Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 444

THE DWATTA DOCTRIXK
4n4
coexistence, whatever may be the badness and imper-
In support
fection of the things with which He is united.
of this last contention, the adherents of the doctrine of
Dwaita cite, for the purpose of comparison, fire and the
They say that fire can be incorporated
rays of the sun.
in every substance, pure and impure, yet it never loses
any of its own purity so also with the rays of the sun,
which are never polluted even when penetrating heaps of
;
filth
and mud.
According to these sectarians our souls emanate from
God and form part of Him just as light emanates from
the sun, which illuminates the whole world with an infinite
number of rays just as numberless drops of water fall
;
;
from the same cloud and just as various trinkets are
formed from the same ingot of gold. Whatever may be
the number of these rays, of these drops of water, and of
these trinkets, it is always to the same sun, to the same
cloud, and to the same ingot of gold that they respectively
;
belong.
However, from the very moment that a soul is united
with a body it finds itself imprisoned in the darkness of
ignorance and sin, just like a frog caught in the gullet of
a snake from which it has no chance of escaping. Although
the soul, thus imprisoned, continues to be one with God,
it is, nevertheless, to a certain extent disunited and separated
from Him. However great and good the soul may be
which animates a human form, it becomes from that moment
subject to all the sins, to all the errors, and to all the weak-
nesses which are the natural consequences of this union
with a body. The vicissitudes that affect the soul while
it is united with a body do not, however, affect that part
In this respect the soul may
of its nature which is divine.
be compared to the moon, whose image is reflected in the
water if the water in which the image of the moon is
reflected be disturbed, the image also becomes disturbed
but it cannot be said that the moon itself is disturbed.
The changes and chances of the soul united with different
bodies do not seriously concern God, from whom it emanates
and as to the soul itself, it is immutable, never undergoing
Its union with the body lasts till
the slightest change.
such time as, by meditation and penance, it attains a degree
:
;