Ten Great Religions Part 9

"When a Brahman springs to light, he is born above the world, the chief of all creatures, a.s.signed to guard the treasury of duties, religious and civil.

"The Brahman who studies this book, having performed sacred rites, is perpetually free from offence in thought, in word and in deed.

"He confers purity on his living family, on his ancestors, and on his descendants as far as the seventh person, and he alone deserves to possess this whole earth."

The following pa.s.sages are from Book II., "On Education and the Priesthood":--

"Self-love is no laudable motive, yet an exemption from self-love is not to be found in this world: on self-love is grounded the study of Scripture, and the practice of actions recommended in it.

"Eager desire to act has its root in expectation of some advantage; and with such expectation are sacrifices performed; the rules of religious austerity and abstinence from sins are all known to arise from hope of remuneration.

"Not a single act here below appears ever to be done by a man free from self-love; whatever he perform, it is wrought from his desire of a reward.

"He, indeed, who should persist in discharging these duties without any view to their fruit, would attain hereafter the state of the immortals, and even in this life would enjoy all the virtuous gratifications that his fancy could suggest.

"The most excellent of the three cla.s.ses, being girt with the sacrificial thread, must ask food with the respectful word Dhavati at the beginning of the phrase; those of the second cla.s.s with that word in the middle; and those of the third with that word at the end.

"Let him first beg food of his mother, or of his sister, or of his mother's whole sister; then of some other female who will not disgrace him.

"Having collected as much of the desired food as he has occasion for, and having presented it without guile to his preceptor, let him eat some of it, being duly purified, with his face to the east.

"If he seek long life, he should eat with his face to the east; if prosperity, to the west; if truth and its reward, to the north.

"When the student is going to read the Veda he must perform an ablution, as the law ordains, with his face to the north; and having paid scriptural homage, he must receive instruction, wearing a clean vest, his members being duly composed.

"A Brahman beginning and ending a lecture on the Veda must always p.r.o.nounce to himself the syllable om; for unless the syllable om precede, his learning will slip away from him; and unless it follow, nothing will be long retained.

"A priest who shall know the Veda, and shall p.r.o.nounce to himself, both morning and evening, that syllable, and that holy text preceded by the three words, shall attain the sanct.i.ty which the Veda confers.

"And a twice-born man, who shall a thousand times repeat those three (or om, the vyahritis, and the gayatri) apart from the mult.i.tude, shall be released in a month even from a great offence, as a snake from his slough.

"The three great immutable words, preceded by the triliteral syllable, and followed by the gayatri, which consists of three measures, must be considered as the mouth, or princ.i.p.al part of the Veda.

"The triliteral monosyllable is an emblem of the Supreme; the suppressions of breath, with a mind fixed on G.o.d, are the highest devotion; but nothing is more exalted than the gayatri; a declaration of truth is more excellent than silence.

"All rites ordained in the Veda, oblations to fire, and solemn sacrifices pa.s.s away; but that which pa.s.ses not away is declared to be the syllable om, thence called acshara; since it is a symbol of G.o.d, the Lord of created beings.

"The act of repeating his Holy Name is ten times better than the appointed sacrifice; an hundred times better when it is heard by no man; and a thousand times better when it is purely mental.

"To a man contaminated by sensuality, neither the Vedas, nor liberality, nor sacrifices, nor strict observances, nor pious austerities, ever procure felicity.

"As he who digs deep with a spade comes to a spring of water, so the student, who humbly serves his teacher, attains the knowledge which lies deep in his teacher's mind.

"If the sun should rise and set, while he sleeps through sensual indulgence, and knows it not, he must fast a whole day repeating the gayatri.

"Let him adore G.o.d both at sunrise and at sunset, as the law ordains, having made his ablution, and keeping his organs controlled; and with fixed attention let him repeat the text, which he ought to repeat in a place free from impurity.

"The twice-born man who shall thus without intermission have pa.s.sed the time of his studentship shall ascend after death to the most exalted of regions, and no more again spring to birth in this lower world."

The following pa.s.sages are from Book IV., "On Private Morals":--

"Let a Brahman, having dwelt with a preceptor during the first quarter of a man's life, pa.s.s the second quarter of human life in his own house, when he has contracted a legal marriage.

"He must live with no injury, or with the least possible injury, to animated beings, by pursuing those means of gaining subsistence, which are strictly prescribed by law, except in times of distress.

"Let him say what is true, but let him say what is pleasing; let him speak no disagreeable truth, nor let him speak agreeable falsehood; this is a primeval rule.

"Let him say 'well and good,' or let him say 'well' only; but let him not maintain fruitless enmity and altercation with any man.

"All that depends on another gives pain; and all that depends on himself gives pleasure; let him know this to be in few words the definition of pleasure and pain.

"And for whatever purpose a man bestows a gift, for a similar purpose he shall receive, with due honor, a similar reward.

"Both he who respectfully bestows a present, and he who respectfully accepts it, shall go to a seat of bliss; but, if they act otherwise, to a region of horror.

"Let not a man be proud of his rigorous devotion; let him not, having sacrificed, utter a falsehood; let him not, though injured, insult a priest; having made a donation, let him never proclaim it.

"By falsehood the sacrifice becomes vain; by pride the merit of devotion is lost; by insulting priests life is diminished; and by proclaiming a largess its fruit is destroyed.

"For in his pa.s.sage to the next world, neither his father, nor his mother, nor his wife, nor his son, nor his kinsmen will remain his company; his virtue alone will adhere to him.

"Single is each man born; single he dies; single he receives the reward of his good, and single the punishment of his evil deeds."

From Book V., "On Diet":--

"The twice-born man who has intentionally eaten a mushroom, the flesh of a tame hog, or a town c.o.c.k, a leek, or an onion, or garlic, is degraded immediately.

"But having undesignedly tasted either of those six things, he must perform the penance santapana, or the chandrayana, which anchorites practise; for other things he must fast a whole day.

"One of those harsh penances called praj.a.patya the twice-born man must perform annually, to purify him from the unknown taint of illicit food; but he must do particular penance for such food intentionally eaten.

"He who injures no animated creature shall attain without hardship whatever he thinks of, whatever he strives for, whatever he fixes his mind on.

"Flesh meat cannot be procured without injury to animals, and the slaughter of animals obstructs the path to beat.i.tude; from flesh meat, therefore, let man abstain.

"Attentively considering the formation of bodies, and the death or confinement of embodied spirits, let him abstain from eating flesh meat of any kind.

"Not a mortal exists more sinful than he who, without an oblation to the manes or the G.o.ds, desires to enlarge his own flesh with the flesh of another creature.

"By subsisting on pure fruit and on roots, and by eating such grains as are eaten by hermits, a man reaps not so high a reward as by carefully abstaining from animal food.

"In lawfully tasting meat, in drinking fermented liquor, in caressing women, there is no turpitude; for to such enjoyments men are naturally p.r.o.ne, but a virtuous abstinence from them produces a signal compensation.

"Sacred learning, austere devotion, fire, holy aliment, earth, the mind, water, smearing with cow-dung, air, prescribed acts of religion, the sun, and time are purifiers of embodied spirits.

"But of all pure things purity in acquiring wealth is p.r.o.nounced the most excellent; since he who gains wealth with clean hands is truly pure; not he who is purified merely with earth and water.

"By forgiveness of injuries, the learned are purified; by liberality, those who have neglected their duty; by pious meditation, those who have secret faults; by devout austerity, those who best know the Veda.