The Religions of India eBook

Edward Washburn Hopkins
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 825 pages of information about The Religions of India.

The Religions of India eBook

Edward Washburn Hopkins
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 825 pages of information about The Religions of India.

  From Trumpp

  True is the Lord, of a true name,
  But the import of (this) language is Infinite. 
  They say and beg, give, give! 
  The Liberal gives presents. 
  What may again be put before (him)
  By which his court may be seen? 
  What word may be spoken by the mouth,
  Which having heard he may bestow love? 
  Early reflect on the greatness of the True Name.[100]
  From his beneficence comes clothing,
  From his look the gate of salvation. 
  N[=a]nak (says):  Thus it is known,
  That he himself is altogether truthful.

  From Prinsep

  Thou art the Lord, to thee be praise;
  All life is with thee. 
  Thou art my parents; I, thy child. 
  All happiness is from thy mercy. 
  No one knows God.

  Highest Lord among the highest,
  Of all that is thou art the regulator,
  And all that is from thee obeys thy will,
  Thy movements, thy pleasure; thou alone knowest. 
  N[=a]nak, thy slave is a free-will offering unto thee.[101]

The religious side of this organization remained under the name of Ud[=a]sis,[102] or Nirmalas (’spotless ones’).  The [=A]digranth was extended by other additions, such as that of Govind (above), and now constitutes a large heterogeneous collection of hymns and moral rules.  Seven sub-sects of the religious body were developed in course of time.  The military body has a well-known history.  They were complete masters of the Punj[=a]b in 1764, and remained there as an independent race till that province was occupied by the British in 1848.  Both Kab[=i]r and his follower N[=a]nak were essentially reformers.  They sought for a religion which should rest on the common truths of Hinduism and Mohammedanism.[103] As a matter of form the political party of Govind, the Govind Singhs, or Simhis, worshipped the Hindu gods, and they showed respect for the Brahman priests for a long while; but they rejected the Vedas and caste—­the two most essential features of orthodoxy.[104]

D[=a]d[=u], the second great reformer, who shows Mohammedan influence quite as plainly as does Kab[=i]r, also claimed R[=a]m[=a]nand as his teacher.  The sects that revert to D[=a]d[=u], D[=a]d[=u] Panth[=i]s, now number more than half an hundred.  Some of the votaries are soldiers; some are mendicants.  The founder lived about the end of the sixteenth century.  The outward practices of the sects differ somewhat from those of other sects.  Like Persians, they expose their dead.  They are found about [=A]jm[=i]r and other districts of the North, in the seats of the Jains.  Their faith and reformatory tendency may be illustrated by the following extract, as translated by Wilson:[105]

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Project Gutenberg
The Religions of India from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.