Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 238

DEFILEMENT AND PURIFICATION
198
lie must also think of expiating those committed in
a former state. To become a Brahmin by reincarnation is
the happiest destiny possible for a human being.
It is
a reward which is only granted for the accumulated merits
of many successive generations.
Yet the fact of the re-
incarnation is in itself a proof that there still remains in
that person some fault to be expiated
otherwise the soul
would have been transported to the Sattyaloka, or paradise
of Brahma, and thereby would have been spared the trouble
of animating another mortal body here below. Actual good
deeds, such as giving alms to Brahmins, constructing wells
.self,
:
or tanks, building temples, or contributing to
and various other works of
held to add considerably to the efficacy of
methods of purification which we have just
religious services,
the cost of
charity, are
the various
spoken of,
with them.
I will say nothing here of the many hindrances to the
perfect purification of the soul caused by a man's wife or
children, by his worldly possessions, by his caste, and by
his passions.
They will be referred to elsewhere.
Defilements and purifications form together one of the
most important articles in Brahmin doctrine and the Hindu
creed.
The practices and opinions with regard to these
subjects are so extraordinary and so unique that it would
be most interesting to thoroughly investigate the motives
which originally gave rise to them but, either from
prudence or from ignorance on their part, I have never
been able to gather from Hindus any authentic information
about them. Everything that I have been able to ascertain
has been founded more or less on conjecture. But I have
often had occasion to remark, that, after allowing for
exaggeration, many Hindu rites bear a strong resemblance
when performed
in conjunction
;
bygone ages. Thus
up a sacrifice,
commanded his household to purify themselves, and to
change their garments \ When the Israelites were warned
that God would appear to them in the desert of Sinai,
God commanded them by Moses to wash their clothes,
and not to touch their wives for three days beforehand '\
to those practised
Jacob at Bethel,
Many
1
by other nations
when preparing
passa