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this earthly life; the bor is the symbol of the lowest state of existence. The four snakes are the symbols of Anger, Vanity, Deceit and Greediness. The trunk of the banian tree is the short duration of our earthly life. The two rats, white and black represent time, the light halt and dark half of the month which exhaust our earthly duration. The bees in the honey-comb are the organs of senses and the honey-drops represent the sensuous pleasures. And the minister represents the true religion. So the whole thing comes to this. The common man of the world, thinking that his life will be cut off at any time by death satisfies himself by enjoying the sensuous pleasures derived from the senses and does not care to receive the truths offered by true philosophy, he being influenced by sentiments of anger, vanity, deceit and greedmess represented by the four snakes."
I was perfectly astonished at this explanation of the picture and of the view of life taken by the Hindus. This was when I was eight ears old. Twenty years after that, only the other day I hap pened to read one of Professor Max Muller's work, and I was much more astonished to see that he also expressed himself in pretty nearly the same terms. Here are his views:-Our idea of life on earth has always been that of a struggle for existence, a struggle for power and dominion, for wealth and enjoyment. These are the ideas which dominate the history of
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