Natesa Sastri

“ After Lakshmi was thus bathed, attired and adorned, she cast herself on the breast of Hari—Vishnu—and became his bride ever since that time. Rudra, the chief of the gods, extolled her powers as soon as she. sprang out of the ocean and called her the mother of all beings, the superhuman power incarnate, and the purifier of the universe. Lakshmi to a Hindu is the presiding deity of Prosperity, and her worship is deemed to bring good fortune in every household. ”

“ EVERY nation in the world has its New Year’s Day. A year is the time of the apparent revolution of the sun through the ecliptic; and a sidereal year is the time in which the sun departing from any fixed star returns to the same. The Hindu’s astronomical year is sidereal. He calls it Samvatsaradi, the first day of the year or the Vishu-chaitravishu, the equinoctical point of Aries, into which the sun enters at the vernal equinox. ”

“ There are several Upanishads, which are regarded to be equal in sacredness to the Vedas and which also attribute the greatest sanctity to the observance of the Ekadasi fast.
All this is about Ekadasi in general. And it must once for all be said that an orthodox Hindu looks upon all the Ekadasis at all times of the year as the same, as far as their sanctity is concerned. He does not attribute more sacredness to one and less to another. But by the Vaishnavas, the Mukkoti or Vaikuntha Ekadasi is considered the most holy of all the Ekadasis. ”

“ That this is the case at Chidambaram is known to every Hindu, for if he ever asks the priests to show him the God in the temple he is pointed to an empty space in the most holy of the holies, which has been termed the Akasa, or ether-linga. In this hes the so-called Chidambara-rahasya—the secret of worship in the sacred city of Chidambaram. When any devotee has reached the stage of worshipping God in this manner, he is, according to the Saiva doctrine, deemed to be exempt from all future births and is supposed to secure absorption in the supreme essence of God. ”

“ You are not a hard-hearted bachelor. As you feel for your wife and child, surely you must realise what my misery will be if I do not take leave of my lord and child before I lay down my life.” The hunter, moved at the piteous words of the beast, thought within himself how hard-hearted he was to resolve to kill a beast so that he may feed on its carcase. But kill he must if he should eke out his livelihood in that forest. The antelope promised to return after taking leave of her husband and her child. ”

“ The orthodox Hindu observing this fast must raise his eyes towards the sun to expiate the sin of having seen these bad people, if ever he happens to meet them on this day. He should spend his whole time in worshipping Govinda by flowers, fruits, incense and Vedic hymns. He must avoid bad or cruel words in talking to people. He must fast day and night and devote his whole time to pure religious thoughts and prayers—all of which must relate only to the god Krishna. Ekadasi of the dark half of the month is as pure as that of the light half of the month. ”

“ All got out of the water safe, except the king and his queen. What became of the royal pair, no one knew. A very careful search was made, The river was dragged with nets. Not the slightest clue could be had. It was a perfect mystery to every one. The loyal subjects returned to their homes with dismal faces and regarded the event as a great calamity. ”

“ Nanda—a Paraiya saint—attained eternal felicity by his devotions at Chidambaram. The most orthodox of the orthodox Brahmans will never stint the reputation of this greatest of Saiva saints, who after all was only a Paraiya by birth. It is the only place in the whole of India where no attempt has been made to import conventional ideas of Godhead into the purely philosophic basis of the Hindu religion. In keeping with this fame, Chidambaram is now the seat of several Sudra monasteries, where several hundreds of Sudra mendicants are taught Sanskrit. ”

“ The ancient Hindu sages have wisely ruled that certain close relatives should supply the mourning house with food on the mourning days. These relatives are the fathers or fathers-in-law (or the nearest male relatives in that direction) of the sons who perform the funeral rites. If the person who died has seven sons, the duty of supplying the mourning house with food falls on the fathers-in-law of all the seven sons, if they are all married, or, if not, on those of the sons who are married. ”

“ On this day the orthodox Hindu rises early in the morning, bathes and attends most devoutly to his prayers. He attends a temple if there is one near. Fasting, as a general rule, is observed throughout the day and the night. Sitting up in wakefulness throughout the night entirely absorbed in worshipping Siva is considered most meritorious. There are special prayers for each of the four watches (Jamas—three hours’ duration) of the night, and the devotee who goes through these prayers on the night sacred to Siva is considered to be working his way up to oneness with Siva after his death. ”

“ Every day she would visit some town or village and carry away some of its children to feast upon them. These cruelties increased so much that the whole world complained to the king of the Rakshasas. Even that monarch who belonged to a proverbially cruel race was moved when he heard that all the children were being thus eaten up by Holika. He did not like to displease a female member of his own class. So he ordered that, as Holika had cultivated a special taste for children’s flesh, the people should give her one child for her food every day, making their own arrangements to do so. ”

“ The belief that an eclipse is a calamity to the sun or the moon is such a strong Hindu belief that no marriages take place in the months in which an eclipse falls. Even the most educated Hindu who has taken his degree, with special distinction in astronomy probably, undergoes all the Hindu rites on the occasion. ”

“ Some are charitable in stating that if the whole world is not ruined, there will be wonderful changes and utter misery and famine at least in that year. At what time of the year 5000 will this ruin overcome India will be the next question.
In the Hindu calendar every month has a Zodiac called Rasi with the position of the planets for the month indicated in it by astronomical calculations. Generally not more than a single planet will be found in each of the 12 houses, or mansions, of the Zodiac. Rarely two or three or even four will be found once in several years in one and the same mansion. ”

“ Every Hindu who meets another asks him "Have you had the holy Ganges bath?” "Yes, Sir, by the favour of your blessing" is the reply. At the end of every visit to a house pan supari is distributed. At midday a sumptuous dinner closes the Dipavali festivities. The Dipavali is observed, in the Tamil, Telugu and Kanarese Districts of the Madras Presidency as a feast set apart for wearing new cloths. Men, women and children from the highest to the lowest wear new cloths on this day. ”

“ Strict fasting is observed till the worship is over. Young boys, though their mothers may permit them to eat their food, will not touch anything lest the goddess Sarasvati be displeased. When the head of the house finishes his puja all the others assembled there stand up with flowers in their hands reciting the praises of Sarasvati to the dictation of the master and offer the same to the goddess. Thus concludes the Sarasvati puja and a sumptuous feast in honour of the goddess follows. People who are rich present clothes on this occasion, to married women. ”

“ A Hindu funeral, as it is now performed, has undergone many changes from what it was originally meant by the ancient sages of India to be, and as such deserves handling in a critical way. Every religion has its own mode of conducting its funeral rites. ”

“ LAKSHMI, the bride of Vishnu, is represented as the goddess of Prosperity and abundance as also of Love and Beauty, in the Hindu Mythology: the designation of vara indicates the power, generally credited to her, of granting boons to her devotees. A day is specially set apart for her special worship. The evening is both a religious and festive occasion to the Hindu ladies and children, and soon after sunset the Varalakshmi is worshipped in every Hindu household on a large scale with flowers, food, puddings and sweets of several kinds. ”

“ A person possessing money will be the lord of everything, irrespective of his birth or position in life. All money will be spent on mere show. The world will become avaricious. Men will desire to acquire wealth by dishonest means. Cows will be fed only as long as they supply milk. The people will ever remain in fear of famine and scarcity. They will ever be watching the sky for a drop of rain. Severe famines will rage and people will be driven to the necessity of living upon leaves of trees. There will never be abundance or pleasure in the Kali age. ”

“ Such is faith, simple faith, more consoling than all philosophy. What Jerusalem is to the Christians, what Buddha-Gaya is to the Buddhists, what Mecca is to the Muhammadans, what Benares is to the Indian—so is the Mahamakham bath to all the Hindus on the Mahamakham day. As the water in this tank is supposed to have originated first from the earthen pot so carefully guarded by Brahma, this tank goes also by the name of Brahma-tirtham. ”

“ Some of the old-school women also come, having learned by heart several mourning ditties which they repeat, and make a pretence of weeping. If any of these old women have any insinuations to make, they take this opportunity of making them, and quarrels spring up—of course, after the mourning days are over. When the time for the removal of the corpse to the burning ground has arrived, the body has to be washed and decorated. The religious rites for the preparation of the sacred fire to ignite the funeral pyre have to be performed near the corpse. ”

“ He is worshipped in every Hindu house. Every school boy commences his lessons after giving his usual prayers to Vinayaka. Every merchant commences his operations after first propitiating this deity. In marriages and in every kind of religious ceremony, Vinayaka is the first god whose help is invoked. Almost all the standard works in Sanskrit and the Vernacular languages begin with an invocation of the help of Ganesa. Vinayaka’s figure is represented as elephant in face and man in body. The elephant’s head is regarded as the emblem of sagacity. ”

“ The Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata, Devibhagavata, and a number of religious works give a glowing description of the numerous miseries reserved for mankind in the Kaliyuga, and the ordinary Hindu bred up from his infancy in the Puranic lore has accepted these beliefs as part and parcel of his existence, and anything going wrong in his own household or round about him is set down to the influence of the Kali age. ”

“ The pongal—boiled rice—itself must be cooked in a new pot.
The day after the Pongal is called the Mattupongal feast, or the feast in honour of the cattle. On this day all the cows, bullocks, buffaloes and horses in a Hindu household are well washed and decorated. They are also worshipped, and cooked rice is given to them. Cows generally eat cooked rice freely but bullocks and horses will not as a rule. ”

“ But in these days of widespread irreverence and irreligion, preachers, however poor in attainments and however low they have fallen from the standard of the ideal preachers of old, still have some power of God in their hands, provided the Hindu public who are catered for by these professionals learn to be discriminating in the bestowal of their patronage and exacting in their judgment of the qualifications: and capabilities of the preachers. ”

“ At the approach of Onam, the houses in Malabar are decorated with flowers and festoons. A clay image of Vishnu is made in every home and worshipped during these ten days. The god is inaugurated with a special feast called Puadai feast in which rice and nendra plantain are cooked and offered to the god. The duty of bringing flowers and boughs to decorate the houses is left to the younger boys. Each youngster takes a small basket and proceeds to the gardens and fields with his companions merrily singing a shrill hymn called the Onam hymn. ”

“ Thus ends our description of the Kaliyuga in general and of the evils there of as found in the Puranas and as prevailing among the people.
In addition to this belief there is yet another, and a strong one, that the year 5000 of the Kaliyuga (April 1899—April 1900) will be a year of doom and ruin. The famine that is threatening now a great portion of India, the grain riots everywhere, the failure of monsoons, the bubonic plague in Bombay, the several fires and, floods in almost all the great rivers (Mahanadis) this year, such as the Krishna. ”

“ The guests, among whom were hundreds of men learned in various branches of study, often had new and old ideas to communicate to and exchange with each other. The sages of old utilised the occasion of such unique gatherings not merely for the pleasant whiling away of their time but more particularly for the instruction and mutual enlightenment of the guests. ”

“ The women and girls at home amuse themselves with a dance in a circle called the Tappattikkali; all stand up and circle round and round clapping their hands and singing sweet songs in praise of Vishnu or some other deity. ”

“ On the night of the thirteenth day presents in the shape of new cloths, rings and money are given to the boys and girls of the deceased by their relatives. A new cloth is worn by almost all and the mourning proper becomes a thing of the past. The monthly ceremonies are kept up and the annual ceremony closes the career of the dead man in his relationship with the world of the dead, and he becomes a mane or pitri. ”

“ A great responsibility therefore lies on the leaders of the Hindu community in this matter, and, if only they introduce wholesome reforms in their field of popular education a great deal of good might in time be expected by the people. ”