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Rebirth-A Philosophical Study
departed regarding the route the sout has to follow jo the underworld On your left, you will find a stream, and near it is a white poplar Go nol Dear the stream, but you will find another, cool waters flowing from the lake of memory, and by it are guards Say to them, 'I un a child of the earth and of starry Heaven but iny place is of Heaveo only
The influence of the Orpluc idea of destiny of the soul is to be found in the poems of Pindar 11 the first half of the 5th century BC and in the verses of thu plulosophers like Empeducles "Immediately after death the law-less spirits sufter punishment" "And the s103 committed in this realen of Zeus are judged by one who passeth sentence stern and inevitable, while upon the good the sun shines ever more through equal nights and equal d.lys, and they receive the boon of life of enlightened toil, aot vexing the soil with the strength of their hands, no, nor the waters of the sea, to gain a scanty livelihood, but in the presence of the honoured gods, all who were wont to rejoice In keeping their oaths share a life that knoweth 90 tears, while others endure labours that none can look upon' When the life immediately following the present 19 thus conceived as an intermediate state of coward and puqishment, it 19 clear that we have gone beyond the primitive theories of mere continuance, Orphic mysticism ofluenced Pythagoras and his disciples There 19 a far closer agreement between Pythagorianism and the Indian doctrine, not merely in their general features, but even in certain details, such as vegetarianism The formulde wh.ch summarize the whole creed of the «Circle and the wheel" of births are likewise the saine la both It is almost impossible for us to refer this identity to mere chance The Indian doctrine of metempsychosis is older than the Budd bists, and it is not too much to assume that the cucious Greek who was the contemporary of the Buddha, and it may bave been of Zarathustra too, would have acquired a more or less exact knowledge of the religiou, speculation of tbe East, in that age of latellectual fermentation, through the medium of Persia. Plato was also influenced by this doctrine as is evident from his dialogues like the Mene, the Phaeudo and the Republic Pre existence of the soul and the doctrine of transmigration or relacarnation were also fuadamental tenets of the religious brotherhood founded by Pythagoras in the south of Llaly at the end of the sixth century, and were associated there also with the pursuit of purity by a variety of ascetic practices and ceremonial observances ? It is difficult to determine the extent of the Interaction of other currents of thought on the Orpbic and the Pytbagorian doctrines in this respect We have just scen
5 Pringle Pattison (
A S) The Idea of Immortality (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1922), p 27 6 Compare Theodore Greek Thinkers vol I (John Murray, London 1920), PP 127 7 Pringle-Pattuson Idea of Immortality, P 93 Footnote
