A View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos:

Scripture Illustrations, from Hindoo manners and customs,

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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

ON THE

Hindoo Religion.

THE whole system of Hindoo theology is founded upon the doctrine that the Divine Spirit, as the soul of the universe, becomes, in all animate beings, united to matter; that spirit is insulated or individuated by particular portions of matter, which it is continually quitting, and joining itself to new portions of matter;* that the human soul is, in other words, God himself; that the knowledge of this, leading men to seek complete deliverance from the degrading and polluting influence of material objects, is the only means of being reunited to the divine nature; that this deliverance from matter may be obtained in the present state by separation from human intercourse, the practise of bodily austerities, and entire abstraction of mind; and that if not obtained in one birth, is to be sought through every future transmigration till obtained.

* There are two opinions among the Hindoos on this subject, some philosophers maintaining, that it is one soul which is united to sentient creatures, while others support a contrary opinion, and affirm, that human souls must be emanations from the Great Spirit, otherwise, when one person obtained absorption into the divine nature, all would obtain it at the same moment. The védantů philosophers teach, that God exists in millions of forms, from the ant to Brümha, the grand-father of the gods, as one moon is seen at once in twenty different pans of water.'

The agreement betwixt these opinions and those of the Greek philosophers is very remarkable: Almost all ancient philosophers agreed in admitting two principles in nature, one active and the other passive, but they differed in the manner in which they conceived these principles to subsist. Some held God and Matter to be two principles, which are eternally opposite, not only differing in their essence, but having no common principle by which they ean be united. This was the doctrine taught by Anaxagoras, and after him by Plato, and the whole Old Academy. This system, for the sake of perspicuity, we will call the Dualistic system. Others were convinced, that nature consists of these two principles; but finding themselves perplexed by the difficulty with which they saw the Dualistic system to be encumbered, that of supposing two independent and opposite principles, they supposed both these to be comprehended in one universe, and conceived them to be united by a necessary and essential bond. To effect this, two different hypotheses were proposed some thought God to have been eternalJy united to matter in one whole, which they called Chaos, whence it was sent forth, and at a certain time brought into form, by the energy of the divine inhabiting mind. This was the System of Emanation, commonly embraced by the ancient barbaric philosophers, and afterwards admitted into the early theogonies of the Greeks.

Others

This detrine is taught in many parts of the Hindoo writings, especially in the Dürshunŭs ; which works, though almost wholly speculative, make known a method of abstraction, to assist ascetics in obtaining deliverance from mortal birth.

Udwuyanŭndů, a súnyasee, and the compiler of 'the Essence of the Védantů,' says, 'Brümhu and life are one: that which pervading all the members of the body, gives to them life and motion, is called jeevi, life: thatwhich pervading the whole universe, gives life and motion to all, is Brùmhu; therefore these two are one. Every kind of matter is without life; that which

is created cannot possess life: therefore all life is the creator, or Brümhŭ : God is the soul of the world. This is the substance of the Védantů philosophy.'

Not only is God thus declared to be the soul of the world, but the writer of the above work affirms, that the world itself is God-God expanding himself in an infinite variety of forms: All things past, present, and to come; all that is in the earth, sky, &c. of every class and description, all this is Brumhu, who is the cause of all things, and the things themselves.'

Yet this writer, in another part of this work, seems to affirm, that the universe is the work of God: The principle of life is Brumhй; that which is animated is the work of Brumhu,* who directs every thing, as the charioteer directs the chariot. Brumhŭ is everlasting and unchangeable; the world, which is his work, is changeable.'

This work represents Brümhu, in his state of repose, as destitute of ideas or intelligence, and entirely separated from all intelligences. It describes this repose by comparing it to what

Others attempted to explain the subject more philosophically, and, to avoid the absurdity which they conceived to attend both the former systems, asserted, that God, the rational and efficient principle, is as intimately connected with the universe, as the human mind with the body, and is a forming power, so originally and necessarily inherent in matter, that it is to be conceived as a natural part of the original chaos. This system seems not only to have been received by the Ionic philosophers, Thales and Anaximander, but by the Pythagoreans, the followers of Heraclitus, and others. Zeno, determining to innovate upon the doctrine of the Academy, and neither chusing to adopt the Dualistic, nor the Emanative System, embraced the third hypothesis, which though not originally his own, we shall distinguish by the name of the Stoical System. Unwilling to admit, on the one hand, two opposite principles, both primary and independent, and both absolute and infinite, or on the other, to suppose matter, which is in its nature diametrically opposite to that of God, the active efficient cause, to have been derived by emanation from him; yet finding himself wholly unable to derive these two principles from any common source, he confounded their essence, and maintained that they were so essentially united, that their nature was one and the same.' Enfield, page 329, 330.

*Or, as some writers explain it, exists as an effect, as heat is an effect of fire.

ever may communicate the idea of undisturbed tranquillity; to the bosom of the unruffled ocean; or to the rest enjoyed in a deep sleep, in which there is an entire cessation even of the faculties of the mind.

The Védantǎ writers add, that at certain revolutions of time, 'Brümhů, awaking from this repose, unites to himself his own energy, and creates the universe;* that as soon as souls are united to matter, they become impressed, according to their destiny, with more or less of three qualities,† as 1st, with that which gives rise to excellence of character; 2dly, with that which excites to anger, restlessness, wordly desire, &c. and 3dly, that which leads to inactivity, ignorance, and such like errors. The character is formed, and the future destiny regulated, by the preponderance of any one of these qualities. Krishnŭ is represented in the Shree Bhagŭvůt-Geetů as teaching Urjoonü, that, 'the man who is born with divine destiny is endued with certain qualities, [here follow a number of excellent qualities;] that those who come into life under the influence of the evil destiny, are distinguished by hypocrisy, pride, presumption, harshness of speech, and ignorance; that divine destiny is for eternal absorption into the divine nature; and that the evil destiny confineth the soul to mortal birth.'‡

The soul then, by these writers, is considered as separated from the source of happiness when it takes mortal birth, and as remaining a miserable wanderer in various births and states, till it regain its place in the divine essence. A devotee, sighing for absorption, is described as uttering his feelings in words to this purport, When shall I be delivered from this world, and obtain God!'

In consonance with these ideas, a system of devotion has been formed, to enable men to emancipate themselves from the influence of material objects, and thus to prepare them for absorption. In the first place, the devotee is to acquire the right knowledge of Brumhů, namely, that

* When Brumho withdraws his energy, the destruction of the world succeeds; when he employs it, creation springs to birth.' The Védantŭ-sară.

+ The possession of more or less of any one of these qualities is owing to the balance of merit or demerit in the preceding birth. Many Hindoo philosophers, however, have no idea of accountability as the cause of reward or suffering: they suppose that all actions, good and bad, produce certain natural effects, which ripen in a future irth, as poverty, disease, and wickedness, or riches, health, and works of merit.

See Wilkins's translation of this work.

God and matter are the same; that Brumhu is the soul of the world.

That error* which excites earthly desires, and impels to worldly exertions, is destroyed,' says the writer of the work already quoted, by the knowledge of Brůmhu? The person possessed of these ideas of God is called the wise man,' Brumhu gnanee, and he who is destitute of this knowledge is considered as in a state of pitiable ignorance, like an insect incrusted with matter.

Further, to enable him to subdue his passions, and renounce all natural desires, he is directed to retire from the world; to counteract all his natural propensities, and to confine himself to intense meditation on Brůmhu, till he has thoroughly established in his mind this principle, that, seeing every thing proceeded from Brămhu, and that, at the end of the four yoogus, when the universe shall be dissolved, every thing will be absorbed into him again, therefore Brumhǎ is every thing.'

The Védantă-şarŭ says, There are four ways by which the knowledge of Brùmhu is perfected: 1st, By that reflection, in which the person decides upon what is changeable and what is unchangeable in the world;-2dly, By cultivating a distaste of all sensual pleasures, and even of the happiness enjoyed by the gods; 3dly, By the following qualities, an unruffled mind, the subjugation of the passions, unrepenting generosity, contempt of the world, the rejection of whatever obstructs the acquisition of the knowledge of Brămhŭ, and 4thly, By unwavering faith in the shastrus, added to the desire of absorption.'

Krishnă, in his conversation with Urjoonů, makes the perfection of religion to consist in subduing the passions, in perfect abstraction from all objects of the senses, and in fixing the whole mind on Brůmhů: I extract a few paragraphs from Wilkins: A man is said to be confirmed in wisdom, when he forsaketh every desire which entereth into his heart, and of himself is happy, and contented in himself. His mind is undisturbed in adversity, he is happy and contented in prosperity, and he is a stranger to anxiety, fear, and anger. Such a wise man is called a sage. The wisdom of that man is established, who, in all things, is without affection, and having received good or evil, neither rejoiceth at the one, nor is cast down by the other. His wisdom is confirmed, when, like the tortoise, he can draw in all his members, and restrain them from their wonted purpose.' The wise neither grieve for the dead, nor for the living.'

* Error here refers to the false idea, that a man's self and spirit are different, as that I is any thing dif ferent from spirit. This idea of the separate existence of I, leads to the idea of mine, and thus to every worldly

desire.

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