The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c9.s1.47

c9.s1.47

At a later time when the Hindus in their highest mood turn the ordinary gods into supernumeraries, when metempsychosis takes the place of a journey to heaven, when they have sloughed off priests, sacrifice fire, spoon, and ghee, all that is changed. The degraded Çraddhā or Faith is replaced by Bhakti, “Devotion,” that is, devotion to the Eternal True, Only Being that is at the root of all things. The *ishṭāpūrta*, piled up in the savings-bank of heaven, where Yama and the Fathers are engaged in everlasting feasts, is replaced by *karma*, the accumulated deeds of a given lifetime and the attendant evolution which these deeds have worked upon the spirit. This so definitely shapes character as to determine the nature of the next rebirth, until a perfect life shall free the mortal from the toils of all existence, and replace him in the bosom of the One True Being. Of all this later on.