English
That which is the heart and the mind, perception, injunction, understand ing, knowledge, wisdom, vision, firmness, thinking, consider ing, helping, memory, resolution, will, breath, love, and desire? All these are only names of knowledge. That (self) is brahman, Indra, Prajapati, all the gods, the five great elements, earth, air, ether, water, lights, all these and those which are mixed with small as it were, seeds of various kinds, born of eggs, born from the womb, born from heat, born from germs, horses, cows, men, elephants, and all that breathes, whether it walks or flies, and what is immovable. All that is guided by knowledge, it rests on knowledge. The world is guided by knowledge. Knowledge is its founda tion. Knowledge is brahman. He by his knowing self, having left this world and having obtained all delights in the world of heaven, became immortal. Aitareya Aranyaka, ii. 6. From Keith's text and translation in Anecdota Oxoniensia. ESSENTIAL HINDUISM 45 6. Excommunication NOTE. — This passage has been selected for reading because it sets forth so clearly a number of the elements of the Hindu system. Here we have the sanctity of the Veda, the privileges of Brahmans, the restrictions of caste, the sacred cord, the lock of hair on the crown of the head, and excommunication carried out by the performance of the funeral ceremony and intcrdictio aqitA, an old Aryan custom. The law here stated as applicable to a Brahman father who has to be excom municated by his own son is of course all the more applicable to caste- breakers of lower degree. When a Hindu becomes a Christian by baptism, this law comes into operation, because he 'dwells with men of the lowest castes '. Let him cast off a father who assassinates a king, who sacrifices for £udras, who sacrifices for his own sake, accepting money from Madras, who divulges the Veda to persons not authorized to study it, who kills a learned Brahman, who dwells with men of the lowest castes, or cohabits with a female of one of the lowest castes. Having assembled the sinner's spiritual Gurus and the relatives by marriage, the sons and other kinsmen shall perform for him all the funeral rites, the first of which is the libation of water, and afterwards they shall overturn his water-vessel in the following manner ; a slave or a hired servant shall fetch an impure vessel from a dust-heap, fill it with water taken from the pot of a female slave and, his face turned towards the south, upset it with his foot, pronouncing the sinner's name and saying : ' I deprive N. N. of water.' All the kinsmen shall touch the slave, passing their sacrificial cords over the right shoulder and under the left arm, and untying the locks on their heads. The spiritual Gurus and the relatives by marriage shall look on. Gautama, Dkarmasftlra, xx. 1-6 (for this book see below, p. 73), S. B. £., vol. ii, pp. 277-8. 46 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY TABLES 8. The Ages of the World There is some reason for thinking that at first the follow ing was the whole scheme of the Kalpa : — Krita yuga \ Treta yuga „ , 7-1 -j. i = Kalpa Dvapara yuga Kali yuga i The names are taken from the game of dice, Krita, ' the four,' designating the Golden Age, when virtue is four square ; Treta, ' the three,' designating the Silver Age, when one-fourth part of virtue has been lost ; Dvapara, ' the two,' when one-half of virtue has disappeared ; and Kali, ' the one,' when only one-fourth part of good remains. Yuga is the Sanskrit word for ' age '. But the scheme was much elaborated by the various schools ; and the doctrine finally adopted by orthodox Hinduism is that these four ages make one Mahayuga or Great Age, and that it takes 1,000 Mahay ugas to complete a Kalpa. The number of dice spots was applied also to the length of the ages as under : — Dawn 400 1 Day 4,000 j- = Krita yuga Twilight 400 j Dawn 300 1 Day 3;Ooo I = Treta yuga Twilight 300 1 Dawn 200 > = Mahayuga Day 2,000!- = Dvapara yuga Twilight 200) Dawn looj Day 1,000 I = Kali yuga Twilight ioo| This elaborate scheme arose much later than the philo sophic period. CHAPTER V PHILOSOPHIC PERIOD CONTINUED THE UPANISHADS, BUDDHISM AND JAINISM Period ends about 480 B.C. 30. A time came when there arose a great passion among thinking men in North India to win Release, and many theories as to the true path to Emancipation were proclaimed. Most of the leaders declared that Release was the fruit of knowledge, but others laid stress on sacrifice or Vedic study, and many declared that the true means was tapas, austerity. So, many went out to the old hermitages and sought by indescribable self-torture to reach the end of birth and sorrow. 31. But the more serious men went farther. They re garded the whole phenomenal world as inherently antagonistic to the spiritual life. They therefore decided to go much NOTE. — The text at the top of the page is AN ANCIENT PRAYER from the oldest Upanishad : — From the unreal lead me to the real ! From darkness lead me to light ! From death lead me to immortality ! B^ikaddranyaka Upanishad, I. iii. 28. 48 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY farther than the hermits : they gave up the worship of the gods, ancestor-worship and all family connexions, and became homeless beggars. They might seek Release either by tapas, or by knowledge, or by a combination of the two ; but in any case they abandoned all connexion with the life of men. This new type of ascetic was called parivrajaka, wanderer ; bhikshu, beggar ; sannydsl, renouncer. 32. The attempt to reach Release by means of true knowledge led to momentous results. Many theories of the constitution of the world were formed and taught ; but the most important of all is the doctrine of the Upanishads. The ordinary name for the World-soul was Brahman, a neuter noun which expresses the common thought of the time, that the World-soul is an impersonal essence present in all things. There were many speculations as to its nature ; until some wise thinker called Brahman the atman, or Self of the universe. Then, as the soul of the universe was dtman, and the soul of the individual was atman, the con clusion was soon drawn that the two were identical. The great affirmation was made, 'My self is the infinite Self; ' the soul of the universe, whole and undivided, dwells in me.' Thus self-knowledge is knowledge of God ; and, as knowledge of God leads to Release, the man who realizes the identity of his soul with the World-soul is thereby set free from the cycle of births and deaths ; he will not be born again. The great phrases used are, 'Thou art That,' ' I am Brahman,' and ' I am He.' This is the Vedanta philosophy in its earliest form. The conception of Brahman-Atman in the Upanishads is a great lightning-flash of truth, and it is placed before us in many a noble passage : Brahman is Consciousness ; Brahman is the Reality of everything ; Brahman is joy ; Brahman is incomprehensible ; by the command of Brahman all things are done. The phrase, sachchiddnanda Brahma, ' Brahman UPANISHADS, BUDDHISM, JAINISM 49 is reality, intelligence, and bliss,' is a very late one, not found in this period at all, but it sums up Upanishad thought with great accuracy. But there is one fatal omission in this conception. Brah man is not conceived as holy : we are nowhere told that Brahman is righteousness. The fact is that the theory of the Atman is simply a very lofty philosophic presentation of the ancient pagan conception of God. Consequently, the Vedanta philosophy has never been to India what the teach ing of the prophets was to Israel. Hinduism remains from first to last crippled, because the idea of God was never moralized. 33. The philosophy of the Atman sketched above was by no means the only philosophic system put forward as the way to Release. Numerous philosophic leaders stand out dimly in the pale historic light, each with his own specialized doctrine and his following of monks. In an old Buddhist book there is a catalogue of sixty-two different theories of the universe taught at this time in North India. All these system-builders had a great deal in common. Transmigra tion was accepted as an axiom, and also the beliefs, that earthly things had to be given up if Release was to be won, and that knowledge was the right means of Release.