ABSTRACT
THERE are few Hindu books in which the doctrine of metempsychosis is not explained and expounded. This doctrine is, as is generally known, one of the fundamental principles of the Hindu religion. The following is an extract from the Bhagavata :-' Vishnu, the Supreme Being, before creating anything which now exists, began by creating souls 1, which at first animated bodies of fantastic shapes. During their union with these bodies they either committed sin or practised virtue. Mter a long abode in these provisional dwelling-places, they were withdrawn and summoned before the tribunal of Yama, who judges the dead. This divinity admitted into Swarga (paradise) those souls which had led virtuous lives; and he shut up in Naraka (hell) those souls which had given themselves up to sin. Souls which had been partly virtuous and partly sinful were sent to earth to animate other bodies, and so to endure proportionately the pain due for their sins and to receive the reward of their virtues. Thus every new birth, whether happy or unhappy, is the result of deeds practised in previous generations, and is either the reward or punishment for them. We may thus judge by the condition of a person in an existing generation what he har,; been in the previous one.
