The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c6.6

c6.6

In another sense India is the land of religions. Nowhere else is the texture of life so much impregnated with religious convictions and practices. At a very early time belief in the transmigration of souls (metempsychosis), whose precise origin in India is still something of a problem, planted itself down in the Hindu mind as the basis and fundamental axiom of all speculations about the soul and future life. This of itself is merely a theory. The practical importance of this theory is, that it is coupled almost from the start with a pessimistic view of life. According to this the everlasting round of existences is a nuisance, and release from it an imperative necessity. It would be difficult to find anywhere else a purely speculative notion which has taken so firm a hold upon practical life. It pervades the Hindu consciousness in a far more real and intimate way than its great rival, the belief in an eternal future life, pervades the religious thought of the Western world.