Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/50

 man is expected to follow dharma as much as he knows it. What a man is expected to do is to follow the example of winged creatures, who do not know where the firmament ends, but penetrate it as far as they can.

Hindus have no word for their traditions in Sanskrit. Hinduism, Brahmanism, Vedism are words of European coinage. The reason why they do not have any special word is that for a long time they were unconscious of their speciality. Later on, when they became conscious of the fact, then new words began to be coined. Hindus follow "dharma," which is only one and eternal, and which, according to Hindu belief, is something which all men follow in proportion to their intellect. When the dharma was in the process of development Hindus, or rather the Brāhmaṇas, had no idea as to whether there are any other people in the world who may reject their system of dharma.

The word Christianity is translated in modern Indian languages like Marathi, by words like "Khristi-dharma" or "Khrista-mārga." But these words do not convey the same idea to them as the word Christianity does to the Western people. A Hindu looks up “Khristi-dharma" as a tribal dharma, that is, the duties of following the customs and the ceremonies and the worship of a tribal God, i.e. Christ, and some other duties, which a member of the Christian tribe may follow. That is, they do not look upon Christianity the sole or even adequate guide to conduct even for the people who belong to the tribe called Christians. The Christians have to follow Mānava-dharma, that is their duties as the members of humanity. They also have to follow the dharma for a man as a member of the family ; and so forth. In addition to these duties Christians follow customs of their own tribe, like communion and