A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c6.s3.t2.61

c6.s3.t2.61

37. We have seen hitherto that the philosophers of the Upanishads believed in a region like the Platonic Hades in which the incurables were possibly confined for ever; we have seen that they believed in a region like the Islands of the Blest, differing however from Plato inasmuch as they regarded life in this region as absolutely eternal; we have seen that they believed in the Path of the Gods which led stage by stage to the world of Brahman, whence they supposed there was no back-turning; while they also believed in the Path of the Fathers, which led the soul to supramundane regions where it lived so long as its merit was not exhausted, but when this came to an end, the soul had to descend in the shape of rain-drops and take on a body according to the remnant of its works. On the other hand, we do not find that anything like the conception of the Tartarus of Plato or the Purgatory of Dante was present to the mind of the Upanishadic