Benares, the Sacred City: Sketches of Hindu Life and Religion

Front Cover
Blackie & Son, limited, 1905 - 226 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 29 - Then the earth was rent and parted, and a golden throne arose, Held aloft by jewelled Nagas as the leaves enfold the rose, And the Mother in embraces held her spotless sinless Child, Saintly Janak's saintly daughter, pure and true and undefiled, Gods and men proclaim her virtue! But fair Sita is no more, Lone is Rama's loveless bosom and his days of bliss are o'er!
Page 10 - Those offerings of clarified butter, sour milk, whey, and curds, which thou madest in the waters, with them thou hast begotten me. I am the blessing (benediction) : make use of me at the sacrifice! If thou wilt make use of me at the sacrifice, thou wilt become rich in offspring and cattle. Whatever blessing thou shalt invoke through me, all that shall be granted to thee!
Page 12 - ... Nachiketa would not be denied. "Thou sayest, O Death, that even the gods were once puzzled by this mystery, and that it is not easy to understand. Surely there is no teacher better able to explain it than thou — and there is no other boon equal to this." To which, trying Nachiketa again, the god replied: "Ask for sons and grandsons who shall live a hundred years. Ask for cattle, elephants, horses, gold. Choose for thyself a mighty kingdom. Or if thou canst imagine aught better, ask for that...
Page 20 - The ears of a Sudra who listens, intentionally, when the Veda is being recited are to be filled with molten lead. His tongue is to be cut out if he recite it. His body is to be split in twain if he preserve it in his memory.
Page 61 - And of the sacrifice performed by the master who has understood these truths, the soul is the performer; the heart, the seat of the sacrificial fire; sensual desires, the ghee; anger, the sacrificial lamb; contemplation, fire; the period of sacrifice, as long as life...
Page 3 - He knows the path of birds that fly through heaven, and, sovran of the sea, He knows the ships that are thereon. 8. True to his holy law, he knows the twelve moons with their progeny : He knows the moon of later birth.
Page 30 - ... five Pandav brothers, and of their friend the righteous Krishna. The people of Bombay and Madras cherish with equal ardour the story of the righteous war. And even the traditions and tales interspersed in the Epic, and which spoil the work as an Epic, have themselves a charm and an attraction ; and the morals inculcated in these tales sink into the hearts of a naturally religious people, and form the basis of their moral education.
Page 80 - The value of the book, then, lies in its artistic and aesthetic side. Mr. Havell is at his best in his picture of the crowds of bathers on the Ghats. " Here the student " may read a living commentary, more convincing than any record ever written, " painted, or sculptured, of the life of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh, and Greece.
Page 45 - altogether as bright as jade. It is glistening, and sparkles like light; and all those who pray fervently before it see from time to time, according to their petitions, figures with good or bad signs.
Page 100 - Himalayan paradise, on Mount Kailasa, north of Lake Manasa, where the great three-eyed ascetic, seeing the past, the present, and the future, sits in profound meditation — the type of spiritual power gained by restraint of bodily passions.

Bibliographic information