rites are enjoined to be performed at birth, or rather before birth, and at all the personal and relative changes in life. Nor do these cease with life. As death approaches, the dying person, if near the Ganges, is hurried to the banks of the river, where a part of the rites is to fill his mouth with water, all which must aggravate his sufferings if it does not hasten his death. If not living near the Ganges, the dying person must be removed so as to die upon the ground. The Hindus generally burn their dead, though some who have not means to meet the expense of burning, and some devotees and lower classes, bury their dead or throw them into rivers. The burning or burial is generally performed in a few hours after death. The eldest son or nearest relation performs the funeral ceremony. There are few rites at death or the funeral, but for some days all who are nearly related to the deceased, are regarded as in a state of ceremonial impurity. When this time has passed, the near relatives assemble, generally on the bank of some river or tank, and numerous ceremonies called Shradh are performed in honor and for the supposed benefit of the deceased. In some parts of India the number of people, friends, brahmins, and devotees, who assemble at a Shradh is very great, and as all expect presents or charity, the expense is large. It is usual to perform a monthly Shradh for the first year after the death of a parent, and once or more in every year a Shradh is performed for all their ancestors. These rites are believed to be very meritorious, as well as to give great pleasure to their ancestors, and so great importance is attached to performing them. Many of the Hindu rites about touching dead bodies, physical impurity in men and women, persons diseased with the leprosy, etc., resemble the laws of the Jews contained in the Pentateuch. The laws of purification are also similar, as continuing separate for a certain time, then bathing, etc. Numerous atonements and penalties are prescribed in the shastras. The actions for which many of these are required, are of a very frivolous character. Some of these atonements and penalties are very severe, and others are very light, when compared with the nature of the offences. Some of these penalties consist in presents of land, money, cows, etc., to brahmins, and in performing menial services for them; some consist in mutilating and branding certain parts of the body, in self-torture, in fastings, sitting or standing in painful positions, etc. These penalties appear from their inequality, cruelty, and indecency, evidently to have had their origin in a barbarous age, and among a very superstitious people. They are regarded as of divine origin, but it is scarcely credible that they should ever have been recognized as the laws of any country, or as making a part of any system of religion. SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS. There is abundant evidence from the early records of the Hindus, that human sacrifices were sometimes offered. In this practice they resembled other ancient heathen nations. The Institutes of Menu say, "The sacrifice of a bull, of a man, and of a horse in the Kalee yug (the present age), must be avoided" There have been instances in modern times in which some fanatics and devotees have secretly devoted human beings to destruction, to appease Kalee or some of their malevolent deities. But such sacrifices do not now make a part of the Hindu religion, as publicly professed and practised. The sacrifice of a horse is described at much length, in the Purans. This sacrifice could only be offered by kings and princes, and it is not known that any one has attempted to offer it for some centuries past. Sacrifices are now seldom offered according to the Hindu ritual, which is very prolix and expensive. Buffaloes, sheep, goats, and fowls are offered at some places on certain festivals, chiefly by the middling and lower classes, and with few rites. Sacrifices of this kind are sometimes offered when cholera or other epidemics prevail, to appease the malevolent deity, who is supposed to cause the disease. At such times the blood of the animal sacrificed is sometimes sprinkled in the streets and places where the disease most prevails. The frenzy that pervades people at such times, the rites they perform and the means they use, in the hope of stopping the disease, or appeasing the malevolent deities which are believed to be killing their friends, are very shocking, and appear truly diabolical. They remind one of what the Apostle says: "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God."* Burnt-offerings called hom, consisting of clarified butter, boiled rice, honey, and other substances, are often made. Drink offerings called turpun, are made at the time of bathing, by taking up water in the hand, or a small vessel, and pouring it out, repeating at the same time the name of the god, or demon, or ancestor, to whom it is offered. This is a very common rite. Meditation (dhan) is an important part of worship. The worshipper must assume a particular attitude, carefully adjusting his feet, hands, eyes, etc. He is then to meditate upon the god he wishes to worship, calling to mind his form, acts, etc. Or believing his own soul to be only a part of the supreme Spirit, or that his own thoughts, etc., are all the operations of the supreme Spirit pervading his body and all the universe, he endeavors by introspection to contemplate the Deity in the actings of his own mind. This kind of worship is believed to be very meritorious, and some devotees are believed in this way to acquire great knowledge of divine things. The gods are said often to have revealed themselves to people when thus engaged in meditation. Repeating the name of some one of the gods is a very common mode of worship. To assist in this exercise a string of beads, pearls, or berries is prepared, containing 50 or 100, or some known number. The worshipper by removing one of these each time he repeats the name, is enabled easily to reckon his prayers and know when he has completed the intended number of repetitions. Some people spend hours in this practice. In view of this practice and the belief in which it originates, we see the propriety of what our Saviour said to his disciples, "When ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathens do; for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking.” † The Hindus seldom have any prayers in which a whole assembly, or any considerable number of worshippers unite. Generally each one prays by himself, and the object of his prayer is known only to himself. Hymns in praise of the different gods are not uncommon; they are sung, or played on rude instruments by devotees and travelling minstrels, but they are seldom if ever used by congregations, or any considerable number of persons assembled for worship. Vows to different gods are very frequently made, and if the contingency upon which they rest becomes fact, they are generally performed. The Hindus are superstitious on the subject of fulfilling their vows. Vows not fulfilled, are believed to incur the displeasure of the gods, and to involve those who disregard them in ruin. Temples are often erected and repaired, pilgrimages to sacred places, costly offerings to the gods, and gifts to the brahmins, are often made in consequence of vows.* * Fasting, gifts to brahmins, the building of caravanserais, roads, tanks, etc., for the public good, are declared to be works of merit, and much money is often expended in this way. They think much of a man's name being incorporated with such works in public opinion. The hearing of the Purans read and explained, is declared to be very meritorious. Many brahmins obtain their livelihood by reading and explaining these sacred works. For this purpose people assemble in the yard of a temple or some private house, when some man will read and explain some work in course, occupying about an hour for several successive days. A certain compensation is generally promised at the beginning, and if the reader or lecturer finishes the course and gives satisfaction, he will obtain some addition to it at the close. These meetings diffuse much information concerning their gods and heroes, and their actions. I have often been surprised at the information of people on these subjects, who unable themselves to read, have Vows. * Parents sometimes devote one or more of their children to some deity by For instance, the children in some family are perhaps sick of cholera, and appear likely to die. The parents in their anxiety make a vow to some god, that if all the children recover, they will devote one child to him. The child thus devoted is generally a girl. When the time arrives for fulfilling the vow, she is taken by her parents to the temple, and is married by the priest to the idol of the god. This ceremony is an introduction to a life of prostitution under the name of being devoted to the god. The number of such women in some districts is large. Some of them live at the temple, assist in the ceremonies, etc., and others go wherever they please, but all are devoted to a life of prostitution. acquired all their knowledge at such public and social meetings. Some of the Hindu deities are malevolent, or if this is not their general character they are described as often indulging in envious, angry, morose, and malevolent feelings, and some of them in intemperance and licentiousness resemble Bacchus and Venus among the Greek and Roman deities. This diversity of conduct and character in the Hindu deities, furnishes excuses and reasons for any persons, who may wish to indulge in intemperance and licentiousness; for they can indulge in any kind of wickedness and yet be imitating some of their deities. Still, as such conduct would be opposed to all general opinions of propriety and morality, it becomes necessary, if personal and social respectability are to be preserved, to indulge in such practices secretly. And there are meetings and associations for such conduct under the name and profession of religion. These assemblies consist of men and women who meet in the night and indulge in licentiousness, intermixed with religious rites and ceremonies. At these meetings all distinctions of caste, and all sentiments of morality, propriety, and decency, are laid aside; forbidden things are freely eaten and drunken, passions are indulged and actions are performed without any sense of shame, scruples of conscience or fear of consequences, which show the depravity of human nature in union with the degrading influences of superstition and heathenism. Instead of describing such practices and rites it is better to apply to them the language which the Apostle used when speaking of the heathen nations in ancient times "It is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." * ASCETICISM, ASCETICS, AND DEVOTEES. This state or course of life originated in the doctrine that the soul is incorporated with matter, and that the great work of life is for the soul to obtain emancipation from this matter, and reunion with the supreme Deity. This end, it is supposed, may be attained by mortifying and subduing all those appetites and * Eph. 5: 12. |