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aid a priest; or told from religious motives of any sort without self-interest. This is almost the only example of looseness in morals as taught in the law. But the following case shows most plainly the importance of morality as opposed to formal righteousness. After all the forty sacraments (to which allusion was made above), have been recounted, there are given 'eight good qualities of the soul,' viz., mercy, forbearance, freedom from envy, purity, calmness, correct behavior, freedom from greed and from covetousness. Then follows: "He that has (performed) the forty sacraments but has not the eight good qualities enters not into union with Brahm[=a), nor into the heaven of Brahm[=a). [20] But he that has (performed) only a part of the forty sacraments and has the eight good qualities enters into union with Brahm[=a], and into the heaven of Brahm[=a]." This is as near to heresy as pre-buddhistic Brahmanism permitted itself to come.
In the later legal S[=ustra of the northern Vasistha[21] occurs a rule which, while it distinctly explains what is meant by liberality, viz., gifts to a priest, also recognizes the "heavenly reward': "If gifts are given to a man that does not know the Veda the divinities are not satisfied" (3. 8). In the same work (6. 1) 'destruction' is the fate of the sinner that lives without observance of good custom; yet is it said in the same chapter (27): "If a twice-born man dies with the food of a Ç[=u]dra (lowest caste) in his belly, he would become a village pig, or he is born again in that (Ç[=u]dra's) family"; and, in respect to sons begotten when he has in him such food: "Of whom the food, of him are these sons; and he himself would not mount to heaven ... he does not find the upward path" (29, 28). In ib. 8. 17 the Brahman that observes all the rules 'does not fall from brahmaloka,' i.e., the locality of Brahm[=a]. Further, in 10.4: "Let (an ascetic) do away with all (sacrificial) works; but let him not do away with one thing, the Veda; for from doing away with the Veda (one becomes) a Ç[ru]dra." But, in the same chapter: "Let (the ascetic) live at the end of a village, in a temple ('god's house'), in a deserted house, or at the root of a tree; there in his mind studying the knowledge of the [=a]tm[=a) ... so they cite (verses): 'Sure is the freedom from re-birth in the case of one that lives in the wood with passions subdued... and meditates on the supreme spirit' ... Let him not be confined to any custom ... and in regard to this (freedom from worldly pursuits) they cite these verses: 'There is no salvation (literally 'release') for a philologist (na
| SR No. | 007634 |
| Book Title | Handbook of History of Religions |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Edward Washburn |
| Publisher | Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune |
| Publication Year | |
| Total Pages | 678 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 2 MB |