The World's Greatest Books - Volume 13 Part 6

[One of the very oldest chapters in the Book of the Dead, as old at least as the first dynasty, say 4500 B.C. No chapter was regarded with greater reverence, or recited or copied with more confidence in its efficacy, probably because it is a summing up of the important chapters on the coming forth by day from the underworld. He who knows this chapter by heart is safe against danger in this world and in all other abodes.]

Nebseni, lord of reverence, says: I am yesterday and know to-morrow. I am able to be born again. Here is the invisible force which creates G.o.ds and gives food to denizens of the underworld. I go as a messenger to Osiris.

O G.o.ddess Aucherit, grant that I may come forth from the underworld to see Ra's blazing orb. O thou conductor of shades, let me have a fair path to the underworld and a sure arrival. May I be defended against all opposing powers. May the cycle of G.o.ds listen to me and grant my request

BOOKS OF BRAHMANISM

_INTRODUCTORY_

The religion of the ancient Persians and of the ancient Aryan Indians was at one time the same, and it is easy now to see the common basis of the beliefs and practices embodied in the Hindu Vedas and the Zend Avesta (see ZOROASTRIANISM), and their general resemblance. The religion of the ancient Aryan Indians has pa.s.sed through three outstanding phases, designated by modern scholars: Vedism, or that taught by the Vedas; Brahmanism, based on the Brahmans, or ritual additions to the Vedas; and Hinduism (_q.v._), the form which revived Brahmanism took after the expulsion of Buddhism. Though the latter is strictly an Indian religion, judged by its origin and characteristic features, it has for centuries almost ceased to exist in India proper. It will be found generally true that in Brahmanism there is, as compared with Vedism, an increase of the ritual, and a corresponding decrease of the moral element. The G.o.ds become more material, and the means of conciliating them ceremonial and magical. So also there is a growth in the power of the priesthood. One may compare this with the course of development among the Hebrews--the ritual and ceremonial bulking more and more, and the ethical receding, according to most modern scholars. It has to be remembered carefully, however, that the distinction between Vedism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism is more logical than actual.

The seeds of Hinduism, even the doctrine of caste, may be traced in the Rig Veda, and a modern orthodox. Hindu will tell you that his princ.i.p.al scriptures are the Vedas, and that his creed and practice have their source in these scriptures.

Brahmanism may be represented as a system of law and custom in the Laws of Manu; as a philosophy in the Upanishads; and as a mythology in the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

MAHABHARATA

The word "Mahabharata" means "The Great Bharata," the name of a well-known people in ancient India. The epic so called is a very long one, containing at least 220,000 lengthy lines. It is really an encyclopaedia of Hindu history, legend, mythology, and philosophy.

Four-fifths of the poem consist of episodes, some of them very beautiful, as the tale of Nala and his wife Damayanti. These have no primary connection with the original, though they are worked in so deftly as to make the whole appear a splendid unity. For pathos, sublimity, and matchless language, no poem in the world exceeds this one.

It is arranged in eighteen books, all of which claim to have been composed by Vyasa--another name for the G.o.d Krishna--who is said also in the course of the epic to have composed the Vedas and the Puranas. This is, of course, mythology, and not literary history.

The historical nucleus underlying this poem is the conflict which raged in ancient India between two neighbouring tribes, the Kurus (or Kauravas) and the Pandavas. But this is worked up into another long tale into which and around which Brahman teachers and philosophers have woven a very network of religious, theosophic, and philosophic speculation.

The tale is, in fact, made a vehicle for teaching Brahman ism as it existed in India in the first five centuries of our era, though much of the Mahabharata goes back to a thousand years or so B.C.

_OUTLINE OF THE EPIC_

The descendants of Bharata, the king of Hastinapura, about sixty miles north of Delhi, were divided into two branches, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, each of which occupied the territory which had come down to it by inheritance. They lived together in peace and prosperity, wors.h.i.+pping the G.o.ds, studying the Vedas, and spending much time in meditation about higher things. But there came a change for the worse. The Kauravas, not content with their own territory, looked with jealous eyes upon that of their kinsmen, the Pandavas. Soon their covetousness realised itself in action, for gathering their armed men together, they sprang suddenly upon the land of their neighbours, whom they disarmed previously by professions of friends.h.i.+p and goodwill The Pandavas were conquered and driven into a far country, where they wandered homelessly and yet filled with undying love for the old home of their fathers and with a resolve to regain at the first opportunity their ancestral territory.

With the help of as many princes and generals as they could win to their side they marched towards the land which they had lost, taking back by force what had been wrested from them by force. The two armies met face to face on the field of Kurukshetra (land of the Kurus), and the battle, which lasted eighteen days, was about to begin. The father and king of the Kauravas, called Dhritarashtra, aged and blind, felt that he could not stand to witness the b.l.o.o.d.y affray. He accordingly accepted the offer of Vyasa (Krishna), a relative of both the contending parties, to have the entire course of events described to him when all was over, one Sangara, being deputed to perform the task. The battle began and proceeded for ten long days when Bhrisma, the chief general of the Kauravas, fell.

At this point Sangara advanced to the old King Dhritarashtra to acquaint him with the course things had taken, and among the rest to recite to him a conversation which had taken place between Krishna and Arguna, the Pandavan prince and general. It is this dialogue which const.i.tutes the Holy Song, known as the Bhagavad-Gita, or Krishna Song, the Krishna of this philosophic poem being, of course, the eighth avatara; or incarnation, of Vishnu.

The remaining books of the Mahabharata recount the subsequent incidents of the war, which, in all, lasted for eighteen days. The Kauravas were destroyed, the only survivors being the Pandavas and Krishna with his charioteer. The many dead that were left on the field were buried with the rites of religion, and amid many signs of touching affection and grief.

Bhrisma, leader of the Kauravas, instructs Yudhishthira on the duties of kings and other topics. The poem then ends.

THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, OR HOLY SONG OF BRAHMANISM

This poem forms one of the finest episodes in the great Iliad of India, and, in fact, is hardly surpa.s.sed for profound thought, deep feeling, and exquisite phrasing, in the whole literature of India. Telang holds that the song is at least as old as the 4th century, and is inclined to regard it as an original part of the epic. According to most scholars, however, the "Divine Song" was added at a later period, and, in fact, in its present form it is scarcely older than 500 A.D. It is so thoroughly Brahmanic in its teaching that there can be little doubt but that this song was introduced in order to convey the teaching of Brahmanism prevalent at the time. The German scholar, Dr. Lorinser, has tried to prove that the author of this song had a knowledge of the New Testament and used it. The following pa.s.sages are pointed out by him as dependent on New Testament pa.s.sages.

BHAGAVAD-GITA

I am exceedingly dear to the wise man; he also is dear to me.

I am the way, supporter, lord, witness, abode, refuge, friend.

I never depart from him (the true Yogis); he never departs from me.

They who wors.h.i.+p me with true devotion, are in me and I in them.

Be a.s.sured that he who wors.h.i.+ps me perishes not.

I am the beginning and the middle and the end of existent things.

I will deliver thee from all sin; do not grieve.

He who knows me as unborn and without beginning, the mighty Lord of the World, he among mortals is undeluded, he is delivered from all sins.

What sacrifice, almsgiving, or austerity is done without faith is evil.

That man obtains the perfect state who honours by his proper work him from whom all things have issued, and by whom this All was spread out.

NEW TESTAMENT

He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him (John xiv.

21).

I am the way, the truth, and the life (John xiv. 6) I am the first and the last (Rev.

i. 17).

He that dwelleth in Me and I in Him (John vi. 56).

I in them and thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one (John xvii. 23).

Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John iii.

16).

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending (Rev.

i. 8).

Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee (Matt.

ix. 2).

This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent (John xvii, 3).