India: What can it teach us? Part 25

[Footnote 306: Buhler, apastamba, "Sacred Books of the East," vol.

ii., p. 138; also "_S_raddhakalpa," p. 890. Though the _S_raddha is prescribed in the "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," IV. 4, 2-3, it is not described there, but in a separate treatise, the _S_raddha-kalpa.]

[Footnote 307: As meaning the food, _s_raddha occurs in _s_raddhabhu_g_ and similar words. As meaning the sacrificial act, it is explained, yatraita_k_ _kh_raddhaya diyate tad eva karma _s_raddha_s_abdabhidheyam. Pretam pit_rims_ _k_a nirdi_s_ya bho_g_ya_m_ yat priyam atmana_h_ _s_raddhaya diyate yatra ta_k_ _kh_raddham parikirt.i.tam. "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 892. We also read _s_raddhanvita_h_ _s_raddha_m_ kurvita, "let a man perform the _s_raddha with faith;" "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1053.]

[Footnote 308: Manu III. 82.]

[Footnote 309: Pit_ri_n uddi_s_ya yad diyate brahma_n_ebhya_h_ _s_raddhaya ta_k_ _kh_radd ham.]

[Footnote 310: apastamba II. 16, 3, Brahma_n_as tv ahavaniyarthe.]

[Footnote 311: L. c. p. 142.]

[Footnote 312: Manu III. 138, 140.]

[Footnote 313: "a_s_v. G_ri_hya-sutras" IV. 5, 8.]

[Footnote 314: It is described as a vik_ri_ti of the Parva_n_a-_s_raddha in "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1011.]

[Footnote 315: One of the differences between the acts before and after the Sapi_nd_ikara_n_a is noted by Salankayana:--Sapi_nd_ikara_n_am yavad _rig_udarbhai_h_ pit_ri_kriya Sapi_nd_ikara_n_ad urdhva_m_ dvigu_n_air vidhivad bhavet. "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 930.]

[Footnote 316: "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1023.]

[Footnote 317: "G_ri_hya-sutras," ed. Oldenberg, p. 83.]

[Footnote 318: A pratyabdikam ekoddish_t_am on the anniversary of the deceased is mentioned by Gobhiliya, l. c. p. 1011.]

[Footnote 319: "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1039.]

[Footnote 320: "_S_ankh. G_ri_hya," p. 83; "Gobh. G_ri_hya," p. 1024.

According to some authorities the ekoddish_t_a is called nava, new, during ten days; navami_s_ra, mixed, for six months; and pura_n_a, old, afterward. "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1020.]

[Footnote 321: "Gobhiliya," l. c. p. 1032.]

[Footnote 322: "Gobhiliya," l. c. p. 1047.]

[Footnote 323: "Life and Essays," ii. p. 195.]

[Footnote 324: Colebrooke adds that in most provinces the periods for these sixteen ceremonies, and for the concluding obsequies ent.i.tled Sapi_nd_ana, are antic.i.p.ated, and the whole is completed on the second or third day; after which they are again performed at the proper times, but in honor of the whole set of progenitors instead of the deceased singly. It is this which Dr. Donner, in his learned paper on the "Pi_nd_apit_ri_ya_gn_a" (p. 11), takes as the general rule.]

[Footnote 325: See this subject most exhaustively treated, particularly in its bearings on the law of inheritance, in Rajk.u.mar Sarvadhikari's "Tagore Law Lectures for 1880," p. 93.]

[Footnote 326: "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 892.]

[Footnote 327: L. c. p. 897.]

[Footnote 328: See p. 666, and p. 1008. G_ri_hyakara_h_ pi_nd_apit_ri_ya_gn_asya _s_raddhatvam aha.]

[Footnote 329: Gobhila IV. 4, 3, itarad anvaharyam. But the commentators add anagner amavasya_s_raddham, nanvaharyam. According to Gobhila there ought to be the Vai_s_vadeva offering and the Bali offering at the end of each Parva_n_a-_s_raddha; see "Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutras," p. 1005, but no Vai_s_vadeva at an ekoddish_t_a _s_raddha, l. c. p. 1020.]

[Footnote 330: L. c. pp. 1005-1010; "Nirnayasindhu," p. 270.]

[Footnote 331: See Burnell, "The Law of Part.i.tion," p. 31.]

[Footnote 332: Kalau tavad gavalambho ma_m_sadana_m_ _k_a _s_raddhe nishiddham, Gobhilena tu madhyamash_t_akaya_m_ vastukarma_n_i _k_a gavalambho vihita_h_, ma_m_sa_k_aru_s_ _k_anvash_t_akya_s_raddhe; Gobhiliya G_ri_hya-sutra, ed. "_K_andrakanta Tarkalankara, Vi_gn_apti," p. 8.]

[Footnote 333: It may be seriously doubted whether prayers _to_ the dead or _for_ the dead satisfy any craving of the human heart. With us in "the North," a shrinking from "open manifestations of grief" has nothing whatever to do with the matter. Those who refuse to engage in such worship believe and teach that the dead are not G.o.ds and cannot be helped by our prayers. Reason, not feeling, prevents such worship.--AM. PUBS.]

[Footnote 334: A deeper idea than affection inspired this custom.

Every kinsman was always such, living or dead; and hence the service of the dead was sacred and essential. The _S_raddhas were adopted as the performance of such offices. There were twelve forms of this service: 1. The daily offering to ancestors. 2. The _s_raddha for a person lately deceased, and not yet included with the pit_ri_s. 3. The _s_raddha offered for a specific object. 4. The offering made on occasions of rejoicing. 5. The _s_raddha performed when the recently-departed has been incorporated among the Pit_ri_s. 6. The _s_raddha performed on a parvan-day, _i.e._, new moon, the eighth day, fourteenth day, and full moon. 7. The _s_raddha performed in a house of a.s.sembly for the benefit of learned men. 8. Expiatory. 9. Part of some other ceremony. 10. Offered for the sake of the Devas. 11.

Performed before going on a journey. 12. _S_raddha for the sake of wealth. The _s_raddhas may be performed in one's own house, or in some secluded and pure place. The number performed each year by those who can afford it varies considerably; but ninety-six appears to be the more common. The most fervent are the twelve new-moon rites; four Yuga and fourteen Manu rites; twelve corresponding to the pa.s.sages of the sun into the zodiacal mansions, etc.--A. W.]

[Footnote 335: See "Hibbert Lectures," new ed. pp. 243-255.]

[Footnote 336: The same concept is found in the Platonic Dialogue between Sokrates and Euthyphron. The philosopher asks the diviner to tell what is holy and what impiety. "That which is pleasing to the G.o.ds is holy, and that which is not pleasing to them is impious"

promptly replies the mantis, "To be holy is to be just," said Sokrates; "Is the thing holy because they love it, or do they love it because it is holy?" Euthyphron hurried away in alarm. He had acknowledged unwittingly that holiness or justice was supreme above all G.o.ds; and this highest concept, this highest faith, he dared not entertain.--A. W.]

[Footnote 337: In Chinese we find that the same three aspects of religion and their intimate relationship were recognized, as, for instance, when Confucius says to the Prince of Sung: "Honor the sky (worship of Devas), reverence the Manes (worship of Pit_ri_s); if you do this, sun and moon will keep their appointed time (_Ri_ta)."

Happel, "Altchinesische Reichsreligion," p. 11.]

[Footnote 338: Rig-Veda I. 164, 46; "Hibbert Lectures," p. 311.]

[Footnote 339: Rig-Veda X. 114, 5; "Hibbert Lectures," p. 313.]

[Footnote 340: Rig-Veda I. 164, 4.]

[Footnote 341: ?? d? f????a t?? p?e?at?? ??? ?a? e?????. See also Ruskin, "Sesame," p. 63.]

[Footnote 342: Major Jacob, "Manual of Hindu Pantheism," Preface.]

[Footnote 343: "Life and Letters of Gokulaji Sampattirama Zala and his views of the Vedanta, by Mana.s.sukharama Suryarama Tripa_th_i." Bombay, 1881.

As a young man Gokulaji, the son of a good family, learned Persian and Sanskrit. His chief interest in life, in the midst of a most successful political career, was the "Vedanta." A little insight, we are told, into this knowledge turned his heart to higher objects, promising him freedom from grief, and blessedness, the highest aim of all. This was the turning-point of his inner life. When the celebrated Vedanti anchorite, Rama Bava, visited Junagadh, Gokulaji became his pupil. When another anchorite, Paramahansa Sa_kk_idananda, pa.s.sed through Junagadh on a pilgrimage to Girnar, Gokulaji was regularly initiated in the secrets of the Vedanta. He soon became highly proficient in it, and through the whole course of his life, whether in power or in disgrace, his belief in the doctrines of the Vedanta supported him, and made him, in the opinion of English statesmen, the model of what a native statesman ought to be.]

[Footnote 344: Professor Kuenen discovers a similar idea in the words placed in the mouth of Jehovah by the prophet Malachi, i. 14: "For I am a great King, and my name is feared among the heathen." "The reference," he says, "is distinctly to the adoration already offered to Yahweh by the people, whenever they serve their own G.o.ds with true reverence and honest zeal.(A1) Even in Deuteronomy the adoration of these other G.o.ds by the nations is represented as a dispensation of Yahweh. Malachi goes a step further, and accepts their worship as a tribute which in reality falls to Yahweh--to Him, the Only True. Thus the opposition between Yahweh and the other G.o.ds, and afterward between the one true G.o.d and the imaginary G.o.ds, makes room here for the still higher conception that the adoration of Yahweh is the essence and the truth of all religion." "Hibbert Lectures," p. 181.

A1: There is, we believe, not the slightest authority for reading Malachi in this way; any reader of the Old Testament is competent to judge for himself.--AM. PUBS.]

[Footnote 345: The author's enthusiasm has carried him beyond bounds.

The weight to be given to Schopenhauer's opinion touching any religious subject may be measured by the following quotation: "The happiest moment of life is the completest forgetfulness of self in sleep, and the wretchedest is the most wakeful and conscious."--AM.

PUBS.]

[Footnote 346: "Sacred Books of the East," vol. i, "The Upanishads,"

translated by M. M.; Introduction, p. lxi.]