A large portion of the Laws of JIanu are taken up by regulations to be observed by those who wish to attain to the ultimate good by the practice of monastic ob-
MONASTICISM
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MONASTICISM
servances. The rule of St. Benedict itself does not af- ford a more decided proof of the existence of the ascetic life. The work is divided into twelve books. The sixth book is entitled " Duties of the Anchorite and of the As- cetic Devotee." The subject of the eleventh book is " Penitences and Expiations." The Dwijas, for whom these rules are principally laid down, are described as a sort of monks, who practiced tonsure, wore girdle, car- ried staff, asked alms, fasted, lacerated the body, and dwelt for the most part in tlie deserts and forests. We have space but for a few illustrations, which will suffice, however, to show the character of this work. From the sixth book, " Duties of the Anchorite and of the Ascetic Devotee," we quote as follows :
" IT '24. The Dwija, who dwells alone, should deliver himself to austerities, increasing constantly in their se- verity, that be may wither up his mortal substance.
" IT 27. Let him receive fi'om the Brahminical anchorites, who live in houses, such alms as maybe necessary to sup- port his existence." (The case was similar in early Chris- tian times: Simon the Stylite, and a host of others, were thus provided for.)
"H 49. Meditating with delight on the supreme soul, seated, wanting nothing, inaccessible to all sensual de- sire, without other society than his own soul, let him live here below in the constant expectancy of the eternal be- atitude.
"IT 75. In subduing his organs, in accomplishing the pious duties prescribed by the Vedas, and in submitting one's self to the most austere i)ractices, one is able to at- tain here below to the supreme end, which is U> become identified with Brahma." ("Their whole doctrine of spirit, of the supreme Being, and the relation of man to God, must have made the^Brahmins ascetics from the very first. So that, when the origin of this religion can he ascertained, we may say, without further examination, monasticism was there, and gave birth to it" [Johusou, Monha before Christ, p. 70].)
"IT 87.' The novice, the married man, the anchorite, and the ascetic devotee form four distinct orders, which derive their origin from the superior of the house.
"IT 91. The Dwijas, who belong to these four orders, ought always to practice with the greatest care the ten virtues which compose their duty.
" IT 92. Resignation, the act of rendering good for evil, temjierance, probity, purity, the subjugation of the senses, the knowledge of the Shastras, that of the supreme soul, veracity, and abstinence from choler— such are the ten virtues in which their duty consists."
From the eleventh book, "Penitences and Expia- tions," we make the following extracts :
"IT 211. The Dwija, who undergoes the ordinary peni- tence called Prajapatya, ought to eat during three days only in the morning;" during the next three days, only at night; during the following three days, he t-liouUl partake only of such'food as persons may give him voluntarily, without his begging fur it ; and, finally, let him fust three days entirely.
'"' t 214. A Brahmin, accomplishing the severe penitence (Taptakrichra), ought to swallow nothing but warm wa- ter, warm milk, cold clarified butter, and warm vapor, employing each of them three days in succession.
" H 215. He who, master of his senses and perfectly at- tentive, supports a fast of twelve d.iys, makes the peni- tence called Paroka, which expiates aH of his faults.
" TI 216. Let the penitent who desires to make the Chan- drayana, having eaten fifteen mouthfuls on the day of the full moon, diminish his nourishment by one mouthful each day during the fifteen days of obscuration which fol- low, in such a manner that on the fourteenth day he shall eat but one mouthful, and then let him fast on the fif- teenth, which is the day of the new moon ; let him aug- ment, on the contrary, his nourishment by one mouthful each day during the'next fifteen days, commencing the first day with one mouthful.
"H 289. Great criminals, and all other men gnilty of di- vers faults, arc released from the consequences of their sins by austei ities i)racticed with exactitude.
"If 251. By reciting the Hovichyantiya or the Nata- manha sixteen times a day for a month, or by repeating inaudibly the hymn Porucha, he who has defiled the bed of his spiritual master is absolved from all fault."
" The ascetic system," says Schaft', " is essential alike to Brahminism [see Hinduism] and Buddhism (q.v.), the two opposite and yet cognate branches of tlie Indian religion, which in many respects are similarly related to each other as Judaism is to Christianity, or as Ro- manism to Protestantism. Buddhism is a later refor- mation of Brahminism. . . . But the two religions start from opposite principles. Brahminic asceticism pro- ceeds from a pantheistic view of the world — the Buddh-
istic from an atheistic and nihilistic, yet very earnest view ; the one is controlled by the idea of the absolute but abstract unity, and a feeling of contempt of the world— the other by the idea of the absolute but unreal variety, and a feeling of deep grief over the emptiness and nothingness of all existence ; the one is predominantly objective, positive, and idealistic — the other more sub- jective, negative, and realistic; the one aims at absorp- tion into the universal spirit of Brahma — the other con- stantly at an absorption into nonentity." " Brahminism," says Wuttke, " looks back to the beginning. Buddhism to the end ; the former loves cosmogony, the latter escha- tology. Both reject the existing world ; the Brahmin despises it because he contrasts it with the higher being of Brahma; the Buddhist bewails it because of its un- realness; the former sees God in all, the other empti- ness in all" {Das Geistesleben der Chinesen, Japcmer, und Indier, 1853, p. 593, constituting pt. ii of his History of Heathenism). "Yet," adds Schaff, "as all extremes meet, the abstract all-entity of Brahminism and the equally abstract non-entity or vacuity of Buddhism come to the same thing in the end, and may lead to the same ascetic practices. The asceticism of Brahminism takes more the direction of anchoretism, while that of Buddhism exists generally in the social form of regular convent life." The Hindii monks, the Vanaprastha, or Gymnosophists (q. v.), as the Greeks called them, are Brahminical anchorites (q. v.), who live in woods or caves, on mountains or rocks, in poverty, celibacy, abstinence, contemplation : sleeping on straw or the bare ground, crawling on the belly, macerating the body, standing all day on tiptoe, exposed to the pouring rain or scorch- ing sun with four tires kindled around them, presenting a savage and frightful appearance, yet greatly revered by the multitude, especially the women. As procrea- tion of at least one child is strictly enjoined by Brah- minism, some take their wives along, but never have intercourse with them except at such times as they are most likely to conceive. They are reputed to perform miracles, and not unfrequently complete their austeri- ties by suicide on the stake or in the waves of the Ganges. Thus they are described bj"- the ancients and by modern travellers (see Dubois, Description of the Character, Manners, and Customs of the People of India [Philadelphia, 1818]).