The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c11.33

c11.33

Later in the same tract¹ Yājnavalkya describes the departure of the soul from the body and its consequences to man: “Then his knowledge and his works and his previous experience take him by the hand. As a caterpillar which has wriggled to the tip of a blade of grass draws itself over to (a new blade), so does this man, after he has put aside his body, draw himself over to a new existence. . . Now verily they say: ‘Man is altogether desire (*kāma*); as is his desire so is his insight (*kratu*); as is his insight so is his deed (*karma*); as is his deed so is his destiny.’”