The "descents" of Vishnu are usually reckoned ten. Of these by far the
most celebrated are those of Rama and Krishna. The great importance
attached to these two deities has been traced to the influence of
Buddhism. That system had exerted immense power in consequence of the
gentle and attractive character ascribed to Buddha. The older gods were
dim, distant, and often stern; some near, intelligible, and loving
divinity was longed for. Buddha was a brother-man, and yet a
quasi-deity; and hearts longing for sympathy and succor were strongly
attracted by such a personality.
[Sidenote: The god Rama.]
The character of Rama--or Ramachandra--is possessed of some high
qualities. The great poem in which it is described at fullest
length--the Ramayana of Valmiki--seems to have been an alteration, made
in the interests of Hinduism, of early Buddhist legends; and the
Buddhist quality of gentleness has not disappeared in the history.[25]
Rama, however, is far from a perfect character. His wife Sita is
possessed of much womanly grace and every wifely virtue; and the
sorrowful story of the warrior-god and his faithful spouse has appealed
to deep sympathies in the human breast. The worship of Rama has seldom,
if ever, degenerated into lasciviousness. In spite, however, of the
charm thrown around the life of Rama and Sita by the genius of Valmiki
and Tulsida,[26] it is Krishna, not Rama, that has attained the greatest
popularity among the "descents" of Vishnu.
[Sidenote: Krishna.
His early life a travesty of the life of Christ, according to
the Gospel of the Infancy.]
Very different morally from that of Rama is the character of Krishna.
While Rama is but a partial manifestation of divinity Krishna is a full
manifestation; yet what a manifestation! He is represented as full of
naughty tricks in his youth, although exercising the highest powers of
deity; and, when he grows up, his conduct is grossly immoral and
disgusting. It is most startling to think that this being is by grave
writers--like the authors of the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata
Purana--made the highest of the gods, or, indeed, the only real God.
Stranger still, if possible, is the probability that the early life of
Krishna--in part, at least--is a dreadful travesty of the early life of
Christ, as given in the apocryphal gospels, especially the Gospel of the
Infancy. The falling off in the apocryphal gospels, when compared with
the canonical, is truly sad; but the falling off even from the
apocryphal ones, in the Hindu books, is altogether sickening.[27]
A very striking characteristic of modern Hinduism is what is termed
_bhakti_, or devotion. There are three great ways of attaining to
salvation: _karma marga_, or the way of ceremonial works; _jnana
marga_, or the way of knowledge, and _bhakti marga_, or the way of
devotion.
[Sidenote: Doctrine of _bhakti_ introduced.
Influence of the system.
Mixed with Buddhist elements.
Exaltation of the _guru_.]
The notion of trust in the gods was familiar to the mind of India from
Vedic days, but the deity was indistinct and unsympathetic, and there
could hardly be love and attachment to him. But there now arose the
doctrine of _bhakti_ (devotion), which resolved religion into emotion.
It came into the Hindu system rather abruptly; and many learned men have
traced its origin to the influence of Christianity. This is quite
possible; but perhaps the fact is hardly proved. Contact with
Christianity, however, probably accelerated a process which had
previously begun. At all events, the system of _bhakti_ has had, and
still has, great sway in India, particularly in Bengal, among the
followers of Chaitanya, and the large body of people in western India
who style themselves _Vaishnavas_ or _Bhaktas_ (devotees). The popular
poetry of Maharashtra, as exemplified in such poets as Tukarama, is an
impassioned inculcation of devotion to Vithoba of Pandharpur, who is a
manifestation of Krishna. Into the _bhakti_ system of western India
Buddhist elements have entered; and the school of devotees is often
denominated Bauddha-Vaishnava. Along with extravagant idolatry it
inculcates generally, at least in the Maratha country, a pure morality;
and the latter it apparently owes to Buddhism. Yet there are many sad
lapses from purity. Almost of necessity the worship of Krishna led to
corruption. The hymns became erotic; and movements hopeful at their
commencement--like that of Chaitanya of Bengal, in the sixteenth
century--soon grievously fell off in character. The attempt to make
religion consist of emotion without thought, of _bhakti_ without
_jnana_, had disastrous issues. Coincident with the development of
_bhakti_ was the exaltation of the _guru_, or religious teacher, which
soon amounted to deification--a change traceable from about the twelfth
century A.D.
[Sidenote: Explanations of Krishna's evil deeds.]
When pressed on the subject of Krishna's evil deeds many are anxious to
explain them as allegorical representations of the union between the
divinity and true worshipers; but some interpret them in the most
literal way possible. This is done especially by the followers of
Vallabha Acharya.[28] These men attained a most unenviable notoriety
about twenty years ago, when a case was tried in the Supreme Court of
Bombay, which revealed the practice of the most shameful licentiousness
by the religious teachers and their female followers, and this as a part
of worship! The disgust excited was so great and general that it was
believed the influence of the sect was at an end; but this hope
unhappily has not been realized.
[Sidenote: Reforms attempted.
Kabir.
Nanak.
Failure of all reforms.]
Reformers have arisen from time to time in India; men who saw the
deplorable corruption of religion, and strove to restore it to what they
considered purity. Next to Buddha we may mention Kabir, to whom are
ascribed many verses still popular. Probably the doctrine of the unity
of God, as maintained by the Mohammedans, had impressed him. He opposed
idolatry, caste, and Brahmanical assumption. Yet his monotheism was a
kind of pantheism. His date may be the beginning of the fifteenth
century. Nanak followed and founded the religion of the Sikhs. His
sacred book, the _Granth_, is mainly pantheistic; it dwells earnestly on
devotion, especially devotion to the _guru_. The Sikhs now seem slowly
relapsing into idolatry. In truth, the history of all attempts at
reformation in India has been most discouraging. Sect after sect has
successively risen to some elevation above the prevalent idolatry; and
then gradually, as by some irresistible gravitation, it has sunk back
into the _mare magnum_ of Hinduism. If we regard experience,
purification from within is hopeless; the struggle for it is only a
repetition of the toil of Sisyphus, and always with the same sad issue.
Deliverance must come from without--from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[Sidenote: Influence of the Tantras.
Worship of the Sakti.]
We mentioned the Tantras as exerting great influence in later days.[29]
In these the worship of Siva, and, still more, that of his wife, is
predominant. The deity is now supposed to possess a double nature--one
quiescent, one active; the latter being regarded as the _Sakti_ or
energy of the god, otherwise called his wife. The origin of the system
is not fully explained; nor is the date of its rise ascertained. The
worship assumes wild, extravagant forms, generally obscene, sometimes
bloody. It is divided into two schools--that of the right hand and that
of the left. The former runs into mysticism and magic in complicated
observances, and the latter into the most appalling licentiousness. The
worship of the Sakti, or female principle, has become a most elaborate
system. The beings adored are "the most outrageous divinities which man
has ever conceived."[30] Sorcery began early in India; but it is in
connection with this system that it attains to full development. Human
sacrifices are a normal part of the worship when fully performed. We
cannot go farther into detail. It is profoundly saddening to think that
such abominations are committed; it is still more saddening to think
that they are performed as a part of divine worship. Conscience,
however, is so far alive that these detestable rites are practiced only
in secret, and few, if any, are willing to confess that they have been
initiated as worshipers.
[Sidenote: Modern ritual.]
We have not yet said much about the ritual of modern days. It is
exceedingly complicated. In the case of the god Siva the rites are as
follows, when performed by a priest in the temple:
[Sidenote: Worship of Siva.]
The Brahman first bathes, then enters the temple and bows to the
god. He anoints the image with clarified butter or boiled oil;
pours pure water over it; and then wipes it dry. He grinds some
white powder, mixing it with water; dips the ends of his three
forefingers in it and draws them across the image. He sits down;
meditates; places rice and _durwa_ grass on the image--places a
flower on his own head, and then on the top of the image; then
another flower on the image, and another, and another--accompanying
each act with the recitation of sacred spells; places white powder,
flowers, bilva-leaves, incense, meat-offerings, rice, plantains,
and a lamp before the image; repeats the name of Siva, with
praises, then prostrates himself before the image. In the evening
he returns, washes his feet, prostrates himself before the door,
opens the door, places a lamp within, offers milk, sweet-meats, and
fruits to the image, prostrates himself before it, locks the door,
and departs.
Very similar is the worship paid to Vishnu:
[Sidenote: Worship of Vishnu.]
The priest bathes, and then awakes the sleeping god by blowing a
shell and ringing a bell. More abundant offerings are made than to
Siva. About noon, fruits, roots, soaked peas, sweet-meats, etc.,
are presented. Then, later, boiled rice, fried herbs, and spices;
but no flesh, fish, nor fowl. After dinner, betel-nut. The god is
then left to sleep, and the temple is shut up for some hours.
Toward evening curds, butter, sweet-meats, fruits, are presented.
At sunset a lamp is brought, and fresh offerings made. Lights are
waved before the image; a small bell is rung; water is presented
for washing the mouth, face, and feet, with a towel to dry them. In
a few minutes the offerings and the lamp are removed; and the god
is left to sleep in the dark.
The prescribed worship is not always fully performed. Still, sixteen
things are essential, of which the following are the most important:
"Preparing a seat for the god; invoking his presence; bathing the
image; clothing it; putting the string round it; offering perfumes;
flowers; incense; lamps; offerings of fruits and prepared eatables;
betel-nut; prayers; circumambulation. An ordinary worshiper
presents some of the offerings, mutters a short prayer or two,
when circumambulating the image, the rest being done by the
priest."[31]
We give one additional specimen of the ritual:
"As an atonement for unwarily eating or drinking what is forbidden
eight hundred repetitions of the Gayatri prayer should be preceded
by three suppressions of the breath, water being touched during the
recital of the following text: 'The bull roars; he has four horns,
three feet, two heads, seven hands, and is bound by a three-fold
cord; he is the mighty, resplendent being, and pervades mortal
men.'"[32]
The bull is understood to be justice personified. All Brahmanical
ceremonies exhibit, we may say, ritualism and symbolism run mad.
[Sidenote: Caste.]
The most prominent and characteristic institution of Hinduism is caste.
The power of caste is as irrational as it is unbounded; and it works
almost unmixed evil. The touch--even the shadow--of a low caste man
pollutes. The scriptural precept, "Honor all men," appears to a true
Hindu infinitely absurd. He honors and worships a cow; but he shrinks
with horror from the touch of a Mhar or Mang. Even Brahmans, if they
come from different provinces, will not eat together. Thus Hinduism
separates man from man; it goes on dividing and still dividing; and new
fences to guard imaginary purity are continually added.
[Sidenote: Treatment of women.
Widows.]
The whole treatment of women has gradually become most tyrannical and
unjust. In very ancient days they were held in considerable respect;
but, for ages past, the idea of woman has been steadily sinking lower
and lower, and her rights have been more and more assailed. The burning
of widows has been prohibited by enactment; but the awful rite would in
many places be restored were it not for the strong hand of the British
government. The practice of marrying women in childhood is still
generally--all but universally--prevalent; and when, owing to the zeal
of reformers, a case of widow-marriage occurs, its rarity makes it be
hailed as a signal triumph. Multitudes of the so-called widows were
never really wives, their husbands (so-called) having died in childhood.
Widows are subjected to treatment which they deem worse than death; and
yet their number, it is calculated, amounts to about twenty-one
millions! More cruel and demoralizing customs than exist in India in
regard to women can hardly be found among the lowest barbarians. We are
glad to escape from dwelling on points so exceedingly painful.
IV.
CONTRAST WITH CHRISTIANITY.
The immense difference between the Hindu and Christian religions has
doubtless already frequently suggested itself to the reader. It will not
be necessary, therefore, to dwell on this topic at very great length.
The contrast forces itself upon us at every point.
[Sidenote: The Aryas and Israelites--their probable future, about 1500 B.C.
Contrast of their after-history.]
When, about fifteen centuries B.C., the Aryas were victoriously
occupying the Panjab, and the Israelites were escaping from the "iron
furnace" of Egypt, if one had been asked which of the two races would
probably rise to the highest conception of the divine, and contribute
most largely to the well-being of mankind, the answer, quite possibly,
might have been, the Aryas. Egypt, with its brutish idolatries, had
corrupted the faith of the Israelites, and slavery had crushed all
manliness out of them. Yet how wonderful has been their after-history!
Among ancient religions that of the Old Testament stands absolutely
unique, and in the fullness of time it blossomed into Christianity. How
is the marvel to be explained? We cannot account for it except by
ascribing it to a divine election of the Israelites and a providential
training intended to fit them to become the teachers of the world.
"Salvation is of the Jews."
The contrast between the teachings of the Bible and those of the Hindu
books is simply infinite.
[Sidenote: Hindu theology compared with Christian.]
The conception of a purely immaterial Being, infinite, eternal, and
unchangeable, which is that of the Bible regarding God, is entirely
foreign to the Hindu books. Their doctrine is various, but, in every
case, erroneous. It is absolute pantheism, or polytheism, or an
inconsistent blending of polytheism and pantheism, or atheism.
Equally striking is the contrast between Christianity and Hinduism as to
the attributes of God. According to the former, he is omnipresent;
omnipotent; possessed of every excellence--holiness, justice, goodness,
truth. According to the chief Hindu philosophy, the Supreme is devoid of
attributes--devoid of consciousness. According to the popular
conception, when the Supreme becomes conscious he is developed into
three gods, who possess respectively the qualities of truth, passion,
and darkness.
[Sidenote: Conception of God.]
"God is a Spirit." "God is light." "God is love." These sublime
declarations have no counterparts in Hindustan.
He is "the Father of spirits," according to the Bible. According to
Hinduism, the individual spirit is a portion of the divine. Even the
common people firmly believe this.
Every thing is referred by Hinduism to God as its immediate cause. A
Christian is continually shocked by the Hindus ascribing all sin to God
as its source.
[Sidenote: The object of worship.]
The adoration of God as a Being possessed of every glorious excellence
is earnestly commanded in the Bible. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God; and him only shalt thou serve." In India the Supreme is never
worshiped; but any one of the multitudinous gods may be so; and, in
fact, every thing can be worshiped _except_ God. A maxim in the mouth of
every Hindu is the following: "Where there is faith, there is God."
Believe the stone a god and it is so.
[Sidenote: The sense of sin.]
Every sin being traced to God as its ultimate source, the sense of
personal guilt is very slight among Hindus. Where it exists it is
generally connected with ceremonial defilement or the breach of some one
of the innumerable and meaningless rites of the religion. How unlike in
all this is the Gospel! The Bible dwells with all possible earnestness
on the evil of sin, not of ceremonial but moral defilement--the
transgression of the divine law, the eternal law of right.
[Sidenote: Atonement.]
How important a place in the Christian system is held by atonement, the
great atonement made by Christ, it is unnecessary to say. Nor need we
enlarge on the extraordinary power it exercises over the human heart, at
once filling it with contrition, hatred of sin, and overflowing joy. We
turn to Hinduism. Alas! we find that the earnest questionings and higher
views of the ancient thinkers have in a great degree been ignored in
later times. Sacrifice in its original form has passed away. Atonement
is often spoken of; but it is only some paltry device or other, such as
eating the five products of the cow, going on pilgrimage to some sacred
shrine, paying money to the priests, or, it may be, some form of bodily
penance. Such expedients leave no impression on the heart as to the true
nature and essential evil of sin.
[Sidenote: Salvation.
Sanctification.]
Salvation, in the Christian system, denotes deliverance, not only from
the punishment of sin, but from its power, implying a renovation of the
moral nature. The entire man is to be rectified in heart, speech, and
behavior. The perfection of the individual, and, through that, the
perfection of society, are the objects aimed at; and the consummation
desired is the doing of the will of God on earth as it is done in
heaven. Now, of all this, surely a magnificent ideal, we find in
Hinduism no trace whatever.
[Sidenote: Views of life.
The great tenet of Hinduism.]
Christianity is emphatically a religion of hope; Hinduism may be
designated a religion of despair. The trials of life are many and great.
Christianity bids us regard them as discipline from a Father's hand, and
tells us that affliction rightly borne yields "the peaceable fruits of
righteousness." To death the Christian looks forward without fear; to
him it is a quiet sleep, and the resurrection draws nigh. Then comes the
beatific vision of God. Glorified in soul and body, the companion of
angels and saints, strong in immortal youth, he will serve without let
or hinderance the God and Saviour whom he loves. To the Hindu the trials
of life are penal, not remedial. At death his soul passes into another
body. Rightly, every human soul animates in succession eighty-four lacs
(8,400,000) of bodies--the body of a human being, or a beast, or a bird,
or a fish, or a plant, or a stone, according to desert. This weary, all
but endless, round of births fills the mind of a Hindu with the greatest
horror. At last the soul is lost in God as a drop mingles with the
ocean. Individual existence and consciousness then cease. The thought is
profoundly sorrowful that this is the cheerless faith of countless
multitudes. No wonder, though, the great tenet of Hinduism is
this--_Existence is misery._
[Sidenote: The future of the race.
The struggle between good and evil.]
So much for the future of the individual. Regarding the future of the
race Hinduism speaks in equally cheerless terms. Its golden age lies in
the immeasurably distant past; and the further we recede from it the
deeper must we plunge into sin and wretchedness. True, ages and ages
hence the "age of truth" returns, but it returns only to pass away again
and torment us with the memory of lost purity and joy. The experience of
the universe is thus an eternal renovation of hope and disappointment.
In the struggle between good and evil there is no final triumph for the
good. We tread a fated, eternal round from which there is no escape; and
alike the hero fights and the martyr dies in vain.
It is remarkable that acute intellectual men, as many of the Hindu
poets were, should never have grappled with the problem of the divine
government of the world.
[Sidenote: The future of the Aryan race.]
Equally notable is the unconcern of the Veda as to the welfare and the
future of even the Aryan race. But how sublime is the promise given to
Abraham that in him and his seed all nations of the earth should be
blessed! Renan has pointed with admiration to the confidence entertained
at all times by the Jew in a brilliant and happy future for mankind. The
ancient Hindu cared not about the future of his neighbors, and doubtless
even the expression "human race" would have been unintelligible to him.
Nor is there any pathos in the Veda. There is no deep sense of the
sorrows of life. Max Müller has affixed the epithet "transcendent" to
the Hindu mind. Its bent was much more toward the metaphysical, the
mystical, the incomprehensible than toward the moral and the practical.
Hence endless subtleties, more meaningless and unprofitable than ever
occupied the mind of Talmudist or schoolman of the Middle Ages.
[Sidenote: The words of St. Paul illustrated by Hinduism.]
But finally, on this part of the subject, the development of Indian
religion supplies a striking comment on the words of St. Paul:
"The invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood
from the things that are made. But when they knew God they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
[Sidenote: Moral power.]
Hinduism is deplorably deficient in power to raise and purify the human
soul, from having no high example of moral excellence. Its renowned
sages were noted for irritability and selfishness--great men at cursing;
and the gods for the most part were worse. Need we say how gloriously
rich the Gospel is in having in the character of Christ the realized
ideal of every possible excellence?
[Sidenote: Ethical effect of Hinduism.
The people better than their religion.]
_Summa religionis est imitari quem colis_: "It is the sum of religion to
imitate the being worshiped;"[33] or, as the Hindus express it: "As is
the deity such is the devotee." Worship the God revealed in the Bible,
and you become god-like. The soul strives, with divine aid, to "purify
itself even as God is pure." But apply the principle to Hinduism. Alas!
the Pantheon is almost a pandemonium. Krishna, who in these days is the
chief deity to at least a hundred millions of people, does not possess
one elevated attribute. If, in the circumstances, society does not
become a moral pesthouse it is only because the people continue better
than their religion. The human heart, though fallen, is not fiendish. It
has still its purer instincts; and, when the legends about abominable
gods and goddesses are falling like mildew, these are still to some
extent kept alive by the sweet influences of earth and sky and by the
charities of family life. When the heart of woman is about to be swept
into the abyss her infant's smile restores her to her better self. Thus
family life does not go to ruin; and so long as that anchor holds
society will not drift on the rocks that stand so perilously near.
Still, the state of things is deplorably distressing.