarnation? 83 
 
 to perfection in this life, he is no longer bound to \ 
 reincarnate. If he fails he will continue to progress i 
 by taking some other body. Reincarnation does not ) 
 teach, as many people think, that in the next in- 
 carnation one will begin from the very beginning, 
 but it says that one will start from that point which 
 one reaches before death and will keep the thread of 
 progress unbroken. It does not teach that we go | 
 back to animal bodies after death, but that we get 
 our bodies according to our desires, tendencies and 
 powers. If any person has no desire to come back 
 to this world or to any other and does not want to 
 enjoy any particular object of pleasure, and if he 
 is perfectly free from selfishness that person will not 
 have to come back. The theory of Reincarnation is 
 logical and satisfactory. While the theory of Resur- 
 rection is neither based on scientific truths nor can 
 it logically explain the cause of life and death, 
 Reincarnation solves all the problems of life and 
 explains scientifically all the questions and doubts 
 that arise in the human mind, 
 
 "Reincarnation is not easily understood by a 
 thoughtless child deluded by the delusion of wealth, 
 name or fame. Everything ends with death, he 
 thinks, and thus falls again and again under the sway 
 of death." 
 
THEORY OF TRANSMIGRATION. 
 
 The theory of transmigration is one of the oldest 
 theories accepted by the people of the Orient to 
 solve the problems concerning life and death as well 
 as to explain the continuity of existence after death. 
 This theory presupposes the existence of the soul 
 as an entity which can live even when the gross 
 material body is dead or dissolved into its elements. 
 Those who deny the existence of the soul, of the self- 
 conscious thinker and actor, as an entity distinct 
 from the gross material body, necessarily deny this 
 theory of transmigration. The materialistic thinkers 
 of all ages have refused to accept this theory, because 
 they do not admit the existence of a soul or a self- 
 conscious thinker and actor as an entity, separate 
 from the gross material body. Consequently they 
 do not ask or discuss whether the soul will exist after 
 
 84 
 
Theory of Transmigration. 85 
 
 death or not, whether it will continue to live or not. 
 Such materialists are not the creatures of the twen- 
 tieth century, but they have lived in all ages, in all 
 countries. In India and in other civilized .countries 
 of ancient times you will find that materialistic 
 thinkers prevailed and they gave the same arguments 
 which we hear now from the agnostics and scientists 
 of to-day. Their arguments are generally one-sided 
 and unsatisfactory. They try to deduce the soul 
 or self-conscious entity from the combination of 
 matter or material forces, but they have not succeeded 
 in giving a scientific proof of it. No arguments in 
 favor of the existence of a soul as an entity will con- 
 vince them, because they deny the existence of 
 anything that cannot be perceived by sense powers. 
 If we could bring the soul down on the sense plane 
 and make it visible to these materialistic thinkers, 
 and if they could make experiments upon it, then 
 perhaps they would be convinced to a certain extent, 
 but not until then. But how can we bring the soul 
 down on the sense plane when it is ethereal and 
 finer than anything that we can perceive with our 
 senses? 
 
 Those who try to explain the cause of our earthly 
 life by the theory of heredity do not believe in the 
 
86 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 truth of transmigration. The modem scientists, 
 agnostics and materiahsts generally accept the 
 theory of heredity and endeavor to explain every- 
 thing by it; but if we examine their arguments for 
 the theory of heredity, we shall find that the theory 
 of transmigration is much more satisfactory, much 
 more rational than that of heredity. 
 
 Among the followers of the great religions of the 
 world, the majority of Christians, Jews, Mohammed- 
 ans and Parsees deny the truth of transmigration. 
 Of course, there was a time when the Christians be- 
 lieved in this transmigration theory. Origen and 
 other Church Fathers accepted it until the time of 
 Justinian, who anathematized all those who believed 
 in Reincarnation or the pre-existence of the soul. 
 Among the Jews we find that in the Cabala this idea 
 of transmigration plays the most important part. 
 In fact the Cabalists accepted this theory to explain 
 all the difficulties that could not be explained by 
 any other theory. But those Jews, Christians, 
 Mohammedans and Parsees who do not believe in 
 the theory of transmigration accept the one-birth 
 theory; that is, that God creates the souls at the 
 time of birth out of nothing, and these souls, having 
 come into existence out of nothing, continue to live 
 
Theory of Transmigration. 87 
 
 forever; that this is our first and last birth that we 
 receive; we did not exist before, we are suddenly 
 created by God, and after death each one of us will 
 continue to live either in heaven or hell to enjoy or 
 to suffer throughout eternity. Among the modern 
 Spiritualists we find that those who are bom and 
 brought up with this idea of one birth do not accept 
 the theory of transmigration. Still there are millions 
 and millions of people all over the world who do 
 believe in transmigration and who have found com- 
 fort and consolation in their lives as well as a satis- 
 factory solution of the problems of life and death. 
 
 The theory of Transmigration, or Metempsychosis, 
 as it has been called by many philosophers, original^ 
 meant the passing of a soul from one body after 
 death into another; or, in other words, it meant that 
 the soul after dwelling in one particular body for a 
 certain length of time leaves it at the time of death, 
 and in order to gain experience enters into some 
 other body, either human, animal or angelic, which 
 is ready to receive it. It may migrate from the 
 human body to an angelic body and then come down 
 on the human plane, or to the animal plane and be 
 bom again as an animal. So the original meaning 
 of transmigration or metempsychosis was the revolu- 
 
88 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 tion of the soul from body to body whether animal, 
 human, angeHc or of the gods. The migratmg sub- 
 stance being a fixed quantity, with fixed quahties, 
 chooses its form according to its taste, desire and bent 
 of character. This idea prevailed among the ancient 
 Egyptians, according to whom the soul, after leaving 
 the dead body, would travel from one body to another 
 for thousands and thousands of years in order to 
 gain experiences in each of the different stages of 
 life. 
 
 Among the Greek philosophers we find that 
 Pythagoras, Plato and their followers believed in this 
 theory of Metempsychosis or Transmigration of souls. 
 Pythagoras says: "After death the rational mind, 
 having been freed from the chains of the body, as- 
 sumes an ethereal vehicle and passes into the region 
 of the dead where it remains till it is sent back to 
 this world to inhabit some other body human or 
 animal. After undergoing successive purgations, 
 when it is sufficiently purified, it is received among 
 the gods and returns to the eternal source from 
 which it first proceeded." Plato also believed in 
 this theory. Of course we cannot tell exactly from 
 whence Pythagoras and Plato got these ideas. 
 Some say that they learned these doctrines from 
 
Theory of Transmigration. 89 
 
 Egypt ; others believe that, either directly or in- 
 directly, they learned the theory of transmigration 
 from India. Plato describes in "Phaedms," in myth- 
 ological language, why and how the souls take their 
 birth upon this plane, either as human or animal. 
 He says: " In the heaven Zeus, the Father and Lord 
 of all creatures, drives his winged car, ordering all 
 things and superintending them. A host of deities 
 and spirits follow him, each fulfilling his own func- 
 tion. WTioever will and can follows them. After 
 taking this round, they advance by a steep course 
 along the inner circumference of the heavenly vault 
 and proceed to a banquet. The chariots of the gods, 
 being well balanced and well driven, advance easily; 
 others with difficulty; for the vicious horse, unless 
 the charioteer has thoroughly broken him, weighs 
 down the car by his proclivity towards the earth, 
 whereupon the soul is put to the extremity of toil 
 and effort. The souls of gods reach the summit, go 
 outside and stand upon the surface of heaven, and 
 enjoy celestial bliss. Such is the life of the gods; 
 other souls which follow God best and are likest to 
 Him succeed in seeing the vision of truth and in 
 entering into the outer world with great difficulty. 
 The rest of the souls longing after the upper world 
 
90 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 all follow; but not being strong enough, they are 
 carried round in the deep below, plunging, treading 
 on one another, striving to be first, and there, in 
 confusion and extremity of effort, many of them are 
 lamed and have their wings broken. Thus when the 
 soul is unable to follow and fails to behold the vision 
 of Truth, sinks beneath the double load of forget- 
 fulness and vice, her feathers fall from her and she 
 drops to earth and is bom again and again as human 
 beings or as animals." Plato says: "Ten thou- 
 sand years must elapse before the soul can return 
 to the place from whence she came, for she cannot 
 grow her wings in less." "At the end of the first 
 thousand years, the souls of the good and of the evil 
 kind come together to draw lots, and choose their 
 bodies according to their tendencies and the bent 
 of their characters . They may take any they like." 
 Instead of receiving the natural consequences of 
 their deeds and misdeeds of their previous lives 
 they are allowed to choose their own lot, according 
 to their experience and bent of character. ''Some 
 being disgusted with mankind, prefer to be bom as 
 animals, such as lions and eagles or some other 
 animals. Others delight in trying their luck as 
 hitman beings." From this mythological descrip- 
 
Theory of Transmigration. 91 
 
 tion we gather what Plato meant by transmigra- 
 tion. 
 
 This Platonic idea of transmigration or of successive 
 lives of those who inhabit this earth has been criti- 
 cized by various thinkers of modem times; and 
 referring to this idea the late Doctor Myers, of the 
 Psychical Research Society of London, writes in his 
 second volume of "Human Personality": "The 
 simple fact that such was probably the opinion of 
 both Plato and Virgil shows that there is nothing 
 here which is alien to the best reason or to the 
 highest instincts of men. Nor, indeed, is it easy 
 to realize any theory of the direct creation of spirits 
 at such different stages of advancement as those 
 which enter upon the earth in the guise of mortal 
 man. There must, one feels, be some kind of con- 
 tinuity — some form of spiritual past." (P. 134.) 
 Why does He not create all souls equal? Why will 
 one soul be highly advanced spiritually while an- 
 other is entirely ignorant and idiotic? This question 
 cannot be answered, this problem cannot be solved 
 by the special creation theory, and therefore Doctor 
 Myers says that there is no doubt that there was 
 some previous continuity or spiritual past of each 
 individual soul, and therefore he tacitly admits the 
 
92 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 theory of Transmigration. Although from a scien- 
 tific viewpoint he could not give any direct proof 
 regarding this idea of a pre-existence of the soul, 
 still he could not deny it entirely when he said: 
 *'The shaping forces which have made our bodies 
 and our minds what they are may always have been 
 psychical forces — from the first living slime-speck 
 to the complex intelligences of to-day." "The old 
 transmigrationist's view would thus possess a share 
 of truth and the actual man would be the resultant 
 not only of intermingling heredities on father's and 
 mother's sides, but of intermingling heredities, one 
 of planetary and one of cosmic scope." ("Himian 
 Personality," Vol. II, p. 267.) 
 
 But this theory of Transmigration, as described 
 by Plato, is a little different from a similar theory 
 which existed in India before his time. In the 
 Platonic idea of transmigration, as we have already 
 seen, the souls were allowed to choose their own lot 
 according to their experience or bent of character, 
 but not to receive the natural consequence of their 
 deeds and misdeeds. Plato did not say anything 
 about the law which governs souls; but in ancient 
 India the great thinkers and philosophers explained 
 that each individual soul is bound by the inexorable 
 
Theory of Transmigration. 93 
 
 law of nature to receive its body as a natural con- 
 sequence of its former deeds and misdeeds, and not 
 to have free choice of its lot according to its bent of 
 character. The great thinkers and philosophers of 
 ancient India discovered the universal law of cause 
 and effect, of action and reaction, and called it by 
 the Sanskrit term "Karma," which means the law 
 of cause and sequence; that every cause must be 
 followed by an effect of a similar nature, that every 
 action must produce similar reaction, and conversely 
 every reaction or effect is the result of an action or 
 cause of a similar character. Thus there is always 
 a balance and harmony between cause and effect, 
 between action and reaction. This law of Karma 
 has now become a fundamental verity of modern 
 science. It is called by different names: the scien- 
 tists call it the law of causation, the law of com- 
 pensation, the law of retribution, the law of action 
 and reaction, but they all refer to the same idea, — 
 that every cause must produce a similar result and 
 every action must produce a similar reaction. 
 
 Now these ancient thinkers of India applied this 
 law of Karma to explain the destiny of human souls, 
 and it was upon this law they based the theory of 
 Transmigration. They maintained that human souls 
 
94 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 are bound by this irresistible law and cannot get out 
 of it; their thoughts and deeds are the causes which 
 produce results of similar nature. So their future 
 birth does not depend upon their whimsical, free 
 choice, but it is limited by the thoughts and deeds 
 or misdeeds of their previous lives. In the Platonic 
 idea we find that the souls go according to their 
 choice. They may not take a human form if they 
 prefer an animal form, but in the Hindu idea of 
 transmigration we find that it is not a result of free 
 choice, but, if our thoughts and deeds force us to 
 take a particular form, then we are subject to the 
 law of Karma, which governs our future birth and 
 the evolution of our souls. Consequently the Hindu 
 theory of Transmigration differs fundamentally from 
 the Platonic as well as from the Egyptian idea of 
 Transmigration. In the Platonic and Eg^^ptian 
 theories we see that the souls, after leaving the body, 
 enter into another body which is waiting to receive 
 the migrating soul, but in the Hindu theory of 
 Transmigration the body is not waiting to receive 
 the migrating soul, but on the contrary the soul, 
 being subject to the laws of evolution, manufactures 
 the gross material body according to its desires and 
 tendencies. Just as a germ of life will develop a 
 
Theory of Transmigration. 95 
 
 grosser form by cellular subdivision, by growth, and 
 by assimilation of the environmental conditions, so 
 the germ of the human soul will manufacture the body 
 by obeying the laws which govern the physical plane. 
 Parents are nothing but the channels through which 
 the migrating souls receive their material forms. 
 Parents do not create the souls; they have no 
 power to create. They can only give the suitable 
 environments necessary for manufacturing a gross 
 physical body. The souls come with their tendencies, 
 with their desires, and they remain as germs of life. 
 Now these germs of life contain vital forces, sense 
 powers, psychic powers, and ethereal particles of 
 matter. At the time of death the soul contracts 
 and withdraws all its powers from the sense organs 
 to its innermost center, and in that contracted state 
 it leaves the body. But these powers do not leave 
 the soul. By the law of persistence of force and 
 conservation of energy they remain latent in that 
 center until environmental conditions become favor- 
 able for their remanifestation. Rebirth means the 
 manifestation of the latent powers which exist in the 
 germ of life or in the individual soul. These germs 
 of life are called by different names. Leibnitz called 
 them monads and modem scientists call them bio- 
 
96 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 plasms or some such name, but the Vedanta philoso- 
 phers describe them as subtle bodies. These germs or 
 subtle bodies are subject to evolution and growth; 
 they arise from lower to higher stages of develop- 
 ment, from the mineral through the vegetable to 
 the animal kingdom and eventually they become 
 human beings and then they go on progressing. 
 
 In the Platonic theory the idea of progress, growth 
 or gradual evolution of the soul from the lower to 
 higher stages of existence is entirely excluded, because, 
 as I have already said, the migrating substance is 
 of a fixed quantity with fixed qualities, that is, these 
 qualities do not change and are not affected by either 
 grow^th or evolution. They are constant quantities. 
 In order to differentiate these two ideas we should 
 call the Hindu theory of Transmigration by the term 
 *' Reincarnation." The Hindu or Vedantic theory of 
 Reincarnation, however, is not the same as the 
 Buddhistic theory of Rebirth, for the Buddhists do 
 not believe in the permanence of the soul entity. 
 There is another point where the Reincarnation theory 
 differs from Platonic transmigration. According to 
 this theory of Reincarnation there is growth and 
 evolution of each individual soul from the lower to 
 higher stages of development. The soul or germ of 
 
Theory of Transmigration. 97 
 
 life, after passing through the lower stages, comes to 
 the human plane and gains experience and knowl- 
 edge; and after coming to the human plane, it does 
 not retrograde to animal bodies. The Platonic theory 
 teaches that human souls migrate into animal bodies 
 or angehc bodies and return from the angelic to 
 the human or the animal, and that some of them 
 prefer to become animals; while the theory of Rein- 
 carnation, taking its stand upon the scientific truth 
 of gradual evolution, teaches that the human souls 
 have already passed through different grades of the 
 animal, nay, of the vegetable kingdom, by the natural 
 process of evolution. After having once received the 
 human organism, why should a soul choose to go 
 back to the lesser and more imperfect organism of 
 an animal? How is it possible for a lesser mani- 
 festation to hold a greater one? Why should a 
 greater manifestation choose more limited forms in 
 preference to those of others? This question arises 
 in the Platonic theory of Transmigration. Therefore, 
 the Reincarnation theory, or the theory of Trans- 
 migration according to the Hindus, rejects this idea 
 of the going back of human souls to animal forms. 
 We have already passed in the evolutionary process 
 through the lower grade of animal organisms. Now 
 
98 Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 that we have outgrown them why should we go 
 back to them? 
 
 It is true, however, that in India there are many 
 uneducated people among the Hindus who believe 
 that human souls do migrate into animal bodies 
 after death to gain experience and reap the results 
 of their wicked deeds, being bound by the law of 
 Karma; but in the Platonic theory the law of Karma 
 plays no part in the transmigration of souls. The 
 educated and thoughtful minds of India, however, 
 accept the more rational and scientific theory of 
 Reincarnation. Although there are passages in the 
 scriptural writings of the Hindus which apparently 
 refer to the retrogression of the human soul into 
 animal nature, still such passages do not necessarily 
 mean that the souls will be obliged to take animal 
 bodies. They may live like animals even when they 
 have human bodies, as we may find among us many 
 people like cats and dogs and snakes in human form 
 and they are often more vicious than natural cats, 
 dogs or snakes. They are reaping their own Karma 
 and manifesting their animal nature, though physic- 
 ally they look like human beings. This kind of retro- 
 gression is possible for one who after reaching the 
 human plane goes backward on account of wicked 
 
Theory of Transmigration. 99 
 
 thoughts and deeds on the animal plane. Such a 
 temporary retrogression brings knowledge and helps 
 it in its onward progress toward the manifestation 
 of higher powers on the higher plane of consciousness. 
 All the wicked thoughts and wicked deeds are nothing 
 but the results of our own mistakes. What is sin? 
 Sin is nothing but a mistake and it proceeds from 
 ignorance. For instance, if I do not know that fire 
 bums, I may put my finger into it and get burned. 
 The result of this mistake is the burning of the 
 finger and this has taught me once for all that fire 
 bums; I shall never again put my finger into fire. 
 So every mistake is a great teacher in the long run. 
 No one is bom so high and perfect as not to commit 
 any mistake or any sin. Every mistake like this 
 opens our eyes to the laws of the universe by bringing 
 to us such results as we do not desire. As one life 
 is not enough to gain experience in all the stages of 
 evolution, we must have to admit the doctrine of the 
 Reincarnation of the soul for the fulfillment of the 
 ultimate purpose of earthly life. Professor Huxley 
 says: "None but hasty thinkers will reject it on the 
 ground of inherent absurdity. Like the doctrine 
 of evolution itself that of transmigration has its roots 
 in the world of reality." 
 
How to be a Yogi. (^^^^^ Edition.) 
 
 BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 I. Introductory. III. Science of Breathing. 
 
 II. What is Yoga? IV. Was Christ a Yogi? 
 
 l2mo, i88 pages. Portrait of author, frontispiece. 
 
 *• For Christians interested in foreig^n missions this book is of 
 moment, as showing the method of reasoning which they must be 
 prepared to meet if they are to influence the educated Hindu. To 
 the Orientalist, and the philosopher also, the book is not without 
 interest. . . . Swami AbhedSnanda preaches no mushroom creed 
 and no Eurasian hybrid ' theosophy.' He aims to give us a com- 
 pendious account of Yoga. Clearly and admirably he performs his 
 task. In form the little book is excellent, and its English style is 
 good."— A^^a' VorJi Times Saturday Review of Books ^ Dec. 6, 1903, 
 
 *♦ * How to be a Yogi ' is a little volume that makes very interest- 
 ing reading. The book contains the directions that must be fol- 
 lowed in physical as well as in mental training by one who wishes 
 to have full and perfect control of all his powers." — Records 
 Herald, Chicago, Feb. 28, 1903. 
 
 •• The Swimi writes in a clear, direct manner. His chapter on 
 Breath will elicit more than ordinary attention, as there is much in 
 it that will prove helpful. The book makes a valuable addition to 
 Vedanta Philosophy." — Mind, June, 1903. 
 
 *' The book is calculated to interest the student of Oriental 
 thought and familiarize the unread with one of the greatest philo- 
 sophical systems of the world." — Buffalo Courier, Nov. 23, 1903, 
 
 •* • How to be a Yogi ' practically sums up the whoie science of 
 Vedanta Philosophy. The term Yogi is lucidly defined and a full 
 analysis is given of the science of breathing and its bearing on the 
 highest spiritual development. The methods and practices of Yoga 
 are interestingly set forth, and not the least important teaching of 
 the book is the assertion of how great a Yogi was Jesus of Naz- 
 areth." — The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer, Jan. 15, 1903. 
 
 " This book is well worth a careful reading. Condensed, yet 
 dear and concise, it fills one with the desire to eni.Ulate these Yogis 
 m attaining spiritual perfection."— 6^»i^>', Kansas City, Dee., 1903. 
 
 NOTE:- Postage is subject to Parcel Post rates according to zones 
 
 All orders received by and money orders and checks made 
 payable to 
 
 VEDANTA ASHRAMA 
 
Great Saviors of the World 
 
 CVol. I.) 
 
 A NEW BOOK 
 
 BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 I. Great Saviors of the World (Introductory.) 
 II. Krishna and His Teachings. 
 
 III. Zoroaster and His Teachings. 
 
 IV. Lao-Tze and His Teachings. 
 
 "These studies are scholarly and comprehensive reviews of 
 historic fact. They are also broad and open interpretations of moral 
 and spiritual forces. The author's attitude is reverent toward all. 
 His mind is free. His speech is peculiarly impressive. Surely, it 
 speaks well for the world that its people can look without bitterness 
 and jealousy upon the fact that God has sent, and will send, many 
 Saviors into the world. This is a good study, fitted to open the 
 heart and liberalize mind.'''' — IVasAington Star. June 29, 1912. 
 
 "A valuable contribution to m&X.a^hYSxcs.''''— Portland Oregonian. 
 June 23, 1912. 
 
 "The work is taken up somewhat in chronological order. . . . 
 The teachings of the thinkers who form the subject of the lectures are 
 faithfully reported. The author holds no special brief for any of 
 those remarkable men but endeavors to state precisely what their 
 ideas were. The style of the author is interesting as well as perfectly 
 lucid."— ^«^a/<? News, April 21, 1912. 
 
 Swami Abhedananda emphasizes the similarities in the teaching 
 of these great men. His aim is " to show that the fundamental teach- 
 ings of the founders of the great religions of the world have had the 
 same spiritual keynote and that the stories connected with their liyes 
 and miraculous deeds are similar to those of Jesus Christ." — St. Paul 
 Pioneer Press, August 4, 1C12. 
 
Press Notices. — Continued. 
 
 '* He (author) attempts to explain their ideas accurately and pays 
 much attention to the legends of the east relative to the origin of the 
 great leaders in sacred affairs." — Des Moines Capital^ June 5, 191a. 
 
 " It sets forth in picturesque language the principal events in the 
 lives of his heroes and gives a good concise idea of their teachings." 
 — The Indianapolis Star^ May 26, 1912, 
 
 "Swami Abhedananda's discourses point to the essential harmony 
 of religions . . . and offer an unusual opportunity to study from 
 conemporaneous expressions the companion viewpoints of faith and 
 pure culture." — Nenv York World, May 25, 1912. 
 
 " The life and teachings of three great Sages, of whom the West- 
 ern world knows far too little, is treated in a wonderfully clear and 
 attractive manner. . . . Their illumined efforts in lifting up a new 
 ensign for the people of their respective countries are described by an 
 Oriental Scholar, who is perfectly fitted for the task, and has familiar, 
 ized himself with the available records of their almost superhuman 
 labors. Each of these great souls is made to live again in the respect- 
 ive chapters of this engrossing work, very interesting side lights are 
 thrown on alleged inaccuracies, many abscure points are made plain, 
 and the underlying principles they set out to teach are conveyed in 
 simple, but scholarly style."— ZlA*? Column^ June, 1913. 
 
 •' Swami's book will do infinitely more good at the present time 
 in the west than any book he could have written upon the different 
 schools of Vedanta."— F^(/^«^a Universal Messenger, Dec, 1912. 
 
 "It breathes the spirit of deep vision and profound learning and 
 one sees that the Swami is actuated by the spirit of his Master, Sri 
 Ramakrishna, that Synthesis of the Religious Consciousness. . . . 
 The quotations from learned authors, bearing relation to the historical 
 features of the Avataras with which the book is replete, shows how 
 diligently the Swami has prepared himself for his arduous task. He 
 has left nothing unsaid. — Awakened India, Nov., 1912. 
 
 "This collection of lectures by the well-known Vedantist con- 
 stitutes the first of a series of three volumes dealing with the same 
 subject. As the author indicates in his preface, the word " Saviour " 
 is used by him in the broad sense, and not as denoting "a Saviour 
 who saves from eternal damnation." The present volume deals with 
 the lives and teachings of Krishna, Zoroaster, and Lao-Tze, viewed 
 in the unifying light of the Vedanta. The many admirers of Swami 
 Abhedananda's works will welcome this addition to the list, whilst 
 those who have not yet had the pleasure of becoming acquainted 
 with the grandeur of the teachings of this religio-philosophy, through 
 the light of which "the Unity of the Godhead under variety of names 
 and forms" may be perceived, will assuredly read the book not only 
 with interest, but come from its perusal with the conviction that the 
 Swami possesses the happy gift of bringing to light in an interesting 
 and attractive manner the harmony existing between the leading 
 world-religions." — Occult Review, July, 1912, London, England. 
 
 In the Press 
 
 GREAT SAVIORS OF THE WORLD 
 Vols. II. and III. 
 
Human Affection and 
 Divine Love 
 
 BY 
 
 SV^AMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 A suitable gift-book full of inspiring thoughts. It describes 
 the evolution of Love in its various stages — animal, human, 
 and divine ; and shows that love is not an emotional sentiment 
 as commonly understood but an attribute of our Real Self. 
 
 " Beautifully expressed sentences, on the idealism of love, reflected 
 from India." — Portland Oregonian^ June 23, 1912. 
 
 "Never under any circumstances is divine love an evil thing, but 
 is everlasting in its beneficent blessings. In this little book the author 
 contrasts the enduring beauty of the divine love with that of human 
 affections which if misdirected in its selfishness results in murder, 
 robbery and other crimes. His book is divided into two parts and the 
 latter includes numerous quotations to prove his argument."— Z?« 
 Moisnes Capital, June 5, 1912. 
 
 *' It is written simply and the mysticism in it is somewhat akin to 
 the mysticism of Maeterlinck, Emerson and of Thomas d Kempis— 
 different as they all are."— 6"/. Paul Pioneer Press, Aug. 4, 1912. 
 
 "A tiny book but containing a volume of profound thought wis- 
 dom and beauty. It was Drummond who wrote that the greatest 
 thing in the world was " Love," and since then love has somehow had 
 a greater significance and more exalted place in the world than it ever 
 occupied before. But even Drummond did not put it on the high 
 plane or give it such exquisite meaning as this writer has. He casts 
 away the material and shows that the love that exalts, the love that 
 worketh only good reaches through the material to the divine."— C?f-*» 
 gon journal, April 28, 1912. 
 
Press Notices. — Continued. 
 
 " Human affection has ever been manifested in attachment to some 
 object, and the enlightened passages in this practical little volum« 
 show the same tendency on the animal plane by means of a very fine 
 comparison. The nature and expression of Divine Love is also very 
 skillfully analysed, and a nice distinction drawn, between it and the 
 human quality. The author feelingly portrays an ideal behind both, 
 which might well be adopted by the individual, and typified in his 
 relation to others in daily life, with invaluable results to all. The 
 words of the Swami on "that Divine Love that knows no fear," but 
 realizes everything comes from God are uttered in a decisive style that 
 will appeal to an army of souls, who to-day feel the truth of such a 
 principle. Those will be greatly helped by the plain and highly intell- 
 igent explanation of a great truth, in which the vividness of Oriental 
 expression is reproduced in Western terms by a master of both 
 languages. This especially applies to the closing chapter where aptly 
 chosen illustrations so dear to the oriental mind elucidate the two 
 characteristics of ecstatic love, the three states of consciousness and 
 their correspondence to the five sheaths of the soul, beyond which is 
 the True Self, the Absolute. An elevating manual quite in keeping 
 with the Author's previous best work."— TA* Column^ June, 1912. 
 
 "It is thoroughly sound and happily written book, a fine intro- 
 duction to Bhakti Marga. It is profitable reading to every person 
 while to the more philosophically inclined it affords valuable instruct- 
 ion." — The Brahmavadin^ Madras India, Dec, 1912, 
 
 "Carefully does the Swami draw the distinction, showing how 
 human love attains its climax in directing itself to God. ''^—Awakened 
 India, Nov., 1912. 
 
 *' This is a book presenting somewhat of the old. Indian phil- 
 osophy, which is noble and pure. It is in no sense a departure from 
 Western thought, as one might be le^ to suppose. It is well written 
 and free from metaphysical speculations."— ^r<?tf-4/y» Eagle, June 14, 
 H9S3. 
 
 Unity and Harmony 
 
 A New Lecture by 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
Divine Heritage of Man. 
 
 BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 I2ino, 215 pages. Portrait of author, frontispiece. 
 
 Contents. I. Existence of God. II. Attributes of God. 
 III. Has God any Form? IV. Fatherhood and Motherhood 
 of God. V. Relation of Soul to God. VI. What is an Incar- 
 nation of God? VII. Son of God. VIII. Divine Principle 
 in Man. 
 
 " The Swami Abhedananda''s writings are also companionable and read- 
 able. . . . The Philosophy of India, being the bringing together of the 
 best thoughts and reasonings of the best men for the thousands of preced- 
 ing years, had under consideration the self-same problems that are to-day 
 vexing the souls of our philosophers. The SwSmi's book is therefore not 
 so radical a. departure from accepted thought as might at first be imagined. 
 ... It is not meat for babes, but rather will it give new lines of thought 
 to the brightest intellects." — Transcript, Boston, Aug. 1903. 
 
 " His method of dealing with these fundamental questions is peculiarly 
 free both from dogmatic assertion and from pure metaphysical specula- 
 tion."— /«/^r-C>^^««, Chicago, Aug. 1903. 
 
 " He bases his arguments, not on theological hypotheses, but on scientific 
 facts." — Cleveland Plain Dealer^ Aug. 1903. 
 
 " It is written in a plain and logical style, and cannot fail to interest all 
 who are anxious for information concerning the philosophy of which the 
 author is such an able exponent." — Times Pittsburg, June, 1903. 
 
 " A glance over a few of its pages would be sufficient to convince the 
 reader that he is in the presence of an intellect of high order, more 
 thoroughly conversant with the philosophies and sciences of the Occi- 
 dental world than most Europeans or Americans. . . . The " Divine 
 Heritage of Man " gives a rare insight into the religious views of educated 
 Hindoos and in its argumentation furnishes an intellectual treat."— 
 Chronicle^ San Francisco, Aug. 1903. 
 
 *' Fully cognizant of modem scientific discoveries, the author treats 
 his subject broadly." — Bookseller, Newsdealer^ and Publisher, New 
 York, Aug. 1903. 
 
 " The student of religions will find much of value in the discourses, 
 since they are full of historical information concerning the origin and 
 growth of certain ideas and beliefs dominant in Christianity." — Republi- 
 can, Denver, July, 1903. 
 
 •' There is no disposition on the part of the author to assail any of the 
 Christian principles, but he simply r- sents his subject with calmness, 
 not attempting to reconcile religio ' .nd science, for to him they at^ 
 oae." — IVashington Post, June, 1903. 
 
Self-Knowledge (Atma-Jnana) 
 
 BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 I. Spirit and Matter. IV. Search after the Self. 
 
 II. Knowledge of the Self. V. Realization of the Self. 
 
 III. Prana and the Self. VI. Immortality and the Self. 
 
 •' So practically and exhaustively is each phase of the subject 
 treated that it may well serve as a text-book for anyone striving 
 for self-development and a deeper understanding of human nature." 
 —Toronto Saturday Nighty Dec. 1905. 
 
 •' It will also be welcomed by students of the Vedic Scriptures, 
 since each chapter is based upon some one of the ancient Vedas 
 known as the Upanishads, and many passages are quoted."— 
 Chicago Inter-Ocean, Jan. 1906. 
 
 " The book, from the gifted pen of the head of the Vedanta 
 Society of New York, presents in a clear manner, calculated to 
 arrest the attention of those not yet familiar with Vedic literature, 
 the principles of self-knowledge as taught by the leaders of that 
 philosophy. . . . The many passages quoted prove the profound 
 wisdom and practical teaching contained in the early Hindu Scrip- 
 tures." — Washington Evening Star, Dec. 1905. 
 
 " A new book which will be welcome to students of Truth, 
 whether it be found in the Eastern religions, in modem thought 
 or elsewhere." — Ufiity, Nov. 1905. 
 
 "The book is very well written." — San Francisco Chronicle^ 
 Dec. 1905. 
 
 " In forcefulness and clearness of style it is in every way equal 
 to the other works by the Swami Abhedananda, who has always 
 shown himself in his writings a remarkable master of the English 
 language." — Mexican Herald, Dec. 1905. 
 
 *' The volume is forcefully written, as are all of this author's 
 works, and cannot fail to be of great interest to all who have entered 
 this field of thought. A fine portrait of the Swami forms the 
 frontispiece." — Toledo Blade, Nov. 1905. 
 
India and Her People 
 
 (Lectures delivered before the Brooklyn Institute 
 
 of Arts and Sciences during the season 
 
 of 1905-1906.) 
 
 BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 Contents 
 I. Philosophy of India To-day. 
 II. Religions of India. 
 
 III. Social Status of India: Their System of Caste. 
 
 IV. Political Institutions of India. 
 V. Education in India. 
 
 VI. The Influence of India on Western Civilization and the 
 Influence of Western Civilization on India. 
 
 "Ttais book has more than usual interest as coming- from one who 
 knows the Occident and both knows and loves the Orient. ... It 
 is decidedly interesting. . . . 'i'he book has two admirable qualities: 
 breadth in scope and suggestiveness in mater iail'"—Bu//et in 0/ the 
 American Geographical Society^ Sept, 1906. 
 
 *'This volume, written in an attractive style and dealing with the 
 life, philosophy and reli.tfion of India, should prove a useful addition to 
 the literature of a fascinating and as yet largely unknown subject. It 
 is designed for popular reading, the metaphysical portions being so 
 handled that the reader runs little risk of getting beyond his depth." 
 —Literary Digest, Feb. 16, 1907. 
 
 " The Swami possesses the exceptional advantage of being able to 
 look upon his own country almost from the standpoint of an outsider 
 and to handle his subject free from both foreign and native prejudice." 
 -New York World, k.\x^.^,,.<)^(i. 
 
 " It is a valuable contribution to Western knowledge of India, con- 
 taining precisely what the American wants to know about that region.' 
 — Washington Evening Star, Aug. 4, 1906. 
 
 " It is impossible to quarrel with his book. He (Swami) writes too 
 interestingly and he is a man with a mission." — The Sunday Oregonian, 
 Aug. 26, 1906. 
 
The Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
 Ramakrishna was a great Hindu saint of the nineteenth century 
 who has already had an influence on the religious thought of 
 America and England through the teachings of his disciples, 
 Swami VivekSnanda, Swami Abhedananda, and others. His Say- 
 ings are full of broad, practical, non-sectarian instructions concern- 
 ing the spiritual life which cannot but give help and inspiration 
 to the followers of all creeds. The present volume contains a 
 larger number of Sayings than has yet appeared in any one English 
 collection. For the first time also they have been classified into 
 chapters and arranged in logical sequence under marginal head- 
 ings, such as "All creeds paths to God," "Power of Mind and 
 Thought," "Meditation," "Perseverance." As an exposition of 
 the universal truths of Religion and their application to the daily 
 life this book takes its place among the great scriptures of the 
 world. 
 
 Spiritual Unfoldment. 
 
 BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 I. Self-control. 
 IL Concentration and Meditation. 
 III. God-consciousness. 
 
 " This attractive little volume comprises three lectures on the 
 Vedanta Philosophy. The discourses wtll be found vitally helpful even 
 by those who know little and care less about the spiritual and ethicul 
 teachings of which the Swami is an able and popular exponent. As 
 the Vedanta itself is largely a doctrine of universais and ultimates, so 
 also is this book of common utility and significance among all races of 
 believers. Its precepts are susceptible of application by any rational 
 thinker, regardless of religious predilection and inherited prejudices. 
 The principles set forth by this teacher are an excellent corrective of 
 spiritual bias or narrowness, and as such the present work is to be com- 
 mended. It has already awakened an interest in Oriental literature that 
 augurs well for the cause of human brotherhood, and it merits a wide 
 circulation among all who cherish advanced idealb."— il//«fl^, A^il^ 
 
 What is Vedanta? 
 
 Pamphlet printed for distribution containing a short exposition of 
 the fundamental teachings of the Vedanta Philosophy. i2mo, 8 pp. 
 
The Gospel of Ramakrishna. 
 
 Authorized Edition, 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 swAmi abhedananda. 
 
 448 pages; with two pictures, maginal notes, and index. 
 
 Full leather binding, flexible cover, circuit edge with red 
 and gold in the style of '* Teachers' Bible," 
 
 " The sayings of a mystic who has much influence in India 
 and who has been made known to the Western world by various 
 missionary ' Swamis ' will be found in ' The Gospel of Rama- 
 krishna.* They have been translated into excellent English." 
 
 — The Sun, New York. 
 
 <« * The Gospel of Ramakrishna ' contains the religious 
 teachings of this modern Hindu saint whose life contained so 
 many good deeds that his followers thought him little short of 
 divine." — The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass. 
 
 " During his lifetime his career and personality attracted 
 much attention from English and German scholars of the nine- 
 teenth century." — The Chicago Inter-Ocean, Chicago, III. 
 
 "The book is filled with beautiful thoughts and beauti- 
 ful teachings, which, if followed, would lead to a perfect life. 
 One cannot marvel that the sayings of Rimakrishna made a 
 deep impress on modern Hindu thought. He was at least a 
 great and wise scholar, and gave goodly advice to his followers." 
 
 — The San Francisco Examiyier, San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 «'It is a remarkable book and it should be a rare privilege 
 to read it." — The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon. 
 
PRESS NOTICES OF "INDIA AND HER PEOPLE." 
 
 "The views set forth in this work by Swami Abhedananda . . . are 
 interesting, as being those of a native of India who has devoted much 
 time and attention to the study of those questions which affect the 
 government and general administration of the country. The author 
 has selected a wide range of subjects for treatment, embracing the 
 social, political, educational, and religious conditionsas they now exist, 
 and, speaking generally, has invariably exercised sound tact and judg- 
 ment in discussing the many different questions embraced under thos« 
 headings." — Journal of the Royal Colonial Institute^ April, IQOJ^ 
 London, England. 
 
 "An excellent contribution to the very scanty literature on India. 
 . . . All chapters are instructive to any one aspiring to a knowledge 
 of this vast country. ... It is a book which every non-Indian visit- 
 ing India or making a temporary or permanent stay therein, and als« 
 every son of the soil, should have by his side." — The Arya^ February^ 
 1907, Madras, India. 
 
 Reincarnation. 
 
 (jVeiu and Enlarged Edition.) 
 I. Reincarnation. 
 II. Heredity and Reincarnation. 
 
 III. Evolution and Reincarnation. 
 
 IV. Which is Scientific, Resurrection or Reincarnation? 
 V. Theory of Transmigration. 
 
 " In these discourses the Swami Abhedananda considers the questions 
 of evolution and the resurrection in their bearing upon the ancient 
 teaching of rebirth, the truth, logic and justice of which are rapidly 
 permeating the best thought of the Western world. For the preserva- 
 tion of this doctrine mankind is indebted to the literary storehouses of 
 India, the racial and geographical source of much of the vital knowledge 
 of Occidental peoples. Reincarnation is shown in the present volume 
 to be a universal solvent of life's mysteries. It answers those questions 
 of children that have staggered the wisest minds who seek to reconcile 
 the law of evolution and the existence of anintelligentand just Creator, 
 with the proposition that man has but a single lifetime in which to de- 
 velop spiritual self-consciousness. It is commended to every thinker." 
 '—Mind., February, igoo. 
 
 " It is a work which will appeal to the novice for its simplicity and 
 definite quality, and to the student for its wealth of knowledge and 
 suggestion." — Vedanta Monthly Bulletin., Sept.., IQ07. 
 
 "The book should prove a valuable acquisition." — The Evening 
 Sun, J^. v., December 21, 1907. 
 
 "This is the work of a man of fine education and of fine intellect. 
 . . . (Reincarnation) as expounded by Swami Abhedananda is very 
 plausible, quite scientific, and far from uncomforting. The exposition 
 contained in this little book is well worth reading by all students of 
 metaphysics. There is not the slightest danger of its converting or 
 perverting any one to a new and strange religion. Reincarnation is 
 not religion, it is science. Science was never known to hurt anybody 
 but scientists." — Brooklyn Eagle, December ij, 1907. 
 
WORKS BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
 Philosophy of Work, 
 
 I. Philosophy of Work, 
 II. Secret of Work. 
 III. Duty or Motive in Work. 
 
 " In this volume the Vedanta Society presents three lectures by the 
 leader of the Hindu religious movement that is making much head- 
 way among philosophic minds throughout the United States. The 
 book is an excellent antidote to the gospel of selfism now popular 
 in many quarters, and a copy should be in the hands especially of 
 every ambitious seeker after the loaves and fishes of material desire. 
 It shows the folly of slavery to sense and the means of escape from 
 the thraldom of egoism, while elucidating the Hindu concept o£ 
 many things that are ' race problems' because of individual igno« 
 ranee of spiritual principles. These discourses merit a wide circulfti 
 iion among unprejudiced minds." — Mind, February, 1903. 
 
 Single Lectures, 
 
 Christian Science and Vedanta. 
 
 Cosmic Evolution and its Purpose. 
 
 Divine Communion. 
 
 Does the Soul Exist after Death ? 
 
 The Motherhood of God. 
 
 The Philosophy of Good and Eviu 
 
 The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 Religion of the Hindus. 
 
 Scientific Basis of Religion. 
 
 Simple Living. 
 
 Spiritualism and Vedanta. 
 
 The Way. to the Blessed Life. 
 
 Who is the Saviour of Souls ? 
 
 Why a H indu Accepts Christ and Rejects Churchi anity. 
 
 Why a Hindu is a Vegetarian. 
 
 Woman's Place in Hindu Religion. 
 
 The Word and the Cross in Ancient India. 
 
 Single Lectures Parts I & H. Bound in cloth. 
 
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