tanjali.'i
 

82                             ALBERUNPS INDIA.

the cause of an effect has already ceased or disappeared,
the effect itself still goes on for a certain time, slacken¬
ing, and by and by decreasing, till in the end it ceases
totally ; e.g. the silk-weaver drives round his wheel with
his mallet until it whirls round rapidly, then he leaves
it; however, it does not stand still, though the mallet
that drove it round has been removed ; the motion of
the wheel decreases by little and little, and finally it
ceases. It is the same case with the body. After the
action of the body has ceased, its effect is still lasting
until it arrives, through the various stages of motion
and of rest, at the cessation of physical force and of the
effect which had originated from preceding causes.
Thus liberation is finished when the body has been
completely prostrated."
From Pa          In the boolc of Patanjali there is a passage which

expresses similar ideas. Speaking of a man who re¬
strains his senses and organs of perception, as the turtle
draws in its limbs when it is afraid, he says that " he
is not fettered, because the fetter has been loosened,
and he is not liberated, because his body is still with
him."

There is, however, another passage in the same book
which does not agree with the theory of liberation as
expounded above. He says : " The bodies are the snares
of the souls for the purpose of acquiring recompense.
He who arrives at the stage of liberation has acquired,
in his actual form of existence, the recompense for all
the doings of the past. Then he ceases to labour to
acquire a title to a recompense in the future. He frees
himself from the snare ; he can dispense with the parti¬
cular form of his existence, and moves in it quite freely
without being ensnared by it. He has even the faculty
of moving wherever he likes, and if he like, he might
rise above the face of death. For the thick, cohesive
bodies cannot oppose an obstacle to his form of exist¬
ence (as, e.g. a mountain could not prevent him from