tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University
Publication Year: 1965
Total Pages: 901
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 55

The Vedas
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
the theory of transmigration of the soul is restricted only to the earthly existence. The relation of the virtuous and vicious deeds with their fruits in terms of the attainment or otherwise of the heaven has no elements of transmigration theory in it, and hence, it would be highly risky to say that the Vedic people believed in the transmigration of the soul.
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Moreover, the concept of transmigration also is not Aryan in origin. It seems to have been prevalent in India before the migration of the Aryans. It seems to have been a dominant and prevalent folk-belief in India and the Vedic thinkers seem to have borrowed it from the old natives of India. Bloomfield further writes-"The germs of the belief in transmigration are very likely to have filtered into the Brahmanical consciousness from below, from the popular sources, possibly from some of the aboriginal, non-Aryan tribes in India." Richard Garbe also supports him. He says "Under all circumstances the Aryan Indians can have received only the first impetus to the development of the theory of transmigration from the aboriginal inhabitants; the elaboration of the idea they borrowed-the assumption of a constant changing continuance of life, and its connection with the doctrine of the power of deeds, having in view the satisfaction of the moral consciousness-must always be regarded as their own peculiar achievement. "2 The Vedas describe the omnipotent, loving, merciful, sweet nature of God
1 Ibid. p. 254.
2 Garbe Richard: The Philosophy of Ancient India, p. 5.
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