The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s10.51

v2.c40.s10.51

The second part of the account deals with the two ways, that of the gods and of the Fathers, and it teaches the doctrine first of punishment in the next world, and then rebirth on earth for those persons who were not to receive full enlightenment. The Devayāna, originally in the Rigveda the path by which the sacrifice of a man was borne to the gods or by which they came for it, and by which on death he joined the Fathers and the gods in heaven, is transformed into the path by which the soul goes to the gods or to the absolute. On the burning of the body the soul enters the flame, then the day, the bright half of the month, the bright half of the year, the year, the sun, the moon (in the Chāndogya version), the lightning, and finally, led by a spiritual man or, as the Chāndogya has it, a superhuman man, into the world of Brahman. The terms are of course to be understood spatially, but in later India they were interpreted as temporal, and thus in the great epic the death of Bhīṣma is delayed by that warrior so that he may die in the Uttarāyaṇa, the northern course of the sun.¹ In the case of the Pitṛyāna the course is different: the moon is common to both since the moon was often regarded as the home of the dead,² and in the Upaniṣads its waxing and waning were brought into connexion with the movements of the souls: hence the path is the smoke, the night, the dark half of the month, the dark half of the year, the world of the Fathers in lieu of the year, the ether not the sun, the moon, which is now not a stage of transit to the world of Brahman, but the highest place attained by the souls. The arrival of the souls fills up the moon,³ so that in the metaphorical language of the Upaniṣads they are enjoyed by the gods, a view which the Vedānta reduces to the principle that the souls and the gods together delight therein. This time of felicity ends only when the merit of the soul is finished, and then it returns to earth by the process, in its last stages very difficult, of being materialized into ether, wind, smoke, mist, cloud, rain, plants, food, seed, and entrance into the womb of the mother to be followed by rebirth. The way of the Fathers is the lot of those who are bent on sacrifice, works of piety, and asceticism (in the Chāndogya, sacrifice, gifts, and almsgiving), while that of the gods which leads to the Brahman is allotted to the wise who know the doctrine and those who in the forest worship faith (in the Chāndogya, worship faith and asceticism, unless it means 'worship, holding that faith is asceticism'). The lot of the wicked appears to have been the third place which led to birth again as animals, of the lower insect orders, worms, or flies. In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad⁴ the position is differentiated by the division of the classes of souls, which go to the moon, into those of good and those of abominable conduct: the former are reborn as Kṣatriyas, Brahmans, or Vaiçyas, the latter as dogs, pigs, or Caṇḍālas, but the absurdity is retained that the third class remains, described as beings which ever return.