Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 578

ST.
538
JOHN BAPTIST CITED
and object is to attract public attention to themselves '.
The actuating motive of John the Baptist was the deepest
humility.
He hid himself from the world. He shunned,
despised, and rejected its honours, and wished to be con-
sidered the least and humblest among men.
Nevertheless,
in his solitude he did not forget the duties laid upon
him of instructing and preparing the world for the great
event which was about to be accomplished. Attracted by
the fame of his virtues, men of all ages and all classes
flocked to hear the pure and holy doctrine which he taught.
Labourers, soldiers, publicans, masters, servants all de-
sired to hear his preaching, and all received wise advice
and counsel for the regulation of their conduct according
to their various conditions.
If he left his desert home for
a moment, it was only, like his predecessor Elijah, to
extend yet further the word of God and to reprove with
dauntless courage the criminal conduct of an incestuous
king.
It was not by such unmeaning and ridiculous practices
as the moksha-sadhaka, the pranava, the santi-yoga, the
homam, the pancha-gavia, or the disgusting sacrifices to the
lingam, that these saintly hermits and their disciples sought
They never aimed at gaining
to arrive at perfection.
popular applause by excessive and unnatural penances.
Their actions, on the contrar}^ were based on profound
humility and on a sincere desire to live unhonoured by the
world, with only their God as a witness to the purity of
their lives and motives.
—
CHAPTER XXXVI
The Funeral Ceremonies
of
Brahmin Sannyasis.
The
ceremonies which accompany the funerals of sann-
yasis differ in many respects from those of ordinary Brah-
mins.
Vanaprasthas, like ordinary Brahmins, are burned
after death
but sannyasis are invariably buried, no matter
what their rank or sect may be.
The son of a sannyasi (should the deceased have had one
;
1
This can hardly be called an impartial and correct picture of the
sannyasi.
— Ed.