. XII. gans, performances of duties, and meditation on the CHAP. ' divine spirit, accompany the good quality of the soul: 32. Interested motives for acts of religion or morality, perturbation of mind on slight occasions, commission of acts forbidden by law, and habitual indulgence in selfish gratifications, are attendant on the quality of passion: 33. Covetousness, indolence, avarice, detraction, atheism, omission of prescribed acts, a habit of soliciting favours, and inattention to necessary business, belong to the dark quality. 34. Of those three qualities, as they appear in the 'three times, past, present, and future, the following in order from the lowest may be considered as a short but certain criterion. 35. Let the wise consider, as belonging to the quality of darkness, every act, which a man is ashamed of having done, of doing, or of going to • do: 36. Let them consider, as proceeding from the quality of passion, every act, by which a man seeks 'exaltation and celebrity in this world, though he 6 may not be much afflicted, if he fail of attaining • his object : 6 37. To the quality of goodness belongs every act, by which he hopes to acquire divine knowledge, CHAP. XII. 6 'which he is never ashamed of doing, and which brings placid joy to his conscience. 38. Of the dark quality, as described, the princi pal object is pleasure; of the passionate, worldly prosperity; but of the good quality, the chief object is virtue: the last mentioned objects are superiour • in dignity. 39. SUCH transmigrations, as the soul procures in this universe by each of those qualities, I now will ⚫ declare in order succinctly. > 40. Souls, endued with goodness, attain always the 'state of deities; those filled with ambitious passions, the condition of men; and those immersed in darkness, the nature of beasts: this is the triple order of transmigration. 41. Each of those three transmigrations, caused by 'the several qualities, must also be considered as three-fold, the lowest, the mean, and the highest, according to as many distinctions of acts and of knowledge. 42. Vegetable and mineral substances, worms, insects, and reptiles, some very minute, some rather larger, fish, snakes, tortoises, cattle, shakals, are 'the lowest forms, to which the dark quality leads: 43. Elephants, horses, men of the servile class, ' and contemptible Mléch'has, or barbarians, lions, tigers, and boars, are the mean states procured by the quality of darkness: 44. Dancers 44. Dancers and singers, birds, and deceitful men, CHAP. giants and blood-thirsty savages, are the highest XII. 'conditions, to which the dark quality can ascend. 45 J'hallas, or cudgel-players, Mallas, or boxers and wrestlers, Natas, or actors, those who teach 'the use of weapons, and those who are addicted to gaming or drinking, are the lowest forms casioned by the passionate quality: 6 OC 46. Kings, men of the fighting class, domestick priests of kings, and men skilled in the war of 'controversy, are the middle states caused by the quality of passion: 47. Gandharvas, or aerial musicians, Guhyacas and Yacshas, or servants and companions of CUVE'RA, genii attending superiour gods, as the Vidyadharas ' and others, together with various companies of Apsarases or nymphs, are the highest of those forms, which the quality of passion attains. 6 48.' Hermits, religious mendicants, other Bráhmens, 'such orders of demigods as are wafted in airy cars, genii of the signs and lunar mansions, and Daityas, or the offspring of Diti, are the lowest of states procured by the quality of goodness: 49. Sacrificers, holy sages, deities of the lower I heaven, genii of the Védas, regents of stars not in 'the paths of the sun and moon, divinities of divinities of years, 'Pitris or progenitors of mankind, and the demigods ' named Sádhyas, are the middle forms, to which the • good CHAP. good quality conveys all spirits moderately endued with it: XII. 50. BRAHMA' with four faces, creators of worlds under him, as MARICHI and others, the genius of 'virtue, the divinities presiding over (two principles of nature in the philosophy of CAPILA) mahat, or the mighty, and avyacta, or unperceived, are the highest conditions, to which, by the good quality, souls are 6 exalted. 51. This triple system of transmigrations, in which each class has three orders, according to actions ' of three kinds, and which comprises all animated beings, has been revealed in its full extent : 52. Thus, by indulging the sensual appetites, and by neglecting the performance of duties, the basest ' of men, ignorant of sacred expiations, assume the 'basest forms. 6 53. WHAT particular bodies the vital spirit enters in this world, and in consequence of what sins here committed, now hear at large and in order. 54. Sinners in the first degree, having passed through terrible regions of torture for a great number of years, are condemned to the following births ' at the close of that period, to efface all remains of their sin. 55. The slayer of a Bráhmen must enter according to the circumstances of his crime the body of a dog, a dog, a boar, an ass, a camel, a bull, a goat, a CHAP. sheep, a stag, a bird, a Chandála, or a Puccasa. 56. A priest, who has drunk spirituous liquor, 'shall migrate into the form of a smaller or larger worm or insect, of a moth, of a fly feeding on ordure, or of some ravenous animal. 57. He, who steals the gold of a priest, shall pass a thousand times into the bodies of spiders, of snakes and cameleons, of crocodiles and other aquatick monsters, or of mischievous blood-sucking ' demons. 58. He, who violates the bed of his natural or spiritual father, migrates a hundred times into the 'forms of grasses, of shrubs with crowded stems, or of creeping and twining plants, of vultures and other 'carnivorous animals, of lions and other beasts with sharp teeth, or of tigers and other cruel brutes. 6 59. They, who hurt any sentient beings, are born 'cats and other eaters of raw flesh; they who taste 'what ought not to be tasted, maggots or small 'flies; they, who steal ordinary things, devourers of each other: they, who embrace very low women, become restless ghosts. 6 60. He, who has held intercourse with degraded men, or been criminally connected with the wife of another, or stolen common things from a priest, 'shall be changed into a spirit called Bráhma XII. |