The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.171

v1.c17.171

There was one consequence which followed so clearly from the new conception of existence that it is enunciated, though not very decidedly, in the Bṛihadāraṇyaka Upanishad, namely that there was no consciousness after death in the case of him who realised the true nature of the self as intelligence without thought. But this conception plays a very small part in the texts compared with the new theory of transmigration. There is no real sign of this doctrine in the Brāhmaṇas proper, but there is a certain amount of preparation for its appearance in the gradual development of the doctrine that not even after death is the horror of death ended: a man may die repeated deaths in the next world. If this conception be transferred to the present world, then the doctrine of transmigration is produced, and in the Upanishads this doctrine is clearly and expressly enunciated. The Chhāndogya and Bṛihadāraṇyaka agree in the main outlines of the new belief: the forest ascetic who has realised the nature of *brahman* after death goes by the way of the gods to be absorbed in *brahman* and never again to be born: the man who has done good deeds but has not attained the saving knowledge goes to the world of the moon to reside there until the fruit of his deeds is exhausted, when he is born again first as a plant and then as man or at once as a man: the wicked on the contrary are born as outcasts, dogs, or swine, according to the Chhāndogya, as birds, beasts, and reptiles according to the Bṛihadāraṇyaka. There is a variant version on the Kaushītaki which makes all first go to the moon; but the essential point is the acceptance as a matter of certainty of the new doctrine of transmigration. The Bṛihadāraṇyaka also has an important addition to the doctrine in the form of the gospel of *karman* 'action,' which determines on a man's death the nature of his next birth. In the Buddhist view the idea recurs in the simple form that the self, which is recognised as persisting through transmigration by the Brāhman, is discarded as needless and the *karman* alone is asserted to possess reality.