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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
215
they did not possess detailed knowledge of the entire subject,
The Jewish Esotericism, which is the true side of Judaism, as must be quite clear by now--for literalism' is only the kernel-less husk-also professed belief in metempsychosis (ERE, vol. vii. p. 626).
According to Prof, Metchnikoff (The Nature of Man, pp. 143-144) :"At the date of the Cabalistic philosophy, the Jews bad en
braced the doctrine of transmigration of souls, and had come to believe that the spirit of Adam had entered David and would pags on to Messiah."
As a matter of fact the doctrine is implied in the very fundamentals of Judaism from the very earliest times. But to continue with our subject, death is the consequence of the fusion of spirit and matter, for independentty of each other they are death-less, pure spirits as well as atoms of matter being both simple indestructible subslances. He who would attain immortality must, therefore, seek it within himself, by separating from his soul (every particle of foreign material that may be adhering to it. This is possible only in one way--by tapas. When the individual is rid of râga and dvesha in every form, he is said to conquer death, though he lingers in the world of men so long as his body (or rather bodies) are not completely dissolved.' He is then called a jivanmukta. Finally, when he is completely freed from all kinds of connection with matter, Heimmediately ascends
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