Volume 1

Rambles and recollections of an Indian official / [Sir William Henry Sleeman].

  • William Henry Sleeman
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rambles and recollections of an Indian official / [Sir William Henry Sleeman]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Hindoo System of Religion. The Hindoo system is this. A great divine spirit or essence, “ Brahma,” pervades the whole universe ; and the soul of every human being is a drop from this great ocean, to which, when it becomes perfectly purified, it is reunited. The reunion is the eternal beatitude to which all look foiward with hope; and the soul of the Brahman is nearest to it. If he has been a good man, his soul becomes absorbed in the “ Brahma” ; and, if a bad man, it goes to “ Narak,” hell; and after the expiration of its period there of limited imprisonment, it returns to earth, and occupies the body of some other animal. It again advances by degrees to the body of the Brahman ; and thence, when fitted for it, into the great “ Brahma.”^ From this great eternal essence emanate Brahma, the Creator, whose consort is Sarasvati Vishnu, the Preserver, whose consort is Lakshmi; and Siva, alias Mahadeo, the ' Men are occasionally exempted from the necessity of becoming a Lrahman first. Men of low caste, if they die at particular places, where it is the interest of the Brahmans to invite rich men to die, are promised absorption into the great “ Brahma ” at once. Immense numbers of wealthy men go every year from the most distant parts of India to die at Benares, where they spend large sums of money among the Brahmans. It is by their means that this, the second city in India, is supported. [W. H. S.] ^ Brahma, with the short vowel, is the eternal Essence or Spirit; Brahma, with the long vowel, is “ the primaeval male god, the first personal product of the purely spiritual Brahma, when overspread by Maya, or illusory creative force,” according to the Vedanta system. (Monier Williams, Religiotis Thought and Life in India, p. 44.)
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