Hindu gods and heroes : $b studies in the history of the religion of IndiaBarnett, Lionel D. (Lionel David)
ReligionEastern
Hindu gods and heroes : $b studies in the history of the religion of India
Barnett, Lionel D. (Lionel David)
Hindu mythology; Hinduism
The other current among the Aupanishadas is flowing in a very
different direction. We have seen how the worship of Rudra-Śiva has
grown since the old Ṛigvēdic days, and how some souls have been able
to see amidst the terrors of the god a power of love and wisdom that
satisfies their deepest hopes and longings, as none of the orthodox
rituals can do. A new feeling, the spirit of religious devotion,
_bhakti_ as it is called, is arising among them. To them--and they
number many Brahmans as well as men of other orders--Śiva has thus
become the highest object of worship, Īśvara or "the Lord"; and having
thus enthroned him as supreme in their hearts, they are endeavouring
to find for him a corresponding place in their intellects. To this end
they claim that Śiva as Īśvara is the highest of all forms of
existence; and this doctrine is growing and finding much favour. Among
the Aupanishadas there are many who reconcile it with the teaching of
the Upanishads by identifying Śiva with Brahma. Thus a new light
begins to flicker here and there in the Upanishads as the conception
of Śiva, a personal god wielding free grace, colours the pale
whiteness of the impersonal Brahma; and at last in the Śvētāśvatara,
which though rather late in date is not the least important of the
Upanishads, this theistic movement boldly proclaims itself: the
supreme Brahma, identified with Śiva, is definitely contrasted with
the individual soul as divine to human, giver of grace to receiver of
grace. Later Upanishads will take up this strain, in honour of Śiva
and other gods, and finally they will end as mere tracts of this or
that theistic church.
Yet another current is now beginning to stir men's minds, and it is
one that is also destined to a great future. It starts from Kṛishṇa.
The teaching of the Upanishads, that all being is the One Brahma and
that Brahma is the same as the individual soul, has busied many men,
not only Brahmans but also Kshatriyas, noblemen of the warrior order.
Some even say that it arose among the Kshatriyas; and at any rate it
is likely that they, being less obsessed with the forms of ritual than
the Brahmans and therefore able to think more directly and clearly,
have helped the Brahmans in their discussions to clear their minds of
ritual symbolism, and to realise more definitely the philosophic ideas
which hitherto they had seen only dimly typified in their ceremonies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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