I. Brahma, the Creator.
II. Vishnoo, the Preserver.
III. Sheeva, the Destroyer.
Which of these should you think men ought to worship the most? Not the
destroyer. Yet it is _him_ they do worship the most. Very few worship
Brahma the creator. And why not? Because the Hindoos think he can do no
more for them than he has done; and they do not care about thanking him.
Vishnoo, the preserver, is a great favorite; because it is supposed that
he bestows all manner of gifts. The Hindoos say he has been _nine_ times
upon the earth; first as a fish, then as a tortoise, a man, a lion, a
boar, a dwarf, a giant; _twice_ as a warrior, named Ram, and once as a
thief, named Krishna. They say he will come again as a conquering king,
riding on a white horse. Is it not wonderful they should say that? It
reminds one of the prophecy in Rev. xix. about Christ's second coming.
Did the Hindoos hear that prophecy in old time? They may have heard it,
for the apostle Thomas once preached in India, at least we believe he
did.
Why do the people worship Sheeva the destroyer? Because they hope that if
they gain his favor, they shall not be destroyed by him. They do not know
that none can save from the destroyer but God.
The Hindoos make images of their gods. Brahma is represented as riding on
a goose; Vishnoo on a creature half-bird and half-man; and Sheeva on a
bull.
Sheeva's image looks horribly ferocious with the tiger-skin and the
necklace of skulls and snakes; but Sheeva's _wife_ is far fiercer than
himself. Her name is Kalee. Her whole delight is said to be in blood.
Those who wish to please her, offer up the blood of beasts; but those who
wish to please her still more, offer up their own blood.
[Illustration: THE SWING.]
Her great temple, called Kalee Ghaut, is near Calcutta. There is a great
feast in her honor once a year at that temple. Early in the morning
crowds assemble there with the noise of trumpets and kettle-drums. See
those wild fierce men adorned with flowers. They go towards the temple. A
blacksmith is ready. Lo! one puts out his tongue, and the blacksmith
cuts it: that is to please Kalee: another chooses rather to have an iron
bar run through his tongue. Some thrust iron bars and burning coals into
their sides. The boldest mount a wooden scaffold and throw themselves
down upon iron spikes beneath, stuck in bags of sand. It is very painful
to fall upon these spikes; but there is another way of torture quite as
painful--it is the swing. Those who determine to swing, allow the
blacksmith to drive hooks into the flesh upon their backs, and hanging by
these hooks they swing in the air for ten minutes, or even for half an
hour. And WHO all these cruel tortures? To please Kalee, and to make the
people wonder and admire, for the multitude around shout with joy as they
behold these horrible deeds.
THE CASTES.--The Hindoos pretend that when Brahma created men, he made
some out of his mouth, some out of his arms, some out of his breast, and
some out of his foot. They say the priests came out of Brahma's mouth,
the soldiers came out of his arm, the merchants came out of his breast,
the laborers came out of his foot. You may easily guess who invented this
history. It was the priests themselves: it was they who wrote the sacred
books where this history is found.
The priests are very proud of their high birth, and they call themselves
Brahmins.
The laborers, who are told they come out of Brahma's foot, are much
ashamed of their low birth. They are called sudras.
You would be astonished to hear the great respect the sudras pay to the
high and haughty Brahmins. When a sudra meets a Brahmin in the street, he
touches the ground three times with his forehead, then, taking the
priest's foot in his hand, he kisses his toe.
The water in which a Brahmin has washed his feet is thought very holy. It
is even believed that such water can cure diseases.
A Hindoo prince, who was very ill of a fever, was advised to try this
remedy. He invited the Brahmins from all parts of the country to
assemble at his palace. Many thousands came. Each, as he arrived, was
requested to wash his feet in a basin. This was the medicine given to the
sick prince to drink. It cost a great deal of money to procure it; for
several shillings were given to each Brahmin to pay him for his trouble,
and a good dinner was provided for all. It is said that the prince
recovered immediately, but we are quite certain that it was not the water
which cured him.
In the holy books, or shasters, great blessings are promised to those who
are kind to a Brahmin. Any one who gives him an umbrella will never more
be scorched by the sun; any one who gives him a pair of shoes will never
have blistered feet; any one who gives him sweet spices will never more
be annoyed by ill smells; and any one who gives him a cow will go to
heaven.
You may be sure that, after such promises, the Brahmins get plenty of
presents; indeed, they may generally be known by their well-fed
appearance, as well as by their proud manner of walking. They always wear
a white cord hung round their necks.
But we must not suppose that all Brahmins are rich, and all sudras poor;
for it is not so. There are so many Brahmins that some can find no
employment as priests, and they are obliged to learn trades. Many of them
become cooks.
There are sudras as rich as princes; but still a sudra can never be as
honorable as a Brahmin, though the Brahmin be the cook and the sudra the
master.
But the sudras are not the _most_ despised people. Far from it. It is
those who have no caste at all who are the most despised. They are called
pariahs. These are people who have lost their caste. It is a very easy
thing to lose caste, and once lost it can never be regained. A Brahmin
would lose his caste by eating with a sudra; a sudra would lose his by
eating with a pariah, and by eating with _you_--yes, with _you_, for the
Hindoos think that no one is holy but themselves. It often makes a
missionary smile when he enters a cottage to see the people putting away
their food with haste, lest he should defile it by his touch.
Once an English officer, walking along the road, passed very near a
Hindoo just going to eat his dinner; suddenly he saw the man take up the
dish and dash it angrily to the ground. Why? The officer's shadow had
passed over the food and polluted it.
If you were to invite poor Hindoos to come to a feast, they would not eat
if you sat down with them: nor would they eat unless they knew a Hindoo
had cooked their food. Even children at school will not eat with children
of a lower caste,--or with their teachers, if the teachers are not
Hindoos.
There was once a little Hindoo girl named Rajee. She went to a
missionary's school, but she would not eat with her schoolfellows,
because she belonged to a higher caste than they did. As she lived at the
school, her mother brought her food every day, and Rajee sat under a tree
to eat it. At the end of two years she told her mother that she wished to
turn from idols, and serve the living God. Her mother was much troubled
at hearing this, and begged her child not to bring disgrace on the family
by becoming a Christian. But Rajee was anxious to save her precious soul.
She cared no longer for her caste, for she knew that all she had been
taught about it was deceit and folly; therefore one day she sat down and
ate with her schoolfellows. When her mother heard of Rajee's conduct,
she ran to the school in a rage, and seizing her little daughter by the
hair of the head, began to beat her severely. Then she hastened to the
priests to ask them whether the child had lost her caste forever. The
priests replied, "Has the child got her new teeth?" "No," said the
mother. "Then we can cleanse her, and when her new teeth come she will be
as pure as ever. But you must pay a good deal of money for the
cleansing." Were they not _cunning_ priests? and _covetous_ priests too?
The money was paid, and Rajee was brought home against her will. Dreadful
sufferings awaited the poor child. The cleansing was a cruel business.
The priests burned the child's tongue. This was one of their cruelties.
When little Rajee was suffered to go back to school, she was so ill that
she could not rise from her bed.
The poor deceived mother came to see her. "I am going to Jesus," said the
young martyr. The mother began to weep, "O Rajee, we will not let you
die."
"But I am glad," the little sufferer replied, "because I shall go to
Jesus. If you, mother, would love him, and give up your idols, we should
meet again in heaven."
An hour afterwards Rajee went to heaven; but I have never heard whether
her mother gave up her idols.
THE GANGES.--This beautiful river waters the sultry plain of Bengal. God
made this river to be a blessing, but man has turned it into a curse. The
Hindoos say the River Ganges is the goddess Gunga; and they flock from
all parts of India to worship her. When they reach the river they bathe
in it, and fancy they have washed away all their sins. They carry away
large bottles of the sacred water for their friends at home.
But this is not all; very cruel deeds are committed by the side of the
river. It is supposed that all who die there will go to the Hindoo
heaven. It is therefore the custom to drag dying people out of their
beds, and to lay them in the mud, exposed to the heat of the broiling
sun, and then to pour pails of water over their heads.
One sick man, who was being carried to the water, covered up as if he
were dead, suddenly threw off the covering, and called out, "I am not
dead, I am only very ill." He knew that the cruel people who were
carrying him were going to cast him into the water while he was still
alive: but nothing he could say could save him: the cruel creatures
answered, "You may as well die _now_ as at any other time;" and so they
drowned him, pretending all the while to be very kind.
It is thought a good thing to be thrown into the river after death. The
Ganges is the great burying-place; and dead bodies may be seen floating
on its waters, while crows and vultures are tearing the flesh from the
bones. There would be many more of these horrible sights were it not that
many bodies are burned, and their ashes only cast into the river.
Some foolish deceived creatures drown themselves in the Ganges, hoping to
be very happy hereafter as a reward. The Brahmins are ready to accompany
such people into the water. Some men were once seen going into the river
with a large empty jar fastened to the back of each. The empty jar
prevented them from sinking; but there was a cup in the hands of each of
the poor men, and with these cups they filled the jars, and then they
began to sink. One of them grew frightened, and tried to get on shore;
but the wicked Brahmins in their boats hunted him, and tried to keep him
in the water; however, they could not catch him, and the miserable man
escaped. There are villages near the river whither such poor creatures
flee, and where they end their days together; for their old friends would
not speak to them if they were to return to their homes.
BEGGARS.--As you walk about Hindostan, you will sometimes meet a horrible
object, with no other covering than a tiger's skin, or else an orange
scarf; his body besmeared with ashes, his hair matted like the shaggy
coat of a wild beast, and his nails like birds' claws. The man is a
beggar, and a very bold one, because he is considered as one of the
holiest of men. Who is he?
A sunnyasee. Who is _he_?
A Brahmin, who wishing to be more holy than other Brahmins (holy as they
are), has left all and become a beggar. As a reward, he expects, when he
dies, to go straight to heaven, without being first born again in the
world. It is wonderful to see the tortures which a sunnyasee will endure.
He will stand for years on one leg, till it is full of wounds, or, if he
prefers it, he will clench his fist till the nails grow through the
hands.
These holy beggars are found in all parts of India, but they are
particularly fond of the most desolate spots. Near the mouth of the
Ganges there are some desert places, the resort of tigers, and there many
of the sunnyasees live in huts. They pretend not to be afraid of the
tigers, and the Hindoos think that tigers will not touch such holy men;
but it is certain that tigers have been seen dragging some of these proud
men into the woods.
There is another kind of beggars called fakirs; they are just as wicked
and foolish as the sunnyasees; but they are Mahomedans and not Brahmins.
ANIMALS.--Some of the fiercest and most disagreeable animals are highly
honored in India.
The monkey is counted as a god; the consequence is, that the monkeys,
finding they are treated with respect, grow very bold, and are
continually scrambling upon the roofs of the houses. In one place there
is a garden where monkeys riot about at their pleasure, for all in that
garden is for them alone, the delicious fruits, the cool fountains, the
shady bowers, all are for the worthless, mischievous monkeys.
But if it be strange for men to worship _monkeys_, is it not stranger
still to worship _snakes_ and _serpents_? Yet there is a temple in India
where serpents crawl about at their pleasure, where they are waited upon
by priests, and fed with fruits and every dainty. How much delighted must
the old serpent be with this worship!
Kites also, those fierce birds, are worshipped. There is meat sold in
shops on purpose for them; and it is bought and thrown up in the air to
the great greedy creatures.
There are splendid peacocks flying about in the woods, but the Hindoos do
not worship them; they shoot and eat them.
Of all the animals in India there is none which terrifies man so much as
the tiger. The Bengal tiger is a fine and fierce beast. Woe to the man or
woman on whom he springs! What then do you think must become of the man
who falls into his den? These dens are generally hid in jungles, which
are places covered with trees, and overgrown with shrubs and tall grass.
A gentleman was once walking through a jungle, when he felt himself
sinking into the ground, while a cloud of dust blinded his eyes. Soon he
heard a low growling noise. He fancied that he had sunk into a den, and
so he had. Beside him lay some little tigers, too young indeed to hurt
him; but these tigers had a mother, and she could not be far off, though
she was not in the den when the stranger fell in. The astonished man felt
there was no time to be lost, for the tigress, he knew, would soon return
to her cubs. How could he prepare to meet her? He had neither gun nor
sword, nor even stick in his hand. But a thought came into his head.
Snatching a silk handkerchief from his neck, and taking another from his
pocket, he bound them tightly round his arm up to his elbow; and thus
prepared to meet his enemy. She soon appeared, crouching on the ground,
and then with a spring leaped upon the stranger. At the same moment the
brave man thrust his arm between her open jaws, and seizing hold of her
rough tongue, twisted it backwards and forwards with all his might. The
beast was now unable to close her mouth, and to bite with her sharp
fangs; but she could scratch with her sharp claws; and scratch she did,
till the clothes were torn off the man's body, and the flesh from his
bones. But the brave man would not loose his hold; and the tigress was
tired out first: alarmed,--with a sudden start backward, she jerked her
tongue out of the man's hand, and rushed out of the den and out of the
jungle.
How glad was the man to escape from a horrible fate! his body was faint
and bleeding; but his life was preserved, and his heart overflowed with
gratitude to God for his wonderful deliverance. He who delivered Daniel
from the lion's den delivered him from the tiger's den. The tiger's
mouth, indeed, had not been shut; but his open mouth had not been
suffered to devour the Lord's servant.