Evening star., 1927-10-09
BY WILL DURANT, PHI, D.,
u IN ~ NT
ne of

Of the sky-at first, it seems, the sky ITSELF
worshiped directly as the most divine OF all
things.
Slowly the priests reduced this maze to
order by naming Brahma as chief and source
Of all the gods. First Cause Soul of the World
ultimate and only reality. He Tor it, for
Brahma was impartially neuter) was a formless
deity, more closely resembling nothing than
anything else; recall the Brahman who, to ex
plain the essence of the soul, removed the
bark from tree, then peeled off layer after
layer of the trunk until nothing remained and
then said, THAT thou art" This vague
pantheism merged with the ancient animism in
the doctrine that soul was hidden in everything
and in every man part of the world soul;
the individual had SO to speak. borrowed
life. passing form of the infinite spirit;
his separate individuality was only delusion-
Maya. If he lived yirtuously his soul would,
at his death. pass through suture in his skull
and become part of the world-sou losing its
narrow personality but if he sinned his soul
would pass into another body, and suffer
through one transmigration after another till
the law Of justice U<arma) should be fulfilled
and every sin atoned for.
This simple theology did not content the
Hindu people, in whose warm imagination
myths multiplied with the fertility of Indas
jungle. Vshnu the Prcserver was finally
taken over by the Brahmans and made the
person the terrible silva, god of evil and
destruction. of birth and death. Superstition
and magic rites fOurished in the worship of
Siva ikons tthe lingam and the yonD were
made in great quantities. to represent the repro
ductve structures; to this day these amulets
are worm to secure fertility, and phallic wor
ship remains a part of one of the Oldest re-
ligons in the world
No other faith could equal popular Brahman.
ism in the abundance of its supersttions ard
the /complexty of it's ritual. To wash in the
Ganges is to cleanse the soul of all sin; to die
in the holy city of Benares is to pass directly
to union with Brahma; to wear the sacred thread
and repeat the name of a god many times a
day is to win protection against every evil.
Add to this. oblations charms, eXorcisms.
astroogy, incantations, oracles vows palrnis-
try dvination from signs in the sky, from
dreams, from holes eaten into cloth by mce)
2,72S,S12 priests million fortune-tellers yogis.
fakirs and holy thugs.
X * < X
The Thug, like a medieval Christian kills
unbelievers as act Of piety to lay up treas
ures for himself in Heaven. The yogi sits in
motlonless contemplation, seeking to find
Brahma in his navel The fakir may be only
nomad beggar, extortinS food and favors un-
der threat of blasting curse. or he may be a
sincere ascetic, torturing himself to mortify
the flesh and please the gods, clenchng the
hands till the nails pass through the palms,
Keeping arms or face raised till the muscles
atrophy. comforting himself incredibly, lying on
bed of nails. eating offal. letting himself be
roasted with fire starved or buried alive
consider what scorn of life must from
this feverish climate to stir in the soul such
hostility to the flesh.
If the Hindus had remained unanimously
slaves to this animistic creed this stupefying
ritual this insane asceticism and stagnant
superstition. they would deserve short shrift
Rift thnvx
sowing the seeds of a of supernatural
religions that were destined to sweep over
every continent they were also finding perilous
pathways in speculation and morals Strange.
ly enough it was in the sixth century. when
Confucius was inventng wisdom in China, and
Thales was fatherng philosophy in Greece.
that the Hindus experienced great awaken
ing of spiritual life, maturing out of their
intellectual infancy. The soul of India revoted
against 1nSre ceremony and mere belief; Maha-
vira founded the Jain sect to practice more
sincere asceticism. and skeptcal thinkers ap-
(COntinued on Eleventh PapeN