Two Old Faiths | Page 6

that "the religious notion of sin is wanting altogether;" but this
affirmation is decidedly too sweeping.

[Sidenote: No image-worship. No public worship.] The worship
exemplified in the Veda is not image-worship. Images of the fire, or the
winds, or the waters could hardly be required, and while the original
nature-worship lasted, idols must have been nearly unknown. Yet the
description of various deities is so precise and full that it seems to be
probably drawn from visible representations of them. Worship was
personal and domestic, not in any way public. Indeed, two men praying
at the same time had to pray quite apart, so that neither might disturb
the other. Each dealt with heaven, so to speak, solely on his own
behalf.
[Sidenote: No temples.] We hear of no places set apart as temples in
Vedic times.
[Sidenote: The treatises on ritual.] A Veda consists of two parts called
Mantra or Sanhita, and Brahmana. The first is composed of hymns.
The second is a statement of ritual, and is generally in prose. The
existing Brahmanas are several centuries later than the great body of
the hymns, and were probably composed when the Hindus had crossed
the Indus, and were advancing along the Gangetic valley. The oldest
may be about the date of 800 or 700 B.C.
[Sidenote: Growth of priestly power. Schools for the study of sacred
books, rites, and traditions.] The Brahmanas are very poor, both in
thought and expression. They have hardly their match in any literature
for "pedantry and downright absurdity."[10] Poetical feeling and even
religious feeling seem gone; all is dead and dry as dust. By this time the
Sanskrit language had ceased to be generally understood. The original
texts could hardly receive accessions; the most learned man could do
little more than interpret, or perhaps misinterpret, them. The worshiper
looked on; he worshiped now by proxy. Thus the priest had risen
greatly in importance. He alone knew the sacred verses and the sacred
rites. An error in the pronunciation of the mystic text might bring
destruction on the worshiper; what could he do but lean upon the priest?
The latter could say the prayers if he could not pray. All this worked
powerfully for the elevation of the Brahmans, the "men of prayer;" they
steadily grew into a class, a caste; and into this no one could enter who

was not of priestly descent. Schools were now found necessary for the
study of the sacred books, rites, and traditions. The importance which
these attach to theology--doctrine--is very small; the externals of
religion are all in all. The rites, in fact, now threw the very gods into
the shade; every thing depended on their due performance. And thus
the Hindu ritual gradually grew up into a stupendous system, the most
elaborate, complex, and burdensome which the earth has seen.
[Sidenote: Moral character of the Veda.] It is time, however, to give a
brief estimate of the moral character of the Veda. The first thing that
strikes us is its inconsistency. Some hymns--especially those addressed
to Varuna--rise as high as Gentile conceptions regarding deity ever rose;
others--even in the Rig Veda--sink miserably low; and in the Atharva
we find, "even in the lowest depth, a lower still."
[Sidenote: Indra supersedes Varuna.] The character of Indra--who has
displaced or overshadowed Varuna[11]--has no high attributes. He is
"voracious;" his "inebriety is most intense;" he "dances with delight in
battle." His worshipers supply him abundantly with the drink he loves;
and he supports them against their foes, ninety and more of whose
cities he has destroyed. We do not know that these foes, the Dasyus,
were morally worse than the intrusive Aryas, but the feelings of the
latter toward the former were of unexampled ferocity. Here is one
passage out of multitudes similar:
"Hurl thy hottest thunder-bolt upon them! Uproot them! Cleave them
asunder! O, Indra, overpower, subdue, slay the demon! Pluck him up!
Cut him through the middle! Crush his head!"
[Sidenote: Deterioration begins early.] Indra, if provided with Soma, is
always indulgent to his votaries; he supports them per fas et nefas.
Varuna, on the other hand, is grave, just, and to wicked men severe.[12]
The supersession of Varuna by Indra, then, is easily understood. We
see the principle on which it rests stated in the Old Testament. "Ye
cannot serve the Lord," said Joshua to the elders of Israel; "for he is a
holy God." Even so Jeremiah points sorrowfully to the fact that the
pagan nations clung to their false gods, while Israel was faithless to the
true. As St. Paul expresses it, "they did not like to retain God in their

knowledge." Unless this principle is fully taken into account we cannot
understand the historical development of Hinduism.
[Sidenote: Varuna the only divinity possessed of pure and elevated