Indian Philosophy v1.c8.s14.2.2

v1.c8.s14.2.2

In other texts, on the contrary,³ it is promised as the highest reward that the pious man shall be born in the next world, with his entire body, sarva tanūḥ.⁴ Thus far the difference between the Vedic and the Brāhmaṇical views is that while according to the Ṛg-Veda the sinner is reduced to nothing while the virtuous obtain immortality, in the Brāhmaṇas both are born again to undergo the results of their actions. As Weber puts it: "Whereas in the oldest times immortality in the abodes of the blessed, where milk and honey flow, is regarded as the reward of virtue or wisdom, whilst the sinner or the fool is, after a short life, doomed to the annihilation of the personal existence, the doctrine of the Brāhmaṇas is that after death all are born again, in the next world, where they are recompensed according to their deeds, the good being rewarded and the wicked punished."⁵ The suggestion is that there is only one life after this, and its nature is determined by our conduct here. "A man is born into the world which he has made."⁶ "Whatever food a man eats in this world by that food he is eaten in the next world."⁷ Good and evil deeds find their corresponding rewards and punishments in a future life. Again: "Thus have they done to us in yonder world, and so we do to them again in this world."⁸ Gradually the idea of an equalising justice developed.