Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 581

DEATH-BED REPENTANCES
places, the passers-by being in the habit of breaking
541
on the
top of these lingams the cocoanuts which they are about to
offer as sacrifices.
All the prayers, oblations, and ceremonies which are
offered up for the sannyasis after their death would seem
to indicate an opinion that these hermits still have some
sins to expiate, and that their perfect happiness remains
doubtful l
This is not the only point on which Hindu
beliefs contradict each other.
I have already said that it is a mistake to confuse Brah-
min sannyasis with those Sudra penitents belonging to the
sects of Siva and Vishnu, who live apart in solitary hermit-
ages.
These latter are not obliged to fulfil the condition
They are
of having previously been fathers of families.
supposed to have always been absolutely continent, but
I should be very sorry to be compelled to guarantee the
.
fact.
A Brahmin
are to be
sciences,
can become a sannyasi at any age. Many
met with who, tormented by remorseful con-
devote the last days of their lives to this profes-
and even embrace it on their death-beds, convinced
as they are that to have merely become a penitent is a sure
safe-conduct to the other world. The same formalities as
those which I have already described are used for the
sion,
admission of these hoary old sinners to a tardy penitence
and be their repentance sincere or not, they can safely
count on receiving after death all the advantages and all
the happiness that the most persevering sannyasis have
a right to expect who have grown old in the exercise of the
;
most rigorous
1
austerities.
These ceremonies would appear to be observed more as a matter of
than of expiation. Ed.
ritual