Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 177
177 tions, it is difficult to understand what good results from casting souls into the revolution of births. ~M. ukti or salvation, as must be admitted by every sensible person, depends upon gayan, i. e. ^ Divine knowledge, and if the doctrine of transmigration had any truth in it, the Divine knowledge attained by a soul in a previous birth ought not to have been lost. On the other hand, every frag- ment of Divine knowledge attained in one birth, should have been a stepping stone for the acquirement of more knowledge, and the previous store ought to have been added to the newly acquired one, thus bringing a person nearer and nearer to the fountain of salva- tion. But it is clear that every child comes into the world utterly ignorant and the previous store of knowledge amassed with great labour during a whole life is utterly wasted like the fortune of a prodigal man. The revolution of successive births, therefore, in no way assists the attainment of salvation, for whatever store of Divine knowledge is accumulated in one birth is utterly wasted in the transition to the next. This process of the gain and loss of knowledge at the beginning and end of each birth, makes the attainment of salvation almost an impossibility, and therefore metempsychosis does not afford the least assistance to such attain- ment. A really insurmountable difficulty in the way of souls for the attainment of salvation that they must lose everything they gain without any fault of theirs and simply because God has wished to cast them into the maze of transmigration. And in spite of these difficulties, the salvation obtained is temporary and not permanent, and thus after enjoying this hardlywon rest for a short time, the soul is again cast out from the abode of bliss to undergo similar revolutions of ceaseless tortures. The second doctrine owned by the Arya Sarnaj which strikes at the very root of the true purity of life, is the doctrine of Niyoga. I do not ascribe this doctrine to the Vedas; nay, I tremble at the