Storia do Mogor 250: CHAPTER III · DEALING WITH HINDU OPINIONS IN REGARD TO THE SOUL

250

The Hindus say that man has a soul, that this soul is a vital power of the physical and material body ; but the soul of man being a thing spiritual, none among them knows its true essence, and they divide themselves in respect to it into several conflicting schools of opinion. Some of them place two souls in man — one visible, the other intellectual. The first, they say, is of the same species as, or identical with, all animate or inanimate objects. The second they style Paramatumaon (Paramatman), and this they hold to be God Himself. It is composed of one essence only, and is the same in all men ; others add, also the same as in all animals. These last in their theology say in substance that the difference between a reasoning soul and that of an animal is that the latter has not reason, while the other is endowed with understanding. Just to show how they never agree in anything, and are always in error, there are some who say that our Lord God is the soul, not only of all the elements, but of all the elementary bodies. Some say that the soul is not really God, but only a part of God ; others, that God, our Lord, is not the soul, neither in whole nor in part, but He created all souls at one moment of time, and they pass into one body after another. Finally, there are others who assert that it is not alone God, our Lord, who is the creator of the soul and their author, but that the earthly father and mother really contribute to the production of the soul, just as much as they do to that of the body. The latter being mortal and corruptible, so also must man's soul be the same.