Login |   Get your FREE Account
  
Home Business Directory People Virtual Cards Locations News Shop Articles Jobs Public Wall Travel Guide Govt Information Blogs Classifieds Deals & Offers Events Govt Info Advertising with Us Contact Us
  Free Listing
  Go Digital
  Promote Your Business
  Earn Money
  Partner With Us
  Join Us

MAGIC AND SACRIFICE ( Hindu Ethic)

MAGIC AND SACRIFICE ( Hindu Ethic)

In the literature that ytands nearest to the we are brought face to face with a world of thought in which there is little place for ethical conceptions. Magical and sacrificial ideas obscure almost everything else.

MAGIC AND SACRIFICE ( Hindu Ethic)

In the literature that ytands nearest to the R(i^' we arc brought face to face with a world of thought in which there is little place for ethical conceptions. Magical and sacrificial ideas obscure almost everything else. The literature in which these ideas find expression is v^ery extensive, and it is not our intention to undertake any detailed study of it. Hille brandt has analysed it in his RiUtaULitieraiitr^ and a study of that work reveals to one the extraordinary ramifications of the ideas. All that we propose to do here is to look at these ideas as they find expression in early Vedic literature, and to try to bring out the bearing which they have on ethical thought. In the Atharva 1 'eda we have the great text-book for the study of ancient Indian magic, and in the Yajtir l^eda and the Brahmanas for the study of sacrifice. We may take their teaching as representative of these points of view, reserving tlie other literature for merely passing reference.

Turning first to the Atkarva Veda^ we cannot but be struck by the extraordinary difference in its tone from that of the Rig Veda. The gods of the Rig Veda arc still recognised, and the worshipper invokes them : but, apart from changes that their characters have undergone, to which reference will be made later, the place of the gods has become a subordinate one. The distinction in point of view may be brought out by saying that whereas in the Rig Veda religion was largely objective, in Atharva Veda it is very largely subjective. The worshipper in the Rig Veda no doubt usually had in view his own temporal advantage ; yet he entered into the worship of the gods with an abandon that served to redeem his religion from selfishness. In the Atharva Veda^ on the other hand,personal profit comes first and last, and the gods are reduced to the level of mere instruments to be used for the attainment of this profit. The conception of the" gods as free personal beings has almost disappeared, and in their place we have magical forces which the individual seeks to utilize in order to gain his own selfish cads. The hymns consist mainly of prayers, charms, and imprecations with a view to the attainment of such objects as the healing of disease, long life, prosperity, the discomfiture of enemies and rivals, freedom from the power of demons and evil charms, the expiation of sin, and the like. 

It is obvious even to a superficial reader that we are here in contact with a world of thought that has much in common with the thought of primitive peoples generally. Yet it is certain that the At/iarva Veda in the form in which it has come down to us belongs to a later period than the Rig Veda. The fact is that we have here a great mass of magic and superstition that found its origin in the minds of the people long before the period of the Rig Veda, wrought up at a later time by the hands of the priests. Barth has drawn attention to the fact that the Rig Vcdic h3тАЩmns acknowledge no wicked divinities and no mean and harmful practices, except for one or two fragments which serve to prove the existence alongside of its loftier religion of a lower order of religious thought. The priests of a later period, ever eager to attain complete ascen dency over the minds of the people, took the direction of these magical forces, which played so large a part in the religion of the common people, into their own hands, wrought them into a framework of Vedic thought, and above all established their own position in relation to the magical rites as agents without whose mediation the rites could have no efficacy. So, even more important than the charms and spells themselves are the Brahmans who control them. As Old enberg has put it, the center of gravity, so far as meritorious conduct is concerned, has been shifted from worship of the gods to the giving of presents, of food, and of honour to the Brahmans,We found in studying the ethical standpoint of the Vaur that one of the most important features to be considered was connected with the conception of the gods, and that especially in their representation of \Mruna and Mitra the hymn-writers showed the rudiments of an ctliical concej)tion of tlic Divine. In the Atharva Veda there arc some traces of this same spirit. We meet such passages as the following:

1 reverence you, O Mitra-and-tтАЩanuia, inn-eusers of riglit ; wlio, accordant,

 thrust away the malicious ; who favour the truthful one in conflicts ; do ye free us from distress.'

or, Much untruth, O King Vanina, doth man say here ; from that sin do tltpu free us, 0 thou of thousandfold heroism.' 

We have also the remarkable passage which speaks of VarunaтАЩs omniscience and of the fetters which he binds on him who speaks untruth." Ihe smallest details of human conduct, the standing, the walking, even the winking of men he .secs, helped by his thousand-eyed spies who look over the earth. тАШ What two, sitting down together, talk, king Vanina as third knows that.тАЩ^ But these arc i.solated passages. It can hardly be maintained that even in the Rig JтАЩrda the characters of any of the gods arc thoroughly cthicizcd, while even in the ca.se of those gods whose characters arc most ethically conceived the significance of the fact is considerably modified by the consideration that along.side them there are other gods whose characters arc deficient in ethical traits. But when wc turn to the Atharva Veda we find, in spite of some passages such as those quoted above, that the gods have almost completely lost their ethical character, and that their physical qualities are most prominent. The de-ethicizing process is manifested in another way. In the Rig \'eda the most impre.ssive figure is Vanina, the upholder of rita. In the Atharva Veda he sinks into comparativ^e insignificance, and no god is endowed with the moral supremacy among the gods which belonged to him. 

 AVAv.2g.i. - /D . xix. 44. 8. A V. iv. 16. 2 A y. VI. 121. 1.

Prajapati, Lord of creatures, and Indra, who is regarded as the тАШ heavenly prototype of the earthly king',^ are the most important gods, and these are gods in whom ethical qualities are almost entirely lacking. So it may fairly be maintained that the tendency towards an ethical, almost Hebrew conception of the divine, that is evident in parts at least of the Rig Veda, hardly appears in the Atharva Veda.

Again it is important to observe that in the Atharva Veda the importance and power of the gods have very greatly decreased. They have become not merely less moral, they have become less real. There has risen up a great crop of all kinds of spiritual beings, possessed of powers that may be used for the benefit or injury of man. The Rig Veda knows little of this world of spirits, which has now come to usurp many of the functions of the gods, and it is not only these spirits that are ousting the gods. The cultus itself is now being given a new importance. The tendency now is to regard prayer, ritual, and sacrifice, not as means whereby the worshipper is brought into touch witli gods who arc free personal beings, but as themselves powers alongside the gods and spirits. So the gods tend to fall more and more into the background.

It is obvious that in all this we have conditions that were bound to have a profound effect on the moral ideas and practices of those who accepted these religious ideas. We are dealing with a Universe in the constitution of which ethical ideas have no sure place. The Universe is not even reasonable. There are in it all kinds of capricious powers, which if offended will inflict injury on one. And the kinds of actions through which they are placated or offended do not depend for their efficacy on any moral value that belongs to them but on considerations largely accidental The outcome of this is an ethical point of view in which judgements of good and evil are determined in a way very different from that of modern European ethics. A quotation from Dewey and Tufts^Ethics will help to make clearer to us the distinctive character of this outlook. They say:

There are two alternatives in the judgement of good and evil, (i) They may be regarded as having vnmxl signihcance,

that is, as having a voluntary basis or origin. (2) Or they may he considered as

substantial properties of things, as a sort of essence cliffiisod through them,

or as a kind of force resident in them, in virtue of which persons and things are noxious or helpful, malevolent or kindly. . . .

The result is that evil is thought of as n contagious matter, transmitted from generation to generation,

from class or person to class or person; and assomething to be got rid of, if at all,

by devices which are et|ually physical.тАЩ

This quotation describes fairly accurately the conception of good and evil that is characteristic of the Atharm Veda, Oldenberg brings out an idea essentially the same in his con ception of a Zatdxerflitidiim!^ In the Rig Veda^ he says, sin is pre-eminently disobedience to the divine will, and reconciliation is attained through the placating of God by means of gifts and other marks of submissiveness. But when sin is thought of as a sort of magical substance that becomes attached to one, freedom from it is to be attained through the manipulation of those magical forces that arc fitted to remove it. So it is chiefly in the charms prescribed for the expiation of sin and defilement that the Atharva Vedic conception of good and evil is made plain, and to some of the points of significance in these we must turn our attention now. That there are traces of the higher way of conceiving good and evil has already been remarked. But this lower conception, by which sin is regarded as something quasi-physical, is more characteristic of the Atharva Veda, Sin is something that a man may fall a victim to without willing it. In many of the hymns it is associated with or even identified with disease and worldly misfortune.

тАЩ Dewey and Tufts, Ethics^ pp. 457-8. ^ Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda^ pp. 317-18.

There arc many prayers to the gods in which protection is sought in the same breath from sin, disease, and misfortune. For example:
Let whatever sacrifices I make make sacrifice for me ; let my mind^s design be realized; let  me not fall into any sin soever ;
let all the gods defend me here. On me let the gods bestow property ; with me be blessing, with me
divine invocation; may the divine invokers win that for us ; may we be unharmed with our self, rich in heroes^

Again :
From Kshetriya (probably a scrofulous diseasej, from perdition, from imprecation 
of sisters, from hatred do I release thee, from VarunaтАЩs fetter;
free from guilt I make thee by ray incantation; be heaven and
earth both propitious to thee."

And again :

Free from defilement are the waters; let them carry away from us defilement:

Let them carry forth from us sin ; let them carry forth evil dreaming.^

Sin is regarded too as something almost contagious, passed on from one being to another. In a hymn to be used in connexion with the binding on of an amulet, protection is
sought from a great variety of evils, including diseases, sorcery, and enemies. In the middle of the hymn is found this verse:

What sin my mother, what my father, and what my own brothers, what- we 
ourselves have done, from that shall this divine forest-tree shield us.'*

The evil infection may be conveyed to men even by the gods,e. g:

On Trita the gods wiped off that sin ; Trita wiped it off on human beings.
Twelvefold is deposited what was wiped off by TritaтАФsins of human beings.*^

^ AV.v. 3. 4. 5. " A V. ii. 10. I. < AV, X. 3. S. ^ A V, vi. 1 13. I. 3. ^ A V, xvi, I. 10 f.

Such sin communicated by the gods to men may cause mania. See, for example, the expression:

Crazed from sin of the gods, crazed from a demon.^

Sin then is viewed quasi-physically, being identified with many actions or even passive experiences that have no strictly ethical signilicance at all, and being communicable through physical means. It may be of interest to look somewhat more closely at the kinds of actions or occurrences that are so  identified with sin. Iwil dreaming has been already referred to as frequently mentioned together with sin. So are personal misfortunes of many kindsтАФthe hatred of others, their curses, being the victim of sorcery, the influence of demons, ill omens, notably birds of ill omen, against which there ai'c several hymns. It is not so remarkable that many hymns should deal with the subject of the right performance of the sacrifice and of religious ceremonies generally, and that release should besought from the effects of errors in their performance, as from sins. That such occurrences are not distinguished from what we should recognize as moral faults is clear from certain passages. We find, for example, being the victim of curses, and association with the dark-toothed,ill-nailed, and mutilated, put alongside evil doing, in a prayer to the plant apamdrga for cleansing:

Since thou, O off-wiper, hast grown with reverted fruit, mayest ihou repel from me all curses very far from here.
What is ill done, what pollution, or what we have practised evillyтАФby thee, 0 all-vvays-facing off-wiper,
we wijjc tliat off. If we have been together with one dark- toothed, iil-naiied, mutilated,
by thee, 0 otf-wiper, we wipe off all that.

When  we turn to the more distinctively moral ideas of the Atharva Veda^ we find that they are but few. Only slight mention is made of what we should call virtues and vices.

^ AK vi. III. 3. Whitney, however, translates, тАШCrazed from sin against the gods*. A K vii. 65.

The virtue most frequently mentioned is perhaps that of truth-speaking, while falsehood is as frequently condemned. The speaker of untruth is kept in the toils of Varuna, who, again, is besought to release from untruth.

In that thou hast spoken with the tongue untruth, much wrongтАФfrom
the king of true ordinances, from Vanina, I release thee.^ 

Mitra and Varuna are especially celebrated as the ^ increasers of right \ in particular thrusting away the malicious, and favouring the truthful in conflicts. Similarly Soma is men tioned as being on the side of the truth-speaker :

It is easy of understanding for a knowing man that true and untrue words are at variance ;
 of them what is true, whichever is more right, that Soma verily favours ; he smites the untrue.
 Soma by no means furthers the wicked man, nor the Kshatriya who maintains anything falsely; 
he smites the*demon ; he smites the speaker of untruth ;both lie within reach of Indra.тАЭ

Again truth is spoken of as one of the elements that sustain the earth. ^ It is not surprising to find truth spoken of in this way. It is a fundamental virtue, the recognition of which in some way is essential for the existence of any kind of social life. It is one of the few recognized virtues that such a writer as Nietzsche, who in modern times has departed so far from traditional morality, admits into his ethical system, and its recognition in the elementary ethical thought of the writers of the Atharva Veda is as little to be wondered at as its inclusion in the ethical code of the superman. 
Of the few other virtues and vices to which reference Is made, those connected with liberality and niggardliness are among the most prominent. Here we see the influence of the Brahmans. Niggardliness on the part of the sacrifice!towards the priest interferes with the success of the sacrifice, and the influence of^the niggard is even more subtle and widespread still, marring the success of the plans of men generally.

i A V, i. lo. 3, " A viii. 4- 12. 13. ^ /i V. xii. I. 1.

Likewise, greatly making thyself naked, thou fastenest on a person.in dreams, O niggard, baffling the plan and design of a inan.^ Departure from the niggardy is praised :

Thou hast left niggardy, hast found what is ple<asanl ; thou hast come
to the excellent world of what is well done.^
In seeking protection from the wrath of the gods the writer of one hymn prays :
lie yon Rati (liberality) a companion for iis/^

We have an idea, which may be allied to this idea of the importance of liberality, expressed in a number of passages in which entertainment of guests is praised. In one passage, for example, it is said that he whose food is partaken of by guests has his sins devoured/^ A number of hymns 'consist of charms for the securing of concord or harmony, especially within the family. One of the most touching hymns in the whole Atharva Veda is that beginning :

Like-heartedness, like-mindedness, non-hostility do 1 make for you;
do ye show affection the one toward the other, as the inviolable cow toward her
 calf when born. Be the son submissive to the father, like-minded with the mother;
let the wife to the husband speak words full of honey, wealfuL
Let not brother hate brother, nor sister sister; becoming accordant,
of like courses, speak ye words auspiciously,┬о

Harmony in wider relationships is also sought. For example :

Harmony for us with our own men, harmony with 
strangers, harmony, O Asvins, do ye here confirm in us.тАЭ

Other strictly ethical qualities mentioned in the Atharva Veda are neither numerous nor significant. Unfulfilled promises (vi. 119), offences at dice, adultery (vi. 118), failure to return what is borrowed (vi. 117), these are marked as sins that require expiation.

^ ^ F. V. 7. 8. тАЬA V, ii. 10. 7. тАв'* A V. i. 26. 2. A V, ix. 6. 25. ┬о A F. iii. 30. 1-3, тАЭ A V, vii. 52. i.

It is important to observe that throughout the Atharva Veda it is always as something that has to be expiated that sin is mentioned. The methods by which it is supposed that this expiation may be achieved do not concern us here. But it may be remarked that as sin is conceived quasi-physically, so the means of expiation (prayaschitti^ prdyakhittci) are also physical or qiiasFphysicaL Water especially is used for the removal of sins ; as also are plants.

From sin against the gods, against the Fathers, from name-taking
that is designed, that is devised against any one, let the plants free thee
by their energy, with spell, with milk of the seers.

Uttered spells, amulets, and fire have the same efficacy. Through these and other instruments the stain is believed to be destroyed or wiped away or removed to a distance. The gods too have their place in connexion with the releasing from sin, though it is a subordinate place. The god Agni, in particular, is frequently appealed to for deliverance. But the power lies rather in the prayer itself than in the god who  is invoked.

Attention has already been drawn to the use of the term tapds in the last book of the Rig Veda. It is prominent also in the Atharva Veda. The practice of penance is supposed to give one standing with the gods and power to attain one's desires. The following passage is typical :

In that, 0 Agni, penance with penance, we perform additional penance, may we 
be dear to what is heard, long-lived, very wise. O Agni, we perform j^enance, we
 perform additional penanceтАФwe,
hearing things heard, long-lived, very wise,"'

Filled with tapas^ the Vedic student * goes at once from the eastern to the northern ocean The same austerity is supposed to be practised by the gods and to be to them a sourceof power.

By Vedic studentship, by fervour, the gods smote away death ; Indra
by Vedic studentship brought heaven for the gods."* 

^ ^ K X. I. 12. '' A V. vii. 6i. A V. xi. 5. 6. ^ A V, xi. 5. 19.

The practice of tapas in the Atharva Veda has very little ethical significance. The term may usually be translated by penance or mortification, but it is self-mortification with a view to the acquisition of magical powers. Dr. Geden mentions as characteristic of the magical power that came
to be ascribed to tapas the fact that the passage in the Rig Veda (vii. 59.8), rendered * kill him with your hottest bolt*, is altered in the At/iarva Veda.mx, 77. тАШkill him with your hottest penance.

There is still no trace in the Aiharva Veda of the doctrine of transmigration. Rcw'ard and punishment is reserved for heaven and hell. Heaven is especially the reward of those who give liberal gifts to the priests. There, freed from bodily infirmities, sickness, and deformity, they meet father, mother, wives and children (vi. 3; xii. 3. 17; iii. 5). It is a place of delights ; all the pleasures of the senses are at their disposal (iv. 34. 2. 4, 5, 6). Distinctions of wealth and power are done away (iii. 3). Hell {Narakaloka^ the place below), on the other hand, is a place of tortureтАФof lowest darkness (viii. a. 24). It is the abode of weakness, hags, and sorceresses (ii. 14* 3 )* With great detail the tortures suffered by those who injure a Brahman are described ; they sit in the midst of a stream of blo

Recently Posted

Top Catagories

Tags

Our Business Associates

Kamerock International
The Infoage Solutions
Phoenix
Omdhara Foundation
Auto Trade
City Travel Desk
AIITM - All India Institute of Technology and Management
oxs
Royal Estate International
Shoptiser
Tax Master
City Health Desk

Our NEWS/Media Associate

Infoage Times

Get your Account / Listing

Here we come up with a choice for you to choose between these two type of accounts : Personal(non business) Account and Business Account. Each account has its own features, read and compare for better understanding. This will help you in choosing what kind of account you need to register with us.

Personal / Non Business Account

In this account type you can do any thing as individual
like wall post, reviews business etc...

Join

Commercial / Business Account

In this account type you can promote your business with all posibilies
and wall post, reviews other business etc...

Join