" The philosophical creed of this period adds little to the fundamental notions contained in the Upanishads, but it frees itself from the legendary dross ivhich still imparts to those works a deep tinge of mysticism. On the other hand, it conceives and develops the notion that the union of the individual soul with the supreme spirit may be aided by penances, such as peculiar modes of breathing, particular postures, protracted fasting, and the like ; in short, by those practices which are system- atized by the Yoga doctrine. The most remarkable Epic work which inculcates this doctrine is the cele- brated poem Bhcifjavadgitd, which has been wrongly considered by Eiu-opean writers as a pure Sankhya work, whereas Sankara, the great Hindu theologian, who commented on it, and other native commentators after him, have proved that it is founded on the Yoga belief. The doctrine of the reunion of the individual soul with the supreme soul was necessarily founded on the as- sumption that the former must have become free from all guilt affecting its purity before it can be remerged into the source whence it proceeded ; and since one hu- man life is apparentl}"- too short for enabling the soul to attain its accomplishment, the Hindu mind concluded that the soid, after the death of its temporary owner, had to be born again, in order to complete tlie work it had left inidone in its previous existence, and that it must submit to the same fate until its tai^k is fulfilled. This is the doctrine oi metempsychosis, which, in the ab- sence of a belief in grace, is a logical consequence of a system that holds the human soul to be of the same na- ture as that of an absolute God." This doctrine, as we have already stated, is foreign to the Vedic jieriod. It is found in some of the Upanishads, but its fantastical development belongs decidedly to the Eiiic time, where it pervades the legends, and affects the social life of the nation. See Metempsychosis ; Cabala, 111,3.
3. "The Puranic period of Hinduism is the period of its decline, so far as the popular creed is concerned. Its pantheon is nominally the same as that of the Epic pe- riod. The triads of principal Hindu gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, remain still at the head of its imag- inarj' gods; but whereas the Epic time is generally characterized by a friendly harmony between the high- ei occupants of the divine spheres, the Puranic period shows discord and destruction. The popular adoration has turned away from Brahma to Vishnu and Siva, who
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alone remain to contend with each other for tlie highest rank in the minds of their worshippers. Tlie elementary principle which originally inhered in these deities is thns comi)letely lost sight of by the followers of the Puranas. The legends of the Epic poems relating to these gods become amplified and distorted, according to the secta- II rian tendencies of the masses; and the divine element
I which still distinguishes these gods in the Ramuyana
f and Mahabharata is now more and more mixed up with
I worldly concerns and intersected by historical events,
disfigured in their turn to suit individual interests. Of the ideas implied by the Vedic rites, scarcely a trace is visible in the Puranas and Tantras, which are the text- books of this creed. In short, the unbridled imagina- tion which pervades these works is neither pleasing from a poetical, nor elevating from a philosophical point of view. Some Puranas, it is true — for instance, the Bharjarata — form in some sense an exception to this
I aberration of original Hinduism; but they are a com- promise between the popular and the Vediinta creed, which is henceforward chiefiy the creed of the educated and intelligent. They do not affect the worship of the masses as practised by the various sects; and this wor- ship itself, whether harmless, as Avith the worshippers lof Vishnu, or offensive, as Avith the adorers of Siva and ihis wife Durga, is but an empty ceremonial, which, here and there, may remind one of the symbolical wor- ship of the Vedic Hindu, but, as a Avhole, has no con- nection whatever with the Vedic scriptures, on which it affects to rest. It is this creed which, with further deteriorations, caused by the lapse of centuries, is stUl the main religion of the masses in India. The opinion
§ these eiitertain, that it is countenanced by the ritual, as well as by the theological portion of the Veda, is the redeeming feature of their belief; for, as nothing is ea- sier than to disabuse their mind on this score by reviv- ing the study of their ancient and sacred language, and by enabling them to read again their oldest and most sacred books, it may be hoped that a proper education of the people in this respect, by learned and enlightened natives, will remove many of the existing errors, which, if they continued, must inevitably lead to a further, and, ultimately, total degeneration of the Hindu race.
"The philosophical creed of this period, and the creed w^hich is still preserved by the educated classes, is that derived from the tenets of the Vediinta philosoph}'. It is based on the belief of one supreme being, which im- agination and speculation endeavor to invest with all the perfections conceivable by the human mind, but the true nature of which is nevertheless declared to be be- yond the reach of thought, and which, on this ground, is defined as not possessing any of the (qualities by which the human mind is able to comprehend intellectual or material entity" (Chambers). See Vedanta.