English
But he seems to have learnt that lesson, which has so often come to religious men elsewhere, that external restraints are rather a nursery for the soul, than the proper atmosphere for it to breathe ; thus that asceticism beyond temperate limits is neither a virtue, nor even wholesome ; while, if human life is bound in the fetters of minute ordinances by a dominant caste, neither true religion nor happiness flourish in such loss of freedom. Thus he be- came in the strongest sense a reformer, yet partly a mystic, as well as democrat in religion. It is no wonder that masses of men crowded eagerly to a teaching which had life and eman- cipation. Rather, I think, whenever Almighty God in any country raises up such teachers by way of reaction against spiritual bondage, he will always win them hearing in proportion to the need of them. But it may be feared that S^kya, in refining away (as the Sdnkhyasts had done before him) some popular notions of Deity, did not hold fast enough his sense of the everliving God as moral Judge of the world. He felt life and spirit, but saw not clearly Him in whom they are, and by whom they stand. There seems however some imcertainty about S^kya's own faith in this respect. But it is very sad to observe, how soon after his death his doctrine grew into a system as elaborately formal as that which it had superseded. Many of the priests, we are told, in king Asoca's time, came over to the faith. They soon made it something of a priestcraft. Then came the many legends, which probably are accretions upon a simpler truth of the life of Sdkya. Then relics were worshipped, 19—2 292 COURSE OF BUDDHISM. and Buddhism grew into what it is. If you, my friend" — here Blancombe turned to the Saugata — " wish to defend it, you can best do so by starting it afresli after the mind of its founder. Its strength was then in tliat freedom, which is now what you have least of. And as for your friends*, who are not firm, as some tliink Sdkya was not, in the belief of a God who governs the world, their faith is not worth keeping, except as a partial protest against something possibly distorted in a difierent di- rection. If Buddhism be really hollow on this point, we can understand its fading out of India after about a thousand years of establishment. We can also imagine that the zeal of the Brahmans, represented perhaps by Cum^rila Bhatta, may have stimulated reaction; and the people themselves may have wished, for the old traditions which were more knit up with Indian history. They may even have thought the new Bauddha priesthood more exclusive than the old caste of the Brahmans. "At any rate. Buddhism seems to have disappeared from the greater part of India about the seventh century of the Christian era. Then comes that new period of Hinduism which has as its expression in literature the Fur^nas. This is the age of Cum^la, of Sankara Ach^rya, and somewhat later, of Mjidhwa, andof Bamanuja. I have hitherto dwelt chiefly on those develop- ments which come of speculation modifying worship. But by their side was also the popular feeling, which found voice in legend and poetry, as in the Epics already glanced at. From such sources will now come new objects of worship, and the old Vedic deities will tend to disappear. Long ago their first stage had been gone. Agni and Ushas and the Maruts had given way to Brahmd as tlie representative of a more intelligent con- ception of the creative power coming out of nothing less than Spirit. Indra had been degraded from his apparent supremacy ; and Vislmu, who in the Vedas is merely subordinate, had either * See above, p. 24, for the distinction of the Nepaulese and the Cingal< Buddhists, the first being thought to have a firmer belief in the Divine self-oon Bcionsness and goveniment. THREE STAGES OF HINDUISM. 293 from admixture of races, or from the clinging of the popular sentiment to his name understood in a higher relation, been lifted into a place hardly second to the highest. By the time of Buddhism also Siva had become recognised as one of the three great Deities. Both Vishnu and Siva seem admitted to equal rank with Brahm^, from a sort of compromise on part of the Brahmans with the popular feeling, which perhaps hardly rose to the more abstract conception of the Creator, or refused to abandon names more native. These three, however, with their wives, Saraswati, Sri or Laksmi, and Durgi or Kali, stood long at the head of the Hindti Pantheon, and make the second great stage in the development of your religion. They compose, I presume, the Trimurti^ which ill-instructed persons have represented as if it were the Christian Trinity, whereas the conceptions, beyond the coincidence of mere number, are very different. How Siva can be termed the same as Rudra, except in so far as conceptions of the god of the storm, with those of Agni as the god of fire, may have been taken up into the more metaphysical conception of the Destroyer and the Restorer, I cannot understand, i^or is Vishnu the preserver the same, except in name, as the sun-god of the older hymns. The theory of his avatars, or incarnations, is as novel as his change of rank, or more so. You allow this, do you not?" here he asked Vidy&charya. " Why no," answered the other, "for the strides of Vishnu across the earth are mentioned in the Rig- Veda, and this must refer to the Avatar as a dwarf; and again in the Yajur-Veda Vishnu is mentioned in the form of a boar, which is the Vaiiha Avatar*." " But how far," resumed Blan- combe, " do these things go towards establishing what you suppose ? If we consider the Pauranic legend of Vishnu's step- ping, we find that he stepped only twice, there being no room left for a third stride: whereas in the Veda it is said. Thrice did Vishnu stride. The legend may have grown out of the text, but it involves a different conception. The Veda probably * See Vuhnu Purdna, end of ch. i. ch. iv. and Pnfaee, Golebrooke, Vol. i. 294 THREE STAGES OF HINDUISM. refers to the tliree stages of the sun, as it rises, culminates, and sets; whereas the Piiuranic story sets forth in a parable the omnipresence of the Deity. So the Yajiir-Veda text of Vishnu as Viatoa-karman appearing in the form of a boar, seems to indicate the elevation of the earth physically out of water, or into space, and may have been also applied to the extrication of the world from evil ; but in neither case did the text mean a gross incorporation of the Deity in a boar. There is a confusion constantly recurrent in India between the meaning mystically conveyed in certain stories, and the grossest acceptation of their literal sense. So the enthronement of Indra in the Veda was meant, I presume, as an allegory, though hard to explain ; but many of your countrymen take such things in the grossness of the letter. So the traditions of Vedic Deities which I mentioned as carried westward in early times, were twisted in Bactria into stories of earthly kings, and your Yama, the god of death, appears in Firdusi as king Jemshid, and the serpent Ahi^ once the dark cloud, as the tyrant Zohak*. Thus in India, too, the old physical parable was sometimes exalted into a more meta- physical conception, and sometimes literalised into a marvellous story. " On the whole, I think we are justified in saying that no clear signs of incarnation (or of the avatars) had appeared in the genuine Vedic hymns. This idea came in rather with the Epic poems. When the great exploits of R4ma and Crishna were to be accounted for, it was natural to suppose that some Divine force dwelt in them. Upon the question whether such force was truly Divine, or was magnified by imagination, will depend the farther question, whether such avatars are only a deification of what was properly human, or whether there was a real indwelling of Deity. With such questions is connected too your theory which identifies the human soul and the Divine Spirit, or blends God and mankind into one. Our own faith, and I think also any true humility, would forbid accepting all * Lansen, /. >4 . p. 5 1 7. Weber, Vorlet. p. 36. THREE STAGES OF HINDUISM.