Relation of Pantheism to Polytheism. 8. The vast polytheistic system of the Hindus is founded on Pantheism and is its logical consequence. In the first place, as just remarked, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, commonly called the Hindu Trinity, are not persons, but personifications, or different aspects under which Infinite Being is to be regarded. In the second place, as the Infinite Being manifests itself in different de- grees in different persons and things, anything exti'aordinary in nature, any remarkable man, is regarded as a special manifestation or embodiment of God. Hence the frequent avatars or incarna- tions of the Hindu mythology. In this way the gods may be, and have been indefinitely multiplied. Any person or thing, or quality, may be deified as a manifestation of infinite Being. In the third place, this accounts for the facts that the Hindu gods are regarded as destitute of moral excellence, and that even evil, as under the name of Kali^ the goddess of cruelty and patroness of murderers, may be the special object of reverence. In the fourth place, no god, not even Brahma or Vishnu, is, according to the Hindu system, immortal. All gods and goddesses are at length to be merged in the abyss of infinite, unconscious Being.
Effect of Pantheism on Religion. 4. Pantheism, as it makes being, God, as it recognizes no attri- bute but power in the objects of worship, divorces morality from religion. It is not in the power of any system, however sincerely embraced, to reverse the laws of our nature. And, therefore, in despite of the prevalence of a doctrine which denies the possibility of either sin or virtue, and makes everything dependent on fate, or the power of arbitrary being, the people in various ways recognize the obligation of the moral law and the excellence of virtue. But this has nothing to do with their religion. The great object of all religious observances was final absorption in God ; their proximate object was to propitiate some power by which the worshipper would be raised one or nioi'e steps toward the state in which that absorp- tion is possible. On this point Professor Wilson says : ^ " Entire dependence upon Krishna, or any other favorite deity, not only obviates the necessity of virtue, but it sanctifies vice. Conduct is wholly immaterial. It matters not how atrocious a sinner a man may be, if he paints his face, his breast, his arms with certain sec-
1 Essays urtd Lectures chiefly on the Religion of the Hindus, vol ii. p. 75; edit. London,
814 PART L — THEOLOGY. [Ch. III. -^ Anti-Theism.
tarial marks ; or, which is better, if he brands his skin permanently with them with a hot iron stamp ; if he is constantly chanting hymns in honor of Vishnu, or, what is equally efficacious, if he spends hours in the simple reiteration of his name or names ; if he die with the woi'd Hari, or Rama, or Krishna on his lips, and the thought of him in his mind, he may have lived a monster of in- iquity, — he is certain of heaven." " Certain of heaven," is a Christian form of expression, and conveys an idea foreign to the Hindu mind. What such a worshipper hopes and expects is that when next born into this the world it may be in a higher state and so much the nearer his final absorption. As Professor Wilson is not only moderate, but almost apologetic in the account which he gives of the religion of the Hindus, the above quoted statement
Character of the Hindu The two leading characteristics of the Hindu worship are cruelty and indecency. And these are sufficiently accounted for by the Pantheism which underlies the whole system. Pantheism denies the distinction between virtue and vice ; it recognizes no attribute but power ; it deifies evil ; it " sanctifies vice ; " passion, sensual or malignant, is as much a mode of divine manifestation as the most heroic virtue. Indeed, there is no room for the idea of moral excellence. Hence the prescriptions of religion have reference al- most exclusively to I'ites and ceremonies. The Brahmin when he rises must bathe in a certain way, stand in a certain posture, ex- tend his fingers in a prescribed manner; he must salute the rising sun, resting on one foot ; he must repeat certain words. When he eats, the dish must be placed according to rule ; he must make prescribed motions with his hands, and so on through the whole day. Every act is prescribed, everything is religious ; everything either defiles or purifies, ceremonially, but of moral defilement oi purity there seems to be in their I'eligion no recognition.
The Anthropology of the Hindus. 5. The anthropology of the Hindus proves the pantheistic char- acter of their whole system. Man is only a part of God, a mode of his existence. He is compared to a portion of sea-water in- closed in a bottle and thrown into the ocean. The water in the bottle is the same in nature as that without. As soon as the bottle is broken the water within it is lost in the surrounding ocean. Another illustration of the destiny of the soul is that of a lump of