1 THE MODERN HINDUS. 47
2 On the same subject the writer says :—
3 “ Giving no pain to any creature, let him collect virtue by degrees for the sake of
4 acquiring a companion to the next world, as the white-ant by degrees builds his nest.
5 “Wor in his passage to the next world neither his father, nor his mother, nor his
6 wife, nor his son, nor his kinsmen will remain in his company; his virtue alone will
7 adhere to him.
8 “Single is each man born, single he dies ; single he receives the reward of his good, and
9 single the punishment of his evil deeds.
10 “ When he leaves his corpse, like a log ora lump of clay on the ground, his kins-
11 men retire with averted faces, but his virtue accompanies his soul.
12 “Continually, therefore, by degrees, let him collect virtue for the sake of securing
13 an inseparable companion; since with virtue for his guide he will traverse a gloom,
14 however hard to be traversed !”
15 The following passage illustrates the nature of asceticism.
16 “Restrain, Oignorant man, thy desire of wealth, and become a hater of it in body,
17 understanding and mind; let the riches thou possessest be acquired by thine own
18 good actions ; with those gratify thy soul.
19 “The boy so long delights in his play, the youth so long pursues his beloved, the
20 ee long brood over melancholy thoughts, that no man meditates on the Supreme
21 e1n
22 Who is thy wife, and who thy son? How great and wonderful is this world ;
23 where thou art and whence thou camest, meditate on this, my brother, and again on
24 this.
25 “ As a drop of water moves on the leaf of the lotus, thus, or more slippery, is haman
26 life! The company of the virtuous endures here but for a moment,—that is the vehicle
27 to bear thee over the land and ocean.
28 “To dwell in the mansion of gods, at the foot of a tree, to have the ground for a
29 bed and a hide for vesture ; to renounce all ties of family or connections ; who would not
30 receive delight from this devout abhorrence of the world ?
31 “Day and night, evening and morn, winter and spring depart and return. Time
32 sports, age passes on, desire and the wind continue unrestrained.
33 “When the body is tottering, the head gray and the mouth toothless; when the
34 smooth stick trembles in the hand which it supports, yet the vessel of covetousness re-
35 mains unemptied.”
36 A Hindu becomes unclean on the birth in his house of a child in the
37 direct’ line, or on the death of a person related to him. The touch of a
38 dead body also causes uncleanness, and a man is considered to a certain
39 extent impure while on a bed of sickness. As soon as he bathes and shaves,
40 he becomes clean. While he remains impure, he is interdicted from per-
41 forming any religious ceremony, and is forbidden to shave his head or cut his
42 nails. A man who kills a cow, even by accident, commits a great crime,
43 aud forthwith becomes unclean, and he cannot be purified without going to
44 the Ganges, and performing there certain ceremonies. While on the way
45 to the sacred river, he must carry with him a stick, with the tail of a cow
46 fastened to it, as a mark that nobody is to touch him. In the K&ld hills,
47 ifa cow dies while fastened to anything, the person who tied her up
48 becomes unclean, and nobody will eat at his hands until he is purified.
49 Cleaning the teeth is forbidden on the anniversary of the death of a father
50 or mother. The teeth are cleaned with a small piece of newly-cut green
51 wood, called detun, and the following prayer is said at the time :—* God
52 of the forests,.[ have cut from your branches a bit of wood to clean my
53 teeth with. Grant to me, by this act which I am about to do, a long life,
54 strength, honour and intelligence; and bestow upon me many cows, much
55 riches, prudence, judgment, memory and power.”
56 Ghosts, spirits and fairies are held in the utmost dread by women and
57 children. Scavengers are believed to become ghosts after death, and the
58 chief agents in producing fever and other diseases, The effect of a male-
59 volent spirit is removed by the charm of a faquir or a bhagat, and divina-
60 tion and exorcism have become professions with both men and women in
61 Uncleanness.
62 Cleaning the teeth.
63 Belief in ghosts and
64 spirits among ignorant
65 people.
66 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com