Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 16:62 (Apr 1859)
Article: On The Vedic Doctrine Of A Future Life
Author: William D. Whitney

BSac 16:62 (April 1859) p. 404

On The Vedic Doctrine Of A Future Life

William D. Whitney

The design of this Article1 is to exhibit an interesting feature in the ancient religion of India, and, at the same time, to furnish an illustration of the manner in which the Veda is made to contribute to the history of Hindu creeds and institutions, and of the character of the light which it sheds upon them.

What has been for more than two thousand years the prevailing belief in India respecting death and a future life, is so well known, that it is not necessary here to do more than characterize it briefly and generally. It is the so-called doctrine of transmigration. It teaches that the present life is but one of an indefinite series of existences which each individual soul is destined to pass through; that death is only the termination of one, and the entrance upon another, of the series. Further, it holds that all life is one in essence; that there is no fundamental difference between the vital principle of a human being, and that of any other living creature: so that, when a soul quits its tenement of flesh, it may find itself next imprisoned in the body of some inferior animal; being, in fact, liable to make experience of all the various forms of life, in its progress toward the final consummation of its existence. The grade of each successive birth is regarded as determined by the sum of merit or demerit resulting from the actions of the lives already past: a life of exceeding folly and wickedness may condemn one to be born for myriads of years in the shape of abhorred and grovelling animals, or among the depraved, the ignorant, and the outcast among men; on the other hand, it is possible to attain to such an exalted pitch of wisdom and virtue, that

BSac 16:62 (April 1859) p. 405

the soul escapes the condemnation of existence, and sinks into the void, or merges its individuality in the universality of the world-spirit. It is held also—although rather, it would seem, as a relic of creeds which have preceded this, than as any properly organic part of it — that, in farther recompense of past actions, an intermediate period may be spent, after death, in enjoying the delights of a heaven, or suffering the torments of a hell, before the weary round of births is again taken up. But this is a feature of the creed of only minor consequence: the inexorable fate which dooms each creature to a repeated entrance upon a life full of so many miseries in the present, fraught with such dangers for the future, is what the Hindu dreads, and would escape: he flies from existence, as the sum of all miseries; the aim of his life is to make sure that it be the last of him. For it is virtual, if not defined and acknowledged annihilation, ...