Part 4 (1/2)
[Sidenote: Salvation.
Sanctification.]
Salvation, in the Christian system, denotes deliverance, not only from the punishment of sin, but from its power, implying a renovation of the moral nature. The entire man is to be rectified in heart, speech, and behavior. The perfection of the individual, and, through that, the perfection of society, are the objects aimed at; and the consummation desired is the doing of the will of G.o.d on earth as it is done in heaven. Now, of all this, surely a magnificent ideal, we find in Hinduism no trace whatever.
[Sidenote: Views of life.
The great tenet of Hinduism.]
Christianity is emphatically a religion of hope; Hinduism may be designated a religion of despair. The trials of life are many and great.
Christianity bids us regard them as discipline from a Father's hand, and tells us that affliction rightly borne yields ”the peaceable fruits of righteousness.” To death the Christian looks forward without fear; to him it is a quiet sleep, and the resurrection draws nigh. Then comes the beatific vision of G.o.d. Glorified in soul and body, the companion of angels and saints, strong in immortal youth, he will serve without let or hinderance the G.o.d and Saviour whom he loves. To the Hindu the trials of life are penal, not remedial. At death his soul pa.s.ses into another body. Rightly, every human soul animates in succession eighty-four lacs (8,400,000) of bodies--the body of a human being, or a beast, or a bird, or a fish, or a plant, or a stone, according to desert. This weary, all but endless, round of births fills the mind of a Hindu with the greatest horror. At last the soul is lost in G.o.d as a drop mingles with the ocean. Individual existence and consciousness then cease. The thought is profoundly sorrowful that this is the cheerless faith of countless mult.i.tudes. No wonder, though, the great tenet of Hinduism is this--_Existence is misery._
[Sidenote: The future of the race.
The struggle between good and evil.]
So much for the future of the individual. Regarding the future of the race Hinduism speaks in equally cheerless terms. Its golden age lies in the immeasurably distant past; and the further we recede from it the deeper must we plunge into sin and wretchedness. True, ages and ages hence the ”age of truth” returns, but it returns only to pa.s.s away again and torment us with the memory of lost purity and joy. The experience of the universe is thus an eternal renovation of hope and disappointment.
In the struggle between good and evil there is no final triumph for the good. We tread a fated, eternal round from which there is no escape; and alike the hero fights and the martyr dies in vain.
It is remarkable that acute intellectual men, as many of the Hindu poets were, should never have grappled with the problem of the divine government of the world.
[Sidenote: The future of the Aryan race.]
Equally notable is the unconcern of the Veda as to the welfare and the future of even the Aryan race. But how sublime is the promise given to Abraham that in him and his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed! Renan has pointed with admiration to the confidence entertained at all times by the Jew in a brilliant and happy future for mankind. The ancient Hindu cared not about the future of his neighbors, and doubtless even the expression ”human race” would have been unintelligible to him.
Nor is there any pathos in the Veda. There is no deep sense of the sorrows of life. Max Muller has affixed the epithet ”transcendent” to the Hindu mind. Its bent was much more toward the metaphysical, the mystical, the incomprehensible than toward the moral and the practical.
Hence endless subtleties, more meaningless and unprofitable than ever occupied the mind of Talmudist or schoolman of the Middle Ages.
[Sidenote: The words of St. Paul ill.u.s.trated by Hinduism.]
But finally, on this part of the subject, the development of Indian religion supplies a striking comment on the words of St. Paul:
”The invisible things of G.o.d are clearly seen, being understood from the things that are made. But when they knew G.o.d they glorified him not as G.o.d, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
[Sidenote: Moral power.]
Hinduism is deplorably deficient in power to raise and purify the human soul, from having no high example of moral excellence. Its renowned sages were noted for irritability and selfishness--great men at cursing; and the G.o.ds for the most part were worse. Need we say how gloriously rich the Gospel is in having in the character of Christ the realized ideal of every possible excellence?
[Sidenote: Ethical effect of Hinduism.
The people better than their religion.]
_Summa religionis est imitari quem colis_: ”It is the sum of religion to imitate the being wors.h.i.+ped;”[33] or, as the Hindus express it: ”As is the deity such is the devotee.” Wors.h.i.+p the G.o.d revealed in the Bible, and you become G.o.d-like. The soul strives, with divine aid, to ”purify itself even as G.o.d is pure.” But apply the principle to Hinduism. Alas!
the Pantheon is almost a pandemonium. Krishna, who in these days is the chief deity to at least a hundred millions of people, does not possess one elevated attribute. If, in the circ.u.mstances, society does not become a moral pesthouse it is only because the people continue better than their religion. The human heart, though fallen, is not fiendish. It has still its purer instincts; and, when the legends about abominable G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses are falling like mildew, these are still to some extent kept alive by the sweet influences of earth and sky and by the charities of family life. When the heart of woman is about to be swept into the abyss her infant's smile restores her to her better self. Thus family life does not go to ruin; and so long as that anchor holds society will not drift on the rocks that stand so perilously near.
Still, the state of things is deplorably distressing.
[Sidenote: The doctrine of incarnation.]
The doctrine of the incarnation is of fundamental importance in Christianity. It seems almost profanation to compare it with the Hindu teaching regarding the Avataras, or descents of Vishnu. It is difficult to extract any meaning out of the three first manifestations, when the G.o.d became in succession a fish, a boar, and a tortoise. Of the great ”descents” in Rama and Krishna we have already spoken. The ninth Avatara was that of Buddha, in which the deity descended for the purpose of deceiving men, making them deny the G.o.ds, and leading them to destruction. So blasphemous an idea may seem hardly possible, even for the bewildered mind of India; but this is doubtless the Brahmanical explanation of the rise and progress of Buddhism. It was fatal error, but inculcated by a divine being. Even the sickening tales of Krishna and his amours are less shocking than this. When we turn from such representations of divinity to ”the Word made flesh” we seem to have escaped from the pestilential air of a charnel-house to the sweet, pure breath of heaven.
V.
HINDUISM IN CONTACT WITH CHRISTIANITY.
[Sidenote: Attempted reforms.]
We have used the word _reformer_ in this Tract. We formerly noted that, in India, there have arisen from time to time men who saw and sorrowed over the erroneous doctrines and degrading rites of the popular system.
In quite recent times they have had successors. Some account of their work may form a fitting conclusion to our discussion.
[Sidenote: Advance of Christianity in India.]
With the large influx into India of Christian ideas it was to be expected that some impression would be made on Hinduism. We do not refer to conversion--the full acceptance of the Christian faith. Christianity has advanced and is advancing in India more rapidly than is generally supposed; but far beyond the circle of those who ”come out and are separate” its mighty power is telling on Hinduism. The great fundamental truths of the Gospel, when once uttered and understood, can hardly be forgotten. Disliked and denied they may be; but forgotten? No. Thus they gradually win their way, and mult.i.tudes who have no thought of becoming Christians are ready to admit that they are beautiful and true; for belief and practice are often widely separated in Hindu minds.