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OF THE HINDUS.
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ginning, they will have an end; their duration ceases at the period of universal dissolution. The Puranas, however, as I have intimated, have it especially in view to elevate to exclusive adoration some individual of the greater mythological divinities; and they can claim this exaltation for their favourite only by identifying him with that Being of whose supremacy and eternity there is no dispute. Their God, their Vishnu or Siva, is then no longer a limited and finite Being; he is no longer a God—he is God. The incongruity of attributes and no attributes, of perfect happiness with feelings of affection or animosity, of perfect purity with the human frailties and vices that reduce the Pauranik deities to weak and profligate men, of almighty power and wisdom with the feebleness and fear and folly ascribed to them on various occasions, is too palpable to be denied. The objection is therefore evaded. It is asserted that the Supreme assumes these disguises for his sport or for the manifestation of his power, or that the whole is an illusion and mystery--which the grossness of human conception is imable to penetrate or comprehend. The philosophical writings are, however, free from these contradictions, and they clearly owe their origin to that spirit of sectarian rivalry of which the Puranas are the champions, and were, perhaps, the source. They are foreign also to the tenor of the doctrine of the Vedas; for although texts are frequent which affirm that Brahma is all that exists, and consequently is Brahmá, Vishóu and Siva, as well as all other per
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