or simply curses, to the effect that evil-doers may be thrown into deep and dismal pits under the earth. They do not imply that gods of their own accord punish wicked people after death. 4 3 In post-Vedic times ritualism grew more important still. Sometimes the gods are represented as beings indifferent to every moral distinction, and the most indelicate stories are unscrupulously related of them.2 In the Taittirîya Samhitâ of the Yajur Veda we are told that if anybody wishes to injure another, he need only say to Sûrya, one of the most important among the solar deities, "Smite such a one, and I will give you an offering," and Sûrya, to get the offering, will smite him. Çiva, who is connected with the Vedic god Rudra, is in the Mahabharata clothed in terrible "forms," being armed with the trident and wearing a necklace of skulls; he exacts a bloody cultus, and is the chief of the mischievous spirits. and vampires that frequent places of execution and burial grounds. Vishnu, the other great god of Hinduism, though less fierce than Çiva, is nevertheless, on one side of his character, an inexorable god; and Krishna, as accepted by Vishnuism, is a crafty hero of a singularly doubtful moral character. In Brahmanism religion is largely replaced by magic, the rites themselves are raised to the rank of divinities, the priests become the gods of gods. And the point of view from which these man-gods look upon human conduct is expressed in the Satapatha Brahmana, where it is said that fees paid to priests are like sacrifices offered to other gods-those who gratify them are placed in a state of bliss. Ritual observances are essential for a man's wellbeing both in this life and in the life to come, where paradise, hell, or transmigration 8 1 Rig Veda, iv. 5. 5; vii. 104. 3, 11, 17. Atharva-Veda, v. 19. 3, 12 sqq. ; xii. 4. 3, 36. 2 Barth, op. cit. p. 46 sq. Macdonell, op. cit. p. 76. 3 Barth, op. cit. p. 20. Taittiriya Samhita, vi. 4 sqq., quoted by Goblet d'Alviella, Hibbert 6 3 awaits the dead. In the Brahmanas immortality, or at least longevity, is promised to those who rightly understand and practise the rites of sacrifice, whilst those who are deficient in this respect depart before their natural term of life to the next world, where they are weighed in a balance and receive good or evil according to their deeds.1 To repeat sacred texts a certain number of times is also laid down as a condition of salvation, and the doctrine is gradually developed that a single invocation of the divine name cancels a whole life of iniquity and crime. Hence the importance attached-as early as the Bhagavad Gîtâ-to the last thought before death, and the idea of attaining complete possession of this thought by an act of suicide. According to the Purânas it is sufficient even in the case of the vilest criminal, when at the point of death, to pronounce by chance some syllables of the names Vishnu or Çiva in order to obtain salvation ; * and in the preface to the Prem Sâgar, which displays the religion of the Hindus at the present day, it is said that those who even ignorantly sing the praises of the greatness of Krishn Chand are rewarded with final beatitude, just as a person would acquire eternal life by partaking of the drink of immortality though he did not know what he was drinking. On the other hand, "according to the Hindu Scriptures, whatever a man's life may have been, if he do not die near some holy stream, if his body is not burned on its banks, or at any rate near some water as a representative of the stream; or where this is impracticable, if some portion of his body be not thrown into it-his spirit must wander in misery, unable to obtain the bliss for which he has done and suffered so much in life." At the same time we also find a great variety of social duties 1 Weber, 'Eine Legende des Çatapatha-Brahmana über die strafende Vergeltung nach dem Tode,' in Zeitschr. d. Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellsch. ix. 238 sq. See also Macdonell, op. cit. p. 168; Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 190, 193; Vishnu Purána, P. 44. 2 Aitareya Brahmanam, ii. 17. 3 Bhagavad Gitâ, ch. 8. Barth, op. cit. p. 228. Barth, op. cit. p. 228. 5 Prem Ságar, p. 56. Cf. Wilson, in Vishnu Purána, p. 210, n. 13; Idem, Religious Sects of the Hindus,' in Asiatic Researches, xvi. 115. 6 Wilkins, Modern Hinduism, p. 439 sq. 6 inculcated in the sacred books of India-humanity even to enemies and slaves, filial piety, charity, hospitality," veracity; and in the Sûtras the doctrine appears that in order to obtain the chief fruit of sacrifice it is necessary to practise the moral virtues in addition to the rite." But this doctrine is singularly free from any reference to the justice of gods. In the Upanishads and Buddhistic books it is distinctly formulated in the idea of karma, according to which each act of the soul, good or bad, inevitably and naturally works out its full effect to the sweet or bitter end without the intervention of any deity to apportion the reward or punishment.8 Buddha did not base his system on any belief in gods, hence there is no place in it for a ritual nor for sin in the sense of offending a supernatural being. He that is pure in heart is the true priest, not he that knows the Vedas; the Vedas are nothing, the priests are of no account, save as they be morally of repute." If the genuine Buddhist can be said to worship any higher power, it is the moral order which never fails to assert itself in the law of cause and effect. But Buddha's followers were less metaphysical, and "the clouds returned after the rain." The old gods of Brahmanism came back, Buddha himself was deified as an omniscient and everlasting god, and Buddhism incorporated most of the local deities and demons of those nations it sought to convert.10 From being originally a metaphysical and ethical doctrine, it was thus transformed into a religion full of ritualism, and, it should be added, profusely mixed with magic. In Lamaism, especially, 1 Supra, i. 342. 7 Barth, op. cit. p. 49. See, eg, Apastamba, i. 7. 20. I sqq.; i. 8. 23. 6. 8 Barth, op. cit. pp. 77, 78, 115 sq. Müller, Anthropological Religion, p. 301. Dhammapada, i. I sq. Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures on the History of Buddhism, p. 85. Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 289. Hopkins, op. cit. p. 319 sq. Hopkins, op. cit. p. 319. 10 Waddell, Buddhism in Tibet, pp. 126, 325 sq. Griffis, Religions of Japan, pp. 187, 207. Davis, China, ii. 51. ritual is elevated to the front rank of importance; we find there pompous services closely resembling those of the Church of Rome, litanies and chants, offerings and sacrifice. And the muttering of certain mystic formulas and short prayers is alleged to be far more efficacious than mere moral virtue as a means of gaining the glorious heaven of eternal bliss, the paradise of the fabulous Buddha of boundless light.2 So also in China the teachers of Buddhism "were by no means rigorous in enforcing the obligations of men of men to morality. Το expiate sins, offerings to the idols and to the priests were sufficient. A temple built in honour of Fŏ, and richly endowed, would suffice to blot out every stain of guilt, and serve as a portal to the blessed mansions of Buddha." 3 In the national religion of China the heaven god, Shang-te, is the supreme being, the creator and sovereign ruler of the universe, whose power knows no bounds, and whose sight equally comprehends the comprehends the past, the present, and the future, penetrating even to the remotest recesses of the heart. He is the author and upholder not only of the physical but of the moral order of the world, watching over the conduct of men, rewarding the good, and punishing the wicked." the wicked.5 Sometimes he appears to array himself in terrors, as in the case of public calamities and the irregularity of the seasons; but these are only salutary warnings intended to call men to repentance." The cult which is offered Shang-te is frigid and ceremonial. The rules of ceremony have their origin in heaven, and the movement of them 6 1 Waddell, op. cit. 421, 476. 2 Ibid. pp. 142, 148, 573. 3 Gutzlaff, quoted by Davis, op. cit. ii. 51. Cf. Edkins, Religion in China, p. 150. Legge, Notions of the Chinese concerning God, pp. 33, 34, 100 sq. Idem, Chinese Classics, i. 98. Staunton, Inquiry into the proper Mode of rendering the Word" God" in translating the Sacred Scriptures into the Chinese Language, p. 8 sq. Douglas, Confu cianism and Taouism, pp. 77, 82. 5 Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese, ii. 272. Legge, Chinese Classics, i. 98; iii. 46. Smith, Proverbs of the Chinese, p. 40. Boone, Essay on the proper rendering of the Words Elohim and éos into the Chinese Language, p. 55. Indo-Chinese Gleaner, i. 162. Davis, op. cit. ii. 26, 34. Douglas, op. cit. PP. 77, 78, 83. 6 Staunton, op. cit. p. 9. Legge, Chinese Classics, iii. 46 sq. 2 reaches to earth; their abandonment leads to "the ruin of states, the destruction of families, and the perishing of individuals." 1 The Chinese are inclined to place ritualism on an equality with social morality. Confucius himself humbly submitted to the rules of ceremony, although he denounced hypocrisy. But to him morality was infinitely more important than religion. He altogether avoided the personal term God, and made only use of the abstract term Heaven. He admitted that spiritual beings exist, and even sacrificed to them, but when questioned about matters relating to religion he was systematically silent. Religious duties occupy a very insignificant place in his system. "To give one's self earnestly to the duties due to men, and, while respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom." 4 Prayer is unnecessary because Heaven does not actively interfere with the soul of man; it has endowed him at his birth with goodness, which, if he will, may become his nature, and the reward or punishment is only the natural or providential result of his conduct. Of punishments in a future life Confucius says nothing, though he maintains that there are rewards and dignity for the good after death. The belief of the Chinese in post mortem punishments comes from Buddhism. 5 The gods of ancient Greece were on the whole beneficent beings, who conferred blessings upon those who secured their goodwill. Zeus protects the life of the family, city, and nation; he is a god of victory and victorious peace, who gathers the hosts against Troy, and saves Greece from Persia; he brings the ships to land; he is "the warder off of evil." But neither he nor the other gods bestow their 1 Li K, vii. 4. 5 sq. 2 Lun Yu, iii. 12. 1; x. 8. 10. 3 Ibid. vii. 20. Cf. Réville, La religion chinoise, p. 326. 4 Lun Yü, vi. 20. 5 Douglas, op. cit. p. 78. Legge, Religions of China, p. 300. Réville, op. cit. p. 645. "Legge, Religions of China, pp. 115, 299 sq. Réville, op. cit. p. 345. 7 Indo-Chinese Gleaner, iii. 288. Edkins, op. cit. pp. 83, 87 sqq. Smith, Proverbs of the Chinese, p. 227. 8 Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, i. 59-61, 83, 107. Vischer, Kleine Schriften, ii. 352 sq. Preller, Griechische Mythologie, i. 146 sqq. |