Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 577

AN EXAGGERATED DEVELOPMENT
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selves from the rest of mankind, preserved their knowledge
of the true God, were fully impressed with the necessity of
frequent meditation on His greatness, fearing that other-
wise they might insensibly allow the recollection of the
Deity to fade from their minds but these just ideas were
soon warped by human passions and corrupted by the
spirit of idolatry, so that they quickly degenerated into
The pious men who
ridiculous and meaningless practices.
in early ages gave up a few moments in each day to serious
thought and meditation were succeeded by fanatics, who,
retaining only the mere outward forms of their predecessors'
inward piety, gave themselves up in their mad enthusiasm
to the wildest extravagance, and in fact to any folly that
they thought likely to attract the fancy of a people so
devoted to exaggerations of all kinds as the Hindus. Modern
authors, confusing religious practices which originate in
sincere love for and devotion to God with those emanating
from vainglory, hypocrisy, and superstition, have tried to
throw discredit on the life of asceticism and contemplation
which was advocated both by the old and the new dis-
pensation, and have presumed to trace a similarity between
it and the absurd yogams of the Hindu sannyasis.
But it
seems to me that a small amount of honest thought would
have shown them what an immense difference there was
both in the objects aimed at and in the means used to
attain those objects.
Let them compare the tenets and
practices of the two great founders of the ascetic and con-
templative life in Holy Writ with those of the so-called
sannyasi philosophers amongst the Hindus. Can Elijah
and John the Baptist be compared for one moment with
the sannyasis Vasishta and Narada ? Is there any sort of
resemblance between the teachings and maxims of the
former and of the latter ? The Padma-purana and the
Vishnu- pur ana, supposed to have been dictated by these
two sannyasis, are a mass of exaggerations and absurdities.
Could the same charge be brought against the doctrines of
the holy prophet of Israel and those of the forerunner of
the Messiah ?
The penances of John the Baptist, for example, have
certainly nothing in common with the exaggerations and
hypocritical follies of the Hindu sannyasis, whose sole aim
;