The following, taken from an ancient Sutra, is regarded as a Hindu burial hymn:-- "Open thy arms, O earth! receive the dead With gentle pressure and with loving welcome. Enshroud him tenderly, even as a mother Folds her soft vestment round the child she loves. Soul of the dead, depart! take thou the path-- The ancient path by which our ancestors Have gone before thee; thou shalt look upon The two kings, mighty Varuna and Yama, Delighting in oblations; thou shalt meet The fathers and receive the recompense Of all thy stored-up offerings above. Leave thou thy sin and imperfection here; Return unto thy home once more; assume A glorious form." CHAPTER X KALI YUGA--INDIA'S PESSIMISM[7] Many nations, during the period of their infancy and ignorance, have given to Time and its divisions the power and qualities of life and have clothed them with moral purpose and attributes. Chronos was to the Greeks of old the god of time, in whose hands were the destinies of men. Even up to the present day not a few ignorant people of Christian lands are influenced, to some extent, by an inherited superstition about "lucky" and "unlucky" days. But I know of no land which is suffering more than India from traditional, false, and injurious conceptions of chronology. Time is here endowed with life and enthroned among the gods. Sivan is "_Maha-Kalan_," the great incarnation of Time, and the mighty destroyer of all things. It is also said that "Time is a form of Vishnu." [Footnote 7: This chapter is a modified form of a lecture delivered to Hindus.] We are told that we are living in _Kali yuga_, and that we are subject to all the evil which is the permanent characteristic of this iron age. I believe that there are few things in India which so thoroughly influence the life, habits, and character of the people as do their many conceptions about chronology. And I am convinced that incalculable good would come to the country if all these old and exploded ideas were to give way to more rational ones--such as are in harmony with modern intelligence and civilization. Consider, then, the various aspects of the chronology which all but universally prevails in India in order that we may see wherein it touches the life and moulds the thought of educated and uneducated alike. I _The Astounding Length of the Chronological System_ In ancient Vedic times there obtained here, so far as we can see, much more sober views of chronology than at present. It was much later that the imagination of Hindu writers took full wing and carried the people into the all but infinite reaches of Puranic chronology. One must wait for the elaboration of Vishnu Purana, for instance, in order to meet that apparent sobriety of mathematical detail which is utilized to add credibility to the most fantastic time system that imagination ever devised.