Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-08-06


~ ENARES, t9l0-ln the holy city
- OF Bcnarcs. on the banks
Of old Mother Gungos.. where
can hear the splashlug
Of the pilgrims as they wash or
their sins. I write Of the Hindu religion.
Tho subject is too Big for absttusc dis
cusslon, too varied for detailed nara
ton and too complicated for the ordI-
nary Christian mind. without study. TO
grasp IL. ] shall attempt only To men
ton few OF It's principal features. and
especially some which are involved in
the great unrest which is spreading
over India today
20O.O00,OOO HINDUs
Tho Hindu religion is ono OF the old
est on earth. II sprang from our Ar
van forefathers and was practiscd
thousands Of years before Christ From
age to age and generation 70 generation
II has been the faith of hundreds OF
millions, and today one-eighth of an
mankind upon IL rest their hope Of sal
walton. There are twice as many be-
levers Of this religion In India as there
are mon. women and children In tho
United states. They form tWO-thirds
Of the whole population, and most of
them are 50 earnest that they viii SUI
fer pain and death rather than re-
nOunce their belief Tho Hindus are
naturally religious In one form or an
other they worship almost everything
under the sun They long for saliva
ton and they live I'm daily fear Of hell
and damnation. This is especially so
Of the common people and to a large
extent OF tho Brahmln
4 THE GODS OF THE HGNDUs.
\ | despair OF giving you am adequate
n az # ha
Taking into account their idols tenn
piles. shrincs and other objects Of wor-
Fhip. II is estimated that they number.
all told. something Ike 300. 600. 600 And
Notwithstanding this, the lIindus base
their belief upon one god alone, NJ
They say that God mt he the heavens
and the earth and that he permcates
all creation. lie is In every man. and
In everything Hc Ia part Of you and
me. and therefore your acts and my
acts are his acts. We cannot sin II God
is doing the acting. and at the best our
future Is fated When we were babies
the life we would lead was written
upon our foreheads, and our joys and
lnlsfortunes were settled before We saw
light.
, The Hindus believe that God mani
tests himself in many incarnations.
Any great philosopher priest or king
may represent him. and they have
taken Buddha as one of his manifesto
tons. They say that God as a whole Is
so great that he II beyond human con
ception, and therefore they worship
him In his various incarnations. In
This sense everything may be worshipcd
as a part Of God. and II should be So
according as II Is pure or good or as It
is terrible and To h. feared. The lower
glasses Of the Hindus pray to animals
and to the dead They pray 10 tho
spirits Of those who have done we'll In
life, and also TO the supreme gods OF
Hinduism or the incarnations Of the
lefty as represented in their sacred
books.
THE TRIAD OF THE H1NDUS
In the latter sense the Hindus have
three great manifestations OF the Deity.
These are Brahma, Nishuu and SILVA.
find representations Of them scat
tered throughout the temples, and have
seen tens OF thousands worshiping
them In one form or another. The god,
Brahma. is represented as an idol with
four heads and four arms. He was the
great creator who made mankind and
all living. His wife Is often represent