have been taken and worked up independently.  Thus the idea of the Demiurgus is related to the idea of Isvara in so far as both imply a distinction not generally recognized in Europe between the creator of the world and the Highest Deity, but the Gnostic developments of the Demiurgus idea are independent.  Similarly though the Aeons or emanations of the Gnostics have to some extent a parallel in the beings produced by Brahma, Prajapati or Vasudeva, yet these latter are not characteristic of Hinduism and still less of Buddhism, for the celestial Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Mahayana are justly suspected of being additions due to Persian influence.

Bardesanes, one of the latest Gnostic teachers (155-233), wrote a book on Indian religion, quoted by Porphyry.  This is important for it shows that he turned towards India for truth, but though his teaching included the pre-existence of the soul and some doctrine of Karma, it was not specially impregnated with Indian ideas.  This, however, may be said without exaggeration of Carpocrates and Basilides who both taught at Alexandria about 120-130 A.D.  Unfortunately we know the views of these interesting men only from the accounts of their opponents.  Carpocrates[1134] is said to have claimed the power of coercing by magic the spirits who rule the world and to have taught metempsychosis in the form that the soul is imprisoned in the body again and again until it has performed all possible actions, good and evil.  Therefore the only way to escape reincarnation (which is the object of religion) and to rise to a superior sphere of peace is to perform as much action as possible, good and evil, for the distinction between the two depends on intention, not on the nature of deeds.  It is only through faith and love that a man can obtain blessedness.  Much of the above sounds like a caricature, but it may be a misrepresentation of something analogous to the Indian doctrine that the acts of a Yogi are neither black nor white and that a Yogi in order to get rid of his Karma creates and animates many bodies to work it off for him.

In Basilides we find the doctrines not only of reincarnation, which seems to have been common in Gnostic schools,[1135] but of Karma, of the suffering inherent in existence and perhaps the composite nature of the soul.  He is said to have taught that the martyrs suffered for their sins, that is to say that souls came into the world tainted with the guilt of evil deeds done in another existence.  This guilt must be expiated by commonplace misfortune or, for the nobler sort, by martyrdom.  He considered the world process to consist in sorting out confused things and the gradual establishment of order.  This is to some extent true of the soul as well:  it is not an entity but a compound (compare the Buddhist doctrine of the Skandhas) and the passions are appendages.  He called God [Greek:  oyk hon theos] which seems an attempt to express the same idea as Brahman devoid of all qualities and attributes (nirguna).  It is significant that the system of Basilides died out.[1136]