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MYTHOLOGY
was drawn into the most suitable womb for his next incarnation. This process continued till nirvana was attained, which meant the conquest of death, hence resurrection from the dead. The dead are all those souls that are not spiritually alive, as in the text:
“ Let the dead bary their dead” (Matt. viii. 22),
This is also the sense of the passege in Revelation (i-18) where the Redeemed Soul is made to say ;
“I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I ain alive
for ever more, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and
of death." Resurrection from the dead then meant the conquest of death, the removal of the liability imposexi upon the soul as a consequence of the 'fall.' This liability is due to the entertainment of råga and duesha (euphemis. tically, the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and is put an end to by the conquest of death by * works,' when he who is accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead cannot die any more (Luke, xx, 36). We thus have the region of death confined to the sphere within which råga and dvesha, i.e., private loves and hatreds, prevail. As explained in the lecture dealing with the scientific aspect of Religion, rågıt and dvesha are the real causes of the bondage of karma and transmigration ; they lead to the union of spirit and matter, thereby crippling and maiming the soul. This is precisely what Christian Gnostics themselves held, as we have already seen, though
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