107

THE JEWS

REFERENCES

SINCE it seems unnecessary to reprint the Bible, a brief list of those passages in which its leading ideas are found is here presented. The Creation:-Genesis, I. and II.

The History of the Jews:

The Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, the books of Samuel, of Kings, of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

Legislation:-Exodus, XII.-XIII.; XIX.-XXXI.; XXXIV.

-XXXV.

Leviticus entire.

Numbers, IV.-VI.; VIII.-X.; XV.; XVIII-XIX.; XXVII. -XXXI.; XXXV.

Deuteronomy, V.—VI.; XII.-XXXIV.

Religion and Morals:

The Psalms and the Prophets.

Philosophical Ideas, theory of the origin of sin and the place which it holds in God's plan:

Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and in the Old Testament Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus, or the book of Jesus the Son of Sirach.

108

BRAHMAN IDEAS

PROBABLY THE EARLIEST EXPRESSION of highly developed thought by any Aryan race was that formulated by the Hindoos in their personification and worship of the powers of nature. This has been handed down to us in the Vedas, hymns to the deified natural forces and phenomena that these prehistoric immigrants found about them, lyrics to the Dawn, the Sky, the Storm-gods, the lightning, or the Moon-plant used in sacrifice.

The examples that we have given from the Vedas illustrate this ancient nature worship.

The philosophic system of the Brahmans was built upon the Vedas, but mounted high above them. It gradually reduced the many gods to one, identified the world with that one, and that one and the whole world with the self of the individual, thus arriving at the most intensely idealistic system ever constructed by man. It believed, too, that the future of the soul depended upon this knowledge. We have given the exposition of their later religious and their philosophical ideas in three of their most important Upanishads.

Their ideas of the beginning of the world, of the transmigration of souls, and of the laws of the castes, have been included as expressed in the Laws of Manu.

109

VEDIC HYMNS

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD

I. IN THE BEGINNING there arose the Golden Child (Hiranya-garbha); as soon as born, he alone was the lord of all that is. He established the earth and this heaven:-Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?

2. He who gives breath, he who gives strength, whose command all the bright gods revere, whose shadow is immortality, whose shadow is death: Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?

3. He who through his might became the sole king of the breathing and twinkling world, who governs all this, man and beast:-Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?

4. He through whose might these snowy mountains are, and the sea, they say, with the distant river (the Rasa), he of whom these regions are indeed the two arms:-Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?

5. He through whom the awful heaven and the earth were made fast, he through whom the ether was established, and the firmament; he who measured the air in the sky:-Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?

6. He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by his will, look up, trembling in their mind; he over whom the risen sun shines forth: -Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?

7. When the great waters went everywhere, holding the germ (Hiranya-garbha), and generating light, then there arose from them. the (sole) breath of the gods:-Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?

8. He who by his might looked even over the waters which held power (the germ) and generated the sacrifice (light), he who alone is God above all gods:-Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice?

9. May he not hurt us, he who is the begetter of the earth, or he, the righteous, who begat the heaven; he who also begat the bright

and mighty waters:-Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice? [10. Pragapati, no other than thou embraces all these created things. May that be ours which we desire when sacrificing to thee: may we be lords of wealth!]

TO VATA (THE WIND),

I. Now for the greatness of the chariot of Vata! Its roar goes crashing and thundering. It moves touching the sky, and creating red sheens, or it goes scattering the dust of the earth.

2. Afterwards there rise the gusts of Vata, they go towards him, like women to a feast. The god goes with them on the same chariot, he, the king of the whole of this world.

3. When he moves on his paths along the sky, he rests not even a single day; the friend of the waters, the first-born, the holy, where was he born, whence did he spring?

The breath of the gods, the germ of the world, that god moves wherever he listeth; his roars indeed are heard, not his form-let us offer sacrifice to that Vata!

TO AGNI (THE GOD OF FIRE) AND THE MARUTS (THE STORM-GODS)

I.

1. Thou art called forth to this fair sacrifice for a draught of milk; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

2. No god indeed, no mortal, is beyond the might of thee, the mighty one; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

3. They who know of the great sky, the Visve Devas without guile; with those Maruts come hither, O Agni!

4. The strong ones who sing their song, unconquerable by force; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

5. They who are brilliant, of terrible designs, powerful, and devourers of foes; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

6. They who in heaven are enthroned as gods, in the light of the firmament; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

7. They who toss the clouds across the surging sea; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

8. They who shoot with their darts (lightnings) across the sea

with might; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

9. I pour out to thee for the early draught the sweet (juice) of Soma; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!

TO THE MARUTS (THE STORM-GODS)

1. Sing forth, O Kanvas, to the sportive host of your Maruts, brilliant on their chariots, and unscathed,

2. They who were born together, self-luminous, with the spotted deer (the clouds), the spears, the daggers, the glittering ornaments. 3. I hear their whips, almost close by, when they crack them in their hands; they gain splendour on their way.

4. Sing forth the god-given prayer to the wild host of your Maruts, endowed with terrible vigour and strength.

5. Celebrate the bull among the cows (the storm among the clouds), for it is the sportive host of the Maruts; he grew as he tasted the rain.

6. Who, O ye men, is the strongest among you here, ye shakers of heaven and earth, when you shake them like the hem of a garment? 7. At your approach the son of man holds himself down; the gnarled cloud fled at your fierce anger.

8. They at whose racings the earth, like a hoary king, trembles for fear on their ways,

9. Their birth is strong indeed: there is strength to come forth from their mother, nay, there is vigour twice enough for it.

And these sons, the singers, stretched out the fences in their racings; the cows had to walk knee-deep.

II. They cause this long and broad unceasing rain to fall on their ways.

12. O Maruts, with such strength as yours, you have caused men to tremble, you have caused the mountains to tremble.

13. As the Maruts pass along, they talk together on the way: does any one hear them?

14. Come fast on your quick steeds! there are worshippers for you among the Kanvas: may you well rejoice among them.

15. Truly there is enough for your rejoicing. We always are their servants, that we may live even the whole of life.