Great Indian Religion

Author(s): G T Bettany
Publisher: Ward Lock Bowden and Co

Page 46

34 THE BRAHMANISM OF THE CODES.
The Yoga philosophy is the foundation of much of the asceticism of the Hindu. It directly acknowledges the supreme Being, and aims at teaching the human soul to
The Yoga attain perfect union with the supreme Soul. philosophy. In it we have the fuller development of the benefits of contemplating the syllable Om, the symbol of the deity. Mental concentration is facilitated by bodily restraint and postures, religious observances, suppression of the breath, restraint of the senses, etc., and by these in their varied forms, the devotee is supposed to attain union with the supreme Being, even in the present
life.
The remaining chief systems of philosophy, the Jaimini and the Vedanta, are mainly concerned with ritual. The former may be said to have made a god of ritual, and appealed to the Veda as infallible. The Vedanta professes to be based upon the Upanishads and their pantheism.
Much of the ceremonial of the Hindus was also very early condensed in Sutra form, and every school had its own form. Several of these, preceding the celebrated content laws of Manu, have come down to us. They Early ri
holds are a kind of manual composed by the Vedic teachers for use in their respective schools, and only later put forward as binding on Aryans generally. The “InGautama's stitutes of the Sacred Law," ascribed to Institutes. Gautama, begins by acknowledging the Veda as the source of the sacred law, and proceeds to fix the period and mode of initiation of a Brahman, and the rites of purification after touching impure things. Here is a specimen of these rites.
"Turning his face to the east or to the north, he shall purify himself from personal defilement. Seated in a
Rites of pure place, placing his right arm between his purification. knees, arranging his dress (or his sacrificial cord) in the manner required for a sacrifice to the gods, he shall, after washing his hands up to the wrist three or four times, silently, sip water that reaches his heart, twice wipe his lips, sprinkle his feet and his head, touch the cavity in the head with his right hand, and place it on the crown of his head and on his navel."